Part 1: You're here again

"You're here again," he stated. He didn't even bother with pretending to look surprised this time, and something about that fact made it even worse.

"I'm here again," she shrugged, smiling even though it did little to hide her red eyes. "I hope you don't mind."

He paused from making his tea before resuming again, "I do mind. The client will come soon, go… stay at my office."

Mai blinked once, and then again. She watched as her boss turned to face her with a cup of tea in hand. He leaned on the marble top of the kitchenette. She slowly let a grin slip on her face and as her grin got bigger, the look on her boss's face turned grimmer.

"What?" he finally asked.

"You do care!" She cheered, fortunately helping her forget the reason she was in the office in the first place. "I knew it, I grew on you over the past 5 years!"

When her boss did not comment, she picked up her jacket from the couch and sighed. "Thank you, Naru. I'll make you some tea after I freshen up."

The past 3 years made Mai a master at spotting the subtle emotions on Naru's face. The look of relief when he set the cup down was enough to make her giggle to herself, he never accepted the fact that he couldn't make tea from leaves.

Inside Naru's office, she set her jacket on the wall and walked in the small restroom. She washed her face twice, glancing at the cup by the sink with a lone toothbrush and only then did it sink in to her that she had been coming by the office too often that she had practically started to live there.

Which brought her back to her problem.

Mai hadn't expected to go to university because she couldn't afford it, despite how big of a salary her job at SPR provided, but by the protest of Yasuhara, who told on her to the Takigawa's, she reluctantly took an exam on "One! Just one university, and I don't pass, I'm not going."

With her Animalistic Intuition, as Naru so graciously commented upon her results, she barely managed to pass. But a pass was still a pass, so she started her university life.

Coincidentally, she met a guy, and so it began. She'd never actually thought she'd fall for someone who isn't Naru (or Gene, as Naru so graciously suggested). They met when she accidentally entered the wrong classroom, and on the way out, she bumped into him (a second-year that time) and she showed her to the right room.

In her defense, he was perfect when they first met. He was polite, kind, and actually very funny to spend time with. He understood the importance and the strangeness of Mai's life and the people around her. He was also handsome, not naturally-handsome-like-Naru, but handsome in a sense that he presented himself neatly.

After a year of dancing around the line of friendship and romance, she finally had the courage to ask him what they were, to which he answered: "If we had to name it, I'd like to call you my girlfriend."

It wasn't like the novels she read, where there were sparks everywhere and fluttery feelings when touching fingers. It was just a comfortable feeling where she felt she could be who she is, and that he would accept her.

(Which, when she thought about it, she never really was lacking at feeling loved. Everyone in SPR spoiled her too much).

But nothing was ever perfect.

Mai sighed. There was a knock on the door and she snapped out of her thoughts.

"Mai, you better still be breathing in there. Boss-man told me to break the door if you don't come out in 5 minutes and prepare his tea."

She rolled her eyes and stepped out of the restroom, "If you broke the door, he'd charge you 3 times the regular amount to fix it."

"I'm sure he'd understand if I say I did it for you," Yasuhara laughed. "Maybe even get a discount."

A/N: Enjoy my unfiltered angst (?) By that, I meant that there will be about 80% grammatical errors and I hope you forgive me for it.