Sakura Dreams

She walked up the hill, which now seemed so familiar, to the lone sakura tree. It was April now, so the blossoms were in full bloom. The boy was sitting underneath the tree like usual.

"It's about time you got here! You fell asleep later than usual, huh?" the boy always starts the conversation.

"Yeah...sorry 'bout that. I was redrawing an old OC and lost track of time," the girl responded.

"Hey, no judgement here. I'm the king of losing track of time."

The girl sat down next to the boy, and they sat in a comfortable silence for a while.

She observed the boy again, noting his soft features with green eyes and dyed blonde hair (she could tell because the brown roots were starting to grow out). She had no idea how tall he was, since she had never seen him standing up, but she guessed he was 2 or 3 inches taller than her.

"I think... I think I'll be waking up within the next few days," he suddenly turned to her, then looked at the ground in front of him, "It's been a while since the last time."

The girl wanted to ask him what he meant, but the scene started to blur out.

Suddenly she was in her own bedroom again, "I dreamt about him again, but this time it was...different."

The girl wanted to think about it further, however a voice called from downstairs, “Charlotte! Breakfast!”

As Charlotte walked down the stairs she overheard a snippet of a conversation.

“...Waking up in the next few days.”

“How long has he been in a coma?”

“I think it’s been close to a year now.”

“Who’s waking up from a coma?” she asked as she walked into the kitchen.

“The neighbor’s nephew, Kai. He’s around your age actually,” her mom replied.

“Oh, what’s he like?”

“I heard that he was a self proclaimed king of losing track of time, and a huge jokester. Although he definitely knew the time and place for jokes.”

Suddenly, Charlotte remembered something.

“No judgement here,”

…

“I’m the king of losing track of time.”

And something else, from the first dream she had of the boy:

“I can be a huge jokester, ya’know. But I know when to be serious too.”

...

“I live with my aunt...or, used to, anyway.”

Charlotte’s throat was suddenly dry, and she had a hard time swallowing her food, “What happened to him?”

Her mom had a sad look in her eyes, “He got really  sick, so they had to put him in a coma to treat him.”

The boy started coughing violently.

“Are you okay?!”

“I’ve been sick for a while, but I’m finally starting to get better. I’ll be fine.”

…

“Hey, you haven’t been coughing as much recently. Are you getting better then?

The boy smiled, “Yeah! Pretty soon I’ll be good as new!”

Charlotte stood up suddenly, “Mom...can we visit him sometime?”

Her mom smiled softly, “Yeah...we’ll go in a couple of days, ‘kay?

Charlotte nodded, then quickly escaped to her room. Once there, she grabbed a sketchbook and started drawing the boy from her dreams. The boy who was seeming more and more like he was her neighbor’s nephew.

“I think I’ll be waking up in the next few days.”

That was the first time he mentioned waking up. Charlotte had always assumed that it was because he was just a dream, but now she wasn’t sure.

“It’s been a while since the last time.”

~~~~~

That night, Charlotte put the finishing touches on the boy she believed to be Kai before going to bed early.

She ran up the familiar hill and looked at the Sakura tree, but the space beneath was empty. Charlotte walked toward it slowly and sat down, feeling weird about arriving first. Suddenly the boy’s voice came from behind her.

“Hey! What’re you doing here so early? I wasn’t expecting you back for another hour or so!”

She turned around and was greeted by the boy’s familiar features.

“I finished a new drawing and had nothing better to do.”

“Is that so? What were you drawing?”

“You.”

For the first time since she’d met him almost a year ago, his face turned pink, “Why would you want to draw me?”

“Cuz you’re cute, and somehow you haven’tchanged at all in the year I’ve known you.”

“That’s because my perception of myself hasn’t changed. Everytime you look in a mirror, your perception of yourself gets rewritten with what you see.”

“So you haven’t looked in a mirror in a year?”

“Kinda hard when you’ve been asleep the whole time.”

He said it in a joking manner, but it brought Charlotte’s thoughts back to that morning’s conversation.

“Hey...is your name...Kai? By any chance?”

“Whoa, are you Psychic? How’d you know?”

“Lucky guess?”

“I don’t believe you, but I won’t press you.”

He looked at Charlotte mischieviously, “Although, I do think I need your name. You know, now that you’ve figured out mine.”

“It’s Charlotte.”

“That’s a pretty name.”

“Do you have a set day when you're waking up?”

“Yeah, just got it today.”

“When?”

“In two days.”

~~~~~

The next two days passed by in the blink of an eye. Suddenly it was the day of Charlotte’s visit. She was super nervous and ended up wearing her Star Wars sweatshirt and a pair of denim shorts. She also brought her drawing of the Kai from her dreams, now more convinced the two were the same person.

When Charlotte and her mom got to the hospital, they found out that he had already woken up, adding to Charlotte’s nerves. They found Kai’s room with ease, and before going in, Charlotte looked through the window in the door.

It was him. His bright green eyes were more unfocused and his hair had grown out a lot, but it was definitely the boy from her dreams. A little relieved, she opened the door and walked in.

The boy turned toward her and gave a small smile, “Hey! Didn’t expect to see you again so soon, Char.”

Charlotte blushed at the nickname, “Well, it turns out that you’re my neighbor’s nephew, and I wanted to visit you. I even brought a gift.”

Kai took the paper Charlotte had extended toward him and grinned.

“Look at that, you really did draw me.”

“Well, like I said, you’re cute. And a year of sleeping through treatment didn’t change that.”

It was Kai’s turn to blush, “But to think that we were neighbors and never realized.”

“Well you were super vague about details, and I only moved in six months ago.”

He laughed, “True, sorry about that.”

She smiled, “Well for most of it, I thought you were literally just a dream, so it tracked that you would be vague about details.”

They spent the rest of the day like that, laughing and joking, as if they were lifelong friends and weren’t in a hospital.