Arriving home, the couple was too lazy to unload their luggage, do laundry, and take a shower because the hot scorching afternoon tired them out. The only one who had enough energy to do anything was Natsu, who had awakened from the two-hour nap he had during the drive home. The virtual parents had also slept during the bumpy car ride, but it wasn’t comfortable enough. As they watched Natsu amused himself with his toys, they questioned how in the world was he able to sleep through the ride when they weren’t.

Mirai, massaging her forehead as her head rested back onto the couch beside a tired Ryosuke, said, “They really went all out.”

Ryosuke nodded. “They really did. But no matter how tiring it was, the smile they gave each other the entire time was worth every ounce of sweat.”

She laughed. “Yeah.” Her laugh and smile slowly ceased as she thought back to the wedding. It was very extravagant, and she wondered if Mr. Shimazaki would ever regret putting so much money into it, not saying that he was a greedy man because he wasn’t. But she couldn’t understand why a groom would do so much for his bride. She had always thought that the guy would sleaze off, just like how her brothers-in-law had sleazed off on their wedding nights. They’d get drunk halfway through the ceremony and then passed out.

But Mr. Shimazaki didn’t. He was sober the entire time, using it to occasionally steal glances at his bride. He even bit his tongue during the vow exchange because he was busily googling over the bride’s beauty, but Mirai couldn’t blame him for that because Lady Shimazaki didn’t look like any Queen on Earth—she was the Queen of angels.

“What you thinking about?” Ryosuke’s question interrupted her thoughts because he noticed her expression had turned blank.

She sat up, and he did too. She paused before answering. “Mr. Shimazaki… He really loves her.”

“Of course, he does. That’s why they got married in the first place. They want to be together. Forever.”

She let out a weak laugh, and he instantly knew that she was bothered. Without much thought, she accidentally spoke her mind. “But we’re married even though we’re not together. Or going to be together forever.” It took her a while to notice that what she heard was what she had said out loud aside from just thinking of it. She glanced at him, apologetic. “G-gomen, Ryosuke. I—I didn’t—”

“I know.” He sent her an assuring smile. “I understand. I’ll never misunderstand you, baka.”

She arched a brow. “You’ll never misunderstand me?” She playfully scoffed. “You misunderstood me once, didn’t you?”

“Ha, when?”

“Fine, I’ll replay it.” She cleared and moistened her eyes by blinking. Then, she grabbed his sleeve and quietly asked, softly and gently, “Ryosuke…sleep with me.”

His face turned red, and he scooted away.

“You don’t want to sleep with me?” She scooted closer, practically on all four on the couch.

“Hey!” He tried to stay strong. “You didn’t ask like that, okay?” Seeing Natsu slowly crawling to them, he hissed, “Mou, don’t play around like that—you’ll give him the wrong idea!” He shoved her away and went to where Natsu was. “Don’t look at her, or your eyes will bleed!”

Angry, she hopped onto his back, making him blush even redder. But being the clueless friend she was, she only had revenge on her mind. “What did you say?”

As he got up, hoping to shake her off, it didn’t work because she stayed clung to him. Still trying to manage himself, he hesitantly moved around because he was afraid that she’d catch him embarrassed.

“Ah, so you do remember that you had misunderstood me once, then,” she said, happy at the sight of his red ears.

Not liking that she had won, he recalled something he could retaliate back with. He swiftly turned around and playfully lunged at her, which caused them to fall back onto the couch behind them with him on top of her. He was ready to flip the table around and make her more embarrassed than he was. He stayed on top of her and didn’t let her break free. Smirking, he asked, “And you’ve never misunderstood me before?”

“Of course.” It was a confident answer.

“How about when you thought I hit Tamamori-senpai because I wanted to when, in fact, it was to protect you?” After he had finished saying it, he mentally spoke to himself. Did I just say that?

She formed a thin line with her lips, and the soft words, “I know,” slipped through them.

This isn’t how it’s supposed to be! Not content that what he had planned didn’t go as planned, he was about to get up and away from her when her arms wrapped around his shoulders and locked them behind his neck. He furrowed his brows. “Wh—”

“I never really got a chance to say this…” she looked away, “…because it was embarrassing at the time, but…” she looked at him, “Arigatou.”

His eyes widened. His heart softened. His stomach churned inside out. His hands and legs weakened.

“Arigatou…for protecting my firsts, Ryosuke.” She cupped his cheeks and caressed him. “Arigatou.”

And each time she spoke those words, all he could do was slowly gaze from her eyes to where those soft-spoken words were coming from. He clenched his hands because he had a feeling they’d move on their own and do something he didn’t want to do to her—pull her in for a kiss—a passionate boyfriend-to-girlfriend kind of kiss. At the thought of a kiss and hearing the triggered word—“first”—he was reminded of something. “Ne…h-have you kissed him?”

She scowled at him, not liking the question because to her, it made her seem indecent. “No.”

“Jaa…I took…” I took her first kiss… Feeling guilty, he heaved a long and loud sigh.

“You took what?” Misunderstanding, she gasped, “You kissed Senpai?”

“I haven’t—I mean, I didn’t!” He finally broke away from her and sat on the couch.

“Then, why do you look like that?” she asked him. Before she could get an answer, she smelled the “aroma” from her son, so she ended the conversation as she picked up her son to change his diaper. She said to Ryosuke, “Don’t worry about whatever it is that you’re worried about, okay? Natsu and I still need you here.”

He watched her go up the stairs and guiltily laughed it off. “Yeah…”

*

Ryosuke: its tomorrow guys!!! @ 11:09 a.m.

Kota put his phone away and let out a laugh after reading his younger brother’s annoying text. This was the first time his brother had been so annoying—bothering him every day this entire week with the same text to remind him that, tomorrow, he had a party to attend, and that meant he had to leave tonight if he wanted to be there on time. As he thought about his brother, he noticed his lazy, unmotivated, and skirt-chasing younger brother had become a caring, responsible, and mature-like gentleman. Although Kota was proud of his brother’s “achievements,” it mirrored to him that he was slowly becoming the opposite of what Ryosuke was.

Especially not with what he knew and hid.

“Yo, earth to Kota-san.”

Kota perked up at the voice of his younger friend, Takeru, who had returned after leaving to wash his hands and face down at the water trenches. It was lunchtime, and they were taking a breather under the shade of a tall and huge tree.

“I met up with Grandma,” said Takeru, “and she said you could leave now if you want. She doesn’t want you to miss your flight.”

“It’s fine. I’ll make it in time. It doesn’t start until one in the afternoon anyway.” He pursed his lips. “I was thinking I should introduce you to them.”

“Me?” Takeru furrowed his brows. “But wouldn’t that mean I’d have to go?”

“Well, when I invited your grandparents, they said that work here has become busier and that it’s hard and uncomfortable for them to travel. They also commented about how much they despise the city, so I figured I should ask you instead.”

“Even though you know I don’t want to go back?” Takeru laughed.

“It’s only proper of me to introduce you, the one who’s been helping me around here, to my family.”

Takeru swatted his hand in the air. “I’m fine. We don’t need introductions, and it’s only proper for people to help each other.”

Kota in air. “You kind of have no choice.”

The younger boy frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I told your grandparents the idea, and they liked it so much…they’re also packing your stuff.”

“What?”

“Yep, so tag along, okay?”

“But you know I can’t go.”

“It’s not that you can’t. It’s that you won’t, isn’t it?” Kota sternly gave his friend a look. “It’s just a representational visit, and we’re not staying more than a day. I’m sure you won’t pass by her or any of the people you don’t want to see yet.”

“Representational visit?”

“Yeah. Since I can’t take your grandparents to see my brother and his friend, you’re the substitute.”

“You know, why do you always refer to your brother’s wife as his friend? The first time you said it, it made me think your brother was living with a roommate, but after finding out that he’s married and is with a kid, you’ve never once directly referred to her as his wife or even as a sister-in-law.”

Surprised, because not even he had noticed it, he quickly came up with a lie on the spot as he laughed awkwardly. “Ah, it must be a habit. They were friends before marriage, and I’ve known them for quite a while, so it’s kind of weird for me to see her as a sister-in-law.”

“By the way, I figured out why you speak in such eloquence. You majored in law, didn’t you?”

“How did you know?”

“Yesterday, when you were unpacking your books, I saw the title of one of them.”

“And you figured it was a law book?”

“Yeah.” Takeru’s voice became low. “A relative of mine could’ve been a lawyer.”

“I’m sorry?” Kota asked. He didn’t hear the latter part.

Takeru forced a smile. “Nothing.”

Kota stood up and stretched. “Well, I’ll be seeing you and your bags this evening.”

“But—”

“It’s already been decided.” Kota walked away, satisfied, before Takeru could say anything.

When Takeru saw Kota’s silhouette disappear from his sight, he sighed. Pulling his knees to his chest and resting an arm on it, he covered his face and quietly muttered, “I want to…see you…Mi-chan.”

*

“I’m not so sure about this,” said Mirai, worried. Even though she was already dressed and readied for a casual so-called exercising walk with Natsu, an out-of-the-blue idea from Ryosuke last night, she didn’t think it was time for Natsu to spend two hours outside in the hot sun.

Ryosuke popped out from the room where they kept Natsu’s belongings and carried the never-been-used stroller that his brother had bought when they had first moved in. “It’s fine. I think it’s a great idea.”

“How so?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “He’s barely recovered.”

“Well, to make him recover even faster, it’s better to move around in a breezy and—uh—different place, you know.”

“He shouldn’t be exposed to the air that much, you know.” She looked at her son. “And he’s going to take his nap soon too since I’ve just fed him.”

As he ignored her, he unstrapped the stroller and made sure that it worked just fine. Strolling it over to her, he smiled. “Okay, you guys ready?”

“I don’t want to go.”

“Why not? You-you have to go.”

She gave him a look. “I have to go?”

“D-did I say that?” He laughed to himself. “I-I meant that-that you should go.” He pointed to Natsu. “With him too, of course.” He clapped his hand. “Oh, think of this as mother-son day!”

“That can be Mother’s Day.”

“Well, what’s the bad idea of having two Mother’s Day?”

She went to the couch and plopped down. “Why are you trying to kick me out?”

“Kick you out? Why would I?”

“Then, I don’t need to go on this walk.”

“You have, I mean, you should go. Look, it’s been a long time since you two have bonded, and think of it as a little recovery between the both of you after his hospitalization. How about that?”

She smiled and took a liking to how he had put it. “Yeah, you’re right.” She nodded and looked at Natsu. “It’s been a while since it’s just the both of us, and it would be nice for him to not stay cooped at home every day too.”

“See.”

“Yeah.” She got up and picked Natsu up and strapped him safely and securely in his navy-blue stroller. “You’re right, Ryosuke. We should spend a day to ourselves.”

“Of course. But whenever you’re coming back home, call me, k?”

She picked up the baby bag and asked, “Why?”

“S-so I can know. What’s wrong with knowing where you are?”

She let out a laugh. “Okay.”

“Good job.” He began to get antsy and wanted her and his son to leave the house. He walked them out to the driveway and watched them go until they turned at a corner. He couldn’t help but felt bad that he did kick her out of the house. But he had no choice. He rushed inside the house, closed the door, took out his cell phone, and texted his friends.

Ryosuke: SHE LEFT! @ 10:33 a.m.

*

Almost halfway to the park, Mirai looked around and saw that even though today was a Saturday, there weren’t many people walking or spending their day out at all. Feeling a bit lonely because she had gotten used to going almost everywhere with her friend, she decided to skip out on hanging at the park and would go shopping instead. She hovered her upper body to the side of the stroller and said to her son, “Natsu, should we go shopping instead? Let’s go buy Natsu Jr. some shirts and you some diapers. I think we’re almost out of them.”

As if he understood, he clapped and laughed, agreeing that her idea was better than idly being bored at a park.

*

“Sorry,” said Takeru, stepping out of the bathroom and into the living room with wet hair. “Did I take too long?”

Kota smiled at him from the kitchen as he held onto two cups of tea. “No, you’re fine. We still have plenty of time.” He placed one of them down on the counter. “Here, for you.”

“Thanks.”

“I gave it a thought yesterday as we got back here.” Kota grabbed a chair, sat on it, and placed his mug down. “I apologize for making you do something you don’t want to do.”

The young boy sat on the opposite couch facing the older man and picked up the mug. “Nah, it’s all good. I mean, you do have a point. You only wanted us to know that you’re not some person with a shady background.”

“Ah, was it that obvious?”

“Maybe not to my grandparents, but having spent quite a while with you, you tend to have a verbal way of going around things.”

“Sorry, that’s what—”

“Lawyers do,” the younger finished. “I’ve heard that before too.”

“Who’s this lawyer person I haven’t seen, by the way? He’s a friend of your grandparents?”

Takeru looked away, his expression dark. “He’s a she.”

“Oh, I’m—” He stopped speaking when he noticed Takeru’s hand, wrapped forcefully on the mug, had turned red. He wondered what had triggered the young lad.

“And she was someone my grandparents knew.”

Coming to terms that the subject of the lawyer friend was something taboo to Takeru, Kota changed the conversation. “I’m planning to shop for a gift first. Mind if we do that?”

Takeru didn’t speak. He paused and then nodded.

*

“Ryosuke,” Haruka shouted from inside the kitchen as she looked at the opened and filled refrigerator. “Where else can we put this?”

Having heard his name, Ry