No, not yet." Tanaka replied, looking at Yamaguchi with a broken smile, "I cannot leave just yet."
Not knowing what to reply, Yamaguchi turned her head to the side, silently asking the others for support.
Mamoru couldn’t even say something. This wasn’t something he could prepare for. How could he say something to console someone else, when he couldn’t even console himself? How should he act in front of death? Numb; maybe. And if he was numb he couldn’t even think how Tanaka felt. The shorter boy opened his mouth only to close if a few seconds later. He wished he could act like an adult; be the grown-up figure to everyone, but he was still a boy, a teenager, he couldn’t react to this in a ‘proper’ manner. He didn’t even mind the hand that pulled him into a single-hand hug and moved up and down trying to give comfort.
"Tanaka, we’ll wait, but…" Tsuji struggled with words. How could he say such tactless things when he was against having a numb heart? As everyone, they knew this would come one day; but…Tsuji never expected it to come so quickly. He too, today wore a different outfit from usual- the one similar to his old uniform. Silently comforting Mamoru with one hand and holding an umbrella with the other, Tsuji spoke again, "Take your time." He flinched a hurt smile.
Meanwhile, Azuma stared with eyes of tiredness and anger at Tanaka as Yamaguchi kept on trying to convince him on this or that. She couldn’t name her feelings…a mixture of rage, impotency, fear, shock…everything was a mess. Her grip on her umbrella became tighter and she pulled Teddy closer to her, gritting her teeth. No, she couldn’t allow herself to cry now; if she did…god knows how Tanaka would react. Being alone was horrible…she now understood how he had felt all those years. If she were in a different scenario, she’d be telling Tanaka to look up, but instead, she allowed Teddy to sob onto her black clothing.