In a third floor’s president suit of a certain hotel in the heart of Tokyo, Ryosuke Yamada was staring at the cityscape outside through the glass wall of his room. In his hand was the latest model of NASA’s satelite phone.

“Then please enjoy your meal and send my greeting to your family. Good night,” he said softly to the receiver of his call.

The reply came in an even softer tone of a female, “... Good night.”

He cut the line once she finished saying good night. For a moment he stared at the screen which now had turned back to the basic wallpaper.

“Young master, should this servant keep the phone for now?” A deep voice came from one corner of the room.

He just remembered that he wasn’t alone. The voice owned by Kamiya Genzo, a senior butler of his family who had practically raised him since he was a child. Kamiya had especially flown from Hokkaido to pick him up.

He didn’t look at the fifty-year-old servant, instead he dialed a series of number while saying, “I need to make another call.”

“If Young Master is going to check on Chinen’s service, this servant has just done it. All the matters Young Master requested to be done by them have been arranged properly. Young Master do not need to worry.”

He stopped typing at once. Feeling slightly irritated, he sighed. He handed the phone back to Kamiya, softly complaining, “You’re too meddlesome sometimes.”

Kamiya smiled, understanding very well that the complain was not meant to reprimand.

However, after the phone was stored into his pocket, for the first time the old man sounded hesitant, asking,  “Young Master... about Miss Mirai Shida—”

He didn’t need to hear the whole sentence to understand the meaning, “Report to Grandpa not to worry. She won’t be involved with us in the future.”

“But... does Young Master has feeling for her?”

He stared through the glass; the darkness of night sky was pulling him into a solemn state, but he didn’t answer the question. He believed that Kamiya had already had a good grasp of the situation, including his feeling for Mirai. All he had done for Mirai and her family were something he never did before, and it had made obvious proof.

“Young Master,” Kamiya started. “It is not my place to say this, but Master has firmly ordered this servant to keep Young Master safe. These two months we had failed to protect Young Master, and this servant worry that because of our recklessness, it might endanger Young Master both in physical safety and in the company’s intrigue.”

He sighed for he understood the bigger picture Kamiya wanted to remind him about.

“Kamiya,” he calmly spoke, his mind deep. “For twenty years I’ve been obedient. I trust you and grandfather so much that the wound of finding the truth about my parents almost unbearable. Then in such state, was I wrong to retaliate?” He asked without averting his gaze from the outside scenery.

“Young Master, Master only thought what best for you.”

“I understood very well,” he replied. “Even so, no matter how much I love Grandpa, I needed a cure for this wound, because if it isn’t healed, I would have hated Grandpa for the rest of my life. It’s fated that I found it in Shida family. As for my feeling towards Mirai... it is something beyond my control. However, what do you think her answer to my confession will be after I explained about the real me and my family?”

Kamiya did not answer, his head bowed down, both in shame and understanding.

“For years, I have been grooming myself to be the heir of the company as I promised. If Grandpa and you are worried that my sentiment towards Shida family will weaken my resolution, then I should question how well you know me and my personality. Am I a person who would easily back out from my promise?”

“Pardon me, Young Master.”

“Nevermind,” he nonchalantly responded to the apology. “Anyway, how about my flight tomorrow?”

“We have arranged a private jet so Young Master could choose to leave whenever Young Master wish,” Kamiya answered.

“Where will Grandpa be tomorrow?”

“There was a change in the medical check-up, so Master would still be in California until next week.”

He considered it for a moment before eventually making a decision, “Then, prepare a long flight for me. I won’t be returning to Hokkaido.”

“Then, to where?”

“First, I’ll visit Grandpa, and then after that to the headquarter in Middle East.”

“This servant will arrange for the change of plan then,” Kamiya asked to be permitted.

He waved his hand to dismis Kamiya, and once he was alone, he heaved a sigh and threw his body to the bed. How would a heartbreak feel? He ironically thought while staring at the high ceiling of the room.

*****

Shida Mirai could not sleep. She had been tossing and turning restlessly. Worrying that she might disturb Miyu’s sleep, she eventually headed down to the first floor. Finding the room dark, she felt that somehow it missed something, and then she remembered these past two months the first floor had almost never been as dark since Yamada Ryosuke would have the light to sit and contemplate at the back porch.

She switched on the light in the hallway and opened the door adjacent to the back porch. Inhaling a breath, she sat down and threw her gaze around the backyard. Compared to two months prior, the backyard had changed. There was a small vertical garden in one corner where Yamada Ryosuke had planted some kind of flowers. The seeds had grown buds, and he said around early June the flowers would bloom. He had explained the variety of flowers he had planted, yet she could barely remember them.

She remembered what he had told her the evening before, in the ferriswheel. She remembered feeling nervous sitting across him that time. For some time, they didn’t talk, and let silence engulfed them. However, he suddenly called her name.

“I’m gonna come clean to you,” he said as she looked up, straight to the point. “The reason I runaway from home was not merely because I was in dilemma of accepting to become my grandfather’s heir. I wasn’t conflicted about the company’s operation either. In fact, since long I have decided that I would change the way the company operates to be more environmental-friendly. I have been growing with the mindset of the company’s heir.”

“Then, what’s the real reason?”

He looked away for a second before turning to her, “Something caused my resolution to waver.”

She waited for him to continue as he observed her to see her reaction.

He leaned back, “My grandfather is Tanaka Atsushi. Perhaps you have heard about him?”

She suppressed her racing heartbeat, “As in... Tanaka Atsushi of Tanaka Mining and Plantation?”

His mouth curved up, “You guess right.”

She inhaled a sharp breath. Tanaka Mining and Plantation was one of the ten biggest companies in Japan. Among many scholarship programs in her college, one of them was sponsored by that company. She had even attended one of their workshops, that’s why she knew the name of Tanaka Atsushi.

She tried collecting herself, “But how...? You said you told us your real name...”

“He has two children; my uncle and my mother. I share my father’s surname Yamada, that’s why it’s different from my grandfather’s. But once I officially inherit the business, I’d have to change my surname from Yamada to Tanaka. And sadly, the latter was the real reason I runaway.”

“You... don’t want to change your surname?” she warily asked as she caught a glimpse of hurt in his expression.

He curved up a bitter smile, “It’s not exactly like that. I didn’t mind about the change. It’s just...”

Hesitation was evident in his gaze, but he continued after a moment of silence. “It’s just... I didn’t want to share the same surname with my parents’ murderer.”

Her heart jumped as she heard that, “Wh-wh-what?”

He didn’t speak for awhile, so she managed to ask, “Didn’t you say that it was a mass accident that caused your parents’...”—death? She couldn’t say that word.

“The accident was planned by Mom’s big brother, the director for South East Asian branch. Grandfather had intended to hand down the company to Mom and Dad since he thought they were more capable, but Mom’s big brother couldn’t accept that. This fact, my grandfather had found it out since long, but I only knew about this recently,” he refused to look at her.

Focusing his gaze to the view outside, he explained further, “When I confronted grandfather why he let the crime unpunished, he told me that it was for the sake of the company and the people who depended on it. If the truth that his son killed Mom and Dad was found out, the shareholders would lose trust in Tanaka family, and further, the market would have thought that the company would have no future since both potential heirs were no longer available while grandfather was ill. If the truth was revealed, the company that my grandfather has built for decades would collapse at once, and many people would suffer.”

She was at lost. She couldn’t decide which action was right and which was wrong. She couldn’t conclude whether his grandfather’s choice was selfish or selfless instead. It was too complicated for  a simple minded person like her to think about, but even so, she couldn’t ignore the painful throbbing of her heart. Her heart clenched tightly, and she was holding her tears back. For the first time, she realized that the man before her really wasn’t as ordinary as he let others see. Behind his gentle smile... she didn’t expect there would be such a deep wound. She really wanted to cry as she thought about that.

He heaved a sigh, pulling her attention back to him.

He resumed his story. “I’ve been living my life to pay the care and kindness my grandfather has given me back, but once I found out about that... I didn’t know who to trust anymore. What is family? If a family had a heart to do that, then what’s the meaning of blood relation? I lost all trust to humanity ever since. I flew from Hokkaido to Tokyo with a hope that I could see some light; that there are still people who value a bond sincerely. When I arrived in Tokyo, do you know what I encountered? Someone stole my wallet. Then as I walked around the city, I somehow got a fight with those juveniles, and ended up fainted before your house.”

She was still staring at him in shock when suddenly he stared back at her with a gentle gaze and a slight smile, “Can I ask you something?”

“Eh...?”

“You were suspecting me as a bad person, then why did you save me?”

“I... just couldn’t let someone die before me.”

His gentle gaze did not change, instead his smile slightly widened when he said, “Whatever the reason, I owe you my life. Thank you.”

She could only stiffly nodded.

“I really like your family, you know,” he continued, his tone had relaxed as he lean back. “It’s exactly how I picture how a family should be, and although for a short time, I am happy to be a part of it.”

Seeing him like that, somehow she couldn’t hold her tears from falling down. She hurriedly brushed it off, but he had noticed it.

“What’s wrong?”

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