PROLOGUE

Hi, My Name is Aki. Right now, I am traveling back to my Hometown to Meet Uncle Rei. He is the best friend of my Mom and apparently became everything in my life as I grow up until we moved out of the country. He has become my brother, my father, and even my very best friend. He is still though, just that I haven't seen nor talked to him for the past 3 years.

The first few months after we moved, I was still able to talk with him, but afterward, life has become pretty busy especially after I got my promotion. And just a year ago, my girlfriend and I decided to plan our marriage. But A lot has happened and none of that worked out. In order to recover from that situation, I focused on working and forgetting everything around. That is why I have been busy these past years and wasn't able to contact Uncle Rei.

But I'm glad that something was delivered to our house after my birthday party yesterday and it was a Parcel from Uncle Rei. I was so excited to open it because it has been 3 years since I last received something from Uncle Rei. He never missed any of my birthdays before after all.

To my shock, it was a book. I am not very fond of books and he knows that, but for Uncle Rei to have sent it to me, this must be something important to him. It looks kind of old but it looks like it was taken care of very well.

The moment I opened the book, I understood why it was so old yet appeared very important. Because it was a scrapbook made for me by Uncle Rei. The very first thing I saw when I opened it was

"For My Dear Autumn"

He calls me autumn as It was the season I was born in and was the inspiration for my name in Japanese.

The words were intricately written with my name specially placed in the center of the page. It was bigger than the rest but nonetheless, every letter was written in cursive and was colored red and orange to blend with the pasted dried maple leaves around it. But my name was written in a special way as it was lined with a gold marker.

Turning the page, a series of nostalgic pictures were glued on the page each with their own borders where the dates were written in black and blue markers. I did not even realize until now that I'm looking at it that it has a total of 30 photos. It was all photos of me and him for every year since I was born.

But the reason why I'm traveling now, right after the day of my birthday, is because of the last letter he wrote to me. And no matter what happens. I definitely have to see him.