"Our thoughts are ours, their ends are none of ours."

Shakespeare

"You WHAT? yelled Tsukushi, while putting both her hands on the table and leaning her head forward, to get a better look at Yuki. Only like this she could express the absolute shock generated by her friend's confession, coming out of the blue. They had been sitting at the corner table in a little resturant close to Yuki's college for about two hours. They had finished their meal and were now enjoying a good cup of coffee, when she decided to drop the bomb.

"Tsukushi-chan, please, lower your voice. People are staring." asked Yuki, gently shaking her right palm, gesturing to her friend to not draw so much attention at them, a little embarrassed by all the curious looks they were getting.

"How can you ask me to be calm? Do you realize what you just said to me?" Tsukushi was still looking at her friend, but she decided that her astonishment might represent a source of danger to the cup in front of her, so she moved it a little more to the centre of the table. Better be safe than sorry. Who knew what Yuki was going to say next and how she will react to it?

"Let me explain and you'll see that things are not as outrageous as they might seem."

Tsukushi sat back down at the table, leaned back on her chair, crossed her legs, arranged the hem of her skirt, then finally looked Yuki straight in the eyes and said: "Fine. I'll shut up. Now, explain!"

Yuki felt a little intimidated, seeing her friend watching her like that, disapproval written all over her face. Tsukushi very much resembled Yuki´s image of what a lawyer should look like, patiently waiting to hear her opponents arguments and then dismiss them all and proving to her that she was guilty. Or mad. Or both. It lasted only for a moment though, she had been thinking all night about how she would tell this to her friend and she was prepared for it. And if she had succeeded in telling her mother she could do it again, although at this moment she did not know who was scarier: her mother or Tsukushi. She took a deep breath in and began:

"Although it may seem strange for me to do such a thing, you must admit that my choices in men have not been the best. When it comes to love I'm not really that lucky. I don't really have anything to lose and it would make my grandfather so happy…"

Hearing her friend speak, Tsukushi noticed that Yuki never once looked straight at her. She had kept her gaze lowered, nervously playing with a tissue paper that now laid crumbled in Yuki's lap.

"Yes, but you were always the idealistic one, believing in true love and soul mates. You realize this marriage could be forever and a divorce is never a pretty affair, you know that better than anyone. Now you still have a chance at finding the perfect guy for you. But if you're going to get married, it won't matter if you do or not."

"I have already found him, you know I did. Only that I've discovered that even if you find your soul mate, you don't have the certainty that you'll get the happy ending as well. Not everyone is as fortunate as you and Tsukasa. At least like this I know I'll make one person happy."

Tsukushi, irritated by her friend's low moral, raised her voice once again: "You don't even know that person! What if he's not a good man, what if he hurts you, what if he's a pervert?" she interjected, emphasizing the last word.

Yuki raised her eyes to her friend, half amused by her friends pressupositions: "You're going too far. It's not like we're getting married right away. We'll have an engagement, we'll have enough time to get to know each other and after that we'll both decide if we want to get married or not. And besides, I don't think my grandfather will choose such a man for me."

Obviously frustrated, Tsukushi sighed and kept silent. She just wanted to look at Yuki, to convince herself that the person sitting in front of her was really her best friend. At the moment she was having troubles believing that. The person she had known for all these years wouldn´t have said something so foolish, let alone decide such a thing. She has always known Yuki was a true altruist, that she honestly took pleasure out of making others happy, but wasn't this a little too extreme?

Tsukushi could practicaly feel the thoughts swarming around in her head. The news might have been just a little too much for her, she did not really know how to react. The only clear thing to her right now was that her friend needed her help and support. Even if she thought that Yuki had made a bad decision, she had no way to make her change her mind. Nothing she could do or say could convince Yuki of the possible mistake she was about to make. The best solution Tsukushi could come up with in such a situation was to just stand by her friend, support her and if possible, stop her from getting into too much trouble. Finally, after a few moments of silence, she said:

"You can say whatever you want, I am not convinced about this and I don't think this is a good idea. But I can't control the choices you make either. I wish I could get to know this guy, to see for myself that he's worthy of you…"

Her words surprised Yuki. Truth be told, she was expecting some more shouts, maybe some reproaches, some "BAKA" out of her friend. After the initial shock, Tsukushi seemed to have taken the news quite well and Yuki was unusure if that was a good or a bad thing.

"Well, you could come with me to Nikko. Grandfather is expecting me there after my graduation…but oh! I forgot about your and Tsukasa's romantic trip before the wedding."

All of a sudden, raising up from her chair in a glorious pose of victory, right fist up and looking to the ceiling, Tsukushi said: "To hell with romantic trips! I have to make sure my best friend doesn't marry an idiotic, self-sufficient bastard!" And muttering to herself: "It's enough that I do."

Yuki, leaning back onto her chair, a little scared with her friend's sudden outburst of energy, asked: "You're coming with me? What are you going to tell Tsukasa?"

xxx

"Aahh, such a wonderful afternoon" thought Rui "just sitting by the window, feeling the rays of the sun warm my back, reading a good novel while listening to Soujiroh and Akira bickering in the background…Ah, these are the days!" But not even Rui could ignore the screams of the maids and constant apologies, doors being slammed and the resounding noise of footsteps approaching. In a few seconds, the Tsukasa Hurricane finally made his appearance in the room. The F4 leader had a murderous look in his eyes, his hair was dishivelled, the first buttons of his white shirt undone and the black tie hangging loosely around his neck. He stopped in front of the door when entering the room, inspecting it like a general with his troops and then finally spoke:

"She's dead meat! This time she's definitely dead meat!"

Knowing what's best for them, none of the F3 made any sudden movements, Akira and Soujiroh just quietly watching the Domyouji heir go to the bar and pour himself a drink, while Rui, without even looking up from his novel, asked: "What did she do this time?"

"Don't even ask me... three days I spent planning this trip to impress her with my grand romantic gestures and make her irremediably fall for me. And now she says she can't go! I offer her the trip of a lifetime to Europe and she decides to go to Nikko! Women! Who can understand them?"

"Don't even bother, you never will! That's why I don't try." A laid-back Soujiroh responded.

Akira, who couldn't retain his amusement anymore, burst in laughter and said: "Ha, ha, ha! Tsukushi stood you up!"

This seemed to infuriate Tsukasa even more then Tsukushi did, so he gave his friend a menacing look and yelled:

"Shut your trap Akira or I'll kill you too!" Tsukasa, annoyed, dropped himself on the couch.

"There, there, Tsukasa…" intervened Soujiroh, mockingly patting him on the shoulder "…she'll come back to you, she always does."

Feeling the need to stop the madness before it got too hard to handle and deciding that the F2 were doing anything but appeasing Tsukasa, Rui closed his book: "What's with the sudden trip to Nikko? What's so important up there?"

"How should I know?! Makino and Yuki decided to spend the summer there for some unknown reason. Something to do with Yuki's wedding…I wasn't really paying attention, I was too furious about the cancellation of our trip."

"Yuki getting married? I'm sure you got it wrong…she hasn't told me anything about it…" a confident Akira said while getting up and glaring at Tsukasa.

"No, no. That part I think I got it right…I was still listening to Tsukushi but then I got too pissed off to pay attention to her excuses."

"Aaahh…so that was whom she was with last night when we saw her…" You could practically see the light bulb turning on above Akira's head. "…remember, Soujiroh? That's why she was so nicely dressed. He probably proposed to her last night…" and after a slight pause, talking more to himself than to the others: "I can't believe she hasn't told me anything about this! Why wasn't I told?" This really surprised Akira. Not only had he and Yuki become close friends in the last years, but he was Mimasaka Akira, for God´s sake! He knew everything that happend with the F4 and their friends. What´s with all the secrecy all of a sudden?

By this time, all the other F4 members were staring a little oddly at their friend. Feeling all the gazes focused on him, Akira innocently asked: "What?"

"Returning to the matter at hand. A trip is not such a bad idea. If the girls are taking one, so should we. " Rui proposed, appearing not at all bothered by the news that Tsukasa had brought, like Yuki suddenly getting married without telling anyone anything about it was the most natural thing in the world.

While Akira and Rui were trying to convince Tsukasa that it would be a great idea to have a trip only the four of them instead of having a bachelor's party, Soujiroh was beginning to think that maybe he was the only one shocked by the sudden discovery. Tsukasa was too mad at Makino to think about anything else, Rui still hadn´t put down the book he had been reading, so it was safe to say that he wasn´t very interested in Yuki´s personal life and Akira, after that outburst about why he hand´t been informed about her plans, seemed to be quite happy with the news. Only he found himself thinking out loud: "This is ridiculous! We can't possibly be speaking about the same Yuki-chan! She couldn't have made up her mind in so little time. She couldn't have gotten over me so quickly! I'm Nishikado Soujiroh, she had a crush on me for years! And who's this guy? Why haven't we met him at all? We should have Akira's men find out everything about him."

In the meantime, the F3 decided that maybe they should hear what Soujiroh had to say about the traveling also. Not wanting to interrupt him, they waited for their friend to finish his dramatic monologue and his pacing around the room. After it was over, Tsukasa was the first one to speak:

"Oh my God! First Akira and now Soujiroh! It's spreading like a disease! Rui, let's run while we're still safe!" Pleased with the joke he pulled, Domyouji grinned at his friends, in a better disposition now that he had released his anger.

In the meanwhile, Soujiroh had managed to regain his cool composure and changed the subject before it could go any further: "About this trip…you were saying?"

"We haven't decided on the destination yet, baka…you surely haven't paid attention, have you?" teased Akira.

"Of course I have. And to make Tsukasa happy, let's go to Nikko as well…"

Those might have been the magic words to make Tsukasa completely forget his reason for beeing so mad just a few minutes ago and, before Soujiroh could finish his sentence, he perked up and said: "Excellent idea, Soujiroh! You've already said that your grandparents bought a new estate there…don't you guys want to see it? It's settled. We'll go there!" Tsukasa decided, hitting the table with his fists for emphasis.

None of the guys protested for the simple reason that to make Tsukasa change his mind once he had taken a decision was an impossible task.

After thinking for a while, Rui joined the conversation: "I also support this decision, but I don't think we should leave in the same day as the girls. We don't want to make it seem like we're stalking them after all. And besides, I would like to bring someone else too, if you don't mind." Now he put his book down and was looking at his friends, serious and grave, expecting an answer.

On hearing this, both Soujiroh and Akira smiled: "Ah…so he is finally going to introduce the mysterious girlfriend…" Not getting the idea, as usual, was Tsukasa, but he just smiled along.

xxx

Saturday morning, as promised, Takeshi passed by Kagura's house to take Yuki and her friend. Takeshi had stayed in Tokyo precisely in order to leave in the same day as Yuki, he wanted to make sure that she will come with him to Nikko, that Kagura will not try to pull one of her stunts.

The one that wasn't too happy about this was Kagura, who had hoped until this very moment, that Yuki would change her mind and cancel this absurd engagement. But it wasn't like that, Yuki was determined to accomplish her grandfather's wish, and thus, although it was early in the morning, both girls were already prepared for the trip, awake, dressed and with the luggages packed from the previous evening.

The chauffer took Yuki´s and Tsukushi's trunks to the car. Takeshi, knowing that now more then ever his former daughter in law would not enjoy his presence, remained in the car, patiently waiting for Yuki to take her proper good byes from her mother.

In the doorway of their house, Kagura embraced her daughter: "You take care! Remember that nobody can ever make you do something that you don't want to. If there's something or someone bothering you, call mom, okay?" Her voice was a little weepy and her hands trembled when she placed them on her daughter´s shoulders and looked straight into her eyes.

"Oh, mom, don't worry!" Yuki kissed and embraced her mother as well. "Summer will go by so fast; I'll be home in no time. You take care as well and please don't forget to have breakfast before your coffee…" she smiled at her mother. "I'll call you when we arrive."

Kagura released her daughter and embraced Tsukushi, whispering to her: "I leave Yuki in your care."

Tsukushi smiled conspiringly at Kagura and gave her a wink in assurance.

This situation was one of those in which not even a whole pack of cigarettes could make Kagura feel better. She still had troubles believing that all this was not a dream, even now, when she was standing in the alley in front of their house, still waving good bye at her daughter although the black car that took her away was not in sight anymore. In Kagura's mind this was all her fault. She had kept Yuki away for too long from the riches and benefits of being a member of the Takashimizu family, and now the poor girl couldn't help but be irremediably drawn to them. "Like a fly getting caught in a spider web." No, that's not it…She can't compare her daughter to a fly…Let's see…"Like a butterfly drawn to a flame." Yes, much better. Wait, weren't the moths the ones drawn to light bulbs? But moths were ugly butterflies. " Aah, that's no good either!" Even in her worst moments Kagura could not stop being a writer.

Like in a daze, she got in the house, lighted herself a cigarette and did the only thing left to do: call Shinichi.

To Shinichi's despair, he was forced to interrupt a dinner meeting with some possible future associates because of the damned phone which kept buzzing in his pocket. He took it and identified the number as his mother's. The young man inwardly sighed: miles away and he still couldn't escape his crazy family. He would have ignored it or turned off his phone in any normal circumstances. But this time he just decided to answer, maybe because the talk he had had the previous day with his little sister was still on his mind, she didn't seem her usual self. He excused himself and left the table. The moment he pushed the green button and took the phone to his ear, the crying voice of her mother was heard from the other end:

"Yuki…my Yuki, she…she…" he heard his mother's voice between sobs and cries.

"Mom, calm down! What are you saying?"

"Yuki…oh, Shinichi, you have to do something…" she kept babbling a bunch of words that did not make any sense.

By this time Shinichi's cold attitude had melted away, imagining the worst. His grip on the tiny mobile phone became so strong that the knuckles of his fingers turned white.

"Mom, you're scaring me. What's going on?"

"Your grandfather took her…he is forcing her to get married. Shinichi, please, do something! I won't have her married to some total stranger! Not my Yuki!"

Relieved that nothing had happened to his sister, he immediately regained his cool composure and asked his mother for more details. That was just what Kagura needed to start her very long narrative, telling all the story about Takeshi's "ridiculous dream" and complaining about Kazuo's "inability to do something for his daughter" and yada, yada, yada. Shinichi patiently waited for his mother to finish what she was saying, not paying attention to the whole of it, but spotting key words, such as his sister's name, the arranged marriage, the past between Takeshi and Shigure, Nikko, etc. And when he finally couldn't take it anymore, he stopped his mother by saying:

"Don't worry, I'll be in Japan in a week or so. I'll pay grandpa a visit and see what's all this for myself."

Kagura wanted to protest and quicken her son's trip to Nikko but, unlike Yuki, she couldn't influence Shinichi at all. He was too independent and estranged from her. So she complied and satisfied herself with just his promise.

As soon as the conversation ended, he immediately returned to the table.

"Sorry, gentlemen, family matters, you can't ignore them." Shinichi excused himself once again in a light, charming manner.

"The wife?" one of the others suit-and-tie men asked.

"Worse" joked Shinichi, "the mother".

After a round of polite and withheld laughs, the conversation did not take long to divert to their usual business talk, they weren't men to talk too much about family matters: it was neither the time nor the place. Despite that, his mother's words stayed with him the entire evening. Even now, alone in his office, he was thinking about the same thing. That was so like his mother: to over dramatize things and give him such a scare. For a moment he had thought he shouldn't have told her that he would go to Japan. Just so he could torment her a little, as a payback for the scare she gave him. The truth was Shinichi loved his parents, but he resented them as well. Kazuo for being a cold an insensitive father and Kagura for giving up on him too soon. Sometimes he felt the sting of envy towards his sister for being able to grow up with at least one of their parents. But that didn't stop him from loving Yuki the most. Ever since childhood, he felt the need to protect his little sister. He had kept in touch all these years. Even if their father hadn't visited regularly, Shinichi fulfilled Yuki's every wish just for her to know that in spite of their parents' divorce, they were still a family.

A knock on the door broke his chain of thoughts. The one that entered his office was Tiago, his assistant.

"Sir, here's the final report on the Café Preto merger. It is up to date. We have included ours and Preto's conditions of business. The papers will be ready in a couple of days."

"Excellent! So that means that by the end of the week we'll be able to sign the papers and get to business." replied Shinichi.

"Yes, sir."

Looking at the watch, Shinichi observed that it was already too late. He had kept his team over the schedule.

"Tiago, it is very late, we'll look over the report tomorrow. You are free. Good night!"

"Good night to you too, sir! Would you like me to call your chauffer?"

"Yes, Tiago, please do. I'll be leaving in an instant as well."

It seemed that he had lost track of time. He did not like to admit it, but the news had affected him. So much in fact, that he had lost concentration at work. He got up and took the report with him, which he read thoroughly on his way home. They had managed to impose on the Brazilian company and he was satisfied with the result of his and his team's hard work. The Café Preto merger was his triumph, it had been from the beginning his idea and his project. Kazuo did not agree with this, considering it too risky.

Shinichi closed the folder with a smirk; he would have loved to see his father's face right now. He too, like his father, was a fierce adversary in business; many saw him like a cold hearted bastard with an eye for deals. When it came to getting a contract he was merciless and did not care over whose corpse he stepped in the process. The important thing for him was always the contract, not the person who signed it.

But unlike his father, he knew the limit between private life and work. If there was one thing Shinichi despised the most that was to be compared to his father. He resented Kazuo for always putting work before his family, he hated to see his father always being away on business when he was a child, and he blamed his father's damned obsession with the company for the rupture of the family. His father never seemed to be able to balance these two worlds, he did not understand that besides the company there was his family as well. When Kagura left, Shinichi had been sent to a boarding school to be prepared as the next successor for one of the Japanese "empires" as Kazuo called his family business.

So he did the only thing he could do, study and hope that one day he would keep as far away from his crazy grandfather, obsessive father and somewhat instable mother. And he had succeeded. Now, at the age of twenty seven, he was a successful businessman, independent, confident, and as far away from his deranged family as possible. Because a womanizer grandfather, a workaholic father and an overly feminist mother were far from what you could call a normal family. The only one for whom he still had hopes was Yuki, who, probably, in her innocence, did not observe yet their family's abnormality. Although, now that he thought about it, being irremediably in love with some guy for almost five years couldn't exactly be considered a sign of normality either. And that was another aspect of the problem, she had been so infatuated with this man, who broke her heart without mercy over and over again (Shinichi had experienced first hand how depressed and melancholic his sister would be each time he disappointed her) that it could only be the desperation of him rejecting her affection the reason behind his sister's approval of this marriage. That or their grandfather was forcing her.

He didn't really care about the reasons. When faced with a problem, Shinichi's mind would skip the analysis of the motives that led to the creation of the problem, and jump directly to searching for methods to resolve it. This situation was no different. It did not matter to him if he had to put some sense into his obviously troubled sister or have an argument with his grandfather in order to stop this foolishness. He would just do it. By the time he got home his mind was made up: he would be the one to solve this, yet again.

The picture revealed to him after opening the door of his apartment was priceless. His girlfriend, Helen, was in the middle of the living room, with her back to him. In front of her there was a chevalier supporting her next masterpiece. She was looking at it with the tip of the paintbrush between her lips, covered in paint from head to toes (it was hard to say really which one bore more paint, her or the painting) and from time to time she would add some little detail to her work using her fingers.

"I didn't know the artistic process was such a messy business" he managed to say between laughter.

"It isn't, I'm special. Hello you!" she said before giving him a quick peck on the lips. And afterwards: "You're home late. Something happened at the office?"

"Yeah, I closed the deal with Café Preto."

"Really? Congratulations! Give me some time to bathe and dress and we'll go celebrate." But on seeing Shinichi sitting on the sofa, with his eyes closed and his index finger to his forehead, her enthusiasm disappeared, replaced by worry: "If you're too tired we'll celebrate at home. We'll cook something good."

"I'd rather we stayed at home. I'm tired, but it's not just that. There are too many things on my mind to enjoy myself tonight."

"What happened? What's wrong?" She was a little alarmed now and her voice conveyed all her worry.

"My mother called today. It seems that my little sister is forced, by internal or external reasons, into an arranged marriage. My grandfather asked her to fulfill a dream of his

and she accepted. And now she has to marry the Nishikado heir. Mom is desperate and doesn't know what to do, my father is not interfering as usual, and my grandfather doesn't think there is anything wrong with this idea. I'm going to Japan at the end of the week to end this madness. It seems that I am the only sane one of the family."

"Nishikado?...Hmm, I think I heard that name before." she said while busying herself with some vegetables in the kitchen.

"Of course you did. I think I mentioned to you a few times my grandfather's best friend, Nishikado Shigure."

"No, that's not it. I think it was Yuki the one that mentioned it to me. Wasn't it Nishikado the family name of the young man with whom she was in love with? Aaahhh…I don't remember the first name, what was it? S…Si…no, that's not it…So…

"Soujiroh, perhaps?"

"You know what? I think that was it, yes. Good thing you remembered or else it would have bugged me all night long." Helen said, smiling warmly at Shinichi.

"Helen, I haven't remembered. Soujiroh is also the name of one of Shigure's nephews."

"What are you saying? That Yuki is forced to marry the guy who broke her heart?"

"Not necessarily. As far as I know Shigure has two nephews, but the older one ran away from home, so…but no, it must be Soujiroh. The idea that his brother has miraculously reappeared and that now is forced to marry my sister is too farfetched."

"Do you think Yuki knows? Maybe that is why she agreed to it in the first place?"

"I don't know how much my grandfather told her, but surely she must realize that is not the way to make him love her, he'll only end up resenting her."

"I don't really like the fact that she is forced to marry anyone at all. An arranged marriage isn't a marriage at all. Look at my parents: they are like two strangers living in the same house. And I know you don't either. I think you should leave sooner. Don't worry about me…you've already missed her graduation .That will be the perfect excuse for your trip."

Shinichi frowned, he wasn't really keen on living. Helen had just come back from England, his schedule cleared up and this was supposed to be their time together. He glanced again at his girlfriend, but she just smiled at him and seemed sincere when she spoke again:

"A genius like you should have no problems in solving this quickly. Like this, you'll be back in no time and we can go on with our plans."

Tiago Gonçalves Dias was a man who treasured the little pleasures in life: such as, oh, let's say, SLEEPING. Thus, he did not appreciate the phone ringing at two in the morning. Tiago took the phone and prepared to swear at the poor bastard who had disrupted his sleep, when he heared his boss' voice coming from the other end of the line:

"Tiago, I know it's an inappropriate time, forgive my rudeness, but I wanted to ask you: is there any chance to speed up the final formalities for Café Preto? I have an urgent business to attend to in Japan."