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Chapter 49: Her Day

"Yes, we'll always be friends, Chifuyu."

The sound of her cellphone slowly awakened the sleeping doctor. As she flickered her eyes open, she felt her neck has stiffened and now it hurts a little. She gently lifted her head and massaged her back while looking around. She noticed a text message and opened it.

'Make sure you come, Yuki-chan. I'll see you later.'

As she read that, she checked the time and it's already 4 o'clock in the afternoon. She started to prepare her things to get ready to go home. Her secretary is not around currently. She asked for a short leave due to a personal matter. Thus, she had no choice today but to deal with everything on her own.

It's the last week of June, exactly one week has passed ever since she saw Chifuyu, but she's still being haunted in her dreams how she got rejected before. To be honest, she has been sleep-deprived and her being unready to face him again this afternoon in Kaori's birthday party and dinner, is not helping at all.

As soon as she prepared everything, she walked out of her office and into the elevator. She pressed '2' but before it closed, another doctor managed to enter with her.

"Somebody's not looking good." Was what her company has said. She sighed first.

"And not in the mood to listen to you meddling with my business, Dr. Hanami." She replied. The pesky company of hers in this not-so-perfect time is none other than the insecure fellow doctor of hers, Ria Hanami.

"Hmm, intriguing." The older female replied with a smirk. Clearly, she's amazed and happy to see her competition, Yukino, currently not in her calm self and best condition. She took this opportunity to pester the brunette more.

"And annoying." Was what she last said before stepping out of the elevator, leaving her roasted fellow in complete silence.

Yukino has always been an empath, kind, and compassionate person. But due to that nature of hers, she also developed a certain aspect that she does best: using other's words well against them.

She boarded a taxi and went straight home.

The party is at 7 o'clock so she thought to prepare mochi, her friend's favorite. She started to setup the ingredients and prepared the dough. Once she's done, she put them gently on a stainless pan and put them inside the oven. She set the time and decided to rest on her sofa. She stared at the ceiling while waiting for the mochi to fully cook. Just a few more steps and she's done.

She looked at the clock. It's only 5:30. She has plenty of time. Thus, she stared at the ceiling again. Without realizing it, her consciousness escaped her mind.

Her senses were tickled when she smells something weird and burnt inside her home.

"...Yukino...something smells like--- Shit!"

She was literally startled when she hears a voice on the second floor. As soon as she heard what he just said, she immediately turned to her kitchen. Smoke is almost filling the whole floor and it made her almost run towards her oven which is the cause. As fear overlapped her mind, she opened the appliance without thinking, and so...

"Oww!" she almost screamed when she felt extreme heat coming from the handle.

"Get away! I'll handle it!" she sees the way the man took his jacket off, turned off the machine, and quickly took out the pan inside, which is now dark as well as its content.