"You and Erik seem to be getting along well," Arisa commented as she and Ema walked down the street. Arisa was busy preparing for entrance exams for college since she'd been out of school for a while, but the pair made time to get together most weeks.

"Yes," Ema admitted. Erik had been in Japan for months now and he fit seamlessly into Ema's group of friends. It almost felt like he'd been here for nearly as long as she had, despite him coming a year later.

"Just like you used to?" Arisa pressed.

"Yes," Ema admitted, even quieter. All the reasons they'd dated in the first place—all the things they had in common and enjoyed about each other—all those things were still there. Some people broke up because they changed. Because they no longer wanted the same things, or they met someone they felt was better suited to them. Ema and Erik didn't have any issues like that. Erik's only issue had been the physical distance and Ema's constant moving around and being in different time zones. Their breakup still hurt, but more like a phantom pain than the sharp ache it had been for a long time. The pain had faded more and more as she and Erik grew their friendship.

"And, how are you feeling about Erik these days?"

That was hard to answer. Or maybe Ema didn't want to answer. Sometimes when they were hanging out at school, chatting and laughing like before, it almost felt like they'd never broken up. Almost. And the feeling made Ema miss when they were dating. How well they'd fit together. How fun and right it had felt to be with him. She hated how complicated relationships were sometimes. "I don't know," she mumbled. "Maybe just happy that we're good friends."

"Hmm," Arisa said, her tone unreadable. "And how are you feeling about the Asahina brothers?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Ema asked, whipping her head around to look at her friend.

Arisa shrugged, tucking her hands behind her head. "I don't know. Just that if you dated someone outside the Asahina family, that might cause some issues. I don't know how it would affect your relationship with them, but it would affect your relationship with at least some of them."

"Well, dating one of the Asahina brothers might cause even more problems," she defended, trying to keep the irritation out of her voice. She felt defensive hearing that dating Erik might hurt her relationship with the Asahinas. That hadn't been quite how Arisa put it, but Ema felt like she'd insinuated that it would cause problems. "How would Tsubaki or Azusa feel if I dated their twin over them?"

"Maybe," Arisa agreed. "But I get the feeling that the family as a whole is possessive of you—not all of them romantically, mind you—but I think they want to keep you close. Another guy coming along and stealing you away would upset them. Yeah, there might be drama in the family if you chose one of them to date, but brothers fight. There would be drama between them even if you didn't date any of them. They seem like a close family. I think they would get over it and ultimately be happier that you'd always be close to them."

Ema remembered her thought from months ago that if she married one of the Asahina brothers, she'd always be part of the family. It was a tempting thought, but she didn't want to be with one of them simply out of the fear of losing her ties to the family. That wasn't a proper reason to date someone.

"Shouldn't dating be easier?" Ema muttered.

Arisa threw back her head and laughed. "Ultimately, the point of dating someone is supposed to be to find the one you want to spend the rest of your life with. Why would such a big decision be easy? And life is always messy when people's emotions are involved. You like adventures, right? You should treat dating and finding love like the adventure it's meant to be."

Ema sighed. "I guess I see your point. But I prefer adventures that don't lead to any hurt feelings."

"If you want to live a life where no one has hurt feelings, you'd need to live your life locked in a room with no other people," Arisa said dryly. Then she gentled her tone. "But if you don't risk hurt feelings, you don't find happiness either. Everything in life worth going for has risk, Ema. You one hundred percent don't need a guy to be happy, but since I know that marriage is something you want eventually, I want you to be excited when you think about your journey to finding that person, not dread the process. If it ends up being Erik after all, great. You'll have quite the dating story to tell your kids. If it ends up being one of the Asahinas, you'll also have fun dating stories to tell your kids. And if it ends up being someone completely different, that's okay too. I'm just bringing these guys up because, right now, that seems to be where your heart lies."

Ema got quiet as she thought. Her heart certainly lay with the Asahinas, but she generally thought of that in a home and family way. She hadn't thought of it in a romantic way. But she couldn't deny she felt attraction to some of the brothers—and not just because they were great kissers.

There wasn't a time limit on her deciding when to date, but there was always the chance that someone she might be interested in could find someone else. Just because some of the Asahinas had confessed they had feelings for her didn't mean they would feel that way forever. If she really had an interest in exploring what might become of a relationship with any of them, then it was time she started putting serious thought into what she wanted from a romantic relationship.

~.~

"Hey, Ema!" Erik greeted her in the hall at school. "Do you want to get hot chocolate after school today? Though I do have soccer practice today. If you don't mind waiting, we can go right after. Or, if you'd rather not wait, we can go some other time."

"No, I can wait," Ema said. "It's kind of fun to watch soccer practice. I used to go last year when Yusuke was part of the team so we could walk home together." And she'd watched Erik's soccer practice a couple times when she'd been in the United States. It felt a little weird to think of going to his practice again since she'd only done it while they were dating.

"Cool!" Erik said, his mouth turning up into a bright grin. "I'll see you then, okay? Well, actually, I'll see you at lunch first, but then I'll see you again at practice. Can't wait! See you!"

He waved as he left for his class and she smiled and waved back. Then she realized it sounded like he'd invited her and her alone. She'd gone out with Erik with some of her friends, but hadn't gone out with just the two of them other than when they'd been working on their school project together. But that didn't make it a date right? They were just going out as friends. Just friends.

~.~

"Hey Ema, are you ready?" Yusuke asked at the end of school.

"Actually, I wanted Ema to come with me today," Fuuto said, stepping between the two of them. He held his hand out to Ema with a charming smile. "I have a new song coming out and wanted to give you a sneak peek."

Ema couldn't believe she'd gone the whole day forgetting to tell Yusuke that she was staying after school to get ice cream with Erik. She'd thought of telling him multiple times, but always forgot when they were actually together. Something else always came up first and distract her. "Actually, I'm staying later today. I'm going to watch soccer practice before getting ice cream with Erik."

Yusuke's eyebrows scrunched together like he had to puzzle out her words, then his eyes widened. "Wait, like a date?!"

"No!" Ema said, her eyes darting around to make sure no one was listening. She didn't want any rumors springing up about her dating Erik. Though if anyone saw them getting ice cream together, that might happen anyway. "We're just going out as friends." She was pretty sure, anyway.

"You should know that you can go out with people just as friends," Fuuto said sarcastically. "Since you did it enough with that bottle blond friend of yours."

Yusuke flushed red at the reminder. "There was never anything romantic between us."

"See?" Fuuto said, raising his eyebrows. "My point exactly." Then he turned his back on Yusuke to face Ema. "But just because you feel that way doesn't mean that boy Erik does. He's awfully fond of you. Watch yourself, okay?"

Ema rolled her eyes. "You sound like—" She suddenly cut herself off, realizing she'd almost said he sounded like Juli. How ridiculous would that have sounded to them? Flushing, she changed her words to, "Erik's not like that. He'd never try to take advantage of a girl."

"Right," Fuuto said, his tone unconvinced. "He sure gives off a nice guy vibe, but just watch yourself, okay?"

"I'll be fine. I'd never go out with a guy who I wasn't sure what he would do."

"Fine. But come see me tonight so I can show you the song, okay?"

Ema smiled, pleased that Fuuto wanted to share the song with her first. "I will."

~.~

Ridiculously, Ema felt nervous as she watched soccer practice. Erik threw several excited grins her way as he played, making her heart beat faster. This wasn't a date. She'd told herself that several times and made it clear to Erik that she didn't know if she'd ever want to date him again. So why was she acting like them going out for ice cream was something special?

She tried to calm herself as she watched practice, telling herself over and over that she was just going out with a friend—not going out with a friend to see if she wanted to be something more.

Finally, practice ended. Except, Erik always looked adorable after practice, his hair windblown and his cheeks flushed from the excitement of playing his favorite sport. He'd always taken her out to get a treat after she went to his practices in the United States. This was all so nostalgic that she almost took his hand as they started walking to their destination. Thankfully, she remembered at the last minute and pretended she'd been reaching for her school bag's strap.

"I discovered this place a couple weeks ago and immediately wanted to bring you," Erik said as they walked. "They've got great drinks and do fun designs with cream, both for the coffee and for the hot chocolate. Some places only do designs for the coffee, so I like that this place does it for both."

Ema started feeling a little uneasy at his words, but there were probably multiple shops that did cream designs in hot chocolate, right? But when they stopped in front of the café where Iori worked, she realized she should have asked more questions about where they were going.

But it didn't really matter, right? There wasn't any reason for her to feel awkward going with Erik to the place where Iori worked. Except, it did feel awkward. This was where she learned why Iori was turned off to dating and where she revealed to him that she was turned off to dating. Yet, here she was, coming here with her ex-boyfriend. But what were the chances that Iori was working? He'd probably reduced his working hours since beginning university.

She took a deep breath and followed Erik inside. They were sat at a table and only a few minutes later, the exact person Ema didn't want to see appeared at the table to wait on them.

"Iori, hi!" Ema said, pasting a false smile on her face. "How are you?"

Erik looked between Ema and Iori. "Are you a regular here, Ema?" He deflated a little. "I guess it wasn't so special to bring you here after all, huh?"

"No, it's fine!" She rushed to assure him. "I love this place."

"Are you on a date?" Iori asked, his eyes on Erik. His eyebrows furrowed and a frown pulled at the corners of his mouth. "With an American boy?" He turned a puzzled look on Ema and she flushed. Of course Iori would know that an American boy with her must be Erik. American teenagers in Japan weren't exactly common.

"It's not a date," she said at the same time that Erik asked, "Is there an issue with Ema dating an American boy? Is that really any of your business?"

Iori smiled. Outwardly, it was a perfectly fine smile, but Ema had never seen it on Iori before and it didn't seem to reach his eyes. Something about it sent chills down her spine.

"That depends—is your name Erik?"

Erik blinked in surprise. Ema definitely should have suggested they go somewhere else. Of course Iori would be shocked when the last time the two of them talked she'd been crying because she was so upset that Erik was here.

"Iori is one of the Asahina brothers," Ema explained quietly. "That's how we know each other." She turned to Iori, also feeling like she needed to explain herself to him. Somehow, bringing Erik here almost felt like a betrayal, like she was saying that what Erik did was okay and, by extension, what Iori's ex-girlfriend did was also okay. "Like I said, this isn't a date. I told you that Erik transferred to my school earlier this year and . . . we're just out together as friends. We're part of the same friend group at school."

"Right," Iori said, his eyes cold.

Ema wanted to sink into the floor. Iori's attitude seemed to say that he also felt this was a betrayal. "I'll give you two a moment to decide your orders and then be back." He turned on his heel and walked away.

"Is there something going on between you two?" Erik asked slowly. "I thought you weren't dating anyone."

"I'm not," Ema sighed. "Iori and I kind of bonded here at the café over difficult dating experiences. Iori told me his and I . . . told him mine."

"Oh," Erik said quietly, staring at the table. "I guess I count as a bad experience."

"You made me feel like I wasn't worth staying with," she said quietly. "Like I wasn't worth the trouble of trying to keep up a strong relationship with while I was far away and traveling all the time."

"That wasn't it at all," Erik said, his eyes filled with pain and hurt as they met hers. "I mean, I can see why you felt that way, but I never wanted to make you feel that way, Ema. And I was wrong. So, so wrong to break up with you. It was the completely wrong decision. That's why—" He broke off, but Ema could imagine what he might have said. That was why he was here. What else could he do to try to fix the decision he'd made?

Ema stared down at her hands in her lap. She couldn't deny that part of how she'd felt when Erik broke up with her was how she'd chosen to feel. It was a result of how people had treated her again and again, but she knew that Erik hadn't wanted her to feel that way. Hadn't meant to send a message that she wasn't worth it. And forgiving him for causing her pain he never meant to cause her wasn't something she should be ashamed of. Even if he had been intentional about it, but was sorry for it now, there was still no reason for her to be ashamed if she'd chosen to forgive him for it.

"I know," she said, smiling as she put her hand over Erik's. "You're one of the nicest guys I know. It's why I liked you and why you fit so well with my friends. I'm glad we're friends again, Erik. Now I can smile when I remember our memories together instead of them being bittersweet."

He returned her smile, the pain melting from his eyes as he turned one of his hands over to squeeze her hand.

"I'm just going to make sure that Iori is all right, okay?"

Erik nodded, letting her hand go.

Ema slid out of her chair. She didn't want to interrupt Iori while he was working, but she hated the thought of leaving the café with him upset at her.

She went over to the counter where Iori had his back turned as he worked on someone's order.

"Iori?" she said quietly. "Can I talk to you?"

He didn't move and she thought he might ignore her, then he sighed and turned around, not meeting her eyes. "I need to work. Can we talk later?"

"Of course," she said, nodding, though Iori probably couldn't see since he wasn't looking at her. "Can I call you after dinner? Or maybe you can come over for dinner today?"

Finally, he met her eyes. "It's been a while since I've come home. I'll be there for dinner."

She breathed out a quiet sight of relief and flashed him a tentative smile. "Great."

Ema sat back down and Erik asked, "Everything okay?"

Ema sighed and shrugged. "He said we'll talk later. Don't feel bad though, this isn't your fault." She lowered her voice. "Iori's last girlfriend . . . made very poor choices that really hurt him. I think seeing me and you together is just bringing up all his feelings about what happened then. He and I will be okay." At least, she hoped they would be.

Erik nodded, his eyes still concerned, but they soon moved on to other topics and another waiter ended up serving them. It made things more comfortable for her and Erik, but she worried a little over what it meant about Iori's current state of mind.