Taken place 3 years and 6 months after Ryosuke’s departure

“Mirai!”

Mirai Shida lifted her gaze from the book she was reading as she heard someone called out to her. Turning to the voice direction, she saw a petite figure of her best friend, Umika Kawashima. Mirai smiled and waved excitedly to her approaching friend.

“Sorry, I’m late,” Umika apologized, taking the seat across Mirai.

“No problem,” she answered. “Was it the practice for your upcoming dance competition?”

Umika told the waitress her order before answering Mirai, “Yeah. Coach is harsher than ever.”

She chuckled, “It’ll be your first international competition after all.”

“Ah!” Umika exclaimed. “Talking about competition, have you read the mail from Ryuu?”

“Eh? I haven’t checked. What did he say?”

“He said that Ryosuke won another business planning competition and it was bigger than the previous one,” Umika browsed through her phone, and once she found the mail from Ryuu, Umika handed it to her.

She scanned the screen for the article, then immediately returned Umika’s phoneafter briefly reading the content. Maintaining a smile, she commented, “It’s good. He is one step closer to his dream.”

“Yeah, right,” Umika nodded, smiling back a little.

Seeing her friend, suddenly a realization dawned on her. How possible it was that she and Umika experienced a reverse change of personality. Umika had grown to be more open up and more cheerful, but she instead grew quiet even though she hadn’t lost her cheerfulness. Perhaps it’s what people called being matured? She wasn’t sure. She only knew that she had learned to not be impulsive.

“By the way, here Umika,” she took out two sheets of ticket. “My theathrical group will perform on Saturday night. You and Yuri have to come watching.”

She was taking acting and theatrical major in college, and thus she often performed with her groups.

“Ah,” Umika took one ticket. “I’ll definitely watch after training.”

She waved the ticket Umika left, “Please give this one to Yuri.”

“Why don’t you give it to him yourself?”

She grinned, “Because Yuri is heading here, but I have to leave soon.”

Umika sighed, taking the ticket from her. “Fine, but... where are you going anyway?”

She was putting her book into her bag while answering, “Morikawa-kun invited me to watch an orchestra tonight.”

“Who is Morikawa?”

Turning to Umika, she smiled easily, “A senior from my current group.”

The groups in her class had to be reshuffled every three months in order to broaden their experience in teamwork, and for the coming performance, her class was collaborating with a senior class. Morikawa Hiroshi was one of the respected actor among her seniors.

“Are you dating him?” Umika knotted her brows.

She chuckled lightly, “No. Why do you think I am?”

“Because it’s rare for you to accept any invitation from your suitors.”

She shook her head, “We just happen to admire the same maestro of this orchestra. That’s all.”

“Yeah. You also has the same fondness over action movies with Kirishima, the same class of aikido with Andou, the same admired writer with Fumiya, too, the last I could remember.”

She let out another brief chuckle, “That’s indeed true.”

“Haven’t you realized that they probably just used that as their reason to appeal to you?”

This time, she caught what Umika wanted to tell her. Maintaining her smile, she answered, “I knew, Umika, but I just want to be a little considerate to their feeling.”

“How could you call that considerate?”

“I gave them a chance to confess, and I answered it properly.”

“By rejecting them? You shouldn’t give them hope since the beginning, Mirai.”

“I didn’t!” she was rather offended with that. “Never once. I was just being myself. Or are you going to tell me that I should ignore them when they are friendly to me?”

“Chill,” Umika realized my rising tension. “I didn’t mean that. Sorry.”

She heaved a sigh, accepting that Umika just acted her usual way: blunt. “Anyway, I’ve to go now.”

“Alright, but I’m forgiven, right?”

She saw the rare worry glints in Umika’s eyes that she couldn’t help but smile sincerely. “Forgiven,” then an idea came. “Only if you agree to let Yuri you to watch my play.”

“You cheat!” Umika exclaimed. “You use this to set me up with him!”

“Well, if you don’t accept it then,” she feigned an annoyed stare, pausing to create a suspense.

“Fine,” eventually Umika yielded.

She grinned excitedly. Yuri had revealed himself as the guardian angel who had been sending Umika cards and gifts during her down time after Ryosuke left, and had been openly wooing Umika ever since even though Umika turned him down every time he confessed. They would be a cute couple, and she wanted both her cousin and her friend to be together so she had been helping to set them up.

She bid Umika good bye then quickly drove her car home. She needed to prepare for tonight’s orchestra performance. Well, she didn’t want to appeal or what so to Morikawa, but she was Mirai, the heiress of Shida family. She had reputation to be preserved since there was always a chance she might meet with her family’s business partners.

**********

One evening in London, the door of the rooms in a certain building almost opened simultaneously and out walked people with casual and semiformal attires. White, brown, black; any race could be seen, and in the mid of the crowd, clad in black blazer with white undershirt combined with dark jeans, was a small Japanese man, no other than Ryosuke Yamada, the second heir of Yamada Financial Corporation.

Ryosuke shuffled his way towards where his project team had gathered in one corner of the college. Yet, he had to halt for his phone kept vibrating in his pocket.

Seeing the screen display his older brother’s name, Kei Yamada, he immediately picked up the call, “What is it, Oniisan?”

The way he called his brother would sound too formal, but that was just the way he had been taught ever since he was a kid. Respecting the older ones was one principle that had been sticked in Yamada family.

His older brother chuckled briefly before directly asked, “Hey,my stubborn little brother. When will you stop making Mirai-chan worry about you?”

He grimaced in annoyance. His older brother knew about his feeling towards Shida Mirai, and never missed a chance to about it.

“I have told her not to worry