Sakuno woke up slowly. It was Saturday, so she always gave herself a little extra time before getting up. Another week had passed quickly. Things with Shinji were well at school again and everything was fine. She went to her brother's room and the boy was still asleep as well. He was spread on his futon, his mouth wide opened and a hand on his belly. She smiled to his relaxed features. She would wake him up on breakfast time.

Her mind was listing the things she needed to do. Laundry, food, cleaning the bathroom. She was wearing a long light blue pajama with white vertical stripes. Fall was there for good and the days were chilly. They had started to wear the winter uniform at Seigaku and long black socks above her knees she blushed when Ryoma said she looked cute.

The teen looked at the short table and realized she had not picked up the mail from the day before. She left to the front garden and picked up the correspondences on the mail box before rushing inside home.

"Why is so cold?" she complained, looking at the letters. She grinned when saw a new booklet of cupons for the supermarket, already imagining doing groceries for the week. There were some bills and there was a big, white envelope in the middle of everything.

Her eyes were wide in absolute surprise when she saw the name of the sender. She abandoned the other letters on the table and opened the envelope with trembling hands, starting to read the words she had waited for so long.

The girl opened and closed the door in a rush, before running to Ryoma's house, a big smile on her face.

###########

Ryoma was at the kitchen, having breakfast. Since his girlfriend would always sleep a little late on weekends, he ate by himself at home to not disturb her. He was eating some fruits slowly.

The door opened suddenly and he forgot how to swallow.

"Echizen-kun, it's here! It's finally here!"

Her boyfriend started to cough and she ran to him, rubbing his back.

"I'm sorry I scared you!"

"It's… it's okay." He said, breathing slowly. "So, what happened?"

"The emancipation documents!" she showed the paperwork to him. "It's all done! I'm an adult now, for real!"

"That's great, Sakuno." He showed her a small smile. "Congratulations."

"Thank you so much for all your support." She gave him a tight hug. She was so happy. "I'm really grateful."

"You're welcome." His voice was very gentle. "So, what are you doing now?"

"I need to go and talk to the lawyer about adopting Shinji for good."

"Do you think it will be difficult?" she raised her face to him and smiled.

"Not at all, since we are siblings for real and I have proof I have been taking care of him by myself for a long time."

"That's good then." He caressed her hair.

"I need to start looking for a place for us and making budgets for rent, furniture and stuff. I wonder if I can find something on Sunday's newspaper and…"

"You still have a couple of months. There's no hurry to do it." he was trying to put her at ease, but he looked at her, he noticed the sadness on the scarlet eyes.

"Of course there is." She said, seriously. "I have been working hard to achieve this for a long time already."

"I know, Sakuno, I was just…"

"Maybe you don't understand because you always had a roof over your head and a bed to sleep, but it wasn't the same for us." She pressed the envelope on her chest and averted her face. "Here is not our home. It's my job. And we've always dream of a place to call our own."

"Sakuno, calm down, I…"

"Don't tell me to calm down! You're the one who's making fun of me!"

"I'm not doing such thing." The boy wanted to hold her hand but she distanced herself abruptly.

"I'm going home. I'm sorry for disturbing you." She left in angry, heavy steps, before he could say anything else and Ryoma felt extremely confused.

##################

The weekend passed by terribly slowly before Monday came. Echizen had sent his girlfriend many messages, but she didn't reply to any of them, so he thought it was the best to let her be for a while. Shinji spent some time at his place on Sunday and, thankfully, the boy didn't notice anything strange otherwise he would be worried.

When he left home to school, Sakuno had already gone and she avoided eye contact with him since he got at their class. It was a horrible atmosphere. He kept looking at her during classes, begging she would at least look at him, but she acted like he didn't exist.

Sakuno disappeared during break time and he went after her. He found his girlfriend on the library, looking at some books. He took a deep breath and walked towards hers, before holding her hand tightly and pulling her to the back of the room.

"Echizen-kun!" she whispered, very surprised. "What are you doing?!"

He turned around and looked at her seriously, but the girl noticed the golden eyes were pained.

"I don't want to break up. You cannot do it by yourself."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm sorry I hurt your feelings, I really didn't mean it. But, you have no right of breaking up with me without giving me a chance to…"

"I don't want to break up either. Why are you talking about such a thing?"

"But… you were mad at me, right? And you were avoiding me, I thought…"

"I'm sorry!" she lowered her face. "I was not avoiding you; I just didn't know how to face you, Echizen-kun."

"I don't understand."

"I'm sorry I lost my temper and stormed out. I told you before I'm really bad at dealing with people. That's why I ask for a trial time to be a proper girlfriend. I also have a bad temper, so… I had to take some time to create a proper apology to you."

Her words stopped when the boy cupped her face and kissed her seriously. Sakuno tried to push him away since they were in the library but he just pressed his taller body on hers, making her still. Her heart was beating to the point of hurting inside of her chest when their mouths finally separated and Ryoma looked at her.

"I will help you with everything you need to find a good place and move out. I'm proud of you, Sakuno. I just said those things so you wouldn't worry over things in advance, because I know you do. You don't sleep or eat properly when you're stressed, so I was just worried about you."

"Echizen-kun…" she smiled gently at him. "Thank you."

"So you're really not breaking up with me?"

"Not at all." The scarlet eyes were sincere.

He released a deep, long breath and his back leaned on the door.

"I'm so relieved." Sakuno's forehead touched his chest and she smiled to herself.

"Thank you for worrying about me and talking to me."

"I was a bad boyfriend before." He hugged her. "I don't want to make any mistakes with you. I really like you, Sakuno."

"I like you too, Echizen-kun." Her voice was very sweet.

"I was happy when you were at my place like that. You were so cute on those pajamas."

"What?!"

"Don't you remember? You stormed inside wearing just pajamas. I imagined you were very excited and forgot about changing to regular clothes but you were so cute I kept quiet."

"Why did you do such a thing?!" her face was deep red, but before she could walk away, Ryoma held her hand gently.

"Let's go on another date." He showed her a small smile. "I've wanted to talk to you about it for a while. There will be a fall festival soon."

"Fall festival?"

"Momoshiro told me about it. It is in a park on his neighborhood. There is a lot of good food. I think Shinji would like it."

"I want to go!" she smiled happily. "Shinji never had a chance to use a yukata before, I can finally buy one for him!"

"Do you have one?" he asked with a small smile. "I want to see you in one."

She blushed entirely again and averted her face, feeling extremely embarrassed.

"Why do you always tease me, Echizen-kun?!"

The boy chuckled and leaned his forehead on hers, making her look at him again.

"I'm not teasing you. You look good on anything. You're beautiful, Sakuno."

Her heart turned around with the way the golden eyes looked at her and the girl placed a soft kiss on him.

On the other side of the shelves, Tomoka's dark eyes narrowed. She was looking for some math books when she recognized their voices and followed the sound. The girl only heard the last part of their conversation about the date. There were some rumors about them, but she didn't want to believe it. Where were those gentle words and voice when they were dating? Ryoma had never called her beautiful, not even once in all the time they were together. Her fists were closed tightly and she left the hallway on the edge of tears, her heart filled with anger.