Across town sitting at his desk staring at the angry ladies across from him Carter had an exhausted look on his face. Alicia, his assistant, and Mary, his daughter, were both glaring at him hatefully. “You know you went to far this time, right?”

Carter shook his head. “I’ve already explained this to you. The boy needs to learn how much he messed up recently. If he had gotten caught things could be much worse.”

Mary was still glaring at him. “Yeah, but having him followed like this and pretending to try to find the culprit is too much. You dragged him half way across the world just to mess with him. He broke off his engagement because of you.”

Carter sighed. “Yeah, this is going to be a good lesson for the boy. Stop throwing a fit. It will all stop in a few weeks.”

Alicia had an increasingly angry look on her face. “I’ve seen you do some horrible things but messing with your own grandson like this is a new low. At least when you normally do bad things the other person is a bad person. Those two kids are innocent.”

Carter giggled. “I’m also doing this to separate those two for a little while. I already can tell the haven’t taken their relationship to the next level. What would we do if they ended up having a pregnancy? Having them live together was supposed to be temporary. This is a good test for their relationship.”

Mary shook her head. “You know if he finds out about this, he will hate you right?”

Carter smiled. “Trust me. He already hates me.”

Alicia frowned. “I thought you two got along.”

“We do but only on the surface. Secretly that boy resents me. He may say that he likes me. He may even love me. But in truth he hates my guts. He changed the way he looks at me years ago. The day I made Mary cry in front of him was the last day he looked at me with love in his eyes. There is only spite and resentment when he looks at me.”

Mary stood up and walked to the other side of the room. “I know you’re doing this for his own good but you are going about it the wrong way. I should call him right now and tell him everything. I wish you hadn’t told me anything.”

Carter gazed at his angry daughter and smiled. “You wouldn’t know a damned thing if you hadn’t barged in here like a maniac a few minutes ago. You both could have just stayed in the dark the whole time. This would have been a lot easier if you had. My sweet daughter please let this continue. Whether you realize it or not he needs this right now more than ever. He’s become too arrogant lately. He needs to learn to moderate himself better. I don’t want him to learn the hard way like I had to.” Carter pulled up his shirt and showed the large scar running down his side. “One day it won’t be a test. One day it may be the real deal. He needs to be able to think clearly under pressure.” He stood up and approached Mary who was staring at him lost in thought. “Right now, he is crumbling under pressure. He started out just fine but the longer it has gone on the worse he has gotten. If you had seen him last night when I dropped him off at his apartment you wouldn’t have even recognized him.”

Mary’s eyes widened. “Is he really that bad?”

Carter took a deep breath. “Yeah, I’d say he hasn’t slept in days. When he does sleep it’s only for an hour or two at most. He’s so desperate to end this whole situation and get back to the girl he fell in love with that it has clouded his judgement. Like I said he needs this. Even if he hates me for it. I will continue with the test. It’s his last test before he takes over my company. The boy has the potential, but does he have the resolve. If he had his normally cool head. He should have figured out it was a test by now.” He started to laugh. “I mean come on. Do you really think I wouldn’t have the resources to figure out who was following him? I’ve dropped other clues too. He will figure out I am behind this eventually. When he does, I’m prepared to take the brunt of his anger.”

Mary got an angry smile on her face that made her father shutter. “Are you sure that you are prepared to make him truly angry. I’m not sure I would want my boy being angry at me.”

Carter chuckled. “Yeah, I’m well aware what he is capable of. I said I was prepared to accept the consequences. I didn’t say I wasn’t a little afraid of what he might do. Hell, he could do anything from kicking the crap out of me to trying to collapse my companies. It honestly scares me, that’s why I want him to take over my legacy.” He walked over to his desk and picked up a picture of Eizan and Mio standing together with smiles on their faces taken the day before they separated. “He needs that girl to keep him in check. I’m afraid what the future might hold if he got together with someone like that Ogata girl. She wouldn’t hold him back in the slightest. She would only make him push harder.” He put the picture down and looked at Alicia. “Hopefully, your little assistant and my future granddaughter-in-law is up to the challenge.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Mary slowly approached the desk and picked up the picture he was looking at. “They really look happy together, don’t they.”

Back at school Eizan found himself being awoken from his nap by a beautiful blonde girl. He was completely confused for a few seconds. He tilted his head to the side in confusion. “Minami, what are you doing here?”

She giggled cheerfully. “Silly, I joined your class earlier this week. You didn’t even notice me when you came in. I’m surprised you are normally more observant than that.”

Eizan just stared at her for a few seconds without saying anything. “Yeah, sorry about that.” He glanced at his beautiful fiancé a few seats away. He could tell she had an unhappy look on her face. “My mind is somewhere else right now.”

Minami got a big smile on her face. “Yeah, I heard. Why don’t we meet up after school today and catch up? It will be like old times.”

Eizan could see Mio gripping a piece of paper like a vice. Eizan sighed internally. “I’m sorry, I’m busy tonight. Maybe some other time.”

Minami smiled brightly. “Ok, we will be seeing a lot more of each other, I’m sure. Well, later.”

“Yeah, later.” He watched as she bounced away from him playfully to her seat. He could almost feel the hateful glares from across the classroom. He knew exactly what they were thinking. They were probably thinking he was scum. He just broke off his engagement and now he was already talking to other women. He was sure the class didn’t know they were childhood friends. If you could even call them that anymore. He laid his head back down on the desk and fell back asleep. The exhaustion had gotten to him and for some reason he felt comfortable sleeping here. He woke up right as class was ending. He felt a million times better than he did before he got to school.

Ome turned and looked at him. “What are you doing after school?”

Eizan smirked. “Why, you want to come along?”

Ome shrugged. “Sure, Ren is ditching me anyways to go play with your ex.”

Eizan sighed as he watched Ren pull Mio out of the room. He looked at Ome with a big smile on his face. “Are you sure you want to come along. You might regret it later.”

Ome chuckled. “Buddy, I don’t think I’ve ever regretted following you.”

Eizan smiled. “You might today.”

Four hours later Ome was laying on the floor in a dojo panting. He looked over at Eizan who was sitting on the ground next to him and laughed. “Yeah, I regret following you. I didn’t realize your building had such a nice training gym.”

Eizan was still catching his breath. “Yeah… It really helps me relieve some stress.”

Ome sat up and looked at him. “So are you going to tell me what is going on yet?”

Eizan shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Fine. I guess I’ll just have to kick the crap out of you until you tell me.”

Eizan started to laugh. “I just beat you three times in a row. Do you really think you can win?”

Ome smirked. “I’m just getting warmed up.”

They sparred for the next hour. Basically, kicking the crap out of each other. Nothing too serious though. They were actually almost evenly matched. Eizan was just a little better than Ome though. After working out they were sitting in the sauna. “So, you really aren’t going to tell me?”

Eizan shook his head. “You know you aren’t really that good at keep secrets.”

Ome sighed. “No, I’m not good at lying. I can keep a secret just fine. If someone asks about a secret, I’ll just tell people I can’t talk about it. That way it’s not lying.”

Eizan sighed. “Fine, don’t make me regret this.”

Ome smiled. “You won’t.”

A few minutes later Eizan finished explaining things to his dumbfound buddy. “So let me get this straight. You’re just pretending to be broken up because you are being followed? I know you have the resources to just disappear. Why didn’t you do that?”

Eizan laughed. “Honestly, I tried. I took her to my family’s private estate. We even flew there by helicopter. But only two hours after we got there the people who are following me found us.”

“Are you sure she’s not being followed to?”

“Yeah, she’s still being guarded. Just from a distance. She doesn’t even know someone is still guarding her. There has been no evidence that she is being followed. They are only after me so far.”

“So why did you go to America?”

“We went there to follow a lead. But it was a dead end. I also went to all kinds of business meeting with my grandfather. It was nonstop business meetings. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were consumed by networking. It was mind numbing. It definitely wasn’t a vacation.”

“Yeah, that sucks. I’ve always wanted to go to America. But that sounds horrible. So, what are you going to do now?”

“There’s nothing I can do for the moment. I’m just biding my time until I can figure something out.” Eizan patted his knees and stood up. “Well, we better get out of here. I need to get back to my apartment before it gets too late.”

Ome looked at him strangely. “Don’t you live here?”

Eizan shook his head. “Nah, I couldn’t stay here without her. I moved back to my old apartment.”

Ome laughed and patted Eizan on the shoulder. “Dude, you’re so weird.”

Eizan laughed. “I’ve been told.”