But why?" I asked curious. She took another paused.
"The truth is, you know… My family actually own an hospital branched with this one and I requested to do a stage here… but they said it's a full-time job, so… I only take class at night and sooner in the morning…" she was blushing a little.
I could know that wasn't the only reason, but I didn't know what, so I just smiled at her.
"A-anyway," she continued, "starting today, I will be your helper."
"Ah, so it's you? You're my helper?" I was surprised, but then confused by something… "What is an helper, by the way?" I asked in confusion.
Maki looked at me for with a surprised face a couple of second and the smiled an explained: "A helper is like a nurse, but they only have to take care of a patient. We helpers have to stay by our patient's side and be there when they need help… By the way, most of the helpers are volunteer from Catholic Church but they accepted me because…" she stopped.
"A-Anyway, is there anything you want to do now?" she asked, trying to avoid the situation.
"Did you already eat?" she asked. "No! Not yet" I answered. But to be honest, I wasn't sure if I wanted to eat.
"…Don't eat, don't drink, it will be quicker and you won't be a heavy charge for your family…" suddenly, these words echoed into my head.
"H-Honoka?" I heard a caring voice. I lifted my head and saw a concerned look on Maki's face.
"I-I'm ok!" I tried to smile. "o-ok then…" she answered; seemingly not sure I was really ok.
"Should we go to the cafeteria, then?" she proposed. I just nodded in response.
I was not sure what to do now. My head hurts thinking about what decision should I take…
As we were about to enter the elevator, a young boy with brown hair came from it and walked alongside a nurse. That boy wore a white pajama and a white wristband too… Atou Yuu… That was the name written on his wristband.
"Another young one… It's so sad…" I could hear two nurses gossiping at about four meters from us looking at both that boy and me. It's not like they had any bad intention, but I fell sad by that… though I didn't know why.
"Honoka?" Maki called for me as we entered the elevator and she pressed the button for the first floor.
We walked into the crowded cafeteria. I watched the clock and saw it was almost nine of the morning (09:00AM). As Maki was trying to find us a place, I watched the other patients. I could see a group of young person wearing pajama and a blue wristband sitting together at a table.
After all, as they explained, a patient's health is determined by its wristband's color. Blue is for the patients who just regularly come to the hospital for daily tests, Vinyl is for the patients from the third to fifth floor, Green is for the patients that health is still unknown and might be sent back home if the operation success or sent into the seven in case of a failure, and lastly, White is for these who are already doomed at the seventh.