Number Twenty

Nya

She never liked numbers much, especially seeing as Jinno-sensei was the teacher two taught it. Most of the students in her class never saw past his petruding nose to the overhead, and that was probably one of the many reasons he gave out so many detentions.

Inequalities were the most annoying math component by far, stamping out trigonometry, system of equations, and such other evildoers to reign as king. As she wrestled with numbers, and open and closed dots, the shrill of the seemingly nineteenth century phone screeched throughout the class.

Jinno-sensei grumbled under his breath and started with his anger management blurb, "3.141592…" he continued while striding over to the phone.

Mikan breathed in a sigh of relief, her head already hurt from the overwhelming amount of numbers swirling in her brain, waiting to be processed into answers.

"Mikan." She swore he gave her the evil eye for disturbing his lesson. "It's a phone call for you."

Instantly, her heart dropped to her feet and her palms became moist. Scanning the room, she realized that it was stupid to look for Hotaru when she obviously had different classes during this block.

"Who wants to talk to me? What did they say?" A quiver was present in her voice.

He scoffed as if saying why he would care. "Just pick up the phone and hurry up with it. Now, for these questions, you have to test the quadrants…"

Mikan drifted over the phone, clasped one hand on the bottom of the speaker and one hand on the handle. "Hello?"

"…Be careful to note down the critical points…"

A faint sound of murmurs could be heard in the background. "Yes, am I talking to Mikan Sakura? The daughter of Yuka Sakura I presume."

"…The restrictions apply as well, in this case…"

For once, she sincerely hoped that she would be able to stay in class and finish the lesson.

"There, my mom, is she alright?"

"I'm Doctor Nogi from the Central Hospital, and I would like to confirm a few things about your mother before-"

"Is she alright?"

"Well..." The doctor cleared his throat.

"…and the answer would be 80 20 which would satisfy the requirements…"

She remembered the time that Anna came in late for Chemistry class on the day they were having a pop quiz. The rule was that if the student was late, they'd stay outside and get an automatic zero on the quiz, which was always only out of five marks. That day, the bell rang and the teacher closed the door but forgot to lock it. A few seconds later Anna stormed into the classroom, wheezing, with a dramatically loud entrance as the door banged open and crashed against the wall.

That was the exact entrance Mikan made as she and her flood of things bursted through the door to the emergency room just in time to watch a mob of blond hair that was about the disappear behind the operation room.

"Doctor Nogi!" she screeched, forgetting about all the rules that applied in the hospital. "How is she? What happened? I-I thought you were about to operate on her when you called me?"

The doctor gave her a glance and sent a nurse after her as he disappeared behind the big heavy doors to the operation room.

"Why? I don't understand it," Mikan thought out loud in a panic. "He said that it was crucial that the surgery was performed right away. Why is it only now-"

There were wrinkles between her eyebrows and the nurse pursed her lips, obvious signals of annoyance. "Doctor Nogi has been quite busy this morning," she interrupted as if they were in the supermarket, quarrelling over the last box of Hawalons.

Mikan gritted her teeth in rage. "Do you- do you know the serious condition that my mother is in? It's a tumour! Even better, it's a freaking brain tumour that's jeopardizing my mother's life? I don't know what kind of nurse you are, but I want an explanation of why he wasn't operating on her when he said he-"

"There was a more urgent case for something."

"I don't understand!" Her vision was clouded by tears of frustration, as she tries to get her point across hoping for some explanations. "How much-?"

"Look kiddy, the whole world doesn't revolve around you. Why don't you just wait quietly, and one of the others will come around for you to fill in the paperwork. I've got to go and rescue your precious little mommy now." With that, she spun her green hair and disappeared again through the door.

The operating light blinked on.

She collapsed in a chair close to the operation door and sat in the narrow waiting room filled with emptiness. Waiting was okay when everything was numb. She couldn't feel anything, just traced the letters over the red light over and over again.

But then she started to feel cold, and shivers ran down her spine. That dark, ugly chasm in her heart started to contaminate her mind. The emptiness was haunting, it was scary. The thought of losing her mother, of having to organize her wedding and call her old friends, of standing at the funeral wondering what the future would hold, and that empty apartment that she'll have to return to every night; everything was terribly horrifying.

Then again, these things aren't supposed to happen to her, right? Doctor Nogi would do everything he can, and things will carry on normally. Her mother will still have to stay in the hospital, of course, but things wouldn't turn out this way. It never would.

But if her mother died…

Trapped in a hamster's wheel, Mikan sat there as the clock slowly ticked away. The silence and the original panic eventually melted away, and everything stayed at a standstill.

A kind of serenity passed as the operation light blinked out and that whiff of yellow hair appeared from the doorway. He had held his head down. "Ms Sakura…"

Mikan didn't want to know.

She couldn't leave the hospital without answers as to why the operation wasn't conducted right away. Leaving the hospital in such a state would mean that she gave up to the news that the doctor brought her hours before without a fight. Why? She couldn't understand.

The nurse, even after experiencing numerous panic-stricken relatives like her, should still have sympathy for her shouldn't she? Mikan had caught sight of a little copper coloured name tag on her white coat as she left the operation room: Sumire Shouda.

Why?

It was hard to believe that only 24 hours ago, she was kissing her mother goodnight. She couldn't believe that her mother would leave her hanging as she was trapped between childhood and adulthood, without even saying goodbye.

Mikan caught sight of two nurses walking down the hall in their happy chatter. How could they still smile while the world was turned upside down?

"You know that new patient who came earlier?"

"He's doctor Nogi's patient wasn't he?"

"Yeah that one, he suffered a car accident but thankfully, the operation came just in time. Well, he's awfully handsome, don't you think?"

"What's his name?" she perked in.

"Natsume Hyuuga," one of the nurses replied. And before the two even noticed that they had given away private patient information to a complete third party, Mikan's sneakers were long squeaking down the hall towards the front desk.

"I'm a relative of Natsume Hyuuga. What room is he in?"

Mikan ducked around the corner as the "Sumire Shouda" exited from room 204 with tears streaming down her face, and getting closer, she heard the voice of Doctor Nogi.

"It's great that you're not permanently hurt," the blond said.

"Good job as always, Ruka."

"You should really be more careful. If I operated a few moments later… boy, I wouldn't know whether or not that operation would've been as successful as it turned out to be. That would've smashed your carrier before it even started. You've always been a soccer fanatic since elementary school."

"Shut up Ruka."

"But soccer really did save your life before..."

Mikan wasn't listening any more. All she knew was that they all knew him. The nurse and the doctor, the two both knew this Natsume Hyuuga. He killed her mother.

"You murderer," she whispered as she stood in the middle of the doorway.

"Ms Sakura?" the doctor reeled back in surprise.

"Murderers!" With adrenaline rushing through her veins she practically lifted the doctor up by his collar. "You murderer! You killed my mother while you could've saved her before he showed up! Why did you do it? Is another human being's life more important then a freaking person's leg?"

"Sakura-san please-"

"And you," she spun around to face the patient as unreflecting tears streamed down her face. "If you weren't there then maybe she'd still be alive!" Despite the doctors pleas in the background, she gripped the shoulders of the patient. "Why are you more important than her? If you weren't here…" she sobbed. "If you weren't here then maybe she'd still be alive. Why the heck is your career more important than my mother's life?"

Someone clawed her from behind and she came face in face with glistening green eyes. "Leave him alone, can't you see that that patient is trying to recuperate? It's already really late, and it's been a big day and-"

Hysteria. "Well at least your mother didn't die today! And this good-for-nothing is the cause of this."

It seemed like something snapped within the nurse as she pulled her hair hard. "Don't you dare call Natsume a good-for-nothing! You know what? You want the real real truth?"

"Sumire don't, I'll-"

"The real real truth is that your mother was practically half dead already. And the doctor's best friend is driven into the hospital with a fatal injury. If you weigh out what's a risk – saving someone who can be saved, and saving a lost cause – then you would make the same choice. You would make the same freaking choice!" Tears unwilling dripped down the nurse's chin too. "And you don't even know him, you don't even know how important soccer is to Natsume! If he can't play soccer, he won't be alive! He needed to be saved first, you- you have to understand."

In face of two crying females, the doctor tried to cut in. "Ms Sakura, this, I realize, is completely my mistake and my failure to keep personal reasons out of my professional reasons. I'll take full-"

"I'll pay you back," said the voice of the only person in the room who haven't spoken during the whole scene. "I swear, I'll pay you back."

"Back?" Mikan repeated with a bit of hysteria. "How can you possibly… Nothing can."

The crimson colour clawed at her eyes and he stared hard at her. "I will."

It was a 80-20 world in more than one way. He did repay her, but so many others did not.