I will handle everything

After they left the ice skating rink, they headed to a new park that opened up recently. Mamoru led her along the stone-covered path, eventually leading to a shimmering lake in the center. There were rows of trees on each side, a fountain, and a field of flowers.

Flowers huh? Mamoru bent down, picked up a purple-colored iris, and placed it behind her ear.

"Perfect. I thought something was missing, but I found it."

Sumire covered her face with her hands. "Ru, you are acting a bit strange today."

"I am?"

'Perhaps I am a bit stranger than usual. But I have to take my chance whenever I can.' He has longed acknowledged that Ki will only like Yuhi. Until she settles her feelings and gets together, he will remain by her side.

The more of the area they explored, the more Mamoru thought they had entered some type of fairytale land. He saw rows of different colored flowers and butterflies fluttering around whenever he looked up. A field of massive collage of colors, this type of place suits her.

He watched as Sumire bent down to look at the flowers.

"Since we seem to be alone, why don't you share the things you have hidden from me, Ru?"

His eyes widened, and he rubbed his head and laughed awkwardly. "It seems nothing gets past you, Ki."

"It was silly of you to hide anything from me in the first place." Sumire trailed off. "To be honest, when you hide things from me, Ru, I feel very uncomfortable. I feel bad when the others do that too, but I don't dwell on those thoughts long enough to feel this troubled."

Does that mean she only feels this way towards him? Mamoru felt his cheeks color. Who is the one acting unusual today?

"I'm sorry. I didn't intentionally intend to hide things from you." Mamoru tells her the result of his investigation.

"I see. Are you concerned because you think these people are connected to my parent's accident?"

"Ki, your too sharp."

"I know you have tried to get the police to reopen the case. But Ru, doing that is useless. I have a hunch that the police force was bought off. So even if you ask them, they will not help."

True, he has been struggling on this- but Ki already knew? This girl is born to be an idol, but she could easily be a detective with that sharp intuition of hers.

"Whether or not that is the case, Ru, let's focus on our current job."

"Our current job?"

"To maintain the current balance and peace in star town. In order for people to walk freely on the streets despite the growing existence of delinquents in this town."

"So your saying we must focus on the current cases in town?"

"Yes."

Ki is so stubborn. At the start, when Aki took her in, she suffered severe shock and, for awhile, was in a bad state. So it makes sense why she did not further investigate what happened to her family. But even after three years, the girl showed no signs of making any moves. So he decided to do it for her. But it seems like that was a bad idea.

"Sorry for taking action without asking you."

"No, your right. It's unusual that I am not doing anything. After all, I was the one who said the details of the accident were suspicious, and yet I did nothing. No, I tried to entrust it to somebody else."

"Did you ask Nagawa Sano for help?"

"I did since he asked me for help on another case. I figured we would strike a deal. But, it seemed like he was having a hard time finding anything."

"Ki, you trusted him, didn't you? Even if you did not love him, he was somebody you trusted."

"Yes, that may have been the case. But it does not matter anymore. That person I trusted ended up betraying me and fed me such poisonous and toxic words just to get rid of me. If he truly wanted to find somebody else. If he was tired of me, he should have just said so. The fact that he had to cheat on me." Sumire crushed one of the roses in her fingers.

"He had to do something immoral just to prove his point."

"Ki-"

"I will never forgive him."

'This would probably be the wrong time to say he has been in contact with Nagawa since their break up, right?'

He was pissed when she returned home crying like that on Christmas day. He knew she had plans to meet Nagawa, so he decided to wait up for her to return. He did not want to cross the line and give his present before the boyfriend. To think his considerate behavior was useless.

If he knew Nagawa Sano would do something that stupid, he would have asked her out for Christmas first. Why did he make her cry on such a special day?

No, it was the first time seeing Ki cry like that in a long time. So when the girl finally fell asleep, he decided to march up to Nagawa Sano's door. He half expected to find the man fooling around with his new woman.

But instead, what he found was the door unlocked and bottles of alcohol trailing in the hallway to the living room. The guy who supposedly broke Ki's heart a few hours before looked like he was in an even worse state than Ki.

…

December 24th XX - Nagawa Sano's apartment

Mamoru looked at the bottles of alcohol and then back at the man sprawled on the couch. He was awake, but it felt like only his body was there and not his soul. There was a box on the table half opened, with a gorgeous ring in the middle.

He quickly assessed the situation and bent down. "You did something you didn't want to."

"Tsueno?"

"I came here to beat you to a pulp for making her cry. But, seeing you in this state. My anger has calmed down."

If he genuinely meant those words, he would not have hesitated to hurt Nagawa. But look at his state; Nagawa looks like he is half dead.

"I- they threatened me," Sano mumbled.

"They?"

"Tsueno, you should know already. You snoop around me a lot."

It seems like his worst fears have come true. He did find the actions of those people strange. But to think they would personally reach out to the Nagawa family.

"I will handle this."

"Sumire, Sumire-"

Mamoru sighed deeply. "She cried so much; it took me awhile to calm her down."

"I want to see her. I want to hold her." Sano sobbed. There was so much pain in his tone.

"What you said to her when you broke up, did you mean it?"

"Hah, do you think I'd tell her such things? I didn't even understand what it meant. I just followed what they told me. I didn't think she would get that hurt."

Of course, he doesn't understand. Nagawa Sano has dated her for a year, and yet he never truly tried to get to know her. Due to their age difference, there was a large wall between them. But, his feelings for her were genuine. He may not have expressed it best, but he genuinely liked it.

"Just leave this to me. I will handle everything."