It appeared that this ball would end without any other special incidents. A bit of a relief for Kouji, but there was one bad thing about this. He never saw Yuma the entire time. Kind of weird, since every time the boy had to go through something like this. He’d end up spending private time with each and every girl. Now that he thought about it, no wonder over half of them confessed to him.

It looked as though this time would be different. Or so he thought.

“There you are.” One of Yuma’s servants, Todoro, caught his attention. “We’ve all be looking for you. Could you come with us?” He gave a professional bow upon making the request.

“Is it important?” Kouji wasn’t expecting anyone to need him now that the ball was over. He was planning on meeting Himawari in a nice little private spot and do a few ‘things’. You know, perfectly normal things that teens do in a relationship like theirs do. “I was going to meet someone.”

“It kind of is.” He told him. “Yuma’s family would like to have a discussion with you.” That sounded important indeed. Kouji knew that the girl wasn’t going to be happy with him ditching her, but hopefully Himawari might be understanding about this change of plans.

“All right, just hang on a moment.” Kouji went to his phone to send over a message to Himawari to explain to her why he wasn’t going to show up. It felt like an eternity waiting for his response. So long in fact that Mikune, the other servant of Yuma’s, came up to them.

“Are we heading out with him or not?” She asked in an impatient tone.

“Just hang on.” Todoro told her. “He said he’ll be with us in a minute.”

Finally, Kouji received a response from Himawari. All the message said to him was, ‘sure fine, whatever’. Just from the words, he could tell how disappointed she was hear this. Quietly, he made a promise to himself that he’d make it up to her somehow.

“Speaking of myself, I’m ready to go.” Kouji followed the two outside of the school. He assumed that he’d be speaking with Yuma’s parents privately somewhere around here. What he wasn’t expecting was to see the limo that was to take them to her home.

“Go right ahead.” Mikune directed him in, opening the door for the boy. “We’ll drive you there in no time.”

“Ehh.” Why did it have to be this way? “Is it possible for me to just walk there? Or maybe take the train?”

“I don’t get it.” Todoro was confused. “Is this some lame joke? Just get in the limo.”

“I mean, I’m just not comfortable with riding one of these things. I’m sure it’ll be fine if I walk there. Her house isn’t all that far away from here.”

“I see how it is.” Mikune could tell from his body language why he was so apprehensive. “Don’t worry, I can make this very easy for all of us.”

“You can?” He asked, to which she answered him by sending a strong chop to his neck. Kouji immediately blacked out…

***

“Oh…” He muttered as his eyes slowly opened. “What happened?”

“Ah, you’re awake.” Todoro greeted him as Kouji came to the realization he was sitting in the limo.

“What happened?” They were parked by Yuma’s house, as he had awaken right after they were stopped.

“Good thing you got up when you did.” The servant held the door open for him as he exited the vehicle. “I would’ve had to drag you inside.” The way he talked nonchalantly to him filled Kouji with concern on how those two handled things around the house. “Anyway, I’ll walk you to see her parents.”

While they were walking, he pondered on what they wanted to talk to him about. Her parents seemed like nice people, and they were fully aware about his position with their daughter. Hopefully, he hadn’t done anything to make them mad at him. Oh no, what if they’re upset he didn’t make any attempts to aid Yuma during the Winter ball? That certainly seemed like something he had done recently they would be aware of.

“Welcome.” Her dad greeted him as they entered the room. It was a simple room, with a short table in the middle where tea had already been brewed and set before them. “Go ahead, sit down and enjoy a little tea.” He told him.

“Indeed, you’re probably tired. So please get a little rest before we get to why you’re here.” Her mom said to him. From their tone, they didn’t seem to be upset with him. In fact, the two were very accommodating. So whatever they wanted to talk with him about had to be positive. That was a relief, as he sat down and sipped a bit of tea they gave him. The drink calmed his nerves, and the aroma nearly made him forget all his worried from before.

“Thank you.” He politely bowed to the pair as all their servants left them to some privacy. “But it is getting a little late, so I’d like to hear what you wanted to ask of me.”

“I suppose it’s only respectful of us to ask you this without beating around the bush.” Tsuguto said.

“Agreed, so I’ll just come out and say it.” His wife, Etsuki, took the reins of this conversation. “The two of us would like to know if…” Her pause filled him with anticipation. “You’d like to enter a relationship with out daughter.”

“What?” He was confused. Did Yuma’s parents just ask if he wanted to date their daughter? Why would they ask that? It didn’t sound like the thing any parent would go out and ask for. “You mean you want me to… Date Yuma?”

“It’s a little more complicated than that.” He clarified. “You see, we would love it if you could end up marrying her.” Hearing her say that didn’t make him feel better about what they just asked. What were they talking about? Was this supposed to be some twisted joke.

“Not that we’re forcing you in any way.” Tsuguto quickly cut into the conversation. “Neither of us would dream of creating an arranged marriage. It goes against what we believe in with love.” The two looked at each other in the eye. They appeared to be reminiscing the time when they feel for each other.

“Then why are you asking me this?” Sure they weren’t forcing him, but there was a lot of pressure coming from them. “What makes me so special?”

“It’s just that the two of us are really concerned for Yuma.” Etsuki explained to him everything about their thought process.

It was no surprise that Yuma was a rather… Unique individual. Calling her soft spoken would be putting it extremely lightly compared to how she is. As a result of her slow nature, she also never had many friends. In fact, she never made actual friends up until high school when she was made to be a part of this study group.

The girl had been that way since birth. Her parents could tell by that blank stare that continued on well into her teenage years. No one can explain why she’s the way she is, but it just is that way.

Now, her family loves her wholeheartedly. There’s not an ounce of doubt with the way they talk about their daughter. But one has to think of this logically, if she was to inherit the family business. Which is a guarantee since she’s the only child they have. Then there was no way she could be the leader the company needed through good and especially bad times.

“So you’re asking me because you believe I can take over the business?” That doesn’t sound romantic at all. Nor did he believe that he was the man for that job anyway.

“She’s made wonderful strides thanks to you.” Her mom responded. “And we all know how deeply she cares about you.”

“Does she know about this?”

“No.” Her father answered. “We wanted to wait and see your response before telling her. If you say no, then it’s not worth talking to her about.” So they’d be perfectly fine with him rejecting the offer if he didn’t want to. “And even if you said yes, she’d still need to accept it herself.”

It seems that their heart is in the right place. Neither of these two wanted to create a bad situation for him and Yuma, so he could respect them on that. However, Kouji wasn’t so certain on how much he agreed with their beliefs on the matter. To just take him as their hope for continuing their lineage seemed a bit rushed. Surely, there were better boys out there that would make a great husband for Yuma.

“Please.” Etsuki made a final plea. “We ask that you at least take some time to consider it.”