"Are you sure this man is the principal?"I ask her making sure.

"Mr.Okishima right?" She asks

"Yeah...hey I'll call you back later." I say still in shock about what I just heard.

Yamato's mother, abandoned his father?

This wasn't making much sense. Why would she?

I call Fumiko back. "Hey."

"Yeah?"

"Um, did he tell you...why?"

"You mean Okishima? Why his girl left?" She mumbles to herself in thought. "He did say his family was well off, and that she was his previous student..."

"Well off...economically?"

"Yeah, he was the only heir and he had a lot going for him apparently. When he told me she left, he said that it was probably because she didn't want his family turning against him."

"When...did he get her pregnant?" I ask.

"Right after she graduated or so he says."

With the way things were timed, sure enough his family wouldn't have felt very supportive of their relationship. If anything they'd scorn her and the child she was carrying, and Okishima for being with her:

I hang up and just lie down on the couch deep in thought.

Harue walks out of our room homework in hand."Oba, can you help me?"

"Sure." I quickly sit up and gaze at his paper. "Kanji?"

He nods. "I forgot the stroke order to this one."

It was a kanji with many strokes, that I didn't even know what meaning it had.

Kanji wasn't really my strong point. I was more about understanding and speaking. I knew the most essential kanji, like street signs and such but...

"Um..well..." Japanese was my first language, and I took classes for it, but....I still wasn't very good at it.

I was at loss, but then I remembered that Kougami was next door to us.

"Hmm...." I didn't want to admit I didn't know so I just suggested Yamato, but, did I really want to see him after what Fumiko told me?

I make up my mind to set that aside and focus on Harue. So we walk over to Yamato's apartment, homework in hand.

He opens his door cautiously. "Hey guys."

It was still a bit awkward between us so as soon as we make eye contact he looks away.

"Uh...well Harue needed help with his kanji homework...and I'm not very good at Japanese so....we were wondering if you could help us out?"

I ask him politely for help, using somewhat formal language. He looks back up at me.

"Sure come in." He smiles, trying to ease the tension between us.

We step in and he tells us to take a seat on his couch. Him and Harue immediately begin the worksheet.

"Alright buddy so you know that the stroke order always begins up down, and left to right. So let's start with the first stroke, it's here-"

I watch them and can't help but notice Yamato's teaching techniques. I had never seen him teach in person, since I'm always teaching too.

He was very clear with his explanations, I think even I was learning something from him even though I wasn't making any particular effort to.

"Haruna, is your Japanese not that good?" He asks me while smirking.

"Well...." I look away, chuckling nervously. "More or less."

"Hm." He smiles and puts an arm around my shoulder. "Come closer and pay attention so you can get some pointers. You live in Japan now, and you need to know how to write properly.

I nod and scoot a bit closer to them.

"Try writing it now, Haruna." He passes the pencil from Harue to me after finishing his explanation.

I take it from him and his finger brushes past mine.

I don't know why, but it made me a little nervous. Not in a bad way, more like in an embarrassed, flustered way.

My chest felt somewhat tight as I wrote the kanji for 'gate' in its correct stroke order.

"Hey that looks pretty good." He compliments me.

"I'm gonna use your bathroom Yamato!" Harue gets up and runs over to the toilet.

Yamato and I look at Harue, then look at each other and laugh.

"Kids are so full of energy." I sigh as I sit back and close my eyes.

"They sure are." Yamato sighs, somewhat amused. I hear his back hit the couch too.

My eyes remain closed. Thinking back on Fumiko's words.

Suddenly, I feel fingers entwining with mine. I open my eyes and see that Yamato took hold of my hand.

He looked somewhat embarrassed, but happy.

Seeing him that way made me happy too.

I instinctively blush and advert my eyes from our hands.

He laughs a bit and tightens his grip ever so slightly. He leans in to give me a soft peck on my forehead.

I close my eyes for some reason. When he pulls back, he stares at me for a moment before Harue comes back.

"I'm done! Where were we?" He skips back from the restroom.

I pull back my hand and get off the couch to kneel on the floor next to the table.

"This kanji looks hard Harue. Hmm do you know what it means?" I ask pointing at some random character.

I don't know why, but for some reason I thought it would be bad if Harue knew that Yamato and I had mutual feelings.

---------------

We continued studying for a while longer before deciding to leave Yamato's place.

I stood at the door with Harue, putting my shoes on. Yamato stood at the entrance to see us out.

I finish putting my shoes on before looking back at Yamato and thinking if it was a good opportunity to tell him about his father.

I doubt Mr.Okishima would lie to a stranger.

I turn to Harue.

"Harue go on ahead. I'm going to talk to Yamato about something really quick, okay?"

"Okay! He nods enthusiastically, while skipping back home.

"Haruna?" Yamato says my name questioningly, most likely wondering why I sent Harue off first.

I make eye contact with him, wearing a serious expression.

"Y-Yamato..." My voice leaves a bit louder than I intended. "If...your father, weren't guilty of abandoning you...if, he didn't leave you...what would you do?" I ask somewhat awkwardly.

He looks surprised at my sudden question, but then his face turns somewhat pained as he answered. "I don't know. My whole life I've lived believing that my father left us. If you put it that way, it seems...hard to imagine."

I'm at loss for words. Yamato speaks up again though, "I...I guess if he wasn't if want to get to know him better."

"I see..." I pause. "What if I told you that...Mr.Okishima...was the one that was abandoned?"

Yamato starts to look angry. "Why would you think that?"

Shoot. What am I thinking?

"I-I'm sorry it's just that..." Should I tell him? He deserves to know, even if he doesn't believe me.

I take a step forward,having made up my mind to tell him everything.

"I got a call from Fumiko earlier and-"

I began explaining everything. He just stared at me in complete disbelief and awe.

"...Haruna..." He sighs before letting the expression leave his face. He walks up to me and takes my hand with both of his.

"Don't worry about this, Haruna." He looks into my eyes, giving me a somewhat pleading look.

"Yamato, of course I have to worry." I extend my hands to his. "I care about you, and I want you to be happy."

"I'm happy enough with you, Harue and my friends with me." He says stubbornly.

"No Yamato," I take another step closer to him. "This is your father we're talking about. If you have the chance to talk to him...you should."

"But..." He protests. "I still don't know if I can believe this or not."

"It makes sense though....would your mother have done something like that?"

Yamato freezes before answering almost instantly. "...now that I think about it, yeah."

Yamato portrayed his mother as a very kind and gentle woman, that would never speak ill of anyone. We rarely spoke of her, but when he did, she sounded like a wonderful woman.

It wouldn't have come to me as a surprise if she left the love of her life for his sake.

"She sacrificed herself and you, for your father Yamato..." I say gently.

He looks confused. Of course, he must be completely torn. The things he believed, are contradicting with what he's hearing now.

I decide to leave him and his thoughts alone for now. With the way things were progressing in his mind...

I let go of his hands and begin walking away.

"Just think about it Yamato...."
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A/N: I'm kind of rushed again lol. I have to study for my Japanese test ;.; wish me luck xD

Also! There's only a few chapters left *^*! Are you looking forward to the ending?

I know I am lol.

One more thing! I was planning to keep this a surprise but, I decided to film a short video of AFNY and put it on YouTube! I'm going to be collaborating with a friend of mine who offered to be my producer. I'd be directing and I have already started recruiting actors in my area. I even have a stylist for my people *^* so if everything works out smoothly it should be out sometime mid June-July.

So please, if you'd like, check that out when that's done xD! I'd like to see feedback from you all <3

Anyways that's it for this, I've already began the next chapter because I'm more or less inspired right now. So look out for that as well!

Thanks for reading <3 don't forget to vote and comment \(//∇//)\.