“Let’s see…ah, here it is. It's on the fifth floor.”

  I smile up at my very tall husband who was looking at the building’s directory, “Okay. You know what that means, don't you?”

  He sighs as I push the silver button and the light comes on.

  “That we'll be taking the elevator. 40 years of marriage and you still bring that up every time. It isn't like I have ever made that mistake again.”

  The elevator opens and we get on it and I push the “5” button.

  I ugh as I put my hand on his, “Well, I like to think my teasing you about it keeps you on the straight and narrow.”

  “Yeah, yeah. You're lucky you're so cute.”

  I chuckle, “So are you.”

  He smiles, “ That's true.”

  There's a ding and the elevator opens. We exit the elevator and then follow the signs to room 517. When we get there, we find a door that says, “University of Tokyo Genetic Disorder Study.”

  Daiki nods, “This is it.” He opens the door for me and I go through and find a small sparsely decorated lobby with only one other woman in the waiting room. I walk up to the desk where there is a woman in her 20s.

  “Hello, I'm here for the study.”

  She nods, “Name?”

  “Matsuzaka.”

  She nods and then looks at Daiki. Her eyes briefly get very big, but then go back to her usual size. “A-and you're Mr. Matsuzaka?”

  “That's right.”

  She smiles, “Alright. You're both checked in. It looks like you both already filled out the questionnaire, so they should call you back soon.”

  “Thank you, young dy.”

  I turn around and see that Daiki found a rge bench to sit on. I was a little worried there wouldn’t be anywhere suitable for him, and he really needs it the way his knees are these days. I take a seat next to him.

  After a minute or so, I notice the other woman in the lobby is studying us. She's a small woman, probably even smaller than me. And her graying brown hair is in a ponytail. I would guess she is about 10 years younger than me.

  As she continues to stare, I'm about to say something to her. Before I can, she moves and sits across from us and says, “It's…Nagisa and Daiki, right?”

  Now that she's closer, I notice that her bright green eyes seem somewhat familiar, but I'm not sure who she is. I look to Daiki but he shrugs.

  I nod, “Y-yes.”

  The woman ughs, “It's okay if you two don't remember me. It's been like a million years. I probably wouldn't recognize you two either but I heard your st name and your husband is very recognizable.” She nods towards Daiki and then says, “I was a year behind you at Yamaku.” She points to her prosthetic legs.

  My husband says, “ Ohhh , of course. You're Emi Ibarazaki? The track star?”

  I only ever spoke with her a handful of times. The first time was when she was crying in the bathroom but wouldn't talk to me about it. And seemed to think no one could help her. We only exchanged pleasantries after that.

  I hope she has been okay.

  She nods with a grin on her face.

  “H-how have you been?”

  “Great! What brings you two here?”

  What a strange question. Isn't there only one reason we would be here?

  “Well…we're here…for the study.”

  She nods, “I see, I see. You have a genetic condition?”

  I nod, “HIDS.”

  “I have no idea what that is. However , I'm sure my daughter does.”

  “Daughter?”

  “Yeah, I'm here to meet her for lunch.”

  Daiki sounds exasperated and says, “What does your daughter have to do with this?”

  “Oh. Silly me. Not doing a very good job bragging, am I?” She grabs a questionnaire that's on one of the clipboards in the lobby and hands it to me before pointing at the professor’s name who is running this b. “It's her b that is doing the study. She's a professor and researcher here.”

  I look at the questionnaire, “Kayoko Nakai-Yoshida?”

  Emi nods, “That's right.”

  I say the name out loud because it sounds so familiar, “Nakai…”

  “Yep. That's my te husband's family name. He was a Yamaku alum too. You wouldn't have known him, though. He transferred in after you two graduated.”

  I clench my eyes shut, feeling like something about the name rings a bell, but I can’t quite figure it out, “But it…sounds…familiar. Nakai…”

  Emi raises an eyebrow at me and narrows her eyes, “Were you friends with Saki? Or maybe Chisato?”

  “Saki. Yes.” I turn to my husband, “Oh!”

  Daiki nods, “Nakai was her husband's name. We met him at the wedding.” He frowns, “And… again at her funeral.”

  He was a very nice man. He was having such a hard time after he lost her. I wanted to offer to help him, but Chisato knew him so much better than I did and she seemed to have it covered.

  “I-is he…was he…the same Nakai?”

  Emi smiles with some sadness in her eyes, “He was. I'm gd you met him.”

  “I-I'm sorry you lost him. When was it?”

  She thinks for a moment, “It's been…15 years now.”

  I say, “A-nd…your daughter. Her name-”

  Emi smiles, “Yep, she's named after that Kayoko.”

  I smile, “That's just…wonderful.”

  The person working the front desk calls my name.

  Emi smiles, “Come on. I'll introduce you to her.”

  Emi leads the way, clearly knowing exactly where her daughter will be. Eventually, we get to a small room where there is a woman seated at a computer and a small reclining chair.

  “Kayoko, sweetie. There's two people I want you to meet.”

  Kayoko is a tall woman with beautiful long dark hair and brown eyes. She also has a figure that rivals Chiyo. She’s wearing some sort of athletic braces on her wrists. Maybe she takes after her mother athletically. Although, she doesn't seem to take after her in any other way.

  Kayoko sighs, “Mom, why are you even back here? You really shouldn’t be. This is private.”

  I chuckle, “We don’t mind.” Daiki nods towards Kayoko in confirmation.

  She nods, “Okay then. But why are you here in the first pce, mom?”

  “Oh…you know, we’re meeting for lunch!”

  Kayoko looks at her watch, “Yeah, in an hour . You got bored again didn't you? You're like… the worst retired person ever. Just rex , okay?”

  Emi pouts, “I am rexed!”

  Hard to tell who is the mother and who is the daughter.

  Kayoko sighs, “Fine, whatever.” She looks at us, her eyes lingering for a moment on Daiki. Something the both of us are quite familiar with by now. “So, you two have the misfortune of knowing my mom, huh?”

  I ugh, “A l-little. We went to high school with her.”

  Emi nods, “They were a year ahead. Nagisa helped me a bit when I was in a bad pce once. And this guy is Daiki - her big strapping husband.”

  Kayoko looks embarrassed by her mother. She rolls her eyes and then says, “You're both getting your blood drawn for the study?”

  Daiki replies, “Yes. I'm honestly not sure whether my condition is genetic, but I didn't think it could hurt having my DNA.”

  Kayoko nods and smiles as her eyes scan her computer screen, “Sometimes acromegaly is genetic, although not usually.” She looks up from her screen and smiles, “Part of the goal here is to identify conditions that weren't previously known as genetic, so I'm very happy you're participating.”

  She turns to me and says, “HIDS, huh? That's a rare one. I don't have any other participants who have it. You're doing me a big favor.”

  I nod, “Y-yes. Our daughter has it too. And two of our grandchildren. I was hoping…maybe someday there would be a cure.”

  Kayoko smiles, “That's what I'm working towards.” She furrows her brow, “Maybe…in your granddaughter's lifetime we can pull that off. Fingers crossed.”

  Daiki responds with another big smile, “That would be great.”

  Kayoko nods, “So, before I take your blood, let me just tell you a little more about what we're doing here. The goal is to create a library of genetic conditions and where in the human genome the mutations that create them appear. This will make it easier to come up with gene editing treatments for different conditions. And…that could all mean cures one day.”

  I nod, “Well…I'm ready to do what I can.”

  Kayoko leads me over to a chair, where I can recline.

  She smiles as she puts a tourniquet on my arm and starts prodding my arm, “Genetics of the immune system are really tricky. Usually a whole bunch of genes are involved. But…I think someday we’ll figure it out.” She stops for a moment to grab a needle, “Get ready for a stick.” I nod, and wince a little when I feel the needle go in, but once she starts drawing blood into a vial, I don’t really feel it any more. Then she removes the tourniquet, puts a cotton swab over the injection sight, and then a bandage.

  She shakes the vial of my blood, “This should help.” When she shakes the vial, I notice her wrist brace again.

  Those probably aren't athletic braces. Why would she have them on right now?

  “D-do you…have a genetic condition, too?”

  “I do. Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, the hypermobile type.” She taps on her wrist brace, “These keep my joints in pce better than my body does. That’s part of the reason I’m in this business. Me and lots of people important to me have genetic conditions. Some of them…passed away way too early.”

  In a somber tone Emi says, “Sweetie…she knew Saki. And they met your father a couple of times.”

  Kayoko raises her eyebrows and smiles, “Really?”

  I nod, “Saki and I were friends.” I remember back to that day in the band room. The day when I started to think of her as my friend, and as someone who could rete to my health issues more than most. “We…both had bodies that betrayed us. A-as she once put it.”

  I didn't know then that her condition was fatal. Sometimes I feel a little guilty for thinking we were in the same boat.

  Kayoko smiles, “It’s always nice hearing new stories about her. She's kind of like…an honorary parent to me. I never knew her, of course. But she was important to my dad so…she's important to me too.”

  I get up from the reclining chair and then Kayoko turns to my husband with a worried look on her face. He chuckles, “It's okay. This is a small room, you can't exactly have a me-sized recliner in here.” He rolls up his sleeve and extends his arm, “Will this work?”

  She smiles, “Yep, that’ll work.”

  She puts a tourniquet around his arm and starts to feel his vein. As she does, Daiki asks, “Your father was a scientist, wasn't he? I recall having a conversation with him about solid-state physics at the wedding.”

  Emi scoffs and shakes her head, “Sounds about right.”

  Kayoko ughs, “Yeah, he was. He's who got me interested in it. What do you do? If you were having a conversation like that you must be in science too.”

  “Science adjacent, anyway. I'm a retired civil engineer. So I'm pretty good with physics. Don't know much about genetics, I'm afraid.”

  She nods and warns him about the stick before drawing his blood into a vial. While she does, she says, “Well, that's pretty cool. We need bridges just as much as we need medical care, after all.”

  Just as she finishes drawing his blood, a young woman in her 30s knocks on the open door and comes in at Kayoko's invitation.

  She's a small woman, though not as small as Emi or me. She has brown hair in a bob simir to how I wore my hair when I was younger. She's wearing a purple and pink headband.

  Kayoko beams at her, and she smiles back. Just from how they look at eachother, I know they are in love.

  It always makes me smile to see two women in love, since it makes me think of Akane and Madoka.

  “Kari, come over here. Meet a couple Yamaku alums that knew my mom and dad. And Saki too!”

  Kari(?) smiles at us and Kayoko says, “This is my wife, Akari. She went to Yamaku, too. We fell in love there, like you two did. This is Nagisa and Daiki.”

  She nods, “Nice to meet you both.”

  Kayoko says, “It's always nice to meet another couple with a major size difference, huh Kari?”

  Akari looks disappointed in her wife, “You c-can't joke about that!”

  Daiki chuckles and takes my hand, “It's okay. We’ve heard it all by now. We don't mind.”

  I nod, “We know we look kind of silly together. But we don't care. We’re very secure in our love for one another. Size difference and all.”

  Akari uncrosses her arms, “Well…in that case…Yoko, there's no way you’re that much bigger than me.” She gestures towards us.

  Kayoko looks at Daiki and winks subtly. He winks back and says, “I don't know. I think it's about the same.”

  Akari’s jaw drops and Kayoko and Emi start cackling hysterically.

  I walk over to Akari and say, “It’s okay to be small, Akari.”

  She ughs, “I know. She’s been teasing me about it for 15 years now. I probably shouldn't let it get to me. Just makes her do it even more.”

  I smile, “Well, she's been with you this whole time. And I see how she looks at you. So she must like it.” I whisper, “I know Daiki does.”

  This makes Akari giggle.

  Kayoko pouts, “Hey, what are you two tiny people whispering about over there?”

  Akari ughs, “Oh, just that you like how small I am.”

  Kayoko's face reddens a little, “I-it's true. I do.”

  Akari smiles proudly and walks over to her wife. She puts her arms around her neck and they share a quick kiss before they smile at each other.

  Then Kayoko smiles at Daiki and I and asks, “Would you two want to come to lunch with us? I'd love to hear some more Saki stories. It sounds like you knew her even before my dad did.”

  I look at Daiki and I can tell from his face that he'd like to do this just as much as I would.

  I smile, “Sure. That would be great.”

  Saki would be very proud that this woman she never met looks up to her so much. And she'd love her name, too.

  Author's Note:

  And Yamaku: The Pce Where Dreams Come True is now complete on Scribblehub!

  Akari and Kayoko are OCs from another fic of mine that is currently up elsewhere on the internet. The same is true of a story about Hisao and Emi ending up together in their 30s. I'll be adding both of them here at some point.

  Thanks to all who have read this and any of my stories. It means the world to me that there are people out there enjoying these.