Three days before her scheduled return to Japan with Hiroshi, Aiko made one final trip to Valencia. This time, she traveled alone, having asked Maria to arrange a private visit during the evening hours when the hospital was quieter and she could have uninterrupted time with Javier.
The train journey felt different from her previous trips to see him. Where before she had carried desperate hope or overwhelming grief, now she felt a peaceful sense of completion. She was coming to say goodbye properly—not just to Javier, but to the version of herself that had been defined by searching for him.
Maria met her at the hospital entrance, her expression warm but curious about this final visit.
"How are you feeling about seeing him again?" Maria asked as they walked through the familiar corridors.
"Ready," Aiko replied simply. "I need to tell him about the decisions I've made, about what comes next for me. Even if he can't respond, I think he deserves to know."
"That sounds healthy. Take as long as you need."
Room 412 looked exactly the same as it had during her previous visits—the same medical equipment, the same view of Valencia's skyline, the same peaceful figure lying motionless in the hospital bed. But Aiko felt entirely different as she entered the space.
"Hello, Javier," she said softly, settling into the familiar chair beside his bed. "I came to talk to you one more time before I leave Spain."
She had brought a small gift—a photo from her graduation at the Instituto Superior de Belleza, taken just days earlier. In it, she was smiling confidently beside her final project, looking every bit the accomplished young stylist she had become.
"This is who I am now," she said, placing the photo where he could see it if his eyes were open. "Because of what you showed me that day in the park, I became someone who helps other people feel beautiful. Your kindness created something lasting in the world."
The monitors continued their steady rhythm as she spoke, but Aiko felt no urgency to fill the silence or search for signs of awareness. She was here to share, not to receive.
"I met someone," she continued, her voice growing stronger. "His name is Hiroshi, and he's been part of my life for several months now. He's kind, like you. He sees people who need support and finds ways to help them. I think you would like him."
She paused, looking at Javier's peaceful face and feeling a profound sense of gratitude rather than sadness.
"For a long time, I thought loving you meant waiting for you, holding part of myself in reserve in case you ever woke up. But I realized that wasn't fair to either of us. You gave me the gift of knowing I was worthy of love—the least I can do is accept that love when someone offers it genuinely."
The afternoon light streaming through the window began to shift toward evening, casting gentle shadows across the room. Aiko found herself thinking about time—how much had passed since their first meeting, how much would pass in the future, how precious each moment of consciousness really was.
"I want you to know that if you do wake up someday, I'll be so happy for you. Not because it might change anything between us, but because you deserve to live the life you were building before the accident. You deserve to help more children, to compete in cycling, to fall in love with someone who can love you back completely."
She reached out and took his hand, feeling the warmth that had surprised her during every visit.
"I'm going to live fully, Javier. I'm going to love Hiroshi with my whole heart, pursue my career with passion, help as many people as I can through my work. That's how I'm going to honor what you gave me—by building a life worthy of the kindness you showed a broken girl in a park."
As evening approached and visiting hours drew to a close, Aiko felt ready for the goodbye she had come to offer.
"Thank you," she said, standing up and moving closer to the head of his bed. "Thank you for seeing me when I couldn't see myself. Thank you for showing me that I was worth caring about. Thank you for changing my life in the most beautiful way possible."
She leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead—not the passionate kiss of her previous visit, but something softer, more like a blessing. This kiss was about gratitude and release, about honoring love while letting it transform into something that could travel with her rather than hold her in place.
"Goodbye, Javier," she whispered. "I'll carry you with me always, but not as someone I'm waiting for. As someone who taught me that I deserve to be happy."
As she gathered her things and prepared to leave room 412 for the final time, Aiko felt a profound sense of peace settling over her. The desperate search that had brought her to Spain was complete. The girl who had been saved by a stranger's kindness had become a woman capable of accepting love from someone present and available.
Walking through the hospital corridors toward the exit, she thought about Hiroshi waiting for her back in Madrid, about their dinner plans for the following evening, about the life they would begin building together when they returned to Japan.
The train back to Madrid felt different from her journey to Valencia. Javier would always be part of her story—the person who had shown her she was worthy of love. Now she could carry that knowledge forward without waiting for something that might never happen.
By the time the train pulled into Madrid's central station, Aiko felt ready for whatever came next. She had said goodbye to waiting, to impossible love, to the version of herself that lived in the past.
Tomorrow, she would begin discovering who she could become when she loved someone who could love her back.
The goodbye was complete, and the future was finally beginning.