First, we roll it into a ball.

Then, we press the bottom of the glass on the ball of dough.

We count one, two, three, four.

Now lift the glass up, darling.

Perfect.

The cookies now have a snowflake on them.

You say that they don't look like snowflakes?

Well, Ami, what do they look like to you?

You say they look like flowers?

Maybe it's a crystalized star?

We both agree that they look like stars.

I like to imagine them as stars that shine their brilliance down

upon us.

Just like Ami.

The perfect little daughter that will study her hardest to become

a doctor.

Just like me.

We had no cookie cutters.

So, I convinced Ami to use the bottom of the glass for a pretty

design.

And it worked wonderfully.

That was one of the few memories where I spent some time with

Ami.

I never seem to spend enough time with her recently.

And sometimes, her father would up and leave without any warning.

Leaving Ami alone in the house at the tender age of ten.

Now, Ami has no father.

She's always alone at our home all the time now.

But, I know that Ami can take care of herself.

I've always known that she could.

For the longest time, she isolated herself from the world.

Just like I did.

Until I met a certain artist.

He drew me out of my bubble and into the real world.

I married that artist.

And in the end, he divorced me.

He was in love with nature.

He loved the beauty of it far more than the city.

Which he considered as a dismal wasteland.

I didn't want Ami to be drawn out of that bubble by someone that

would be a bad influence on her.

I'm glad that it was Tsukino-san.

She drew Ami out of her bubble of books, homework, and studying.

She's now learning to have fun.

She was in one of the best schools in the country.

And in desperation, I had her transfer to another school.

I feared that she would isolate herself from the world.

Once she started that new school, everything changed for her.

She made some friends at her new school.

Before that, she was angry for being taken out of her old school.

I told her that everything would be okay for her.

And I'm glad that I did that.

Since then, she's been happier there than at her old school.

I'm glad that she's happy.

I'm also glad that she's not alone.

And she graduated high school at the top of her class.

Now, the apartment is always empty.

Ami had moved out a few days ago.

She's an adult now.

She knocks on my door softly.

I'm sitting here, eating some cookies that Ami and I made today.

She comes in here to remind me that I should be in the ER.

And that I should be helping out the sick.

She smiles at me as she takes a cookie.

Now, we're both sitting here, indulging in the cookies that we

made together.

Ignoring our duties as doctors.

Even though every second counts when it comes to our medical

profession.

At the moment, we're not doctors.

We're a mother and a daughter, enjoying cookies together.

These cookies taste so sweet and have lots of sugar in them.

Just like my life.

That's not a good thing.