A day after they returned back to Tokyo from their coaching sessions in Nagoya, Ryu got a call from Ai-chan. She needed to meet him, and she needed to meet him right now.

With a lump of discomfort in his stomach he took the train and subway to Shibuya. Ai-chan had taken a liking to wait by the statue of Hachiko.

When he arrived she sat behind the bronze dog. Her eyes were lined with red, as if she had been crying and tried to mask it with make-up.

“What's up,” Ryu asked.

“Not here,” she answered. “Let's go somewhere where we can be alone.” For once she didn't glare at the other girls giving him evaluating glances.

He nodded and took her hand. For a short moment it felt like she was about to take hers back, but then she lodged her fingers around his. They crossed the great intersection and made their way into the smaller streets on the other side.

“So?” Ryu wanted to know when the crowd had petered out into nothing.

“I'm so angry,” she began. “Dad listened to some stupid rumours, and he said you're bad for me.”

So it was like that after all. “And now you want to break up?”

“No! I don't want to at all. I like you. But I'll have to keep it a secret.”

Ryu shook his head. “Sorry, no can do. I'm never ashamed of those I like. I won't agree to hide that you're my girl.”

“But...”

He felt he grip on his hand tighten. Ryu squeezed back. He really did like Ai-chan. More than like. In a way he guessed he loved her. “Sorry,” he said. “We're either together and face whatever problems we run into, or we're not together at all.” He was his father's son, and his mother's. They'd think less of him if he huddled in the shadows.

“I… I can't. Dad scares me.”

“Look, Ai-chan, I really like you. I won't force you to make a choice, but I'll never hide that you're my girlfriend. I'm proud of you and honoured you wanted me by your side instead of some other boy.”

They reached the H&M shop Kuri referred to as her first clash with reality since she arrived in Japan. Ryu led them down the street to avoid the people around them. A bit further away the street dug under train tracks, and the noise should block out any unwanted listeners.

“I'm so sorry. I love you, but I don't dare having a fight with my dad. Let's break up.”

Ryu bowed and stole a last hug and kiss. “I have to respect that. I want you to know I'm not doing this happily, but let's break up.”

Ai-chan's lips turned down, and it looked like she was going to cry. “Just once more!” she said and pulled him to her. She tasted of salt.

“Friends?” he whispered into her ear when they hugged after the kiss.

“Friends, always,” she said.

He left her there, under the bridge. His chest hurt, and he didn't dare to turn and look after her. If she still stood there waiting for him he wouldn't have it in him to continue walking.

Now that's a shitty way to spend spring break, he thought when he had come far enough up the street to know he wouldn't be able to see the bridge even if he turned around. For that reason he did just that. Just to see if she had followed him. She hadn't.

He felt a pang of regret, but even though he respected secrets, there were still a kind of them he refused to acknowledge. He wouldn't lie about his girlfriend.

Ryu was about to turn back into the small maze of streets that led back to the station when he ran into Kuri. She smirked and stared down the street he had come from.

“I saw that, you know,” she said.

“Saw what?” He hadn't seen her following them.

“I saw her waiting for you with that look in her face.”

Damn! Is it that impossible to hide anything from you? “So?”

“Make up or break up?”

“Let's have a coffee,” Ryu suggested. He could as well get something out of a day that had already gone down the drain anyway.

They found a table at a rather expensive book café that should have overlooked the intersection but for the lack of windows. Expensive or not, it was well within acceptable range for his wallet. Ryu knew he had it easy when it came to money, and even more so with Urufu's ludicrously well paid stunts. He guessed Kuri made even more given her rising fame.

“So, interrogation time?” Ryu said after his coke arrived together with what tried to be a full lunch.

Kuri started digging in on her own food. She just nodded with her mouth full.

Ryu watched her with some admiration. You're perfectly aware of how beautiful you are, but sometimes you're just so sloppy. Then, as he gave her a second look, he noticed that some of that beauty looked stale. Like someone had made a life-sized statue that moved like Kuri. You're still hurting. Have you given up as well?

“Well,” he continued and tried to pretend he hadn't noticed her lifeless eyes. “What do you want to know?”

“Make up or break up?” Kuri said again.

Ryu sighed. “Break up.”

“Poor boy.”

When did you get that sarcastic? “Maybe I am. Neither of us wanted to.”

With a face turned to stone Kuri met his eyes. “Then you know where I stand. I'm sorry for you, but it's also an opportunity.”

What the hell? “Look, if you're going to behave like a piss ant I'm leaving.”

“Sorry, I apologise.”

“OK.”

“I have a problem, and a suggestion.”

Ryu had a feeling he wouldn't like what was coming. He put down his fork on his plate. “I'm listening.”

“The people at Vogue are trying to pair me up with some kind of idol. I'm less than impressed. Would you like to date me?”

***

It was a desperate plan, but she was trapped if she didn't do anything. No way in hell she'd let the pigs decide who had access to her body next. So Christina found herself with a problem she couldn't solve.

Until she saw Ryu with his girlfriend. She looked like she had cried her heart up, and for a moment Christina boiled with anger at whatever Ryu had done to the poor girl. Ai-chan was too lovable to hurt like that.

In the end Christina decided to spy on the pair.

She never got close enough to hear anything, but from what she saw they tried to resolve some kind of crisis. She smiled when she saw their embrace, but a spike of pain shot through her immediately after. Should have been me and Ulf. Ulf, where are you?

Then, to her huge surprise Ryu left Ai-chan and walked back. Christina saw the girl staring after him with an expression of longing and abandonment in her face. Then she broke down in tears and vanished under the bridge.

What the hell just happened? Ryu, you bastard! I'll wring you dry. But his face combined with his words told her another story when they sat over a table with overpriced food. It was at that moment her plan came to her.

“Would you like to date me?”

The two of them hurting for someone they still loved. It would make it all so much easier to explain.

“What?”

Well, after he wiped that dumbfounded grin off his face.

“I said, would you want to be my boyfriend?”

“What the hell? OK, I'm off.” He grabbed his jacket and left the table.

Christina calmly collected her own and followed him. Her plan was harebrained enough it might just work. She caught up with him just as he entered the elevator.

“Let me explain,” she said on the way down. “It's not what it sounds like. Well, it is, but still not.”

He didn't try to run away from her, so she made him company to the station. Ryu walked a few steps ahead of her, but she could still imagine his stony face. An honest boy. That was the part of him Christina liked most. He made a good friend to both Yukio and Ulf.

Again, thinking of Ulf bled a razor of pain through her. He would always hurt in her mind.

“Ryu,” she said as they swiped their wallets over the receptor at the turn stile. “I'll always love Ulf.”

That had him stop temporarily.

“Make no mistakes about that. Ulf is the only man I could love fully.”

Ryu slowed down enough to make her come up by his side.

“My employer thinks I'm some kind of property they can have and sell as they wish. Now they're trying to force a boyfriend on me.”

For the first time since she dropped the bomb Ryu's face softened a little. “I'm listening.”

“I refuse. If I can show I already have a boyfriend from what the arseholes here consider a good family I'll be off the hook.”

“So pretend boyfriend?”

And here was the catch. “No, boyfriend. We may not be in love with each other, but I'll only do this for real. If it doesn't work out, or if it's too weird, we'll break up. OK?”

She didn't want Ryu to learn how to behave like a player. If he just pretended to be her boyfriend he'd start having girls on the side, and even if Christina wouldn't feel betrayed, she still didn't want him to get used enough to that kind of life to hurt the girls who entered his life after her.

“So you want me to be your real boyfriend when you're still in love with Urufu and I'm in love with Ai-chan?”

Christina nodded. “Yes.”

Then he surprised her. “Let me think about it.”

“Please do, but not longer than before school starts, OK?”

Ryu nodded. “I promise.”

She watched him take his train. There would be another in a few minutes, and she had to respect him enough to give him some time on his own after her absurd suggestion.

From some distance away her bodyguard, the one who had worked with her for over half a year by now, came up to her. “I couldn't help but hear. Are you sure about this?”

Since she slowly crawled up from the hell hole that was leaving Ulf behind they had begun talking. Not much, but some.

“No,” she said. “I'm not. But if I can't have the man I love, at least I can have control over my own life.”

“Yes miss. I understand.” He had the look of a worried father on his face. Maybe he was one for all she knew. “Please be careful,” he added.

Yeah, you probably are. I wish you a good life. In this life she had decided to treat those who worked with her like people and not like human resources.

“I'm going home. Ready for that bike of yours?”

He smiled. “I'm ready. Just don't leave me behind.”

They took the next train and left at the station where both bikes stood locked to a stand. For once she kept her speed safe and sane. Ulf's birthday gift to her. Whenever she had a chance she rode that bike.

At a red-light she dug into her pocket and picked up her latest gift. Her ring. I can't wear you for much longer. At least not if Ryu agrees. She put it on her finger. Pretend wife. For a few days she'd be a pretend wife.