Ryosuke stopped his friends from walking any further into the hospital. “Matte.”

“Yeah?” they said, looking at him.

“Never mind. Let’s not do this.”

“You want to see her, don’t you?” asked Haruka.

“I do, but not this way.” He exhaled and scowled. “Mi-chan and I have done nothing wrong. Our marriage is just a safe way to deal with Natsu’s situation, and I don’t want them to believe that we’ve committed something wrong.” He dashed past his friends and entered the building.

“Ryosuke, you can’t enter the room!” The friends tried to stop him, but no matter what they say, he didn’t listen.

Shintaro purposely mentioned the restraining order to warn him that he could end up in jail and lose his only chance to see his virtual family forever.

Ryosuke froze and didn’t answer. Or care. He had something in his mind, and that was what mattered now.

By the time the gang was in front of the room, Haruka used all her might to shove Ryosuke to the side and then stood by the door to block her friend’s path. “I won’t let you do this. Our plan will work. I know it will!” She was on the verge of crying. She didn’t want him to get into legal trouble. Besides, she believed it was her responsibility to care for him, now that Mirai was unavailable.

“I don’t want to do the plan anymore, Haruka.”

“But they don’t want to see you.”

“But I want to see them. I want to see them before I see her.”

The friends looked at him, confused. Were they hearing it right, that Ryosuke wanted to see Mirai’s parents, the people who had forbidden him by law to not get close to Mirai simply because of a ‘bad marriage?’

“Haruka,” he begged, “let me through.”

She shook her head. “No. Her parents are in there, and I’m not—”

To everyone’s shock, Shintaro took Haruka by the hand and calmly escorted her away from the door.

In response to this, Ryosuke sent Shintaro a thankful smile as Juri and Haruka questioned Shintaro.

When Ryosuke opened the door, inside indeed were Mirai’s parents at her bedside. They locked eyes, and Mr. Shida was quick to show his dismay.

Mr. Shida stood up. “You aren’t—”

Ryosuke did the unexpected—he got on his knees with his head hung low. “I’m not sorry for taking your daughter. I’m not sorry for having a child with her. I’m not sorry that she married me. But I am sorry for not being the capable man I should’ve been for her. She deserves a better man, someone who’ll make her laugh, not worry, and will love her like love only exists for them. But no matter how flawed, how imperfect, or how crazy I am, only she understands, knows, and accepts it all. Simply because I’m me.” He paused and with clenched fists for support, he raised his head to stare straight back at Mr. Shida. “No matter how much you hate me, I won’t care, but I beg before you, please, spare me a moment with… With my best friend.”

“I—”

“You can.” It was Mrs. Shida, and this prompted a stare-off between the elderly couple.

The teens didn’t know what to do. They didn’t expect this to happen.

Mr. Shida was disgruntled. To his wife, he asked, “What are you saying?”

She didn’t dare to look at her husband and instead, with a shaky tone, she said to Ryosuke, “Y-you can visit her.”

Before Ryosuke could thank her—or even question her permission—Mr. Shida questioned his wife.

“Are you stupid?” Mr. Shida threw his hands in the air. “He’s the reason our daughter’s in this mess!”

Mrs. Shida’s eyes became filled with water. “Dear, can’t you see how sincere he is? They’ve spent a year together, and I can’t bring myself to separate them!”

“Spending a year is nothing!”

“Let’s not hurt them anymore. They’re married. We thought he wouldn’t love our daughter because they’re young, but they’ve been living well, happily together.”

“And how would you know?”

“Because I saw them!”

Everyone in the room widened their eyes in response. And just like Mr. Shida, everyone was curious as to how Mrs. Shida had seen them when she had never made her appearance in the virtual couple’s lives at all.

Mrs. Shida went to Ryosuke, pulled him up, and added, “I saw them during Hatsumode. They didn’t see me, but I was looking at them from afar.” She fixed his shirt, patting it. Shamefully, she said to him, “Thank you. Thank you for all that you’ve done for my daughter.” She glanced at the blue curtains behind her. “I’m sure Mi-chan would want to see you too. Spend the night here.”

Before her husband could object, she quickly dragged her husband out of the room but was stopped when Ryosuke spoke again, this time, asking her a question.

“Did you give Natsu the necklace?” asked Ryosuke.

“Necklace?” Mrs. Shida thought to herself. “I haven’t given him anything.”

“Oh.” He appreciatively bowed to them. “Doumo arigatou gozaimata.” After he sent the elderly couple off and the door closed, the thrilled friends gave Ryosuke a group hug to celebrate his success.

Shintaro broke the group hug and said, “kay, let’s leave them alone. We’ve gotten our chances to see her plenty of times already, so let’s give him his.”

“Thanks.”

“Anytime, friend.”

As the friends left, Ryosuke’s adrenaline consumed him, making him excited and thrilled. Or were they feelings of fear and guilt? Either way, contrary to what he had thought, he was hesitant to see his best friend behind the curtain, the only thing blocking his view of her, the only thing allowing him to see her…

The only thing allowing him to be with her.

No, he couldn’t back down now, not after all that it took him to go through.

Without any more thought, he swung the curtain to the side while holding his breath. Within seconds, a peaceful, pale-looking beauty, sleeping serenely on the bed, laid before him. His suppressed emotions overflowed and gushed out of him as he grabbed her hand and cried his heart out to her.

You’re really okay, Mi-chan! I’m…! You’re okay!

*

“You’ll be spending the night?” asked a nurse to Ryosuke. She had come to tend and check up on Mirai and saw Ryosuke sitting on the couch glued to the wall.

“Yes, I am.” He watched the nurse fix the blanket, check her temperature, check the wound, and fill the IV bag. Right after the nurse was finished, he asked, “Will she be awake soon?”

“Maybe in a day or two. Her body had been exhausted and will need to get adjusted to the blood transfusion she had received this morning, and if her body doesn’t reject the help, she’ll be awake by then. If you have any more questions, feel free to contact one of us.”

“Thank you.”

The nurse left, leaving Ryosuke alone with Mirai.

Ryosuke was relieved. Finally, he had gotten a positive update about her. He stretched on the couch and realized that if he was going to sleep here, he needed a few necessities. He didn’t want to leave, so he thought of requesting his brother’s help. Besides, he wanted to inform the older guy of the good news. Just as he pulled out his phone, he received a text message from his brother to meet outside in ten minutes.

At first, he was confused. Why meet outside?

It took him seconds to realize that it was most likely related to the “witness.”

*

Mrs. Yamada had just barely gotten through the door of her house and for the first time in her marriage, she wasn’t surprised to see that her husband was home, who was casually sitting in the living room and reading something off his laptop while sipping tea. She subtly shook her head as she closed the door behind her and walked to him. “How could you do such a thing to a young child?”

“What thing?” he asked, eyes completely glued to the screen.

“You think no one knows what you did two nights ago?”

“What did I do?”

“You—”

The door behind Mrs. Yamada violently swung open, and in popped an infuriated Ryosuke with Kota behind, who was trying to calm Ryosuke down.

Ryosuke, holding tightly onto something in his hand, walked past his mother and went straight to his father. “You caused the accident?”

This obtained Mr. Yamada’s attention, and he glanced away from his screen to the three family members standing near the door. He put his cup down and lightly closed his laptop. He’d do his reading later. “What accident?”

Ryosuke tossed the item in his hand to his father’s chest, and it bounced off his chest to the floor. He pointed to the fallen item, a USB flash drive. “It’s all caught on there, and you want to act innocent? That’s disgusting!”

Kota pulled Ryosuke to the side, but his younger brother didn’t budge. Kota sighed and looked at his father. “Dad, we know you’re whom Mirai went to see, and you were also the last person she saw before it happened. Why did you do that to her, and to a child?”

“I am the last person she saw that day,” admitted Mr. Yamada, “but I am not the person she was going to see. The person you’re referring to is your mother. I’m assuming she came to you after the accident?”

Ryosuke confusingly stared at his brother. “What does Dad mean? What does Mom got to do with any of this?”

Mrs. Yamada, from the side, uttered, “I’m the one who gave Natsu the necklace. And the person she wanted to meet.”

“Mom?”

Kota clarified the situation. “Ryosuke, Mom told me about how she was supposed to meet up with Mirai at the café, but Mirai never showed up, so when the accident happened, she had a feeling something went wrong, and after she overheard that you were a prime suspect of the case, she came to me.”

“Remember when the supervisor from the Daycare Center had called to ask if Mirai-san was there with you?” asked Mrs. Yamada, to which Ryosuke nodded. She continued, “I went there after waiting for almost three hours past the appointed time when she didn’t show up. After I came home, I was surprised to see your father home too, and he was busily conversing with someone on the phone. When I eavesdropped, I heard him say something about being a witness, but I didn’t make the connection until Kota came back to read off his old law books and slipped that you’ve been accused of intentional murder.”

“I didn’t think that calling in as a fake witness would rat me out,” commented Mr. Yamada, “but I guess it did.” He locked eyes with his youngest son. “I had firmly believed that it’d bring you back on your knees, making you realized that your elopement was a mistake.”

Ryosuke couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Mirai’s father and his own father believed and assumed that their marriage was wrong, or stupid, or dumb, or anything but happy and fun. Why? Was it because of the young age? Was it because they didn’t think that teenagers could live well without the support of any adult supervision? True, thought Ryosuke, Kota had the friends’ backs the entire time, but he and Mirai were a great team together.

Having had heard enough insults from both sides regarding his “marriage,” he had to break it to his father. “Yeah, marrying her was wrong.”

Kota and Mrs. Yamada beamed their eyes at him, not understanding why he had said what he said, while Mr. Yamada found this interesting.

“Running off to live with her was wrong. Having no adult supervision was wrong.” Ryosuke slipped a smile and added, “But you know what? Every single moment of my marriage with her felt right—is right. Every day was noisy, and it was a handful to deal with, but we dealt with it together, something you don’t know because you’ve always done everything yourself, even in your marriage with Mom. When I was living alone—without you, without mom, or without nii-san—it was peaceful. Quiet. But I did everything myself. She showed—no—she gave me what a family was supposed to be like, to feel like, to live like. You work in that field, you should know. Or has focusing on life become a job and is no longer something you wish you were a part of because, frankly, I don’t have any memories of us four as a family. Back then, I yearned for that like crazy.”

Ryosuke scoffed and laughed it off. “To hell with that now. I don’t need to wish for it anymore because I have a family where I can feel and be a part of. I had it every day—with an awesome, mature, responsible, fun, and loving girl named Mirai, and a cute, dorky, mischievous, and headache-prone little boy named Natsu. Guess that’s something I’ll have to wish for again because you really like messing with life. Well, you know what, Dad? You can’t jump back into my life when you’ve never played a part in it from the beginning, and you won’t ever. And harming my family definitely won’t win me over.

“Let me say this right now to clear things up with you—our ‘marriage’ isn’t even a real marriage at all. Natsu? As much as I love that brat, he isn’t our kid! His father’s some random stranger whose name happened to be like mine, and, coincidentally, the brat was dropped off at our door. Kota-nii’s working on the case, trying to find the son of a gun who left Natsu. As for Mirai, she’s a friend who was kind enough to lie to everyone, including to her own family, that she’s the biological mother.”

Mrs. Yamada gasped and covered . Up until this moment, she had believed that Mirai was the real mother and, instead, her son was covering it up for a random stranger also named Ryosuke. She had never thought it’d be the opposite of what she had imagined.

On the contrary, her husband didn’t react to the truth.

Ryosuke, having said what he didn’t think he’d ever say to anyone—or at least not until he and Mirai had mutually agreed to say so, paused to take a deep breath and to assess the situation. Seeing his father’s blank reaction, he knew that it was useless to say anything else. But before he was to leave, he would be firm on the one thing he wanted to get across to his father. “I’m only at my best when she’s by my side. And I only want to be at my worst with her. If you ever harm her or try to even harm her again, I won’t bother to come after you, but I can promise that the person who will follow her next is me because my life is tied with hers. Let’s see if you dare to kill off your own son.”

*

Kota entered his small apartment and exhaustedly spread his entire body on the couch. Today had been a very long and tiring day. Too many important and shocking events had happened—Mirai and Natsu’s accident, choosing one of them to “save” with the possibility that the one who got surgical attention at a later time had a higher chance of death, the restraining order along with the “witness,” and finally—the last big bomb—their father had started everything.

As he thought of these events, he sadly laughed to himself. His father didn’t start all of this. He did. Indirectly. He didn’t intend for any of this to happen. It was an innocent act of his that had turned bad, all because of the virtual marriage idea he had suggested. As Ryosuke’s heart-touching confessions to their father repeated in his mind—fresh and clear— Kota didn’t think that being married could empower and change someone drastically. He had honestly thought that his brother would be the least affected, but no, he was shown and proved wrong.

He pushed himself up to sit straight on the couch in the dark room and stared at the black bag he frequently carried. About ten seconds later, he got up, walked to it, opened the bag, took out a big and heavy book—the only heavy item he carried—and skimmed to the page he had a picture hidden in between the pages. He took the picture out and had a staring contest with a specific person in the picture.

Among the dead silence, he questioned, “I’m weak, aren’t I? Even my childish brother had the guts to say what he needed to say.” He dropped the picture out of his hands, not seeing where it flew under to, and then he dropped to the floor on his knees. With his eyes closed and tears streaming down his cheeks, he quietly uttered, “Don’t… Don’t take Natsu. Let him help me redeem myself…Mi…”

*

Ryosuke woke up to the sounds of footsteps from nearby and realized that it was morning and some doctors had entered the room. He quickly sat up and glanced at Mirai on the bed before her surgeon walked to check up on her. He waited patiently at a corner, making sure that he wasn’t getting in the way and that good news would be received soon, but after five or so minutes, they left with a quick exchange of nods. He washed his face and then grabbed a bite from the hospital cafeteria and almost killed himself for having not thoroughly chew through his food. After his quick breakfast, he dropped by to see Natsu and was notified that Natsu was breathing fine now as he had had breathing problems before. By the time he came back to the room, he was disappointed because he had hoped that Mirai would miraculously be awakened if he had left her.

He sat at the couch again, caught the time on his phone, and remembered that today was a very important day—graduation practice. He didn’t hesitate to send his friends a text about it.

Ryosuke: not coming today @ 9: