Maki poured over the piano, not caring that it was already 2 in the morning. She didn’t have work that day anyways. The melody was beautiful yet one who’d hear it could sense the growing frustration of the person who was playing. With an awkward note Maki ended the random song she was playing. Gah she wanted to kill Tomohisa!

“Ah finally you finished...” A head popped up inside the room whereas Maki turned her head only to look away again.

“What are you doing here…” Maki wasn’t really questioning since she decided that the black and white piano keys were far more interesting than Tomohisa right now. She heard him pad across the room until she could see from the corner of her eye how he leaned his arm on the piano.

“I went to get a drink of water when I heard you playing…”

It was quiet for a while, no one really saying anything… until Maki snapped. “Why’d you have to say that?!”

There was a hint of surprise in Tomohisa’s face but he kept the same stoic face. “What, you being my fiancée? Why? Sad that Mukai fellow won’t go for you anymore?”

Maki answered the man with a glare before standing up from the piano then heading to the one seater beside the bookshelf. “It’s not that…”

“Oh? Then what is it?” Tomohisa followed her, leaning an elbow on one of the bookshelf’s landings. “You didn’t react when Kazuya introduced Jin as Meisa’s boyfriend.”

“Because that bit is true…” Maki looked away from him because no matter how mad she was with him, she still couldn’t resist those looks he gave her as if he was actually longing and that was what he was doing right now. Plus he was only wearing his pajama pants revealing his rippling muscles to her and that always made her face grow hot.

From all that thinking she was doing, she didn’t realize that Tomohisa was already kneeling in front of her, his left hand on the one-seater’s right arm rest while his right hand rested on Maki’s knee.

“You know Maki, for everyone it’s true, everyone except you that is.” He chuckled into her right ear making her shiver and then in a split second his lips were planted firmly on hers. Maki felt her whole body tingling as if a very strong electric current was travelling through her. This wasn’t even their first kiss! She was 16 and he was 19 when it first happened and 7 years later, it still felt the same.

Tomohisa nibbled her lower lip making her sigh and before she could even react to what he was doing, he pulled away, a faint smile on his lips.

“Oyasumi Maki…” He said before heading to the door.

It was a second and a half when Maki spoke up. “I’m still not going to marry you…”

Tomohisa stopped on his tracks and smirked. “We’ll see about that.” Then he was out of the room.

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It was 8 in the morning when Maki woke up and she still didn’t feel like getting up from bed. Everyone was probably at work right now so she had the penthouse all to herself. She did her morning routine in the bathroom before walking out from her room then heading downstairs. She stopped just at the bottom of the stairs when she heard a sound, loudly coming from the music room. She slowly opened the door, pushing the center with her hand.

Inside sat Tomohisa, his guitar in his hands while he sat on the one-seater which he pulled to be beside the piano. There was a lone music sheet in-front of him and from her position Maki could see that what he was composing was half-done.

Tomohisa was so concentrated on what he was doing that he didn’t even notice that Maki was right there by the door. He continued with the song he was composing, plucking strings here and there then sometimes strumming; Maki could hear him sing a few lyrics out although they came out faintly. Then suddenly he stopped before raising his head up to look at her.

Maki was a little surprised, did he know she was staring at him the whole time? The man placed the guitar on the stand beside him before standing up from the one-seater.

“Ohayo, had a nice sleep?” He asked with that crookedly handsome smile of his.

But Maki didn’t answer his question. “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be at work?”

Tomohisa held his chest in mock pain while he approached her. “Aww throwing me out already Maki?”

The pretty woman rolled her eyes, uncrossing her arms. She left the room, heading to the kitchen while Tomohisa followed her.

“The recording schedule for BEST changed, they brought it to 10 in the morning.” He explained while sitting down by the dining table. Maki poured herself a cup of coffee, letting the silence and a nod of her head be her reaction to what he said. As if by routine she also poured a cup of coffee for him, placing it in-front of the handsome man before sitting down.

“The others already in work?” she asked, slowly taking a sip from her cup. She didn’t want to scald her tongue or anything.  

Tomohisa drank from his own cup, allowing the taste to travel down his throat. Maki is an amazing coffee maker and she knew how to make it just the way he liked it. “I think Jin is still sleeping, I could hear him snoring.”

“Poor Mei-tan.” They both laughed at Maki’s comment. They wondered how Meisa was able to sleep beside Jin when he snored like a broken vacuum cleaner.

Then the elevator bell dinged, signalling that someone had just arrived to their pent house. Maki stood up from the chair while Tomohisa turned around, taking yet another sip from his cup of coffee.

Maki walked over to the lobby where a young woman wearing a brown coat came into view.

“Maki-nee!”

“Mirai!” Maki smiled as she walked over and greeted her younger sister. They pulled away from each other both having big smiled on their faces.

 “Hey there Mirai.” Tomohisa let himself be known. He came right from the kitchen, leaning a hand on the table by the lobby. Mirai’s eyes brightened and shined when she saw the man.

“Hi Tomo-nii!”

“Ne Mirai, what brings you here?” Maki asked her sister. The three of them headed back to the kitchen, this time with Maki offering Mirai a cup of the famous java.

“I wanted help with my salutatory speech…” Mirai said proudly, sitting down beside Tomohisa. Maki gave a surprised yet happy expression. “Mirai! That’s so great! Okaa-chan and Otou-chan will be so proud!” And with that she pulled her sister away to the living room, leaving an amused Tomohisa.

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“Ne ne Maki-nee, so how’s you and Tomo-nii?” Mirai asked her one-chan while bouncing on the couch. HSe kept her voice low; Tomohisa wasn’t a music producer just because of his music talent, he also had really good ears.

Maki closed her eye s briefly. Here they go again with asking about “her and Tomohisa” if there really was such a thing as that. She smiled softly at Mirai as if she wasn’t affected with the girl’s question. “Tomo and me? Nothing’s changed. He’s still the guy who thinks he’s better than me with music.” She laughed but Mirai didn’t.

“He’s also the guy you’ve shared everything with…”

Maki suddenly remembered something from what Mirai said. “About that!” she exclaimed but then leaned closer so she could whisper. “Thank you so much for telling Yuya that. Yuya of all people!”

Mirai’s serious face took a large turn to sheepish. She shrugged along with a small smile. “Well you know how Yuya-nii is! He’s gossipy!”

Maki could only sigh. Well what more can she do when the damage was already done? Yuya better make sure he won’t tell anybody else! But back to the previous topic…

“You know, I don’t know why people expect Tomohisa and I to end up together. Shouldn’t you guys be pestering Jin and Meisa or Kazu and Eri?” She said expectantly.

Mirai rolled her eyes. “Oh come on Maki-nee! Those two are already a given!” she yelled. “Look at this penthouse for example; Kazu-nii and Erika-nee sleep in the room besides yours at the second floor while Jin-nii and Meisa-nee sleep in the room beside Tomo-nii’s. Now what’s missing with that situation?”

Maki thought for a while and she honestly couldn’t think of answer to Mirai’s questioning ways. Seeing this reaction from her, Mirai proceeded with explaining.

“What’s missing is I should be saying ‘you and Tomo-nii sleep in the room upstairs’ or something like that!”

There was a moment’s silence before Maki laughed softly. “What are you talking about Mirai! Really, you and your weird mind, kind of makes me wonder why you’re salutatorian.”

Mirai huffed at that, muttering under her breath. “Makes me wonder why you were valedictorian when you’re so clueless…”

“What was that?”

“Oh nothing!”

Mirai looked up again, another evident smile on her face. Deciding that it was a waste of time, Maki chose not to find out whatever Mirai just said. She thought for a while, still thinking about the topic of Tomohisa when she remembered;

“Hmpf, that oaf went on telling some guy that he’s my fiancé when it isn’t even true!”

That got Mirai’s attention. “Eh? Maji de? So Tomo-nii finally stepped up? And who’s this random guy?”

“I don’t think you’re getting the point. He totally lied!”

“Not really, you’re just not formally engaged…”

Maki wanted to bury herself under the throw pillows. Why must people be so difficult?

“But anyways! Who’s this random guy?” Mirai continued.

Maki offhandedly gestured. “He’s not really some ‘random’ guy, he’s actually famous, uhm, I think you might know him, Mukai Osam--”

“Kyaaa! Mukai Osamu as in the Mukai Osamu who is the editor-in-chief of Kakera magazine?”

Maki was surprised at Mirai. She would’ve understood her sister’s enthusiasm if Osamu was an actor or whatever but being an editor-in-chief? “You know who he is?”

“Of course I do!” Mirai squeed. “My friends always buy that magazine just so they can see his monthly picture in the editorial.” It almost looked like there were stars in her eyes.

Maki admitted though. Osamu is definitely one of the most handsome men she’s ever met, a faint smile crept up to her face.

“Hey you’re smiling!” Mirai pointed out causing Maki to snap back to reality. “You like him!”

“Come off it Mirai I just met the guy yesterday…” Maki reasoned out. She wasn’t the kind of girl who’d fall in-love with someone they just met.

Mirai wasn’t convinced though since she approached Maki so they were really close. “Oooh I bet Tomo-nii got really jealous! You know with you liking Mukai-san and all.”

Maki opened to say something but they heard a large thud, kind of like the sound of porcelain hitting wood. It came from the corridor. Maki stood up and went to investigate. True enough, she saw Tomohisa gripping tightly onto his cup of coffee as it lied on a drawer inside the corridor. Tomohisa was looking at the floor and it looked like any minute now he’d break the glass with how strong he was gripping it.

Maki began to speak. “Tomo--”

“I need to get ready for work.” Tomohisa said gruffly, cutting Maki off. He left the cup on the drawer before walking off to the direction of the downstairs bathroom.

Mirai arrived standing beside Maki with a knowing smile on her face. “I bet you my favourite Hippo stuffed toy that Tomo-nii was eaves dropping and got super jealous with Mukai-san.”

Maki turned to her sister with an unsure look on her face, then she looked back just in time to see Tomohisa disappearing through the bathroom door.

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“Ohayo gozaimasu Yamaa-san.”

“Mm…”

Tomohisa wasn’t in the mood to greet anyone. He strode across the lobby of Tsukuro records building and into the elevators his body bag in tow.

“Wait hey hold it!”

Tomohisa quickly pressed the elevators open buttons as that voice called. “Yuichi!” He uttered as the man entered. Nakamaru Yuichi smiled widely as he held unto his backpack.

“Nice to see you again Tomo…”

Yuichi was yet another one of the talented music producers at Tsukuro records also one of Tomohisa’s close friends and he was back from his trip to America.

“How’s Yukiko?” Tomohisa asked, pertaining to Yuichi’s younger sister.

“Oh she’s doing really good and I’m so glad her grades excellent.” Yuichi said proudly like the older brother that he was. They chatted along until they reached the 23^rd floor, where their offices were.

“So what’s up with you?” Yuichi asked.

Tomohisa turned to him, confused. “Me? Why? What are you talking about?”

Yuichi let out a small chuckle first, rubbing the bridge of his nose. They were now in-front of Tomohisa’s office. “I was actually behind you when you entered the building and you pretty much ignored everyone you passed by. I could literally see the smoke coming out of your nose.”

Tomohisa scoffed and shook his head. “It’s nothing.” He harshly opened his office door. Yuichi followed inside deciding not to go to his office first. “Oh you can’t escape this from me Tomo, I know you…”

Tomohisa settled his bag on the chair then placed his palms firmly on his desk. He looked at Yuichi with those menacing eyes but the other guy only stared back with a soft smile on his face. He knew he really wouldn’t escape so just settled for actually talking.

“You know Mukai Osamu?”

“Yeah? What about him?” Yuichi asked, he wasn’t expecting this. “Isn’t he some kind of heartthrob?”

That got Tomohisa reeling as he harshly sat down on his swivel chair while Yuichi stayed standing. “What’s so great about him anyways?”

“I don’t know why you asking me ‘bout that--” Yuichi stopped. “Chotto what’s this all about anyways?”

Tomohisa didn’t know what to say, especially because he was kind of embarrassed with the reason. “He’s—I saw him with Maki last night…”

There was a pregnant pause before Yuichi spoke up again. “What, only the two of them?”

“No they were with Meisa and Erika--”

“Well there you go!” Yuichi said sounding relaxed. “He’s a co-worker of Erika’s right so it was probably just a friendly get together--”

“You didn’t see the way that Osamu guy was looking at Maki!” Tomohisa said as he gritted his teeth. Yuichi suddenly broke out into a laugh which got Tomohisa reddening.

“Aww come off it!” Tomohisa said throwing a pencil at Yuichi who easily ducked, avoiding the ‘deadly’ school supply.

“I’m sorry…” Yuichi said, trying to supress his chuckles. “It’s just so freaking funny how you’re all jealous and stuff.”

“I’m not jealous…” Tomohisa said grudgingly, only causing Yuichi to approach him and encouragingly slap his arm.

“Denial won’t get you anywhere Tomo! Just show the Mukai-san what’s the real situation so you can get that dilemma out of your system.”

Tomohisa stayed quiet. He already did that last night by announcing that he is Maki’s fiancé but he still felt threatened, especially when he heard the conversation Maki and Mirai had inside the living room before.

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A/N: Hi guys! yay christams vacation is here! I hope I can catch up on my writing :) 

I used SHIDA MIRAI as Maki's sister XD she's like a mini-Maki in my opinion, especially acting wise XD here's the new chapter! I hope you like it! 

comments are loved and welcomed! thank you also to the silent readers! :)