*Mei Ling's Diary*
Dear Diary,
Today something very, very, VERY strange happened! My heart is still beating faster than normal, and the monitors kept going "beep, beep, beep" for the longest time before I finally calmed down. The nurses didn't even come to check what was wrong. They never come when something interesting happens.
You won't believe what happened, Diary. I swear I'm not making this up!
You know, I always thought every day here was exactly the same. The white ceiling, the white walls, the white bedsheets. The hum of the machines and the steady drip-drip of the IV. The same muffled voices in the hallway, the same serious faces of the doctors looking at me with that expression they think I don't understand. But I do understand. They look at me like I'm some broken little thing no one knows how to fix, but no one wants to throw away either.
But today wasn't the same. Today was different. Very different.
I was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, counting the paint marks on the wall. (I've already counted them all. There are 47. But sometimes I pretend I haven't, just so I can count them again and pass the time.) Then I heard a strange noise coming from the window. At first, I thought it was a bird. Sometimes birds fly into the glass. Poor things—they don't know it's transparent. But it wasn't a bird. It wasn't the wind either—the wind goes "whoooosh," and this sounded more like "creeeeak, creeeeak."
When I looked over, there was a ROPE hanging outside the window! A rope made of... bedsheets? And pillowcases? And there was SOMEONE climbing down it!
Diary, I almost screamed. But I didn't because I froze in surprise. My heart jumped so hard I thought it was going to leap right out of my mouth, just like in those cartoons I used to watch when I was little. Do you remember? No, of course you don't. You're a diary. Sorry.
Anyway.
The person swung back and forth, and then JUMPED through the window and landed right on the floor of my room! Like, PLOP! Just like that! As if falling through the ceiling into a stranger's room was the most normal thing in the world!
And Diary... Diary, Diary, Diary.
It was a boy.
The most beautiful person I have ever seen in my entire life. And I've seen lots of magazines and movies. But him... he looked like he'd stepped right out of a fairy tale.
His hair was golden, like strands of melted sunlight falling over his shoulders. His face was delicate, with features so fine they looked as if they'd been painted with a tiny, tiny brush. And his eyes... oh, Diary, his eyes were as blue as the sky I see through my window on the prettiest days. I wanted to tell him his eyes were like two little windows into a world where there are no hospitals or cold machines. But the words got stuck in my throat. What do you even say to someone who just fell through the ceiling right in front of you?
"Did you fall through the ceiling?"
That was the first thing I managed to say. I said it so quietly I thought he wouldn't hear me.
But he did.
And he laughed.
Diary, his smile looked so tired, yet so... real. It wasn't like the doctors' smiles, the fake ones that say, "You're going to get better," even when they know I won't. His smile was real.
He said he was running away. Running away from his mother.
That made me think. Why would someone run away from their own mother? Aren't mothers supposed to be the people who hug you, stay by your side, and hold your hand even when you're sick?
...I don't know. My mother doesn't do that anymore.
My parents stopped coming a long time ago. The doctors say they're worried about me, that they send their love, that one day they'll come back. But that's a lie. I know it's a lie. They don't send letters. They don't call. They don't visit. They left me here and forgot about me, just like people forget an old toy at the back of a closet.
I wanted to ask him if his mother was like mine. But I didn't because he looked like he was in a hurry, and because I didn't want him to leave.
Then he touched my hand.
Diary, his skin was warm. So warm that I almost asked him to stay a little longer. But he pulled away quickly, as if he'd burned himself, and stepped back. He looked frightened. Not of me, I think. But of something he saw or heard. Maybe he has an invisible little monster too, just like mine.
He said he had to go. And I understood. Of course I understood. He was running away—he couldn't stay there chatting with a sick stranger. I've run away too, in my dreams. The only difference is that my legs don't work very well, and I always wake up in the same place.
But, Diary... do you know what I thought as he turned to leave?
I thought that if he's the princess, then I'm the tower.
You know? Like those towers that keep princesses locked away in fairy tales. He fell HERE, into MY room, as if I were a part of his story. But not an important part. Just... the place where he stopped for a moment. The tower he passed through while escaping.
No one remembers the tower.
No one tells stories about the tower. The tower doesn't have a name, a face, or a happy ending. The tower just... exists. And after the princess escapes, the tower stays empty forever.
That made me a little sad. Just a little.
Because before he left, he looked at me. He looked at me in a way no one ever had before. Not the way the doctors do, with that fake pity. He looked at me as if I were a person. As if I weren't just a sick girl lying in a hospital bed, but someone worth looking at.
And he said, "Goodbye."
It wasn't one of those cold goodbyes the doctors say before they leave. It was a warm goodbye, as if he truly wanted to say goodbye to ME, not to the empty air in the room.
Now he's gone. The room is quiet again, and the only proof that he was ever here is the window still cracked open and the cool breeze drifting in. The nurses will close it and scold me for letting the cold air inside. But I don't care.
Because for a few minutes, my heart beat fast.
For a few minutes, I wasn't just a sick little girl lying in a hospital bed.
It was as if I were alive.
Dear Diary, do you think he'll remember me? Even if I'm just the tower? Even if I never see him again? Do you think that, somewhere out there in the world, the princess remembers the window they escaped through?
I hope so.
I hope he finds what he was looking for. I hope he escapes his wicked mother and finds a happy ending, just like in real fairy tales.
And if one day, somehow, he remembers the girl in the white room... I'd like him to know that his smile was the greatest gift I've ever received.
My eyes are getting heavy now. The doctors will be here soon, and I'll have to pretend nothing happened. But before I fall asleep, I want to write one more little thing:
His name is Ryuu. Bai Ryuu. And I will never, ever forget him.
Goodbye, Diary. My heart is still beating fast, but it's not because of my illness. It's because of... something else. Something good. I think it's happiness.
It's been such a long time since I felt that.
Good night, Diary.
Good night, princess of the window, wherever you are.
With love,
Mei Ling
*The End...*
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Note:This chapter was a bit shorter because I wanted to focus solely on Mei Ling's diary. But don't worry—the next chapter will be 3,000 words long to make up for it.