As promised, just a month-and-a-half before senior year was over, the gang had received their mail regarding whether they would get into the college they had requested to. Mirai and Ryosuke had received theirs two days ago, Juri and Haruka had received theirs yesterday, and today, Shintaro had received his. After he had called to inform his friends, they voluntarily rushed to the virtual couple’s house as promised to open their letters together.

“Ryosuke,” said Haruka, “it’s your turn. You’re the last one.” She and the gang looked at him.

The friends were sitting in a circle on the living room floor with their acceptance letters in front of them. They had read their acceptance letter one by one, and everyone but Ryosuke, who had yet to read his, had been accepted into Tokyo University, but it wasn’t a celebration yet until they knew of each other’s statuses.

Worried, Mirai softly nudged him. “Ryosuke?”

He looked at her, and his sullen expression answered her.

His friends gasped, and Juri’s hushed, “No way!” could be heard. Within seconds, everyone but Mirai, frozen with shock, surrounded him, trying to comfort him.

Mirai brokenly uttered, “Ryosuke… How—how…” Her water-filled eyes blurred her vision, and once the friends removed themselves from him, she hugged him. Sniffling, she said, “I wish we could attend college together.”

He patted her back. “You don’t have to because we are.”

The friends were confused. Didn’t his sad expression earlier meant that he was turned down?

Mirai slowly pulled herself away from him and saw a nonchalant Ryosuke looking back at her. She had a bad feeling about the situation, so she clenched tightly onto his t-shirt in case she might need to get him back. “What. Do. You. Mean?”

“I mean what I mean, duh.” He didn’t share an ounce of worry as the rest of them.

Juri swiped the paper in Ryosuke’s hands and skimmed through it, eyes gradually becoming big. “Oi, Ryosuke! You!”

Haruka and Shintaro took a peep at the paper, and they too had the same expression as Juri. “You lied to us?”

“I did not lie,” said Ryosuke. “You guys assumed it yourself.”

That was Mirai’s confirmation. She got on her knees, held tight on his shirt, and tug it with all her might, and shouted, “How. Dare. You. Lie. To. Me. Like. That? Don’t you know how devastating that was? Don’t joke like that—ever again— Ryosuke!”

Shintaro was about to stop her, but Haruka halted her boyfriend, saying, “Let her show him that it wasn’t nice to scare us like that. Even I was hurt and worried.” She looked down and quietly said, “I don’t want us to be apart even when we become adults.”

He hugged his girlfriend, understanding her feelings. “I don’t think we’ll ever be apart.” He and his girlfriend smiled and enjoyed the scene in front of them: Mirai wiping her tears, Ryosuke begging for forgiveness, and Juri and Mayu talking to each other.

They hoped to themselves that none of them would ever change.

*

“Mi-chan…” Ryosuke whined at the sofa. He had been trying to get her to talk to him for two hours ever since she had gotten mad at him for lying to her about his acceptance letter. “Talk to me.”

Mirai ignored him and acted like he wasn’t there. She even looked past him and said to Haruka, who was behind him, “Haruka, can I sleep at your place tonight with Natsu?”

“Eh?” Ryosuke interjected, looking back at Haruka and shaking his head.

Haruka stuck her tongue at him and said to him, “This is my revenge for tricking us.” She looked back at Mirai. “Sure. Stay with me forever if you want. I know I won’t make you worry like how some jerk had.”

“Mi-chan!” Ryosuke rapidly got on his knees in front of Mirai. “Gomen! Gomen ne!” As he bowed to her, he missed the chance to see how amused she was. “I won’t lie ever again.”

“Didn’t you say that when Natsu was sick?” Mirai arched a brow at him as she reminded him.

He quickly answered without hesitation, “Starting from now on, of course.”

“I can’t trust you anymore.”

“Mou, Mi-chan, don’t leave me! You can’t leave me.”

“And why can’t I?”

“B-Because…” Since he couldn’t think of a reason, he thought of a way to make it up to her. “Fine, I’ll let you make me do anything for a day.”

She didn’t take it.

“Fine, three.” He put up his fingers and added a smile.

She shook her head. “Still too short.”

The friends agreed.

“A week!” he shouted, standing up, but she shook her head again. He knew he’d regret what he’d say next, but if it would make his friend happy, he was willing to. “Fine, your choice.” When he saw her gorgeous smirk, his heart fluttered.

“A month.”

*

“Massage my shoulders,” Mirai ordered her friend, which he came over with a smile. She had just put Natsu to sleep beside her and wanted to order her friend around.

Everyone else had gone home after dinner, so the virtual family was getting ready to sleep. They were in the bedroom, and Mirai sat at the bedside as Ryosuke was by the closet.

“Hai, my lady,” said Ryosuke. He even added a gesture a butler would do. He noticed she was wearing a spaghetti-strapped tank-top, and asked, “You’re okay with me touching you with that on?”

She looked at her shoulders and understood his question and shrugged. “Yeah, why?” Seeing her friend standing there with hesitation, she had to . She slid the left side of her spaghetti strap down over her shoulder, raised her bare shoulder to her chin, and batted her eyes at him. “Scared to touch this?”

He cleared his throat and knew she was mocking and challenging him. He put up a front and casually said, “As if. You should know that I’m the only brave person to touch a man-girl’s body because no one else would.” Not wanting to look at her to give away that he was shy, he positioned himself to sit behind her on the bed and pulled down the other strap. “See, I’m brave.”

She giggled to herself. The moment she felt his touch, his hard but soft pressure on her shoulders, she couldn’t help but be relaxed. She thought back to when he had lied to them about not getting accepted into the same university, and the same hurt emotions overwhelmed her. He had been her closest friend and family for almost a year and a half, and she couldn’t imagine life without him. She didn’t think she could handle another separation even if they could still meet outside of school. But she didn’t have to worry about it anymore. He was always going to stay in her life whether she liked it or not. With that assurance, she placed a hand on one of his hands.

It prompted him to question her, “What’s wrong?” When she didn’t respond, he leaned forward to see her reaction and saw her staring blankly at the wall in front of her. “Mi-chan, you—”

She sniffled as a tear dropped from the side of her cheek and turned around to hug him. She smiled when he hugged her back and rocked her. “I’m glad we’re going to college together, Ryosuke.” She looked up at him.

“Me too. Mi-chan.” He looked down at her. “Thanks. Thanks for wanting to be with me.”

They chuckled under their breaths. The longer the two friends stared at each other, they could feel a sense of heat from within their bodies. His hands tingled to move around her body, itching to caress every inch of her, but he managed to not do so. As for her, without knowing and with no restraint, she raised her head, inching closer to his face, and stamped a stagnant kiss on his lips. They closed their eyes at the same time and indulged in the mood until Natsu’s out-of-the-blue gasp made them pull away from their little world.

She quickly removed herself away from him and stood up as she pulled up her straps over her shoulders. She pretended to be busy with fixing the bed as she told him, “I-I—we should go to sleep.”

“Yeah.” He got up to make way for her to fix the bed. As he watched her diligently fold the blankets and puff the pillows, he realized she was as shy as he was.

But no matter how shy and happy they both were at what had happened, they realized their relationship had taken a turn it shouldn’t have.

*

In two-and-a-half weeks, the gang, excluding Mayu, would graduate from high school and go off to college. Because of this, Juri had asked for help from his friends to come up with a good way to ask Mayu out because he feared that with the distance and less time to see Mayu after graduation, he wouldn’t be able to be as close to her. Haruka had suggested an overly expensive way to confess, which Juri had rejected because he had no money. Shintaro had suggested asking her out like a normal date, but Juri said that she might not see the underlying message. As for Ryosuke, his suggestion was to kiss her and then confess. In response, Juri said he wanted to be her boyfriend, not her ert. For Mirai, he didn’t bother to ask. His reasoning when his friends asked why: she had no experience in dating. He promised to come to her when he needed help with babies though, thinking that would make her feel better.

Since the term was almost ending, the gang, including Mayu and Natsu, were at the nearby park hanging out together on a Saturday to discuss their graduation trip after a light game of baseball together. They hadn’t decided on the destination because they figured their finances put together would determine how far and how long they could go. They formed a wide enough circle with junk food in the middle and with Natsu walking around them. When the little boy got too far, Mirai used “puppy” Ryosuke to fetch him for her.

When she saw Natsu’s hands covered in dirt, she ordered Ryosuke to bring him to her. Once Natsu was on her lap, she took out hand wipes and cleaned his dirty hands, snotty nose, and saliva-covered mouth. She thought she was done, but Ryosuke stuck out his mouth full of crumbs he had purposely smeared around his mouth. She couldn’t help but laughed and wiped it off for him. “Hai, all gone, Natsu Jr.”

“I want to do something dangerous but fun,” confessed Juri, “like bungee jumping, skydiving, or jumping off from a cliff into the ocean!”

“I’ll drop you right now,” Haruka retorted with a tone of irritation. She sighed and showed him a printed paper with bars and graphs and a long list of whatever she had on there. “I want to live after I turn eighteen, not die.”

“Of course, we’ll be prepared, Haruka.”

“What about Mayu-chan? She won’t be eighteen yet, and I’m sure all of your ‘dangerous but fun’ activities will need consent. Do you think her parents will consent to her death?”

Juri propped his mouth open and then closed it when he understood her point. He sadly shook his head in defeat.

Mayu voiced out, “Umm, don’t worry about me. It’s your guys’ graduation trip, so I don’t have to—”

“You have to go,” insisted Juri, facing her. “If you don’t go, I’ll be lonely and—and—”

“Oh, you’re going to say it now?” teased Ryosuke, making Juri stop speaking and cowarding away with a bashful expression.

To get revenge for embarrassing and worrying Juri, Mirai smacked Ryosuke in the head for purposely doing so, although Haruka and Shintaro laughed behind the scenes. Mirai smiled at Mayu. “You’re a friend too, so you have to come along.”

Juri brightened up, nodding to Mirai’s comment.

“It’s better if we can all do everything together.”

“Jaa,” Mayu shyly bowed to thank the group, “doumo arigatou gozaimasu.”

The friends continued their discussion about where to go and what to do, but nothing came to them. The talk gradually ceased when they realized that trying to have fun and make everlasting memories as teenagers were a terrible combination.

When Ryosuke stared at his son, an idea came to him. He shot up with excitement. “Let’s go camping!”

“Camping?” questioned the friends. Why hadn’t they thought of that? So far, their ideas were skydiving, parachuting, skiing, and snorkeling, all of which cost a fortune, let alone their lives.

Ryosuke raised a finger. “We only need to pinch in money for cabin and food, then we’re set!”

The friends were immediately persuaded, and after two hours of their enthusiastic planning for camping, Mirai and Ryosuke started to pack up. The friends asked why, and Mirai explained that she was meeting up with the person who had given the necklace to Natsu and then would take Natsu to his pediatrician for a health checkup.

“But Ryosuke’s not going with you?” asked Shintaro. “Why not? You don’t know who that stranger is, and you’re meeting up alone.”

Ryosuke blew a raspberry. “I want to go, but she said I’ll make the situation worse. Since I can’t go with her, I’m giving her my bat so the stranger can use it against man-girl.”

The friends laughed.

“How will his tagging along make the situation worse, Mi-chan?” asked Haruka.

Mirai butted in before Ryosuke could because he’d say something other than the truth. “He wants to keep the necklace. I want to return it.”

“I’d keep it too.” She and Ryosuke high-fived each other.

“I appreciate the thought,” added Mirai, “but I’ll only accept it if it’s from someone we know.”

Shintaro stood up from his spot with furrowed brows in a manner of curiosity. “Do you think it’s from his mom?” His question brought a whole new wave of tension to the group.

Juri, the supposed slowest one in the group, caught on quite fast and shot the question, “Is that why you want to meet this stranger—to see if it’s Natsu’s biological parent?”

Mirai breathed out and then nodded.

Everyone else stood up in shock after this revelation. Juri and Haruka, the only two thrilled ones, surrounded Mirai and repeatedly said to her, “You have to tell us if it’s his real family or not, okay?”

She took a step back and almost tripped on Ryosuke’s leg, but he caught her in time. She smiled as she said to Juri and Haruka, “Will do.” She looked at her two friends jumping up and down in anticipation and then felt a light squeeze from around her shoulders. She turned her attention to Ryosuke, who was still holding onto her, and forced a small smile.

He whispered to her, “You’ll be fine. Even if it is his mom, you’ll always be the one who raised him. To me, you’re his only mom.”

She hugged him. “Thanks, Ryosuke. Thanks.”

*

Ryosuke’s encouraging words repeated in her mind, giving her strength to walk on as she headed toward the destination to meet up with the stranger along with Natsu in his stroller. She wanted to walk slower but knew it was best not to, for it’d be rude of her to arrive late when she was the one who had made the appointment.

“Natsu,” she spoke, lowly, “do you also wonder what your real mother is like? I do too. Sometimes, I have dreams that she stops by the door and asks for you back with a gentle voice, tears smear all over her face, and an angelic smile that resembles yours. In my dream, I gave you to her without hesitation, but now…” She stopped walking and looked down at her son in the stroller. “I wonder if I can do that.”

*

Ryosuke was sitting on the couch but wasn’t really watching TV because he kept looking at his cell phone, hoping to receive a text or a call from his virtual wife, but so far, even though it had been two hours, there was nothing from her. Even his friends, Haruka and Juri, had been bugging him about it, calling every thirty minutes or so. Around five-thirty, his cell finally rang after its long silence, and instead of a number that he was waiting for, it was a number he wasn’t quite familiar with.

He picked up regardless and said into the phone with curiosity, “Hello?”

“Hi, I’m calling from Tokyo Children’s Clinic