She lazily forced herself to get up and made her way to the door of the empty house, of which she was a resident. She opened the door, opening her eyes with difficulty when the sunrays hit them.
"Mr. Takenori." she mumbled.
She furrowed her brow and rubbed her eye.
"I'm sorry to disturb you, but I have to ask you something." he said desperately.
She suppressed a yawn and let him in. "Could you please wait while I freshen up? Forgive me for not being in my appearance." She excused herself while Mr. Takenori looked around him.
It was about 10 minutes later she came back in a simple navy blue gown, covering all her body. He admired her modesty and accepted the tea she gave him. "You are such a modest lady, Ms. Mogami." he exclaimed.
She blushed and looked down timidly. He wondered how such an innocent lady turned out to be a wonderful detective. "Thank you." she muttered, gracefully sitting on the sofa opposite to him.
"So what was it that you wanted to speak?"
"Oh well, the case was arrested as well as the death of someone called 'Rick', although I didn't know Mr. Tsuruga was involved in such a thing."
She chuckled slightly, then sipped her coffee. "They both are the same case, actually."
He looked up, forgetting that the cup was near his mouth.
She giggled and motioned him to drink. "How..."
"Well, you must have read the file of Mr. Fuwa, he was arrested for vandalizing and passing on weapons to the other state. But if you had flipped the page, the details of the accident were mentioned too. Rick was mentioned to be dead in the file. So I checked further only to find that he was actually shot by Fuwa himself. It was because Rick was actually an officer under another name. So you never came to know what was his actual background."
His eyes widened as realisation dawned upon him. "You don't mean, Brian Mc'Ohell was..."
"Yes, he was Rick. Come on, we have aplace to visit if you want some answers."
"Son, you shouldn't blame yourself now that the case is clear and the cuprit has been caught. You haven't killed Rick." Kuu declared worriedly, looking at his son who was staring at the wall since he came back.
"No, father. It is my fault. Had I not forced him to go out, he wouldn't have-"
A loud knock on the door turned the two heads.
"I'm getting it!" Juliana yelled across the floor.
She opened the door and was very surprised to find two people she never thought would come.
"Mr. Takenori, Kyoko. How lovely to see you once again." she stated.
As soon as he heard her name, he got up and rushed down, finding her with Mr. Takenori near the door. Their eyes locked for a moment and she looked away first. "Kyoko..." he whispered. Then he straightened up and climbed down the stairs, taking a deep breath and trying hard not to jump on her.
It had been a week since he last saw her.
"Mr. Tsuruga, we came here to meet you actually." she said with a smile, hiding her sadness with success.
He mirrored her smoothly, unbeknownst to ech of them, they both felt the same.
"What is it that you wanted from me?" he asked.
"You do know Rick, right?" she asked. He gave a nod.
"Can you tell us why people blamed you for his death?"
He glanced at his parents for a moment, before releasing a shaky breath and running his fingers through his hair.
"Since you have cleared my name, I think you have a right to know. He was my best friend, a perfect reason for people to believe that I can be the culprit. We were in the market the other day, and I had urged him to come with me in the section where no one was actually allowed. I was confidet that a cop would not be disallowed, so he went on. But there we found illegal weapons being transported and Rick took the responsibilty of catching hold of them. Just then, I saw Fuwa aiming for him and grabbed Rick's gun. Unfortunately," he paused, closing his eyes painfully, " Rick fell between me sayng something like, 'There is no' then he was shot before he could say anything else."
He looked away and didn't say anything else.
"I'm afraid that's the wrong side of the story here." she said with an assuring smile.
"What do you mean, Ms. Mogami." Mr. Takenori asked, confused just as the other people in the room.
Just then another knock came on the door, and she volunteered to open.
She gave the stranger a smile, who had his arm clinged to the lady beside him. "Hello, oh Hi Tina!" she said to both of them.
When the couple emrged in the hallway, everyone gasped. the tray fell from Mrs. Hizuri's hand with a loud thud.
"I welcome Rick and his wife, Tina." she announced.
Silence enveloped the room, unconfortably. And the only one who was unaffected was Ms. Mogami.
Mr. Tsuruga was looking at both the people with complete confusion as they uncmfortably stood in the middle of the room.
"Please, have a seat," Mogami said politely. They gave a grateful smile in her direction and sat down on the nearest seat they could find, which was unfortunately in front of Ren.
He cleared his throat awkwardly, then cushed his bestfriend into a hug. "You don't know how depressed you made me." he whispered while the older friend just laughed as others had tears in their eyes.
When they pulled away, Ren looked at Kyoko with questions in his eyes.
Others looked at her expectantly, as she cast a glance on the new couple. Rick gave her a reassuring smile, signaling her to go on.
She smiled, starting, "I actually met Rick two years ago, in the hospital in Chel's burg. He was furious and not really cured. And I was sent by Mr. Taisho, my mentor. he told me everything and I took his case up. After searching for weeks, I found Mr. Fuwa. Of course, it was easy for me to take cover since Kanae was already running away. But I stalled for time because..." she breathed deeply. "...Because I had grown to have feelings for him."
Everyone gasped, and something in Ren's stomach dropped painfully. "You what...?" Mr. Hizuri asked again, just so to make sure he wasn't hearing wrong.
She passed on a weak smile and said, "I had, but when we were getting married- a forceful one, I caught him with another woman. It was one year ago I had seen him. And due to his huge reputation, I was forced to stay quiet and I continued to work on his case, even though I had been going through alot."
Mr. Tsuruga exhaled in relief, not knowing the breath he had been holding for a long time. " Since Rick had a few connections, we both tried to find evidence. Then I met Mr. Tsuruga."
She shot a earnest smile at him, making people cross knowing glances at each other. "And that's how the case of the Pink Letters began." She concluded.
They all clapped and she took cover as the red hue covered her cheeks.
"Are you planning to get married soon, Ms. Mogami?" Mr. Hizuri asked curiously, knwoing fully well that he had asked a similar question to her.
She detected the hidden meaning behind it and shook her head. "Not yet, I still have a few things to settle before I do so."
"Like what?"
"Like reuniting families."
One Year Later...
The bucket in her hand was brimming with hot water as she gingerly carried it to her room. She wiped the sweat off her forehead and got to work.
"Kyoko! There is a letter for you, dear." her mother said.
"Coming!"
She emerged from her room, untying her bun and taking the letter from her mother. She opened the envelope and out came two papers. She noticed the pink colour in one and frowned.
Then she went inside her room, sitting on the foot of the bed carefully opened it, after reading the white one. Then a big smile was covering her face. "Mother!" she said, running to the backyard.
Her mpther stopped watering the plants and looked at her. "What is it." she asked gently.
"We are going to Hart Field!" she exclaimed.
"For what?" her mother asked, confused.
"Oh, there is a party in celebration of Kanae's marriage. Finally, she got proposed by the famous Yashiro Yukihito."
"Why are you so excited?"
She blushed but said nothing.
Her mother smiled secretly and allowed her to go, unaware that her daughter didn't say anything about the pink letter.
She was running down the halls as soon as the ceremony got over and searched for the blonde hair.
He was sitting near the balcony, gazing at the moon. She stopped right in front of him and stared at him, as he slowly turned and gave her a grin.
"Hello, Ms. Mogami." he greeted.
She glared at him and gave him a kick.
"Is this what you say after you gave me that letter?" she demanded.
He smiled at her sheepishly then looked away.
"So what is your answer, My lady?"
She rolled her eyes and pulled his collar, letting their lips clash together. His eyes widened like saucers but he complied her silent request with a smile. When they pulled away, they let their foreheads touch each others.
"I take it, your answer is a yes, hm?"
"Well, of course."
"But you have to get you used to calling me Koun." he said, warning her.
She rolled her eyes again but chuckled nonetheless.
"Yes...Koun."
When the letter fell away, forgotten, seven words were visible:
"I Love You,
Will you marry me?"
The End
Author's Note:
Hello guys!
So, this is it. My story ends here. Sorry for the lack of keeping on time, I apologize deeply. I had been travelling places and couldn't find an appropriate time to write and post this chapter. Please do excuse mistakes if found any.
Even though I had originally plan to let Rick die, I felt remorseful for Ren. And yeah, even though I forgot to make everyone get used to calling Ren 'Koun', I eventually made Kyoko call him.
Thank you for staying with me for such a long time, it makes me feel happy and sappy sometimes(Nope, not the crying time.) And I feel really happy to know that some of you have been taking your time to review even though I sound so demanding in some of the chapters. ;) I'm not a native english speaker, so it really means alot if you review.
I feel so sad because this story has ended, and I cannot say if I have actually written a good one.
This was and is my first skipbeat multi-chaptered story and I have successfully completed it, hope you have loved it. And I sincerely hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed writing.
So, goodbye guys, don't know when I would post anything sometime soon.
P.S. Please do read my other stories. I would love to know you have actually checked them out