Every man needs someone to listen to him, or else he becomes withdrawn into loneliness. Ryou was already lonely since childhood. The only person who gave the child sparks of joy and a sense of hope was his sister, who was immense to others her age. Megumi considered it her duty to stay close to her little brother, for seeing his saddened face, the girl's heart was torn with unhappiness.

Neither Ryou nor Megumi was willing to reckon with her parents, who had been engaged in business and endless work all their lives. In an instant, Megumi was fed up with their attitude toward children.

The infancy of Ryou was strange. His sister could not understand why the child did not want to communicate with her peers or anyone else, but only ran away when she met them. On the one hand, Megumi also had trouble introducing herself into her society, but Ryou's situation went beyond the usual sociophobia.

The child was afraid of people.

His parents dismissed his situation, but Megumi did not want to put up with it. She tried her best to reassure her little brother by trying to introduce him to different children or girlfriends, but it all went to waste. Nothing worked.

Her sister often took Ryou to the lawn by the bridge when it was sunny outside. They would sit with resigned gazes and stare at the sun that was falling relentlessly over the horizon, time after time. True, the boy was more satisfied with spending time with his beloved sister than he was with meaningless observation of the sky.

"Do you like sunsets?" asked Megumi with a gentle tone, not looking away from the bitter sun falling behind the high-rise buildings.

Ryou only looked leisurely at young Megumi's beauty, which came naturally to her. Her mole on her left cheek, her silky brown hair, and her graceful, thin lips gave her a sense of confidence combined with an untouched tenderness.

Then, the boy didn't want any people or extra looks besides his sister. To him, Megumi was his only guardian angel.

-

The year before the move from Kyoto, the young doctor was walking home after university. Medin University was always held under strict circumstances for students and Megumi returned each day with a completely tired expression on her face.

Meanwhile, under the bridge by the green field near the ditch, two young men were fighting. Megumi, who was walking on the bridge, noticed the antics of the teenagers, and with an unconcerned look, spotted the thirteen-year-old Ryou fighting with his peer. There were several people of the same age crowding around the boys, but from their faces, the boys didn't seem to be trying to stop the youngsters at all.

Ryou, whose white shirt had taken on a brownish color because of the dirt, lost his footing and fell to the grass.

"Why are you always so untouchable?!" shouted the boy who pushed Ryou. He had brown hair and looked at the young man pitifully. "Is it so hard for you to face the truth...?"

"I'd like to find out for myself!" flashed Ryou and swiped him lightly across the face. "I'm not trying to pull away at all..." he added, with a confused look. Both guys' faces took on a red, battered look.

Megumi's loud voice popped up from the bridge, calling out her younger brother's name, to which Ryou responded momentarily.

"S-sister?!" exclaimed Ryou, seeing how, on the bridge, a lady in a shirt and a red skirt was looking perplexed.

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The young girl, standing beside the young men, gasped. "Is that your sister, Ryou-kun?" she asked, inspired, and ran up to Megumi. Her brown hair was long and neatly styled at the back of her head.

Her sister, glancing as the damsel ran after her, wondered if she was the Aiko that Ryou often spoke of. Behind the young lady ran one girl and two other guys who had previously followed the fight.

The young man with Ryou squinted toward Megumi to see her face, on which a spring, warm breeze was falling. When he saw her, he was greatly surprised by her beauty, though he had seen her from afar.

"What a beauty!" he declared, dotingly.

Ryou sat down on the grass and put his hand to the back of his head, scratching his hair afterward. "Yeah. Guess I'll have to explain the whole situation to her."

"You do that... Don't tell her we were seriously fighting. I don't want to miss the chance to meet my future wife. With your permission!"

"She certainly won't take you for a husband," Ryou grinned cheerfully. "You are too young and foolish."

"I am desperate, but I never give up!"

Climbing the stairs, Aiko adjusted her school shirt so as not to look reckless in front of the important lady, and rising, she took a steady step toward Megumi and bowed gracefully.

"I apologize. My name is Aiko Yoshida and I am a classmate of Hayashi Ryou. Are you her older sister?"

Megumi nodded in response and looked back at the young men sitting on the lawn.

"Ah, don't be mad at Isshin, that's how they play!"

"Playing?" the sister asked, quietly surprised. "So you are his close friends?"

Without making his older sister wait, Ryou got to his feet and patted the dirty areas of his school uniform. The young man quickly ran to the bridge without waiting for his buddy, and so the latter ran after him in a hurry to overtake Ryou.

"We're, you know, not done solving our issue yet!" angrily chased Ryou, but the boy paid no attention. All he could see was the road to go up to the bridge and meet his beloved sister, nothing else he needed.

After running to his sister first and climbing the stairs, the boy came close to Megumi and stood in front of his waiting peers.

"I'm sorry about that brat not showing us around earlier," Aiko clarified grudgingly, "I guess he didn't even try to tell you about us."

The silent Ryou slowly turned his head to the guy who came after him, and spreading his thick hair, nodded optimistically at him. The guy didn't flinch, and stepped forward and confidently pointed his thumb to his chest.

"I am Isshin Yoshida!" the brown-haired guy announced loudly, and Megumi's eyes widened in surprise. "To put it another way, I'm best friends with your brat," he added with a laugh, and received a slap on the back from a disgruntled Ryou.

"And this one..." Ryou pointed with his eyes at the shortest guy in their group, "...is Iruma Takahashi" to which Iruma smiled good-naturedly and closed his eyes.

Stepping into the corner, Ryou pointed to his sister at the widest, tallest guy. "That's Oda Tanaka, tamer of women's hearts, and most importantly, the heart of the most beautiful girl in Kyoto," he pronounced with a smirk, to which the modest and skinny girl standing in the middle became embarrassed.

Aiko shook the skinny shoulders of the pretty girl with the long, darkish hair, thus giving confidence to the modest girl.

"I... I..."

"Come on, Maiko-chan," the comrades whispered, to which Megumi had a slight smile on her face, foreshadowing a good first impression of Ryou's new friends. In truth, Megumi did have an impressive attitude toward the subject of her younger brother's friends, for she was worried about his social circle.

"I'm Maiko Mizuki!" shouted the cowardly shy girl, and the boys giggled. Maiko lifted her head, covered in red blush, and added: "We're friends of Ryou's. Nice to meet you!"

For the first time in his thirteen years with Ryou, his sister saw his new Kyoto companions. There was barely a trace of joy on her face, and Ryou cheered the boys up by telling them that Megumi was only tired. Megumi covered her mouth and struggled to hide her shock. Tears of happiness could have flowed from her dark blue eyes, like the color of the universe, but her sister wouldn't allow herself to.