Mai was beyond bored, working at SPR was terrible. Seriously, naru had rejected the last two cases and she had already run out of paperwork. She was even keeping up with tea, that is how sad it was. Tapping her finger on the desk, impatiently, she had already decided that this was ridiculous. She needed to do something! Maybe she could bug one of her co-workers. Naru would make some kind of rude comment, and make her furious, she didn't exactly feel like being upset right now.
There was always lin, but he would just ignore her right? She had never really tried to get to know him, though. He was also the only one who didn't call her by her first name, and she wasn't going to lie that bugged her. This was her imaginary family, whether anyone else thought that way or not, and families called each other by their given names.
Resolve swelled in her, she was going to get on good terms with lin, and he had no choice! This was her daydream, and she wouldn't let some cold hearted Chinese man ruin them. Besides he had saved her multiple times, so it is time to fix this! Now how to go about it, the Chinese man was sharp, and surely he would pick up that she was bored. No she had to do something so off the wall, that he couldn't just shut the door in her face, like he always does when she gave him tea.
She would have to be sneaky, yes indeed, she would have to be like...like...yasuhara! No that was a discouraging thought. Sitting down once, she pulled out a piece of paper, and started to brain storm.
The next day, she sat fidgeting at her desk, why was time so slow? She ended up spending most of her night trying to figure out what to do, and she had finally settled on one, all she needed to do now was to wait till closing. She had come to the conclusion that she would do it before she left, so that way she could escape if she needed too.
"Fifteen minutes left..." she quietly whispered to herself, tapping her finger impatiently she glared at the clock. 'Move faster' she thought desperately. Getting up, she went to make the tea, but proceeded to do it slower than normal. Once it was completed she took the first cup to her boss, decideding to get him out of the way, first. Leaving her with plenty of time to tackle her task.
After delivering naru's tea, with out a thank you received, she went back to the kitchen, to straighten her skirt, and grab an item from the cupboards. It was a plate of brownies, corny right? Well it was the only thing she could think of, and the only supplies she had, at the moment. Grabbing his cup, she boldly walked towards his office, only to have a onslaught of nerves attack her the closer she got.
'Suck up, Mai it's now or never!' taking a deep breath, she quietly knocked on the door, and waited. It seemed like an eternity before he opened the door.
With a cold expression on his face he answered "Yes, Tanyami-san, is there something you need?"
'There was that Tanyami-san again, would it kill him to say my name?' she thought bitterly, whilst she was wearing a smile. "Before I leave I thought I would bring you some tea." she said as the cup was passed, "Also I wanted to thank you for all the times you have been there to help me, thank you lin-san" she held out the plate with a low bow. She dared not to look at him, for she was afraid of his disapproving reaction.
She felt her hands become light as the package was removed from her hands, looking up in surprise she found him staring at her with an unreadable expression. "Thank you Taniyama-san, if there is nothing else, then I will get back to work." he stated as he was closing the door.
"Wait!" she exclaimed, she really didn't know why, it just slipped out. He turned back to look at her with an expecting expression on his face.
"This is just an idea, but I thought well, how do I say this," she was wringing her hands with how nervous she was, "Would it be terrible if we say got to know each other better? I know you don't like Japanese people, but I think..." she faded off as she lost where she was going.
He just raised an eyebrow at her, "I do not have time to ideally chit chat, there is work to be done." he stated matter-of-factly.
"How about I ask you just one question, that is it? Just one, that way over time we could get to know each other, I guess?" she meekly added.
"I will consider it." and with that he shut the door in her face, leaving her stunned. He would consider it? She hadn't been hoping for that much, even. Filled with new excitement she left, to go plot out some good questions.
Two days had passed, and she hadn't received even a comment from lin, on anything. In fact, he was ignoring her as much as naru did, which made her feel lonely. "Geez, I didn't think that a simple question would cause this much trouble.." she grumbled under breath. Life had been getting harder for her, it wasn't anything big really. Or that is what she told herself. Honestly she was just getting this major sense of loneliness, lately, it just hung there over her head, like some kind of ominess rain cloud.
Yet she couldn't figure out why, nothing had triggered it, well not that she knew of. True she hadn't seen her pseudo family for a month now, but that had happened before right? Sighing she got up, and decided to take the tea to the two mimes she worked for, before calling it a day.
She walked slower, her peppiness had ebbed away over the last couple weeks, as the feelings crept into her heart. Knocking on the Chinese man's door, she waited silently, it was unnerving. The tall man stood before her, as he opened the wall that was between them, looking down at the sullen girl, he wondered what had gotten into her.
"One question, and only once a day, starting tomorrow, understood." he stated as she handed him the cup. Once she heard that her eyes light up like bulbs, bowing she excitedly said a "Thank you Lin-san" before skipping off.
'Well that was unexpected.' he thought as he returned to his desk. He seriously considered asaying no, but he had started noticing her fake smiles, which made him reconsider. He had never seen her so, down? If that was even the right word. In fact he didn't think he would actually agree to it, but after seeing her demeanor today, he made a quick alteration to his plan. Hoping he wasn't going to regret it, he returned to his paperwork.
The next day evening, to her word, she was there at the end of the day, knocking on his door. She spent the entire day trying to decide what to ask. She even asked her school friends what they thought, which turned out to be a mistake. They incessantly bugged her for the rest of the day, asking if she had a crush. She of course said no, but that still didn't shut them up. After finally escaping them she went to work like normal, which now lead her to this moment.
He once again opened his door, this time with an exasperated sigh, for he knew what was coming. Taking her tea, he looked at her expectantly. "Well..." he said in a bored tone.
"Oh, what is your favorite dessert?" mai said shocked as it was not the right question, resigning herself that, it would have to do, and she waited quietly for the answer.
He sat thinking, he was not expecting that one, he assumed it would be like color or something, "I don't like sweets." her face fell when he finished. That means he didn't like her brownies? He had turned around and disappeared back into his room, leaving mai, who was still upset about the new discovery. He returned a minute later with the plate from a few days before.
"Thank you for the brownies Taniyami-san." he said with a bow after she had retrieved the item, and then closed the door.
She was left to wonder, about what happened to her chocolate gift, did he throw them away? He did say thank you though, arghh this is confusing. Stalking off she decided tomorrow better be a good question.
The next day was pretty much the same except for naru decided to take a case of a poor helpless client, saying they would be there the following day. She was excited, now her 'family' could be together again, just like old times right? Wrong, when everyone arrived that afternoon, to be briefed before the following morning, there was a sick kind of tension in the air, it was suffocating.
After going through the tea ritual once again, and delivering it to all of the guests, she was forced to take a spot on naru's left, instead of her normal spot on the right, which was now occupied by lin. 'Strange...' she thought to herself, 'he never has taken my seat before...'
The obnoxious boss then proceeded to run down the list of abnormal occurrences, that had been plaguing the family, which she totally ignored. No she was busy trying to think of a good founded question to ask the stoic man who was seemingly staring at her.
'I could ask about favorite holiday?' she thought absentmindedly, 'Or maybe what he liked to do as a kid? No to personal I think..' she continued down her list that had been previously memorized, during the slowest part of the day.
"Taniyama-sama, did you hear anything that was just said?" came the clear deep monotone drawl of the man in question.
"Huh?" she asked, now fully aware that everyone was staring at her, "Eto...Suuurrrreee?" she replied as she questioned herself.
"I don't pay you to zone out when I am talking, everyone is excused, lin re explain everything to mai," he stated as he glared ice daggers at the young girl, standing up he walked towards his office, only to stop and look back once, "Oh and I am deducting it from your pay." and the door slammed after him.
She said goodbye to everyone, sadly, before resigning herself to the inevitable. After him motioning, she followed the extremely tall man into the forbidden office. She remembers being in here once, but was shooed out before she could blink.
Taking a look around, she realized she could gather alot of information from his work space. It was well organized, meaning he was naturally, or he went out of his way to make it so, his chair was facing away from the door, meaning he was confident in his abilities, and it seemed more mature than naru's office.
"Take a seat." he stated while pulling his chair to sit directly in front of the small yet cozy looking couch, that was against the wall, she wandered how many nights he spent sleeping here? Would naru really keep him that late? The answer was probably yes to both questions.
"Taniyama-sama your spacing again." same a slightly irate voice.
"Sorry, I was just thinking about how I have never really got to see the inside before.." she trailed off when she saw a random object in the corner, she even blinked thrice to make sure she wasn't making it up.
"Taniyama-sama, I suggest you ask your question now before you get distracted again." he pointedly said, "That way we might actually get something done."
"Ah.." she couldn't tear her eyes off of it, was it real? "What...Why?' she was caught in a trance like stare, whilst turning a beat red, "Why do you have a frog lamp in the corner?" she practically screamed.
His expression was priceless to say the least, it was a mixture of confusion, realization, embarrassment, and flustered. "Wha...what made you ask that?" he said trying to compose himself.
"It is right there!" she pointed at the offender.
"I don't know what your talking about.." he straightened his tie, coughing as he did.
She started jumping frantically, "But it is right there!"
"Taniyama-sama I will answer anything but that question." he was looking anywhere but her direction.
"Fine I will ignore it for now, only if you address me by Mai!" she defiantly stated.
A mischievous smile emerged on his face, "It is a deal if you take that...thing home with you." he had a small bit of venom in his voice.
Later in the evening she sat, admiring the ridiculous frog lamp that was now placed in her room. She drove a hard bargain, but in the end she came out with the better deal, she agreed to take the monstrosity home, if...he let her in to his office to ask the question daily.
Also he had to take her to lunch every week, if they didn't have a case, along with he would have to ask her a question pertaining to herself, and he would have to be friendly. The argument had lasted nearly an hour, and he ended up taking her home, well dropping her and that indescribable thing off.
Smiling she rolled, and fell asleep wandering what tales this lamp could tell her, one day she would have to get it out of him...
"Goodnight Lin.." she mumbled to the object as she fell fast asleep wandering what tomorrows' question will be.