After the “walking the stage” event, the gym room completely lightened up, and a long table of snacks, foods, and drinks was laid out for everyone to dig in. But before anyone was interested in those, they surrounded Mirai and Ryosuke with questions regarding their “secret relationship.”

“Why did you hide it?”

“Why didn’t you go public?”

“Since when have you guys been dating?”

“Who knew about this?”

The most popular question of all was, “Have ya done it?”

The informal interview ended because someone accidentally nabbed at Mirai’s wound while trying to push their way over.

Ryosuke reminded them that she was hurt and asked for space and left them with an answer to their questions. “We’re not dating, and that’s final.” With that said and done, he escorted her to where Kota, Natsu, and Mayu were sitting.

“Are you okay?” asked Mayu to Mirai.

“I’m fine, thanks,” Mirai assured her. She looked at her son and then asked Kota, “I hope he didn’t give you any trouble.”

Kota smiled. “He was very much involved with the crowd.”

The friends laughed at the joke.

“But,” Kota resumed, “why did you guys…kiss?” His eyes landed on Mirai, and she got the underlying message from him.

Ryosuke scowled. “Hey, you saw it! I didn’t kiss her. She kissed me!” He slouched in the seat beside her and pretended to be mad. “Now do you see what I have to live with every day?”

Kota’s eyes widened, and he asked his brother, “What—you two kiss every day?”

Mirai interrupted with much haste. “It’s not a kiss at all! It’s-it’s—I’m treating him like how I treat Natsu. That’s all.” She bit her lower lip and added, “But…earlier...it was.”

The friends gasped, though Ryosuke’s gasp sounded the most horrified of all.

Mirai understood their reaction but ignored it. She gently brushed a hand over Natsu’s hair and explained, “For today…that kiss is a memory to keep.” She slowly looked at Kota to send him her underlying message.

*

The graduation ceremony ended two-and-a-half hours later after everyone had caught up on what they planned to do during their college years and their future goals. There were a lot of “working part-time,” “laying off college for a year or so,” and “marriage isn’t until ten years from now” comments. Of course, because this was all planned by Ryosuke, the gang had to stay an extra hour to clean and put away equipment back to its place as promised. At first, the friends told Ryosuke to do everything himself while they watch, but he took forever to do everything, so the boys but Kota had to help.

“Haruka,” asked Mirai, “why did he do this?”

“Oh, he didn’t tell you about it?” she sullenly asked in return.

“He told me nothing about today.”

Haruka glanced at Ryosuke and then back at Mirai, showing hesitation for what she was to say next. “Mi-chan, he didn’t walk the stage with us.”

“What?” Her shriek scared Natsu, so he cried. She was about to take care of him, but Kota said that he’d do it and for her to continue her conversation with Haruka because she needed to know about it.

“Mi-chan.” Haruka didn’t know where and how to begin. At first, she had thought of bursting Ryosuke’s little surprise, but she realized that an explanation of hers—no, any explanation—would sound like it was because of Mirai that he didn’t walk the stage even though he could. She just didn’t think she’d be the one to say it to her.

“Haruka, tell me. Please, don’t do this to me again. I-I just want to know what that baka was thinking.”

Yeah, he is a baka. He’s such a baka who bowed, begged, and signed a petition to get this done for you. “Mi-chan…d-don’t think otherwise, okay?”

Mirai nodded without hesitation.

“You said it yourself too that he’s a baka, so whatever he does, it’s all because he’s stupid. Got it?”

She nodded.

“When you were hospitalized and hadn’t woken up yet, he knew you wouldn’t be healed on time to walk with us, so-so, he asked…the school for permission to allow this to happen.”

“Why?”

“Because he wanted to walk with you.”

He did this AND did not walk the stage…for me?

“kay, ready?” asked someone else. It was Ryosuke coming their way, and the girls perked up at the sight of the boys in front of them. He looked around and asked, “Where’s nii-san and the brat? His stroller’s there.” He pointed to the stroller beside Mirai and then caught the girls’ downcast expressions. “You guys okay?”

Haruka beamed a smile and nodded as Mirai didn’t look at him but muttered a ghastly, “Yeah...”

*

Walking out of the gym, the friends found Kota watching Natsu walking around in awe of the new sights around him. When Kota spotted the gang, he waved for them to come over.

“Hey, guys,” began Mirai as she picked Natsu up. “Ryosuke and I will go to the campsite first. Today.”

“Eh?” That was everyone’s, including Ryosuke’s and Kota’s, response.

Kota, however, had a sure feeling that this was not the usual “camping” she was referring to and exclaimed to her, “Chotto, you mean now? I-I thought—”

“It has to be now, Kota-san,” said Mirai. With hurtful eyes that begged for his understanding, she added, “It has to be.” She walked away and put Natsu in the stroller. Without glancing back at her friends, she solemnly said, “See you guys then.”

“Ryosuke,” asked Haruka, “why are you guys going two days early?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t hear about any of this.”

Juri laughed and inserted, “You two have a lot of ‘I didn’t hear any of this’ today.”

Shintaro and Mayu nodded, silently agreeing with Juri.

Ryosuke nudged his brother. “Know anything about it?”

Everyone focused on Kota, whose previous response implied a bit of understanding as to why Mirai wanted to go earlier than planned—and without the friends.

Kota uttered, “Sorry, but I’ve got to go too.” Before he left though, he failed to convince that his smile was anything but worry.

*

“Natsu’s not staying with us?” Ryosuke asked his brother.

He, Natsu, Kota, and Mirai had endured the long, two-hour, and extremely tense-filled atmosphere ride and had finally arrived at the lodge rented out by Haruka’s parents, who were more than happy to help. It was thanks to them that the gang could save up money for other camping necessities. The two-story lodge had five rooms, three bathrooms, two living rooms, a huge kitchen that was twice the size of the virtual couple’s own kitchen, and two dining rooms—one of which was connected with the main living room in the center of the lodge.

The brown-colored lodge’s interior’s combined look of vintage and coziness made the virtual couple glad that they had chosen to camp. The place was decorated with vase-filled flowers and paintings of nature and wild animals. There was a line of fake animal heads—deer, moose, lion, and even a bear—at the top of the lodge’s entrance. The windows looked as if they had been glossed over as they sparkled with no sign of dirt, and each piece of furniture looked extremely brand new—they even smelled clean. Of course, Ryosuke sniffed it.

“Yeah,” Kota responded to Ryosuke’s question. “I want to spend a few days with him before you guys camp together. That’s okay?”

Ryosuke glanced at Mirai. “You okay with that?”

“Yeah.” She walked to the sleeping Natsu and softly his cheeks. “I’ve packed everything of his already.”

“Got it,” said Kota. “I guess…”

“Yeah…”

Ryosuke couldn’t help but wondered if something was being telepathically conversed between his brother and his friend, but he threw that assumption out the window because something else caught his attention. Since a few days ago, she had been acting very weird. She didn’t talk back to him like usual—she spoke much softer to him, and it was like she wanted to avoid him. He had caught her stealing glances of him from behind his back a couple of times or caught her silently watching him do something. And when they did talk, she’d said something along the lines of, “You have to remember it’s done like this, okay?” She wasn’t reprimanding him like usual, but it was as if it was the last time she’d do something like that for him.

Like yesterday morning, when he drowsily slumped into his chair at the dining table while she busily cooked, she came over and pulled out a chair to sit beside him. She rested a hand on top of his and fidgeted with it. With a tone of regret, she said, “Ryosuke, you can’t be sleeping in so late and waking up late. In the future, you have to set a time, wash up, and cook a decent breakfast.”

He didn’t bother to pay attention because what was the point? It wasn’t like he had to do it now. He still had years before he needed to worry about his health. He was still a young man with much energy.

That wasn’t the only time when she had unhappily lectured him about his lifestyle.

A few days ago, she had bought him a tie to show him how to put it on.

“I don’t need to know how to do it,” he said. Smirking, he added, “If you know how, you can do it for me every morning.”

She had no energy to laugh because what he had said stabbed her heart. “Baka, don’t be relying on me so much. You’re a man. You have to do it yourself.”

“It’s okay.” He grabbed her hand and locked eyes with her. “Don’t teach me, okay?” He added a smile and leaned in toward her. “If you do, I can’t use an excuse to make you tie it for me.” He began unknotting the tie around his neck, but she swiftly held his hands. “What?”

She avoided eye contact with him and said, “Fine. You don’t have to learn now. But…just let me do it this once. I’ve done it to my kids back then. But, this time, I want to try it on a man.”

“Oh, you think I’m a man, huh?” As he waited for her standard retort, there was no reaction from her. He waited and watched her silently do his tie for him and saw how focused she was with making sure that the tie was at the center, or that it overlapped correctly, or that one was supposed to be longer than the other, or that it wasn’t too tight around his neck.

One thing crossed his mind then.

She’ll make a wonderful wife.

The door to the lodge closed, and its sound made Ryosuke blink back into reality. “He-he left?”

“Yeah.” She evaded eye contact and went to her luggage. “I’m putting these away.”

“Mi-chan.”

She stopped at her steps. “Hmm?”

“You okay?”

“Yeah.” She inhaled and then repeated her answer.

“You sure?”

She heard him come closer and feared that he’d touch her, so she rapidly asked, “Ne, which room are you taking?”

He stopped in his tracks to think. There were three rooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs, so he knew that the bedrooms would most likely be assigned this way: Mayu, Haruka, and Shintaro would get their own rooms, Juri and Ryosuke would have to share, and Mirai and Natsu would be together. He answered, “I’ll be downstairs. The one on the left. You should take the big room upstairs since you have the brat, and he’s got his toys.” He walked past her and brushed against her shoulders. “Want me to help you with your stuff?”

She shook her head. “I’ve got it. Thanks.” She swiftly picked them up with no problem and headed upstairs without him. Reaching her room, she exhaustingly cracked the door open, not because her luggage tired her out, but because she had too much on her mind.

She dropped her luggage at the doorway, not even bothering to bring them further in, and dragged her feet to the bed. She flopped her entire body, stomach-first, onto the soft and well-cushioned mattress with a cotton lavender blanket that neatly covered the mattress. Her eyes wandered around the room and when it landed on the window directly across from her, showing the rays of sun seeping out from it, she thought back to the car ride from before.

During the ride, Kota was busily driving, of course; Ryosuke was busily making a fuss about the view at his side of the window; and at the back of the car, Mirai was busily writing a few things on her notebook while Natsu slept soundlessly beside her in his car seat.

On her paper was:

I have almost everything ready. There are still a few things left, and I’d like for you to finish them for me. I will make the best of this, so don’t worry. I’m sorry for making you do all this. But thank you for helping me.

She closed her eyes after her flashback and tried to hold back her tears. With a whisper, she encouraged herself, “No time to sulk. I’ve got to make the best of this.” Even though she said that, her hands trembled, and she clenched onto the blanket under her and pulled them to cover her tears that had fallen without her permission.

Gomen ne.

*

“Mirai?” Ryosuke had been looking for her because he hadn’t seen her for two hours. He thought maybe she was setting up her luggage, so he went to do the same, and they had been separated since then. But when he was finished with his, he watched a show on the T.V. for an hour, and she hadn’t come down once. He was curious to know why his friend was taking forever to be finished. It wasn’t like she packed her closet, right?

He headed upstairs to search for her, but thankfully, her luggage laid out by the door of the room showed him where she was. He chuckled to himself, thinking that she was probably having a hard time cleaning, and he wanted to make a fuss about it. However, when he entered her room, he saw his friend asleep on the bed. He believed she was pretending, so he went to the bedside and was about to nudge her but didn't when he noti