As soon as the notice was given for Leon to move out, he rushed Vinny to arrange some house tours for him.

While the paparazzi continued to harass Leon over the alleged relationship between him and Hiromi, Ariel was still recovering from her illness. Hiroshi visited her every day to check on her progress, but Leon was barred from entering the premises by their bodyguards, much to his frustration and dismay that all he could do was walk past with Sky and glance to see if Ariel was ok. This was caught on cameras, and splashed on the news about rumoured love relationship between her and Hiroshi was set off once again, and the exciting love triangle going on with Ariel, Leon and the Fujita siblings.

Leon tried to call and message Ariel multiple times, but she refused to answer him. With little choice, he turned his attention to finding his new abode, but not without thinking of Ariel every day.

Meanwhile, Hiroshi hired a temporary top-notch chef to cook for Ariel and her household every day at her house while she was recovering. Ariel saw the sweet and caring side of Hiroshi surfacing once more, the one that she missed. But the person she missed even more was Leon, and she was starting to wonder if she was over-reacting now that it was known in the media that he was moving out of the premises but no news of where, and he never hid his hostility and disdain towards Hiromi even in front of the paparazzi. After all, the person who put Hiromi in the house was Hiroshi. Was it true that they had set him up? She did not want to believe that Hiroshi was capable of such conspiracy but she had to find out.

"Hiroshi?" Ariel asked him while eating her food from her bed.

"Yes, Ariel?" Hiroshi replied.

She swallowed hard, "Did the tryst really happen between your sis and Leon?"

"Well, it's no secret that Hiromi fancies him and they've been staying together for some time. Anything can happen and the pictures speak for themselves," he said nonchalantly. "They are two consenting adults."

"But, Leon said that you and Hiromi set him up."

"Ariel, do you really believe I would do such a thing?" he frowned.

"I don't know..."

"Look," he sighed heavily. "I honestly don't know why Leon would cook up such a thing, without hard evidence. All I know is that my father and I are hurt by this whole thing, especially Leon taking advantage of my young sister. That's why he needs to move out ASAP. Makes no sense that I wanna drag the name of Fujita by being complicit in doing such a stupid thing." He feigned looking hurt at her accusation.

Ariel lowered her eyelids, embarrassed that she insinuated that her boss and friend could be involved in doing such a thing.

Hiroshi placed his hand on her hand and said, "Ariel, let Leon go. I know you still hold him dear in your heart, but can't you see he's no good? How many times do you need to be shown his playboy true colours before getting hurt again and again? Do you wanna be this stupid?"

Ariel winced at his last word. She needed time alone to digest the harsh truth.

"I need some rest. You don't need to trouble yourself to come and see me every day. You're a busy man."

"No matter how busy I am, I want to make sure you are well," Hiroshi squeezed her hand. 

Ariel gave him a smile.

Hiroshi stood up and peered through the gap between the curtains to make sure the bodyguards kept Leon out of the premises like they always did for the last few days. Instead of Leon, he saw Paolo, the ice cream man walking towards the gate of the house with an ice cream delivery. Rita answered him at the gate and exchanged a few words before happily taking the ice creams from him and exclaiming loudly "Thank you, thank you!".

A knock could be heard at the door, and Ariel gave permission for Rita to enter.

"Surprise!" Rita lifted up the ice cream holder with three cones of ice creams, the fourth hole was empty as she had already passed it to Andy.

"Paolo's so kind to give these to us for FREE after speculating what has been going on. He gave you a double scoop of your favourite lavender honey! Said today's Recovery Day cos you needed to get well. Such a funny, sweet, thoughtful guy! I gave him a generous tip anyway cos I can't stand him spoiling us with free stuff all the time!" She laughed as she passed the double-scoop ice cream to Ariel and passed the other to Hiroshi and one to herself.

"What a nice ice cream man," Hiromi ate the ice cream. "Taste great too."

"Really nice," Ariel took a bite of her ice cream.

After they all ate and chatted, Hiroshi left the house.

"Finally!" Rita was relieved that she could chat more openly without Hiroshi around. "How are you feeling, like really feeling?"

"So-so," Ariel's voice was tired.

"Still avoiding Leon?"

Ariel sighed, "Can we not talk about him?"

"He told me he finally found a new place," Rita continued, ignoring Ariel's request.

Ariel raised her forehead, "So quick?"

"Yeah. He tries to get in touch with you every day, pestering me about how you are but you won't answer him. The bodyguards wouldn't let him in. Even visiting me as a friend or seeing Andy are not enough valid reasons for him to come in, which I find crazy but Hiroshi's orders, obviously," Rita rolled her eyes with dislike towards Hiroshi obvious in her facial expression. "Ariel, I believe Leon's telling the truth. I don't think he would do such a thing with Hiromi. If he and her really had something, do you think he'd move out this quick, and move out without her?"

"Well, it's not like he never threw away girls whom he frolicked for a night before!"

Rita shook her head, "You know that Leon had always wanted to move out because he couldn't stand Hiromi. But he only stayed on so that he could be close to you. Leon may have made stupid choices before but at least he's honest. During his birthday, he revealed to us girls about that one-night stand with that brunette model that scared you away even though we never asked, and I know for sure he's honest about his claim that he was set up by Hiromi."

Ariel crossed her arms over herself and shook her head.

"Honestly, Ariel," said Rita. "I don't think Hiroshi's the good man he paints himself to be."

"I don't agree. Hiroshi's trustworthy and I know the real person that he is, more than any of you!" Ariel got upset.

Rita gave a disappointing sigh and said no more.

Deep down, Ariel knew she and Andy would miss having Leon nearby.

———

Leon approved an apartment for rent in another posh area of town which Vinny had found him that was within his budget and that was not far from the sea, although it would not give him the same, mind-blowing direct sea view of his former penthouse and the apartment was a lot smaller. Buying a property was out of the question as he was still settling his personal debts.

To Leon's dismay, he could not move into the property immediately since its current tenant was finishing his last days of occupancy at the property before moving out. Meanwhile, he remained stuck with that irritating Hiromi. Hiroshi was dismayed that Leon would not move out quicker than he hoped, but he agreed to the grace period until he left.

Either way, Hiromi was relieved that Leon would still be staying on for a while. The incident had burned bridges between them completely that he ignored her totally, even when she greeted him. She showed no remorse for what she did, except to regret that those pictures got deleted, but thanks to the screenshots on the media, she could download them for her keepsake.

"Leon! Want some cupcakes?" Hiromi lifted up a tray of her freshly made cupcakes using ready-made cake mixture that she bought from the supermarket. She had been desperately trying to make peace with him. As usual, Leon ignored her. He grabbed a pear from the fridge before heading back upstairs.

"馬鹿 (Baka ie. idiot)!" Hiromi cursed at him after he slammed his door shut.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

"What now!" Hiromi got annoyed and put the tray down on the kitchen counter.

She went out of the house to the gate but saw no one. Instead, she saw a small box wrapped in a shiny pink wrapper with golden polka dots that was slipped under the gate. Her name was written on it in a black marker. Hiromi picked up the lightweight box and peered through the gaps of the gate, shifting her eyes left and right. There was no one in sight, except for the ice cream truck nearby where Paolo, the ice cream man was busy serving his ice creams to a few customers nearby.

"Odd," she shrugged and opened the box. There were many styrofoam bits inside. Hiromi dug her fingers in and took out the only small white card inside. She flipped open the card and saw huge words neatly written in partially wet, smudgy red that it was even inked on the opposite side of the card when it closed, signifying that the card was written not too long ago. The words read:

DON'T YOU DARE. I'M WATCHING YOU.

The fresh stench of the words was strong that Hiromi realised from a quick sniff that it was blood. She dropped the card and box and screamed, causing Paolo and some of his customers to be startled that they turned their heads to the source of the scream. Hiromi looked out but saw no suspicious person.

"You okay?" Anna rushed out to her while in the midst of her cleaning.

"血, 血 (Chi, chi i.e Blood, blood)!!" Hiromi pointed at the card on the floor. Styrofoam bits spilled out everywhere.

"Chi? What is chi?" Anna was confused about what she was saying,

"Blood!" exclaimed Hiromi, clearly frustrated.

Anna picked up the card and flipped open to read the message, "Looks like some sort of prank."

"Just clean them up!" Hiromi demanded agitatedly. She opened the gate ajar, jutted out her head and cried out, "I'm NOT afraid, you Prankster! Moron! Jealous bimbo who's TOO SCARED to show your face!" Then, she slammed the gate shut and stomped back inside the house.

Anna shook her head and swept up the mess, while a few of the ice cream customers chuckled at her mad words.

Sky perked her ears at Hiromi's thundering voice and looked out the window from Leon's room.

Thinking that the insulting scream was aimed at him, Leon rolled his eyes, "Dramatic!"

He increased the volume of the music he was listening to and continued packing his bags for the trip to his parents' mansion tonight.

———

That same night, Leon, Evan and his other bodyguards were in the car with Sky and stopped at Ariel's house before embarking on a long journey to his parents' house for his mother's upcoming birthday. Some of her bodyguards were outside guarding her house, so Leon knew he could not go in. Ariel remained deaf to his calls and messages.

Leon and Evan got out of the car and went to her gate.

"Hi, erm, can you please pass this to Ariel?" Leon tried to pass a small gift wrapped in a black wrapper with a gold ribbon through the gate.

"No gifts are accepted," said one of the bodyguards.

"Really?" Leon raised his brow, "Not even from Leon Waltz?"

"Fujita's orders."

Leon and Evan exchanged glances.

"I know," Evan thought of an idea and took out his phone to make a call. It did not take long for Rita to come out of the house.

"Evan! Leon!" she greeted them as she stepped out of the gate.

"Is this for Ariel?" Rita eyed the gift in Leon's hand.

"Yup. Her a birthday present," Leon passed the box to her.

"How sweet of you, Leon," Rita put her hand to her heart and took the gift from him.

"How's she?" he asked.

"She's fully recovered and is back to work," Rita glanced at the bodyguards over her shoulder. "I'm sorry this is getting so inconvenient. Even I don't like it. But it's Hiroshi's arrangement. Ariel and I've no say in it."

"That bastard," Leon seethed. " Rita, does Ariel really hate me? Won't she want to see me?"

"I don't know," Rita shrugged. "All I can tell you is, she's still not in the mood. Just let her cool off and give her time, okay?"

Leon looked up at Ariel's window but her curtains were drawn.

"Tell Ariel that I'm always thinking of her," he sighed. "I miss her so badly."

"Will do," Rita nodded her head. She turned to Evan, "I'm so gonna miss you, darling." They embraced.

"Me too," Evan kissed her cheek. "Take care. Say hi to Imogen for me when I'm gone."

"Of course! You know I love that little girl so much that I'll still visit her even if you stop loving me one day," she teased.

"Oh, never!" he gave her another firm kiss.

Leon contorted his mouth and averted his eyes from the disgusting two.

"Ok, gotta go now, darling. You take care. Love ya," Evan hugged her again before leaving with Leon in the car.