Immediately I was on edge. The fact that there were tears in her eyes alarmed me. Not to mention I'm not completely sure that she has a good relationship with her parents.

After all, what kind of parent forces their kid to pretend to be another gender? No good one, that's for sure.

"Hey, it's okay." I said, placing my hand on her shoulder. "I'm guessing you don't want to go."

"No..." Erica whimpered. "What if...what if they don't let me come back...? I don't want to go Ken...I don't want to leave you..."

"And you won't. Not if you don't want to." I smiled. "It's alright."

"But...I have to go..." Erica cried as tears ran down her eyes. "They're forcing me..."

I pulled her into me, letting her cry into my chest. I didn't know what was going on, but it was obvious Erica didn't want to go, yet felt she had to.

This left us with two choices. One, she ignores her parents. Two, I go with her to America. And make sure that she returns. I'll do some "convincing" if needed.

She continued to cry as I rubbed her back before it died down, leaving only light sniffles. I pushed her slightly back, taking her head off of my chest.

She looked up at me, allowing me to wipe the tears from her eyes. I leaned down, planting a small kiss on her mouth.

"Hey. No matter what, it'll be okay. I don't know what your relationship with your parents are, but I won't let them take you away from me if that's what they're trying to do." I smiled.

"...you promise?" Erica slowly asked.

"I promise." I nodded.

"Alright...my...my relationship with my parents is a little...rough." Cringed Erica. "As I've told you, they made me pretend to be a boy..."

"They...they wanted a boy. My parents are old-fashioned, and believe their heir has to be a man." She stated.

"They had a lot of trouble getting my mother pregnant." She continued. "So when they finally did and it was a girl...they weren't exactly thrilled."

"And since they possibly couldn't get her pregnant again, they raised me as a boy." She stated.

"Old-fashioned, huh? I think this is more than just being old-fashioned." I replied.

"Yeah...they're quite strict." Erica awkwardly rubbed her arm. "My parents...have a lot of problems. So I'm afraid if they're making me go back they won't let me come back to Japan."

"And...and I can't...I love you Ken...I don't want them to take me away..." She sniffled.

"Hey, it'll be alright. I promise." I repeated my earlier words. "Look, there are two ways we can go forward with this. You ignore their order and stay here, or you go and I go with you so we can convince them to let you come back."

"Either way, I don't plan on letting you go so easily." I smirked.

"Geez, Ken." Erica blushed, lightly elbowing me in the stomach. "You're making me blush."

"Well, that's my job. As your boyfriend." I replied.

"So we're official now?" Erica hopefully asked.

"You and I love each other, and Irene has accepted it. So if you want to..." I stated.

"Yes!" Erica grinned. "Please!"

"Then I'll make sure you stay with me, my girlfriend." I smiled.

Erica shivered, a blush on her face. "Oh, hearing you call me girlfriend is so much better than I could have ever imagined..."

"So...how do you want to go about this?" I asked.

"I...I need to go back to America, even if I don't want to...maybe I'm overreacting, and they just want to see me..." Erica muttered.

"Well, if I'm being honest, if they can contact you...then the fact they want you to come back is worrying. Because if they just wanted to see you they could have used FaceTime." I explained.

Erica bit her lip in worry.

"I'm sorry." I stated. "I don't mean to hurt you with that. I could be wrong, maybe they do just want to see you."

"Well...what do you think Ken?" Erica asked.

"I think it's up to you." I replied. "We could ignore them, but that could cause problems. We could go to America, and that could cause problems. Either way, we'll get through it."

Erica closed her eyes in thought. "Okay. If it's alright with you, we'll go to America. I can't run away from this. I need to know what's going on. And no matter what, you'll be there for me. Right?"

"You know it." I smiled.

"I do." She smiled back. "But I still wanted to hear it."

"So, how are we getting to America?" I asked.

"They've ordered a plane for me." Erica stated.

They prepared a plane for her? And they're across the world? They really want her to come home. I don't like this. Well, I'll be with her. I won't let anything happen.

"Anybody else you want to take?" I asked. "For extra support?"

If we get into a fight, it'll be good if another person is with us. Just in case.

Erica thought about it, before deciding. "Lily."

"Alright, let's ask her then." I replied.

I'm sure she will join, since she's Erica's best friend. However, I don't think that she knows how to speak English like Erica and I do...

Wait, can Erica speak English? I'm sure she can, but I've only seen her do snippets when called upon in class.

"Hey Erica, how fluent are you in English?" I asked.

"Very fluent." Erica nodded. "Since I lived in America for quite a while."

"I thought so, but just wanted to make sure. I mean, you speak japanese so well it's hard to believe you're a foreigner." I replied.

"Ah...thanks." She blushed. "Let me text Lily."

She tapped into her phone. It wasn't long until it buzzed as Lily replied.

"She'll come." Erica replied. "But she's letting me know she isn't too fluent in English. That'll be fine though, you can act as her translator. Right?"

"I can." I nodded. "I'm fluent in both."

"I know." Erica smiled. "Thanks...thanks for this. You didn't have to."

"If I didn't I'd be a crappy boyfriend." I smirked. "So you better believe I'm coming with you."

"Thank you...thank you..." Erica started to cry once more. Though this time, those were happy tears.

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"Woah...this is a fancy plane..." Lily muttered.

We stood in front the PRIVATE JET that Erica's parents had to come pick her up. I couldn't help but feel that Erica's family may be a big deal in America.

My phone buzzed. Pulling it out, I had multiple different texts for me. The first was from Irene.

Irene: Bring Erica back. And be safe.

Me: I will, thank you.

Irene: And I'll hold the others off from coming to America with you.

Me: Thank you, a lot. That's appreciated.

Irene: You owe me a day. A whole day, just in bed.

Me: Okay...

That was going to be nice, but I'd be so sore at the end of that. Lately Irene has become, should I say...experimental? It's not the worst though. It's not anything too crazy.

Definitely not as bad as whatever Yui starts drooling about. Anyways, moving on! The second text was from Principal.

Principal: You're lucky that you are on break. Make sure you come back safely.

Me: Okay. Thanks.

The final was from Dad.

Dad: I finally got a phone. I'm not letting your mother touch it, though.

Me: Good idea.

Dad: Anyways, you should contact us more often.

Me: My bad.

Dad: It's fine. But visit me soon, okay? I'll hold your mother off in return.

Me: It's a deal.

Dad: Nice. And make sure you bring both your fiancé and girlfriend.

Me: So she told you...

Dad: You know it. Good job, son.

I shook my head. Of course Dad would congratulate me for that...

I pocketed the phone as we boarded the jet. We sat in some nice seats as the pilot prepared to fly. I kept my eye on the pilot, looking for anything fishy.

It was just us, the pilot, and a flight attendant on this private jet, and that was it. Can't blame me for being suspicious.

They didn't even say anything about Lily and I, despite the fact that Erica didn't inform her parents that we would be coming.

The jet took off. We flew above the clouds, looking down at the growing smaller Tokyo and Japan.

"This is going to be my first time out of Japan." Gasped Lily, looking out the window.

"America is...well, very different than Japan. Not that it is bad." Erica stated. "Just stick to either Ken or I."

"Well, I can say a couple things in English..." Lily muttered, looking away.

"Let me guess, hi and bye?" I asked.

"Shut up!" Lily blushed, lightly smacking my shoulder. "I can do more than that!"

We laughed as we talked. I was trying to keep Erica's mind off of everything, in case things did go south.

I just...I really don't have a good feeling about this, and I can't really explain it.

"Is there anything you three would like?" The flight attendant asked in English, standing next to our table.

"What do you have?" I replied.

"A couple different drinks, some pretzels, and some sandwiches." She stated. "Sorry we don't have more, Young Miss."

"Oh...uh, that's okay." Erica awkwardly replied.

I raised my eyebrow at this. Young Miss?

Lily just looked confused. She seemed to pick up some pieces of the conversation, but not all of them.

"What is it?" Lily whispered. "I heard pretzels."

"She wants to know if we want anything from the items they have. From some drinks, pretzels, and sandwiches." I whispered back in Japanese.

"Oh, then I would like some-a pretzulas." Lily asked in decent English, though it sounded a little off.

"Good job." I smiled.

"Ehehe...thanks." Lily blushed.

"Alright." The flight attendant nodded. "Anything else?"

"Do you have Bepsi?" I asked, switching back to English.

This world and its knockoffs, I swear...

"We do." She nodded.

"I would like one." I replied.

"Alright. Anything for you, Young Miss?" She then asked Erica.

"A...Bepsi as well, please." Erica nodded.

"Okay." The flight attendant nodded. "I'll get those for you right away."

As she walked off, I started to think about what was going on. Erica's family is a big deal in America...but why?

We enjoyed the rest of the trip, but I couldn't get the question to stop plaguing my mind. And eventually, we landed down in America.

The flight attendant opened the door, and stairs came out from the side of the plane and moved downwards, creating a staircase down.

Wow, that's cool.

We walked down the stairs, stepping foot onto the ground. For the first time in a long time, I was back in America.

"Welcome to America." Erica smiled towards us. "Or to be more specific, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."