"Shin's love operation." Ryu chuckled lightly. "We're really exaggerating it."

"We should exaggerate it. It is Yamaguchi we're talking about, the densest person ever."

Ryu looked at Yamato and once again smiled lightly while shaking his head, amused with the plan.

"I never did it in my life."

"What."

"That operation thing."

Yamato smiled widely. "We often did it. Honjo's back to school operation, final examination operation, Okinawa summer vacation operation, and many secret operations we never mention to anybody."

"And you joined it?"

"Yup. There's nothing to lose. It was fun after all."

Ryu turned to him and stared at him carefully. He wanted to make himself sure that he had gotten over with his mother's death. There's a thin line of sadness in his face but the younger tried hard to cover it with his smile.

"I'm fine, Ryu. Don't worry. At least I won't kill myself. I will get over it soon. Not now but I promise you that I will do it soon. I have a life to live and I have to focus on living my own life now. I have my own canoe to paddle so I need times to get myself ready to do it. I won't give up, trust me. I will get over it. Soon."

Ryu smiled and reached for the straw in his glass.

"Few days ago Shin told me that you grew up. He said you look so big now."

Yamato chuckled. "I'm not that big. It's just …, time flies and it doesn't give a chance for us to back off. We have to always move forward and doesn't have any chance to turn around. We have to move on. And that's the only deal it gave us. Agree or not, we have to accept it.

Shin's right. You grew this big.

"Don't look at me like that."

Ryu smiled again. He just opened his mouth to say something when the door opened and a bunch of high school student came in a ruckus.

"She really is annoying. Why should she ruin my plan?"

"Because your plan is not going to work. Even I can see that it will fail completely even before it starts."

They took the table in the very corner of the room and almost fought to order. Kumai laughed and shook his head while trying hard to make them not shouting at each other.

"What are you doing here?"

Yamato looked to his side and found his childhood friend was putting his bag on the table. He didn't even look back at him.

"Waiting for my friends. What happened?" He turned to watch the bunch was still grumbling about something.

"They planned on something very unimportant and Yankumi destroyed it."

Yamato chuckled and turned back to the table. "Don't they learn?"

Reita shrugged. "They will never."

A little silent filled in, brought a little peace between them. Yamato closed his eyes and smiled.

"You okay?"

He opened and nodded.

Reita didn't need any more words. He stood up and tapped his back before walked to his friends.

"You knew each other before Ren's case?"

"A childhood friend. Very close before I betrayed him."

Ryu furrowed his brows and sipped his drink. "Tell me?"

"We promised to go to Aoshiba but I never step my feet even in its gate."

Ryu didn't say anything. So many questions suddenly appeared in his mind. He badly wanted to voice out but canceled his intention when he saw Ren was walking in.

"Sorry, something got me on my way here."

Both Yamato and Ryu didn't say anything. They just smiled and nodded lightly, signed him that it wasn't a problem.

"Since when you become this close? Did you know each other before?"

Yamato smiled but said nothing while Ryu looked away.

"Come on. There's nothing to lose to tell me." Ren folded his arms in front of his chest. "Honestly I can see that you look similar to each other. Something in my mind told me that you like someone else when we met for the first time," He pointed at Ryu, "but I can't find any similar face with yours in my mind. Did we meet before? That question is always mingling in my mind for days, and now I found the answer. You looked like him." He pointed at Yamato now.

"He's my cousin." Yamato surrendered because he knew he wouldn't win against Ren in this kind of thing.

"Ah, okay. That's reasonable. So the surprise expression Odagiri threw when we met for the first time in this shop that time was because he saw you among us."

"I'm surprised because I met him here, with his long and dark-brown hair."

Ren sat down beside Yamato. "His hair wasn't long and colored?"

Ryu shook his head. "He hated his hair being colored."

Ren chuckled and touched Yamato's hair. "I really can't imagine Yamato with a very short and black hair." He narrowed his eyes and a naughty smile tugged on his lips. "Why don't you try it once?"

"Shut up."

Ren laughed out loudly, made Yamato kicked him playfully.

Ryu didn't blink. He could see something between them. He didn't know what it called, but he knew there's something going on between them. He suddenly looked away when a thought came to his mind.

What is this? The way he touched Yamato is different. I can feel the gentleness in it. And Yamato doesn't even feel irritated when he touches his hair. What is going on? Best friend don't do that.

His thought stopped suddenly when once again a ruckus made in the door, revealed another bunch of young men, this time Yamato's friends and they were coming like a tornado attack.

"No, no, no, you're wrong. I'm the first. I arrived exactly at the appointment time." Honjo

"I arrived on time too."

"No! I had already stood in front of the front door when you walked over."

"I didn't walk. I ran."

"Isn't it the same thing, Kura?"

"It's not! It's different!"

"It's the same thing whether you ran or walked because you arrived few seconds late from the appointment."

"Guys, guys!"

The four of them suddenly turned and blinked in silent for a moment when they saw Ren was smiling at them while pointed at Yamato who didn't even try to turn over to them.

"He was the first one who arrived here. I don't know how long he'd been here but he came before me. I arrived here around a quarter so consider him coming about half of an hour ago. So he arrived first, I'm the second, and all of you are late for today's appointment. Any comment?"

The four of them shook their head and smiled sheepishly in the end.

Kamiya sat beside Yamato and nudged him. "Is there something important? You said we have to come here today or we will be disappointed if we don't."

"It's very important." Ren was the one who answered when Yamato didn't say anything.

"What is it?"

"Yankumi is falling in love and it isn't unrequited this time."

The four of them gaped dramatically.

"NO! Who?"

"His former student from Shirokin, Sawada Shin."

"What?"

Even Kumai and Ami looked surprised at the statement. They looked at each other and suddenly walked over to the bunch.

"Sawada hesitates to confess because he feels unsecured and Yankumi is too stupid to realize that she is too much in love with him."

Ryu glanced to Yamato who was sipping his drink casually. We don't say anything about Shin and Ren had already knew about the topic. You told him, didn't you? Why?

"Then we have to set them up."

Everybody stopped whatever they're doing and turned to Honjo who looked back to them in wonder.

"What?"

"What did you just say?"

Honjo looked at them one by one carefully. "We have to set them up?"

Ren moved forward and tapped his shoulder. "Good idea, Honjo. And what do you think we should do to set them up?"

Honjo looked at him for a moment before tried hard to think. He tapped his chin in a rhythm. "What if …, we send letter to both of them, using their names as the sender?"

"It won't work!" Kuraki and Kamiya suddenly yelled at him, as if they had expected what Honjo would say.

"Wait, guys. Don't you think it's a great idea?"

"Huh?"

Ren flung his hands out and smiled widely.

"It's too yesterday. It's a child's play!" Ichimura shook his hand and head together, didn't agree him.

"It will work because Yamaguchi is a child in this kind of thing."

Now everyone turned to Yamato who was talking without even looked at them.

"If you want to play with someone, you should know their characteristic so you yourself won't get confuse with their way of thinking. Yamaguchi acts as she is fifty years old woman when she talks about love, but she turns into a fifteen years old girl when she acts. Remember what she did when she chased Natsume-Sensei?"

"She boasted about having a date with him, whereas it's just a went out for drink. Sakura-Chan and Aoi-Chan were there too." Ren looked at his bunch to make them remember the memory.

"I remember that." Kamiya looked at everybody who nodded in agreement with him.

"She got too excited too when she met him in that hospital, where Kura's girl stayed for her treatment."

"She even didn't realize what she wears that time. I believe she suddenly ran from school when she found Natsume's book." Ichimura almost chuckled at the memory.

"And she even fought boldly with Sakura-Chan and Aoi-Chan to get his attention. It's exactly like a fifteen years old girl who falls in love for the first time."

Everyone looked at each other and smiled widely in the end.

"So, we agree to use this idea?"

Everyone nodded furiously to Ren who suddenly stood up from his chair.

"So, what will we do for the first time? I mean, how will we set them up?"

Yamato turned. "We need Reita and his gank."

Everyone turned to the bunch who was still arguing about something in the very corner of the shop.

"Reita!"

Before everyone agreed him, Yamato had already yelled. The said person looked at them and walked over when Yamato signed him to come over.

"We really need your help. This is about Yamaguchi's life, and I don't accept a no answer."

Everybody could see Reita was rolling his eyes and chuckled at the demand. He turned to his gank and made them sat among Yamato and his friends.

"What's this all about?"

"We're helping Yankumi to confess."

The five of them kept silent for a moment, trying hard to digest everything, before finally turned to Ren with bulged eyes.

"You what?"

Ren nodded many times, so were the others.

"How could that be?"

"She found the man and this time isn't unrequited. He falls for her too, and trust me, he won't hurt her."

"How can you be so sure? Do you know him?"

"I don't, but he knows him well." He pointed at Yamato who only nodded lightly to them.

Ryu implanted his cheeks and looked away. So you told him everything.

Reita looked at Yamato but didn't say anything.

"What should we do?"

"Your duty is to make Yankumi write this letter. I don't care how you will do it, but you have to do it. Tomorrow."

Reita looked away, didn't even interested with their plan, but his friends nodded furiously.

"It must be tomorrow.

"What about Sawada's letter?"

"You write it and she won't even realize that it's yours. Just put Sawada's name in the end of it, she will believe right away that the letter is coming from Sawada."

Everyone turned to Ryu who looked back at them and shrugged.

"Or you have another plan?"

"No!" Ren shook his head and smiled. "That's the best plan for this. Yankumi is stupid in this kind of thing. As you said, she will believe right away that the letter is coming from Sawada."

"Okay. Everyone is ready for the operation?" Kuraki reached out his hand and smiled when he saw everyone else was nodding. "Alright everybody, let's not fail Yankumi's love operation!"

"Oh!"

Everybody looked excited until they once again made another ruckus in the shop.

"It's classic, isn't it?" Yamato smiled while looking at his friends.

Ryu chuckled lightly. "Yes. I suddenly remember that we ever did it too. Maybe just once and we don't name it like yours, but I still clearly remember that we did it once. Oh, and Yankumi even involved in it too."

"What?"

Ryu furrowed his brows and nodded.

"Yes. It's the time where we should do interview for our future job. It's actually to prepare some of my friends who had the schedule for the next day."

"It's fun, isn't it?"

Ryu chuckled and shook his head in disbelief. He then turned to Yamato. "Do you think it will work?"

"What? The plan?"

Ryu nodded.

"For Shin, no, but for Yamaguchi, yes. It will absolutely work."

Ryu said nothing but shook his head, still couldn't believe that he was joining the plan.