About three years ago, Ren said "Goodbye." But before he walked out the door, certain events happened that have a bearing on what is happening currently thousands of miles away.

Kyoko stared at him searching for some sign that he was joking - what he was saying could not be real. He loved her, he would never leave her. This must be a dream. Everything became blurry as tears stung her eyes but she could make out his figure moving here and there. Packing presumably. He was now standing in front of their cupboard.

"Is there no cash in this house?" he said and flung a wallet away. It hit the wall and fell. Kyoko stared at it transfixed. Perhaps when she looked up, the dream would dissolve, she thought irrationally.

Ren kept packing, never once glancing in Kyoko's direction. Finally, he closed the suitcase with a bang and Kyoko jumped. Once again her attention focused on Ren. At this rate, it will be too late. She had to say something. But trying to put her thoughts into words only resulted made her lips quiver once again. With a sharp intake of breath, she swallowed her tears. If Ren heard the sound, he didn't show it. He dragged the suitcase off the bed and walked out of the door.

"Ren-" called Kyoko in a half-sob, half plea. But the door was already closing. And with the soft click when the lock caught, Kyoko blacked out.

When she finally came to, she had no idea how long she had been out. The sun's rays were slanting in so it must be approaching evening. Her body ached since she had fainted while in Bo's costume. Idly she wondered how long she could continue to sit there and space out. Could she do it forever maybe? Somehow she felt that if she made a slight movement reality would come crashing down on her. There was a faint buzzing somewhere.

Is that a bee? Kyoko wondered. How did the bee get in? Poor thing trapped inside and unable to go home. I have to rescue it.

And she got up with a start and found the source of the sound - it was Ren's phone. Yashiro was calling. If Kyoko had harbored any doubts as to the permanency of Ren's departure, the phone's presence in the house dispelled it. She answered.

"Kyoko-chan, is Ren around? I have been calling for a while now. He has missed two of his appointments today. It is not like him to be late or forgetful. Is he sick?"

"Yes," replied Kyoko.

"Really? As I thought. Is it the flu perhaps? Or something worse?"

"No."

"Kyoko-san, is something wrong? You are answering in monotonic monosyllables."

"Yes."

"KYOKO-SAN!" Yashiro said forcefully.

"He's gone."

"Who's gone?"

"Ren. He's gone."

"Where? Where has he gone?"

"Forever. He left me here. Alone."

Yashiro panicked hearing the sobs that came over the phone. He had already been driving to their house so he just stepped on the accelerator.

"Kyoko-chan. Don't worry, I am on my way. Everything will be alright."

Even as he said that he wondered if it will be. It was not like he hadn't noticed the coldness that had come over Ren. Over the past couple of months, Ren had spent more time with Yashiro than Kyoko and that was part of the problem. He had watched helplessly as Ren and Kyoko had drifted away from each other. Initially, he thought they were just processing their grief differently but as time went on- he saw it was intentional on Ren's part. He wondered what Kyoko had said or done to offend him. Now perhaps the inevitable had come to pass. What could he do?

Yashiro called President Takarada and gave him a summary of the situation. Leo had many questions in return. "How much money did he have?" "Did he take his passport?" "What about the car?" Yashiro did not know. Promising to call again once he reached their house, he hung up.

Reaching there he found Kyoko in exactly the state he had been afraid of finding her in. Tear streaks on her cheeks, eyes dingy, and hair disheveled. He didn't even wonder about the headless chicken costume she wore. He went straight to her and hugged her.

"Yashiro-san, Ren-. Ren, he-" she sobbed into his shoulder.

"Kyoko-chan. You have to be brave. We have to act now before it is too late. We will find him. Don't worry."

Gently he had lowered her onto the couch and called the president once more. Kyoko answered his questions as best as she could. Ren probably didn't have too much money. He didn't take his passport or the car. He had packed some clothes- Kyoko didn't know which ones. Yes, she could probably tell from what is missing but-.

Yashiro intervened, "Shachou, I believe I have a reasonable idea of Ren's clothes. I can check."

As he was checking, he called Kotonami Kanae. He needed someone to come and help with Kyoko and Yashiro was not confident he could. He had never seen Kyoko in a state she couldn't bounce back from. But this time, he wondered.

'Ren, wherever you are, please come back soon.' he thought.

Kyoko slumped down on the bed at the "Going Places Inn", staring at the ceiling. When they had returned from their first visit to Big Boy Burger, Shin had said he wanted to walk around a bit and see the town.

"Sekkaku, we came to America, I want to do some sight-seeing." he had said. Kyoko did not have the heart to tell him he was not going to see much. She also wanted to be alone for a bit. Lying on the bed, she wondered what had led Ren to come to a god-forsaken place like this. That he was trying to avoid his past was clear - but was it out of fear or rage or grief? After all these years, she had hoped that some of those feelings had dissipated. What had he felt that day when he left that seems to have sustained so long?

Even believing herself completely healed from Ren's blow when leaving, she had not revisited the events of that day. As she did so now, one detail struck her. Ren had not taken his passport! It was still inside the cupboard - tucked away in an inside compartment. How did he manage to travel from Japan to America then? Did he do so illegally? No, that would have been very tricky to manage and also easier to find out. He had also not had money - he had left his credit cards - again because they could be traced. She checked her watch. It was early morning in Japan. Perhaps the president would be awake?

She called and waited as the ring went on.

"Hello.," a completely non-groggy voice answered.

"So you met with him then?" the president asked after initial pleasantries.

"Yes," Kyoko replied.

"I am guessing from your tone that he was well and truly entrenched in his new personality and greeted you as a stranger and not with 'Kyoko, the love of my life. I am so glad you came. Let's go back and live happily ever after.'"

"Shachou, why in the world would Ren have a shojo way of speaking like that? Were you just playing one of your teen-girl-romance games?"

"You guessed right, Mogami-san. With your intuition perhaps you could come and help me out a bit? I really cannot get them to see what is in front of their faces."

That explained the non-groggy voice.

"As much as I have sympathy for your imaginary hero and heroine, I have a real-life romance game here that I am trying to beat the boss in."

There was an exaggerated sigh at the other end of the line. Lory put down his gaming control and switched the phone to his other hand and his serious voice came on.

"You have got your gaming terms mixed up. But fine."

"I want to understand how you found Ren and how did Ren come to be in America when he didn't take his passport with him."

"He did."

"No Shachou, he didn't. It is still in -"

"He took his other passport."

"Other passport?" An illegal one?

"The one where he added your name as a spouse in."

Kyoko was shocked, "I never knew that. How and when did he do that? And more importantly why?"

"Insurance. He got it done almost as soon as you got married. Your marriage was secret. If anything happened, he wanted to make sure there was incontrovertible proof. "

Clutching the phone, Kyoko staggered at the revelation. ' So many years ago, he was thinking and planning for every contingency. Wait a minute. That meant that when he had been 'angrily' packing and such, he had actually been thinking and planning. He had been in complete control of his senses. He had not left me in anger or rage or grief. It had been a deliberate choice. Which meant-'

"Does that pause mean you have worked it out now?" came Takarada on the phone.

"Yes. Thank you, Shachou. I will let you get back to the game."

"Mogami-san, do not despair. I am sure that Ren still has-"

"It's fine Shachou, I am fine. I think I understand now." said Kyoko and hung up.

Rain stares at the streaks left by the wipe as he cleans the counter. He wonders what has changed between yesterday and today. He is still Rain, the waiter at Big Boy Burger. He is still alone, still has no friends, no family. He still has the same job, the same routine. But why does it all feel more devoid of life than before? He had thought of his loneliness and despair as old friends - he had even believed himself resigned to a life of intimate familiarity with them. But what he feels now feels levels beyond what he had been used to. What has changed, he wonders.

Rain does not know and so tentatively, with great wariness, he allows Ren to peek through just a bit. And it hits him like a ton of bricks. He did lose something when Kyoko had walked out - the fantasy, the hope that perhaps one day he could have gone back. Ren had thought that he had lost everything. But one doesn't realize the value of something till one loses it and Ren hadn't realized he had had the choice to go back to Kyoko till he had lost that choice. She had used everything that he had ever felt good about against him - his pride in acting, his ability to manipulate through acting, his supreme self-control, and even his love for her. She had condensed all of that to deal him a blow like no other. He had been wrong. She had not come to try to get him to return, she had come for vengeance. Kyoko could hold a grudge like no other person he knew, he had never thought he could be her target.

Ren had pretended he didn't love her anymore. And so he had denied himself the knowledge that could have saved him - his understanding of her nature. She had told him that if he ever tried to manipulate her again, he would regret it. He had dismissed it as an idle threat, even forgetting it. But now he regretted it. He had underestimated her and was reaping the rewards.

"Rain!" comes the voice from behind him in a tone that implies tiresome repetition.

"Yes, Lizzie?" Rain pulls himself together and focuses.

"Why are you spacing out like that? I was saying, are we still on for tonight?"

"Tonight?" Rain's mind blanks.

"Thanksgiving dinner, at my place. Katie will be there too. Don't tell me you forgot after begging me to set you up with her."

"Yes. Right. Katie. Tonight. Dinner."

Katie was Lizzie's younger sister. Rain wonders if he should still go through the charade of a 'girlfriend'. He had set it up before Kyoko walked out of his life. He doesn't think she would ever return and catch him out in his lie. But he doesn't want to disappoint another woman in his life. Might as well go.