"Why now?" Harumi whispered, as she looked up at Aki after breaking the kiss. "Why now?"

Aki slowly dug his face into the crook of her neck before starting to whisper. "I hate... I hate the thought of you rejecting me because... I've done horrible things to you."

"But the more you've made me hate you, the more I love you, Aki-nii," Harumi replied, putting her arms around Aki's sturdy body in the rain. "I've... been always love you. But... I'm afraid if you're going to hate me more and leave me when I confess to you."

"No, I won't. That's why it's hard for me to let you go. Because I love you as a woman... and as my wife."

"But in a few more hours, we'll be strangers again."

"So we'll start a new story," Aki said as he pulled himself away and cupped her cheek as he continued. "I want to marry you again. For real."

"Eh? But... Mari..."

"I'll think of that," he replied, taking the umbrella he had dropped earlier. "But first... Let's... get inside."

With a smile, Aki held out his hand to Harumi, which she took it with a smile. The first honest smile she had ever flashed for Aki, even he himself had noticed it. He pulled her closer and linked her arm with his, leading the way back to the mansion with the umbrella covering them.

~~~

"Ah..." Mamoru softly sighed, as he saw both wet Aki and Harumi entered the mansion and walked across the floor towards the stairs, soaking wet. He glanced at the wet floor, and had noticed puddles from the door to the stairway.

Hearing the butler's sigh, both of them turned their heads to Mamoru. "Sorry, we made your floor wet. It was heavily raining outside," Harumi apologized as Mamoru approached both of them.

"It's okay, it's okay. I haven't cleaned this floor... yet," Mamoru said, pausing for a moment as he glanced at Aki, before scanning him from head to toes.

"Haha! Silly Mamoru-kun!" Harumi giggled, catching Mamoru's attention back at her. "This towel won't dry me easily!" she said, holding the small towel that was unwillingly given by Mamoru himself. "Thank you anyway!" she thanked and smiled at her friend while placing the towel over her head, before walking up the stairs, leaving both Mamoru and Aki.

"Aki-sama..." Mamoru softly called out, but Aki was still watching Harumi walking to her room on the second floor, completely unaware of the call.

"Aki...niisan," Mamoru called out again, and this time Aki snapped out of his daze and turned at Mamoru. "I guessed... you've... confessed to her," he expected. Both of them stared at each other, before Aki finally sighed. "I knew it. I could see it in her eyes. The happiness," he continued, before patting on Aki's shoulder as he smiled. "Good job, Aki-niisan. You've had brought back the old Harumi."

~~~

Harumi sat down by the edge of the bed as she looked at her phone screen, as usual checking emails and messages when suddenly her phone was taken away by Aki. "O-Oi..." she turned to Aki and had just realized him getting closer to her. "A-Aki-nii... W-W-Wait!" Harumi squealed, as she placed her hand on his chest, stopping him from getting any closer as she began to sniff, and sneezed.

"Haha, you caught a cold," Aki laughed, placing his hand on her forehead, before kissing it. Harumi pursed her lips as she placed back her phone on the bedside table, before covering herself with the duvet.

"Don't surprise me like that, Aki-nii!" she shrieked once again when Aki suddenly put his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. "You... you're making me embarrassed."

Aki smiled at her, and then he placed his hand behind her head, pushing it towards his chest. Harumi scooted closer to him, inhaling his warm scent on his shirt. "So... You're still going?" Aki asked, whispering it against her forehead.

"It's... A business trip. What do you expect me to do?" she whispered against his chest.

"I'm afraid..." Aki paused, began to hug Harumi before he continued. "I'm afraid if you're... Going to stay there..."

"Well... Don't worry, I'll be back."

"Really? Make me believe that," Aki alleged. Harumi looked up at him and thought for a moment, before she sat up. Aki sat up too when he realized that she was trying to take off something from around her neck.

"This... is from my mother. I never put it off since the day she gave it to me until now. It's the only thing she had left me with," she told him, placing her silver necklace with a silver sakura petal hanging from it. Aki watched her closing his palm with the necklace in it. "Hold onto this until I come back to get it."

He smiled as he looked up to her, before putting the necklace on himself. "I finally can say it."

"What is it?"

Aki chuckled, holding Harumi's small hands as he stared at it and looked up at her face, taking in a deep breath before saying the words that he had been holding in since he knew her. "I love you."

"I love you too, Aki-nii."

~~~

"At last," Harumi whispered as the three of them left the lawyer's office, each holding a big brown envelope.

"Hm," Aki simply responded, looking down at his envelope as they silently walked down the hallway towards the elevator. Harumi pressed the button that would go down to the ground floor, and all the three Yasuhiro siblings stood before the elevator, waiting for it.

"Aki-nii," Haruo suddenly voiced out, while staring at his envelope. Both Harumi and Aki turned at him, at the right time where Haruo handed his envelope out to Aki with both of his hands. "Take it. I don't want it."

"But it's yours," Aki replied, pushing it back to his younger brother, but Haruo kept pushing it towards him. "It's what Dad had left for you."

"I think I want to support myself. I'll work hard for my own life. After all, I might leave the mansion after this," Haruo said, forcing Aki to take the envelope. Sighing, Aki took the envelope with his heavy hand and a heavy heart.

"But... you need it," Harumi suddenly said, as she took a step towards him.

"I never need this," Haruo softly said, smiling at her. Suddenly, he patted her head while staring at her face. "I just realized," he paused a moment, giving her a smile as he continued. "What I really need... is what someone else had."

Haruo glanced at Aki and knew that he became tensed hearing his young brother's words. Chuckling, suddenly Haruo flicked Harumi's forehead once she was caught off-guard.

"Ow!!! Haruo-niichan!!!" Harumi screamed in pain, placing her hands on the spot where her forehead got flicked. Aki immediately checking her reddened forehead, and watched Haruo ran down the hallway towards the stairs exit.

It's been a while, Harumi-chan! was what Aki still could hear from afar.

"You guys were like this before?" Aki began to ask, when Harumi was busy trying to hide her forehead with her hair bangs.

"Well, when we were young of course. Whenever there was a chance, he would always do that to me. Urgh..." Harumi grunted, right before the elevator dinged and its door opened.

Still whimpering, Harumi walked into the elevator as she kept rubbing her forehead. Aki followed, pressing the button to the ground floor as he watched her.

"So... you really think that it was a good decision?" he suddenly asked, when the elevator started to descend. Harumi slowly turned at him, still rubbing her forehead. Letting out a sigh, Aki grabbed both of her wrists.

"H-Hey, what are you-" Harumi was cut off by his lips on her forehead. Her heartbeat went fast, as if it was about to explode, but she kept her excitement to herself.

"Forgive my brother, Miss Toshiyuki," Aki whispered softly against her forehead, blowing cold air on it before pulling himself away. Harumi was frozen, but not because of Aki had made the pain slowly gone away, but the use of 'Toshiyuki' to address her. "I won't let that happen again, Miss."

Right. I've removed myself. From the Yasuhiro family's registry, she thought to herself. She glanced at Aki as he released her wrists and looked away. She could read the sorrow written all over his face. She knew how sad he was when she had decided to remove her name from their family's registry.

But there was a good reason behind her action. And she began to feel crazy when Aki still couldn't get it.

Suddenly, Harumi grabbed both of his arms, making him surprised as she turned him at her. Both of them stared into each others' eyes, and she was right; he was really sad.

He really didn't know the reason why? Huh...

"Baka," Harumi whispered, before moving a step closer to him, grabbing his shoulders as she leaned in and kissed him. Aki was shocked with her action, but then later kissed her back as he placed his hands behind her head while the other rested on her waist.

"Isn't it comfortable... " Harumi whispered, as she slowly pulled away, and shyly looked into his eyes as she continued. "Isn't it comfortable if I'm no longer your stepsister as you continue on loving me?"

"Oh silly me," Aki whispered, chuckling before he pulled her arm again and kissed her passionately. They stopped just before the elevator dinged, signaling its arrival on the ground floor. Both of them linked their arms together as they walked towards the building's exit.

"Aki-nii, I need to go. I need to do some work," Harumi said, as she glanced at her phone screen once they stepped outside and towards Aki's parked car.

"You still called me 'Aki-nii' though," Aki chuckled, as he placed his hand on her head, patting it gently as he continued. "Okay, I'll pick you up later."

"Um... I think you don't have to, because I'm going to have a company dinner with my staffs."

"A dinner for what? It's just a business trip, right?"

"This is my first time having collaboration with someone from outside Japan, so they wanted to do like a celebration... At least that's how my staffs explained to me," Harumi said, as she opened the passenger's door and entered the car. "Well, they had prepared it for me, so I should come right?" she asked, after Aki entered the car and started the engine.

"Okay," Aki smiled, patting her head once again before placing another kiss on her forehead.

I'm sorry, Aki-nii.