Dai Nagao
Similar to all of her previous singles released since "M", "Dearest" was composed by Hamasaki herself under pen name "CREA", on this occasion along with Dai Nagao, and it was arranged by Naoto Suzuki, whom she first worked on her 8th single "To Be" released in 1999 and arranged many of her hit songs, the most recent being -by the time of this release- the million-selling single "Seasons." This song was the only track arranged by Suzuki to be included in Hamasaki's 4th album, "I am...".