So, let's tell one last lie.
This time, it wasn't for himself, but for her.
Last night, Kitagawa Ryo dreamed about the past.
Karuizawa Kei and he had both still been children, not yet adults.
It must have been because he'd seen Karuizawa Kei at the wedding yesterday, for the first time in ages.
There was no one else in the first-class cabin of the plane bound for Tokyo, besides Kitagawa Ryo.
After all, it was a flight in the early hours of the morning. Ryo wouldn't have booked it if he hadn't needed to save time.
The plane had left London and was heading toward Tokyo.
For the past ten years, Kitagawa Ryo had flown this route over and over—probably more than a hundred times.
The familiar views, the familiar meals, yet somehow it still felt different.
Kitagawa Ryo sighed softly. He meant to prop his face up with his hand, but the moment his fingers touched his cheek, he felt the hard edge of the ring.
He'd gotten married yesterday.
He was nearly thirty, after all. He couldn't put it off forever. His parents had kept pressuring him, and in the end, he'd obediently gone along with the Marriage Contract.
Rather than marry a complete stranger, he might as well choose Horikita Suzune, whom he'd known since back then.
In the end, no matter how far he wandered, he couldn't get away from it.
His breath formed a white mist against the window. Kitagawa Ryo reached out and wiped it away.
It was late autumn in Tokyo now, and Ryo hadn't seen the autumn scenery there in a long time.
Over the past decade or so, he'd traveled back and forth between Tokyo and London, but all in all, he'd spent more time in London.
Kitagawa Ryo