"Why did you dig up all the old order papers?" Koshino asked as the two of them walked inside Danny's to buy some dinner.

"I have a suspicion that Kishimoto set it up so that I was the one to get the blame," Mitsui told him.

"Hello, can I take your order?" an attendant asked when the two young men reached the counter.

"12 pieces of fried chicken, please," Mitsui said to her.

"Any drinks?"

"Diet Coke," Koshino said before Mitsui can answer. Turning to his superior, the young man explained, "Plain Coke is too sweet."

Mitsui shrugged and told the attendant, "Two Diet Cokes then."

"Anyway," said Koshino after the attendant left to get their orders, "How do you know it was Kishimoto's fault?"

"He handles all the clients in Jiang Men," Mitsui explained, "I only took over for a short while when he was out of town."

Koshino scratched his nose, thinking for a while before he suggested, "Well, we can check the computer's company records."

To that Mitsui replied bitterly, "Think he hadn't thought of that? He's already deleted some of the files, that yaro. All I can do now is check the past order papers and find the fault. Or else I'm screwed."

Once the attendant brought them their orders, Mitsui paid for their dinner and as Koshino picked the packet up, the scarred-face man said, "Go home and pack up some stuff."

"Dozo?"

"You're sleeping over at my place. It'll take time to find the answer to this mess," Mitsui told him, "Maybe the whole weekend."

"Oh. Ok."

The two were already eating their fried chicken in the car when Koshino asked if Mitsui had any tissues since they've forgotten to pick up the serviettes from Danny's.

"There ought to be some in the glove compartment," Mitsui mumbled through the food in his mouth while his eyes stayed trained on the road.

Koshino pulled open the compartment in front of him and while shifting through the things inside, he found a familiar-looking red and white patterned paper in a plastic packet and took it out.

"You believe in this too?" Koshino smiled, "What did you write in here that you wanted your girlfriend to say?"

"Ah?" Mitsui said absently still concentrating on the road, "Nani?"

"It's ok," Koshino shrugged, "It won't come true if you tell anyone."

Suddenly, Mitsui's attention was shifted when he saw Koshino attempting to hang it up on the rear-view mirror of the car.
"Hey, stop that!" the scarred-face man protested, tugging on Koshino sleeve to get the young man to stop.

"The temple said you have to hang it up in order for it to work," Koshino explained, slapping away Mitsui's wrist.

"It'll look cheesy!" Mitsui complained.

Koshino scoffed, "It might bring you luck in your love-life you know."

When Koshino managed to hang the amulet on the mirror, Mitsui began lameley protesting about how his car looked now. After a short while, Mitsui finally relented and bit on another piece of friend chicken as he took a glance at the patterned-paper swaying innocently in front of him.

****

Mitsui and Koshino worked on their research until late night when the two decided to change into something more comfortable. Koshino, who was coming out of the guest-room, ran into Mitsui who had just left his own room to continue with the work. When they spotted each other, they laughed.

"I didn't know you're a nerd," chuckled Mitsui, indicating the gold-framed spectacles perched on Koshino's nose.

"Speak for yourself," grinned Koshino pointing to Mitsui's own spectacles, "I take it you wear contacts to work as well."

"Yeah," Mitsui replied, pushing up his glasses, "Spectacles are too much of a bother sometimes."

"Aa," Koshino agreed, following Mitsui back to the paper-cluttered living room, "Nice pjs, by the way."

"My other pjs have been taken away by my housekeeper to wash," Mitsui told Koshino, tugging at his Bananas-In-Pajamas pjs in embarassment, "My mum bought this for me when I was at college."

"Cute," the shorter man grinned, walking past the blushing Mitsui.

The scarred-face man watched Koshino from behind and sighed at the unconciously sexy image Koshino exuded with his simple cotton grey pajamas that hung loosely against his lean frame.
Yeah, you too.

When they sat down and began to start again on where they left off, Mitsui noticed something peculiar on a group of invoices that Koshino gave to him earlier on.

"What this?" Mitsui asked, showing Koshino the drawing of a basketball at the sides of invoices.

"Oh," Koshino blinked before turning back to his work, "That reminds me that those have already been checked by me. Its your turn to cross-reference it with the order-form copies."

"Sure," Mitsui shrugged.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you," Koshino said, turning around, "I have a date with Sakuragi tomorrow evening. His step-brother just came back from the States and he wants me to meet him."

"Oh, ok," Mitsui said, a frown forming on his lips. He wasn't able to concentrate at all after that and kept on checking the same invoices more than once until he fell asleep, snoring on the table. A few metres away, Koshino was curled up on the floor also asleep with a stack of invoices hugged to his chest.



****

"I'm sorry I have to leave you like this," Koshino apologised as Mitsui walked with him down the steps of the apartment where they have spent most of Thursday night cooped up in a room, "But I already promised to have dinner with them."

"That's ok," Mitsui said, feigning weariness in his voice, although actually he was restraining to keep the jealousy out of his voice, "I think I can do it on my own for a while. I mean, what's one more sleepless night, right?"

Guilt creeped over Koshino just as Mitsui intended it to have done.
"Maybe I can try to break it off. Tell them that I have some work to do," Koshino said, biting his lip.

"That would be bad to cancel...." Mitsui sighed, "...but see what you can do, ne?"

Koshino nodded and Mitsui's wicked side nearly cackled with glee, when suddenly the powerful sound of motorbikes was heard and two impressive machines drove through the front entrance of the apartment complex.

Koshino's eyes went wide and he let out a whoop when he saw what kind of motorcycles they were. Running towards one that was occuppied by two riders, Koshino gushed in excitement, "Sugoi! Nitrogen suspension system! Dog Fight exhaust! It's got Dog Fight tires too! And a new damper!"

"Koshino," Sakuragi called to the older man, "Meet my step-brother, Yohei Mito. And our friend, Kogure Kiminobu."

The passenger jumped down from the motorbike Koshino was gaping at and extended his arm, "Yo. I'm Yohei."

"Hi," Koshino smiled and shook the shorter man's hand, "Nice to meet you."

"Hi," the driver of the bike greeted as well, pushing up his visor to show the friendly twinkle in his brown eyes behind the clear spectacles, "We're glad to finally meet you. Since you like this bike, do you want to try it out with me?"

"Really?" Koshino asked turning to look at the three leather-clad bikies for confirmation.

"Of course," Kogure replied merrily, answering for all of them, "Sakuragi, you'll go with Yohei and Koshino with me. The last one to the restaurant buys dinner!"

"Yosh!" Sakuragi said, a grin visible in his boisterous voice, "Come on, Yohei!"

The shorter man chuckled, but Koshino did not miss the lingering touch he had on Kogure before he left the man's side.

Soon the four of them gunned out of the complex and into the night, leaving Mitsui literally eating their dust.

Mitsui scowled, "So much for cancelling."


~~~~

Two hours later Eri called Mitsui to meet her in an hour's time at the cafe where they like to frequent when meeting with each other. Finding that work was the farthest thing from his mind, Mitsui decided to take a walk first at the park beside his apartment complex and soon he was sitting down on a bench with two people interested to listen to his woes.

"Do you think I'm smart?"

"Hai."

"Am I attractive?"

"Hai."

"Why?"

"Well, you are career-driven and mature," the young girl ticked with her hand, "You are good-looking and have a kind heart. Plus, you have a car and a house."

Mitsui crossed his arms and asked, "Compared to me and Sakuragi Hanamichi from 'The Genius', who would you pick?"

The girl giggled, "Gomen ne, but I'll have to pick Sakuragi Hanamichi."

"Definitely, Sakuragi Hanamichi," the old woman sitting between them agreed.

Mitsui scowled. Then, he nearly fell off his seat when he saw a little girl playing with a Newsweek magazine with Sakuragi Hanamichi's face at the cover, the child singing "Sa-ku-ra-gi..." over and over as if to mock him. Great, Mitsui grumbled inwardly, even kids love him.

He was feeling down in the dumps when he met up with Eri at the cafe that he didn't notice her sombre expression. As he sat down beside her at the bar area, Eri spoke up, "I filed Joe for a divorce."

Mitsui turned to Eri in surprise, although he did kind of expected this to happen especially after his ex-wife told him about her and Joe's shaky marriage. Joe was his best-friend for years before he ran off with Eri and Eri was his wife and the first woman he ever had the thought to be committed to - before he began flirting with other women, that is, that made Eri leave him.

"Any drinks, sir?" the bar-man asked, interrupting Mitsui's train of thoughts.

"Black Label," Mitsui told him, "with ice."

"Hai," the bar-man nodded, moving away.

Turning back to the short-haired woman by his side, Mitsui asked, "Have you thought this over?"

Eri nodded. Then she said, "I don't want to live in a hotel. Can I stay at your place before I get my own?"

"I..."

"Is it because of Koshino?" Eri asked, seeing Mitsui falter, "I dropped by your place earlier and saw him there."

"We had work to do," Mitsui told her.

Eri fiddled with the straps of her handbag and after a moment of silence asked, "If it was the end of the world, who would you rather be with. Me or Koshino?"

Mitsui's fingers tapped nervously at the edge of the black-marbled bar before he replied, "I'll answer that next time."

"Iie, I want an answer now," Eri pressed.

"Yosh. Answer me this first then," Mitsui shot back, "Between me and Sakuragi, who would you pick?"

"You," Eri answered without hesitation.

Mitsui ran his fingers through his short hair in annoyance, "I mean, Sakuragi, the millionaire, the computer whiz, the red-headed-"

"The Sakuragi Hanamichi that I introduced Koshino to?" Eri interrupted, her low voice edged with annoyance.

"Yes!"

Suddenly, she was gone, leaving Mitsui to drown his sorrows with his glass of iced alcohol.

After an hour and one more drink, Mitsui left the cafe. As soon as he sat down behind the steering-wheel of his car, his eyes caught upon the amulet hanging silently on his rear-view mirror.

"What good are you for?" Mitsui grumbled flicking the amulet with his fingers before tugging it down. Rolling down his car window, he threw the plastic-wrapped up piece of paper out into the street in disgust. With a sigh, he began to start the car when he saw the patterned-paper snatched up by the wind to fly straight at him that he nearly had a heart attack. Catching it deftly before it hit his face, Mitsui cursed, "Shit! Shit! If this isn't a sign then nothing is!"

While one hand struggled to hang the amulet back on his rear-view mirror, his other hand scrambled to get his mobile-phone from his pocket to dial a number, "Tetsuo! Help me out. Get me a bike. Full-faring..."