As the artist and the female busied themselves with engaging in casual conversation, a third figure entered the kitchen. During her time of perplexity, (Y/n) barely sensed the presence up until the moment the person threw their entire weight by the female's side. "(Y/n)! My darling angel, how are you this fine afternoon?!" Ryo sharply mimicked the poshest accent possible as the girl rolled her eyes in amusement.

"I'm quite jaunty, thank you." Despite the lacking attempt of articulate annunciation, (Y/n) played along to indulge the male. The blond brightly perked at the female's playful demeanour and rested his head beside her own.

"Aww, I can see Bako getting jealous there. You don't mind if I steal my angel's attention away for one second, do you?" The cobalt male who had been sending the opposing boy deathly glares up until that point caught himself and attempted to neutralise the situation by setting his sights on a different area of the room. "Haha, slick moves man. Anyway, I'll be going to my room, so if anyone wants to join me, you may do so~" The blond fixated his intended offer into a gaze towards the girl, as he slowly retreated with a virtuous smile. "Anyone at all~" he yelped towards the girl, making her inwardly chuckle. "Aaaanyoonee at all~" he whined out as he progressively neared the doorway. "Just an offer." He chirped out before his strained head disappeared out of view.

"I guess I-"

"Offer still stands!" The boy shouted down the stairs, interrupting the girl's speech.

The female prepared to take another sip from her tea after shaking her head at the younger boy's antics. "...As I was saying: I guess I'm obligated to take up that offer-"

"No you're not." Bako sternly told the girl before she had a chance to fully utter her statement. (Y/n) fixated her blank stare towards him, making the boy nervously tap his heel against the leg of the chair. "Sorry (Y/n)...I just don't like it when you spend time with the others..." He shamefully looked away as he realised how needlessly envious the reasoning was.

"Well, right now we're in the same house so it's not like I have much choice..." She bitterly stated and finished the last of her sweet tea. "I'll go check on him. See you later." She stood up from the table and proceeded to place the empty mug in the sink before leaving the area without giving the boy second regard.

After a long while following the female's departure, the male maintained his spiteful glare towards the doorway, as though cursing the girl's disappearance. "Ow! S**t!" He felt an inflamed burning sensation against his palm, forcing him to wince away from the pain. As he retracted his hand, he noticed the large crack he had caused from his relentlessly firm grip on the cup. From the large chink, leaked out the contents of the hot tea, forcing the male to sigh and retrieve a towel to wipe the mess down. 'I don't know how much I'll endure at this rate...I'll completely lose it if she continues sharing out her time with the others.'

(Y/n) knocked on the room of the blond and awaited a permitting call. After receiving a pass from the inside, she entered the abode to notice the boy rummaging through his drawers. "Oh (Y/n). I didn't expect to see you." He faultlessly stated, causing the girl to roll her eyes once more.

"Are you looking for something?" She noticed the male giving a disappointed glare towards the vain efforts he put into searching through his drawers.

"Yeah, but I guess it's lost forever, sigh." He gasped out the last word, as though sarcastically entering a state of thwart, before grinning positively. "It's alright though, I got spares. So what can I help you with my angel?" He turned towards the awaiting female and expectantly watched her for a reply.

"I just wanted to check on how you're doing. I just had this unnatural urge, you know." She playfully reminded the chuckling blond. "Almost like a certain someone dropping hints from somewhere."

Ryo laughed for a split second before grinning at her cluelessly. "Well, whoever that 'someone' was, I owe them my thanks. Come here, I want to show you something I found!" He excitedly waved towards the girl and beckoned for her attendance.

As the female closed the proximity, and walked over to crouch down to where the boy was looking at an object in his hands. "Is that you?" (Y/n) the girl gazed at the photo of a refulgent, small child that had an unkempt appearance. She inwardly chuckled at the buoyant boy, recognising the male's trademark grin.

"Yep. Look at this little balloon head~" He chirped at his past image as he held up the photo in a proud display.

"You were a very cute kid." (Y/n) admitted the evident charm the child held in the photo as it seemed to radiate through the picture.

"Does that mean I'm not cute now?" Ryo whined at the girl in a pouting manner, and eagerly awaited her contradiction.

"Yes." She blandly stated with an undertone of bantering sarcasm, making the boy hold onto his chest in an exaggerated, pained demeanour.

"That hurt very much angel. I'm going to need a kiss to make it feel better~" He switched back to his glowing grin and pounced towards the girl in an attempt to take advantage of the moment.

"Maybe next time." The female shot up from her position, moments before the boy smacked his ambushing body and face against the floor. She calmly walked around the male's figure, towards the drawer he had taken the image out of.

Ryo silently bawled at the rejection as he rubbed his injured cheek. "You're so cruel angel, it was just an innocent question." He whined out and proceeded to sulk from her denial.

"Are these you too?" She ignored the boy's moping comments and scanned through the number of other pictures that consisted of the male.

"Mmhm." He confirmingly hummed out and scootched towards the girl's side. "This is me at the beach. This is me at my cousin's wedding. This is me in the garden. This is me eating mud. This me dressing as a chicken. This is me dressing as Cinderella. Oh! This is me entering the 'danger zone' in a landfill site. Hahaha, you wouldn't believe how scared my butler got after realising what was happening." While the boy laughed at the memory, (Y/n) felt little surprise at the expectant antics that the male put himself through in his early childhood.

As she curiously rummaged through the drawer right to the very back, her fingers brushed against a texture much different to the smooth surface of a picture. As Ryo distracted himself with a walk down memory lane, (Y/n) emerged from the depths of the clothes cabinet with a fine, white envelope, tied with red string. "What's this?" She turned towards the male with an inquiring gaze.

As the boy turned his cheerful eyes towards the item in hand, the bright light seemed to drain itself from his orbs and face, as his features slouched in regretful recollection as an emotion he had confined into the untouchable places in his mind began seeping out. "That's umm...that's..." He stumbled for the correct wording and description of the item but found himself speechless as unfamiliar, lamenting senses passed through to his lurched heart.

The girl kept switching her gaze between the envelope and the boy, realising the deeper connection to the thing hidden inside. "Can I open it?" She hesitantly asked the male.

"Well, I...I mean it's not a problem...it's just, I mean-I mean, it's uuhh...it's not like..." As he searched for the answer to the question, he himself seemed to ask that query in a distracted state. After giving a loud sigh of frustration, he nodded his head, untrusting of his mouth to reciprocate for him.

The girl reluctantly held the piece of red ribbon and slowly pulled the strand, loosening the binding of the envelope and the boundaries inside the boy's psyche. As the string fluttered down to the ground, the girl opened up the cover to take out a picture that was separate to the ones she had previously seen.

The image was of a young lady that seemed to have a distant gaze towards a preoccupation that was out of the range of the camera. The woman seemed unaware that a photo was being taken of her, and held a benign gaze, away from the photographer. She donned very fair and wavy, linen hair that cascaded around her like a waterfall of gentle, golden silk: and soft, caramel eyes that were filled with a delicacy and tenderness that appeared unnatural for an average person.

(Y/n) was mesmerised for that slight moment as her own eyes seemed to thoughtfully gloss over the woman in the image, before turning her attention back to reality. "She's so beautiful...wait, is this your-?" As the girl turned back to regard the boy, she felt her heart sink at the sight of the male's distressed and tearful optics. His wide irises fixated on the image she held and his body began to unconsciously shake as he felt a flood of emotion drowning him in his own guilt and shame. "R-Ryo!" (Y/n) set the photo down and came to the blond's side to shake him out of his catatonic state. "Ryo, get a grip!" The boy jolted at the command and glanced towards the girl, as though just noticing her presence.

"S-sorry, (Y/n)...I got a bit carried away..." He shook his head, and avoided making eye contact with the picture laying on the floor. Ryo stood up to move away from the scene and sat down near his television as a sorrowful attempt of diversion.

The girl carefully watched the boy for a few seconds before also joining him at the floor. "Was that your mother...?" The male nodded without looking at the female, and forced his attention to the TV. "...Sorry if it brought back bad memories." The boy strained a smile onto his features and glanced towards the girl with an artificial elatedness.

"It's ok angel, it was a long time ago. I've gotten over it by now." However, (Y/n) could tell by the pained gazes and potency of his forged smiles that the boy was only telling half of the truth.

"So this used to be hers..." She glanced down at the necklace that was still secure around her neck, and noticed the male's hands reaching out to hold the locket.

"Yeah...my father gave it to her on their wedding night...he always said that it was a sign of his love reaching all the way to the heavens..." He gave a small, genuine smile at the reminder of the meaning behind the accessory. "...Haha, I remember, my dad used to always call her his 'Cupid' because of how quickly she had stolen his heart. Mum would always get embarrassed when he called her that, but she secretly liked it...I remember her always smiling this shy, but happy smile whenever he would refer to her by her nickname..."

The boy reminisced over the times that reached further back and saw a ray of light that slipped through the dark cracks. "I can see she was a good woman." (Y/n) supportively grinned at the comforted boy as he gazed at the jewellery.

"She was a great woman...my dad loved her so much. I loved her so, so much. Everybody loved her, and she just had a way of making people smile...most of all though, she loved so much...I remember, when I was little, I would think that my mum was actually a cupid and that my dad was actually calling her by what she was...she was so kind and loving..." As the memories depicting the warmth of the woman manifested around the boy, he experienced a relieving sense of nostalgia. "It was like she could do no wrong...she was the perfect woman, and my dad always told me how lucky he felt to have been the one to marry her...and I was lucky to have her as my mother." As he unlatched is hand from the hanging ornament, he retracted back with a blank look. "She was incredibly generous, honest, kind and selfless...on top of being beautiful, she was so modest with herself...such a cheerful and happy person..." He slipped into a state of deep contemplation as he flicked through the pages of his remembrance to her image.

"I'm really happy to hear she was close to you." The boy nodded his head in glad agreement.

"Me and her were inseparable. She would always play with me, make a fool out of herself so I can laugh and was never embarrassed to show how much she cherished me...yeah, she was a great mother." The boy rested his head against the girl's shoulder and enveloped himself in an invisible blanket of thoughtfulness.

"How...how did she pass away?" Ryo remained silent for the longest time, to the point where (Y/n) thought he hadn't heard her, until he fidgeted in his place and heaved out a deep, quivering sigh.

"She...-I...-" His words began to twist into one another as he attempted to spit out his answer. "...It was somewhere in January...everything was covered in snow and it looked so pretty...everything looked like it was covered in a layer of a giant, fluffy cloud...I remember, I was so exited to go out and play in the garden...our butler was still off on his holiday so my mum promised me that she'll take me out to play." As the frosty land became vivid in his mind like a preserved memory, every blink seemed to bring him closer to the place of winter. "I was so exited...me and her went into the garden and while I was too dazed from looking at how beautiful everything was, she threw a snowball at me. Haha, we began to launch towards each other and I think she purposefully made it easy for me..."

As his radiant aura began to shine through, a much murkier ambience started to emerge through the cracks of the atmosphere.

"Around an hour after that, she started to get very tired...she looked almost as white as the landscape and at that moment I though she looked so pretty..." Ryo felt a wave of disgust and shame at the unequivocal thought that now seemed iniquitous to even be considered. "She went to sit down on one of the benches and-and looked so exhausted, even though she seemed so energetic at the start...but I just continued playing."

The girl slightly winced at the iron grip the boy unintentionally performed on her arm, and felt the blood circulation stopping as the male looked for support from the hold.

"She kept asking me if I wanted to go in, or if it was time to go back home but I just kept saying 'a little longer'...I just kept playing without a single care...I just kept dismissing my mum's requests and kept playing..." As the boy's grip began severely tightening around the girl's limb, he felt his muscles pulsating and shaking. "She kept asking me every five minutes if I wanted to go back and every time I would say 'not yet', 'not yet'...I was having too much fun and...

I didn't pay attention to how hard it was getting for her to breath...I didn't realise how tired she looked...I was in the middle of building a snowman when I heard something behind me." As he recalled the crunching of the soft snow that sounded from the back of him, he remembered the confused state he entered as he turned to deduce the situation. "My mother...she-she had fallen on the ground...she...-she was trying so hard to get up but...I remember running over to her a-and asking what was wr-wrong."

(Y/n) watched the boy's brimming tears dissolving into her shirt as he tried to hide his face into her shoulder. The girl felt her empathy forcing her hand to gently hold his arm as his grip on her's tightened.

"A-all she said was 'it's alright, go back and play', before-before-" There was a soft sniff from the male as he laboured on holding back the course caught of suffocating endurance. "Sh-she just sunk to the ground...sh-she wasn't moving a-and I couldn't hear her breathing...sh-she looked so pale a-a-and...I kept shaking her, I kept begging for her to wake up...I told her that it was time to go, th-that I wanted to go back inside with her, but she...three of-of the maid saw us and one picked me up to take me back in...I-I didn't want to...I-I didn't want to leave my mum, I wanted to be with my mum but..."

The male made little attempt in suppressing the pent up sorrow that escaped through his eyes in sliding beads across his face, as his entire body began quivering.

"There were ambulances but I wasn't allowed to come out of my room...I-I had to stay and wonder what happened to my mum...

My mother got sick...very sick...she had to stay in the hospital where they had to keep surveillance of her and I was not allowed to visit...I couldn't, in case I got infected too...all I could do is watch her behind some stupid glass wall while she was- while she was..."

As his words lost themselves is his head, he felt his entire body relaxing to allow the flow of tears to fall freely.

"I could-I could only watch as she got worse and worse...we-we used to talk through the phone but-but she was always too weak s-so I did most of the talking...every time I would ask her if she was getting better she told me that she would be out of the hospital soon...I would get so happy to hear that but-but she was actually getting worse each day...they didn't know how to help her, she-she was getting weaker and weaker and..." Ryo quietly sobbed against the girl, making a futile labour at hiding his moment of vulnerability as he spoke to the girl. "I wish...I wish I could hold her, I-I wish I could hug her...mommy said that my hugs always made her feel better but..."

The male regained subconscious flashes of the delicate woman fighting for her last breath in a solitary room where only one ending was certain.

"Sh-she told me th-that when she got better...we-we would play outside again...that-that we would build snow forts a-and drink hot chocolate and sh-she'll teach me how to slide down our driveway...but-" He coughed out a cry as his eyes obstructed with the pained loss that could only result in chokes of agonising torture. "She-she got worse, she became more sick a-and I couldn't do anything to help her...I could only watch her dying."

Ryo felt himself gripping onto the female like a last hope to contain his sanity, and squeezed her tight, afraid she would disappear from his arms at the moment of his breaking. The girl allowed him to cling to her like a comfort blanket until she felt him settling down slightly, after the figure of a pale, fragile and hollow person began fading from his consciousness.

"After sh-she was gone everything felt so blank and grey...every food I ate lost its taste, every sound I heard lost its melody, everything I looked at lost its colour...I continued to wonder if I was even alive...If-if I could join her if I felt so dead...my father, he was taking it horribly..." The girl sensed the boy shaking against her and digging his fingers into her shoulder and arm in an attempt to cling onto the last piece of reality left for him. "H-he began drinking...so much. He was constantly depressed, always holding onto his alcohol to drown everything out...whenever he got completely intoxicated h-he would shout at me...tell me it was all my fault...that it's because of me that my mum got sick...th-that if I had listened to her and come back inside, sh-she-she would still be alive."

His voice squeaked and cracked as each word seemed to invade deeper into his heart, and each recollection attacked his mind like stabs in the back.

"It's my fault...it's all my fault-I...-I killed her." He sniffled out his regret as the girl finally snapped out of her analytical state of sympathy to give him a scolding look.

"Ryo don't say that. What happened was not your fault, I can assure you." However, the boy shook his head in denial to her comforting statement.

"I-if I had just listened to her...if I-I had just gone home when she asked...I was so selfish, so-so she...-" The male pulled away from the girl as the flow of tears were at an unstoppable point of their cycle. "I killed her, I killed my mother..." He wrapped his arms around himself to artificially solace his slipping self-control. "I made her die...I killed my mommy, I murdered my mommy."

"Ryo stop it! You didn't do anything to her. What happened to your mother was not your fault." As the female repeated herself, she received the same ignorance from the boy.

"I'm so sorry...I'm so sorry mommy, I promise...-I promised I would make you proud but...-I don't deserve your pride, I don't deserve your forgiveness...I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry. I'll never forgive myself." His entire body began convulsing on the spot as he allowed his remorse to take over his senses. "I'm sorry mommy, I'm so-"

The boy felt his body getting pulled away from its trembling condition, as it was blanketed by a contrasting warmth and consolation. He stood still, allowing his eyes to cry freely as his physical form relaxed against the girl's comforting embrace. "Ryo don't blame yourself..." She allowed the male to tire out his melancholic stage.

As a few minutes passed of his dissolving cries and sniffs, the girl allowed the boy to shed out his maudlin phase and the last flow of tears. She kept a secure cold on his fidgeting body to hand him a sense of support as he wept out his woes.

"Ryo...if you're going to blame yourself for this, then it's just as fair to put part of the blame on your mother." The boy gazed up at her with a mixture of emotions accompanying his bewildered one. "She knew that something was wrong but she continued to stay where she would get even worse. It's only fair to put half of the blame on her." Ryo began shaking his head in refusion to the analogy.

"No, mommy did nothing wrong, she was there for me, she-"

"Then if you can't put the blame on her, you're not allowed to put the blame on yourself." The male fell silent at the statement, and rested his entire body against the girl's hug. "Did you know she would get sick?"

"No, but she looked so pale, I-"

"Ryo, did you know your mother would become that sick?" The girl repeated the question, only demanding for a straight answer. After a moment of stillness, the boy shook his head in a denying response. "Did you know she would pass away because of this?" She received another shake of the head. "Did you mean for something like this to happen?" The boy frantically and confidently denied the statement. "Then you've got no blame over what happened."

There was a long minute of silence as the male processed the girl's ideology that would finally bring his conscience to final relief.

"My grandmother once said that even in the most horrific events, the blame can't be easily placed on someone or something...that sometimes cause and consequence are based on convenience, and some things happen without reason...just by pure misfortune." As he hung onto every securing word, Ryo felt a large weight being lifted off his shoulders until he body seemed to take off from the ground.

(Y/n) sensed his tense muscles relaxing in her hold, and finally calming down his distressed position.

"It's like me flying a kite and the wind blowing it towards a tree, accidentally making it knock down a birds' nest. Would that have been completely my fault?" As the boy processed the analogy, more variables began appearing in his head to the point where the blame seemed insignificant. "...You know...I don't think your mum ever regretted taking you out, even if that made her sick." The male glanced up at the girl with clearer eyes, analysing her new form of reasoning. "I think she enjoyed seeing you having fun and being happy...I don't think she would have regretted sitting there and watching her son enjoying himself and making the best of his time...I don't think she would want you to regret anything either."

Ryo weaved his hands around the girl's waist pressed himself further in, cleaving both of them together, giving her an embrace that had been reserved and locked away for the long awaited moment of his mother coming back to him. The girl sighed out her stubbornness and returned the hug with just as much meaningfulness.

"(Y/n)...please, never leave me." The girl jolted at the sudden request and felt speechless at his plea. "I don't want to lose you too...please say that you'll stay with me...please say that you won't leave me."

The boy's grasp had a clear hold on her body, fearing any loosened hold will result in the girl disappearing from his arms. "R-Ryo, stop..." The female attempted to push away the boy, fruitlessly searching for the heart to deny his request.

"Please...please stay by my side...please stay with me..." He refused to conform with her uncomfortable gestures as he pressed himself further against her. "Please." His voice was dry and pleading, making it seem as though he were using his last breaths to make the requisition. "Please." He rested his head against her shoulder, making the girl stumble for the nerve that would reject his begging. "Please."

Kaito lifelessly walked through the corridors of the household, attempting to find a distraction from his littered mind. 'I've been restraining myself as much as possible but sooner or later I'll cave...I can't keep avoiding her like this...But if I see her, it'll make it harder for me to control my impulses...damn it Ryo, you make this so hard for me.' As he massaged his head to ease his tense nerves, the intellectual heard the taps of footsteps approaching him. He turned around to regard the person, only to be surprised by the sight of the girl in question. Having difficulty in opting to feel pleasantly happy or bitterly grudging, he greeted her with a neutral expression. "(Y/n), what can I do for you?"

The girl seemed slightly nervous in her body language as she searched for the courage and confidence she had tried to fill herself with. "I came here to ask something big from you." The boy raised an eyebrow towards the inquiring female, and gestured for her to reveal her request. "I...I want to ask you if I can go outside..."

Kaito was slightly taken aback by the question and nervously scratched his cheek at the application. "Well, that's-"

"Please Kaito, I feel like I'll go insane being cooped up in here...I don't care if you assign someone to come with me, I don't care if every one of you guys come along, I just want to go somewhere familiar...I need to get out of here for a few hours..." The male contemplated over the offer as his view slanted against the plead and towards rejecting her demand. With a final sigh, he turned away from the girl and proceeded to walk away from her stumped form. "I-is that a no...?" She worriedly questioned the boy's seemingly denying reply.

"...I'll think about it." (Y/n) sighed with slight relief at the possible chance of receiving the slightest bit of freedom in her helpless position.

"Thanks."