A/N: Okay, in this chapter, I might forgetting a thing or two, so… You guys are free to correct anything goes weird in the story. Also, it's not beta-ed yet, so mind the grammar and sentence structure errors here and there. *bows*

"Stay"

"There is no way to love, love is the way." -Anonymous

Chapter 14: A Well-known Secret!

The man can't manage to say anything while keep his head hung down low. He was deep in thought about something but it didn't last long. Once the two arrived in front of the doctor's room, Mr. Akiyama stopped all in a sudden. "Does she have any parents or relative?" He asked with those curious eyes.

"It doesn't have anything to do with you, whether she has relatives or not."

"It does."

"What are you-?"

"I want to adopt her."

• End of Flashback •

"He asked me to talk inside his office, and then he explained to me pretty much what he knows about you, ever since he's been taking care of you. He said you were saved by miracle; you're supposed to be dead, but you, miraculously, came back to live. They said you're technically dead already, but that man won't give up and keep you alive with those medical tools. Your life depends on it, but you made it and positively back to your conscious after your long sleep in a coma for months."

He raised his head to see the girl who already took a seat right across the desk. She lowered her head and closed her eyes tightly. She had no idea who to blame, she had no idea how she supposed to react to this; she had no idea about who she is. Akiyama Haruka is actually the man who adopted her just because she's similar to the daughter, Akiyama Mio, physically. "Why...? Why didn't you tell me sooner...?"

"I can't... He doesn't allow me to tell you a thing about it, as long as I want you to stay as my daughter. In addition, it will pretty much damage your brain cells and I can't let that happen to you. I'm sorry..."

A sigh escaped the girl's lips after she took a deep breath to calm herself down. "You know, you shouldn't say sorry to me. In fact, I should say thanks to you instead. You adopted me, even loved me like I'm your daughter. I know, Mio and I are only has the same physical look, only our eyes are different, I should be grateful. I've figured it out, since I can't remember any events in the past with you or even Minoru-san, you were right, it didn't feel that surprising."

Silence came upon the two of them. The black-haired girl knew that he hasn't finished the story yet. "About the accident you asked me the other day... I think it's the part of your memories. Kaeda told me that you were a survivor from a motorcycle accident, unfortunately, there's no ID Card. You're a patient without name until I adopted you and gave you my daughter's name."

"Is there really nothing could possibly tell me who I really am?"

"I'm still doing research... This far... there's not much information about you. I suggest, you asked Kaeda about this. He made an appointment with you this evening, didn't he?"

She was about to reply when a cell phone ring tone got it ahead of her. The name that appeared on her cell phone screen was exactly the name of the one she planned to meet with, before she attends the appointment with Dr. Kaeda. "...Rizuki..." She muttered.

"Your new bodyguard?"

"No, I told you the other day, this guy is my private doctor. Kaeda-san recommended him to look after me and I think he knew something, so I guess I will talk to him first." She slowly put back her cell phone and stood up from the chair. Sighing and put a smile on her face; the smile full of appreciation. "I will take my leave now... Haru-"

"You can still call me 'Father'"

Nodded in agreement, she flashed one last smile before turning around towards the door.

"Is she arrived yet?" The brunette asked, but didn't even bother to turn her head aside from the documents she's reading.

"No, Sir."

A sigh of her impatient escaped her lips, "Alright, thanks, Sebastian." She yawned as big as she could and stretched her body. There are about two or three hundred documents she needed to check and decide each one of them. Thankfully, the documents could wait, there's just one more thing worried her. "Does she even receive my email and text message? The hell she rejected my call for the fourth times now!"

Knock, knock, knock!

"What now?" She muttered desperately under her breath. "Come in!"

And the door swung opened, revealing a guy in black suit. "It's time for your medicine, Tainaka-san."

"I'll take it later." She simply replied.

"I'm sorry, but this is the order I received. You must take the medicine according to the schedule."

"And I said later! What's the difference of taking it a few more minutes later?"

"There are three differences, Tainaka-san. I can write it down for you for future reference, if you want to." Before the brunette could reply back, her cell phone vibrated inside her pocket.

"Put it on the table." She ordered casually as she realized she got a text message from her fiancée.

From: Mio | "Have you eat your medicine, Ritsu?"

"I need to make sure you eat the medicine now."

She groaned in annoyance, "Fine, whatever, just bring it over here." Ritsu took a quite deep breath before gulping her medicines. Those are in pills form, which are the ones she hates the most. "Yuck~"

"Very well, I'll be outside now." Ritsu didn't give a care about the guy as he stepped outside the room. She grabbed her cell phone again and made a quick reply to Mio's text message.

To: Mio | "Of course! I've eaten all of them already! "

After a few moments and Ritsu thought Mio wouldn't reply her message again, she heard a cell phone ringing, instead of vibrating. Her phone playing that one different tone, which is the one she choose only for Mio's contact. She flipped it open and greets the other line first. "Yellooow?"

"Oh, Ritsu. You're really taken the medicines, aren't you?"

"Hey, what's up with that? Told you that I already did~"

"Knowing you, it's quite hard to just... plainly believe. Anyways, are you going back to your apartment this afternoon? I mean, the schedule said you need to take a rest at least-"

"Mio, I know. I've read the whole schedule, okay? Well, will you be there?"

"Uhm... I still have classes to attend. I might finish it all in the evening, which means I can't go back yet. But you still have to go back and take a rest, Ritsu."

Ritsu sighed, "Alright, I'll go back and take a rest for an hour."

"Ritsu, the schedule says two hours."

"One and a half."

"Ritsu."

"Okay! Two hours! Sheeze ~"

Beep! Beep! The small alarm rang twice. Two beeps means there's someone she's waiting or looking for is arrived and waiting outside the door. She let out a little groan and clicked the green button afterwards.

"Come in." She said and back to the phone call. "Ne, Mio, I gotta hang up now."

"Why are you so in a rush?"

"My partner just came and she's an hour late."

"Oh, alright, I don't want to disturb you."

"Yeah, I'll call you later, kay?"

"Okay." Ritsu's partner put the documents on the desk and Ritsu waste no time to look it up. Somehow, she knew Mio haven't hung up the phone. She knew Mio still have something to say. "Ne, Ritsu..."

"Hm?"

"Make sure you get rest, okay?"

"Yeah, sure. Don't worry."

"And uhm... I..."

"You what?"

"I... I love you." Ritsu stunned, stopped checking on the documents and raised her eyebrow in amusement. It was really a rare thing someone as shy as Mio would ever say.

The brunette's lips formed a little smile. "Oh, Mio... I love you too. Have a good lunch! Bye~" And she fastly ended the call.

"Aww~ you two are so lovey-dovey, you know." The so-called partner admitted it easily with a smirk on her lips and an eyebrow rose. "But I have to admit that I kind of felt odd when you call her "Mio" though ~"

"Don't distract the topic." The tone Ritsu used is along with the glare. It was quite threatening and did made her flinched a bit. "An HOUR? Rejected all my calls? Seriously, what the hell are you doing? Okay, I admit I ever rejected your call, ONCE and that was even in the middle of the night while I'm having an important conversation!"

"I was..." Her voice faded out slowly, but after a second, she's back to her conscious and gave her apologetic smile. "Sorry, I got overslept."

Ritsu raised an eyebrow at her confession. She thought that this is the silliest excuse she ever heard, not to mention that is also the lamest one. Knowing her, it's quite impossible if she rejects calls and come late just because she got overslept. "Don't be silly, if I'm the one who said that, people could easily believe in me. But you? Everyone knows you're Akiyama Haruka's daughter; it's not that easy to fool people with that stupid-lame excuse."

The girl went silent for a moment, and then sighed in defeat as she thought it wouldn't be that bad if her partner knew about this. Besides, Ritsu's fiancé might have something to do with it. "It's-"

"Shut it." Ritsu cut her easily. "We'll go to my apartment now."

"Huh?" She replied almost instinctively. "F- For what?"

"Talking about the project, remember?"

"But I thought we'll talk here or at least in a cafe."

"Change of plan, my Mio wants me to go back and take a rest. I can't waste my time, so we'll talk at my apartment instead." She stood up from the big chair and head to the door, but before she could grab the door knob, she turned back around at her partner. "C'mon!"

"Oh, right..."

The two walked out of the room together along with two guys with black suit behind them. This made the black-haired girl confuse as she thought there's another guy following them. Ritsu-san only has one bodyguard, right? Or is she manages to get a new one?' She curiously thought. Once they're out from the elevator, she decided to ask.

Shrug, shrug, shrug. Ritsu's companion tries to get her attention by rubbing her arm against Ritsu's arm. She got her attention after the third times. "You realized there are two guys behind us, right? Or is it just me?"

"Yeah, I decided to get a new one today."

"Exactly for what?"

Ritsu thought about it for a few seconds. She could just say, just in case, but that would be too suspicious. Then something popped on her mind, she stopped her partner when she was about to get inside the car. "C'mere" The brunette gets a closer distance to her partner's ear and started to whispers to her.

It wasn't that long until Ritsu pulled away and the other girl smiling quite happily as she asked, "Really?" She was replied by a nod and a grin, which only make her laughs a bit. "Never thought you'd be that paranoid."

"Mio-senpai!"

She quickly turned around by instinct to see the source of the familiar voice. "Oh, Azusa, why are you here? I thought you're back already. Yui took you here this morning, didn't she?"

A sigh escaped the polite yet famous kouhai. "Yeah, but Yui just called me and said she wouldn't be able to pick me up... So yeah..."

"Then I guess we're both going to take the bus." Even though the pig-tailed girl heard it clearly, she's somehow confused. The taller girl noticed that look, "Is there something wrong, Azusa?"

"Eh? No, there's nothing wrong, but uhm... I just thought Ritsu-senpai ordered someone to pick you up. Yeah, it sounded like something Ritsu-senpai would definitely do."

"She did, but I said she doesn't need to do that anymore. You know how I hate too much attention and having Ritsu order someone to pick me up is dragging quite lots of attentions. I decided to take bus; it's not that horrible, actually." Mio's explanation doesn't seem to reassure the younger girl enough as she still has that eyebrow raised.

Finally, a sigh escaped Azusa's lips. "I know, but that's not exactly the case I'm talking about here."

"What do you mean?"

"Give me your hand." Mio held one of her hand to Azusa, the pig-tailed girl groaned instead. "Not this one, the other one, Mio-senpai."

Mio started to get as confuse as Azusa when she watched the younger girl held her hand up and observing it. "Azusa, what are you doing?" Mio asked out of her curiosity.

"Where is it?"

"Where is what?"

"Sheeze, Mio-senpai, I was talking about the ring! Your engagement ring, where is it? Aren't you supposed to wear it everywhere you go, like, all the time?" The pig-tailed girl sighed in a bit of desperation. "Now I doubt that you really engaged to Ritsu-senpai. She must've pushed you to do this, I mean; you're not even wearing-"

"Azusa." Mio cut her with her calm yet gentle voice. She smiled at Azusa and patted her on the shoulder. "I really did engage to Ritsu and she didn't push me to do it. I agreed to her proposal, Azusa."

Seeing the older girl's face, Azusa lowered her head in an apology manner. "Gomenasai, Mio-senpai. I don't even know why I would be that suspicious towards Ritsu-senpai." There's a little pause before Azusa continue. "So why won't you wear your ring? You left it?"

"I left it on purpose."

"Why? I mean, we all knew-"

"No, there are only her close friends who knew about our engagement, even her parents doesn't know a thing." Mio sighed before she continue, "You know her. She's a very popular young businessman in many people's eyes, I don't want it turns out to be another rumor that Tainaka Ritsu has secretly engaged to a mysterious girl." She rolled her eyes and shivers a bit as she recalls the moment when rumor says Ritsu is not single anymore.

Recalling the same moment, Azusa nodding her head. "Ah, yes, that time. Well, you guys can't hide forever, especially to Ritsu-senpai's parents."

"I know... Thanks for your concern, Azusa." Mio turned her head to the shorter girl and smiled, "Ritsu and me realized that sooner or later, her parents must know the truth. We're just hoping... that if Ritsu tell them now, it'll be less risky."

"Good thinking." The pig-tailed girl returned the same smile at the older girl. "You know, just tell us everything if things go... you know..."

Mio knew what she meant and so she nodded. "Yes and thank you so much for that."

12.45 PM | Ritsu's Apartment

"Okay! Last one! YES OR NO?"

With a fake thinking manner, she took her time to think hard. "Umm..."

The other girl grew quite impatient on the other side. "C'mon ~ We've been through this twice! This won't take that hard to choose. Besides, if you don't hurry, I will have to decide them myself and go straight to take my short nap." The last line made the black-haired girl frowns.

"Nap? As in five-minute-rest?"

"Nah ~ This time it's a nap as in sleep for two hours. So hurry, I still have works waiting to be finish after a nap."

With a simple finger, she pointed at one of the choices Ritsu gave and choose the one on the left. "So..." The amber-eyed girl responded a simple 'hn?' by instinct, a signal for the other girl to continue. "I guess everything goes well, hm?" Ritsu simply nodded. "Have you...told this to your parents?" Ritsu stopped and looking at her with a serious look.

"This is only between us two, okay?" Mio nodded approvingly. "I've told my dad and by the power of our deal, he has no choice but to agree and accept Mio. About mom... I planned on telling her tonight."

"She'd say yes, believe me."

"You never even met her before."

"Wanna have a bet?" Ritsu raised an eyebrow in amusement. "So? Bet now or chicken out?"

"Bet. How much?"

"We're intelligences. We don't use money to bet." Ritsu frowns, but her mind was thinking that this must be really exciting, since she's using a different method of "betting". "We'll exchange information we both knew or the one who lose must do whatever the winner says."

"What do you want?"

"Let's take it like this, I'll offer you an information about her if you win the bet. In return, you'll have to announce your engagement with her in public, if I win the bet." Ritsu fell silent. If she say "yes" to this bet, it's the same as risking her job and her relationship with Mio. On the other side, she was curious to know what Mio knows about her fiancee. "Ritsu-san? Honestly, it's okay if you don't want to take the bet. Sorry I went too far-"

"No." Ritsu cut out the words. "I mean... What do you know about her?"

This time, it's the other way around. Mio fell silent and lowered her head, trying to avoid the brunette's eyes. "I-It's nothing... I was just saying it out of the blue. J-Just forget what I said..."

She tries to get this topic away... Ritsu sighed in defeat and rest her back on the couch, her eyes focused on the ceiling as she say, "You see, the first time I met Mio...was by accident."

"...Ritsu-san, why are you telling me this?"

"You seem like someone that I can trust. Besides, my dad said that you're my childhood friend, although honestly I barely even remember how my past memories were. I can trust you, right, Mio?" The brunette's stare softened slowly and earned a simple nod from her partner in business. "I saved her and since then... Somehow, I can't let go of her."

The dark-haired girl smiles at the change of her partner's image. It's so clear that Ritsu-san and Mio-san are meant to be together. She stood up and Ritsu's eyes followed her movement with a frown. "I see, you know this is for the first time that I've seen you like this, Ritsu-san. I can feel it, your love for her and how true your love is. I wish you and Mio-san's happiness."

"T-Thanks..." Her face heated up and turned into pinkish color. "Umm... You're going now? I mean, I know I should take my nap, but you can stay if you want."

She shook her head as she smiles at Ritsu. "Thank you for your hospitality, Ritsu-san. But I better leave now, besides I still have an important appointment after this." Mio let her feet leading its way to the door and she turned around before she leaves. "Oh right, Ritsu-san, may I suggest you something?"

Ritsu raised her eyebrow, "Spill."

"Maybe you should start calling me with some other nickname. It feels awkward when your Mio and I standing next to each other."

"Sure, I'll figure out."

"And one last thing, please?"

"Go on~"

"Give me two invitations to your engagement and wedding ceremony, okay?" The last suggest made Ritsu chuckled as she replied the other girl with a simple nod. "I'll report to your dad that you're taking a-"

"No, dad doesn't know anything; just tell him that we're still working on our project."

"Alright, as you wish. Thanks again, Ritsu-san."

At a cafe, somewhere in Japan.

"Wow, first was Tainaka Ritsu-san and now I get to have a face-to-face meeting with Kotobuki Tsumugi Ojou-sama." He offered his hand for a handshake, which was accepted happily by the blonde. "It's really such a honor to meet you, Tsumugi Ojou-sama."

"No need for such polite and complicated name. You look pretty young, so you're free to call me Mugi or Tsumugi." With her motherly smile, she formed a smile with her lips. "It's a pleasure yo meet you, um... Isshi Rizuki Minamoto, correct?"

He gave her a nod, at the very moment; he knew that he was right when he felt that someone was following him. She hired those guys to get all my information. Isshi started to feel that there's no lie he could say about his disguise as a Private Doctor. "I see… you've known me way before we met."

Only with a smile, she started to talk. "I know you're still hiding something that I can never find out, unless you tell me yourself. Don't worry, I love secret and am good at keeping it." The blonde smiled at him. The guy could figure out what this girl wants to know from him. "So, tell me what you know about Akiyama Mio, Ricchan's partner in business." Yup, he knew that will come up.

"I'm sorry, Ko- I mean, Mugi-san. Information about her is still a secret that I can't tell to anyone...yet."

"She's adopted by the Akiyama family because of her physical look. She suffers amnesia, a kind that causes complete lost memory. She was assumed, to ever suffered amnesia before and it got even worst after the aircraft, it made her lost all her memories, which the aircraft that also happened to Akiyama family on June, 30. There's still something missing in the review about her and somehow... I know you're the perfect someone that I can trust to tell me about her, way before the aircraft."

"..."

"...Look, I apologize if this is a personal thing. It's free for you to tell me or not, I just want to make sure that if she's really not Akiyama Mio."

"Why? What if she's not the real Akiyama Mio?"

"You know a friend of yours, Mio, right? Ricchan's fiancée. I've been doing a research and I assume that our Mio could possibly be the real Akiyama's daughter."

"Then what's next? You're going to dump the fake Akiyama Mio?"

The blonde giggles, but the guy frown more and took her giggle as an insult. "Look, Minamoto-san, don't you see my point of asking you about her past? Dumping her is not something that will solve the problem. I'm here to actually help her by asking her past. I can't do more research about her; her last record was all after the aircraft."

"..." He fell silent. "...I don't know, I'm really sorry Mugi-san, but I'm not sure. I mean, it could be-"

"I understand, it's okay, Minamoto-san." She stood up from her chair with her smile. "Listen, I know what you mean by that. So in the mean time, I'll let you off and do what you do. I believe that soon enough, you'll find your answer." Without any farewell, she's turning around while saying, "Besides, if it's true, then it's a fate, isn't it?"

Isshi could only chuckle at Mugi. She's really a mind-reader, isn't she?

A/N: Okay, so how long I've been away? Okay, my fault, I apologize. I've been busy with stuff since I got in an organization and it's near the end of the year, so no wonder if I got a super busy schedule. Thank you for all the PMs you guys sent to me and all the encouragement words, it helps me. Thank you, too, for those who's still reading this story until now and been so patient on waiting.

iDutchman