A Family of Three

Impossible. Absolutely impossible!

How could Akemi say something like that behind his back?

How could she be so infatuated with a scumbag who already had a girlfriend?

And call that true love?

Even if it was true love, it was a twisted kind of love!

Akai Shuichi simply refused to accept it.

Even though everything he had heard and seen these past days had been enough to shatter his last lingering illusion.

"Akemi, where exactly are you right now?!"

Akai Shuichi desperately wanted to find Miyano Akemi and have a serious talk with her:

Had she really fallen for that scumbag?

Was she even willing to become someone else's mistress?

Unless he got answers to those questions,

Akai Shuichi would not rest in peace even if he died.

So he heedlessly took out his phone and tried again and again to call "Miss Asai" at a number that had long gone unanswered.

No answer.

No answer.

Still no answer.

Akai Shuichi blankly stopped his futile attempts.

After giving it serious thought, he clung to his last hope and sent "Miss Asai" a heartfelt message:

"Akemi, I know you're still alive."

"No matter what, please... please let me hear your voice one more time."

"—Moroboshi Dai."

The message went through, and he waited quietly for quite a while.

It was as though heaven itself had sensed his pain.

"Miss Asai" finally responded:

"Hello? Is that Dai-kun?"

A faint, trembling hum.

Yet it was the voice he had dreamed of day and night.

This time, it was no longer seventy or eighty percent alike. Asai Kana had truly become Miyano Akemi.

Beautiful memories from the past surged up like a tide in that instant.

Akai Shuichi felt as though he had returned to that beautiful summer night when he and Akemi had