Maki quietly exited her apartment that morning. She was a little earlier than usual, hoping that she wouldn’t run into Tomohisa after what happened last night. But she did run into some of her neighbors.

“Ah good morning Maki-chan! You look so radiant this morning.” Katase-san commented with this huge knowing smile on her face. Maki chose to amuse her and smiled back. “Thank you Katase-san.”

“How are you holding up with the morning sickness?”

There was a gasp at the end of the hall and Maki was horrified to see that Erika came for an unexpected visit.

“Erika-chan!”

But Erika was already marching her way with a huge determined look on her face. It was rare to see Erika with such a look on her face.

“Ah! Are you one of Maki’s friends?” Katase-san asked politely.

With the same polite manner, Erika smiled back while holding unto Maki’s arm. “Yes ma’am. And may I ask when did my friend’s morning sickness start?”

“Oh, she probably would, I heard Tomohisa talking about their baby last night.”

Maki literally felt as if her arm was going to get torn off. Before any more confusion could go on, she faced Katase-san and laughed nervously.

“Don’t believe in what Tomohisa was saying last night Katase-san, he was just joking and just wanted to talk to me. I assure you I am not pregnant.” By this time she was wishing that Tomohisa was still passed out in his bed and wouldn’t make an appearance to make the situation get worse.

“Pity, you two make a very cute couple.” Katase-san said. “Well, I must get to my grocery shopping. See you later girls.” She smiled at both Maki and Erika before heading off to the elevators. Once the woman was surely gone, Maki turned to Erika.

“It’s early in the morning! What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to have breakfast with you! Kazuya was still sleepy so I thought I’d eat with my best friend!” Erika declared. “Imagine my shock when I come here and find out that you’re pregnant!”

“I am not pregnant!” Maki exclaimed. “It was Tomohisa being the idiot that he is! I knew some people would hear…”

“You will tell me all about this later, let’s go and eat.” Erika said, pulling on her friend’s arm.

They’d chosen a small café not far from the apartment building where people were still few.

“Ne, so tell me what happened last night?” Erika asked, laying her arms on the café table and giving Maki a look the latter could not resist.

She started telling it when Tomohisa had knocked on the door and caused havoc on the whole apartment floor. Then followed with what happened once they were inside her apartment.   

At the ned of Maki’s story, it was evident that Erika couldn’t help but laugh.

“Thank you, thank you very much, That man had given much issue to my neighbors.” Maki said in an annoyed tone.

Erika was still laughing when she answered. “It’s ‘cause you didn’t let him in. And come on Maki, Tomo already told you he likes you, so what the heck are you waiting for?”

“Well…” Maki heaved a deep breath. This was hard. This wasn’t even a part of her life plan! “Wait a minute, how come just because he told me he likes me I have to like him back?”

Erika’s eyes rolled at what her friend said. “Whatever Maki, if h admitted it or not, you’ve already liked him from the start.”

“Well I never…” Maki stopped. How come it seemed her friend knew more about her than she did?

When she didn’t continue, Erika did.

“There isn’t an obstacle or something so what’s stopping you?”

“I just think this is going too fast.” Maki said. First and foremost, Tomohisa was like this infuriating guy to her but no matter what she did they were still friends.

“You’ve known him for two years Maki!” Erika reasoned out. “It’s not like you’ve just met him on the internet and started cyber-s--”

“Don’t! Don’t finish that sentence.” Maki said, halting Erika with a lift of her hand.

“Just, I don’t know, I’m not forcing you or anything Maki-chan.” Erika said calmly, laying a hand on her friend’s. “I mean, you’ve never been in a relationship so why not start with someone you already know?” She laughed. “Truth is, the first time I saw you together I thought you were perfect for each other.”

Maki laughed at that. “Eri-chan, the first time you saw me together with Tomohisa, we were arguing about the fundamentals of music.”

Erika only smiled. “Exactly.”

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Tomohisa heard. He had sharp ears after all. He heard the women’s conversation right outside his apartment. He knew Maki was going to leave early and try to avoid him. He let her. The train ride was like a blur to him. He just needed to get through to this day.

“Ohayo Yamaa-sensei.”

“Ohayo.” He greeted the students tersely.

It wasn’t that he was a snob or anything. He just looked rather stern whenever he walked. He reached the faculty only to notice that Maki had already arrived since her bag was there but she herself sadly was nowhere to be seen.

“Ohayou Tomo… sleep well? I’ve heard you’ve impregnated Maki?” Kazuya suddenly came to his side, bombing through with the information. He only smiled in return.

“Ah, so Erika already told you?” He said, sitting down by his desk while Kazuya chose to stand beside the large piece of wood.

“You know my girlfriend, always ready to tell me things.”

They both laughed but after a short while Kazuya turned serious. “But tell me the truth Tomo, what do you really plan to do with Maki?”

Tomohisa knew his friend worried for Maki. Kazuya was Maki’s friend too. And yes, he was used to flings then and had never been in a serious relationship but that didn’t mean that that was what he was going to do with Maki.

He looked at Kazuya. “Would you believe me if I told you that I am serious with her?”

They looked at each other before Kazuya smirked. “Yes. Because this is the first time you ever told me that you’re serious about a girl.” He left, giving a small smile while Tomohisa was left with his own thoguhts.

From all the thinking going on, Tomohisa almost forgot he had a one on one session. It was included in his own curriculum and he remembered that Ryosuke was the one scheduled for that morning. He grabbed his guitar and headed straight for where he was supposed to meet with his student.

Ryosuke was already inside the studio when Tomohisa arrived; the student was tuning his guitar.

“Ohayo gozaimasu sensei.” Ryosuke greeted.

Tomohisa nodded his head and entered, carrying with him his stuff. He placed his guitar on the sofa and faced his student.

“Ohayo Yamada-kun, jaa hajime…”

Tomohisa started with a few exercises to see how sharp the boy’s hearing was. He had to admit, with just some tightening and sharpening here and there, Ryosuke could be one of his greatest students.

He was fair and so opted that they take a short break. “Let’s have a break for five minutes.”

It was obvious that the young man as happy with this since he pulled out his phone and started text messaging. Tomohisa on the other hand, drank from a bottle of water he brought with him.

He wasn’t snoopy but Tomohisa couldn’t help but look at Ryosuke’s wallpaper. The picture was of Ryosuke and who seemed to be his parents, plus Mirai. It looked like a vacation picture.

“My parents…”

He shifted when he heard Ryosuke speak up. Dammit, he got caught.

“Ah…” he cleared his throat. “You went on a vacation?”

“Hai, to Hawaii.” Ryosuke smiled. “My father is my idol. He just cares about us so much.”

Tomohisa intently looked at the picture. Ryosuke did look like his parents. Fifty fifty if you would say. And the dad was young, as if he was Ryosuke’s older brother.

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Maki had just finished with her class when she saw Ryo walking down the hallway with his guitar in tow.

He also saw her and smiled her way.

“Hi Maki, where’d you come from?” Ryo asked.

“I just finished with a class, where are you going?” Maki answered once they were side by side.

“Nowhere, just walking around, it’s my break for 30 minutes.” Many students greeted as they walked. Their walk reached unto a quiet area where there were fewer students.

“Maki are you alright?” Ryo asked as he looked at the pretty girl. “Why do you look so pale? Did you get any sleep last night?”

Maki laughed silently to herself. But she didn’t show it, Ryo might think she’s losing her mind. “I’m alright, just doing so many things…” Truth was, she and Tomohisa still needed to finish the song. But how to do it now that she was so bent on avoiding him.

“Oh that’s right, how are things? Weren’t you guys recording that song?”

Would she tell him? But Maki shook her head. “We didn’t finish, some things were… complicated.” Yes complicated; her situation with Tomohisa and not the song.

Maki suddenly felt a heavy presence. She raised her head and turned to the end of the hallway… it was Tomohisa. The man was intently looking at her and Ryo. At first his expression was blank but she saw the hint of sadness on his face before he turned and walked away. .

“Tomo!”

She didn’t care that she left Ryo there. She just stood up and went after Tomohisa. The man was in the process of rounding the corner but she stopped him by grabbing his arm.

“Tomo what gives…”

“I’m a little tired Maki can we talk later?”  Tomohisa said, not looking her in the eye.

All the steam suddenly escaped Maki’s head. “That’s exactly what I told you last night Tomo but what did you do? You went yelling a lie and forced me.”

“Fine, what are you going to say?” This time Tomohisa was looking at her. All of what she was going to say was lost. His eyes just were to deep and were pulling her in.

When she didn’t say anything, Tomohisa started to walk away again.

“Wait a minute what is this you are doing?” Maki asked suddenly. “This isn’t the ususal teasing and banter we do. Why are you mad?!”

Tomohisa closed his eyes in agitation before approaching Maki. “That’s exactly it. I know I have no right to be jealous Maki, but yes I am jealous of you and Ryo. But I can’t help it. But I remember that I have no right since you are not mine so it’s better I lessen this martyrdom of mine and just not see you. So Maki please, let me talk to you later.” Maki was not able to speak since Tomohisa had already rounded the corner away from her sight.

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AN: Hello minna-san! I promise I'll update again this week! Exams just eneded and I am beat. comment please! and thank you for reading! <3