It was chilly out on the hill where an old but well-kept temple was situated with it's bells, mini pagodas and stone structures lay scattered around the area. The brown, dried up leaves fluttered lazily on the ground, covering the soft earth and the strung up on trees and the stone structures were the white paper shapes on a long piece of string, making the place seemed messy but adding the feeling of the place of worship. The people all young and old with romantic beliefs in their hearts walked around the temple area giving donations, muttering prayers or talking with one another about fate and life.

In front of the tallest mini pagoda in a middle of a clearing were two young school girls with a piece of patterned paper wrapped in plastic on each of their hands.

"Come on, make a wish!" urged one of the girl to her friend.

"How do you do it?" her friend asked, taking the patterned paper out of it's envelope-like wrap, "Does it work?"

"It's supposed to work," the first girl answered, "Just write on the amulet what you want the love of your life to say to you and your wish will come true."

The skeptical girl shrugged, "Oh, all right. I'll try it. What do you want your boyfriend to say?"

The girl smiled, "Of course I want him to say 'I love you'".

Her friend's eyes went wide, "Your boyfriend hasn't said that to you yet?"

The girl sighed, "No. And I also want him to say that he'll take care of me and ask me to marry him."

The second girl sniffed, "I want to be more practical. I want him to promise to give me all his money and listen to everything that I say!"

The first girl laughed, "That's good too."

An hour later, a young man with dark hair parted in the middle walked towards were the girls have been kneeling and took out a patterned paper in a plastic wrap out of his pocket and sighed. Before he thought about throwing the paper away and call himself all kinds of romantic fool, the young man quickly jotted down the words he wanted to hear most from the person he loves on the paper and slipped it back into the wrap. Closing his eyes he let the string attached to the wrapper dangle from his fingers as he bowed and clapped his hands twice before uttering a silent prayer from the heart.

The alarm clock beeped incessantly before a hand reached out to slam the mechanism shut. Groping to get a better handhold, the man in the bed picked the alarm clock from the night stand and peered at the digital numbers with crusty eyes.
A few minutes later the man with the scar on his chin was in the bathroom teeth brushed, showered, shaved and feeling as fresh as a daisy. Toweling his short hair furiously, he walked out to his room to put on his clothes and when he was done and ready to go for work, he took out a few yen notes and placed them on the night stand beside the sleeping form on the bed.

"Hey, housekeeping is at ten," Mitsui told the woman who was waking up slowly to the noise he was making as he walked about.

As the man was walking out the door, the young woman snatched the notes from the night stand and burrowed herself deeper in the covers. It was still 7.30am and she has a lot of sleep to catch up to.


~~~~

The business area complex was already abuzz with the white collared workers just ariving for the start of the day. Among the crowd of professionals was Mitsui talking to his friend by using a headset attached to his mobile phone as he walked to his department office.

"Ok," the devilishly handsome young man told his friend who was also one of his connection pals, "I'll take care of it for you. Ja."

Arriving on the destined floor, Mitsui passed by the recpetionist and greeted the girl manning the counter and her friend, "Ohayo gozaimas."

"Ohayo gozaimas, Mitsui-san," the two girls bowed.

"Here are your mail, Mitsui-san," the receptionist said, handing them over to their boss.

"Doumo," smiled Mitsui before he grinned at the receptionist's friend who was also his subordinate, "Hey, Bo-chan. You look great."

"Really?" the young woman giggled shyly.

"Hai," Mitsui winked at her, "If you show more cleavage and lift your skirt higher you'll make all the men crazy."

The receptionist laughed while the woman blushed, "Mitsui-san!"

The phone in his pocket beeped again and he only had to touch a button to allow the transmission to reach him through the earphones. Waving a distracted wave to the young women at the counter Mitsui was all business again, "Moshi-moshi? Yeah? Two thousand? No problem." As the client talked, Mitsui let his feet bring him to his private office, "When shall we sign it? Tonight?"
He weaved his way past his early-arriving staff as he continued sweet-talking his client, "No problem. I shall book a room at the Grand Royale. I'll get the girls ready for you as well."
After a pause the man laughed, "Alright. Tonight. Ja."

When he finally reached his office he opened the door to see an unfamiliar person standing in front of his desk using his phone.

"You don't have to get mad everytime I bring this up," the person sighed into the phone.

It took a 6 seconds for Mitsui to 1) wonder if he has entered the wrong room, 2) peek outside to make sure that it was his room he has entered and 3) to march up to the person to demand why he was doing his room using his phone.

"Hey, man. What are you doing here?"

The man on the phone didn't seem to have heard Mitsui for he kept on talking to the person on the line, "It's been three years! I'm afraid it'll end if things don't change!"

"You think that's how people maintain a relationship? What matters is whether they have feelings for each other. I do, I love you."

"Then think about what I said. I stopped talking about marriage. I just want us to live together," persisted the young man.

Mitsui frowned and tried again, "Summimasen, this is my room!"

The person on the other line was talking again, "I need my personal creative space. I need to make money. Don't pick a fight with me for this little thing."

The young man in the office stayed silent before his partner spoke, "What matters is that I love you... Hm? excuse me? Yes, coffee please..."

The young man growled and slammed the phone down on the table as his boyfriend talked with the waiter to ask for some eggs. Ignoring Mitsui's presence, the young man with middle-parted hair stalked out of the office in anger. Mitsui blinked and picked up the receiver to hear the boyfriend's smooth voice still trying to placate his lover into forgetting the idea.

"...get those thoughts out of your head, ne? They'll just confuse you. Aren't we doing well? You stay over for a night when you're free. We haven't had a problem before."

Mitsui scoffed, "That's easy for you, isn't it? You have someone to order around with no strings attached."

A gap a silent was heard before the man on the other line asked, "...who is this?"

"Just a passerby," Mitsui answered before hanging up rudely. At that moment his secretary came in looking sheepish.

"Who was that guy?!" demanded Mitsui.

"That was Koshino Hiroaki who just got transferred here today," the middle-aged woman answered.

"Who's he? What are you talking about?!"

His secretary looked at his reprovingly, "I told you not to approve of his transfer but you wouldn't listen!"

"When did you say that?"

Suddenly an enraged scream was heard from outside the room, breaking their argument.

"See," cried the scretary throwing her hands up in the air, "he's lost it again. God knows what he's up to now."

Instead of asking her what she meant by that, Mitsui ran out when another scream was heard, with the woman at his heels towards where the other staff has run to to see what has happened to their new colleague.

"Koshino-san! Koshino-san!" called the men as they knocked furiously on the door to the men's restroom.

"He locked herself inside," murmured one man as he tried to twist the knob unsuccessfully.

"Never mind," Mitsui told them as he pushed his way through the crowd, "Let him be."

"Something's wrong," said another man quietly, "He stopped screaming."

Mitsui huffed and was about to turn back to his office when he heard breaking glass from inside the locked restroom. Everyone went quiet before the men and women included renewed their efforts to get Koshino to let them in.

Mitsui again pushed his way towards the restrooms door and tried to open it but was unsuccessful.

"Open up!" yelled Mitsui, banging at the door.

"He's going to cut himself," gasped a woman in dread.

"Get the keys from Serena," said another woman.

"She went out," Mitsui's secretary told them.

Suddenly a strong smell came out from underneath the door and a man wondered out loud, "What's that smell?"

"Smells like antiseptic solution!" gasped one of their female colleague.

"He's trying to poison himself?" blinked a man.

"Oh my God! He's killing himself twice!" someone cried out.

"Let's ram the door!" another man suggested.

As Mitsui and the man rammed against the door with their shoulders, Mitsui's secretary quipped, "I don't think that's necessary..."

But the door was already forced open and the workers tumbled inside, nearly crushing over their boss in the process.

Hearing some noise in the farthest cubicle, they quickly rushed there, expecting a bloody suicide scene. Instead they saw Koshino on his knees scrubbing the toilet bowl furiously with a brush and a pair plastic gloves on his hands. When the young man turned his head around he was presented with the view of his surprised colleagues and new boss, all crowded outside the toilet cubicle staring at him stupidly.

"The toilet was dirty so I might as well clean it," he sniffed.

Mitsui and the rest blinked.

"Watch out for the mess on the floor. I accidentally dropped the flower vase just now," Koshino told them before he turned back to his work scrubbing the toilet bowl clean.

Mitsui shook his head and turned around to walk wearily back to his room. His secretary caught up with him and mused out loud, "Cleaning the toilet is at least constructive. I heard he played with the paper shredder last time and wasted a few boxes of paper."

Mitsui sighed. And then a worker ran up to him and bowed, handing him a file, "Mitsui-san. Okimari-san says that it's urgent and he want you to take a look."

Mitsui accepted the file with a faint thanks, his eyes already skimming the words on the paper before the young woman walked away.

"I want the day off."

Mitsui looked up and frowned when he saw his new subordinate standing in front of him with an unhappy look on his face.

"Come again?"

"I want a day off," Koshino told him again.

Mitsui walked slowly towards the shorter man and demanded lowly, "What is your reason?"

When Koshino did not answer, the young boss asked again, "Are you sick?"

Koshino bit his lip trying to keep himself from screaming again and answered just as lowly, "Then I quit. I want the day off."

"You need a one month's notice," Mitsui told him coldly before turning around to walk away.

"I don't care," Koshino persisted, "I'll pay for your losses. I just want the day off!"

Mitsui turned around and regarded the young man disgustedly. Koshino was staring at the floor, a mantra flowing through his lips, "I want the day off.... I want the day off..."

Mitsui sighed loudly and groaned, "So leave."

"...I want the day off...I want the day off..."

"Leave then! Leave!" yelled Mitsui, waving Koshino away in frustration. Koshino quickly shut up, turned to his cubicle to pick up his bag and left hurriedly.

Mitsui rubbed his forehead and glared at his people, "What are you looking at? Go back to work!"

As the workers grudgingly went back to their tasks, Mitsui's eye happened to catch upon a voluptuous figure in black fur standing at the corridor.

"Hi," the short-haired woman greeted, her cherry-red lips curled onto a sensuous smile Mitsui knew so well.

"She has been waiting for you in the conference room," Mitsui's secretary told the scarred-face man.

"Long time no see," the young woman said.

"Yes," Mitsui agreed softly, "It's been a while."


~~~~

In the conference room Mitsui and the young woman sat at the desk giving caring glances to one another.

"What's this about? You've got the divorce papers already?" asked Mitsui.

"Hai," nodded Eri, "Thank you for being so prompt."
Taking off her dark glasses covering her beautiful eyes, she stared back into her ex-husband's eyes and confessed softly, "I came her for you actually. Are you angry with me?"

When Mitsui did not answer, Eri went on, "If you aren't I would be very disappointed."

Mitsui cocked his head and asked, "Why?"

"Because I left you and married Joe," sighed the woman gustily, fiddling with her sun-glasses with her slim fingers, "I've always wondered what you felt about me."

Mitsui faltered but was able to smoothly change the topic, "Are you two doing well?"

Eri smiled, "I'll answer that next time."

Before Mitsui could press her, Eri grinned and motioned out the frosted window of the conference room, "The guy just now. He's cute."

"You must be joking," Mitsui chuckled, "he's trouble!"

The short-haired woman shook her fingers, "Ah, but many odd couples end up being lovers."

The man laughed, "No way! I'd rather die!"

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