The days following Aiko's revelation-filled conversation with Isabella passed in a blur of conflicted emotions and restless energy. She threw herself into her coursework at the Instituto with renewed intensity, but her mind constantly wandered to thoughts of Javier lying unconscious in a Valencia hospital, and to Isabella's promise to consider arranging a visit.
When Isabella's message came three days later, asking to meet again at the same café, Aiko's heart raced with anticipation. Surely this meant Isabella had made a decision about the visit, had spoken with the medical team, had found a way to make the meeting possible.
But when Aiko arrived at Café Central that Thursday afternoon, Isabella's expression immediately signaled that the news would not be what she had hoped to hear.
"Thank you for coming," Isabella said, her voice carrying a formality that hadn't been present during their previous conversation. "I've been in contact with Javier's medical team, and I'm afraid the situation is more complicated than I initially indicated."
"Complicated how?" Aiko asked, settling into her chair with growing apprehension.
Isabella was quiet for a long moment, staring at her hands folded on the table. When she finally looked up, her expression was carefully controlled, almost professional in its composure.
"Aiko, I need to tell you something that will be very difficult to hear. After our conversation on Saturday, I drove to Valencia to speak with Javier's doctors about the possibility of you visiting him."
"And?"
"His condition has deteriorated significantly over the past few weeks. The medical team has been... they've been preparing the family for the possibility that his situation might not improve."
Aiko felt her stomach drop. "What are you saying exactly?"
Isabella took a shaky breath. "Yesterday morning, Javier's vital signs became increasingly unstable. Despite the medical team's best efforts..." She paused, closing her eyes as if the words were too painful to speak while looking at Aiko. "He passed away early this morning."
The words hit Aiko like a physical blow, stealing her breath and making the busy café fade into a blur of meaningless noise. "He's dead?"
"I'm so sorry, Aiko. I know how much you were hoping to see him, to thank him. The timing is just... cruel."
"But three days ago you said he was stable, that there had been moments where he seemed closer to consciousness."
"Sometimes these situations change very rapidly. The doctors said that brain injuries like his can be unpredictable, that even patients who seem stable can experience sudden complications."
Aiko stared at Isabella, trying to process information that felt impossible to accept. After months of searching, weeks of investigation, the discovery that she had finally found him—only to learn that he was gone forever.
"I can't believe this," she whispered. "I was so close. If I had found you just a few days earlier, if I had searched more systematically when I first arrived in Spain..."
"There's nothing you could have done differently," Isabella said gently. "Even if you had found us weeks ago, visiting him wouldn't have changed his medical condition."
"But I could have talked to him, could have told him how much his kindness meant to me. Even if he couldn't respond, I could have expressed my gratitude."
"I know. And I'm sorry that opportunity has been taken away from you."
They sat in heavy silence for several minutes, the weight of finality settling over everything Aiko had hoped to accomplish during her time in Spain. Her primary motivation for studying abroad had been the possibility of finding and thanking Javier. Now that possibility was gone forever.
"Will there be a funeral?" she asked quietly. "Some kind of service where I could pay my respects?"
Isabella shook her head. "It will be a small family ceremony. Private. Javier would have wanted something quiet, without a lot of public attention."
"I understand. But Isabella, could you... would you be willing to tell him something for me? If you have a moment alone with him before...?"
"Of course. What would you like me to say?"
Aiko struggled to find words that could adequately express everything she had carried for three years. "Tell him that his kindness changed my entire life. That the girl he helped in the park found her way to becoming a hairstylist because of what he showed her about caring for others. Tell him that his compassion mattered more than he could have known."
"I will tell him exactly that," Isabella promised, her own eyes filling with tears.
"And Isabella? Thank you for sharing his story with me, for helping me understand who he was. Even though I can't thank him directly, knowing the truth about his character has been... meaningful."
As they prepared to leave the café, Isabella placed a gentle hand on Aiko's shoulder. "I hope you'll be able to complete your studies here with some sense of peace, even though this wasn't the resolution you were hoping for."
"I'll try. The education itself has been valuable, regardless of... everything else."
Walking back through Madrid's streets alone, Aiko felt hollowed out by grief and the weight of missed opportunities. The search that had driven her for so long was over, but not in any way she could have anticipated.
That evening, she sat on her small balcony overlooking the busy street, trying to process the finality of Isabella's news. Javier was gone. The chance to thank him, to see him, to understand what their brief encounter had meant to him—all of it was impossible now.
But as the Spanish evening settled around her, Aiko found herself thinking about Isabella's description of who Javier had been. A young man dedicated to helping others, someone whose instinct to care for strangers had defined his character. His kindness to her hadn't been an anomaly—it had been an expression of his fundamental nature.
Perhaps the best way to honor his memory wasn't to mourn the conversation they would never have, but to continue building the life his compassion had made possible. To become the kind of hairstylist who saw people the way he had seen her—worthy of care, deserving of kindness, capable of transformation.
The grief would remain, but it could coexist with gratitude for what his brief presence in her life had made possible.
Even in death, Javier's gift to her continued.