After hanging up on Akari Honne, Alan felt a brief wash of relief. At least he had managed to stay calm and hadn’t impulsively agreed to let her come to Tokyo.

Part of it was exactly what he had told her. Showing up in Tokyo alone was dangerous, and if anything went wrong, the responsibility would fall squarely on him, something he had neither the right nor the desire to shoulder.

The other part was simpler. He had cooled down completely.

Since he had already chosen to break up with Hojo, then he needed to see it through.

He who hesitates is lost.

Keeping his distance from Honne was no different from cutting off Hojo herself. The last thing he needed was a messy, on-again, off-again entanglement.

Seeing Hojo again today had reminded him of an uncomfortable truth, his heart was not the fortress he liked to believe it was. A few words had been enough to make him waver. A few more meetings, and the consequences would be impossible to control.

And beyond that, it wouldn’t be fair to Nozomi Sakura.

Even if she didn’t truly like him yet, even if their relationship was more performance than reality, if people discovered he still had ties to Akari Hojo, it would only hurt her.

Nozomi cared deeply about appearances. As her "boyfriend," he had an obligation to protect them.

Alan steadied himself, returned to his desk, and reviewed the step-by-step career plan he had drafted for Nozomi. After checking it one last time, he closed the folder and prepared to sleep.

Ding.

His phone lit up.

Alan glanced over and saw a message from Nozomi Sakura.

Her ID was followed by [3 unread].

Only then did he remember, she had messaged him earlier, before he’d called Honne. He’d been too distracted to respond.

He picked up the phone to reply, but the moment he opened the chat, his expression froze.

"Alan, are you free this Saturday afternoon? Everyone wants to meet you..."

Photo.

"Alan, is this you?"

The image was grainy, clearly taken with a low-resolution phone camera, but the content was unmistakable.

Even without seeing it before, the scene felt painfully familiar.

There he was, standing with Akari Hojo.

Hojo was holding an umbrella, facing him beneath its shade.

Alan’s brow furrowed. This was going to be trouble.

Not because he couldn’t explain it to Nozomi, but because if tabloids caught wind that Akari Hojo’s "boyfriend" had appeared at his school, the paparazzi would swarm.

He never should have agreed to meet her.

At the very least, he shouldn’t have chosen somewhere as conspicuous as the school gate.

After a brief pause, Alan typed back.

"It’s me."

"Oh..."

Nozomi replied almost instantly.

Just a single word. Alan couldn’t tell what emotion lay behind it.

"That’s Akari Hojo?"

"Yes."

"So Akari Hojo really was your girlfriend?"

"I didn’t lie to you."

"..."

Beside an apartment building, Nozomi Sakura sat on the edge of a planter beneath a streetlamp.

She stared at Alan’s replies, her finely shaped brows knitting together as a dull ache spread through her chest.

The emotions tangled inside her were too complicated to name.

Disbelief?

A sense of inferiority?

Or the righteous anger of a girlfriend discovering her boyfriend still entangled with his ex?

The last one didn’t seem entirely fair, yet it still left a bitter taste in her mouth.

For a moment, she even forgot to exercise her "rights" as his girlfriend and demand an explanation.

***

Two hours earlier.

Akane Mia had convinced her that the best way to judge Alan was to understand his past. And to do that, she needed to find people who had known him before.

Two million yen was no small sum. On top of that, he gave her a monthly allowance, bought her bags and jewelry, and even paid for a full makeover, yet never once tried to take advantage of her.

Nozomi was certain Alan was hiding something.

His talk of turning her into a star thrilled her, but what if he was leading her into some shady contract?

Using the excuse my friends heard I have a boyfriend and want to meet you seemed like the smartest way to probe him.

She felt a twinge of guilt, but if he truly was a good person, she would make it up to him later.

After spending the past two days together, she had come to believe Alan was different from any man she’d known before.

Ordinary-looking, yet strangely easy on the eyes.

When he spoke, a quiet charisma settled people’s nerves.

If things continued like this, actually being his girlfriend wouldn’t be so bad. She would take the role seriously.

That evening, she arranged the dinner in advance, fully prepared to introduce him to her friends.