The wedding had ended, and after the couple was merrily blessed and driven off to the airport for their honeymoon, the guests gradually left the place one by one. Some of the very last to leave were the gang, including Ayame and Ryota, and Ryosuke had made his appearance after being gone for almost an hour, and no one said much about it except for Ayame, who had questioned his disappearance, to which he had answered that he had had a call from work, and then he told her to go back home with Ryota.

Ayame perked up, even Ryota. The pair simultaneously asked, “Why?” They didn’t even ride together as they had come in separate cars, so why were they returning home together?

“I’m going with Mirai because we have some talking to do,” said Ryosuke.

Ryota pointed at Mirai. “But she’s leaving with Kei.”

“Kei?” Now, who was this guy that he had never heard of before? And what did this new guy got to do with her?

“He’s picking her up because he’s taking Natsu back to your bro’s place.” He then pointed to Ayame. “But why do I have to take builder-woman home? She can smash this building and build her own—”

“Shut it, weakling.” Ayame quickly said, irritably.

Haruka tapped Mirai on the shoulder. “I thought Natsu went at Kota’s last week already?”

“He did,” answered Mirai, “but I’m doing the ‘you-know-what’ for Natsu, so I’ve asked Kota to help me keep Natsu away from seeing it until it’s finished.”

“Do you need help? We can drop by tomorrow.”

“No, thanks. It’s no point if it’s not me doing it, right?”

“Yes, Mommy.” Haruka ended the conversation as she mimicked Natsu’s usual tone of saying “Mommy.” “Everything’s always for your son, isn’t it?”

Ryosuke heard the last part, and it cut a piece of him. He knew that was something he’d never win over when it came to Mirai. For a quick moment, he grudgingly pouted at the little boy, who was desperately trying to calm Ayame and Ryota down in their small dispute. He laughed it off when he found it stupid of him to even be jealous of a kid.

Mirai’s cell vibrated, and after she peeked at it, she called for Natsu because Kei had informed her of his arrival and was on his way to her.

“Who’s this Kei?” Ryosuke confronted her.

She put the cell phone away and stuttered, “He’s a friend.” She quickly looked away to avoid another question from him.

“Uncle Kei!” Natsu was the first to see Kei, and he ran to the man, who picked him up with an “ooh” sound.

Kei glanced at Mirai as he walked to the group. “You’ve been feeding him well, Mirai. He’s so much bigger than the last time I’d seen him.”

Mirai smiled back, quite fond of the compliment. “I think you should reprimand him more on eating his veggies. He’s been putting them off to the side unless I mention your name.”

Natsu put his index finger at his puny mouth. “Mom! You promised you wouldn’t tell on me.” He then quickly looked back at Kei, and with a softer voice and a sadder expression, he asked, “Uncle, you won’t take me to the hospital, right?”

“Hmm,” hummed Kei, “I’ll see when we get home to your Dad.”

“No!” Natsu shouted and brushed his head against Kei’s shoulders. “I’ll eat my greens, reds, and purples!”

Everyone laughed at the sight of this man playing with Natsu except for Ryosuke.

Ryosuke, on the other hand, was carefully observing this nomad that had already been accepted in the territory. But what bothered him more was whom this Kei reminded him of.

Kei put Natsu down and happened to see Ryosuke. “Have we met before?” He squinted his eyes at Ryosuke, and Ryosuke had a hunch that this man might—or did—recognize him. “Hey, you-you look familiar.”

Mirai turned anxious and stuttered, “He’s Ryosuke Yamada, Kota’s younger brother.”

Kei expressed astonishment with a gentle gasp. “Eh! You two don’t look alike at all!” He laughed, bowed, and put out a hand toward Ryosuke. “I’m Kei Inoo, a friend of your brother. I don’t think we’ve seen each other before.”

Kei’s bow was too similar to a bow Ryosuke had witnessed in the past. “Ah, Kei.” Ryosuke smirked with an implied tone of dislike. “We have met before—more like passed by.”

Kei blinked with confusion as did everyone.

Ryosuke didn’t bother to shake hands with Kei. “I believe it was a time where I was supposedly camping with my ex-wife and our son when someone came by in a car and helped her ran away.” He backed away to take in the scene of Mirai and Kei standing beside each other in front of him. He paused for tension as he happily enjoyed the ghastly expressions of Mirai and Kei. “Isn’t that right, Inoo-san?”

*

“Oi, why did you decide to take me?” Ayame asked Ryota.

The two were in his car because he was sending her home. Contrary to her expectations of him annoying her during the drive back, he had stayed quiet. And he had distanced himself from her. She liked it but found it extremely uncomfortable. This was not the usual Ryota she was used to being around with.

Ryota got to a red light and stopped his car. He hesitated to ask, but his interests got to him. “How long have you known Ryosuke, builder-woman?”

“What, you don’t know?”

“How am I supposed to know?”

He doesn’t talk about me or our relationship? Ayame had silently believed that one of the reasons why Ryota was always clinging onto Ryosuke was because Ryota was one of the few people Ryosuke and she mutually knew, thus, Ryosuke could openly talk to Ryota about her and his relationship together. Although she doubted that Ryota would help them get together, she had a feeling Ryota’s presence might help Ryosuke open up to her.

Many, if not all, of hers and Ryosuke’s conversations solely relied on and revolved around his business. If not, the only change of pace happened when she asked about his family, more in particular, his mother. Other than that, he always changed the subject back to work whenever she tried to bring up anything related to changing their status from work and friend buddies to boyfriend-girlfriend buddies.

Ayame thought to herself, giving into Ryota’s question just to start a conversation. “About four years, I believe. It was during the time I had graduated and was working on my first construction with—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ryota plainly said. “Did you know about his ex-family?”

The green light switched on, and he stepped on the gas. At the same time, the conversation had just gotten sour.

This was the reason why Ayame had secretly “agreed” to carpool with Ryota—to pry about Ryosuke’s declared “ex-wife” and “son” that she had heard. She wanted to make sure her ears hadn’t mess with her because he had never mentioned a previous marriage and offspring.

“I didn’t,” she answered.

“Mhm,” he hummed.

She regretted saying “no” now because his response gave it away that he wouldn’t give any information regarding what she wanted to know. But if she had said “yes,” that’d be a lie, and what if Ryota also didn’t know about Ryosuke’s married life and asked her about it? The more she lingered about how to go around asking about the problem, she tapped her fingers rhythmically on her lap.

“You worried?” he asked, not looking at her.

She forced a smile while glancing down. “A bit.”

“Don’t you mean a lot?” He laughed, trying to ease the tension.

“Shut up.” She finally found the strength to laugh along, but it quickly ended. Not caring, she decided to investigate. “Do you know anything about it?”

He nodded, and she was taken aback.

She didn’t think he’d be honest. “Can you…” She stopped herself. She couldn’t bring him down to her level, and if she wanted to know more, she should ask the main person involved. And if Ryosuke had wanted her to know, he’d have told her a long time ago. Or he had never brought it up because his marriage ended badly. “Never mind.”

“Ryosuke…” Ryota began with a languid tone. “He really loved her a lot.” He came to a stop sign and made a right turn. “And he still does. Everything he’s done up till now, it’s all for the family he’s lost.”

She intently listened. Somehow, now she was beginning to regret it. She didn’t want to know that he had loved someone and had lived a life with that someone. Of course, it wasn’t to say that he couldn’t have someone, but it was the fact that he had been happy before that made her worried. What if, what if they got together and she couldn’t match up to the standards of his ex-wife? Or what if she couldn’t do the things his ex-wife could do? Or what if she wasn’t wife-material at all?

She mentally laughed to herself at the last statement. Who am I kidding? I’m not even girl-material in the first place, so how can I even be wife-material?

“Don’t worry, builder-woman,” said Ryota.

“What? You trying to cheer me up?”

“As if.” He managed to one-handedly flick the side of her head. “I’ll never do that. Seeing you in despair is a blessing.”

She glared at him. Under her breath, she growled, “You woman-eater.”

He laughed it off, but his smile gradually faded into a more serious, worried, and stern expression. It can’t be...right?

*

“Natsu,” Mirai said as she stepped out of Kei’s car on the driveway of her house. “Uncle Kei’s gonna help me get your stuff, so you can stay in the car, okay?”

Natsu nodded as he bade his mother goodbye from inside.

Kei stepped out of the car and followed her inside. He watched her silently fondle for her key and open the door to lead them in. “Mirai, I didn’t mean to make things worse.”

“It’s not your fault, so don’t apologize.” She sighed as she opened the door and entered her house with him behind her. “It’s all mine, and I didn’t expect him to remember you at all since it’s like what he said—you only helped me escape.”

“But it’s not your fault at all. What you’re doing is for—”

“I can’t use that excuse over and over again.”

“It’s not an excuse. It’s a fact.” He walked to the couch and sat on it. “I keep telling Kota to tell the truth, but I didn’t think I’d have to say it to you too. If you and Ryosuke worked on this together, it’d be much better. As they say, two heads are better than one. And nothing is stopping you from telling him, isn’t there? He’s seen the relationship you’ve established with his brother and also found out that you had come back here two years after the so-called runaway.” He stood up again, looked out through the window to check on the little boy in his car, and lowered his voice and said, “And if Ryosuke knew about everything that only we know, he could help his brother find his resolve.”

“That might not be true.”

Kei switched his attention from his car to Mirai.

“When I found out about it, I was quite angry for Natsu. Or should I say, Yuki.” She chuckled at the escape of Natsu’s “other” name. “But I figured I’ll stay until he finds his resolve. I’m going to stay by their side.” She warmly looked at Kei. “I’m going to stay no matter how long it takes him to say the truth.”

*

“Stupid Kota,” Kei blurted out from under his breath and hoped the seven-year-old boy didn’t hear the curse word, and after checking the rearview mirror, the boy was busily playing his Nintendo. Kei had finished his two-minute talk with Mirai, and every time he talked with her, he began to see what Kota saw—she was hiding something.

What he couldn’t understand was that the three of them—he, Mirai, and Kota— knew almost the same amount of information regarding the situation, yet she wouldn’t open up about why she was doing what she was doing. They didn’t want to pressure her into saying anything she didn’t want to say, but how could they move forward if they weren’t clear on what was to be expected?

And as he was speaking with her earlier, he became more irritated at his friend. On the surface, everyone who knew of the situation seemed to believe and saw that she was who had the dirty laundry when in fact, he and she knew the real perpetrator. And every time it came to this, he got so aggravated for her because she got the short stick but didn’t mind it.

If you do that, he’ll never learn his lesson. You’re only going to be his scapegoat. He quickly glimpsed behind his shoulders at the busy seven-year-old. Actually, the real victim is only Natsu.

*

“Uncle Kei.” Natsu dashed down the stairs of Kota’s house. “Is he coming late again?”

“Yes, Natsu-kun,” answered Kei, eating ramen on the couch. He had already fed Natsu—a task Kota had reminded him about an hour ago—and now it was his time to enjoy his light dinner. “I’m sure your Dad would be home anytime soon.”

“How come my Dad works very far?” The boy came by and sat beside the older man. “How come he doesn’t work close like Mom?”

Kei blinked for a bit, hesitant on how to answer this question. For most kids, many adults resort to some sort of white lie to not over-explain, saying, “Oh, your father wants to work over there,” or “Your father likes to work there.” But in this case, he couldn’t use a white lie. As he, Kota, and Mirai had promised together a few years back, they would try to be as honest with their answers to any question Natsu asked if related to his life, and Natsu’s questions regarding Kota most definitely fall under that category.

Kei turned off the T.V. and shifted in his seat to give his entire attention to the young, gawking boy. “Natsu-kun, I hear that you visit your Dad’s work every summer. Are you going again this summer too?”

“Yeah!” Natsu shot up his hands in the air, almost frightening Kei. “I go there every summer for two weeks! I help my dad water and feed the animals. They were scary at first,” he frowned and then immediately became happy, “but they’re really nice and not scary anymore.”

“Oh, really?” Kei was sort of interested. But he didn’t want to know what Natsu did over there. He wanted to know who Natsu saw over there. “Umm, is there, like a family you and your Dad stay with?”

The young boy violently nodded with smiles. “Yeah, yeah! It’s Uncle Taka and Grandma Sato and Grandpa Sato!”

“Taka?”

“Uncle Taka’s like you. He’s a friend of Daddy.”

Kei laughed it off. “I-I see.” So, Kota hasn’t said anything to that side either. “Does Mom—”

The doorbell rang, and it continued to ring, which loudly annoyed Kei, and Kei, being the older and only capable person to open the door, went to open the door. As he walked to the door, he uttered, “Why is your father pulling a prank like this?” He opened the door, and his jaw dropped. “Oh.”

*

Kei: Oi, youve got visitors @ 9:09 p.m.

Kota read the text message when he finally had the time to use his phone because he had been in a meeting as a representative for the Satos. Since he was the only city dweller the Satos knew, they had entrusted him to negotiate in business affairs in their place, and Kota had found no reason to object to it. He owed them his life anyway.

I’ve got visitors? He mentally flashed a list of possible visitors in his mind, but none of the potential candidates came close. Who wants to see me this late?

*

Kota arrived home—10:47 p.m.—and saw that the light in his living room was still on. He laughed and said, “You boys still up?” The previous time he had come home late, around seven in the morning, Natsu and Kei were occupied over a game and had lost track of the time that they didn’t even notice that the homeowner had arrived until they heard a sound at the sink.

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