Once Ayato had returned home after the 'incident', he decided to call his mother, after he had slumped onto his couch. Her voice shot through the phone, "Sweetheart! I haven't heard from you in so long, but you do know me and your father have been very busy!" His mother spoke in a cheery tone, she awes definitely staring at his father.

"Hello, mother, I believe I have found a girlfriend." He replied blandly, not even too sure about what he was even saying.

"Ah! What fantastic news, I knew my baby boy would find a special someone! Just like I did, with my precious darling!" His mother giggled, and he could hear his father's footsteps definitely trying to evade her hug, "Oh, darling, don't be like that..."

"S-Sorry sweetie." He stutters, Ayato can hear a mwah on the other end and he rolls his eyes and finally decides to speak up, "But, there is this other girl, who makes me feel warm, makes me feel something... And I can't imagine her being with anyone else but I thought I had already found the one." Ayato speaks, he flushes pink, as he stares at the picture he took of her in the gym.

"Well, sweetie, love is a mystery! Let your heart lead and it will always know what it truly wants, like I wanted Jokichi! And now...He's all mine! That first girl was probably just a stepping stone, someone you need to walk over to see the person, who was yours to begin with!" She exclaimed, he can tell she was staring into his father's soul, with each word she spoke.

"What does she look like sweetheart?" His mother asks, with curiosity in her voice. "She has the most beautiful h/c, her eyes are so captivating, she makes my heart beat whenever she's around and she has the brightest smile... I always get this feeling off belonging when I'm with her. I've seen how people treat her because her father is from some powerful loan agency. Her father is a terrible man and her sister is just as horrible, I wish she could see that I can protect her and give her a better life." He answers.

"Sweetheart, you can protect her! You're just like me, sweetie. When I was at school and my darling, was just simply so confused thinking he loved those girl's and really they were trying to seduce him! Thankfully, I stopped them and proved that he was mine all along. Every moment me and Jokichi had together is engraved in my brain... I remember when we had are first date, our first kiss, our first..." Ryoba spoke, with a dark suggesting tone, which switched to a happy one at the end, "I, don't want to hear about all of that, mother." Ayato interrupts, not interested in hearing what she was about to say. The phone's sound went muffled since she was probably passing it to his father.

"Son, I'm sure that if you fell in love a second time, your heart probably wasn't in the right place anyways. I'd say go for the second girl. And just you know... Confess? Love her knowing she loves you back just as much..." He mutters, not speaking as loud so Ryoba didn't hear properly. "What did you say... Darling?" Ryoba wraps her arms around his neck. "N-Nothing dear... Just talking about school." Jokichi stutters, he gulps and Ryoba begins patterning is face with kisses. "I don't want to hear that through the phone." He cuts in.

"Sweetheart, soon this will be you and Y/n and you two will have children or one..." She giggles, twirling Jokichi's hair between his fingers. She nestled herself in his lap and forces him to hold her up, "You're such a charmer, Jokichi!"

"Mother, the hairdresser woman told me to tell you hi." He says.

"Me and her go a long way back! Back in the days when I went to Akademi high, I love an occasional blast to the past! I wonder how the headmaster is doing. " Ryoba replies, Jokichi finally decides to speak up.

"I've also seen on the news, those incidents at your school with someone going missing...and getting crushed. I really wished things like that wouldn't happen... Again." Jokichi sighs, sounding defeated and tired as if he wanted to say something more but decided to withhold the information, "Ayato, just remember you can always get someone to love you the...Right way."

"Oh, darling! Ayato's little love story reminds me, of you and me in the 80's the nostalgia is amazin-" Ayato hung up, he already heard the answer he needed so he didn't need to listen to their love ramble.

He remembered going to the basement and seeing tapes, he needed his tape player back so he had to make a trip to Y/n's house. They could possibly have something vital that he could use for his next rival.

He walked up the street and saw her house, he knew it was hers from the picture Musume posted of her standing in front of it with her friends. He began to walk onto her lawn only to get stopped by her neighbor, "Hello, young man could you by chance post this envelope through their letter box, it's for Y/n. She's such an angel always offering to mow my lawn and in return I pay her. These are her earns." The elderly woman smiles, on her tiptoes to pass the letter over the fence between the two houses.

Ayato takes it and holds it, he turns to post it when she stops him in his tracks, "I wonder why you were coming to her house in the first place, is it a case of young love? I'm not seeing much of that nowadays but come over I've got the kettle on, you can post the letter in a bit." She smiles and walks quite quickly into her house for an older lady, Ayato follows in after her and awaits her instructions at the door.

"Don't be a stranger, come on in. I'm Aki, I assume you go to her school you must be in love, she is quite a beauty but for a fine man as yourself you seem quite distant." She talks, as she pours hot water into a teacup and he pulls the chair away from the table in the dinning room to sit down, she eventually places his tea down on a holster and sits down herself.

"Is that so?" Ayato responds.

He stares into the pool of hot liquid, "I've been around for many years and I know that you must be shy, but if you want her you must prove it. After all in my day, the men couldn't handle a beauty such as myself and I seduced many men ooh I was a wild one back in the day!" She laughs sipping her tea as if she didn't just pour hot water into it, Ayato picks the cup up by the handle and blows into it, seeing ripples on the surface.

"I could give you my manga collection, I have no need for it anymore, I am far too old for this volume anymore and you have many years ahead! It's called Cherry Touch." She spoke, she then stared out her window as if she was relieving a moment in her life just then.

"Since I assume you go to her school, my grandson Amao has recently went missing. Oh, how I told my son and his wife to shut down that blooming bakery and how many times I offered to help them out but he's just as stubborn as his father. I told them, that the pressure wasn't just effecting them but Amao as well, he helped me alot and he often ran into Y/n occasionally. I thought the pair would be nice together but I'm sure you'd treat her well." She said, sipping onto more of her tea, till it was half empty, Ayato followed and sipped his tea now that it was more cold.

"Now, the boy has gone missing, and the bakery has been put into a whole mess. I remember Amao promising to bake me a cake for my birthday but now he's gone...Y/n has baked that cake for me and she has been very lovely. She's been talking to me after school and she's definitely under as much pressure as Amao was."

She spoke sadly, and Ayato listened intently, " I knew he was dealing with something but I didn't want to ask. I asked his father, my son and he snapped on me not wanting to see me anymore but Amao filled the gap and now Y/n is, I hope nothing happens to her. Now, can you promise an elderly woman like me that you'll protect her." She holds his hand with her frail one and smiles at him sadly, "You remind me of my grandson in some ways... So good at listening and I'm sure somewhere in your heart, you just want to be free."

She pinched his cheek and smiled, getting up and going up the stairs ; returning with the volume, she handed it to him with and smile and he took his leave afterwards.

He thought about the things she said about Y/n, Taeko no longer could fix him it was all ruse, Y/n was the one for him after all.

Day by day, the feeling Taeko gave him had died. That flicker in his heart had dimmed, till a spark had been set and that small spark, turned into a huge flame in his heart.

He remembered that day when Taeko had bumped into him and he had so carelessly turned a blind eye to, her. She had lightly bumped into his shoulder and he didn't even see how her mouth opened to say something.

His darling was already there from the beginning. She made him feel like a person, she didn't treat him differently and he's sure she noticed something unusual about him yet she constantly went out of her way to help him.

He pushed the letter through the letter box.

He snuck into the back of her house with the volume somewhere on the grass below him, he scaled the vines on the side and luckily the window was slightly open. He pushed it open and entered her room, and it smelt just like her.

Being in her room, made his heart beat like a drum, that lady had helped him in away.

He saw the tape player on her desk and ejected the tape in it already...The tape he made Info- chan give to the person after him.

It was her.

His love, his friend was the one after him?

As if, she knew it was him.

He wandered further into her room to see if he could find anything else, and he saw one of her pants on the floor, he picked it up and promptly placed it in his pocket. Might as well take a few of her belongs while he's here, he took her pencil too that had rolled off her desk and was now on the floor.

It had teeth marks in it, and his finger trailer over the marks, his face was pink and his heart threatened to jump out his ribcage. He put it in his pocket, grabbed the tape player and was about to exist when he heard, Kokona.

He thought those two didn't talk as much anymore.

She was always a threat to him, she always watched him but she had to be taken care of once the time was right.

"He is dangerous I'm- Yes, Y/n, I think it's best you avoid him- I don't like that he's taking up all of your time and we are supposed to be friends not him and you- I sound jealous right now and I am because I see you less because of him- It will work, okay?" Kokona's words weren't as clear through a door but he sensed something was going on, maybe Y/n wasn't as clueless as he once though.

He decided to exit quickly, not knowing what exactly Kokona was planning. It didn't sound like it would benefit him in anyway.

He took a picture of the perfume Y/n uses, he had to know what brand she was wearing since she always smelt so good.

V