I do not own any of these characters, but the storyline is mine (except of course majority of the 1st chapter which are scenes re-written from HYD the Japanese Drama… =) Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Tsukushi watched in disbelief as Umi served tea to Tsukasa.

"Tsukasa-kun, I made some tea for you." Umi said. Tsukasa looked up to reply, "I don't want tea, can you make those cookies for me again?"

Umi smiled at him and to Tsukushi's horror replied, "Sure I'll make a whole bunch of them for you! Did you know I'm pretty good at cooking?"

Immediately, Tsukushi felt the tears well up in her eyes and begin to roll down her cheeks.

"What's wrong?" asked Umi

Tsukushi have a slight shake of her head, "I give up." She unclasped her Saturn necklace and threw it at Doumyoji, "You may look like Doumyoji, but you aren't him." With one last look, she turned around and left the Doumyoji estate in tears.

Tsukushi walked slowly is the cold night, trying to process her thoughts to try so that she could understand, but no matter what she did, nothing made sense. Her thoughts jumbled, and her emotions getting the best of her she sat down on an abandoned park bench until she was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of her phone ringing. She looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Yuuki.

"Hi Yuuki." Makino answered.

"You sound funny, are you okay?" Yuuki asked worried about her best friend.

"Yah I'm fine. I've just figuring some stuff out."

"Well, I'm at Mimasaka-san's place" Yuuki said.

"You are where?" Makino asked.

"I said I'm at Mimasaka-san's house, come here we want to see you."

"Okay, I'll see you soon." Said Makino as she hung up her phone.

I guess it's time to tell them all what I've decided anyway…

15 minutes later the F3, Makino, and Yuuki were all settled and enjoying some tea, when Makino decided it was time to break the news. After taking a slow sip of her tea, she began "I've decided to give up on Tsukasa. I saw him today, and Umi is taking care of him. He seems to enjoy her company, all her ever feels when he sees me is annoyance. Plus, he thinks that she made his cookies. Whatever maybe this is how it's supposed to be."

"So, you aren't going to see him anymore?" asked Akira

"I don't care anymore" she replied unable to look anyone in the eye afraid they would see the truth.

"Don't tell me Umi-chan likes Tsukasa," said Soujiro

"I don't know" came the numb response from Tsukushi

"But, that's horrible! Pretending she made something you made! I'll never forgive her! I'll go tell her myself" said Yuuki making a move to stand up. Tsukushi put her hand on her friend's arm forcing her to sit back down.

"Thanks yuuki, but…"

"But what?" asked an exasperated Yuuki.

"But this isn't about Umi-chan," explained Tsukushi. "I made a bet with myself, I thought that he'd choose me. Even if he'd forgotten about me, even if everything got reset to zero,but he didn't. I was just too sure of myself. I'm going back to my parents I'll be helping them out for awhile. I should be back when school starts again. " The group just nodded in understanding. It had been a tough couple of months for Tsukushi, it was amazing that she didn't burn out sooner. Tsukushi quickly finished her tea and looked to Yuuki.

"I'll see you back at your house. I've got a pack up all the things I've left at your house before I leave before the fishing village tomorrow".

Yuuki nodded her head in understanding and walked Makino to the door.

"Tsukushi-chan, you're sure about this, right?" asked Yuuki.

"Honestly, no I'm not sure, but I really can't take anymore. Besides, this is what I wanted in the first place isn't it? The reason I went to the fishing village was to leave Doumyoji, now I won't have to hide from him, because he doesn't even remember me. " Tsukushi spoke and flashed a weak smile in Yuuki's direction. Yuuki nodded her head and embraced her friend.

"I understand, Tsukushi. It's okay, I'm sure he'll remember in his own time" Tsukushi turned away and headed into the night to start her new life, without Doumyoji Tsukasa

A months time had passed since she left Tokyo and Doumyoji. Tsukushi was adjusting well to life in the village and she kept herself busy with cooking and cleaning giving herself little to no time to think about her now defunct relationship.

"sis, your phone's ringing" Susumu said one day as Tsukushi was preparing wiped her hands on her pants and reached for the ringing phone. HANAZAWA RUI flashed at her from the front screen. With a smiled she answered the phone.

"Hi Hanazawa-san! How is everything?" she greeted with a somewhat forced enthusiasm.

"Everything is good, but we all miss you," Rui answered.

Tsukushi smirked knowingly and answered, " and by we you mean, yourself, Mimasaka-san, Nishikado-san, and Yuuki right? We both know that Tsukasa probably hasn't even noticed that I'm missing."

She frowned slightly when she heard Rui give a small grunt in to confirm her assessment.

"But speaking of Tsukasa, he's gotten a lot better" Rui said brightly.

"I see" Tsukushi answered non-chalantly, trying to make it seem as if she didn't care while secretly she could feel her burden lighten knowing that physically he was healing.

"So, Akira's throwing him a get well party for him. Want to come?"

"Me?" she asked in shock.

"You can invite Yuuki-chan too," coaxed Rui.

"But I'll just be in a bad mood again if HE's there" reasoned Tsukushi.

"Aren't you the weed that won't give up no matter how many times people step on you?" Rui teased. But he was right, she couldn't hide from her friends forever.

"Okay, I'll go. I'll call Yuuki right now."

"Okay then, see you soon Makino," said Rui.

Makino began to dial Yuuki's number when her phone began to ring again. She stared at the name flashing on the screen in front of her OKAWAHARA SHIGERU. Makino quickly answered the call.

"Shigeru! It's been awhile! How are you?"

"Tskushi! I've been well, I've getting settled in school in California. My parents are still in New York. I hate all my courses and I'm most likely going to fail which means that soon my parents are going to try to marry me off again to some asshole business man who can take over for my father because obviously I'm incompetent and I'd run the corporation into the ground. But yah I miss you so much because you are pretty much my only friend. So how about you? How's everything? How's everyone?"

Tsukushi laughed wholeheartedly for the first time in months, when her laughter finally subsided, out of breath she began to speak. "It's nice to see that you haven't changed much Shigeru. Things here are… different."

Confused Shigeru asked for clarification, "what do you mean by different?" Makino sighed and asked her friend, "do you have anywhere to go? Because this story could take some time, and I'd much rather tell you it at one time." Shigeru noted the seriousness in Makino's voice and answered sincerely.

"For you, I've got all the time in the world." Makino began to relay the whole story of what had been happening since Shigeru went back to New York.

After 2 hours, the whole story had been told and Shigeru for possibly the first time in her life, was silent. Trying to figure out what to tell her friend and how to help her.

"Tsukushi, will you be able to get through this alone?" Shigeru asked.

"I don't really know, but I'm trying. It feels kind of like I'm coming apart at the seams though. I don't know how much longer I can hold myself together," Tsukushi admitted.

"Don't worry Tsukushi, I'll help you come up with a solution. In fact I may have an idea."

"What's your solution Shigeru, any suggestion no matter how crazy is welcome at this point."

Shigeru laughed and stated, "why don't you come and stay with me in California! You can study with me here! Plus you'll be on the other side of the Earth away from Tsukasa."

Makino smiled at the suggestion. "thanks Shigeru, but we both know that would be impossible, I don't have the money to support myself here in Japan let alone in a foreign country, Where would I stay, how would I pay for school, food, and everything else?"

Shigeru giggled into the phone, "I guess you're right, but it would be fun having you around. We had so much fun together in Tokyo. "

"eh, Shigeru, it's getting late here, I better go. Call me again soon okay!" Tsukushi said to her friend.

"Okay Tsukushi-chan! Oyasuminasai!"

The 2 girls hung up their phones. But one picked up again and dialed a familiar phone number.

"Otoo-san?"

"Who's this?" said the man's voice.

" It's me Shigeru. How many other people call you Otoo-san?" laughed Shigeru.

"Haha very funny Shigeru, now what's wrong?" Okwahara-san asked concerned for his only child's happiness.

"Do you remember my very good friend back in Japan, Makino Tsukushi?" Shigeru asked her father.

"Yes, I remember her. How could I forget her. Why?"

"Well, as you know her family is not very well off. She is trying very hard to pay for college and she has sooo much potential! But it looks like she won't be able to afford going to a good school. " explained Shigeru.

"And?..."

"And I was wondering if, because you are the best father in the whole wide world, and because you love me sooooo much if you would do me a huge favor and sponsor Makino-san to come to California and study with me here."

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Xoxo

JaceMia!