"WELCOME TO HARVARD!" A quite excited-looking college student greeted Takumi in Japanese as she said, "You must be Takumi Ishikawa, right?"

Takumi nodded unsurely. 

"That's great! I'm your tour guide today, I'll be showing you where everything is and things to look out for! Oh yeah, did I mention my name? I'm Ayaka Johnson, and I'm half Japanese and half American," Ayaka introduced herself.

"Ayaka-sama, douzo yorosiku!" Takumi bowed.

"No need to be formal, Takumi, I'm only two years older than you," Ayaka chuckled.

"Hai, Ayaka!" Takumi said.

The two then headed to where Takumi would be staying.

"This is your dormitory, you will share this dorm with two girls," Ayaka said.

The day was then spent with Ayaka pointing out the cafeterias, buildings, dormitories, places to avoid, all that stuff.

After the tour, Ayaka bid Takumi goodbye, wishing her luck on her first couple of days and to come to her if Takumi needed any help.

"Arigato gozaimasu, Ayaka!" Takumi waved to the older girl as the two parted ways.

"So, how's your first day at Harvard? How's America? Is it pretty?" Yuki pestered.

The whole volleyball group was taking a break from practice so Yuki pulled out his phone to call his sister. The whole team was eager to hear about what the little Ishikawa had in store.

"Aniki, calm down! It's great, y'all don't need to worry about me!" Takumi assured.

"Ay, but you're our Kumi-chan! Everything about you is OUR business," Yuji emphasized dramatically as he pushed Yuki out of the way, who winced.

"KUMI!" A voice yelled in the background as the camera was in motion and shifting. Then, Ran's head popped up.

"Ran-senpai!" Takumi smiled brightly as the two chattered on and on.

The rest of the team members looked in amusement.

"Ay, Yuki-san, you might have something to worry about," Sekita said to the taller male.

"I can already see my bank account being loaded," Yuji said proudly.

"Yuki-san, I think that Takumi Takahashi sounds quite good, don't you?" Yamamoto joked.

Yuki could only glare fiercely at Ran as the younger male laughed at what Takumi said. Then, he hollerd loudly, "Takumi Ishikawa, you better go to sleep!"

"Don't you mean, Takumi Takahashi?" Yuji smirked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Come on Aniki, it's only eleven at night!" Takumi whined, "let me talk to Ran-senpai a bit longer! He was just in the middle of saying something!"

"We have to practice now, imouto-chan! We have the Olympics to prepare for!" Yuki said sternly.

"Fiiiine, Aniki," Takumi grumbled, "I'll see y'all when I wake up."

"You better call!" Yuki said as he hung up the call.

"Now, Ran-kun, you better not hurt my sister!" Yuki said as he glared at the boy with red, flushed cheeks.

"He's already developed feelings now, it's too late!" Yuji said happily as he drank his water.

"Yuji," Yuki said seriously, "I'm fine with little Ran-kun here dating my little imouto-chan, but if he hurts her, you'll be seeing my spike to your face at 120 kpm."

"Hai!" Ran said, saluting.

"He's already whipped," Yuji said with admiration.

As always, Takumi could not last a single day without listening to a cheesy Meghan Trainor song. Again, it was Dear Future Husband for the 1000th time already.

"Dear future husbaaand...here's a few things you need to know it..." Takumi hummed as she walked to her medical class.

And the year continued, with Takumi calling everyday to the team to catch up on their lives in Japan, to her parents and Mayu, and tease Ran through the video calls and text messages.

Until her exams came.

Takumi took quite a lot of classes, mostly in the medical and biology field. Yet, she also took some math courses, making her crammed with material to study. 

She could barely breath herself as her time on the phone decreased dramatically, only able to quickly call her parents, Yuki, Mayu, and Kenji on Saturdays.

The team quite missed their little non-related imouto-chan as they would ask Yuki for updates.

"How's Kumi doing?" Ran asked impatiently.

"She's doing fine, but she looked tired, and she looks skinnier than before," Yuki said worriedly.

Ran's eyes widened as he stood frozen.

"Ran-kun, you really do care for my imouto-chan, do you?" Yuki asked.

"I really do, Yuki-san. I think I love her," Ran confessed, his cheeks blushed red.

"Then I trust you to go get her safely home back for the Los Angeles Olympics in July," Yuki said, handing him a plane ticket, "my imouto-chan already has her ticket and I bought your seat right next to hers."

Ran's eyes widened as he looked at the ticket, then at Yuki, then back at the ticket.

Yuki chuckled, "I'm serious, Ran-kun. I trust you with my sister, as long as you treat her right and never hurt her."

Ran nodded as he accepted the ticket with both of his hands, staring at the letters "Japan Airlines - Business Class."

Takumi sighed weakly as she looked up at the clock in her room. 1 AM, she read. Feeling tired, she went to brush her teeth and wash her face first before she sat back down on her white desk to study.

She had her medical midterm tomorrow, and she was cramming last-minute information into her head while drinking her third cup of coffee.

Suddenly, the phone rang. Takumi, who felt that she could not study any longer, pressed the answer button and realized that it was a facetime from Ran.

"Ran-senpai, konnichiwa," Takumi said softly and tiredly as she smiled weakly at the older male.

"Kumi-chan! Are you fine?" Ran asked worriedly, "sorry for calling you so late! I knew that you would be awake because you told Yuki that you have your medical midterm tomorrow."

"It's fine, Ran-senpai," Takumi said, waving off the boy's words lightly.

"You look tired, Kumi-chan, go to bed! I'm sure you'll do fine!" Ran assured, ushering the younger girl to go to bed.

"Ran-senpai, I can't. I still have so much to study," Takumi groaned but she reluctantly went to her bed. Her roomate, Kaitlyn, has already fallen asleep ages ago.

"You can't tire yourself out so much! You'll do even worse if you're tired, okay? Go to sleep, Kumi-chan," Ran urged as he gave the girl his most cutest puppy-eyes.

Takumi laughed before saying, "I'll go to bed, Ran-senpai. You're too adorable."

"Good night, Kumi-chan! Take care of yourself!" Ran said, smiling widely, as he ended the call.