Aki and her parents promptly frowned as soon as I said that. I kept smiling, sitting between my parents.

"Can you elaborate?" Aki's father asked.

"Sure," I replied, taking a moment to formulate my words. "I started a widget repairing business as soon as I turned sixteen."

"You did?" Aki said.

"Obviously, I know nothing about technology. I convinced a classmate to start the business with me, she was a genius. People came to repair stuff like their glasses or antique computers. We quickly became popular in the neighborhood. However, even though she was incredibly fast at repairing stuff, we got to a point where we couldn't keep up with the requests."

I paused to take a deep breath. Dad placed his hand on my shoulder and mildly shook me.

"So, I made the decision to hire two more people and buy equipment to speed up the repair process. My colleague was against the idea, but I did it anyway and used almost all the money we had. The requests remained steady for a while before dropping. There were no more people in the neighborhood who needed to have something repaired. By the time I realized we needed some kind of marketing, it already was too late. The business only survived for a couple more months. However, that wasn't the worst part."

My hand always tightened into a fist every time I remembered.

"The worst part is that you ruined both your and your colleague's curricula," Aki's father continued.

"Darling," Aki's mother frowned.

"Yes, that was the worst part," I nervously laughed. "We did all the paperwork and she disappeared. I haven't heard anything about her since. I just hope she's doing fine."

The mood had become somewhat heavy, so Dad tried to lighten it up with another question.

"Let's change the topic," he smiled. "Aki, Kaito, have you talked about marriage and having kids?"

Both Aki and I stared at each other in shock. It was the first time I had heard her nervous laugh.

"No, Dad, we haven't," I quavered. "We've only been together for two months."

"And? You two should be on the same page," Aki's mother said. "You probably already have—"

"Mom," Aki glared at her mother.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry, Mr. Miyahara, we will discuss it sooner than later," Aki smiled.

"That's what I like to hear," Mom smiled.

Our food finally arrived and we started eating. As we had expected, it was far from being the best, but it was worth the price.

Several minutes passed with little chatter in between. It was nice seeing our parents getting along. However, I still wanted to ask Aki's parents something. I gathered up the courage to do so.

"Mr. Akane, Mrs. Akane, are you worried about Aki being famous?"

Mr. Akane looked at me. "Of course, we are. The world has seen many stars rise and fall. More often than not, their fall is miserable. I don't want my Princess to end up like that."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure that won't happen," I replied.

Aki's eyes widened before she smirked. Meanwhile, Mr. Akane didn't seem to be that pleased.

"I hope you do," he said and ate another spoonful of his food.

"But you have always worried a lot about her, haven't you? Too much," I added.

Mr. Akane glared at me and opened his mouth to respond, but Mrs. Akane talked first.

"We must admit we have."

Mr. Akane stared down at the table as she spoke.

"It's just very hard for us to let our Princess go, but that's how it should be. She's become so defensive that, even when we tried to meddle, she would make it impossible for us to. And that's a good thing."

Her smile had become weak, while Mr. Akane's frown had vanished. It was impossible for me to understand just how painful it was for them to accept that her daughter was growing up. Something similar had happened to my parents with all of their children and I still couldn't understand. I'll probably only understand when I have my own kids.

"Enough of that," Mom smiled. "As parents, we're all worried about the future of our babies, but the only thing we can do is trust in them from now on."

"That's true," Mrs. Akane replied. "Let's talk about something happy while we eat."

We had almost finished, so it didn't take too long for us to leave the restaurant. Aki and I accompanied our parents to the nearby monorail station to send them off. Then we headed to my apartment to spend the night and relax as much as we could before the coming shows took place.

Two of the three shows were only one day apart, while the third one was two days later. It was going to be a challenge for everyone but perfect to test our limits.

The day of the first show arrived. Just like the previous time, we rented two vans and headed to the café, the same café I had been to a couple of times and whose manager I had asked to let us perform in it.

The vans parked in front of the back entrance and we got out. The same manager I had met before was already waiting for us, along with another man.

"It's a pleasure to meet you again, kid," he smiled at me. "And it's a pleasure to meet all of you as well."

The entirety of GIMA bowed with him.

"Let's not waste any time," he continued. "Please follow my assistant, he'll guide you to a private room so that you can get ready."

"Girls, Aya, you can go," I said. "We'll catch up with you once we're done unloading everything."

"Yes," the girls replied. Aya and the rest stepped away to follow the assistant into the building.

"Sir, can you show us where we can move our equipment to?"

"Are you going to do it by yourselves?" he wondered.

I nodded. "We need to make some sacrifices until we grow enough."

"That's true. My employees can lend you a hand if you need them."

"That would be great."

"And I'm sorry for being disrespectful by calling you kid. I should call you Mr. Miyahara from now on."

"Don't worry, I didn't get offended," I laughed nervously. "But sure, you can call me that."

He smiled. "Alright, follow me. You probably want to see the place first before you do anything."

He walked into the building and we followed him. I recognized the narrow hallways from the time I had come to speak to him. We walked out into the café. Since I had been to it a couple of times already, it was unexpectedly shocking to see the café empty for us to be able to perform.

The shutters of the front windows were pulled down to give us privacy, making the room a little darker than what I was used to.

We stood in the middle of the empty café.

"Do you know how many people are in line outside?" I asked the manager.

"See it for yourself."

A hologram projected out of his invisible glasses into the floor. It displayed a live feed of the security cameras outside. There were dozens of people and the line couldn't even fit in the cameras' field of view.

"I don't think everyone's going to fit inside," I said.

"No, they definitely won't."

"And the entrance is free, right?"

"That was our agreement."

A shiver went down my spine. The size of the place was very similar to Kiku's café, but this was unknown territory.

"Alright, we have three hours before the doors open," I said. "Let's start unloading everything."

Butcher, Miki, Satō, and I headed back outside to start unloading the equipment from the vans, with the help of two of the café's employees. Instead of moving all of the boxes twice, we learned from our mistakes and moved everything into the café in one go.

Everything else was the same. In two hours, we set up the platform, the audio, the lighting, the cameras, and the corridor for the girls to be able to walk to the platform.

During the last hour, I prepared the live stream so that I only needed to press a button to start. Then we relaxed as much as we could until it was time.

The doors opened. We could hear the steps and chatter of the people coming inside all the way from the room we were in. It was always nerve-wracking, but it was also exciting.

I started the live stream and, before we realized it, it was time for Miki to head out to start controlling the lighting and play the orchestral track as people waited. The crowd cheered as soon as the music began, making all of us smile.

Five minutes later, it was time for the girls to go out. I guided them through the dark corridor towards the platform and the show finally began.