Slowly, Akio opened his eyes. He looked at his surroundings silently, until he turned his head on his right. On it, there was a side table, but his ochre eyes were locked at the photo of a woman with long dark hair with dark blue eyes.

He remembered the woman whom he loved ever since he was a boy; his first and best friend of all the friends he had.

He cannot believe that she was gone.

Slowly, tears began to form in the corner of his eyes. He felt that a part of him was taken away. No, he felt that all of his being was taken away. He had always regretted that he had done nothing to save her; he constantly blamed himself of her death.

By then, tears began to flow as he uttered her name.

"...Reika..."

-0-

"What should we do know, Yukina?" asked Hideki

"About what?"

"About Akio, what else?"

"Hideki, you know his circumstances are... just let him be..."

"But it's been a year already! And he's still can't move on? This is not like him, Yukina."

"Hideki! Can't you be more considerate? You're his friend, after all, and you should try to understand him. He has lost everything, Reika, his family... and you know how hard it is to move on in a situation like that."

"But-"

Their conversation was broken as Akio merged from his room. He was dressed and prepared to go somewhere. Then, Hideki said in a much calmer voice, "You're going for a visit?"

Akio looked at him and nodded.

"You should eat first before you go. Come, join us, Akio." Yukina invited.

'Thank you kindly, but I have brought some food." Akio said in reply.

"When will you be back?" Yukina asked.

"By evening, I guess." Then, after a pause. "I must be going now."

"Take care of yourself."

As he left, Hideki continued with their conversation, "Well, he looks better."

"What do you mean, better? He still looks very sad to me" said Yukina.

Hideki answered, "Have you forgotten how he was on his first days here? For three days, he would not eat any, for months, barely even talked to us. Most of the time, we found him just staring into space. But then, just one day, he suddenly went out without us knowing, and he didn't return for one night. And where did we find him? Sleeping near Reika's grave! For heaven's sake, what should I do then, Yukina?"

"Well, you're the one who welcomed him in our house, though I never complained, but now, why are you complaining?" she asked her husband.

"No, I'm not... it's just that I worry too much about him. It's painful to see him like that, knowing how much he helped me before... what should I do, Yukina?"

Yukina just smiled at her husband and said, "Well, maybe he does look better..."

-0-

Akio continued to walk along the street until he had finally reached his destination. The place, from the inside out, was filled with numerous flowers of different kind. It was the flower shop he frequently visited these past months. As he opened the door, he was greeted warmly by the shopkeeper, "Well, if it isn't Akio. You're always welcome here... say, what some tea?"

"Uhh... no thank you, I actually want to..."

"Ah, yes. The usual?"

"Yes, thank you."

After then, the shopkeeper got him a beautifully arranged bouquet of red and white roses and lilies, along with some bluebells.

As Akio paid for the bouquet, the shopkeeper asked, "May I ask a little favour?" Seeing that Akio agreed, he continued, "Can you accompany Tanaka-san to her store? I mean, I figure that you're going there and the store is just along your direction and..."

"Of course, I'll be glad to accompany her" Akio said.

"Thank you, Maeda-san." Then, the shopkeeper called the young girl with long, curly brown hair with similarly brown eyes, who, as Akio only noticed just now, was browsing in the display of variety of flower arrangements. "Tanaka-san, Maeda-san will accompany you."

Then, he turned again to Akio and thanked him again before he and the young girl left the shop.

-0-

"So, you're Akio Maeda. The shopkeeper always tells me about you."

Akio could only smile.

"I'm Rie Tanaka, nice to meet you!" chirped Rie.

As they continued to walk, Akio asked Rie, "You say your name is Rie Tanaka, right? Are you related to Ryuuji Tanaka?"

Rie answered, "If you meant the old man living alone with a field of bluebells and wheat field few miles from here, well, yes, he's my grandfather. Why did you ask? Have you met him? Is he alright?"

"Well... there's something I would like to tell you."

-0-

Akio and Rie stopped along their way in the park and were seated in a bench when Akio told her his whole story. It was near nearly an hour when he ended his tale.

"So that's what happened... no wonder I have not receive anything from him..."said Rie, with her face still full of surprise.

"I'm sorry, he asked us to do it, and now, I ended up telling my life story..."

"No, it's okay. Grandpa would never allow giving the farm away to someone outside the family, so, thanks for granting his wish. Besides, your story is quite interesting, though, not that your wife, Reika died. Anyways, what does she look like?" asked Rie.

Instead of an answer, Akio reached for his pocket and handed Rie a golden round thing like a big pocket watch almost the size of a clenched fist. Rie opened it and she found a miniature painting of Akio seated in a couch. The picture showed him holding the hand of the lady seated beside him, who has a long dark hair with a matching pair of big, dark blue eyes; the two of them seated side-by-side, and both of them smiling.

'A locket?' thought Rie, but instead, she said, "Your wife is very beautiful."

"Indeed" said Akio, "she's very kind, and caring, and my best friend, and whom I could entrust my heart."

Rie continued to stare admiringly at the painting, as Akio said, "It is yours to keep, if you like."

"No, wait, it is..."

"Yes, it's for her, actually, but I lost my chance of giving it to her. Now, give it to you, as a gift for listening to my story, and I feel like I could entrust this to you." Akio said.

"Thanks..." smiled Rie.

Akio, then stood up and said, "We should be going, now."

Rie, on the other hand, said, "I'm actually going somewhere else before I head back to my shop. You should go ahead. Thanks for accompanying me."

They parted and separated their ways. Akio was now headed to his destination.

-0-

Beyond the graves in the cemetery, Akio had walked further away until he reached a tree a half a kilometre away from the cemetery itself. Underneath the shade of the tree lay a single tombstone, which was engraved "In memory of Reika Maeda". Akio sat down beside it and said, addressed to the one who was underneath, "I'm sorry for the wait, Reika."

Akio placed the bouquet of flowers near the tombstone and brought out his food and said, "Today, I met one of Tanaka-san's relatives, his granddaughter. Too bad we haven't met her together."

He sat down beside the tombstone after he unpacked the food and ate it, it was as if there's a picnic ongoing. He then said, "You know, I don't know what to say, or how to say it, but happy wedding anniversary, although I don't know if 'happy' is appropriate. It's been a year after our marriage, right? I never thought time passes fast... but still, it's quite hard to move on. Without you, Reika, I... don't know what I should do... if only I could have save you... if I'm given another chance to be with you again, I will never fail to protect you, to show how much I love and cherish you... I miss you... Reika..."

_END_

Well! Second to the last chapter! YAY! Finally... I hope I can finish next week or so... and that I don't know how to end this chapter... so, there... happy reading!