AN: I know that I currently have a fanfic of this story out there but I wanted to refine it a little more. I know that Special A doesn't get a lot of fics so you might be asking why I'm writing but I love it and I feel that I will always love it 😊 plus I don't think this story would work very well for Chi's Sweet Home and I've got more than a dozen active Skip Beat fics 😉

Well, I hope you enjoy.

Chapter One: A Dimmed Candlelight

White linens covered the tables inside of the large tent. There were multiple desserts under crystal domes which made them appear even more appetizing. The musicians, including Jun, were playing so skillfully together. Time just seemed to slow down and settle on the great beauty of this event.

It was the wedding of two of Kei Takishima's closest friends. It was a wonderful night which celebrated the love of Akira Todou and Tadashi Karino as they embarked on their journey together. After all of these years, the two of them had finally wed and then they were moving to Paris.

Everyone looked so gorgeous and glamorous in their formal dress and as another song played more couples went onto the dance floor. Kei had decided to pick up his fork from the dessert and see how it looked in the different lights. Light. That word always made him think.

There were some lights that weren't even able to be studied. There were stars which burned brightly and then died out leaving a black hole. There were some lights that should never be messed with.

"Excuse me, Takishima-san," a young woman in a blue dress, that looked similar to a Disney princess's , said as her cheeks turned a deep red, "Would you like to dance?" she asked and the twenty-two year old looked at her with a slightly exhausted expression.

"I think you'd have more fun dancing with somebody else," he said as he held the fork up to the light of the candle. To an ordinary person this wouldn't be seen as doing anything strange or out of the ordinary but to Kei, it kept him focused on that word and the girl who had passed away and taken his heart with her.

Hikari Hanazono had been abducted, raped, and murdered when she was an eighteen-year-old high school student. Her body was never found but there were two bodies found of other victims in a condition like hers. Kei had searched for her but even he couldn't trace it. What he did know is that someone was asking young Japanese women for help only to end their lives.

There was no DNA proof other than blood found on her school uniform that matched the blood in an abandoned greenhouse. Kei had always needed more to make him truly believe but over four years his thoughts had shifted ever so gradually into accepting her death.

"Well, I thought that you'd have fun dancing too," the girl smiled and Kei looked at her and sighed.

"There are a lot of people here. I'm sorry, I'm not really one for dancing but I'm sure that if you go to that table," Kei gestured to a table with some of Tadashi's friends from the college that he had been
'forced to attend' "That they would be happy to dance with you."

The girl froze and looked down before giving up and walked over to where the men were. Kei watched her go before Akira came up to him and sat down beside him.

"Did you make her cry?" Akira smiled to her old friend. "You know, I really wish that she could have been here. I had all these plans that I never told anyone about before Tadashi proposed about how she would be my maid of honor and how I would throw my arms around her at the end of the night and tell her that she was my sister."

Kei froze before looking at the table linens, "You really picked a great venue and you look very beautiful," he said with a smile as he attempted not to make eye contact. "Congratulations," he smiled as Akira placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Have you ever considered dating again? I know some really -" Akira tried but Kei looked at her with an exhausted sigh. He ran a hand through his blond hair and closed his eyes. It did nothing to relieve him of the years of stress and exhaustion without her.

"You've already confiscated my phone and the spreadsheets that I attempted to sneak in here and I did as you asked because you're my friend and it's your wedding and you've really been there for me since we were kids and especially these past four years, but I still reserve the right to -" Kei tried to reply but Akira cut him off again.

"She's not going to come back," she told the blond.

"I know….I know that, but I'm content on not having people around me. When I concentrate on business then I can find myself passing through the hours as if they're not even there," Kei told her before seeing Tadashi walk over.

"You rejected another woman's invite?" Tadashi chuckled as he approached the blond, "People are going to talk and it may come out that you're gay."

"You have a problem with that because I don't," Kei said as he pulled out his glasses and put them on. "However, I do wish the two of you a long and happy marriage and congratulations. I hope that this will help you with your move to France," he said before pulling out an envelope. "Do I have permission to wish you well and head back home?"

Akira held onto the envelope as she kept it away from her husband who was eager to open it, "If you're sure that you are okay. Please don't drink tonight, okay and maybe not pass by the Hanazono's old house."

"I won't do either of those things," Kei told them. "I just have to check out a new office in America for one of the companies that we bought last year. They told me to look around in New York to see if we can expand our American influence."

"Just," Akira said nervously, "Be safe."

"I will," Kei nodded before he stood up and bowed to the two of them. "Congratulations again and I know that we'll keep in contact. Thank you for everything and I hope to be invited to future events."

"Of course," Akira grinned as she wrapped her arms around her friend and as she let go, Takashi embraced him as well. Kei smiled again before leaving.

As he left, Tadashi looked at the envelope. "Can we open it?" he asked and Akira nodded as well. As they looked inside there were gift cards to major shops in Paris with a total of just over one million yen in value.

"Do we need to get him a thank you gift with this?" Tadashi asked with a grin and Akira looked in the direction where he had just left. One of the last things that he had done before Hikari's death was asking her if she would marry him for the third time. He had told her that he wanted to drive her home or at least walk with her but a meeting had come up.

Watching someone else experience a life that you wanted but could never have would have no other option than to feel painfully frightening.

…

…

"I'm not sure that I like this place either," Kei said as he stood outside of an office building in Manhattan. There were questions about how big the new company office should be with some of the members of the board thinking that a new building should just be constructed. Kei was just there to oversee the beginning of everything before returning to his own job in Japan.

With no fear of him wasting his life away, he was able to pick wherever he wanted to work and Tokyo just felt familiar to him. He turned to the assistant that he was working with, "Ian, this place isn't going to work for us. I know they say that they have a basement area that is only accessible to a staircase located on this floor but the chairman should know that the coding isn't up to date and that the file we were presented with was missing quite a few pages."

"Isn't it even worth considering?" Ian asked as Kei looked at him before looking at the office building again.

"I suppose that the last company to use it did get good ratings, it was a remote security company though. Maybe they have good internet service," Kei sighed as he adjusted his glasses and looked at his paperwork.

"We also scheduled a meeting with the office manager," Ian reminded him and Kei sighed.

"Keeping up appearances is also a good thing," he noted before trying not to show how tired he was. He didn't want to think about his emotions because they were often full of negative feelings. Even if he felt good then he was feeling good without her.

Ian nodded and the two entered the lobby only to be greeted by the office manager and a very prominent woman in the New York real estate game. Kei walked out to the two of them with a very relaxed and charming smile on his face.

Diana, the real estate tycoon, smiled as she shook hands with Kei. "I heard you were handsome," she told him, "and also very young. Well, I want to welcome you gentlemen to America and shall I show you the office building."

"I'm more interested in seeing the basement that was advertised on your early paperwork. I'm talking about the paperwork before the 2010s that has been mysteriously left out of -" Kei said but Diana interrupted him.

"I'm sorry, are you talking about the warehouse because ours is actually located in a different area," she said before Kei took out the paperwork and Diana stared at him in amazement. "I was never told that this was here."

"All the more reason to check it out first. We would love to consider this location for our company and you know that we have the wealth and prestige to back up our bid on the place if we want it. What we cannot handle is a stain on the Takishima name's legacy. I request that we go here first."

Diana nodded as she looked Kei over. This man might look like someone of a younger demographic but all the reports were true when they said that he was not one to be messed with. He had the maturity and leadership qualities of someone twice or three times his age.

As the group followed the early map of the location, they came upon a locked door and Kei looked to Diana for the key. The office manager was still completely bewildered by all of this. As Diana unlocked the door, Kei's eyes widened as he saw there to be what looked like a hallway of an office building but everything was not of good condition and there was an off-putting smell lingering in the air.

As he walked to one of the doors, he saw a young man of his own age but much skinnier pacing. Kei noticed that there were dark bruises over his body and it looked like his bones were about to tear through his skin. "We need a medic," he said. "Somebody get this guy out of here. Ian," he turned to his assistant, "Contact the police immediately as well as get some medical care for this man. Are there other people in here too?" he asked as he saw that this was all brand new to the two other members of their party.

Kei looked in the rooms to see that there was one other man and three women who were around his age and in bad shape. The men looked as if they could be models but they were dressed in clothing that was too tight with one of them wearing what appeared to be a police uniform.

As he went to the last door, Kei froze as time seemed to stand still. He walked over to Diana and grabbed the key to put it into the lock immediately. It didn't work. He had to just break this down because on the other side of that wall was a young woman who looked like an older version of Hikari. She was wearing a gothic Lolita dress and accessories with a needle in her arm.

As he broke through the door, the woman looked at him stunned before pushing her back against the wall.

"No, no, no," she whispered as tears came to her eyes and Kei stopped himself as he realized that she was scared and she had every right to be. He had just knocked down her door.

"Please don't be afraid. We're going to get you help. You look – wow, you look so similar to her," he said before putting a hand over his mouth as he noticed all the scars but also the way she looked so much like a thinner and older version of his girlfriend. "Miss. Number Two?" he whispered and she looked at him as tears filled her eyes.

"Takishima?" she asked as she saw Kei approach her, his face a mess of emotions, "K-K-Kei?" she asked and Kei came closer before putting a hand on top of her head.

"Hi there, Hikari," he said as tears filled both of their eyes and Kei bent in half as sobs seemed to be torn from his chest.

He had found her again but was he too late?

End of Chapter One

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