The plagiarism scandal had cooled down. The next day after the night where Haruo had admitted to Harumi, Aki had brought him to The Vellé's company and had made him confessed his doings. The name of Sweet Spring and Harumi had been cleaned as the magazine's company had published their apology.

"Next time, be careful Harumi. If you're in any trouble, I'm not helping you anymore," Aki sternly said on the day that the apology was published in the magazine. "Thank goodness I have friends as witnesses working at that magazine's company."

"My apology doesn't mean that I'm going to stop, okay? Take note of that," Haruo warned his brother, as he glanced at Harumi. "Huh. You're lucky this time. Don't worry; I'll make sure that you'll suffer more."

-Few Months Later-

"Harumi-san? Harumi-san!"

"A-Ah yes, Miyuki-chan?" Harumi responded as she heard her name was called by Miyuki. Her secretary walked into her office's room with a file in her arms.

"Are you alright?" Miyuki began to ask, as she sat down on the chair in front of Harumi's desk. "Are you still thinking about the scandal? Don't worry, it will never happen again. That was few months ago."

"But Miyuki-chan, it was my fault too. I dozed off after working on my designs and just left them like that. I'm thinking on how I can prevent my sleeping habit, because I keep on doing it, and my husband keeps on going mad at me."

"No, it was that thief's fault. He had broken into the mansion. Thank God you're okay that night," Miyuki said, as she put down the file on Harumi's table, unaware of her boss' eyes on her.

Harumi felt guilty for making up the story behind the scandal. She didn't want to make Miyuki knew that the real thief was her stepbrother. Even though there was hatred towards Haruo, but she just couldn't tell her secretary the truth.

"Miyuki-chan, is there anything that you want to tell me?" Harumi began, as she opened the file that Miyuki had brought, getting into her professional mode.

"Well for now... as usual. Requests. Oh right," Miyuki paused for a moment as she opened her organizer. "Mr. Romancini said that he had wished to see your designs in front of his eyes."

"Romancini?!" Harumi pointed out, more like a shriek. "You don't mean... Mr. Grant Romancini of the Chantellé Fashion, in New York?!" But then as Miyuki responded with nods, Harumi began to squeal as if a teen girl had met her favorite idol.

"When did he make the call?! How did he find me?! When did he want me to meet him?! Where are we going to meet? Have he seen my works?!"

"Whoa! Easy there, Harumi-san," Miyuki calmed her boss down, and when Harumi did, Miyuki started to flip the pages through her organizer. "One: he called me a few moments ago. Two: he said someone had sent him an email of your recent exhibition and it was from Mrs. Cordelia Wilmore."

"Lia? Haha, that girl... Okay, go on."

"Three: if you're going to meet him, you set the time but he would like to meet you at his place."

"His place... you mean?"

"You have to go to New York."

~~~~~
I need to buy some stuffs, so head home first, Harumi typed in her phone and sent the message to Aki. She glanced at her watch, and it was almost half past six.

"Oh, I should leave," she told herself. After tidying up her table, she picked up her handbag and left her room.

"Oh, Harumi-san," Miyuki stopped as she encountered Harumi in the hallway. "You're leaving already? But your husband is not here yet."

"Oh, I've told him that I'm going to the mall. So he'll head home first."

"Oh, okay. Have a nice Sunday tomorrow, Harumi-san."

"You too, Miyuki-chan. Have a good rest." With that, Harumi left the office and headed down to the lobby. She stood by the side of the road, and a taxi stopped by her. "To the mall, please." It was a ten-minute trip from Sweet Spring to the nearest mall, and Harumi was silently counting on the backseat.

How I couldn't realize? It's already four months, and another eight months to the end of the marriage contract, Harumi thought to herself. They have made it almost throughout the half-year, and still Haruo was trying his hard to separate Harumi and Aki, even though his attempts had always failed. Then she had realized something.

Even though there were always problems, both Harumi and Aki always tried to solve it in any ways they could do to protect the marriage. In a way as if the marriage was not because of the contract.

"Miss? Miss?" suddenly the taxi driver called out, bringing Harumi back from her thought. She shook her head and glanced out of the window, now realizing that she was already there.

"Oh, sorry. Here you go," Harumi stammered as she paid the driver and thanked him as she closed the door behind her. She entered the mall and the stationery shop was the first shop she went to. "Huh... I've run out of my drawing equipment."

She walked towards a section where she could look for her favorite pencils, and began to immerse in looking for it. "Oh, there it is." She picked out a box of pencils and now made her way to look for sketchbook.

"Hah... You should be ready for the night event, and now you're here? Shopping. Enjoying the elder's money, I see?"

Suddenly a female voice interrupted her. Harumi stopped in her way and her eyes widened as she turned around to the voice. And there was a beautiful woman, standing before her in fancy clothes with a smirk.

"S-S-Senpai?"