WTF! Still alive??

Okay, my Bleach peeps, does this NOT look like Byakuya is still alive??  Eyes are open.  Okay, so spitting blood, but, honestly, looks more conscious than Renji in later section of same page.  Because if this is meant to look like the empty gaze of the dead, I'm not sure Kubo-sensei captured that.  And why juxapose with Kyouraku who is alive but blinded???? 

Of course, I'm grasping at straws.   My f*cking OTP is at stake here, people.

Also, as note on my fan fiction completely unrelated to anything of worth, I wish I could go back and add a TINY detail to the Hanami romance sections of my Byakuya/Renji, and that is... now that I'm growing my hair out (which I consider as annoying as I imagine Renji who always has his tied back must also), I think it would have been hillarious (and accurate) to have Byakuya randomly reaching out occasionally to untuck the hair from behind Renji's ears. I find myself doing this, despite knowing I look like a dork.  And, Renji is wearing his hair down for an entire weekend.  It must have driven him a lot more insane than I wrote.