In an office building where one of the largest exporter of technological manufactured product in Japan was located, a scarred-face man showed worry on his handsome face as he talked through the phone to his colleague who was fifteen minutes late with the contract.

"Take the subway if there's a traffic jam. Hurry up, will ya. I'm waiting for you," said Mitsui urgently to Koshino.

At that moment, a young woman approached Mitsui in hurried steps and asked breathlessly, "Is the contract on the way? My boss is getting impatient."

The young man hung up on his caller and quickly stood up to plead, "The contract will be here soon. Help me stall your boss. Onegai. You have the beauty and the wisdom. C'mon, help me."

The young female assistant sighed, slowly falling for his charms when a friend of hers suddenly appeared to tell her excitedly, "Sakuragi Hanamichi is here!"

"Nani?" gasped the young woman.

Mitsui blinked, "Who's Sakuragi Hanamichi?"

"You don't know? He's the founder of one of America's largest internet server 'The Genius'. He's Japanese but he went to live in the States with his American grand-father where he began his business in the computer industry. Now he's back in Japan to stay! He's good looking and is worth over 20 billion dollars!" she answered before giving Mitsui a grin, "To have him laying his eyes on you is better than winning the lottery. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go and add some make-up."

The scarred-face man chuckled, "Sure."

When the woman left, Mitsui saw to his surprise, that all the other women in the office, young and old, were also rushing to get themselves done in the hopes of catching the attention of the famous Sakuragi Hanamichi. He even saw a slim young man fussing with his hair and jacket in a corner nearby. Teasingly, Mitsui asked, "You're doing yourself up for this Sakuragi guy as well?"

Instead of being embarassed, the slim young man winked rougishly,

"Who knows what his preference is? I may get lucky."

"That's true," laughed Mitsui.

"This way Sakuragi-san."

"Hai."

Mitsui turned around to see three men entering the office led by a young secretary to walk towards the office of the head-manager of the company. Being taller than the average guy himself, Mitsui was surprised to see that the person whom he assumed to be Sakuragi Hanamichi even taller than him. He could be a basketball player for all he knew. What also caught his attention was the shocking red-hair unusual for someone whose brown eyes held the hint of Asian but with Sakuragi's fair colouring, it did not look odd at all.
What probably made the red-head look distinguished was his air of confidence as he strode across the office, flanked by his associates carrying breifcases which Mitsui humorously guessed contained documents to gain more billions of dollars into the Sakuragi bank account.

"Impressive," Mitsui whistled to himself.

Koshino hopped off the taxi to rush to the subway to catch the train to the other side of the city. Squeezing through the throng of rush hour crowd, the young man gripped his briefcase containing the contract close to his chest, afraid that it might fall and get lost with the way the people were pushing against him. Even with the train full to the max, he forced himself in and when his stop came he pushed through the other riders, reaching the destined business complex at better time than if he stayed with the taxi ride. He had a few blocks to go before he could reach the office building where Mitsui was waiting for him when he suddenly slipped a footing and sprained an ankle. The young man cursed but kept on walking, taking more thought in getting the contract to Mitsui as soon as possible than of the balance of a good ankle that it was of no surprise that he also sprained the other one. The young man felt tears coming to his eyes as the pain shot from his feet to his brain but he forced himself to go on.

After two more blocks, Koshino had to stop and sit on the steps of a buildling to examine the extent of the injury to his feet. After a few seconds of massaging his ankles, the young man took a deep breath and continued on his way.

"The contract is still not here? My boss is leaving for his flight now," the young female assistant told Mitsui worriedly.

"My colleague will be here," Mitsui told her plaintively, "It's the traffic jam, believe me."

"Maybe we'll talk this thing over when my boss comes back," the woman suggested.

"Iie. That'll be too late," Mitsui frowned.

"Mitsui!"

Mitsui turned to the entrance to see Koshino walking sluggishly towards him. He rushed towards the young man and quickly grabbed the contract which was held out to him.
"What took you so long?" Mitsui admonished before he ran back to the female assistant, thrusting the manila envelope in her hands. "Here it is! Your boss can read it on the plane later," he said, pushing her out the door so that she could catch up with her superior.

As Mitsui and the woman ran out, Koshino only stood bracing himself against the wall. When he couldn't take it any longer, the young man collapsed to the floor wincing with pain.

"Hssss...." Koshino hissed as he slipped his hand under his sock to feel the swelling on his left ankle. Without a doubt the other side would hold the same affliction. The people in the office merely stared as they walked past, trying not to trip over him.

A few minutes later, Mitsui walked in, picked up his suitcase lying on a couch where he was waiting a few minutes ago and walked back towards the entrance, passing by Koshino with an order, "Get up, let's go."

"I sprained my ankle," Koshino said sullenly.

Mitsui suddenly stopped and walked quickly back to the young man, dropping on his knees to take a look, "Which foot?"

"Both," Koshino grimaced when Mitsui touched the sore spot.

Mitsui looked up and stared him in surprise, "So you stumbled your way here?"

"Aa," Koshino nodded.

The young team-leader looked at Koshino with a measure of respect and humility for a few moments before he picked up the young man's suitcase and said, "C'mon, I'll help you walk."

"No, it's okay," Koshino said hurriedly, trying to snatch his suitcase from Mitsui's hands.

"Iie, I'm going to help you," Mitsui persisted, helping Koshino up carefully but applying a firm hold to his arms so that the young man could not decline his aid. As Mitsui slipped his arms around Koshino's waist and slung the young man's arm around his own shoulder, he quipped, "Besides, you look awful just sitting here."

Koshino snorted, making Mitsui chuckle as they carefully made their way out the office.


~~~~

"Remember, don't eat anything oily and don't get your ankles wet, or you could get arthritis," Mitsui advised.

"Aa," Koshino nodded, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. It was weird to hear such advise which might have come from his mother coming out from the young man sitting beside his bed instead.

"Take a good rest."

"Aa," Koshino sighed.

"Okay," Mitsui nodded, satisfied, "Remember what the doctor said. Take the day off tomorrow. If you're still not well, call the office."

"Aa."

"I'll go now," Mitsui said, "I'll lock the door on my way out."

"Doumo arigato gozaimas," Koshino bowed from his seat on the bed.

When he heard the click of the door signalling that Mitsui has left, Koshino dropped onto the covers of his bed with a weary sigh. With a small smile on his lips, he fell into a fitfull sleep with the memory of Mitsui's warmth around his body.

The handsome blonde man sat back with an air of ease as Mitsui looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"Iie," Mitsui said.

Eri looked at her ex-husband with surprise, "Nani?"

"Iie," Mitsui repeated.

The blonde man sighed, "That's too bad. I was hoping to meet this Koshino person."

Mitsui shrugged carelessly, "I'm sorry, man. You're just not his type."

"Gomen ne, Mikeru," Eri apologised before looking at Mitsui from the corner of her eyes.

A few minutes later another young man with side-parted hair sat in front of the couple with a look of seriousness on his narrow but attractive face.

"Iie," Mitsui shook his head.

Eri arched her eyebrow at Mitsui before she turned to the brunette, "Gomen ne. Can you go fetch your brother now?"

The brunette shrugged and left and in a few moments another brunette walked in and sat in front of Mitsui and Eri.

Mitsui blinked, "Ano, Eri, they're twins..."

"So?"

"So... well, they look the same," Mitsui pointed out.

"But that does not mean that they like the same things..."


After a few minutes of argument between the two, Eri finally relented and brought in the final contender. This guy was fat with rectangular glasses and was not even using a coat to impress Mitsui as the blonde and the twins have done. When Eri told Mitsui to lend his coat over to the fat person, he still was not able to acquire any sophistication especially with the packet of potato chips in his hand.

Eri sighed, knowing that Takamiya was the worst she could ever have picked to be Koshino's date but to her surprise, Mitsui declared, "Not bad. He's the one. He's good enough."

"Are you serious?" Eri gaped.

"He's good," Mitsui nodded, "Really!"

"You're attracted to Koshino, aren't you," Eri accused.

"Nani?" Mitsui laughed.

"Why would you pick Takamiya against the studs we saw earlier?" Eri demanded.

"You think those guys were studs?"

"You think he's one?!" Eri exclaimed incredulously, pointing at the fat man.

"Of course he is!" Mitsui agreed, "No doubt about it!"

"Doumo, lots of people say that I am," Takamiya said proudly, before turning to Eri, "So when are you going to introduce this guy to me?"

"In your dreams," Eri said lowly, turning towards Mitsui.

"He's asking you, answer him," Mitsui said a bit meekly, trying to distract her from her suspicion.

Eri rolled her eyes and turned back to Takamiya, "Go home and wait for my call."

"Yosh," the fat man bowed, getting up, "Do you have my number?"

"Aa," Eri said boredly, waving him away before she turned her cold blue eyes towards Mitsui who seemed to have taken a sudden utmost interest in his drink.


~~~~

The next day, Mitsui arrived at the office early in the morning when only the cleaning lady of the floor was present to greet him good morning. As he passed by the empty tables to walk towards his private room, his feet suddenly stopped before they turned left to bring him towards Koshino's empty cubicle.

"Are you free tomorrow? I'll take you to dinner. Wear something fancy."
Okay, Mitsui thought to himself, That sounded fine...

The scarred-faced man turned and walked away only to retrace his steps back towards Koshino cubicle and start again, this time with a charming smile on his face, "Are you free tomorrow? I'll take you out to dinner. Wear something fancy."

"Oyaho."

Mitsui turned to see Koshino holding a mug of coffee and looking at him in curiosity.

"Ah," Mitsui smiled, suddenly feeling nervous, "You're back. Are you feeling better?"

"Hai," Koshino nodded, "Thank you for asking."

"Un..."

The two young men stood in the empty office in silence, one waiting for the other to speak while the other shuffled nervously on his feet, trying to gather up his courage to say what he has already practiced to say.

Finally Koshino got tired of waiting and asked, "You want to take me out to dinner tomorrow night?"

Mitsui blinked in surprise before he nodded in affirmation, "Uh, h-hai."

"You want me to wear something fancy?"

"Hai."

"Ah."

"Um..I'll pick you up at seven at your place?"

"Hai."
Koshino blushed and Mitsui thought that he looked cute. Suddenly he did not want Koshino to meet this man that he picked out to be Koshino's date. Sure, the guy is fat and unsophisticated but there is a chance that Koshino might fall for him.... Nah...

"Ok, see you then," Mitsui smiled.

That night:

"Is that your dinner jacket?"

Koshino looked down at his black but fasionably tailored suit and asked, "Why? I like it."

Mitsui sighed. The young man still could not grasp the concept of colours but he had to admit, Koshino did look nice in that outfit. While his suit was still black it was still stylish and instead of the crisp white shirt that Koshino usually wore to work, he was now wearing a navy blue shirt which seemed to shimmer with purple highlights, showing Mitsui that it was made out of something much softer than cotton.

"It's okay," Mitsui affected a careless shrug before he gestured to Koshino to get in the car.

As Mitsui began to drive them to the restaurant, the scarred-face man spoke up, "We're going to have Italian tonight."

"Sure," Koshino replied. And then there was comfortable silence before Mitsui spoke again, "Maybe we should call this off."

"Nanda yo?" Koshino blinked in puzzlement, "Why? You don't like my clothes?"

"Iie. That's not it," Mitsui began hesitantly as he turned his car to the right, "It's just that the guy-"

"What guy?" Koshino asked, surprised.

"The guy that you'll be introduced to," Mitsui said as a matter-of-factly.

"Why are you introducing me to a guy?" the baffled young man asked.

Mitsui cleared his throat nervously before he told him, "Eri wanted to do this. It was not my idea. But don't worry, I've met him. He's not so bad."

Koshino found himself reaching for the tissue between their seats.

"Kind of cute with his chubby body," Mitsui continued oblivious of Koshino's mood. When Mitsui realised that the other young man was doing his damnest to scrub his car clean with the pieces of tissue in his hand, the scarred-face man sighed, "What's wrong? Don't tell me you're upset with this."

When Koshino refused to reply, Mitsui brought his car to the side but Koshino kept on cleaning the inner side of the passenger door furiously.

"If you don't like it I can-" suddenly his celullar phone beeped forcing Mitsui to stop the conversation to answer it, "Yeah? Yeah. We're almost there..."

When Mitsui hung up, Koshino finally turned to face him with a glare. Mitsui gulped.

Suddenly, a car pulled over and double-parked beside Mitsui's car. The scarred-face man brought down the window to holler, "Hey! You're blocking my car!"

When the driver ignored him and ran off, Mitsui cursed, "Yaro!"

"Why are you doing this?"

Mitsui turned back towards his colleague and saw Koshino's expression filled with hurt.
"C'mon, it's not my idea-" he began.

"Is this really what you want?" Koshino cut in.

When Mitsui stayed silent, the young man with middle-parted hair pressed, "Is this really what you want?"

"Uh... 'might as well go and get it over with..." said Mitsui weakly.

"Okay, fine," Koshino growled and suddenly he was out the car without another word.

"Hey, Koshino! Koshino!" Mitsui called out. When Koshino refused to stop walking away, he tried to get out through his door but with the distance the other car was parked beside his, he only managed to open the door two inches wide.

Koshino finally arrived at the Italian restaurant alone where he ignored the matre de and stalked towards a table angrily as soon as he saw it occupied by Eri and another person in a leather jacket.

When he sat down, Eri stared at him in puzzlement, "Where's Hisashi?"

"I don't know," Koshino replied grumpily.

The short-haired woman looked towards the entrance for a sign of Mitsui and to her relief he appeared a few seconds later. Excitedly, she waved at him to catch his attention and he immedietly walked over with an anxious look on his face.

As soon as Mitsui saw who it was sitting with Eri and Koshino on the table, his steps faltered. Instead of Takamiya, Eri brought another person whom Mitsui knew he had not met when he and Eri were interviewing Koshino's perspective dates-to-be.

"Hey," Sakuragi Hanamichi grinned, picking up a helmet that was sitting on the fourth seat, "C'mon, sit."