The next day Ritsu felt like he had droven a rollercoaster way too often. As he went into the bathroom to throw up, the feeling already vanished again.
Instead he looked at his blank milky-white face in the mirror. There were huge bags under his eyes. How long had it been since he had been able to sleep for a whole night?
As he went back and turned on the radio, they were playing christmas songs all over. Ritsu himself played with the thought of threwing the radio against the wall to shut it up for once and all. But it had been expensive and at a second thought he found his mood swings childish.
On his mobile wasn't a single missed call, and only one message from his fiancé An-chan.
"I'm coming over with new from your father. I'll be there around 12:00 o'clock. Please be there, Ricchan, it's important!"
Ritsu felt like he knew already what his father wanted to tell him. It should be stuff about him taking over the company again, a conversation they've had every year around December since he had moved out. Still he couldn't help but take a look at the clock on the wall, just to see that An-chan would soon be there.
And soon was only very vague.
Exactly ten minutes later, Ritsu had put a random shirt on which he saw as clean enough to see An-chan in and hastily combed his hair, he had to open the door for his childhood-friend that greeted him with a smile.
"Quick, An-chan, you must be cold!" Ritsu immediately switched to his worrisome attitude. The one, he always had in front of his fiancé. It was just a habit, him protecting her however old they were since they had always been together. Even Takano had pointed out his 'halfassed feelings' a while ago.
An-chan came in and closed the door behind her, then slowly trapped Ritsu in one of her embraces. "I've missed you so much!"
He blushed, staring at the wall in front of his eyes, the one tearing his and Takano's apartment from each other. He felt like he could see his boss if only he'd look out for him long enough.
"So, what is this 'important, important'-news about?", he asked, leading her to the table to sit down.
An-chan seemed a little embarassed as she sat down and answered silently: "Your father gave you a deadline, Ricchan. He said you'd better be at home for New Year's. To..finally take over..."
Ritsu looked down on his folded hands that rested on the table-plate. "You...know as well as my father...that I'm not going to go. Please tell him. Sorry to drag you into this mess. But I've found something I'm good at now. Something I want to improve at. And that place is where I am right now, at Maruka-"
An-chan had an even more saddened look on her face and he couldn't help but swallow down the end of his sentence.
"It's because of him, right?", An-chan said, finally holding her head up to stare at him directly. "It's a that...neighbour of you. Your boss. The one at the Teito-hotel. I've said it before, Ricchan. You may not know it, but I, who has loved you for a far longer time than you may think, I've never seen you happier and livelier than with this person. You seem even more alive than when you're reading a book. And I've also said...that you shouldn't care about trivial things like age and gender."
"It's not as easy as it sounds, An-chan", he sighed and was surprised that he didn't even have the strenght to deny the fact that he still loved Takano. After all...this...really had to be it, right? It felt like the end of a long long road. One he had gone just to see the end of it.
"I just...want to see the one I love be happier than anyone else. Won't you grant that one wish?"
An-chan was so desperate that Ritsu couldn't say No.
So he sent her home with the promise of a lifetime.
