Hello everybody! Finally the 7 chapter is on! Sorry the late of this, It was because I was looking for a beta, like some people have asked for me to ^_^ My friend Kin756894 done it for me and I really grateful for that. Thanks Kin! Hope you guys will like to read more this fanfic now. It's not very far to be done, more three of four chapters and this end. And for those who are very curious about Yumi's life in America, I will write what happened to her in the next chapter in the same way I've done with Sachiko in the second chapter. Anyway, here it is, thanks for still reading it.
Even After Years, I Still Love You
"Sachiko…"
"Who are you?" The woman with sapphire eyes asked surprised. Yumi blinked, confused, looking at the woman in the bed.
"What…? Sachiko?" Yumi asked and then the doctor entered in the hospital room, putting his hands on Yumi shoulders and looking at the woman in the bed.
"I'm sorry, Miss Ogasawara, to disturb you. Don't worry, when the rest of your family arrives, we will tell them everything." He said and exited the room, dragging the woman with hazel eyes with him.
"I'm sorry, Yumi. I tried to tell you but you already disappeared in Sachiko's room." Sei said hugging the woman who looked at her, still confused.
"What did she mean when she said 'Who are you?' What happened here that I don't know yet?" Yumi asked while she seated herself on a chair in the waiting room.
"She doesn't know you." The doctor said, making everyone's attention turn to him, who was looking at the woman with hazel eyes, concern in his eyes. "I said that when she woke up, everything would be fine, and that in a few days she already would be free to go home… but I've made a mistake."
"Mistake?" Yumi asked and the doctor nodded. Looking at his face, the woman with hazel eyes immediately knew that she was going to hear something not very pleasant.
"Yes. I thought that she didn't receive grave injuries. I was right… until four hours ago, when Miss Ogasawara woke up and I discovered that her head was injured. Don't worry though; she's fine, like you have seen some minutes ago, but…. She lost her memories. Everything about her friends and family, including you."
"… Me?" Yumi whispered with wide eyes that once more started to let tears falls down the woman's face, while she looked at the ground in shock.
"Yes… I'm sorry about your soeur, Yumi-san. We don't know if she will have her memories back in a while or if this is permanent, but still, be patient with her now." The doctor finished.
Seconds after, Sachiko's mother along with Suguru and Touko arrived, and soon the doctor talked to them, explaining the situation. They looked over to Yumi with sad and concerned eyes before entering the hospital room where the woman with sapphire eyes waited for an explanation.
Touko was the only one who stayed behind with the others. She watched her relatives disappear behind the white door before it was closed. Then her eyes once more rested on Yumi who still had her head down, tears streaming down her cheeks, and looking at something passed the ground on her feet. She then seated herself by her onee-sama's side.
"…But … She lost her memories… Including you…"
"Who are you?"
The words echoed in Yumi's head again and again. She didn't understand her world anymore, or why she was in here in first place, if it was only to cause pain and suffering for her and the others who were still near in her life. All she wanted was to see them again—her family, her friends, her petit soeur, and even if she was afraid to do so, the only person who she allowed herself to love.
"… But, if you see that she lives happily in her life without you, then get away from her and don't try to kill that happiness. It's not right for you to do so… and it's the only way so both of you don't hurt yourselves anymore..."
She warned her in America, yet still Yumi, in the last moment, let herself approach the gorgeous woman with sapphire eyes once more, thinking that maybe she could have one more chance, the hope that even after years, she could be near to her soul-mate in the way she wanted to be. But now because of this error, the accident happened, and the love of her life forgot everything and everyone, including her.
"… Including you…"
She made the mistake, and now, she has to pay for it for both of them. The hope is gone, and the love that maybe, one day, the other woman could have for her, the little, innocent girl at Lillian and the confident woman of eight years after, was killed. She felt arms encircle her trembling form in a gentle and strong embrace. Yumi allowed herself to cry on her petit soeur's shoulder, not caring if it was in front of her friends.
"Onee-sama, don't worry. I'm sure that Sachiko-onee-sama will remember you and all of us again. She will." Touko whispered in the woman's ear while she embraced her in a strong but still gentle way.
The two sisters stayed that way. The woman with hazel eyes had already lost her sense of time, just letting her arms embrace the other woman. With time her cries turned into sobs, and Touko moved away a little to look at her Onee-sama face, then, helping the other woman clean away what was left of the tears.
"Yumi-chan, Touko-chan." The two heard Suguru's voice calling them, and when Yumi looked at him he smiled softly and continued. "Touko-chan, go see Sa-chan now before you can't anymore."
"Alright." The woman said, nodding, and after she smiled gently to her Onee-sama, she let Yumi go and stood up, entering the room where Sachiko was and closing the door behind her.
"Yumi-chan, go wash your face." He said softly, and the woman just nodded and exited the waiting room to enter the women's bathroom.
Yumi looked at herself the mirror. Her normally pale skin was now flushed from recently crying, and her hazel eyes were shining with emotions. Her hands then reached the cold water and after some seconds of just enjoying the sensation, she cleaned her face and once more come back to the waiting room. Her friends, along with Suguru and Sachiko's mother, looked at her and Yumi let her eyes rest on Touko that was leaned on the wall on the door side.
"Go to her, Onee-sama." She said smiling and Yumi opened the door, whispering to her petit soeur before she closed it.
"Thank you, Touko."
Yumi looked at the familiar room where many times before she slept in, hoping to God to see her love once more open her eyes and smile at her, but then she put that aside and looked at the woman who was in the bed, looking at her with apologizing eyes.
"I sorry for the way that I've acted." She speaks and the woman with hazel eyes seated on a chair not very far from the bed, smiling softly.
"It's alright; I just was not expecting you to forget me after that accident." Yumi said, looking down, whispering. "It was my fault for you to be this way."
"No, I think that it was mine, too. After all, they said to me that we were walking in the middle of the street, talking, without looking around." Sachiko answered, smiling softly.
"How much did they tell you about me?" Yumi asked, looking at those beautiful sapphire eyes. They were still shining as always, but no longer held that special way that Sachiko always looked at Yumi before. Now, it was as if the woman with hazel eyes was just one more person in her life, and it felt like a sword was slowly and painful being put through Yumi's heart.
"Not much, to tell the truth. They just said that you were my sister, but you don't belong to the Ogasawara family. I don't understand very well what they meant..." The other woman said confused, looking at Yumi with questioning eyes, looking for an answer.
"It's a little hard to explain..." Yumi began while she was thinking. "It was ten years ago, you and I were students in a Catholic school named Lillian. There, the students of the second and third year always help the students of the first year, explaining the rules and everything about the school. But then, there is something that goes farther than just explaining rules or friendship relationships. It's the soeur relationship."
"Soeur?" The other woman asked, looking at Yumi who nodded. All the attention of those sapphire eyes were on her now.
"The soeur relationship is made by rosaries. When a student gives her rosary to another student, they officially become sisters, the Grand soeur and the Petit soeur. This relationship officially continues until the Grand soeur graduates in the third year… or until the petit soeur decides to break the sisterly bond and gives back the rosary to her Grand Soeur."
"It seems painful…" Sachiko said and Yumi nodded, smiling gently.
"It is… but, it is something that doesn't happen frequently. The majority relationship between sisters becomes so strong that even after the both of them graduate, they still share the same sisterly relationship after years and years." Yumi said, looking at the ground. "The majority of the rosary ceremony, the one about giving your rosary, is made between second and first years."
"I see…" Sachiko whispered and the room fell into silence, before the woman with sapphire eyes looked at Yumi curiosity. "You were my sister?"
"Yes… I was your petit soeur and you were my grand soeur." Yumi answered, looking back at Sachiko.
"How…" Sachiko started and Yumi smiled, nodding in her direction, asking silently for the other woman to continue with her question. "… How did we meet?"
"It was an accident. Even if there are various rosaries, only three distinguished of all, and the people who used them were considered the example of a soeur relationship in the entire school. Those who wear the three rosaries where considered as a family, and the leaders, the third year students I mean, where called Rosa Gigantea, Rosa Foetida and Rosa Chinensis. Each name was one of the three rosaries. Their petit soeur's where called Rosa Gigantea en bouton, Rosa Foetida en bouton and Rosa Chinensis en bouton, and their petit soeur's were called Rosa Gigantea en bouton petit soeur, and the rest you already could know." Yumi said laughing a little. "Well, you were the famous second year Sachiko Ogasawara, the Rosa Chinensis en bouton, and I was the simple and distracted first year, Yumi Fukuzawa, who happened to come to school with my crooked scarf and encounter you."
"It doesn't seem to be a noticeable accident." Sachiko said smiling.
"Maybe, until you arranged my scarf and disappeared in the building. Then I discovered that someone took a picture of it and said that if I wanted her to give the picture to me, I needed your permission to put it… somewhere that I really don't remember now." Yumi said and Sachiko laughs a little. "Well… I was one of your many fan girls, then we decided to go where the Roses and en boutons meet; The Rose Mansion. We bump into each other at the door when you decided to find a petit soeur so you wouldn't have the part of Cinderella in that years play. You decided to take me because I didn't have a grand soeur yet, but I didn't accept it, and then the Roses decided to make a bet."
"A bet?! In a situation like that?" Sachiko asked surprised while Yumi laughs, nodding.
"You didn't like men at the time, and your cousin was the prince. The Roses said that if you succeed in making me your petit soeur, you were free from the play. But if I accepted your rosary, then I would have had to take your place as Cinderella." Yumi answered, letting the good memories once more come back to her mind. "Well, we pass by each other sometime and after a little fight with your cousin I decided to accept your rosary so you would not have to be in the play, but you don't give it to me and became Cinderella in the play. I thought that everything about the Roses was now over, but then you called me and offered the Chinensis rosary to me because you actually wanted me to be your petit soeur, not because of the bet. So I accepted it."
"So then we are sisters?" Yumi nodded and Sachiko smiles, making the other woman smile too. "My cousin, Touko, mentioned something about her Onee-sama. She was a student in Lillian, too?"
"Yes, she was. A short time before you graduated, I give the Chinensis rosary to her; she was my petit soeur. She too did not accept my rosary at first, like you and I, but I was a little insistent. I really wanted her as my petit soeur, and I did never regret giving my rosary to her." Yumi said looking at the door where probably everyone was still waiting on the outside.
"And what happened to the three of us?" Sachiko asked, regaining those beautiful hazel eyes back on her face.
"Your father and grandfather wanted you and your cousin, Suguru-san, to marry. You both did, but after their deaths you two divorced. Touko mentioned one day something about "commanding a company." … Sorry, I didn't really listen at the time. I still need to talk to her about what happened in those eight years that I was away from Japan ."
"Away? What do you mean?" Sachiko asked confused. Yumi sighed softly.
"I left Japan to live in America after your marriage with Suguru-san, Sachiko." Yumi answered, standing up, making the other woman look at her with curiosity.
"Why?"
"It's… something very complicated. You won't understand in this situation." Yumi said and before the woman in the bed could say something to protest, Yumi continued. "There are some friends of both of us that also wanted to talk with you. Let's talk about it another day."
Sachiko fell into silence, looking at the woman with hazel eyes, before reluctantly nodded at her. She wanted to know more about the mysterious woman. It's like something was missing besides her memory, something better and very important, but both of them knew that it wasn't the time. Before the other woman exited the room, Sachiko spoke softly.
"Thank you, Yumi."
Yumi didn't stop to look back at the woman in the bed because she knows that if she does, she would be lost in those deep and beautiful sapphire eyes, and then starting to search her lost love. Her friends that were waiting on the outside entered the room to talk with Sachiko while Yumi heard her cellular go off. She picks up the phone and after she entered the bathroom again she looked at the visor, before pressing a button and speaking in English.
"Angeline Bitencourt speaking."
"Hey Angel! It's me again!" The voice in the other side said cheerfully.
"Richard, what's up?" Yumi said leaning against the wall.
"You know what day is it, don't you? It's almost the concert day! You have to come back to America to replace Sophie! You are the only one who can do this and remember, you promised!"
"Yes, I remember. I promise to do this in her memory."
"Yeah, we will need at least one week to practice with everyone. We need you here to start so I was planning to go to Japan in three days to pick you up. What do you think?"
"Yeah, sure. Why not?" Yumi answered, looking at the mirror again.
"So that's it! I will be there on Wednesday morning and we can go back to America together in the afternoon! See you then, Angel!" The phone went silent and Yumi put it back on the place.
"Back to America ...?" Yumi whispered with a sad look on her face, still looking at the mirror where the famous American violinist Angeline Bitencourt looked back at her.
