"Its almost the end of winter, why is it still so cold!" Serenity lightly laughs so she doesn't start coughing again.

"Its December, the middle of Winter. Its supposed to be cold." He leans back in his seat before sitting back up.

"Well yeah but like its extremely cold here while in other places its a little chilly. Its Winter coats versus snow suits."

"Have you ever been to Canada? This is nothing to them, the farther away from the equator you are the colder it is. And Japan is far from the equator." King stares at her then smiles.

"Smart as always." She sighs.

"Yeah but its nit gonna be of any use to me soon. I'm trying to look on the bright side, no pun intended, but I had so much I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to travel, intern at a huge tech company and then possibly start my own. And since I wanted to be a technical engineer I could've built so many things for people. But all of it was wasted because I got sick and i'm not getting any better. The only person i'm going to see on the other side is my Pomeranian from years ago and my great grandfather...."She starts crying.

"Hey Serenity it'll be fine—"

"It won't actually. It'll never be fine because i'll never get better, there are some horrible people in this world in perfect health yet the girl who wanted to put her good two cents into the world is on her death bed. Why are these doctors trying to prolong my life when it's already over? I've already seen my great grandfather twice at night, forgetting that he died a long time ago." King was silent.

He didn't know what to say to that. All the other patients he'd seen were old and already at peace with themselves. But she was just starting her life and now its ending.

She'll never see the world like she wants, she'll never be able to use her degree, get married, or have kids. She won't even get to see her younger siblings grow up. He can't imagine how she must feel knowing that her younger siblings are probably going to out live her by a lot. And she'll miss out on everything.

"I'm sorry I— I don't know what to say." She wipes her cheek.

"I know, i'm sorry I just needed to vent. Other interns don't stick around because they feel bad that i'm either the same age or i'm younger than them and i'm already leaving." King takes his phone and writes a note to himself and saves it as his lock screen. When he'a done he shows Serenity.

"I'm not leaving, even after this internship is over. You're not leaving alone." She grabs his sleeve and yanks him into a hug.

"I-I thought i'd be alone when I pass. My family never mentioned if they were gonna be here around the time that i'm supposed to go. S-so i'm very happy to know you'll be there." He smiles.

"I'll even sleep in the chair, i'll stay here every night when the day approaches so you won't be alone."

"Thank you...you're too nice." He agrees.

"Yeah, I get that a lot. But I still haven't changed it."

"Don't ever change, it's makes you who you are. But enough with the sad stuff, what are you doing for New Years?" He leans back in his chair.

"I usually spend it with my so called 'bestfriend' but ever since he uh started dating my sister I've left certain holidays to them." He stands up and makes his way to the door.

"I gotta get going, I will be back before I clock out." She smiles.

"I'll be waiting, go make other people's day."

As he shuts the door Serenity breaks out into a coughing fit. Her heart monitors bpm is dropping. Based on what the doctors told her, she may not make it through winter.

"l-luckily winter is my favorite season. It'll be nice to pass feeling like I'm surrounded by snow."

*knock knock*

"Hey Serenity time for your check up. 

Yay....

King was making his way to Serenity's room when the receptionist lady from his first day stopped him.

"Hey Mr. Harlequin, its been awhile since we've crossed paths. How have you been?'

"I've been doing just fine ma'am. I was on my way to my primary patients room for a final check before I head out." She smiles.

"I'm glad you stuck around, I don't remember the last time anyone besides select family members visited her. I would've thought someone from her college would show up but no one has come." 

"Yeah it's uh pretty hard if I'm being honest. Seeing her get so few visits when other people get to see their whole families here supporting them. I wanted to possible catch her mother one day and ask if she could see her younger siblings before she gets even worse."

"What a nice gesture! You're so sweet..."She pauses. "I know how hard it must be for you to grow attached to her and know that one minute she won't be here. But the best thing that you could do for her right now is to be there for her. She's a sweet girl who doesn't deserve this but that's how the world works." He nods.

"Thanks for talking to me. I'll see you later Ms?"

"Guila."

"Thank you, have a nice day Ms. Guila." 

He heads off to Serenity's room. When he gets there he can hear her coughing, almost sounding like a person dry heaving. He knows he needs to be in there but it takes him a couple seconds before he knocks.

"Come in."

He opens the door and is greeted by Dr. Elizabeth. He looks at Serenity and glances at her monitor. He does a double take when he sees her bpm number. He realizes that she may not suffer a heart attack and pass from that but her heart is just going to stop. No pain no nothing, just silently stopping. He wants to cry but if this is going to be the gateway to his future profession then he will hold his tears until he gets home.

"Great, now that you're here we can finish this conversation up. As you know your internship will be over next week, but don't let that stop you from visiting the patients on your free time, they really like you." She clears her throat before continuing. "As you can see, Serenity is not doing great and I have contacted her parents to update them but to give you the gist of it, her heart is failing. Its not likely she'll have a heart attack but still possible so we'll be monitoring that. But soon it will stop. But I do have good news, even though Serenity is under her parents care she is still an adult and you Mr. Harlequin have been added to her visitation list. I don't know about over night stays but we'll figure it out. See you tomorrow Mr. Harlequin, goodnight Ms. Serenity.

She exits the room. King takes a seat in the chair closest to Serenity. 

"I hear her call you Harlequin a lot, is that your real name?" He nods.

"I usually go by King. Its a name someone called me because I guess you could say I was a 'rich kid' and it just stuck. I'm not really rich though, I lived in a fairly big  house growing up but not a full blown mansion." She laughs.

"Call me queen then because I was actually a rich kid. All perks included, from the huge house to the fancy cloths. But I went to a private school where mostly everyone was loaded. I kinda migrated towards the kids who weren't loaded because they were more down to earth. But we all go to different colleges now. One of them is in Singapore and the other is in the states..."

They talk for awhile before Serenity looks at the clock on the wall.

"Its so late! You should go, you haven't eaten."

"I was gonna stop at a ramen shop for food so I'm not concerned for when I get home. But I should try to keep some sort of a sleeping schedule. Good Night Serenity."

"Good Night King." He goes to the door and stops.

"Call me Harlequin since I call you by your first name."

"Good Night Harlequin!" He leaves and she slumps down in her bed.

She starts coughing again to the point where her chest is hurting badly.

"I can't stay up like I used to. Everything feels so draining, I can't even drink by myself anymore because I'm that weak...why'd it have to be me. And why did he have to show up now, it just makes it harder to say goodbye." She rest her head on her plethora of pillows and falls asleep.