At 6 o'clock in the evening, the last ray of dawn disappeared in the sky, and under the gray sky, the lights like the starry sky began to light up.

Makoto Sakaki turned over and his nose hit a soft unknown object. He sank deeply into it and smelled the familiar smell. Makoto Sakaki stretched out his big hands and hugged Miss Miyano.

"Awake?"

With her back against the wooden board, Miss Miyano sat on the bed, stroking her boyfriend's earlobe with her cool fingers, with an open photo album on her knees.

"Um...what are you looking at?"

Sakaki Seiki asked with one eye open.

"An old photo album, found in the study."

Hearing the word "album", Sakaki Makoto immediately perked up, sat up suddenly and turned on the chandelier in the room.

"Look, this is the scene when your uncle took you fishing when you were a child."

Miss Miyano gently stroked the oxidized and yellowed photo. In the photo, the little boy was wearing a thick cotton-padded jacket. His nose was obviously red from the cold, but he still stubbornly raised the big fish in his hand, his eyes full of excitement.

At the bottom of the photo, the date of shooting is marked:

【1978.11.23, in Kanagawa】

18 years ago, there was no fire in the research institute and Karasuma Oriyuki had not left. Everything seemed so beautiful and full of hope.

There are many blank spaces on the album, most of which are solo photos of Sakaki Makoto when he was a child. Sakaki Ryunosuke rarely appears, and there is no photo of Karasuma Oriyuki at all.

but...

Even so, Miss Miyano still watched with great interest, as if she was recalling the good old days.

As the date progressed, the number of photos increased significantly, and Ryunosuke Sakaki appeared less and less frequently. He became the photographer, and he was replaced by the younger versions of the Miyano sisters.

"Hey, you were no different when you were a kid than you are now. You both acted like a millionaire. Stay away from strangers."

Sakaki Makoto was overjoyed when he saw the photo of his girlfriend.

From childhood to adulthood, Miss Miyano has never changed her hairstyle. In one of the photos of the three of them, Makoto Sakaki is on the left, Akemi is on the right, and Miss Miyano is in the middle. Except for Akemi who is smiling happily, little Makoto Sakaki turns his head to one side and doesn't look at the camera, as if he is sulking. Miss Miyano is even more outrageous...

His foot was suspended high, pointed at Sakaki Makoto's instep, his face full of anger, as if he was going to step down hard in the next second.

"Hey, are you taking it a bit too far?"

Seeing this photo, Sakaki Makoto immediately shouted:

"Why are you still launching a sneak attack?"

"What are you afraid of? Uncle has already paused it, and I didn't step on it!"

"No, no, no, look at your fierce little expression, it's obvious that you want to send me to the hospital, okay?"

"Do you have any evidence?"

"Does this require evidence?!"

"So you remember what happened back then?"

“…I don’t remember.”

"That's all right, isn't it?"

Eyes curved like crescent moons, ice-blue pupils flashing with cunning light, Miss Miyano raised the ending of her voice, and said playfully:

"How dare you blame me for something you don't even remember?"

"Besides..."

"You must have done something to make me angry, so I took revenge on you!"

After opening his mouth, Sakaki Makoto was speechless and unable to refute.

When it comes to recalling the incident from the same year, he has always been at a disadvantage and is no match for Miss Miyano. Whatever she says is what counts.

As the album turned, little Sakaki Makoto started to grow taller, but Miss Miyano grew faster than him. At first she was at his waist, but two years later she was as tall as his chest. Even Akemi was half a head taller than him. The only difference was...

The arcs on the three people's mouths became smaller and smaller.

The remaining photo albums became increasingly superficial. If compared to the first photos, the three people who appeared later had undergone tremendous changes in body shape, appearance, temperament, and gaze.

The last photo is still a group photo of three people.

Little Sakaki Makoto had a stern face and looked very unhappy. He held the little hand of Miss Miyano. Miss Miyano was holding a stuffed bear, pursing her lips and looking listless. Mingmei was a little absent-minded, her eyes full of worry.

The background of this photo is an airport, with a huge Gulfstream aircraft behind it.

【1984.12.30, in Tokyo】

12 years ago.

“I remember this time.”

Miss Miyano said silently:

"That day, we boarded a plane to the United States and left Japan."

"Not long after arriving in the United States, you left a letter saying you were going back. Ten years have passed since then and we haven't seen each other again. We haven't even had a phone call or a letter. My sister and I couldn't find you even if we wanted to."

"Until one day, you disappeared from the face of the earth and reappeared. I was not prepared at all. It was so sudden and surprising. It was like a dream, a very long dream."

"Cheng, do you know..."

Miss Miyano turned her head and looked at her boyfriend, and said seriously:

"Ten years later, you have changed a lot. You are no longer depressed or gloomy. Your eyes are full of confidence, as if nothing in the world can stump you. You are completely different from when you suddenly left. Sometimes I even wonder if you have become a different person."

Sakaki Makoto's heart skipped a beat, and his expression looked a little unnatural:

"I am who I am. No matter how I change, I am still me."

"Yeah, the only thing that hasn't changed is your smooth talk. When you were a kid, you could talk to a lazy wild cat for a long time..."

"Hey, hey, hey, you must have remembered it wrongly. Am I so bored that I would chat and make up stories with a wild cat?"

"Once you caught a big rat, tied it to a stick, and threw it into the wild cats..."

“........”

"Before you threw it into the wild cats, you used it to scare my sister and me, chasing us all over the hills."

“........”

"Another time, you..."

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Sakaki covered his girlfriend's mouth with his hand, sweating profusely as he listened:

"I thought I wasn't a naughty kid when I was little..."

"Uh, huh... You're not, because naughty kids will do things that give adults headaches and troubles, but you're different. You love to teach naughty kids a lesson. One time, you tied a naughty kid to the dog next door, tied a piece of ham around the dog's neck, and let the dog run around Lake Ashi. The crying sound spread all over the place. Since then, no naughty kid dared to mess with you anymore."

"Ah...Isn't this the village bully?"

"You've always been a bully, but..."

Miss Miyano smiled:

"You belong to us, the bully."

"Just like when the negotiations reached a deadlock, my uncle dragged the president of the Chamber of Commerce of the neighboring village into the bathroom to chat. Everyone likes you very much... except for those naughty kids. They run away when they see you."

"Yeah, that certainly sounds like something I would do."

Boom boom!

Just then, there were two knocks on the door.

Sakaki Makoto lifted the quilt, got up and opened the door to see...

"Boss, everything has been cleaned."