“You’re doing a great job Ren-kun.” Tomohisa smiled at the child by the small easel as he painted two lovebirds.

Little Ren smiled at him, toothily in fact. “Arigato Tomo-sensei!” He said before returning to the paintings he’d done.

Tomohisa smiled back before standing straight once again. He smiled at the studio before him while kids some younger, some older, and some the same age as Ren continued with their joyous activity of painting.

“Someone downstairs is here to see you Tomo-sensei.” He turned his head and saw Yuichi-sensei from the stairwell smiling at him.

“Oh, okay, can you check up on our students then Yuichi-sensei?” He asked kindly.

“Mochiron…” The man stepped forward just as Tomohisa passed by him and headed downstairs.

Tomohisa smiled as he was met with the lovely smile of his wife and his father.

“Maki, otou-san, did you guys enjoy the mall?”

“Who wouldn’t enjoy being with Maki-chan?” The older Yamaa said. Though already aged, it was evident with how Yamaa-san looked were Tomohisa and Takuya got their looks.  He wrapped one arm around his daughter-in-law, smiling as Tomohisa approached them.

“My dad has been spoiling you huh?” Tomohisa said, kissing Maki softly in greeting.

“He’s worse than you.” Maki replied.

Yamaa-san interfered with the lovely moment by clasping his son’s shoulder. “Jaa, Tomo, why don’t you show me your work place then hmm?” He walked ahead, actually going first in climbing up the stairs. Tomohisa and Maki followed soon after, arms around each other.

Yuichi was instructing a student on how brush patterns should be done when they arrived.

“Things are getting good here huh.” Yamaa-san said as he looked at the children going about with their paintings. Maki walked over to where Ren was, greeting the boy and earning a hug from her.

“Otou-san I believe you’v already met Yuichi here.” Tomohisa said, patting Yuichi’s back who then bowed in greeting to Yamaa-san.

“Of course.”  The older Yamaa stretched out his hand in greeting to Yuichi. He straightened yet again to take a closer look at the progress the small art school was doing. “I must say, you boys are doing great, omedetou.”

Yuichi and Tomohisa looked at each other in content. More so with Tomohisa as he smiled in thanks to his father. It hadn’t been easy convincing the older man when he and Maki had reached Tokyo two years ago. But with his new determination, he pulled his father to Chiba and showed him he was serious with what he was doing. Thankfully with Maki and everyone else’s help, he was able to make his father see that he could live off of this and still enjoy what he was doing. And now life couldn’t get better. He married the woman he loves, his father no longer forces him to be someone he’s not and he has a career that he enjoys.

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Mirai sat on her bed, her hands folded together and she looked down. Doing so didn’t mean she wasn’t in a good mood. Rather, her thoughts and feelings were all jumbled up in excitement. There was a knock on her bedroom door and she looked up to see her onee-san’s head peeking from the opened door. Maki smiled at her the stepped forward, erasing the vision that she looked like a floating head, then joined her on the bed causing it to bounce.

“Why aren’t you ready yet?” Maki asked her.

Mirai breathed in and shrugged at first. What was she going to say? She just found herself staring into space.

Maki smiled into space, amused with her sister but understood the situation nonetheless. “I know it’s scary to be going into the world of adults Mirai-chan but that’s the fun in life right?”

“I’m just… thinking if I can do this…” Mirai replied.

“Of course you can, you’re my sister!” Maki said smugly earning a laugh from Mirai.

But in all seriousness, Maki looked at her sister and said in a comforting tone. “Just go with the flow ne Mirai? Okaa-san and Otou-san are so proud of you.”

The latter allowed herself to smile then finally stood up from the bed. “Ikou onee-san, I can’t be late for my graduation.

Tomohisa and his grandmother were at the living room, waiting for the two sisters when they came down from the stairs. “Ikou ne Mirai-chan?” Tomohisa said. He was dressed in a formal button up shirt looking like a very proud onii-san for his sister-in-laws graduation.

“You look so beautiful Mirai-chan.” Yamaa-san said.

Onigiri came running. He was no longer a puppy and was growing to be a healthy dog. He barked at Mirai as if saying omedetou. Laughing, Mirai went to hug the dog. “Arigatou Onigiri!” Then she turned to everyone.

“Ikou!”

Being it graduation day, a lot of people were at the school mostly the proud parents. In Mirai’s case, the proud sister, the proud brother-in-law and the proud godmother.

There was someone missing though. Mirai held on to her phone and kept looking around for that familiar face but she couldn’t see where he was.

“Mirai.”

She jumped at the contact and saw Suzuka. “Eh? Sorry Suzuka what?”

“They’re asking us to line up now.”

“Oh, okay then.”

Mirai put up a small smile and followed her best friend to get in line. From her position she could see Maki, Tomohisa and Yamaa-san seated by the top bleachers. She smiled when she saw Yamaa-san looking at her.

Before she was to walk, an arm grabbed hers. She turned expecting it to be Suzuka yet again but saw it was her boyfriend.

“Ryou! You made it!”

“I wasn’t going to miss my girl’s graduation right?” Ryosuke leaned in and softly kissed her lips. “And since I can’t wait…” He started pulling something from his pocket. It was a ring.

Mirai trembled and Ryosuke chuckled, feeling her nervousness. He moved the ring and placed it on her pinky. “It’s a promise ring Mirai-chan. In a few years or so I’ll buy an engagement ring but not right now.” He chuckled.

Mirai stared at the silver band before realizing that Ryosuke was wearing the same thing. Why yes, she was looking forward to the day that Ryosuke would be giving her an engagement ring. But they needed to get on with their lives first. For now it was enough. She leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on his lips. “Arigatou Ryou…”

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“Omedetou Mirai!!!!”

It was a joyous celebration at Kazuya’s diner. They even shut the place down just so they could celebrate Mirai’s graduation to themselves.

“My baby sister’s all grown up!” Maki squealed as she hugged Mirai close.

Chuckling Mirai jokingly pulled away. “Onee-chan! You’re embarrassing me!”

Simultaeneosu laughs echoed throughout the diner.

“Oh! And here’s our master chef with the food!” Kazuya announced when Ryosuke emerged from the kitchen holding plates in one hand and on the other was the bowl of pasta he himself had made for them. “Bon appetit everyone!”

“This looks good!” Erika said as she started handing out plates to everyone.

Tomohisa looked on at the scene in-front of him. He reminded himself to say a prayer to Kami-sama and thank him for all the blessings He’d given to him. To add to that, Mirai had now graduated and would be starting medical school plus Ryosuke would soon be graduating from culinary school.

“Oh I have a gift for you Mirai-chan!” Maki announced as she grabbed a bag from beside where Yamaa-san was seated. There was an excited glint in her eyes as she waited for her sister to open said bag.

Mirai broke open the bag’s folds and pulled out a simple looking shirt. She unfolded it turning to the print on it. Her eyes widened for a minute before she smiled and showed everyone what was printed.

WORLD’S BEST AUNT

Tomohisa felt like he was going to hyperventilate. He turned to Maki who was sitting right beside him. She smiled. No words were needed. She leaned forward and kissed his lips.

Oh yes, he would be thanking Kami-sama very much.