Mei and Yuzu had gotten married a little over 4 years ago during the winter.

One of the requirements in order for Mei to take over for her grandfather, was that she was required to have a Master's degree in Higher Education. It did not matter to the board that she had trained since early childhood for the position, what mattered is that she was qualified without having the proper paperwork. One of the biggest reasons for this rule is that so, should in under any circumstance the school have to go to court, Mei would not look like a random woman whom held a position of power in a school community setting without the proper training to do so. Something as minuet as that could cost her not only the case, but the entire academy. So it came as no surprise to either Mei nor to a Mr. Sanaka, who was a retired right hand trustee of her grandfathers, that upon his death, Mr. Aihara senior left the academy under Mr. Sanaka so that he could work as a surrogate until the time came for Mei to finish her schooling and take over.

Unfortunately for our lovely couple, this meant that Mei was stuck attending the university for 6 years, or 5 if she worked her ass off, and Yuzu would have to deal with nights where Mei was physically there but not at the same time do to studying for an exam, writing an essay, or preparing a presentation. Most of the nights Yuzu was fine with it, having been used to Mei being that way for years, and would entertain herself watching some TV which normally resulted in her falling asleep on the couch to some game show about a woman being dunked in some sort of edible liquid substance for the amusement of the greater population. However, there were the random and rare nights where Yuzu had a bad day at work and would come home needing the comfort of her wife who was busy, or worse, not home yet due to study group.

One night a couple of months into their marriage, a moment like that took place, and it would end up being one of the worst days ever for the two of them.

Yuzu had gotten home way earlier then expected and due to leaving the house in a rush, had not packed an umbrella with her. This resulted in her getting drenched in the summer downpour she had heard about on the news that was going to happen, and which did happen just as she began her walk home. 'I really need this day to end already' she thought, taking off her shoes and socks and sighing heavily just thinking about the events of the day so far.

"Mei?! You home?" she shouted hoping to get a response from the person she needed right now, but not shocked at all when none came. It was 1pm, Mei would be in class, and the dark haired woman never missed a class unless it was something more important to her then her future career and lifetime goal. Which 'anything wrong with Yuzu' would fall into that category for Mei, but that random piece of information always went unnoticed by the blonde. Yuzu religiously believed that she meant less to Mei then what she really did, so because of this she didn't bother to text her that she was depressed and home. She instead texted her friend Harumin, but unfortunately unlike Yuzu, Harumin was still at work and not allowed to even have a phone out until her break time. It would be hours before Harumin would see that text.

In need of a distraction, Yuzu decided that she might as well take this time to go run an errand and stock up on some groceries, since everyone she knew was busy. Even her mother would be at work at this time. So she took a shower to warm up, got redressed into more comfy clothes, and left for the bigger market that was further away from their house but where the food was more fresh. She figured she might as well since she had a lot of time to kill, and since she hadn't planned on buying much, a bus ride there and back wouldn't be that much of a bother.

On the way there her phone vibrated and Yuzu quickly opened it to read a text from Mei: "In between class now, just wanted to say love you. Sry bout last night, I should have finished before it was that late. I'll make it up to you tonight. I'll treat you to something and then treat myself to you :wink: Or you can have dibs on top if you want, I'll behave I promise :3 Don't work to hard, I'll see you soon."

Yuzu smiled even though her eyes contradicted her lips by instantly tearing. She began to write the words 'I got fired' along with 'I'm sorry' and 'please don't be mad' but instead of hitting send, she hesitated. She didn't want to distract Mei while the woman was still in class and start a long conversation that may result in the dark haired woman getting mad. Instead she closed her phone and sighed whilst looking out the window. Snap out of it. It's not the end of the world she thought, looking at the drops of rain hit the window and pavement. She was the only one on the bus right now, aside from the driver, and she was enjoying the sound of the wipers swooshing back and forth rapidly, along with the rain droplets hitting the windows. The driver had on the news through the speakers, which was going on about an event at a local village not to far from where they lived, but knew neither her nor Mei would be interested in attending.

She felt herself close her eyes in a peaceful manner, where she became completely engulfed by her present, and not stressing about the past or what was going to happen later. It was then that she suddenly felt the bus pivot, and snapping her eyes open, she seen the bus man turn the wheel rapidly. The bus jolted to the side and a massive sound of a horn overshadowed the sound of the radio. Yuzu let out a small scream as the bus fell on its left side, opposite side to Yuzu, and she went flying instantly due to her not haven't worn her seat belt, even though the multiple signs all over told her to do so. She slammed her hip on the edge of the row of seats before her shoulder landed against the metal of the bus side. Gripping onto the handle on top of seat for dear life, she avoided a more major injury that would have occurred had she had not done so, but by the end of the whole ordeal she was left covered in cuts and in massive pain. She saw white spots flashing around and she felt as though her vision was out of focus.

It would take officials hours to contact Mei, which Yuzu was hugely to blame for. On file Mrs. Yuzu Aihara was married but didn't have an emergency contact listed seeing how she was supposed to do that upon changing her maiden name, which she never did. She just thought, 'hey my name is Aihara still, so that saves me the work.' So then officials moved over to seek the the emergency contact info she listed by her former employer, but her job also had the wrong numbers. Yuzu never updated the emergency contact info after Mei changed her mobile number a couple of weeks back, and as secondary contact she put down her own cell phone due to at times her and Mei would swap phones when Yuzu's phone was almost dead and she had to be at work. So, the police kept calling Mrs. Aihara's secondary number too, which was Yuzu's cell phone, and it also wasn't in service do to the accident.

However in Yuzu's defense, if the courts had gotten everything right to begin with, Yuzu would had appeared on file as both her maiden name which was her father's surname and her married name which was Aihara, and they would had contacted her mother. So in the end as always, it was the legal system that messed everything up. Or at least, that is what Yuzu's defense for the whole mix up would be.

Later on, because of the whole disaster, Mei and Yuzu's parents would end up buying them a house phone as a Christmas present, with a note that would read 'use a house line as a contact info. You're welcome.'

When Mei got home, it was dark and quiet. She had not expected Yuzu to not respond to her earlier text but seeing the empty house she believed that Yuzu was mad at her. She called Yuzu and it went straight to voice mailbox. "Of course, why would your phone not be dead" she said more to herself before she thought of calling Yuzu's job even though according from what she knew, Yuzu would had gotten off 3 hours ago. Unfortunately the girl who picked up had not known about Yuzu getting fired and responded to Mei's question as, "no I don't think Yuzu worked today, I haven't seen her. Sorry sweetie." Now Mei got worried. Where was Yuzu? When she called her mother there was no answer, which was the normal for that house as Ume rarely worked less then 12 hour shifts. So the next person Mei thought of was either Matsuri or Harumin. Luckily for her the two had been in a long term relationship so catching one meant you caught both.

"Hello Harumin? Hey it's Mei. Listen, have you or Matsuri heard from Yuzu? Her phone is dead and I haven't been able to reach her."

"No Mei, I haven't heard from her since this afternoon when she sent me a weird text."

" Afternoon text?" Mei question confusingly. Yuzu had ignored her but texted Harumin instead, so immediately Mei made the assumption that Yuzu was ignoring her, without knowing that Yuzu had sent that to Harumin way before Mei's text.

"Yea something to do with her hating people and you going to be mad at her? Not sure, she sounded upset but she got me right after lunch so I wasn't able to reply. I texted her back but got nothing. Oh! Matsuri just said she dropped by Yuzu's job earlier and that the fat perky woman there..you know the one with-"

"Yea Yuzu's boss, what about?" Mei cut her off not really caring to hear more detail and wanting the point.

"Yea her. She fired Yuzu. She apparently burned a customer with a curling iron. Ouch! Either way I wouldn't worry about it Mei. I'll keep trying to reach her, but you know Yuzu, she's probably walking around applying to other places with a dead phone."

"Yea," Mei said still worried, "well thanks anyway. You two take care."

"Same, bye bye."

Mei sat on the couch and turned on the tv, which fell on the news channel that Yuzu had watched in the mornings for the weather. 'So she hasn't been here all day to turn on tv?' Mei thought, knowing that Yuzu normally watched a Korean drama when she came home at 4. The news kept talking about a bus crash, but it fell on deaf ears. At that time Mei never would had pieced together that Yuzu would be on that bus. She sat there starring without blinking, thinking about Yuzu, phoning her, and pacing back and forth. Every 5 minutes that went by, seemed like 5 hours. She kept trying to calm herself down, even though her anxiety had taken over pretty harshly.

About an hour later, Mei received a called from a number she only had saved on her phone from the days where her grandfather had fallen ill. Hospital.

Her heart skipped beats and while she picked up the call, she was already rushing out. She didn't bother to lock the front door or call for the driver to pick her up. She just started running towards the building that was a few blocks away; the tears and small rain drizzle blurring her vision.

In her ear was the phone with the nurse, "Hello Mrs. Mei Aihara? I'm calling from City Hospital. Your wife, a Mrs. Yuzu Aihara, was involved in a city accident. The doctors will have more details and condition of patient for you once you arrive if you can please make your way here as soon as possible?"

Mei lowered the phone from her ear, and kept running while panting heavily. In her mind she kept repeating 'Yuzu' over and over again, as if by chanting the name was making her run faster.