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Ken's PoV

"Why are you so insistent?" I ask the green Fox. "You know what? Nevermind. I'm going home. I don't need to know that." I turn away and start to walk outside.

"Why did you leave?" he shouts at me. I clench my fist as I turn my head to him and shoot him a glare. You don't need to know anything. You... don't need to. After making sure that I've intimidated him enough, I turn away and proceed to leave.

As I walk to where my bike is, I remember the time that we walked through this very same route as we were about to go home. I was talking about one of the games I've played and you and Varu were listening intently. Riese and Tabitha were talking about how volleyball was an awesome sport and that Tabitha always looks up to them on television. Riese then slowed down to our pace and swinged his arm around Varu with a goofy grin as Varu pushed him aside. Tabitha commented how good friends they look, making Varu blush in embarrassment. Rue and Riese agreed to that as well, and I also agreed. It was a nice memory, but sadly that was only a memory and will only be one forever.

I start to unchain my bike. "You don't need to know anything..." I keep muttering to remind myself. I look around to see if that green Fox was still there. I don't see him anywhere, but it's better to check if he really is following or not. I'll just make a slight sound and he'll probably jump out of his hiding place.

*creak*

...No sign of him. With a sigh of relief, I hop on my bike and pedal away. But there's this weird feeling of anxiety that I'm being watched, yet I feel like I'm not. Hopefully this is just something like a paranoia. It's better to feel paranoid than to let them follow me. I keep on talking to myself that it's okay, no one is following, but no matter what I can't shake this feeling. I try to pedal faster in hopes that it will take my mind of it, but I only seem to have little control of my legs. Whenever I am able to pedal faster, I always end up slowing down after a while.

"Dammit, move faster!" I curse under my breath as my constant attempt on speeding up always ends up failing. After what seems like hours of forcing myself to pedalling faster, I finally reach my house. Tired, I go inside and walk straight to my room. When I reach my room, out of nowhere, I suddenly punch a wall with full force with my fist, leaving a bit of blood on my knuckles and on the wall. It hurt, but I felt like I needed to punch something.

I slowly and weakly walk towards my bed and collapse there. I kept thinking about them, but I already left the club and there's no need for it. I never wanted to join in the first place. I never said I was going to stay. I never said that I wanted to be anyone's friend. I can do things by myself. But why... do I still think about them?

"Why...?" I hear my voice shaking as a tear rolls away from my eyes to the bed sheet. I grab a pillow nearby and stuff it on my face before yelling at the top of my lungs, "DAMMIT!" consecutive times with each time fading bit by bit. I start to wonder why I yelled like that, it's like I needed to let something out from my chest. I start to lose voice and hear how weak I sound. I sound so pathetic... "Damn it."

I feel tired, my eyes getting heavier by every second passing. I just want this day to end, and forget everything. Forget about ever meeting them, forget about ever talking to them, forget the times that we spent together. Just... forget them...Everything starts off with a blur before everything turns to a complete darkness. My hearing starts to face and my feeling starts to numb. I want to sleep these memories away, if possible...

"WUNYA!" I hear a high-pitched scream from outside that made me wake up. Whatever it was, it came from outside. With a grunt, I get off my bed and walk to the window to check who made that scream. I'm still a bit tired, but I can see a familiar green Fox beside a familiar car with someone familiar inside. After a while, my visions starts to clear up and realize who the green Fox is.

"Rue...?" I focus on the green Fox. It is him. So that feeling of paranoia, it wasn't it. Someone was actually watching me, and that someone was Rue. "You shouldn't have come here... why do you even bother to get back someone like me? I'm boring, I'm not good with crowds, I rarely talk. I told you I left, and I made sure of that. So, why?" I try to ask him, but it ends up with me just talking to myself. I see him enter the car and the car leaves.

"I never wanted you to follow me. That's what I've always wanted to do from the very beginning. I don't want this, I don't want you to help me, I don't want you to save me! I don't want any of you to be a part of my life... so that I can protect all of you."

I slowly fall to me knees and start to cry, "You guys were the best thing that ever happened to me. For once in my life, I never felt like a stranger or a puppet. For once in my life, I was treated like a friend. For once in my meaningless life, I was happy to be alive. That's why... I have to protect them. I have to protect you guys and these memories, because these are what's keeping me going. Even if I'm going to be punished a thousand times, even if I have to seclude myself. I just want you all to be safe... and I'm fine with just these memories," I force a smile to cheer myself up with those memories, but I just end up crying again.

"These memories are enough... but why am I still crying?" I wipe away the tears and stand up. "I'm not weak, and I know that. I'm strong. I can live with this," I walk to my bed with shaking legs and collapse again. "I... can live with this. After all, no matter how much I try to forget, I'll always remember the good times we had, even if it was just for a little while," I clench the bed sheet strongly as I force myself to stop crying. My eyes get heavy again, every second passing and everything starts to blur. And after a while, I fall asleep.

---

Thursday passes by with miraculously nothing happening. I sigh with relief, but I can't shake this feeling that something's happening, or going to happen. It's that feeling you get that you can't help just but anxious about what might happen. I hope this feeling is just nothing and will pass by. Still, I hope that they'll just forget about me so that they can be safe. It's already been 2 days since I told them and, with them not pestering me today, hopefully it means that they're recruiting a someone else now... But yesterday, when I saw Rue in front of the house... I hope that was just a coincidence or that that Fox wasn't Rue to begin with. Though, Mother scolds me for not being on time for dinner yesterday and my hand being wrapped in bandage because of the stunt I did, punching a wall, I can rest easier today knowing that not much happened.

Friday comes, and another day that nothing happened. I let out a loud sigh of relief as I fall down on my bed. I emptily stare at the ceiling, letting time pass on. It's better that way, since I don't need to worry about anything. I slowly close my eyes and let sleep take over. That was what I was planning, at least. I was awoken by the sound of my mother calling me. An unusual chill suddenly went up my spine, and it's not the usual chill that I just get. It's different.

With each step going down the stairs, my anxiety grew and grew. There's a part of me that doesn't want to go, but I know better than to defy my mother's orders. Upon halfway my descent, I see my mother with a whip in hand. I freeze in fear, but I know that the more I delay, the more she'll get angry. With all my strength, I continue my descent. It wasn't until after a few steps that I see something that I dread to see.

Behind my mother were them, the members of the High Flyers Club, all tied up and with eyes closed. My body refuses to move until she says, "They're just unconscious." I feel slightly relief, but it just means another thing that makes me more worried. They're still alive, and they're here in this very place.

"Yes, they're here. These are the people you've been with, yes?" she asks with a tone that I've always been familiar with. The tone filled with rage, anger, disappointment.

"What... are they doing here?" I struggle to speak, mainly because of the mere presence of my mother with a whip in hand.

"Tsk... you should know very well, Ken," she starts to walk in a clockwise direction, with me being at the center, "you have a great destiny. You were born great. You were born in a family of influence. You were born to continue a great legacy. But look at what you've become," she stops at 3 o'clock to give me a menacing glare. "you're with these failures, these good for nothing people who have tainted you."

I grit my teeth and clench my fist. Every word she spouts just fuels my anger towards her, but I just keep quiet and listen to her. If I am to make one wrong move, who knows what she'll do to them. I try calming myself by breathing in and out. It helped, but not enough to make my anger stop. I give her back a menacing glare and she replies with a devilish grin.

"Oh, that's the face that I want to see. Yes, more of that. You have to be strong if you want to continue the Aki legacy. But it's such a shame, you've been tainted by these outsiders. But it's okay," she prepares her whip. My eyes widen in shock. She's not planning to...!

"Hngh... where... where am I?" Rue seems to have gained consciousness. There couldn't have been a worse timing.

"Oh, we can test it on the first one to wake up," she says, her eyes affixed at the defenseless green Fox

"What...?" his eyes widen in fear as she stares at my mother, who has her whip raised.

"It's time for those who tainted the legacy to be punished," and with one swift motion, she aims the whip straight at him. I don't know what happened, just that it all happened so fast. All I saw was darkness, and a sudden feeling of pain in my right arm. The next thing I knew, I was in front of my mother with my right arm raised and her face was filled with shock. "You... dare defy me...?" her voice starts to crack, her anger seems to be letting out.

"I..." I'm at a loss of words. I don't know what to say, and I didn't even know what I did. I try to process it, but everything was blank. Why was I in front of my mother, who was aiming her whip at Rue. Then it hit me. I turn around, and I see a poor, helpless green Fox who's shaken in fear. His eyes are squinted and his whole body is trembling. I... rushed to protect him. Then I realized, "I don't care..."

"What?" she asks, her anger becoming more obvious.

"I don't care... if you punish me. Because... I will protect them," and at that moment, I gave my mother the strongest and firmest glare, "I will protect them, even if it costs me my life. Go ahead, torture me as much as you want. I won't move from this spot until... until you let them go," I let out a smile, I don't know why but I just did. "If you let them go, I won't run anymore. After all, I'm still an Aki. I never thought of not inheriting the legacy. I mean, I need to inherit it. I'm an Aki, after all. But I never wanted to. That's why I considered my whole life meaningless. That was until I met them. At the start, my life was still meaningless, but now that I'm here, I've found it. I want to protect what I treasure, and that's them. So, that's all I'm asking for. Just let them go, and I will continue it. Because that's what I want to do now." I become serious and stand firm, but in the inside, my heart was beating fast. I'm scared, but I have to be strong. For them.

"No," she responds bluntly. My eyes widen in shock. "You think that, because of that, I'm going to agree? Haha... ahahaha... AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" she starts to laugh maniacally, frightening me. I watch as she continues on with her laugh until I hear a sob. I turn around, and Rue was indeed sobbing, but it didn't came from him. Rather, it came from... her?

"Ahaha... *sob* aha..." it came from my mother...? I'm confused, I don't know what going on. At first she was laughing, and now she's sobbing? I don't understand. "Ken..." she drops her whip and approaches me slowly with open arms. I try to move, but I'm frozen in fear. Each step, I keep forcing myself to move, but I just can't. She's right in front of me, my fear rising to my head that I can't even think. Then all of a sudden, she hugs me.

"Wh-What...?" I just stand there, looking at my mother's hair as she continues to hug me. I can hear her sobbing, but I don't understand. Why is she crying? It's something that I can't comprehend.

"I'm glad..." but what does she mean by that? "I'm glad that you finally found something to protect." she says, her voice shaking. "I was scared. Scared that you'll continue living your life like this. Sad, alone, with no one there beside you. We didn't wanted that to happen. We've been waiting and waiting, then finally the time has come."

We? Waiting? What does she mean? What is she talking about?

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, that all these years, I've been a bad parent, and I still am. All these years, you had to live with that. All these years, you've been all alone. I'm sorry for every suffering that I have caused you," she hugs me tighter. I look at her, very confused. I don't understand, and every word she says make it harder to understand.

It goes on like that for a few minutes of me rubbing the back of my mother's head and her continuing to cry. I don't know this feeling, but it's like I can breath freely now. I don't understand what's going on, but the atmosphere seem to have lightened up. It wasn't that atmosphere where it feels so disgusting that it was suffocating. It was like breathing in fresh air after being cooped up in a dark place ever since.

"So, like, can we get this melodramatic thing over already? It's not good for those who are tied up," I notice Aunt Minako glaring right past us with a blank expression. I turn around and see that the others are starting to wake up.

"Ugh... I had this dream that we were about to rescue Ken from a zombie apocalypse armed with plants and a shovel. And why am I tied up?" Riese is the first to comment about his situation. He took it rather calmly.

"Woah, did I fell asleep? I must've been completely bored or something. What happened?" Tabitha says with a lazy expression. "And we're tied up. That's new."

"I can't believe you guys are so calm about this," Varu says, his voice shaking, "I mean, aren't any of you surprised why we ended up here? And R-Rue!" Varu, who is beside Rue, looks at him worriedly, "What's wrong?"

I look at them. Riese and Tabitha are just casually talking about theories on how they ended up like that while Varu is trying to cheer Rue up, who is still scared and trembling. I feel guilty that this happened to them. Maybe if I hadn't joined, they wouldn't be in this mess.

"Anyways, Maggie and I will take care of this. I've already set up my laptop and called him in advance and made him wait for you. You guys shouldn't let someone waiting," Aunt Minako crosses his arms. For a moment, I see her not as a laid back and happy-go-lucky person, but a calm, collected, and somewhat cool aunt. She's very different to the Aunt Minako I knew.

"She's right. We should talk to your father about this," my mother lets go of the hug and pats me on the shoulders gently with a wide, warm smile on her face. It was a face I never saw before coming from my mother. It was like, she was a completely different person. A happier one. But I'm still left confused on what's going on.

"M-My father...? But, you never talked about him before. You only ever said that he's not worth mentioning."

"We'll explain the details later. Right now, we should go," she drags me by the paw as we go up the stairs. I look back at them, and see Maggie and Aunt Minako untying them and chatting something I can't clearly hear. I hope they won't do anything to them, but that's not what worries me the most. To talk to my father, someone who she never mentioned before. Where is this going?

We reach Aunt Minako's room. In all honesty, I expected it to be more of a mess, but it was far from that. Everything is clean and organized. From the books neatly arranged, to the magazines neatly piled, to the trash bin which had nothing except a crumpled piece of paper. It was nothing like the Aunt Minako I knew. Which made me to believe, is her being carefree just an act? Or she's just also organized?

I see my mother on Aunt Minako's laptop. She seems to be calling someone named "Makoto Aki". Is that him? Is that really... my father? My heart starts beating wildly. I'm not sure if this is excitement or nervousness that I'm feeling, but to be able to finally speak to my father... I didn't think this day would come.

"Come, Ken," my mother gestures me to lean closer, and so I do. I look at the screen as it's waiting for the receiver to respond. After a while, the image of a silver Akita with rimless glasses comes into view. He looks like just like any other ordinary Akita, but his aura gives off a different meaning. I don't know why.The first thing I hear is a gasp from that Akita.

"Ken, is that really you? You've grown so much," his voice was shaking, and he was probably trying to act calm.

"F-Father...?" I still can't believe it. After fifteen years, I'm finally able to see him.

"Ken... I'm sorry," he suddenly bows down on the screen, which made me flinch. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This plan, I shouldn't have made it." he keeps repeating the words "I'm sorry" until I ask what exactly was this "plan" he spoke of. After a while, he manages to compose himself and sits up straight.

"That plan... in all honesty, I shouldn't have made that plan. It all started with us wanting you to be strong. I proposed a plan with a high risk yet high return. To make you see how cruel the world is while you're still young before showing you the beauty of it. Naturally, your mother opposed my idea, but I told her that if you were to know beauty first, you'll criticize how ugly it also is. It's like having deserts first before the meal, it makes you lose the will to think that the world can change because the negatives overshadows the positives. So, we decided to stick with that plan, the plan to make you think that you have a meaningless life, and make it with meaning in the future. I know, it's illogical in every way. I'm a disgrace in strategizing that I didn't even know how you'd feel in the process." He says it so calmly, but the shaking in his voice was very obvious. He's... probably telling the truth.

"And then, I had to wait fifteen years. Fifteen long years, and all I've ever seen were pictures and videos of you. But all those pictures had were moments of you bored, unhappy. Every day, I curse myself for making that stupid plan." His voice starts to rise with anger, "I know, it could've been aborted midway, but I can't make a more logical plan that you'll be able to handle when you're still so young. So, everyday, it hurts us very much to see you unhappy. It hurts to watch you suffer in your day to day life. I just... I can't forgive myself." he buries his face with his paws as he grits his teeth in anger.

"Mako," my mother calls out to father, who, after a few seconds, composes himself again, "what's important is he finally had something to protect. For him to be able to rebel to protect something he treasures dearly, it means that your plan was a success, right? So please, don't beat yourself up too much. I'm also at fault for not stopping you, even if I had all the opportunity to," she then turns to me with a forced smile underneath her teary eyes, "Ken, I know you can't forgive me and your father easily. In fact, I don't even know if you're ever gonna forgive us at all. Just know that, what we did, we loved you. It hurt us so much to have done that. It's up to you to decide whether you'll forgive us or not, but we'll still do our best to atone for our sins." She proceeds to give me a very tight hug, like she's never planning to ever let go of me.

Honestly, I don't understand that much, but basically, they made a plan so that I'll see the darkness before admiring the light. In my opinion, it's alright. In fact, I'm not even mad. Because if they haven't made that plan... "If you guys haven't made that plan, I probably wouldn't have met them. In fact, I should thank you guys, because if it weren't for that plan, I'd probably have no one that I want to protect with all my life. That club, it means a whole lot to me." My mother... Mom, let's go of the hug and gives me a warm smile. That warm smile that I'll be seeing more of.

"Well, how about we have a little family bonding here? Just the three of us," Mom says.

"I'm not really good with words since I plan out how I speak first. Although, I still mess it up sometimes. Dammit," Dad curses under his breath, but we can still hear it. Mom and I giggle slightly.

"Don't worry about it. I mean, we're family after all." Mom says. I nod back.

For an hour or so, Mom, Dad and I exchange conversations. Mom says that she's just the face of the company. In reality, Dad is the one strategizing and making decisions but, according to Dad, he's very shy and doesn't do well on crowd. Mom's trait is that she's strong and doesn't fear the crowd. She does some strategizing on her own, but Dad's was said to be much better. They were also arranged to get married by their parents, but luckily they loved each other so there's nothing wrong with their relationship. They talk about what they do at work, what are tips and strategizing and standing out. I also talk about the High Flyers Club, the thing that I treasure. For the first time in my life... my life is starting to have colors. As we continue to talk, there's this feeling in my chest that I don't know. It feels very warm.

"You know, Ken. I hope that one day, you'll be able to find your strategist, like how I found mine. It was a miracle that he was the one I was destined to marry. If it were someone else, I don't know what would happen. Anyways, I guess we'll see you soon," Mom waves at Dad.

"Yep. I'll find some time so that I'll be able to chat. And maybe, I could also go there?" he asks with uncertainty. Mom giggles a bit.

"Of course you can, you idiot. Bye," Mom waves goodbye and ends the video call. "Now, how about we'll go see your friends? They should already be in your room by now," Mom smiles at me.

"My room?" I ask and she nods.

"Go on, join them," Mom gestures me to leave, and I do so. I don't know what going on, but I guess I should go there. I walk to my room and open the door. To my surprise, everyone is dressed in bedroom clothes.

"Oh, Ken, it's been a while," Riese says with a smile on his face while saluting.

"Geez, you really had us worried there," Tabitha says lazily while laying flat on a futon, "You know, this is really comfortable. It's the first time for me to sleep on something like this."

"You're really enjoying yourself, aren't you? Anyways, it's great to see you again, Ken," After directing his question at Tabitha, Varu smiles at me.

"Ken!" Rue jumps towards me with arms stretched and gives me a hug, which surprised me. "Ken... they didn't do anything to you, right? Right?" Rue cries out. I give him a pat on the head to reassure him.

"If they didn't do anything to you, they didn't do anything to me," I tell him.

"I see... that's a relief," Rue lets go of the hug and flushes red.

"Yeah. Besides, we've already been told about that already by those two. Um, Minako and Maggie, I think, were the names. But that's not important. What's important is--," Riese grabs a pillow and throws it with full force at my face, "this bastard is back."

I take the pillow of my face as I give them a blank stare, which turns into a smile later on. Tabitha then throws a pillow at Riese. "Hey, what did you do that for?" Before Tabitha can respond, I throw the pillow Riese threw at me at him.

"Justice," I say with a straight face, but I know I'm happy in the inside.

"Haha, now you're talkin-- mph," before Tabitha can finish, a pillow lands at her face from above. That surprised me. "Hey, what gives?" Tabitha exclaims. I check to see where it came from, and judging from that, it came from the... ventilation shaft?

"Maggie filled us in about the ventilation shaft and how it's made like that. She uses it as a way of moving through the different parts of the house without getting seen. I think it's amazing, but when you think about it, it's rather creepy isn't it?" Varu chimes in. I look back at the ventilation shaft's grille. If that's true, then she's actually quite an amazing person.

"She's also the one who knocked us out, actually. She used one of those handkerchief thing and knocked us out one by one. We weren't even able to fight back," Tabitha adds. Wow, she really is amazing. I never expect her to be someone who's capable of doing that.

"I've also been spying on you, Master Ken. Also, I forgot one pillow so I delivered it via the ventilation shaft." Maggie suddenly appears from my side, surprising me and the others. "Don't be alarm, I'm not going to spy on you for now on. That was only because I was told to keep track of what you've been doing. You've probably noticed me tired. I feel so embarrassed because you saw that," Maggie says so, but she's amazing. If what she said was true, balancing between keeping track of me and doing the household chores. It must've been rough on her.

"But wait, you've been spying on me...?" I ask her.

"Yes. I made sure I made my presence next to none. Hopefully you don't mind, Master Ken. I was just doing my duty."

"N-No, it's okay!"

"Very well. I shall take my leave. Have a pleasant night," Maggie bows down and leaves the room.

"Uh... I hope you don't mind me asking but... why are you all dressed in bedroom clothes?" I ask them. They all chuckle at my question.

"We're staying here for the night, silly. Isn't that obvious?" Tabitha says with a smile.

"Yep. Your aunt was kind enough to provide us these bedroom clothes that fit us," Riese adds.

"They already talked to their parents and said that they're okay with it. I live alone so it's okay for me," Varu chimes in.

"No way? You live alone?" Tabitha says, genuinely shocked. Before Varu gets the chance to speak, Riese butts in.

"Yep. The next place we're gonna crash is at Varu's anyways."

"Please don't," Varu weakly begs and does a nervous laugh.

"Well, you liked it, didn't you?" Riese says with a sinister grin.

"Woah, don't tell me...!" Tabitha says with wide eyes.

"I-It's not like that at all! He just went to my house and slept there. I never expected him to do something like that," Varu retorts.

"We did more than that, though. Geez, you even forgot stargazing and eating snacks. Those were like, the most important stuff we did," Riese says with disappointment.

"You guys had snacks AND were stargazing? Let me in on it next time!" Tabitha yells.

The three continue their chat that fills the room with a merry atmosphere. This dull, boring, gray room that I once used to sleep in is now being colored with a vibrant array of colors, like a sketch that I made and is being colored by them. This scenario, I never expected this to happen. I said that I was okay with just these happy memories, but now I'm in these happy moments. Rue joins in the conversation when they start talking about games, and I do to. We discuss a lot of things, but I'm more into listening to them.

"Hey, isn't it getting a little late? You guys should sleep," Aunt Minako peeks through the door to tell us. Her tone was the tone that I always hear from her, the laid back, carefree tone.

"Sleep is for the weak!" Riese yells loudly, followed by a yell of agreement by Tabitha.

"We still need sleep, you know," Varu says. Aunt Minako giggled at us.

"Alright, just don't stay awake all night. Jaa ne," she says before closing the door. Jaa ne is an informal way of seeing goodbye in Japanese, like to a friend or someone close. Well, aside from that time she looked cool, she's always been informal. Rue lets out a yawn and rubs his eyes.

"I'm getting sleepy. I'll go on ahead. Goodnight," Rue says before going to his futon.

"Aw, fine. I guess we can sleep. That just means we can explore Ken's house tomorrow," Riese says excitedly before going to his futon.

"I wonder what's in store for us tomorrow," Tabitha says before going to her futon.

"It's not like we're sightseeing or anything. But I am excited," Varu says before going to his futon.

I just notice there are five futons plus my own bed. For now, I'd like to sleep on a futon with them. The only futon left unoccupied is in between Rue and Tabitha, so I take it after turning off the lights. I slowly close my eyes as I drift off to sleep, but Rue wakes me up by calling my name. I turn my head towards him, and I see him facing me.

"You asked why I was insistent, right?" Yes, I remember asking that. "Well, it's because... I love this club, and I love everyone in this club. I don't want to see anyone in this club sad, that's why... I wanted to see you smile," Rue says. I can't see clearly but I think he's smiling. I don't know why but I suddenly turn around, blushing. "Anyways, goodnight, Ken."

I turn back to Rue, and it looks like he's sleeping now. This feeling that I'm feeling. It's the same as when I was talking with Mom and Dad. I don't know what this is, but there is one thing I know. I will find out what this feeling is. With everyone there beside me, I know that I'll find out what this is someday. Until then, I'll spend more precious moments with them to make memories that I'll treasure in the future.