Updated ! Sorry for the late update ! XP Though it's finally my semester break, I'm unexpectedly busy with works... Anyway, again, I'm sorry for the wait. Please take your time reading this chapter ! :) Thanks a lot for all the favs, follows & reviews~

Haruka slowly opened his eyes as he felt a very bright light suddenly shining on him. Gradually, his eyesight managed to adapt with the surrounding, and he found out that he's waking up in a different place than before. Before, it was all darkness surrounding him but this time, he's lying on a bench with his head resting on someone's lap in a beautiful garden full of flower with a beautiful river flowing calmly through the garden.

"Good morning, Haruka.", she greeted the sleepy boy, her hands caressing his head gently.

"Good morning, grandma… Where am I ?", Haruka asked, still lying down on the bench with his eyes closed as he feels very comfortable with his grandmother's caresses.

"Maybe somewhere between your life and death ?"

"Am I going to die ?"

"Do you want to ?", she asked.

Honestly, he wouldn't mind staying in the death realm with his grandmother since everything he had experienced in his life previously won't bother him anymore. He'll finally be free from any restrictions, free from anyone's demands, free from anyone's expectations, free from the binds that were tying him up in his life but strangely, he doesn't want all of those by the time being. The old him would most probably accept death as the best choice to take by now but the new him won't – he won't run away from his problems like his old self but instead, he's going to face them head on no matter how hard and painful it will be. After all, he has someone to come back to, someone whom he needs to take care of, someone whom he needs to help and a place to stay until his time to go really comes.

"I… don't want to… Not right now…", Haruka answered.

"Care to tell me why ?"

"There's… someone… I want to be with… just a bit longer…", Haruka said hesitantly as he felt very awkward telling the older woman about his real feeling – he had never talked about it to his family members, especially about love.

"That person… It's Matsuoka Rin-kun, right ?", she said.

"Y-yeah…", Haruka answered, his cheeks are painted with a faint colour of red.

"I wish I had met him before I pass away. What kind of person is him to you ?", his grandmother said, looking at Haruka with her loving gaze.

"He's a grumpy, stubborn and selfish person. Always so demanding when it comes to things he wants to do or have. Despite his grumpy appearance, he's actually a big crybaby. The biggest one I've met in my life.", Haruka said honestly.

"Oh my… Sounds like a troublesome person.", she commented then chuckled.

"He is… but he's actually a caring person. He's always being over protective towards me as if I'm too fragile."

"I've been watching over you all this time. You've changed.", the old woman said with a smile on her face. Never did she think that this weird grandson of her will turn into a very fine young man though still quite far from perfect. She was indeed felt a bit worried about Haruka's personality back then – how anti-social he is, how stoic he is, how uninterested he is in almost everything, how stubborn he is when it comes to stand for his decision. While most of the elderly around the neighbourhood praises him for being a good and polite boy, most of his classmates criticize him, saying that he's arrogant, that he doesn't like being friends with anyone but some people who gets to know him closely knows that those rumors are not true at all – Haruka is just a person who doesn't know how to express his feelings.

"Changed… huh ?", he muttered then turned silent. He shut his eyes close as the cool breeze blew past him gently, feeling the freshness of the air that calms his mind. It's not the first time he heard such statement but he doesn't really see where the changes are and even if there are changes in him, the changes aren't so big that people should be concerned at – the only big change he experienced is turning soft after marrying Rin. Different from Haruka in the past, the new Haruka is someone who would always give in whenever he started to fight with Rin and someone who would help anyone in need without any questions. In the past, helping people, especially strangers feels like a bother to him but it's different by now. He also could still remember his old stubborn self when it comes to arguing with Rin – once they started to argue about something, none of them will give up the fight. When Rin raises his voice, Haruka would also raise his voice to fight him. Their fights would sometimes last for months; the shortest was a week. They won't meet, contact or talk to each other until one of them decided to lose. Even when they coincidentally walk beside each other, none of them will greet and bother to take a look at each other.

"Grandma… Do you think that I'll be able to hold on any longer ?"

"You'll be just fine. It's you we're talking about anyway. The most stubborn grandson I had ever raised up.", his grandmother said, pinching Haruka's cheek lightly.

"Pfft… I'm sorry then…", Haruka said, smiling.

"But dear, no matter how strong your heart is, there'll be the time when you'll reach your limit.", she said, looking deep into his grandson's pair of blue eyes, wanting the younger person to understand what she really means by those words. "Sometimes, it's okay to be selfish. Say anything you want. Ask for anything. Even you have something you really want to do or have, right ? Wanting something your heart desires is normal, Haruka. You're a human being after all.", she said again while her hand caressing Haruka's cheek. Acting strong is Haruka's habit; she realized it since the day when his parents left him because of their relationship problems. Instead of feeling sad or sulk with the situation like a normal kid, Haruka accepted it easily, saying that it can't be helped. He kept on living like his normal self, like nothing had happen before but his grandmother didn't feel right about it – something felt odd.

And then, there was one day when he finally break down. It was during winter, he was just 8 when he suddenly went missing after his usual morning walk. All of the villagers tried their best to find him and even contacted the police to help searching for him in every crook of the small town. It was only after 5 hours that they found him lying unconscious in cold in the deepest part of the forest. When she asked why he did something reckless like that, he only said that no one needs him so he should just disappear for good. As she suspected, Haruka was not okay with his parents' decision but he kept it to himself.

'Something... my heart desires...?', Haruka thought, his chest starting to hurt. Slowly, little by little, tears started to form a pool in his eyes and soon, two small rivers begin to flow down his cheeks. Somehow, his grandmother's words had touched the deepest region of his heart, the region he had sealed away years ago – his own selfish side. He decided to cast his selfish side away after marrying Rin because he didn't want to be a nuisance to Rin – all that he wanted is to be the best for Rin, to live their lives to the fullest without any arguments. He didn't want anyone to walk away from his life anymore and he didn't want to be like his parents. 'As long as I could make Rin happy, I'll be happy too.', that was what he always thought but as years passed by, he eventually became unsure of his own decision. He thought that Rin will change if he gives him the fullest attention and freedom but unfortunately, Rin's behaviors had never changed ever since they started dating – Haruka had became tired of all his acts and lies. He wanted to tell Rin about his real feelings but he's too afraid of Rin leaving him.

"I...", Haruka tried to talk but his grandmother silenced him.

"Hush… Don't talk… Cry as much as you want to…", his grandmother said while caressing his head soothingly. "Now… you should rest a bit longer, dear."

With that, Haruka drifted to sleep with tears in his eyes, soothed by the older woman's loving touch – the gentle touch he had always missed since the day she left his life forever.

"G-good evening, sir ! Here's the information you asked yesterday.", a young girl around her twenty said then handed over an A4 sized envelope to her employer.

"Ah, thanks ! You can go now.", he said.

As soon as the girl exited his room, he started to open the envelope containing the information he requested then skim through them. After a while, he started to smirk then laugh by himself, throwing away all the papers he held in his hand. The result is too exciting and fascinating to him as his play wouldn't end as early as he thought. 'All those important information is kept secret, huh ? Exciting…', the man thought, standing up from his chair then walked to the nearest large window. His subordinates' failure in getting those important information regarding the incident didn't anger him at all but instead, it makes him feel very happy. Keeping the information secret is just like a mini game for him to play with – he'll try anything he could to get what he wanted and he has lots of other resources to do that. If his subordinates still can't do the task, then he'll do it by his own hands. After all, Samezuka is not so big that he couldn't even track a single person.

"Ha…ru…ka…-chan~", he said, walking towards a book shelf where he hides a door leading to a secret room behind it. Inside, there are lots of Haruka's pictures taken secretly from different angle, at different places, pinned on the wall and even scattered on the couch, table and floor. Some of them are stabbed with small knives, torn dramatically and even already burned to ashes. He hummed happily while continuing walking towards a desk where he put his camera on. As he grabbed the camera, he turned it on then took a look at the pictures he had just recently taken. "You were calling his name all the time back then… How tragic… I told you to stay away from him, didn't I ?", he muttered with a grin in his face. He kept browsing through the pictures, grinning and laughing at times.

"What do you want from me ?", a familiar monotonic voice started to speak from the camera as he play the video file.

"Nothing much. Let's have some fun, Nanase-kun"

"I don't have anything to do with all of you…"

"But we 'do' have something to do with you..."

"Get your dirty hands off me."

As soon as the other person going to talk, he stopped the video as he has something more important to do than re-watching the video. "I could make use of this one later~", he said happily then walked out of the small room, heading to his computer to finish his earlier job. Now that he has the motivation to do his job, he wanted to do it all of them fast so that he'll have plenty of play time to spend later.

"I'll get to play with you some more, Haru-chan~ Before, we were playing tag but now we're playing hide and seek, don't we ? Ah~~ I'm so excited ! As long as you alive, I won't stop hunting you… Oh… How I missed the sight of your so-called beautiful blue eyes frozen in fear~~", he said then hummed happily.

After Sousuke and Rin finished their lunch, both of them walked towards a metal door that separates the customers' lounge from the staffs only part of the restaurant. The space behind the metal door had caught both police officers in surprise as they had never thought that it is actually so spacey. Even though this is Haruka's restaurant, Rin had never stepped inside this space and he had always thought that behind the door is the main kitchen. The door actually doesn't directly leads to the kitchen but instead, it leads to a hallway with 6 doors along the way in total and a staircase leading upstairs. As much as he remembers, Haruka once told him that his office room is situated upstairs and that saves him some time.

As they arrived in front of the office door, Rin took out the key then unlocked it. A mild scent greeted them immediately after Rin pushed the door open – Sousuke recognized the smell a lot.

"Isn't this my perfume's scent ?", Rin asked himself.

"Isn't it pretty normal ? You're rarely with him anyway. He might be using it to feel like you're here by his side.", Sousuke said, continue walking to Haruka's working table.

'Hmm... Maybe...', Rin thought but then interrupted by Sousuke.

"Ah ! You can't use Nanase's perfume in our office. It's 'our' office, not yours.", Sousuke reminded him, highlighting the word 'our' with a slight change in his voice.

"Ah...hahaha... How did you know what I'm thinking ?", Rin asked.

"It's all written in your face."

It didn't took them long to find the laptop since they somehow can predict where the dolphin keep it – in the drawer of his working table. Haruka is very suck when it comes to keeping his property safe. Most of the time, he even forgot to lock the main door when he's alone at home. It's only after Rin scolded and nagged him about it until he gets annoyed of it that he started to remember to lock the door – he still forgot to do it sometimes though. Rin couldn't blame him too much though since he had spent most of his life growing up in Iwatobi, where there is almost no crime occurs there daily. Even if he leave the house unlocked, the probability that a thief will enter his house is only 5%. It's a completely different place than Samezuka where the crime is always happening 24/7.

As Rin opened the program, a colourful user interface with some cute characters greets him at the beginning. Sousuke and Rin stared at them in amazement since they had never thought that the guy who looks like he doesn't have any feelings actually love cute things. Soon as it shows the login page, Rin entered the password that Nagisa gave him that morning. 'Stupid…RinRin… Ugh… What's with this password…', Rin complained in his mind. A cute character of Haruka suddenly walked in as he hit the enter button, making Rin to squeal internally to it. "Welcome, RinRin…", it said, resulting Sousuke to burst into laughter. "It looks like you've got the password from Nagisa. Well then, please do as you wanted." The small character then walked away from the screen while the page faded into a new menu page – on it, there are many menus listed in a restaurant-menu-book-like design.

"So, where should we start reading from ?", Rin asked.

"Try the date before the incident, 'RinRin'.", Sousuke said, saying the word 'RinRin' with a mocking tone.

Although he's kind of annoyed with it, Rin immediately clicked on the option 'Search By Date', then keyed in the date he wanted into the program. After a while, a simple-styled journal appeared on the screen with some extra options at the right side of the journal – 'Reply' and 'Listen'. Ignoring those small features, Rin continue to read the journal.

29 June 20xx

Somehow, I feel very restless today. I don't understand why, but it feels like something bad will happen. When it comes to something bad… there are many things that come to my mind – Rin will die, Rin will leave me, Rin will tell me that he doesn't need me anymore, something bad happen to Rin's mother and Gou, something bad happen to Masatomo-san… lots of them. Most of them involving Rin. The least I could think is me dying. While that is the most possible answer to my uneasiness, it didn't occur to be the most frightening one. I wonder why…

If I die, I wonder if what Rin's reaction will be. Will he cry ? Will he be concerned ? I bet he'll cry a lot but Yamazaki will always there to babysit him so I'm not worried about that. Yamazaki is a good guy despite his appearance and I'm sure that he can make Rin happier than I do. He probably understands Rin more than me. If I die, Rin doesn't have to hide things from me again. He'll be free, won't he ? Isn't that great ? Living together while hiding something is difficult thing to do after all.

Well, in the end, those are just some stupid things playing in my mind. Rin would get angry if he knows I'm thinking like this so I better stop. Better thinking on what's for dinner tonight. Rin said that he'll be home early today so I'm kind of excited though he might cancel that promise out of blue like he usually does. Whatever it will be, I'm looking forward to having dinner with him tonight ! So... Meat or mackerel ?

Before I forgot... Tomorrow's my birthday. My 25th, huh ? I'm getting older... Haha... I wish Rin could just stay at home tomorrow. Hmm... Maybe I'll ask Nagisa how to coax him. He's great in that. Well then. Happy Advanced Birthday, myself.

"Haru…", Rin murmured. Tears started to flow down from the red-haired police officer's eyes as he finished reading the journal entry. Never had he thought that Haruka will think about such things like that since he always looks like he doesn't have any worries at all. 'Idiot... How could you be bothered with what will possibly happen to others instead of yourself ?', Rin thought.

"Is this what you call 'taking someone's existence for granted' ? First time seeing this situation in front of my eyes. Now that he's gone, you finally realized that he's very important to you, huh ?"

"Oi… Don't talk as if he's dead… He's just in coma.", Rin said.

"He's not alive either. He's half-dead to be exact. Well, we can't stay here any longer. Lunch time is almost over."

Yeah, that's all for now... ^^ Hope that's good enough. Thank you for spending your time reading this chapter~ :)

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