Chapter 1

He paused to allow her words to digest. When he grasped the meaning, he quietly stood up to leave.

"What are you doing?" she asked, appalled at his nerve to leave without saying a word.

"I'm leaving. You wanted to break off our relationship, so now I'm going to get out of your life."

She didn't think her nerdy pushover-of-a-boyfriend who would respond this way. It was beyond her expectations. She had hoped, he would cry and beg her for a second chance. By the time she snapped out her self-enclosed thought bubble, he was gone.

Outside the cool, wet air allowed him to put out the anger in his heart. He had liked her for a long time, since he first knew her in college, but she continued to push him to his limit.

Leaving the restaurant was Hiroyuki's way of keeping himself from doing something he'd later regret. His immediate impulse was to return fire, hurt her as much as she hurt him. But he knew, he'd regret it.

A street lamp suddenly turned on, lighting up the street Hiroyuki was wandering down. Directly below the lit up street lamp existed a balled up person. Due to the person's position, Hiroyuki had no way of knowing if it was a man or a woman, young or old. As he continued to walk, he lined up with the ball of a person for one brief moment in time.

"Wait," a quivering voice called out.

Hiroyuki turned to look at the human ball.

"Can you spare some change. I'm hungry," the definitely male voice said.

"Sorry, I don't . . ." but Hiroyuki couldn't finish his sentence because the face of the boy tugged at his human heart strings. He deliberated.

Allowing a tormenting five minutes to pass before Hiroyuki cleared his throat and said, "Come home with me."