At the gate of the vineyard was exactly as she had described, flooding his eyes was the edgeless fields of green, next to the entrance was a beautifully built classical manor that appeared in such glowing, golden light, too warm to be mistaken as someone else's. He pushed open the unlocked gate and invited himself in, tracing the well-travelled path he could almost see little Yui skipping along.

"Hello?" Ayato called after lightly knocking on the door,

"It's unlocked!" he never thought he would hear that voice again, so careless, cheerful, painless, unlike his; A bride ready to be wed no wonder she was so full of life, could Laito be wrong? Yui actually never wanted him to win her back? Ayato followed the voice that echoed the corridors, each step with growing anxiousness and anticipation.

"I'm in here." One last call he was sure that the woman who has his heart is only a door away.

"Hurry up and get in here," a grin glistened, "...Shu." He stopped his steps. She had thought that he was Shu, no wonder she was so happy. As he was about to turn his step to leave, Yui stepped out from the room,

"Sh- Ayato-san? Why are you here?" In her voice was the same calmness that left him 6 months ago,

"I was invited... um... to your wedding." E great Ayato never stutters,

"Oh! Right! I almost forgot that Shu wanted to have all his brothers at his wedding. You would have to forgive him, after his uncle died all he has is his sick mother and you guys." her tender voice conveys a dearly care Ayato would kill to have now,

"Are you busy actually?" Yui asked politely,

"Not particularly... i meant I've already dropped my luggages at the hotel."

"Would you mind coming to cake tasting with me? Since it's such a small wedding we have the privilege to be so last minute with these things you know!" The small blush of embarrassment took his full strength not to kiss her right there and then.

"Sure"

Before he knew it he was already in the car with the girl he love driving around the romantic streets of Paris, finishing wedding itinerary for her and someone else. There's only Karma to blame for this.

"So you and Shu huh?" He asked casually, reminded himself of the reason he came today,

"Yea..."

"How long did it take you to um..."

"Well I didn't plan to come back to France, but by the time I returned to our shared apartment I got a phone call saying that my grandma was admitted into a hospital, which is why I packed up all my things and headed for the airport."

"Then it turns out that it was nothing too severe but I've decided to spend some time here nursing her to full health. One thing led to another I met Shu again outside of the cafe of the hospital, turns out his mother was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer and had less than a year left. I was so shocked that I went to meet his mother, who was very kind to me when I was a child. She mistook the two of us as a couple, and with that sick voice she told Shu that she wanted to see at least one of her sons get married in her lifetime. Seeing the workaholic Reiji is, it only leaves Shu to fulfill her dying wish."

"So this is not a marriage of love?" He asked, crossing all his digit for the 2 lettered word reply

"Not exactly... but I did have a crush on him those years ago, if that counts?" She smiled at him.

If only he would've not messed up that morning, he would've been the one in France with her. And she wouldn't be mistaken as his half-brother's girlfriend.

"But you're willing to marry him for his mother?! Why did he even agree in the first place?" He would go mad if the bastard is not even going to cherish what he had lost, a girl he would gladly call his own again.

"He was the one that was reluctant to do it originally, I guess it's because he thought I wasn't pretty or smart enough for him. I mean he is a professor in Physics and famous freelance violin performer. But I'm just plain ol' me." Ayato didn't realize it but his fists are clenched, how dare Shu not see how anyone would be lucky to be loved by this girl?

"But then he texted me and said if I was okay with it then he'll be okay with the decision. It took almost 3 months for us to get on the same page and start preparing for the wedding. Which leads us to now."

"Where is that half brother of mine anyways?" Ayato felt anger rising from his core.

"Oh, I think he's out with some students."

For a second on her face was a look of disappointment.

What kind of man leaves his fiancé for work?

As they walked in the store, Yui greeted the shop owner in perfect French. This is a side of Yui unfamiliar to Ayato, the confidence leaves no sign of her past timid self.

"Hi Miss Yui, are you here for the cake tasting?"

"Mmhmm, thank you so much for delivering in such short notice."

"This must be the groom, I'm Candace the baker."

"No, no, no. This is my friend Ayato, my fiancé is busy today." Yui hurried to explain, Ayato was just glad that she still referred to him as her friend.

When Candace turned around to prepare the cakes, this left the couple alone in the lounge.

"Wait if the baker didn't know Shu, did he even go to any of this wedding prep with you?" Ayato inquired,

"He's a busy man Ayato, it's already a burden for him to marry me."

"Yui I..." then and there Candace returned with the cake samples

Swallowed in his throat are the words he dare not to let known, but the scent of fading lavender and vanilla he would take over all the treasures of the world. Her soft locks bounces to the rocky steps back to the vineyard as their owner fall into deep slumber. It must've been tough planning this wedding all by herself, Ayato thought. With a small grin hanging from his handsome features it almost felt like their first date again, where the clumsy blonde kept quiet about the monstrous heels that dug into her ankles, who sobbed on their way home after he had told her how much he hated her shoes. It was true to an extent, he hated that the shoes had her slender, pale legs goes on forever and attracted the stares of other men; he hated that they made a sound when she dances so others know where to look for the beaut; but mostly he hated that the shoes had hurt her as they mark her ankle with blood. Except now there are no tear stains for him no more, the mark she leaves in the gaps of his memories made him stutter at the ungrateful bastard who she would call her husband in 2 days. This was all too messed up to be true, the Christmas lights down the manor welcomed the two tired souls.

"Thank you, Ayato, for helping me with the wedding preparation." Yui gestured for him to come inside. With the dewing snow outside he was welcomed by hot chocolate by the fireplace. She sat in the armchair beside his couch before the fireplace, and looked up innocently when their gazes meet.

"You have not changed a bit, dumbass." It's moments like this he cannot resist teasing her,

"Huh?" Unaware of the whip cream mustache from the hot coco she stared at him with bewilderment. He reached forward to wipe it off her face, as they were tempting as the strip of white snow the lips below them is giving him all sorts of bad ideas. This is not your woman anymore, it would be wrong to do something like that. He reminded himself, suppressing the rising fury to pronounce the woman he love as the partner of another.

Ayato looked at the clueless women before him who has the purest intention, her eyes unfazed before the man who seemingly broke her heart just months ago. Her guard was down, and he was dangerously addicted to the idea of her closeness. The flickering fireplace glazed her blonde hair with a hint of red like his, and she smiled politely at the admitted silence. Neither felt the need to talk, to break a piece of accepted reality that is meant to become a truth in near future.

"Is Shu living with you, here?" the undeniable sad gaze tells Ayato that perhaps there could still be a chance to win her back.

"No… He lives in town, where it is closer to the university. It would likely be that way after the wedding too because it would've been troublesome, as he likes to put it, for me to move in."

"What kind of man wouldn't want to live with his wife?!"

"It's just Shu, I wouldn't want to change his ways." he was enraged by how careless his older brother is treating her, but at his words he was reminded of a certain twin of his that proclaimed the something along the same lines.

"I swear to the ultimate creator and all the girls in the world you are not staying over at Stacy's tonight." on his whore of a twin brother's face was not a hint of humor, but Ayato was not one to be easily persuaded.

"Why does it concern you if I decide to pay our MUTUAL FRIEND a visit during the holidays?" he taunted, laying a trap for Laito to expose his ulterior motive,

"I would have no problem for you to visit a friend, but not one that practically threw herself at you even at the presence of your girlfriend! Plus this is not JUST A HOLIDAY, it's flipping your anniversary and Christmas day! Don't you think you owe Yui that much for putting up with your crap for another year?" exclaimed Laito with his fists clenched,

"Since when have you taken the interest in MY GIRLFRIEND huh? Who are you to judge anyways?!"

"You have the audacity to claim her as your girlfriend, that couldn't you grow a pair and be committed to your words?!" Laito took a step so now the twins are staring eye to eye, "I care because she is a good person, the most forgiving one I know. If I were fortunate enough to ever call her mine I wouldn't treat her any less than she deserves, which is the world."

"My life, my choice." Ayato shrugged, "Later Laito."

It was only until his engagement party over a drunken truth or dare that he found out about his brother's crush on his fiancé then. The two of them met over a gallery exhibition one of his rich friends threw years ago. She was there to get inspiration for her story and he was there to pick up innocent artistic babes. Laito was so entrapped by her focus at every piece he decided to prank her by putting his hat on the floor. In less than 10 minutes his hat gathered a crowd of pretentious commenters to were 'explaining' the motive behind this 'hat'. How the strips is a symbol for the 'wildness' and 'suppression' in society, he watched in amusement as the girl quietly approached the owner of the gallery.

"I don't mean to disrespect but I don't think that is part of your exhibition is it? I thought the theme of the art is not coherent with the placement of this hat." his rich friend chuckled and called for Laito, who swiftly picked up his hat and introduced himself to the lady that figured his trick out.

"Would you like to have coffee sometime?" he asked the girl, in his naive days Laito had maintained a streak of no rejections until Yui,

"Sorry, you seem like a very nice man, but I don't like coffee that much." and at the turn of the heel she left Laito in a state of fragility.

Later he found out she was not lying about her favoritism towards coffee, but that didn't stop him from getting her roses after he figured out her class schedule with a little help from his fan club. To Laito she was a challenge, and to her he was a friendly guy. Her every rejection motivated Laito to try harder and unknowingly made him invest emotion into their game. They started going out for tea, she asking him for his opinion on her writing and they would spend the afternoon under the tree outside of her dormitory. Until it reaches a state where he thought the two had an inexcusable connection that she told him she met someone. The news wouldn't have broke him if not for the fact that the exact person was his very own twin. Laito would be up for the challenge, except in his numbered days of childhood there's so few of family for him to cherish, so whatever remains he dared not to interfere.

Ayato didn't know, but it's Laito that she visits every time they had a fight. When he thought she was out with her friends on poetry night, and happens to stay overnight at their place, it is at his twin brother's bachelor suite upstate. Ayato never questioned her, perhaps it's the invading perfume that wore around his room from yet another female visitor. It would've been the easy, one would imagine, to steal her away, for Laito at least. But only if you knew behind every tear-soaked shirt and run-away problem just how much she loved his brother, then you should realize that Laito didn't have a chance since the very beginning. So it was an understatement to say his emotions are equally jumbled when he first learnt the news of her engagement to Shu; hurt that she didn't go to him; furious at his idiot of a brother; curious to who the groom would be. He chuckled to himself, untangling the strand of dark hair of his overnight partner. Even the moonlight upon her curvaceous body, slender limbs was traces of this little girl running through his mind. These strangers in his bed every night is his attempt to redeem the lost warmth from a broken childhood under the shadows of your overbearing twin brother. Unlike Kanato who drove his tensed mind to a psychopathic level he was unwilling to let his humanities go. He got up to read the invitation once again, it is unmistakably her writing, he reserved a first class ticket to France before returning to bed.

He was going to meet Ayato again after 2 years of living in the same city,

At Yui's wedding to his half brother,

In France, the first place they travelled together,

As the friend he always was no more than.