"Oi, Ryu, I'm going to the shop, do you need anything for your flight?" Mr. Sanada called from the entrance room. The day of Ryu's departure was nearing really quickly and the whole house was upside down due to the go fever.

"No, thanks, I can't close the suitcase already and I'm not even done with the packing!" He called back. He couldn't even concentrate on packing and had absolutely no idea of what to pack, so he simply went with a no instead of telling something that probably wouldn't have made sense anyway.

"Fair enough, see you later!" His dad greeted and he heard the door slam shut.

Ryu put a pile of t-shirts in the suitcase and sat on the bed. Ever since he came home last evening he played the talk he had with Chizu over and over again in his head. "Since when have you started hiding stuff from me and sugarcoating reality?"

If there was something he's been known and appreciated for it was telling the truth as it is. He shared this belief with his best friend Kazehaya and it always worked, so what was different now? "You guys are dating now!" A voice in his head spoke.

"That's right," he thought, "but she's still the same Chizuru I've known for over 15 years!"

"As if it was an excuse! Why don't you just admit you're nothing but a lovefool?!" The voice said.

"What? No! I am not a fool! I mean, look, the situation is crappy as it is, I really don't want to screw it even more!" Ryu protested.

"Well, I'm not the one who's arguing with his conscience!"

Suddenly the doorbell rang. Happy to be discharged from this argument he ran down the stairs.

"Shota, welcome, what's up?"

"Mum baked a castella cake, so she told me to bring you guys some. So, what about you, Ryu? I see you have a bit of a go fever," he said pointing at the pile of luggage.

"Thanks! I'm not really into sweet stuff, but you mom's castella is great and besides, Chizuru's coming over tonight. Well, I'm leaving tomorrow and there's still a lot to pack," Ryu said.

"Okay and when are you leaving?"

"12:30 p.m. By the way, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Do you think I'm sugarcoating reality?" Ryu asked out of the blue.

"What? I don't think so, I mean you're the most straightforward person I know, so what's it all about?"

"You see, I'm leaving for Tokyo tomorrow and I told Chizuru I'd be coming back in a month."

"But?" Kazehaya gave him a surprised look. It was quite obvious that there's a "but" following, but what's so bad that even Yoshida shouldn't know about it?

"But the fact is I'm only going to return for a week to get some papers form school and then I'm going to Tokyo for good. I mean for the whole semester."

"Oh. You shouldn't have done that. I think you should've told her the whole truth. Do you want her to learn that from someone else?"

"Of course not, but she's already got a lot on her plate."

"Well, I'm not denying that, but it's not up to you to decide whether she can or cannot handle that. I say tell her the truth, sugarcoating and trying to cover it up is never a good idea, trust me, I've learnt the hard way."

"What happened?"

"Once I was afraid of talking to Kuronuma about my issues and of course she could tell I was upset, but I kept denying it, but then one day she got really angry and I had no other choice, but after all I'm glad it happened. Anyway, I'm sorry, I have to get going, mum asked me to give the cake to Touta and his teammates." Kazehaya said.

"That's okay, I need to pack my stuff before Chizu comes, because right now it's hard to find a spot to sit down on."

"Oh and I was told to bring you to the karaoke bar tonight."

"I don't know, there's still a lot of work to do…"

"Um, kinda sounded like an order to me, I was told not to except a "no" as an answer."

"Who told you that?"

"Well, I'm not allowed to specify any names, but I guess you'll learn more details in like 2 hours," The black haired boy grinned.

"Honestly, I'm not surprised at all. Okay, see you then," Ryu said.

Ryu's POV

How typical of Chizuru. Even though I only hinted that I wouldn't make it to the party, she immediately ran to the karaoke bar and invited everyone just to make sure I also get to celebrate the success at the exams. Even though she must be crushed right now, she always makes sure I am happy and I don't feel left out.

Deep in thought he was suddenly interrupted by a sharp sound of doorbell.

"Did you forget some- oh. Hey." It wasn't Kazehaya. Well, if he hasn't shrinked in the meantime and his hair didn't become long and brown. "I thought you were coming later."

"Oh, shut up, judging from these heaps of things to pack it is crystal clear that you could use some help," Chizu declared.

"Okay, you can help me bring this stuff upstairs. But these boxes are quite heavy."

"Come on, I'm your brother, did you forget? " The hazel-haired girl remarked as they were walking to the stairs.

"Nope," Ryu said simply and fixed his attention on the heap of T-shirts on the floor.

"I'm home!" Mr. Sanada called out from the door.

The couple ran to the door to help him with the bags.

"Oh, Chizu-chan, welcome, I didn't know you're here!"

"I just came to help Ryu out!" She grinned.

"You're such a sweetheart! That's right, he's seriously going to need some help to be able to pack all the things, there won't be much time to do it when he returns."

"He'll have one whole month, that's a bunch of time to finish the packing," Chizu said. Little did she notice that Ryu was getting more and more nervous. He wanted to stop his father from talking, but it was already too late.

"But Chizu, he'll only return for one weekend, I thought you knew that."

"No, he didn't, Ryu what is going on in here?" Chizu exclaimed.

"I believe we should talk this out in my room, I'm sorry dad, excuse us," Ryu said and attempted to catch Chizu's hand to drag her to his room, however she released from the grip.

They reached the room and Ryu closed the door.

"When were you planning to tell me that? Or rather, did you ever plan to tell me?"

"No, I mean yes…okay, listen, I can explain it."

"I can't wait."

"You have a lot on your plate these days; I didn't want to make it worse…"

"I should have predicted that, so I was right about that sugarcoating reality thing after all. Listen, I appreciate you're trying to protect me from bad news, but you can't hide things like that from me, it's not up to you to decide what I can or cannot handle."

"We're not just friends anymore, Chizuru, maybe that's why I started acting so weird recently and I'm sorry for that."

"Just friends? We have never been just friends Ryu, haven't you noticed? You're my best friend, you see, ever since we're started dating you've been trying to be the "perfect boyfriend" whatever you think it is, but all this time it didn't even occur to you, that I don't need this overprotective boyfriend right now. I need my best friend back. He would never hide important news from me and when I was sad he'd always asked if he should console me."

"I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have done that, but ever since I've known you you've always somehow managed to put a smile on my face and faces of all the people around you and make sure they'll stay there, but it's been different these days, I just hate to see you unhappy."

"My best friend, brother and boyfriend in one is leaving for the university and he won't be back until Christmas, what do you expect me to do? Throw confetti?" Chizu gave him a crooked smile.

"Do you want me to comfort you?"

She gulped and nodded. Ryu sat next to her and wrapped one arm around her shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you won't feel lonely.