Mirai woke up that morning earlier than the rest of her house mates. Usually it was Maki who the one up first but this past couple of weeks, her older sister was out of it. And she had a hunch it had something to do with Tomohisa. That evening Maki and Meisa came back both looking troubled and unruly and both didn’t want to talk things through.

The upstairs kitchen was quiet and the wooden floors calmed and cooled Mirai down. She started with heating water for coffee, knowing that her three onee-chans couldn’t live without the stuff. Next she pulled out one of their frying pans and started to cook omurice which she had perfected thanks to Maki. She was in the middle of mixing the egg with the rice when she heard footsteps padding into the room.

“Ohayo (Good Morning) Mirai…” She didn’t need to turn around to know that that was Erika.

“Ohayou (Good Morning) Erika-nee.” She replied, turning slightly so she could smile to the older woman before going back to her cooking. Erika still had her eyes slightly closed, it was hard to open them once you wake up.

“What are you cooking?” Erika asked Mirai, her head was on her palm and she was trying to wake up as hard as possible.

“Omurice…” Mirai replied non-chalantly. She whirled around the kitchen, looking like an expert as she dished the omurice from the pan into a plate without its presentation getting destroyed. Though still half asleep, Erika was able to see what Mirai was doing. A half-smile crawled on upon her lips before she changed leaning on her right hand to her left.

“You’re a natural with that…” she commented.

“I had lots of training…” Mirai grinned. She sat down beside Erika, pulling out two other plates then offered the omurice. “Eat up onee-chan…”

Erika wouldn’t say no to that. She smiled as she dished out her own omurice while Mirai was already gobbling down some of her own cooking. The first bite she had felt like heaven. The egg around the rice just felt soft and moist.

“Ah oishii! (delicious)”

Mirai looked like a proud mama. “Arigato Erika-nee.”

It was just the two of them eating; Mirai had second helpings before she had to remember that Meisa and Maki needed to eat too. The thought suddenly brought her to issues not solved.

“What’s happening with Maki and Meisa?” Apparently she wasn’t the only one who was curious as Erika stood up and settled their dishes on the sink.

She shrugged tiredly. She knew Maki was upset because with the Tomohisa issue but she had no idea what Meisa was upset about. They stayed silent, both contemplating things when Erika starts speaking.

“I got to thinking about those predictions Mirai…”

“Augh not with those again Erika-nee…” Mirai groaned.

“No, I mean, look, Maki’s prediction was something about her past, and then here comes her ex-boyfriend!”

Mirai raised her eyebrows. “You remember Maki-nee’s prediction?”

Erika ignored her and continued with what she was thinking. “And then she goes on with you being cold and things, well you acted cold towards that Ryosuke boy!”

For the first time in her life Mirai found out she had nothing to say. She was always the smart mouth inside the house but now she couldn’t say anything. But wait, she needed to reason out with science first. “Oh come on Erika-nee I’m not going to believe in those predictions…”

Erika looked stricken.

“I mean, they’re just guesses right? No scientific back up!” Mirai continued reasoning out.

Erika looked determined to win this argument. She actually leaned forward on the kitchen table to get a look at Mirai better. “Namie-san was reading the stars there is clearly a scientific back-up for whatever she was saying!”

“What’s going on here!?”

Erika and Mirai both snapped their heads over to the corridor where Maki revealed herself looking slightly annoyed.

“It’s too early in the morning for you two to be yelling don’t you think?” she said challengingly before taking a seat beside Mirai at the table. Like two toddlers being scolded, Mirai and Erika bowed their heads and mumbled their apologies. Maki had that effect on them.

“What were you two arguing about anyways?” Maki asked once she had her dose of her coffee; no longer that dry.

Erika suddenly realized that she’d lose this since both Maki and Mirai, oh and to make things worse also Meisa, didn’t believe in those predictions Namie-san gave. She decided she’d just shut up since it was a losing battle.

“Ah Ohayo.” Meisa appeared at the door way, stretching her long arms above her head. Once she was satisfied with getting all of those kinks out of her system, she sat beside Erika, immediately aiming for the omurice laid out there. She may be lean and fit looking but in reality, Meisa had the hugest appetite between them four girls; she was just lucky with keeping herself fit.

“Ne Mei-tan…” Erika said suddenly.

“Hai?” Meisa faced her as she dished out some of the omurice for herself.

“Why were you so sad the other evening?” That was Erika for you, not even taking a moment to pause before speaking up.

There was just about a millisecond that something of the sort registered on Meisa’s face but it was gone the minute it also came. “What are you talking about?” she asked in a promisingly confused manner.

“Oh don’t deny it…” Erika sighed as she rolled her eyes. “You and Maki here looked so sad when you got back home…”

“Please leave me out of this…” Maki said in a mock sing-song manner. She carried with her a cup of coffee before disappearing to the direction of her sanctuary; the rooftop. Now it was just the three of them left in the kitchen. Erika whipped her attention back to Meisa who thought she’d escaped the question but she wasn’t getting off easily with Erika’s curiosity.

“Now look, I get Maki’s confused with all of her ex-boyfriend drama but what was up with you? Was it about Jin?”

“What about Jin?” Meisa asked back, taking a mouthful of the omurice. “There’s nothing wrong…”

Mirai and Erika looked at each other as if there was an agreement between the two of them. This time it was Mirai who spoke up.

“I don’t mean to pry Meisa-nee but, isn’t your relationship with Jin-san sort of unsafe?” Erika and Meisa looked at her for a moment before she followed up with her statement. “I mean, don’t those kind of relationships just end up in tears?” Just like their earlier reactions, Meisa and Erika’s faces stayed the same.

“You really are a literature major Mirai-chan.” Meisa replied, shaking her head. To the end the conversation, she stood up from the table, taking her plate of omurice with her then followed Maki to the rooftop.

It looked like conversations weren’t going to get through with Maki and Meisa.

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The sun rose high up in Tokyo but the morning breeze had balanced the temperature. Eyes closed, Maki breathed in, taking the atmosphere in before breathing out. When she opened her eyes, there was someone there beside her.

“Hey there Mei-tan…”

“Hi Maki…” Meisa greeted back. They stared at the skies in-front of them, both with calm yet troubled looks on their faces.

“So you going to talk to me about that guy?” Meisa said, facing Maki who in turn faced back.

“What about you? Are you going to say something about Jin?”

Meisa’s lips slowly formed to a smile. She loved how Maki knew her well. She met Maki at the bus stop where the former was handing out fliers for room for rent. That moment was already destiny since they just clicked so well.

“My problems with Jin…” she began once she’d finished strolling down memory lane. “…they’re too shallow for me to talk about them…”

“It isn’t shallow if you looked like the world just gave up on you.” Maki said, making a point. Meisa knew her like she knew Meisa, that was one of the things she loved about their friendship. Smiling, Meisa looked down and shook her head. “I’ll tell you if you tell me about your problems first.”

Maki wasn’t going to let this pass up, it was a rare fact for Meisa to even consider opening up and she wasn’t going to let this go easily.

“I met Tomohisa seven years ago, we were basketball enthusiasts and always played together at the center, and well, I just… we fell in-love…”

“Ppfft, so cheesy Maki-chan…”

“Shut up…” They laughed before Maki began again. “But we broke up…”

“Wait.” Meisa began. “You’ve known him for seven years and in this seven years how long did you two have a romantic relationship?”

Maki blushed and bowed her head. “Six…”

“Six!” Meisa repeated in a shocked tone. “And what disaster happened for you two to break up? Did he cheat on you or something?”

“No, Tomo never cheated on me…” Maki replied, looking up once again. “I was the one to break up with him.” She watched as Meisa looked incredulously at her and she could understand why. Here she was moping around about her ex-boyfriend when she was really the cause of why they were no longer together.

“So can I ask why you broke up with him?” Meisa used that emphasized tone of hers.

“Because---”

“Maki-nee!”  Mirai came running up the steps. “Kamenashi-san is already here!”

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Erika smoothed down her hair before going downstairs. She must really like this guy to be worrying about her looks when she didn’t even have her morning shower yet but she really wanted to see him so what the heck.

Reaching the end of the stairs, she saw Kazuya dressed in a plaid baggy shirt while looking at the paintings that Maki had decided to display in the wall. Her stare must’ve been heavy since Kazuya suddenly whipped his head over to her.

“Ohayo Erika-san.” He greeted.

Erika’s eyebrows furrowed. She stepped down from the stairs and approached him. “Why call me with san? We’re about the same age, in-fact, I think you’re older than me.”

Kazuya smirked lightly, his hands behind his back as he shook his head. “Gomen gomen, I’m getting a bit formal, got to keep it up for work you know?”

“Oh come on, your boss is younger than you too…” Erika said smiling.

“Speaking of, where is Maki-san?”

Erika chose to ignore his usage of “san” since it was for Maki anyways. “Mirai just called her, I think she forgot that your training with her would be this early.”

“Yeah she seems kind of off these past few days…” Kazuya commented as he started staring at the pictures on the wall yet again. Erika frowned. Wasn’t she going to get a good enough reaction from this guy? It was as if she was just floating along. Guys at the gym would jump at the opportunity to just talk to her and no here comes this guy who seemingly doesn’t even care.

“So Kazuya, do you have a special someone in your life?”

The question clearly got Kazuya’s attention. He looked at Erika, surprise written all over his face and it looked like he couldn’t find an answer to that question. Be that as it may, Erika already knew she was frank so why back out of her habits now?

“A little too forward aren’t we?” Kazuya chuckled once he was able to find his voice yet again. As a reply, he shook his head. “N-no I don’t have someone special in my life right now…”

“Oh? Why not?” Erika tried sounding like she wasn’t too interested. “A guy like you?”

“If I was a facebook status it would be written as ‘It’s complicated’” Kazuya answered with a small laugh. At that moment, Mirai and Maki came walking down from the stairs.

“Ah Kazuya, I’m so sorry, I’m out of myself these past few days.” Maki said as she approached them, offering a small smile to Kazuya.

Erika chose this moment to slink off in the corner; she got to thinking things just from how Kazuya answered her.

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Erika sat down on the kitchen stool, her head down as she thought things over, mixing a glass of iced tea. It was the sound of heavy footsteps which caught her attention and she knew that those footsteps came from Mirai; she was the only one who had heavy feet like that.

“Hi Mirai-chan.” She greeted dully not even looking up from her iced tea.

 “Why so down Erika-nee?” Mirai asked as she sat down beside Erika, waiting for the older woman’s answer.

“I don’t know…” Erika sighed though it was obvious that she did know. “I like a guy and I think he has commitment problems or something like that…”

“You’ve known Kazuya-san for a week and you think you like him?”

“What’s wrong with that?” Erika asked, finally facing Mirai. “I just like him is all, plus, he’s one of the few guys who don’t throw themselves at me.” She smirked before drinking from her iced tea. Mirai sighed, resting one elbow on the kitchen table. She’ll never get it with how carefree Erika seemed, mostly because she herself was such a stranger to love.

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AN: Yes yes this chapter is boring I know :p it's more of a filler chapter to put it well. I'm building up their stories so hold on to your seats. :D Thank you for the views!