Jitsu -A different story-

The scream from before had obviously come from Shizune once she heard her mother's comments, it was quite clear to her that she had returned to those days where both Kyoko and Rena teased her with their pranks, maybe she wouldn't mind much, but she was a little embarrassed since Kurono was there… Although her embarrassment wouldn't last long when she heard what he said a moment later.

"I think my case is similar, Kyoko-san. If I was a bit older, I wouldn't hesitate to ask you out sometime." Kurono had wanted to join in the fun a bit, so she was just getting carried away.

"Oh, don't say such things Kurono-san. I think I'll end up blushing, hehe." The small laugh that came out of Kyoko was quite nice to hear, Kurono was also laughing a little but had to stop abruptly as it didn't take long before he felt like a cold gaze was on him, which actually belonged to Shizune.

Kyoko had seen how Kurono began to apologize to Shizune while she just turned her back on him and ruthlessly ignored him. Some memories that only Kyoko understood came to her mind when she saw the two of them, Rena was also enjoying that scene, but all that only lasted for a little while before Kyoko caught everyone's attention again.

"By the way, didn't Akio-kun come with you?" Now that the situation had calmed down enough, Kyoko asked that question as she found it strange that she hadn't seen Akio yet.

"Eh... I thought he kept running after me, maybe he was distracted by something." It was the first thing Shizune said once she remembered Akio.

"Hmm… Maybe he met Grandpa on the way." Rena quickly made her guess, and it had actually been accepted by all the women in the Yotsuba family.

"In any case, we'd better get into the house, I'm sure there are a lot of things we need to catch up on, plus I was just about to make something to eat, but it looks like I'm going to need some help." It didn't take long before both Rena and Shizune offered to do it, mainly because that was quite common for them when they still lived together, and because those very words had whetted everyone's appetite.

…

Kyoko had walked towards the interior of the place until she climbed onto the wooden floor that was in contact with the outside, both Rena, Shizune, and Kurono followed her until one of the main doors of the house did not take long to appear.

Kyoko had opened the sliding door at the same time that she invited everyone to come in, Rena had no qualms about doing it and she didn't think too much about it before excitedly entering the old home that she remembered perfectly.

As it was something quite common, they took off their shoes to change them for a few slippers to be able to go inside, Kurono was the only one who was lost since it was his first time there, Shizune had told him to leave the luggage at the entrance for now, so he was simply following the cheerful women in front of him.

"The main room is at the end of the hall, Kurono-san. Maybe you want to relax a bit while we take care of the rest." Kyoko said that realizing that Kurono was the new guest in the house.

Shizune also told Kurono that it would be best if he waited while she prepared something delicious to eat, she also mentioned that Akio might show up sooner or later, and, having no other choice, besides that he couldn't think of any way to help if had already so many people in the kitchen, just he nodded at those suggestions.

Kurono said goodbye to them one last time before starting to walk down the corridor, some decorations caught his attention as well as the peculiar interior design, he could even say that it looked somewhat elegant, but he had to leave all that for later since there were crossed the entrance that went to the room that Kyoko had mentioned.

Kurono believed that everything was going well, he had met Shizune's mother, and, from what he saw, she was not against his relationship with Shizune, but he also knew that she was not the only person he should meet that day.

His sight had been flooded once again by the characteristic designs of the place, but this time he could perfectly identify that he was in a kind of living room, the windows were open letting the sun's rays enter the room as well as a little of the fresh atmosphere outside, one of the doors was also open revealing the garden on the other side of it.

There was a long table quite close to the ground while around it there were some small cushions that surely served as a seat for anyone, maybe Kurono would have used one of these to relax a bit and enjoy the calm environment, but there was something more important that he had to3 do at that time.

Focusing on the room again, he had also noticed that pair of figures that seemed to be sharing a pleasant chat while a few cups of what could be perceived as tea were being sipped by them.

One of those figures was quite clear to Kurono since it was actually Akio, while the other was also a man, but one he had never seen in his life. He was thinking if he should get closer, but Akio's voice sounded earlier inviting him to exactly that.

"Welcome, Kurosawa-san. Have a seat please, would you like something to drink?" Akio had gotten up quickly once he saw Kurono and was taking a somewhat helpful attitude even though he didn't have to act that way.

Kurono had tried to calm him down, all this time he had tried to make Akio a little more casual with him since they actually saw each other almost every day, but it seemed that Akio could never forget the fact that Kurono was his boss, so this kind of interaction between them wasn't very strange either.

In the end, Kurono agreed to take a seat near Akio, a characteristic silence was present since the third person was now staring at Kurono while he was doing something similar.

Kurono was noticing the features of that man, maybe it was because they were sitting, but he felt that he might even be a little taller than him, his white hair with some dark tones clearly showed the passing of the years on him, but his sharp gaze in addition to his body that seemed to be in perfect physical shape, he began to assume several things.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Kurosawa Kurono." Kurono did not take long to introduce himself so that this silence would not continue to exist, Akio expected exactly this and did not want to interrupt, in addition to the fact that the deep voice of that man had not taken long to come out of him in response to Kurono's words.

"My name is Yotsuba Ryo... I've been wanting to meet you for a while..."