Obscure

The day wasn't a blessing, the dark cloud was appearing a short to none period of time. As the dim sky was getting intense, the air was less warm and that kept on going until the water was formed and went down to visit their long time friend of wide ground of land. Some to the roof, to the street, to the gutter then people, animals and any other green creatures which could actually welcome the unfortunate moment for the people as a beautiful grace for their own.

There were many people who weren't very accepting of the sudden arrival of earthly cycle but they had no choice but to find some roof to keep the contact with the water to a minimum. And one of them was a woman who was wearing a high heel pair of shoes, who pushed a certain door to an average and unremarkable quarter in a certain big structure of wall. The one who saw her got in was a man who seemed to not too much different to her in the age aspect. He was wearing a dark shirt with clear bright vest and holding a cup in his right hand. The eyes looked tired, the hand was steady but not at the very best when he finally got warmed up for the day to start a rigorous activity. Overall he seemed to get rest soon enough when he was alone. He mentioned a few things to his colleague who just joined him in a few seconds.

"Princess Teresa du Laursernbourg?" Sudden puzzled voice was raised by a woman in her mid thirties, her overall appearance was in short eyeful, but that's depending on whose eyes were looking. Some would be interested but a few would say the opposite, the height was average at the standard of local area, having a short pale black, so pale that a few would see a shades of grey on the locks. Her eyes weren't very unique, neither were they small and sharp nor it was very wide to the point of leaving the pupils form was visible completely, that color was even more common to see, a dark amber shades of tone.

The woman was wearing grey shade raglan all over her figure. The figure was a bit wet, but not so much effect on her as the coat was long enough reaching her knees and the rest of her figure barely had a trace of water, as the rain was still pouring down the area outside the building they were in at the moment. Front cover of her coat was covered by placket, they were covering the buttons which keep it out of any unwanted substance to reach any further than the outer most of layer clothing, her two broad welt side pocket didn't even catch a water making it clear that the quality of the raglan was in no way bad.

As they keep they sound of the worldly sprinkler out of the room as they shut the door, and the woman took another step inside then reaching her front side of her coat and undo her button one after another, then slid her two arms out of the wet coat. She then took another step putting the raglan on the standing coat hanger, leaving the water slide off the overlay trying to make itself useful as soon as possible for the second time.

"That's her name?" She then turned to the man who wasn't that far away from her in a distance. They were talking while walking to a deeper part of the building. The man was holding a piece of paper with a few data on an individual.

"She's an foreign exchange program participant now." Passing a few sections inside the architecture the man was informing her of few details of certain young noble.

"So, she's someone who came for a real life, close range observations on local neighborhood." Trying to pick a few things up to her own note she rephrased a few things according her own logic.

"Just a few days after a major event, by personal perspective, she came to the country one more time to pick up what she left behind." Looking at the past few days, this could be a big news for those who were actually living the environment where the news came from but it's an unusual case for people who were living far away from the country unless they had a few corresponding business or interest. Either way these people sure had their own thing to actually related to the royal family in faraway land.

"Left behind, you said...Does she really have something there?" The woman was questioning a few things that could be important at some point, as she heard her colleague was saying.

"Well, a lot of things...Like friends..." One of a few obvious gain while making a close contact in a new domain.

"So, she got to make good friends or something?" Further about the same element of topic.

"Not only that..." Trailing on his words, the man was trying to emphasize something before continuing.

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"She even got herself a sweetheart..." The man was unexpectedly mention something she didn't even think of.

"...How young..." Unconscious and spontaneous response to such report.

"Right? She really lives her time to the fullest..." Young people was supposed to experience a lot of things and a little bit of passion was as expected.

"...Was this 'sweetheart' got something to do with us?" Another person was mentioned in the latest sentence so another knowledge is obviously in order.

"That's the matter comes into our attention..."

"Who is it?"

"Tada Mitsuyoshi."

"Tada...? Who is it again? We don't have any contact with that surname...I think..."

"Were you busy all this time?"

"What can I say, someone actually messed up a simple job, and I had a few people yelling at and splashing their saliva on my face. That much really wasted my time. Even I have a few things to control. Give me a break already." The woman was complaining as she took her seat somewhere close enough to the man she came in with.

"Ahaha, thanks for you hard work!" Giggles came out as the man didn't seem to mind her latest event in her own daily episode.

"Don't laugh, okay? Now you got me here for some idle time entertainment or something?" Didn't seem to appreciate a lift of a heart, she made a few remark which showed her dissatisfaction.

"Sorry about that...Just take your place and try to relax." Didn't seem to be sorry at all, as he only put down his laugh to a less audible capacity.

"Uah, this is re-ally good..." Soft breath of relief came out of the woman as she gulped in the beverage she had in her medium size transparent glass, it was warm, a bit different to regular serving as if to adjust the weather which was didn't very adapting to human body's temperature.

"Right, there were a few more if you want, but don't drink so much so the early." Didn't try to stop the woman right away in swallowing her drink right away, but he still need to warn her about something obvious.

"I know that, so what is it? Warm beer is nice and all, especially in this kind of weather, but the main topic is important to know."

"We had a few if not many cases of local crime recently..."

"Yeah, but we're not police so, it's not our job to take care of them..."

"Princess' presence wasn't really out in the open, to the point where anyone could figured her last name wasn't Wagner. At some case there were a few that's not really unrelated to her."

"Those events and that name...she took that name... Was it intentional...?"

"Who knows, the girl is a happy and cheerful fulfilling life student, a few hidden motive wasn't really under her most significant attention..."

"Wagner, the name is, I don't know, maiden name of the second queen or something?"

"It's the third..."

"Right, third queen of Laursernbourg, that person wasn't really nice in this world without a light..." They were discussing the line of the monarchy, but rather than the position of each most renown woman in their each of reign, they put them in order of the entire history of the nation itself. So third queen means, the wife of the third king of Laursernbourg entire sovereignty. And that certain person was definitely someone who was difficult if any, to underestimate at all.

"If we started to talk about her history, we would even make the brightest personality on earth drown in the mud..." Just a few undefined muttering about that one particular noble lady.

"But that is reality, isn't it?" She could only try to convince the person across her of something that only the two of them knew well.

*Sigh* Exhaling the unneeded carbon dioxide the man was, as he took in her words with some understanding.

"That's right...That Laursernbourg's peaceful politics were all thanks to her contribution." Another mention relating to the third queen which became a subject of their conversation, it was still ongoing.

"When the king was the most popular in the entire history of that small country, his wife made sure that not a single speck of dot would taint his white record of reign." Good king needed a good or even better supporter and this lady who was the wife of him, didn't seemed to be in anyway inferior than any kind of brain in their knowledge. The acknowledgement was pronounced.

"That lady was the strongest tranquillizer for some people..." Some kind of irregular illustration to put the queen's job in her time.

"Rather than tranquillizer, wasn't she more identical to poison?" That didn't really got on well with the lady in present time sitting with her steamy beer.

"Because she knew how to proceed, she's not a poison. She knew exactly what she wanted, and took or destroyed them without much ripple. Even if we say tranquillizer is safe, that is the case when the proper method and prescription was used...But when a little bit of mistake occurred, someone wouldn't even get off the bed for the second time." Politicians were needed to be extra prudence in their every movement private or public, especially the latter as it could impact their public image right away as information was wide spread and easy to reach. Those who actually knew how to do their job were great assets for internal condition of governing, and there were people who were historically outstanding.

"...Second queen, isn't she like a few generations away from the ruling king of Laursernbourg, Thomas." The past history was still living and giving a new road to the present, especially something that actually significant in a lot dimensions.

"But he's in a way still her child." The king they were talking was extremely quiet, because rather than himself he let someone else do the public relations, and their department of the field was excellent if not great. The connection of late queen and present king would always there especially when the hereditary was still living.

"Child is it? More like descendant. Her great-great-great grandchild or something." Implying that the blood of such person wasn't so thick in the present time monarch, she was.

"Even if you said so, the truth is her blood still runs in him, that much was already something to note." The man didn't even want to try looking down someone who could be chosen as a head of a million or even more than so number of people.

"So what's this man and his daughter, and on top of that a regular her love interest got anything to do with the dead queen?" Three people in the same sentence might be a little bit weird, even if there was still a connection between the later two, but to put the king in the circulation was definitely unnatural.

"No not yet at least for now..." The voice was lowering, trying to infer another point.

"What is it?" She did just like he wanted her to.

"Let me share you an information of a certain young photographer in his teen..." He began to take another set of papers on top of the table in front of him, a complete profiling of a senior high school student in his third year.

"Who?"

"The sweetheart, Tada Mitsuyoshi, seventeen years old, approaching eighteen, he lives with little sister, Yui and grandfather, Shouzo..." Tada and his relatives' were went out of the mouth of the man.

"Hmmm, what about his parents?" Noticing that none of the important parts, she asked right away.

"That's where things got interesting..." Smile was wide on the face of the masculine colleague.

"Oh?" She wasn't any less intrigued.

"His father's name was Tada Junichirou, died in the traffic crash..." One of less happy memory of the whole family of three.

"That's unfortunate...but why did you only mention the man?" Helpless as she was she could do nothing about the mourning people, but she was drawn to the missing detail.

"Because the main point was his wife..." He was frowning his two eyebrows as he started with the housewife.

"The wife?" "Yes, Tomoko maiden name Kuryuu, she had the same fate as her husband." A mention of a certain group of people along with the woman.

"Kuh, Kuryuu." Somehow stifling her own words, she down another sip of alcohol.

"Yeah." Nodded the man.

"You mean that 'Kuryuu'?" Somehow couldn't believe the words that coming out of her own mouth she asked again.

"Who else could it be?" Like it was the most obvious name in the world the man scanned her face with a straight expression.

"How did she related with that troublesome family?" She started to badmouthing a crowd of unclear people.

"Well, she's not related by blood, but she's a rather good seed picked up and planted by them." Kuryuu Tomoko as they mentioned that name, another information came up, and talking about a few complicated situation of people wasn't exactly a welcome thing to do, but nobody else was there along with them so there was no one could or would stop them continuing the topic at hand. There was no further details on 'seed', as the rest wasn't about a group but specific person who had her name left behind a few years back.

"Good...you mean as a loyal wife to walk into the underworld with her husband..." Irony was clear, and she didn't hold back on such statement.

"Hahaha, don't be so negative, she's really good in a lot of ways." He was a bit ambiguous, shrugging his two shoulder while lifting his two palms up.

"Can you tell me how?" She rolled her eyes, shifts in her chair then, the short breath went out of her.

"Hmmm, no, not for now at least. But that traffic accident actually in a way unnatural."

"Unnatural how...?" Lifting her arch of short hairs above her eyes, she inquired.

"Some news mentioned that two cars had a collision on each other. But there are a few technical engineering defect in the vehicles they transported in..." The information wasn't exactly open to public but at the hand of a certain man, it could go anywhere. For example this very moment.

"Was it intentional?" Her intonation wasn't as calm as before.

"There were lots of changes between the time of engineering, the maintenance and then the usage of the vehicle, even if we can try to make a list of the entire staff who took care of the now destroyed vehicle it will take forever." He was calm as he told her a few things more but his lips were pulled back and stomach was aching, things were just out of control.

"How about that family...?" Another question of the feminine colleague.

"Of course, other than the princess, we're here because of them..."

"What do we know?"

"A few months ago, Kuryuu people made a contact with Tada Mitsuyoshi..."

"The sweetheart?"

"Yes, exactly him..." The exchange was going to a certain direction, and that is of a barely noticeable student.

"What do they want?" She was rubbing her hands in a strong manner.

"We can't find anything, at least not yet." Knitting his eyebrows, he looked at the lady.

"How about the young man himself. Did we contact him?" It was another route of action, but there was nothing could be a guarantee, but still a kind of proposal.

"No way, we're shooting ourselves in the foot if we do that..." It was rejected by the man with the paper.

"What? Why's that?" It was a bit bewildering for the one who actually thought it was a good idea.

"His boundary getting solid..."

"Boundary? Who? Him?" There was a lot of ways to define the words, the widest and most known was the range of area, but another was the protection of a certain subject.

"Yes, but the ones who made it so are people from Kuryuu..." Another mention of who seemed to be a less than pleasant people to deal with.

"They really moved very quickly. Was there any reason why they did it so soon...?" It was obvious that such movement was perceived as uncommon course of action, especially counting the timing.

"We have no idea but, I thought of something recently." Like discovering a new thing, the man was connecting a few fact he had gathered in his hand.

"Tell me."

"Tada Mitsuyoshi's birthday..." A common known fact.

"Birthday? When?" She asked about it.

"May 7." The date wasn't in particular for the people.

"May? Isn't it already around the corner, less than a month..." The time was short to do something if they intended to do so.

"Yeah...There are a few family who actually took this kind of approach announcing their child was a legitimate adult, and that would be a perfect time making the child assimilate to the outer world beyond their present time." Coming of age wasn't really widely practiced in the country but there were still people who actually put an importance on it.

"What kind of plan they have for this? You told me that he's a child of a photographer, even if he's a renowned one, a media related competence didn't do anything but economic relief, right?" Some aspects were still a riddle to say the list.

"That's why we're in this discussion now." Dead end seemed to be the place the man was in at the moment.

"How?" She didn't get to follow his own predicaments.

"We don't know anything but three activities this child actually do." The data wasn't in anyway out of ordinary.

"..." The air conditioner was the only sound accompanying them at the moment, in the less than wide but still accommodating space.

"Housekeeping, shop care taking, and public academy...the rest was barely noteworthy, I mean even less than these three." While people would say it's ordinary but there are people who could point that it was strangely strict programme.

"The most common activity found in any child of the same age we could name." The common sense actually put them in a tight spot.

"Right? But for these people taking care of his surrounding very well, there must be something that could make them adjust." Trying to think of it in another way.

"It wasn't related to the princess herself?" A girl could actually make some differences to a less than active young man, but still there were few considerations.

"We still can't rule it out. He started going out with her for around like, few days, but he had made the contact around at least three months. And their movement started about at least two years ago..." It was unclear how he found out about it but most of things he mentioned wasn't in anyway wrong.

"Two years, it's way before the exchange student program began. He just began attending high school, right?" Counting the time, there are actually people who cared about someone who started to spread their wings, in a way. But such thing didn't go well with someone named Tada Mitsuyoshi.

"That's it, they didn't make a contact for more than a year in itself is amazing. I thought they would in at most three months."

"But they wouldn't wait for so long only after a trivial and anywhere-to-get ordinary young man."

"Then what do we do?" Many things didn't add up that the woman didn't actually know where to go from the details being imparted to her.

"If we start to make a move close enough to him, some people will be unhappy..." The face was uncomfortable enough to make.

"That includes the princess?"

"The same would happen to the princess, but it was move transparent than the young man..." Some kind of approach seemed to be detrimental to implement.

"His surrounding is dangerous?"

"We can never rule out anything when it comes to Kuryuu people. Who knows if someone would lose their head right away."

"Then we need more information about people around him." The matter was grave. Their job was one to encounter such situation more often than not, but this kind of circumstances seemed to discourage them even more than usual. And the soft method might be the one with most probability of success.

"Well there is one more way..." He was insinuating something.

"Reaching out to those people..."

"Going head to head sometimes could end up the best."

"Even if you want to I'm not exactly excited to contact those people." She was clearly unenthusiastic, and her words weren't the only imply.

"Their history and reputation of the 'grace' wasn't all for nothing you know?"

"...Are you even listening to your own words?" The face which by no means to take him seriously, and probably he himself didn't even try to believe what he just said.

"Ahaha...well, I can't really do nothing about it...Because if something happened it would be too late for us to step in." He was looking towards a bit later into the future.

"...We should probably focus on those people close to him, rather than him and the royal entourage." Judging the situation where two elite family who were in their own way capable of doing something beyond the aptitude of most people. They needed to take a few steps back.

"He has limited number of community, that would be great."

"By the way what made you telling me this whole thing?"

"Hmmm..." The man didn't respond right away.

"What?" Confused the woman pushed.

"Oh, it's nothing. It's just..." His hesitation was on display.

"What is it?" She asked even further.

"Someone from the princess' homeland contacted me..." A bit of extra fact for the woman.

"What did he want?"

"Complete profile of Tada Mitsuyoshi..."

"Complete? Isn't their own deep enough on him?" Few things regarding personal data still bewildered her, more than so talking about the contact.

"They seemed to be looking into Kuryuu rather than Tada family itself." That point was plain to see.

"Oh, that side then. Are they so confident about this?"

"And of course there's something that we need to find out even more..."

"What?"

"Kuryuu Tomoko..."

"...If what you told me was true and her being the 'seed' of those people was certain, I definitely am not comfortable to touch even the surface of it." Somehow her imagination was leaving herself to another unknown area, somewhere she didn't want to take both of her feet onto.

"We need to think a few new approach then..."

"Maybe I'll quit my job right this moment." She then make a sudden statement.

"No way! ...I'm not going to let you to make me do this all alone." He wasn't calmer than he was a second past.

"I'll try to do that quietly." She wasn't even ashamed of saying such thing.

"Then I will drag you in even deeper after that..." He was relentless.

"Oh, my God why did I apply for this job. My children, please forgive your mom..."

"Now that I think about it, it's not forbidden to get married in this business. But there are few things which make it less risky. But it's not like you're a single parent." It wasn't like he was in a different situation but he had his own arrangement for those who he cared about. But the woman in front of him living together with her family, they're not out of the business circle.

"Just leave me alone...What do we do now?"

"Technically speaking were under government's mandate, but there were a few things that could be exceptions..."

"What is it this time..."

"I'll take a break from the office for now." The line was actually worse than she thought it would be.

"AHH!! What about me?" She was protesting strongly.

"You...can go take a break with your family..."

"It is April, school just began a new term."

"Then, do it alone then..."

"I don't want to go anywhere." The man kept on giving her some suggestion but those were nothing that she could put into practice.

"I don't mind, keep them company. Just wait for my words." The man was trying to assure her of his own plan. The two people were then started to go to the entrance door.

"Oh, my God. Please forgive me for working with this sinner for a long time..." Her praying form was beyond excellent.

"You're really devout, is your husband that great?" He was impressed in a lot ways.

"He had everything I asked for!" She raised her chest and show how proud she was about her husband.

"What a selfish wife...And I don't see him to be as great as you said he is." He was helpless about the forever-in-love woman in front of him.

"What do you know about him!? You want to go, right? Just go already!" She pushed him as hard as she could.

"Okay, okay. Geez, don't turn off your mobile phone. I'll be in touch soon." He put a few things into his baggage which was placed nearby the present location, then took his coat off the standing hangar, putting it on he didn't do it in any slower motion.

"Good bye!" She was so direct that the man was speechless and ushered himself out of her sight.

"Geez..." The woman was tired, she didn't really want to retrace back the informations relay to her but a few things could affect her in a lot of ways.

"Junichirou...what should I do about your son?" Then on her own unknown accord, she uttered a name which was carved on the Tada family's tombstone, her mind was in disarray. Her self-control was failing. Her priority was wavering, between her old friendship which was the part of her early foundations or her own occupation which was supporting her family which were everything of her present. It was an irrefutable inner standoff.

Tada Cafe.

The time was afternoon, after school, Tada Cafe was still had a few seats available.

There were a few people were there in a gathering, talking, smiling and like there was nothing better that they could do in the present time. The photography club was in their daily routine of afterschool activity, having a cup of beverage in the less advance concrete design, but they were pretty much comfortable and didn't seem to lack something.

"These few days..." Ijuuin started his part of the dialogue. At some point he was concerned about something. He was sipping on his usual cup with a strong coffee in it. His so-called handsome face didn't change so much even after a few days of eventful memories. He was sitting with almost everyone in the central long table in the right side of the building's first floor.

"What is it, Kaoru-kun?" Tada Yui was interested somehow of what he was about to say, she just had a feeling she should be.

"These few days I don't see Nyanko Big..." Looking around the cafe he didn't see the signature member of the cafe. A male ten years old cat which was living alongside the family and somehow became a regular friend with daily guests of the place. The period of it being absent was countable with two hands.

"Oh, right...where is he, Onii-chan?" The little sister was kind of forgetting a few facts of latest development of her little friend's routine.

"I don't think he would be anywhere else..." Like it was the obvious thing to say, he only mentioned part of common knowledge of the smallest member of the cafe. He was still taking care of a few small details behind the counter of the cafe. He didn't have his full attention on the group but he had his ears wide open.

"What?" Ijuuin wasn't really clear, or at some point he didn't have a bit of few additional updates on the mammal.

"Cherry's place, Ijuuin-senpai..." As someone who was frequent getting in contact with non human creature, the second year student, Yamashita was pretty much on the mark with his guess.

"That guy, is he finally get his total freedom?" Ijuuin was surprised at some point because even though the cat was less lazy than those others he knew, the same cat seemed to be preparing to make the next step of its life.

"No, there's no way I will let that happen!" Objection of the little sister wasn't indistinct, she made it very clear.

"But he already has a girlfriend...no in this kind of timing, maybe she has become his wife?"

"Even if Cherry actually become his wife, he still need to come home..."

"Are you still intend to cage him?" Ijuuin was questioning the method of little sister trying to implement on the gallant mammal.

"At least until the feed is all went into his stomach..." Yui was being realistic at some point, making people around her had a sweat.

"But at Cherry-chan's place he probably got his share as well?" This time Teresa was commenting on the matter, as everyone knew that there were connection between the two cats' owner after a few encounter, and not to mention Yamashita lived not so far away from Cherry's house, so he knew bits of new information when the unfamiliar cat, especially in the area, was around.

"Even so, he need to come home once a while..." Imagining a few things youngest Tada was getting less calm about the cat.

"Yui, you need to give him independence." Tada elder brother was pretty much down-to-earth, there were a few things that could make people separated from their own house. And he had seen the sample of them and maybe more than he could have imagined.

"...Onii-chan. Are you also preparing to go independent?" The question wasn't exactly out of the circulation related to the present situation.

"!" But it was like the lightning strike and the pour of the thunderous blast around the space.

"..." The elder brother didn't say about the insinuation of his sibling.

"What do you mean, Yui-chan?" Ijuuin was put his full attention to his childhood friend's sister.

"I saw it you know? Onii-chan's excellence award..." A few people had saw the image she was talking about. Including the object of that photography as well.

"A-aaa..." Ijuuin was finally connected a few things in his own little world.

"There's no way someone with such record in his work would be left alone by his own." She didn't know much about professionalism in the photography media, but capable people would always had their opportunities.

"...That's true. Sooner or later Mitsuyoshi will have some invitations for him, media business wouldn't keep their hands quiet for a long time." Ijuuin had his own picture of his friend's prospects.

"The future is it?" Teresa also somehow mentioned such possibility. Because almost everyone there was third year student including the noble herself.

"Do you have some thought about it, Tada-san?" Her red haired aide wasn't keeping quiet for long.

"Alec?" Her question was intrigued him as well.

"You're now officially associating with Teresa, so any future would be concerning the people of our side as well, we still put our faith your previous words..." Her words were putting a lot of pressure for this young man, at least that's how she intended to do, she definitely going to let him take his future so lightly. Who knew what she would do if he disappointed her expectations, and as if that was how it would turn up.

"..." He wasn't going to let his guard down.

"How is it?" She asked him for the second time.

"...I have always been having my eyes on becoming a professional photographer, that never changed...to tell you the truth...I have received invitations sometime ago." His mind was set and didn't show any hint of changing his imminent line of profession.

"Really?" Little sister could only showed her complex expression, between happiness and bitterness.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Ijuuin supportive of his best friend.

"Where was it from, Senpai?" Then junior, Yamashita, asked more details.

"There's one from local studio, I'm not sure what was it about, but I think that studio was famous because of Pin-senpai's favorite gravure idol..." Remembering one of the invitations that he had checked, one was familiar to him.

"What!?"

"That means you'll have a close contact with HINA?"

"Are you serious, Mitsuyoshi!?" Few people were surprise to hear another news related to the idol of their former club president.

The girls was looking at each other, especially at a certain spectacled senior student. The one who didn't was the middle school student.

"..." Hasegawa was flustered beyond anything. If everything that she heard was true, then her cover as HINA's actual model would be blown right the moment he saw her in the same space of operation.

"Well, being in contact with her or not would have to wait for sometime..." As everyone was getting either excited or the exact opposite, Tada brother made further remark.

"Hmm, what do you mean?" His little sister was confused.

"I have a few months to decide which company to join..." Tada elder brother was informing more of the invitations' descriptions.

"...How many invitations you got again?" As they heard more, it was necessary to know the open rooms for proposal.

"Hmmm, if I have to go with the official recruitment letters, then..." Half sure of his own memory.

"..." He tried to think deeper than I thought.

"Eight...I think." The number was beyond what they thought it would be.

"Whoa, so many of them?" Yamashita was astonished to know someone close to him having so much chance of getting employed.

"Many of them think positively of the image, so they would try to make me one of the staff on the field..." Remembering the picture could only bring his smile back on his face.

"..." Someone was flushed hearing the image being the basis of their interest of the young photography prospect. She felt complex inwardly.

"There's no need to rush, though..." He continued, and he seemed to be thinking something different to that of the topic which was they were discussing.

"Tada-kun..." Quickly recovered the blond was concerned about the young man who was approaching the table with faucet and cup on each of his hands. He then realized that her face wasn't very much positive as he thought, the moment their eyes met. Thinking about the previous few steps back, he could only feel something that could concerned her. He only smile trying to reassure her.

"Don't worry...I don't intend to create a distance." He made a promise that he was sure he would be able to keep.

"..." She didn't forget anything that was said between the two of them, and the smile was the proof of that.

Those words was something that the young man and the young woman had agreed for sometime now. And her aide who always kept her eyes on the childhood friends of her, was inwardly ensured herself that everything was going to be fine. And she wasn't the only one who believed of those words as they beamed at the immediate next few hours, days, months or even years of blessings prepared for them.

The same city, the same day, the same afternoon.

Tokyo, Yanaka Cemetery.

The weather was getting unfriendly, the wind was getting stronger, the cloud was wearing a black shades which getting thicker as the flew. Tombstones' receiving less light as time went on passing the memorable concrete of the most quiet public space in the busiest city in the country.

There was someone who was standing in front of tombs of two. A man with black outfit from top to bottom, by appearance it could be seen that it was a regular office suit, but something felt different when someone saw it in closer range. This person was straight in his postures, there was no hint of carelessness and loose gesture, like someone who went through a lot of things and had experienced a few things that people rather had not heard of. In a sense, his overall vibe was unapproachable.

"Ten years, has it been? No, counting this year it would be eleven... But for me it was nineteen years... I'm looking forward to the twentieth." He then walked away after muttering something towards the monument. His movement was smooth, like it was incorporating the natural element around him, including wind, sound, and the ground under his dark shoes. He kept on moving somewhere to the point that his back was no longer clear to see and then not too long after disappeared. Tracing back to his trails where he was keeping his posture for sometime, it was visible which tombstone he was talking to.

'Tada Tomoko.'