“Congratulation, Manami-san!” I told the head of orphanage while giving the letter of approval from my company. It had been decided that the orphanage would be one of ten that got the fund from the company.

Sitting on the seat across me in the living room of the orphanage, Manami Kaede’s eyes glinted with joy, “Oh my! This is a great news for us.”

“The company was impressed by the tidy and well arranged plans your orphanage has, also the financial reports was accurate.” I explained more.

“Ah, so it’s because of Mirai-chan after all,” her smile softened at the mention of the name.

I then realized that Mirai was nowhere to be seen, neither was the kids. That was why it sounded so quiet.

“What do you mean it’s all because of Shida-san?” I decided to probe further.

Glancing around the room as though recollecting memories, Manami-san explained, “Ever since she stayed with us, she has been working on all the administration stuff. You see, I’m not good at those. I just thought to help the kids the way I could, but Mirai-chan said that we should have plan for their future as well, thus we discussed about what kind of education they should get, setting targets and how to accomplish that.”

“Pardon, but who is Shida-san actually?” I pretended not knowing. “Is she a kind of social worker or the like? Or she was also once under your care?”

“No, she isn’t from this orphanage. She came two years ago. Such a sweet girl with unfortunate fate,” she trailed off.

“Unfortunate fate? Is that because she can’t walk?”

She was as though awoken from her daze, “No, not because of the handicap, but...,” she sighed then turned to me with apologizing smile. “I’m sorry Yamada-san, I can’t tell you about her past.”

“Ah, I understand,” I replied, returning the polite smile. “Anyway, where are the kids?”

“They are in the park near the music school. Every weekend the students of the music school practice over there and Mirai-chan brings them to watch.”

And so, after the talk with Manami-san finished, I made a detour to the said park. I saw a small crowd gathered in a corner of the park, and spotted Mirai and the kids among them. I joined in, but tried not to be noticed since I did not want to surprise her. I then focused to the center of attention, that was a group of youngsters playing classical instruments like violin, saxophone, viola, and even a cello. My gaze drifted to Mirai once in awhile. Mirai was letting the youngest kid sat on her lap while smile never ceased from her face, seemed enjoyinh listening to the performance much. She was fond of classical music after all. I smiled to myself at that.

As my eyes wandered briefly to observed the crowd around me, I perked up when I thought I saw a familiar figure of a middle age man.

“Fuji-san,” I muttered under my breath.

Fuji Takahashi was once the head butler of Shida mansion. He had served the family even before Mirai was born, and had taken care of her along with his wife. A realization dawned as a thought popped out. The oldman should’ve known about what happened to Shida family, I thought. I decided to greet him later.

When the performance of the students ended, the crowd dispersed. I hid myself when I saw Fuji-san walked pass my spot. I thought he would leave the park, but turned out, he took a hiding spot behind a tree. I followed where his gaze directed at, and found out that it was where Mirai talking to the kids.

There were at least five kids with her, all were under eight year, I assumed by seeing their small built. I wondered how Manami-san could let her go alone with those kids. I meant, how if something went out of control. Like, the kid ran to the road... Mirai wouldn’t be able to stop them, right?

My question got answered immediately. I saw a young man approached them, and I frowned as he smiled at Mirai and she smiled back in return.

“Sorry, the call took too long,” the man said while shoving his phone into his pantspocket. Glancing around, he asked, “The performance is finished?”

Mirai was keeping a small smile while answering, “Too bad you didn’t hear them playing in string quartet.”

“Ah, I missed that,” the man sighed, then grinned, “I guess that give me another reason to come with you next time then.”

I noticed Mirai’s gaze somehow softened. “Thank you for helping anyway, Ryuu-kun.”

He looked at the kid on Mirai’s lap, smiling and offering, “How about eating ice cream before going home?”

The kids cheered in an instant and the man called ‘Ryuu’ laughed being surrounded by the kids. Mirai frowned slightly, “Don’t spoil them, Ryuu-kun. It won’t be good.”

“Just this once is alright, isn’t it? Besides, ice cream is good to cheer you up.”

Mirai stared at Ryuu for a moment before the man added, “You seem rather sad today.”

“It’s just you. I’m perfectly fine, Ryuu-kun,” Mirai widened her smile a bit.

I’m perfectly fine...

That line resonated in my ears, and I remembered that she used to say that to hide the fact that she was not well. She told me the same when I asked whether she was sick, she also told me that whenever I said that she looked sad and gloomy. Thus this time, I knew right away that she was lying, and Ryuu was probably right.

“Oh, is it? Then,” Ryuu seemed thinking before beaming with a big grin, “I have another good reason to treat you ice cream. Let’s celebrate for me. I got the scholarship!”

“Eh?” Mirai exclaimed. “That’s really great!”

“So, let’s go?” Ryuu had expectant look.

Mirai made a small chuckle, “Kids, congratulate Ryuu-niichan first before we go buying ice cream.”

The kids surrounding Mirai immediately hollered.

“Congratulation Niichan!”

“Nii-chan is cool!”

Mirai extended the little girl in her lap’s hand to Ryuu, then mimicked a kid’s voice, saying, “Ryuu-nii congratulation, and please buy me a strawberry flavor.”

Ryuu chuckled at that, and he rounded his way behind Mirai, “Let’s go!” He exclaimed while slowly pushing her wheelchair while the kids walked together in her right and left side.

“It has something called machine, you know. You don’t need to push it for me.”

I heard Mirai protested to Ryuu. Her voice grew faint as they got further from my place. I saw Fuji-san straightened his back and silently tailed them. I just did the same.

“Nah, I like doing this. No problem.” Ryuu shrugged.

“You’re weird, you know,” Mirai’s light teasing came as reply.

“Ahaha, maybe that’s I am.”

They stopped at an ice cream parlor, and soon they made orders for their flavors. While watching them, I saw Fuji-san cracked a relieved smile, while I could only clenched my jaw. I did not know why, it was like my chest tightened and breaths felt rather difficult while seeing that happy scene. Maybe that scene reminded me of the similar occasion in the past, when I and Mirai were still friends and eating ice cream together like that.

I saw Fuji-san stopped following them when the group headed back to the orphanage. The oldman stared at their backs for a mo