However unseemly it might be for a twenty-six-year-old man to cry, both his pride and his self-control utterly failed him. Just when they had finally started reaching out to each other, this happened. He hadn’t properly put them in words yet, but he was certain that his feelings had reached Mia, and that she, in turn, had opened her heart to him. He was certain their hearts had reached out to each other and made a real connection.
“Not like this. It’s too soon! Not when we finally broke the hold of your old man’s spell over you!”
It was way too soon. It was supposed to be just the beginning for them! When things calmed down, he would’ve taken the time to say those three magic words to her, and find out if she felt the same way about him. He would’ve told her that him being so tactile with her and all his “efforts to annoy her” actually hadn’t been what he had made them out to be. Then, he would’ve hugged Mia, who would no doubt get all flustered as she tended to do, and he would’ve placed a sweet kiss on her lips.
“This can’t be it! I haven’t done a thing yet. I promised you I’d take you to all sorts of places, but we haven’t been anywhere together yet. You haven’t even given me a proper smile. You’ve been giving away your smiles to Subaru and Aya, you even started showing them to Misaki recently, but I’ve never seen a full-face sincere smile directed right at me. It used to drive me nuts, you know!”
Because her reactions were so hilarious, he poked fun at her a lot. Because he enjoyed her matching his fire, her eyes taking on a defiant glint, he ended up teasing her despite himself, never quite managing to stop himself from doing it. It was very much like how an elementary school boy would pull on the pigtails of a girl he liked. He had done nothing but act like a child. He thought that he still had time after all.
If they spent more time together, he was certain she would’ve smiled for him too. That’s how he could stand Mia smiling at Subaru and the others, but not him, despite feeling upset with that fact. Because he had been so certain that eventually, she’d show him her true smile too.
Ren shook his head, looking at Mia, who still lay motionless, not a fingertip moving. This couldn’t be happening, it just couldn’t.
He just couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that Mia would never move, never smile, never get angry again. It was unthinkable. Accepting that she would disappear from his side would drive him to certain madness. That was why he couldn’t believe it, wouldn’t believe it. That she’s…dead…
“AAAGH!” Ren cried out.
His wail was suffused with pure, unadulterated agony. It was a painful sight to watch. Subaru dropped his head down, Aya was sobbing, fat tears flowing down her cheeks in a torrent. Misaki turned his face away from the group, his brows tightly knitted, Shou looked at the ground, still rooted to the same spot he had been standing in ever since this all started.
Unable to stem the tide of his overflowing emotions, Ren closed his arms around Mia’s body and wailed amid the beautiful field of vibrant flowers. He wept, tossing aside any shred of dignity or pride. To hell with that useless garbage! If playing the cool guy and fighting back his tears would make the girl open her eyes again, he’d stomp down his grief endlessly if need be. But there was no helping the fact that her breathing had stopped, that when he put a hand to her chest, he couldn’t feel the pulse that was supposed to be there. How else was he supposed to let out the growing despair in his heart, but by wailing and crying?
“No! I won’t have it! I don’t want to lose you. I want you here, right next to me. It’s just too cruel, to disappear after stealing my heart away, right when I’ve irrevocably fallen for you!”
Please, please just open your eyes. If there are any miracles in this world at all, please make one happen here, right now. Ren didn’t believe in God, yet now he was praying with the desperation of a drowning man clutching at straws. Stroking the cheeks of the girl he loved, not even trying to wipe away his streaming tears, Ren stared intensely at Mia.
“I’ll give you anything you want. If there is anything that is mine to give, then take it, just, please, open your eyes. I……I love you, Mia.”
If I could split my years of life on this Earth and give half of them to you, I would. If you needed an organ, I’d cut open my belly right here and now. So, open your eyes. Make this heart beat again. Putting all of these thoughts and feelings swimming through his mind into his one greatest wish, Ren pressed his lips to Mia’s in a kiss.
It was a long, deep kiss. Ren kept their lips melded together for so long it seemed like an eternity. He was afraid to break away. Afraid of the despair he would feel, seeing Mia still unmoving as no miracle came to save her. He couldn’t even bring himself to open his eyes. However…
Ren felt as though a small current of air hit his lips.
“Wha—”
When Ren broke the kiss, faint though it might have been, he felt the smallest of breaths come from the tiny gap between Mia’s lips.
“She… she’s breathing…”
“Huh?!”
At Ren’s astonished murmur, Subaru, who was standing to his side, lifted his head. He frantically put his ear to Mia’s chest.
“It’s… beating? It’s beating! Her heart is beating!”
“What?! But, but, but how?! No, wait, wh-wh-what, what do we do now?! Go to a hospital?”
“W-W-We, w-we’ve got—we’ve got to calm—just calm down for now!” Misaki stuttered to a panicking Aya, pacing about in circles.
Shou, dazedly watching the four Rangers freak out, raised his voice, an idea popping into his head suddenly, “The police! Let’s get back to the station! The chief will be there, too. A hospital probably won’t be able to help us anyway.”
He was right. Mia was neither sick nor did she have any injuries. Ren lifted Mia in his arms and scurried to Misaki’s car. Crow Ranger Red was the last one of the group to squeeze into the car, taking the driver’s seat. He floored the gas, zooming off towards the police station.