"Oh, hey guys!" Mikan Sakura called cheerfully towards her group of friends.
It was a fine Saturday afternoon, a year after they graduated from Alice Academy.
"Yo." They replied smiling back at her.
"I'm sooooo hungry! Can we please eat lunch now?" She whined and clung to her best friend, Hotaru Imai.
"Uh, sure let's go." Ruka Nogi answered, sweat dropping a little.
They walked to the booked restaurant which was about 10 minutes away.
When they opened the door, they heard the familiar chime of the bell.
"Hey guys!" Anna and Nonoko, two of their good friends, came and welcomed them.
Anna and Nonoko led them to their booked table and gave them the menus.
"Same as always." Kokoroyomi said smiling, setting down his menu.
The rest nodded at them as well.
"Hmm... I wanna try something new. Can I have the steamed fish?" Mikan beamed at them.
Anna and Nono nodded, jotted down the orders and then skipped to the counter.
"Trying something new, huh?" Kitsume asked smirking as he leaned on his arm.
"Careful Mikan, that fish you ordered has loads of small bones." Yuu cautioned her quickly.
"Dun worry. I'm good with bones!" She peeped happily and chatted with her friends, waiting for their orders.
"Sorry for the wait!" Anna said and placed the different orders at the right place. She already memorized their friend's taste.
"Yay! Dig in!" Mikan yelled happily and buried her head in the food.
Everyone sweat dropped at the 21 years old woman.
She never changed.
"Mikan, eat more slowly. Your gonna choke on the bones!" Ruka said staring at her.
Right on cue Mikan felt pain in her throat.
Oh no.
She stopped eating almost immediately and forced a smile.
She tried gulping down a small ball of rice and drank her water but the bone didn't go down.
"Eh...Um..." She desperately tried thinking of an excuse to go home. She was internally panicking and the pain in her throat would increase each time she swallowed.
"I suddenly remembered that I have loads of paperwork I didn't finish. Gotta go, see ya!" She was evidently pale but she forced her smile nonetheless, swung her bag on her shoulder and ran out.
Her friends gave her a confused nod.
Hotaru sat there calmly.
"Such a idiot."
"Oh my god." Mikan screamed as she desperately searched online for some ways to force the fish bone down.
It felt small, but it also felt really deep in her throat.
'Oh my god I'm going to die! I'm gonna go get surgery and then I will have a huge scar and worse I won't be able to talk anymore!' She thought to herself while gulping down coke, marshmallows and vinegar.
Nothing worked and each time she swallowed she would wince a little from pain.
"Oh please let anything happen to me...I don't want to die yet..." Mikan cried as she curled herself into a ball on the couch.
"I totally forgot! I can go find Natsume!" She sat up quickly, took her bag and then ran to her boyfriend's clinic.
"Hello Ms. Sakura. Do you have an appointment today?" The secretary asked kindly, recognizing her.
"Um...n-no but is Natsume free right now?" Mikan asked, flinching a little from the pain in her throat.
"I'm sure he has time for you." the secretary winked.
"But I'll call him just to double check." She picked up the phone next to her and dialed a number.
"Hello, Dr. Hyuuga. Ms. Sakura is here to see you." She spoke quickly and then hung up after a few minutes.
"Dr. Hyuuga said you may go in." The secretary smiled and then went back in typing on her computer.
Mikan smiled back but it only lasted for a second and then she zoomed into Natsume's office.
"NATSUME!" Mikan screeched as she banged open his clinic door.
Natsume's crimson eyes lazily left his computer and stared at his girlfriend, standing at the door and face pale.
"I didn't expect you, of all people, to get sick. Your body's like a cow." He said mockingly and then stood up.
Mikan's face immediately went red, though not as red as it would be when she's not this pale, and was ready to scream at him.
"Tell me what's wrong then." He said coldly and motioned her over to the chair.
"I have a fish bone stuck in my throat! It hurts, Natsume. Do I need to get surgery? Will I die? Will I lose my voice? Will—" Natsume rolled his eyes and cut her off.
"Just shut up and open your damn mouth." He ordered and she complied.
She opened her mouth and he put a small magnifier in her throat and examined it.
Right there, was a tiny fish bone, as skinny as a piece of hair but amazingly sharp, deeper than he thought but he could still see it.
He took a small metal gun-like thing and sprayed some narcotic into her throat
Mikan flinched a little from the sudden liquid sprayed into her mouth.
"Wait a little, okay. Don't talk." Natsume ordered and then went back to typing on his computer.
Mikan obeyed, afraid what will happen to her if she disobeyed the doctor.
After about 5 minutes, Natsume stood up calmly and then told Mikan to open her mouth again.
She did and this time, she couldn't feel anything in her throat.
He pulled out a tremendously long and thin tweezer.
Mikan's face went immediately pale.
"Don't worry." He gave her a small smile and told her to hold still.
He slowly put the tweezer into her throat, careful not to hurt her and pulled out the fishbone heedfully.
Sensing that the tweezer is no longer in her throat, she spoke quickly.
"Is it out? Am I ok? Is there more? Will I—"
"It's right here you idiot." He said impatiently, showing her the tiny bone on the tweezers.
"Thank goodness! You don't know how scared I was. I was completely freaking out—
"For Heaven's sakes—"
"—And you know, I almost cried. I didn't know what to do—"
"—shut up!" Natsume messaged his forehead while trying to shut her annoying girlfriend.
Mikan didn't even realize his growing irritation and continued to blabber on what happened just now and how scared she was.
He grabbed her by her shoulders and then roughly pulled her lips to his.
Her eyes grew wide but closed them afterwards and hooked her arms around his neck.
They broke apart minutes after, out of breath.
"Honestly. Once in a while getting a fish bone stuck in your throat isn't that bad."
Mikan smiled sweetly.
"Can I continue talking then?"
Natsume's face quickly fell.
"I would rather skip to the kissing part." Then he kissed her again gently.
Yesterday I actually got a fish bone stuck in my throat. I drank coke and ate rice but nothing worked. I was actually really scared and I was soooo close in crying. I went to the doctor and she said that she can't see the bone. She said that it might be a scratch when a fish bone went down and gave me some medicine saying that if it's not better tomorrow morning than I have to go back to the doctor without eating anything and get a x-ray or something. If the bone was too deep, then I would get a (shiver) surgery.
Today morning I 'think' my throat was a teeny weeny bit better, maybe 0.00001% better than yesterday. I told my parents that and my dad was really nice and told me that if it was a small bone it would go away over time and if it was big I would choke to death and not be able to eat anything (which I was able to do.) My mom however, was mean and told me that the bone would follow my bloodstream and then pierce my heart. Of course, she was joking but it freaked me out nonetheless.