[ notes/ and we finally come to an end. please refer to the last chapter for my last author note <3 ]

One. . . Two. . . Three. . . Four. . .

It'd been over four hours that you were here, waiting in the hospital. Your mind was mostly blank as you sat in the living room, waiting for someone to call your name and allow you in a certain room.

To be honest, you didn't even really know why you were here.

The television in the waiting room was annoying you. Replays of Raimon against Outei Tsukinomiya played over and over, and his fall, played over and over.

Though, as much as you wanted to follow him as soon as he was taken into the ambulance - you had to stay back and finish what you started. You had to finish the match. With a heavy heart, Raimon had managed to win. Without Outei's star player, and precious captain, they were rendered completely helpless.

How did things ever even get to this point. . . ?

You weren't completely afraid of Nosaka losing his life today, you had too much faith in Jin. The raven haired doctor wouldn't possibly let a child die in his care, he was the one who took care of you after all. The burns on your arms and legs, those scars have long faded.

"[L/n]. . ." A familiar deep voice called out to you, and this quickly made you straighten up and look behind your shoulder.

"Nishikage-kun." You breathed out, relieved somehow. You'd have expected him to show up earlier, but he must have had to cover for Nosaka for a while back at school.

"How long have you been here?" The ash blonde male asked you. Frankly, he expected you to be here, which is while he had showed up with a shopping bag - it's contents unknown to yourself, though.

"An hour or so," you responded with a tight smile. He'd feel guilty if you told the truth, but it didn't matter how long you were here anyway, you didn't mind at all.

"I see, I'm sorry for not being earlier." He muttered, lowering his eyes for a moment.

"Please, don't apologize. You must have been really busy, Nishikage." Quickly, you shook your head, and gestured for him to sit down beside you. The taller male complied and took a seat.

"You must be hungry." He said quietly, pulling out a pretty sandwich from the white plastic bag. "Eat this."

"Thank you, I'll pay you back for it-"

"Please don't." His slate eyes suddenly locked in contact with your own. You paused for a moment, before nodding and taking the lunch. How sweet of him to think of you like this while you had actually forgotten to eat or drink anything.

So, in comfortable silence, the both of you just nibbled at your sandwiches. That was until you felt the sudden urge to speak up and talk to him.

"Nishikage, this is completely out of the blue, but there's something I need to know." You started, your eyes fixated on the tile floor rather than the male. His eyes though, were trained perfectly on you. "We're friends, right?"

He blinked a few times before parting his lips to say something, despite no words coming out. His response, was a late smile and nod, but this was enough for you.

About fifteen minutes later, Jin rushed into the waiting room, startling you and in turn, Nishikage as well.

"What happened-!?" You piped up, expecting bad news.

"Huh? Nothing, nothing!" The raven lifted his hands in defense. "I just wanted to get you quickly, you've been here for hours after all!"

"What?" Nishikage quickly looked down at you, great, your cover was blown.

"Never mind that, how is he?" You brushed it off your shoulder, getting to the more important point.

"Surgery was a success." Jin let out a breath of relief, smiling afterwards. "Everything went perfectly well."

"Thank goodness." You pressed a hand against your chest, finally your heart beat can slow down.

"Thank you." Nishikage felt the need to bow his head.

"All in a day's work." Jin chirped with a grin, "room four-o-two." With that, he had to head off and get back to work.

You were the first to start walking towards the hall, but stopped after noticing Nishikage wasn't following you.

"Is something wrong?" You asked softly, earning a shake of the head from him.

"I think you should go in first. I'll follow after a few minutes." He said. You wouldn't give him a hard time and complain, so with a smile, you nodded and walked off.

Knocking quietly on Nosaka's door, you let yourself in and closed it behind you. He looked exhausted, laying in the bed and staring at the ceiling. Once his gray eyes caught sight of you, on then was when he sat up.

"H-hey, take it easy. Don't strain yourself." You rushed to his side, helping him sit up.

"Sorry." The red haired male breathed out.

"Don't apologize, silly." You sighed, sitting down at the edge of his bed.

For a while, Nosaka just stared at his lap, unsure of what to say. As if he even had the right to say anything at all.

". . . Congratulations." He muttered under his breath, but this made you almost scoff.

"That match was hardly fair, and you know it." You responded softly, shaking your head to yourself. At that, you turned to look at him properly. "Congratulations to you. For making it through this."

"You've always been so selfless." Nosaka pressed his lips into a thin line. "I could really learn a lot from you, [Y/n]."

"Yuuma, I know you just got out of surgery but. . ." You paused for a moment. "Can't you explain all of this for me? Finally?"

By 'this', Nosaka knew exactly what you meant. The betrayal, the lies, the secrets. . .

He exhaled, thinking to himself before nodding.

"It's not as complicated as you might think, really." Nosaka started. "To put it shortly, I wanted you to beat Outei Tsukinomiya. I knew you could be the one to put an end to all of this. You'd bring Raimon to the top, and take down the Ares system that ruined all of it's students." As he spoke, his hand gripped onto his other tautly. After you placed your smaller hand over his, that's when they relaxed.

"Why me. . ." Your gaze softened as your brows furrowed.

"Because I couldn't." Nosaka stared into your [e/c] hues. "I couldn't be like you. I couldn't be so honest."

"Yuuma. . . I won't be angry at you anymore for this." You didn't have the energy, you didn't have the heart.

Nosaka Yuuma could not have been changed unless things got as fatal as they did. In fact, this may have been the best possible outcome.

"Look at us." Nosaka let out a humorless laugh. "It's almost like we're back at chapter one."

Except the roles were reversed.

"Yuuma, don't you know what that means?" Your eyes glinted with hope, as both of your hands held onto his. A smile marred your features, the same smile that made his dead heart start pumping again.

"[Y/n]. . ." All the red head could muster, was your name.

"It means we can start over. . ."