2 years later

Amane sat on her living room couch, feet on the coffee table next to last month's issue of Glamour and a half-empty cup of Earl Grey tea, and phone in hand. "Amane..." a voice spoke through the phone. Resurrected from her temporary state of shock, she replied "...yeah?" "Did you hear what i just said?" the voice replied back. She did, in fact, remember clearly, it just took awhile for her brain to register what she had just heard. "...what did you say again?" she then spoke back. "Akaya is returning...and we're having a get-together for him...can you make it?" "Erm...yeah...sure," she replied, mind now feeling less fuzzy from the previous mind block.

After hanging up, she stood in front of her closet deciding what to wear. "It's nothing special...i mean....it's just Akaya...right??? nothing happened between us...in fact nothing even was there....it's all in my head...all in my head...all in...." she recalled the previous scene where she had last met him in the airport, 2 years ago

[flashback]
Akane : promise you wont forget me....
Akaya : i promise.....
[/flashback]

She fought to control her tears after recalling that moment, the emotions that went through her, and how she spent the next 2 weeks crying over him, desperately trying to keep in touch. After that she generally just stopped answering his calls, and that included listening to his voice mail. Soon after the calls just stopped coming, her email inbox became empty, and her tape recorder never been used. She basically cut off any and all relations with him.

She still remembered the first phone conversation she had with him 2 days after his depart for England. They spent hours on the phone, talking about conditions, family and friends. They did everything they could not to talk about anything relationship-orientated. Soon they just ran out of things to talk about, and started ending up in awkward phone conversations. Pretty soon they just...stopped talking. Sure, an email now and then for occasions such as Christmas, Birthdays and New Years, but never for Valentines. She was fine with it though, the less she communicated with him, the easier it was for her to move on with life.

She slipped on a random shirt, an old pair of jeans, her stiletto boots and headed to the restaurant that the gathering was being held at. The roads were covered with snow, so there was no hope of getting a cab in this weather. She then felt a drop on her nose, looked up to the sky and noticed it was snowing. Not that much of a blizzard but enough to make her wish she didnt leave her coat at home. No way she was going all the way back to get it now that she almost reached the restaurant. "Great...." she thought, " Just fucking great......" and continued her journey, her feet now killing her.

She then felt some sort of comfort, as if some really nice person up there was casting an invisible umbrella above her to protect her from the snow. She looked up but all she saw was black.....

"Need some help?" she heard a man's voice ask and thought it sounded strangely familiar. She turned around, fearing for the worst, but instead....

"Akaya........"