Summertime Love

Makoto Kino walked down the hallway towards the pool area. She had been assigned to the Juban district for the summer for work and this week was one of the only times she would be able to relax. She sat at one of the pool-side tables and sighed. She loved being back in the Juban district, but around this time of year was when she really found herself saddened. A few years prior, she had been in the greatest relationship of her life with her best friend, Ami Mizuno. They had been together for two years and were completely in love. Then, Ami was offered the chance of a lifetime, to study with the best doctors in the world. Makoto felt she was holding her back and after a day or two of fighting, they broke up. Makoto saw her off at the airport. She hugged and kissed her good bye before she left. The tall girl had broke down in tears when she saw Ami board the plane. She had the ring box in her hand with the diamond ring she had planned to propose with. Now she sat there by the pool, writing down some notes for work. She glanced at her bag on the floor. There sat the very same ring box and ring. She had tried dating other women, but none would ever come close to Ami. She truly missed her and wished she had a way to call her, just to hear her voice. She knew it was her fault there were not together, but that didn't mean she loved the girl any less. She was brought from her thoughts when a young man carried a drink and placed it in front of her. She looked up at him, noticing he was hotel staff, "Excuse me sir...I didn't order this."

"I know ma'am. The woman over there requested I give that drink to you," he said, pointing out the one getting out of the pool wearing a blue one-piece, goggles, and a swimming cap. He left afterwards.

Makoto caught a glimpse of turquoise hair then looked at the drink for a second before smelling it. Her eyes widened when she smelled the familiar aroma of rose tea. She used to drink it all the time, "It's not possible...it can't be." When she looked back up, the woman and all her stuff was gone. The tall girl gathered her things and went back to the hotel room where she was staying. Once she connected to the WiFi, she looked up Ami by her name. The page then showed an article saying: "Dr. Ami Mizuno joins Tokyo General."

Makoto slumped against her chair and took in that information, "Ami is back in Juban...working at Tokyo General..." She looked up the hospital to find it's number. She typed the number into her phone and saved it for the time being.

A few hours later, Makoto had finally decided to call. She pulled up the hospital's number and pressed the call button. She took a deep breath trying to calm her nerves, afraid she would start crying any minute.

"Tokyo General. How can I help you?" asked a female voice.

"Um...could you transfer my call to Dr. Ami Mizuno...if she's not busy?" she asked.

"Here let me check and see if she is in her office." Some typing was heard, "She is in her office now. Let me transfer your call."

Makoto took another deep breath and started pacing in her hotel room, trying not to break down. The tall brunette stopped and froze when she heard, "Ami Mizuno here. How can I help you?"

The tall girl sat down on her bed, not knowing how to react.

"Hello?"

Tears began flowing down her cheeks and her heart began breaking all ocer again. After about six years of not hearing Ami's voice, she broke down crying softly.

"Is anyone there?"

"Y-yes," she sobbed, her voice cracking.

"What's wrong? Are you alright?" she asked, going into doctor mode.

"N-n-no..."

"Tell me what's wrong...please let me help you."

"It's all my fault," she croaked.

"What is?"

"Everything," she said, ending the call before she could say anything further. The brunette cried for the next fifteen minutes until she heard her phone ringing. She saw it was not a number that she recognized so she tentatively answered, "H-hello?"

"Ma'am...thank goodness I was able to reach you. Are you alright?" came the voice of the one and only, Ami Mizuno.

"H-how did you get my n-number?"

"I had written it down before you hung up. I wanted to make sure you were okay and not in any danger of possible self-harm," she said worriedly. "I called you on my cell phone to make sure," she added.

"I'm sorry you went through that trouble. I assure you I don't intend to hurt myself...if you know who this was...you would really want to talk to me either," she said.

"Tell me who you are. I am much better at identifying faces and names than voices," she said sweetly.

Before Makoto could say anything, her door was kicked in. She looked toward the cause and stood seeing armed men walking in. She quickly switched the phone conversation to her wireless earpiece and tossed her phone aside, away from her while they couldn't see.

"Put your hands in the air and do what we want," one said.

"What is it that you want?" she asked.

"Give us all of your money."

"I have to get in my purse. It's right here behind me," she said, pointing to her purse. She slowly picked it up and took all of the money she had out of her purse and wallet, handing it to them.

"Jewelry?"

"I don't have anything of value. Everything I have is fake jewelry," she lied.

The men heard police sirens and began to panic, "The cops are here! We need to go now!"

The other guy looked at her, an evil look in his eyes as he grinned, "And leave no witnesses." Before she had a chance to say or do anything, he shot her three times in the chest, then ran off. Makoto fell to the ground.

"Hello? Can you hear me? Please answer me!" Ami begged and pleaded.

"A...mi..." she said before falling unconcious. Everything went black.

~5 hours later~

The tall brunette groaned and began to stir. She winced at the pain in her chest and opened her eyes to see herself wearing a hospital gown, with bandages on her torso. Looking around the room, she froze when her eyes landed on Ami, standing a foot or two out of arm's reach, "Ami...why are you here?"

"Well it's certainly not every day that your ex-girlfriend is brought in to your surgery rooms with 3 shots to the chest," she said bitterly.

Makoto looked down, not able to look in to Ami's angry eyes. The blunette had every right to be bitter with her, she deserved it.

Ami sighed, slightly frustrated, "I didn't know you were back in Juban."

Makoto nodded, "I'm here for the summer to help get the Juban branch of the company I work for back on track...I've been in Kyoto."

"Why didn't you call me or try to communicate with me when I left?" she asked.

The tall brunette gripped her sheets, "I didn't know if you even wanted to speak to me after what I'd done. When I was going to call and apologize...you'd changed your number...I figured you wanted to completely remove me from your life so I didn't look you up until earlier. I called earlier to try and say hi...you know how that turned out."

"Why did you start crying when you called?"

Makoto mumbled incoherently.

"Speak up I can't hear you," Ami said.

"Because I missed the sound of your voice...I missed everything about you..." she said, trailing off as tears slid down her cheeks.

"I thought you wanted me gone. The way you kept pushing for me to go made that clear," she said. "It wasn't until I finally got on that plane...that I finally saw the truth...I looked through my window when I got to my sear...and I saw you on your knees crying. I nearly got off the plane and when back to you...but then I realized why I was there to begin with."

"I thought I was holding you back...I knew you could be so much more than I could."

"So you pushed me away?" she asked, raising her voice slightly.

"I-I'm sorry I-"

"You don't get it. I didn't care if I studied with the best doctors or not. Either way I could have been a great doctor. I would have had everything I wanted...a successful career, a nice home, and my loving girlfriend. That was all I wanted, I didn't care where I studied. Now I have my career, a nice house, and an empty bed to go to sleep in," she ranted.

Makoto tried her best not to cry as Ami spoke to her. It felt as though the blunette had ripped her heart out of her chest. She didn't deserve the blunette's trust. She didn't deserve to talk to her. She didn't deserve her love. "I-I'm sorry...A-Mizuno-san."

The blunette walked to the door but she stopped before exiting. She turned back towards her, "Good bye...Kino-san." She walked out closing the door behind her. She heard the girl break down crying and cried a bit herself before she walked to her office.