Heels were heard clicking on the tiled floor, the woman seeming to be heading somewhere in a hurry.
Upon reaching a set of double doors, the woman ignored the silver coloured nameplate that was fixed on the wall beside the wooden doors and instead barged straight into the room without knocking.
The individual who sat in the large room at his desk, clicked his tongue once hearing his office door being flung open by the force that the woman had burst in.
"There's a fucking door for a reason.", the male said, not bothering to look up from his paperwork, already knowing who had entered his office without permission.
The male was used to the woman barging into his office but at the moment, after completing the endless load of paperwork, he was not in the mood to hear the woman's loud voice.
"Shorty, I heard you rejected the invitation!", and here was the woman's loud voice that the male had been dreading to hear.
The male's eyebrows were furrowed in a small frown, not too pleased with the use of the nickname. But rather than the nickname that the woman had used, it had been the topic that she brought up which made him feel more frustrated.
He knew that sooner or later the woman would have found out about this and then pester him into attending this event.
What had previously happened 2 weeks ago, the male had received an invitation to his high school reunion that is to take place in a couple of days time from today. But the male had rejected the invite since he wasn't one to socialise with others.
"Shitty Glasses that's none of your business.", the male snapped at the woman.
And it seemed that he too, had a nickname for the woman who stood in his office.
Now for their real names.
The woman who had barged in, is Hanje Zoë, usually addressed as Hanji.
Next, the male who sat at his desk is Levi Ackerman.
Both were 26-years-old and worked at the same company, although their positions varied greatly.
This company is a famous designer company, not only known for its branded clothing but well-known for manufacturing automobiles. So this company consisted of two departments, one specialising in the fashion side and the other for manufacturing vehicles.
Hanji worked for the automobile department, handling the whole process of actually making the vehicles. The woman enjoyed working behind the scenes, experimenting with different parts to create quite extraordinary vehicles.
As for Levi...well he is the CEO of the whole company. There's nothing much to explain since his position says it all.
"Oh come on, everyone is attending.", Hanji exclaimed as Levi went back to concentrating on his paperwork, ignoring the woman who was rambling on how the reunion was an ideal place to see how everyone is doing now.
Levi had no interest in seeing how everyone from his high school days were doing. He wasn't getting big-headed, but as the male's company grew, he's noticed that the number of 'fake' people had increased.
Putting on a mask and kissing up to him since he had a lot of money.
Levi hated this.
He was sure that some of his classmates were only inviting him so that they could try and leech off him, so Levi decided to avoid these kind of settings as much as possible.
And besides, there wasn't anyone he was interested in seeing again.
Having ignored what the woman was saying, Levi's attention was only caught when a certain name was mentioned.
The pen in his hand stopped writing as the male looked up from his papers once again.
"What did you just say?", his words were somewhat soft.
The male was feeling tense at the thought that he may have misheard what the woman had said, so he was just praying to God that those words he had heard were true.
Hanji paused, seeming to realise that she got Levi's attention.
"I heard Saki will be coming.", she repeated what she had previously said.
'Saki.', the name echoed in Levi's mind, 'How long has it been since I heard that name?', he thought.
"Someone managed to get in contact with her and Saki had responded back saying that she'd attend.", Hanji said, although she seemed to notice that Levi was in his own thoughts.
The woman quietly sighed.
"Seriously Levi, after all these years, this may be your last chance to see her again. Are you just going to give that up?", Hanji asked, not wanting to bring back old memories since she knew that Levi had been through a lot.
Levi snapped out of his thoughts as he looked back at Hanji.
"I'll come.", he said.
Hanji smiled softly at her friend's decision.
The two may be employer and employee, but back in high school they were friends...even if Levi denies it, which he often did and still does.
"I'll let the others know then.", Hanji said with a smile as she headed out of the male's office.
Levi leaned back on his chair once the woman left, staring at the ceiling as old memories swarmed his mind. He quickly shook those thoughts away, not wanting to get his hopes for the reunion when he had already been hurt once.
Several days later...[The evening of the reunion]...
Levi had gotten off work early that day, going home to take a shower before getting dressed in a fresh suit.
Having been contemplating on several suits, the male finally made up his mind.
Next was the hair.
Levi tried on different hairstyles, testing the slick back hair style which he usually uses when it's for a formal business dinner, then the usual style parted in the middle. He decided not to go too fancy and went with his usual style.
Even though the male had told himself that he wasn't getting his hopes up this evening, it seemed like the male was dressing up to please a certain someone.
Finally getting dressed and adjusting his hair, the male put on some cologne before heading out where his chauffeur was waiting.
Some time later...
A pub had been hired as the venue for the reunion, lots of people having turned up obviously since it had been almost 8 years since graduation.
As Levi had expected, lots of people had approached him, not particularly because they liked him, but because they knew how famous his company was.
They also had an idea how rich Levi would be, so they had approached him, in the hope to ask for a 'favour', but the male never falls for that bullshit.
Levi's glare sent everyone scurrying away, no one daring to start a conversation with the male because that's how terrifying he looked.
So while Hanji had gone off to 'mingle' as the woman had put it, Levi sat a table by himself with a glass of water. The male was not drinking alcohol, as his heart was anticipating to see a certain individual.
The only person who had approached the raven haired male had been Erwin, but Levi hadn't spoken much to the blond male since the raven haired male didn't have anything to say to him.
Once again, Levi was sitting alone at the table, his steel grey eyes searching the room, trying to find the person he had really wanted to see this evening.
Hours passed by and Levi glanced at his watch to check the time.
Dinner had already been served and a few people had left.
It was 9PM right now, Levi's mood having dropped since he had indeed gotten his hopes up.
Levi's head suddenly snapped up, steel grey eyes frantically searching the room when he had heard the familiar name.
"Do you know how long it's been Saki?", the male could make out that this was Hanji's voice and Levi quickly got to his feet, having almost knocked over the table as he stood up.
He followed Hanji's voice, feeling his heart hammering in his chest the closer he walked to where he had spotted Hanji.
Then Levi finally saw her...
Saki Ueshiba.
The female he had been waiting for, not only for this evening but for over 8 years.
Hanji had her back to Levi so she didn't notice the raven haired male approaching.
In front of the tall woman stood a short female.
The short female wore a navy blue coat that was buttoned up, scarf wrapped around the female's neck and a black beanie hat covering her head. She could be seen wearing black jeans and black boots.
It was clear that the female was cold, not only because the layers gave it away but so did the female's red nose. It was winter time now, Christmas and New Year having long passed but the temperature was still as low as ever.
The short female's hazelnut eyes which had been focused on Hanji, soon noticed the raven haired male approaching. Her eyes lit up, catching Levi off guard as he felt his heart squeeze at the sight of the female's eyes.
"Levi.", the short female spoke up with a bright smile.
'That smile. It hasn't changed.', Levi thought.
As for the raven haired male, he could not process a single thing that was happening around him as his eyes did not move away from the short female who stood there.
He wondered whether he was dreaming right now?
For how many years had he wished for this day to come...so that he could see her again.
"Levi, isn't it great to see Saki again?", Hanji spoke up since the raven haired male had been silent.
Erwin was standing on the other side of Hanji, having also greeted the short female who had come in late.
Again, Levi did not respond as his eyes didn't move away from the short female. He was in too much shock, except that his expression did not reveal this.
Erwin cleared his throat, breaking the awkward atmosphere as he spoke up.
"You arrived quite late today, were you busy?", Erwin tried to start a conversation since Levi wasn't saying a word, when he had been the one who had waited for the female for so long.
"Well I was still at work.", Saki replied with a sheepish smile, the female had failed to notice the time until she had been reminded by her colleague.
Then while getting here, there was a bit of traffic so once Saki arrived, she hadn't expected to see a lot of people here.
The short female turned her attention to the raven haired male.
"Are you well Levi?", Saki asked.
The only reason the short female had attended this reunion was to see the raven haired male, but now having seen Levi, her mind had gone blank as to what she had wanted to say.
There had been so many things she wanted to tell the male, so many things she wanted to ask him but all of her words had disappeared the second she saw him. So all Saki could do right now, was ask if he was doing well.
Levi gave a small nod as he couldn't form any words, his brain still trying to get back to the present time. His mind and body felt frozen in time, as the male had no idea how to start a conversation.
He had waited for this day for so many years, but now that Saki was here in front of him, why was it that no words were coming out?
The female smiled lightly once she got a response from the male while the back of her mind wondered if Levi held anger towards her.
Not wanting to stay and find out, Saki decided to leave because she didn't feel ready to be confronted by Levi on what had happened that day.
Saki turned back to Hanji.
"Ah then, I'll be taking my leave.", Saki said with a small smile.
"Eh? But you just got here!", Hanji exclaimed.
"I still have some work to do for tomorrow.", the short female said.
"Why don't you eat something before you leave?", Hanji asked.
"It's fine.", Saki shook her head, "I've already had dinner.", she said, "See you around then.", the female gave a small bow before heading towards the door.
Saki was beginning to think that this was a mistake.
'Perhaps, I'm the only one dwelling on the past.', Saki thought as she internally sighed to herself.
"You're losing your chance.", Erwin whispered to Levi as the blond male walked past.
Levi's brain finally clicked as his body moved on its own.
"Saki.", he called the female back.
Hanji grinned once Levi made the first move and decided to follow behind Erwin so that the two could talk alone.
Saki had turned around, looking up at the male who now stood in front of her.
Now that they were standing close, the height difference between the two was very much visible. Of course Levi was short for a male his age, reaching the height of 160 cm, meanwhile Saki who is a 25-year-old was much shorter than the raven haired male, her height being 145 cm.
Not only did this 15 cm difference make the pair look adorable, but it made the short female stand out in a crowd since she was really short compared to others her age.
Taken back by the sudden closeness, Saki took a small step back.
"Can I have your number?", Levi asked, having pulled out his phone and going to contacts before holding his phone out towards the short female.
"Huh?", now it was Saki's turn to be slow at processing things as she was still in her own thoughts.
"Brat, it's to catch up.", Levi looked away once he realised that his words came across as aggressive, "When you're free that is.", he added quietly.
Saki smiled lightly at this as she took his phone off his hand, typing in her phone number before handing it back to the male.
Levi saved her contact information before pressing the green call button.
Saki's mobile phone soon began ringing and the female had quickly pulled it out from her coat pocket, putting it on silent mode.
"I-I'll save it.", Saki looked away from the phone screen, "Okay bye.", she had avoided the male's eyes before hurrying out of the door.
Levi stood there frozen in surprise.
'That ringtone just now.', Levi thought before shaking his head.
"T'ch.", he clicked his tongue.
'It's just my imagination.', he told himself before looking at the number that was saved on his phone.
After Saki had left, Levi found no reason to stay any longer, so the male had left several minutes after.
When he got home, the male had been staring at Saki's number for some time, deciding whether to send her a text but Levi had no idea what to write to her.
He had literally only seen her for a couple of minutes today.
Just a couple of minutes after 8 long years.
The next day...
Now having arrived at his company, Levi went on with his daily routine, trying to come up with the first conversation starter but he was having no luck as to what to text her.
The male was walking down the corridor with his secretary bedside him.
"Sir, there's a meeting at two this afternoon...", the secretary began listing Levi's schedule for today.
The CEO was only half-listening to his secretary since his mind was preoccupied with something else.
Though, Levi had a fair idea of what he had scheduled in for today so it wasn't like this information was too important.
Levi soon stopped in his steps, making the male who had been following behind almost crash into the CEO.
"I'm sorry sir.", the secretary apologised in fear that the raven haired male would snap at him.
But Levi's attention was elsewhere, his eyes having spotted a familiar individual.
A group of people were seen heading into the lift, but it was the short female wearing a black cap on her head that caught Levi's attention.
"Saki.", he whispered her name, wondering if he was beginning to imagine things since he had been thinking about her the whole day.
He saw two of his employees stand outside of the lift, giving a bow to the short female. Saki returned the small bow as the lift doors closed.
'What is she doing here?', Levi thought with a small frown.
Levi remembered the faces and names of each of his employees, but Saki was not in his list of employees. Then what had she doing at his company?
The CEO approached the two males.
"Who was the young lady wearing the cap?", Levi spoke up, making both males jump.
Both males had instantly given the CEO a formal bow before one of the males answered the raven haired male's question.
"Miss. Ueshiba is the Head of the Financial Management Department.", one of the males responded.
"She's been sent from Survey Corps.", the second male replied.
Survey Corps was a leading company, internationally known for the variety of products it manufactures and they had some business deals with Levi's company for some time now.
Levi was just surprised to have seen Saki again when she had been the thought of his day for several hours now.
"This is her first visit?", Levi asked, since he hadn't seen nor heard about Saki visiting his company.
"Yes sir.", the male replied, "We're reaching a deal for the new three-wheeler vehicle.", he said, "So we'll be confirming all the costs and profits tomorrow.", the male said.
This piqued Levi's interest, quite pleased to hear that Saki will be coming by tomorrow as well.
Even though he hadn't managed to have a conversation with her yesterday, the mere sight of the female brought this strange warmth to his chest.
"I'll be attending tomorrow's meeting.", Levi said as he walked past the two males, "Zen.", the male called his secretary who quickly ran over with his notebook in hand, "Fix that meeting in tomorrow's schedule.", Levi said.
"Yes sir.", the secretary made a note of it as he followed Levi along.
Zenko Uchida was Levi's secretary's name, addressed as Zen for short. The male had worked as the CEO's secretary ever since the company was opened.
"The CEO is attending tomorrow's meeting!", one of the men exclaimed, "Get all the documents ready.", the two men rushed to get all the work done since it wasn't everyday that the CEO was seen to attend such small meetings.
This meant that if Levi Ackerman was attending such a meeting, then it's for an important reason and none of them wanted to leave a bad impression on their boss.
Meanwhile with Levi...
The male sat in his office, a faint smirk on his face as he remembered the meeting that's scheduled for tomorrow. It looks like he'd be able to see Saki sooner than he thought.
And just a few hours ago, he had been furiously thinking of ways to start a conversation with her, but now he found his chance.
The next day...
At around 10.30AM, Saki was seen entering Levi's company with several of her colleagues following behind. The short female was dressed quite formally, except for the black cap that was on her head.
As she sat down in the meeting room beside a raven haired female, Saki noticed the small commotion that was taking place inside.
The workers seemed to be in a frantic mode for some reason and this confused the younger girl as she didn't know why they were panicking when it was just a small meeting.
People were running out sorting out the tables and chairs, a few others were setting up the projector while others were neatly placing papers in front of each chair.
"Mika, is something supposed to be going on today?", the short female whispered over to the raven haired girl.
The taller female checked her notebook with a small frown.
"I wasn't informed on any changes to the schedule.", the raven haired female said.
It seems that the raven haired girl was Saki's secretary, the tall female named Mikasa Ackerman.
Saki Ueshiba is 25 years old, her secretary being older than the short female. Mikasa is 29 years old, so it was a bit strange to find that an older person was the secretary for a younger individual...but perhaps there was more to it.
The two females watched everything being set up in a hurry, wondering if something important was supposed to take place when they were just here to finalise the deals with this company's latest product. And if something important was scheduled for today, Saki hadn't been told about this and neither had her secretary.
The short female didn't think much of it as she waited for everyone to settle down. She'll find out what it is that was making the other workers jittery.
Hazelnut eyes soon fell on the door which opened, the female paused when she spotted familiar raven hair.
Realising who it was that had walked in, Saki adjusted her cap as she sat up before leaning closer to Mikasa to whisper something.
"Who is that?", Saki asked quietly.
Mikasa's eyes fell on the individual who was now sitting down, as the workers around had made way for the short male.
It was Levi Ackerman who had walked in with his secretary following behind. The raven haired male's employees rushed to sort out the last minute materials.
"He's the CEO of this company.", Mikasa responded, recognising the male from articles and newspaper reports which she had read.
"The what?", Saki was just surprised after hearing this.
The short female was in charge of the Head of the Financial Management Department, so the female worked with lots of different companies. And although the 25-year-old had never been interested in remembering the names of the CEOs, the female was excellent when it came to numbers.
After all Saki was a genius in Mathematics, but not once had the female ever come across Levi's name.
And just the day before, Saki had met Levi after so many years but they hadn't spoken a word to each other except for a small greeting.
Saki looked at the raven haired male, just as his steel grey eyes landed on her.
She stiffened at first but the female then kept up with the eye contact for a few more seconds, trying to figure out what the male was feeling.
But Saki found that Levi was still an expert when it came to masking his emotions, just like the old days.
The female diverted her eyes elsewhere, as she felt her heart going jittery at the mere sight of the male's eyes.
Saki was glad that the meeting soon started since she used that as a distraction to avoid looking at Levi.
As the short female seemed to have her mind focused on the details of the meeting, she failed to notice the steel grey eyes which watched her from afar.
"Sir, the copy.", Levi's secretary handed the raven haired male a document.
Levi finally pulled his eyes away from the female, deciding to bring his attention back to what the meeting was about.
Saki twirled the pen in her hand, her eyes seemed to be uninterested as she read through the document. The female could hear an argument breaking out between one of Levi's colleagues and her colleague, something about a budget problem.
The short female sighed quietly.
"I'm sorry, did that hit a nerve?", one of Levi's colleagues said sarcastically, "Do you really expect us to accept this deal when you make mistakes like this?", the male said.
Right now, the male was trying to get an increase in profit for their product that their company had just manufactured.
"This profit would double in value depending on how it does in the market.", Saki's colleague snapped back at the male because of the harsh statement that was mentioned earlier, "We cannot just make an assumption that your product will hit it off, when there are other three-wheeler vehicles also coming in line for the competition.", he said furiously.
"What would a youngster like you understand about market when you can't even make simple calculations?", Levi's colleague attacked back.
"You-", Saki's colleague was interrupted by the short female herself.
"Kogane.", Saki called the male's last name.
The male named Daisetsu Kogane looked at the short female, silently taking a seat before he spouted back any harsh words to the older male which he would later regret.
All the attention went to the short female who had gotten her colleague to control his temper.
Saki turned her attention to Levi's colleague, the male who had just been arguing with Kogane just now.
"Sir, please don't personally attack my colleague for no justified reason.", Saki spoke to the man in a formal tone, even though the man had previously been so offensive towards her department.
Before the male could speak up, the short female continued.
"Sir, have you read the datasheet your company submitted?", Saki asked.
"What does that-", the male got interrupted by the short female.
"It's a yes or no response sir.", she said.
The male clenched his jaw as he answered her question.
"Yes I have.", the male said.
"Then you've noticed the values on page 4, line number 12?", the female continued, not taking her eyes off the male as she waited for a reaction.
Rustling of papers were heard around the meeting room as everyone went to find the values that the female had pointed out just now, Levi also doing the same thing.
"What of it?", the male snapped back as he stared at the digits on the piece of paper, stiffening slightly when he noticed what these numbers were.
Saki had caught onto the slight change in the male's behaviour as she continued while hiding her amusement.
"It seems that out of the hundreds of testing that was done, there had been a faulty engine on that testing date.", Saki said.
"That's not true-", the male was cut off as Saki continued as if she hadn't heard the male.
"According to the hazard report that had been filed, there had been a few damages, including an automotive transmission which caught on fire.", Saki said.
"It-", the female didn't allow the male to speak.
"The estimation to replace a single transmission is around ¥315833 to ¥428630.50.", Saki said, "The profit which you seem so keen on increasing to, it looks you'll be able to recover this damage.", she glanced at the paper in front of her before looking back at the man who had spoken harshly.
The male looked like he was ready to burst.
"The Financial Management Department will not provide coverage for the damages sustained during testing as this is not our responsibility.", the female said, "So we will not be making any adjustments to this current deal.", Saki turned to her colleague, "Kogane.", she called the male and he stood up.
'Still as blunt as ever.', Levi watched Saki with a faint smirk.
Kogane picked up a small pile of documents that needs to be signed by the other party,placing it at the centre of the table.
"You-", the male was prevented from swearing at Saki by a male who sat beside him.
"Oi, that's the Head of the Financial Management Department, don't lose your temper.", the male whispered making the angry man sit back down.
Saki stood up before grabbing her coat.
"If you'd like your product to be put out onto the market tomorrow, please have the papers signed and sent over by twelve today.", Saki said, giving them a bow as her colleagues followed behind the short female.
Hazelnut eyes made brief eye contact with the CEO's steel grey eyes, which hadn't moved away from her form.
Saki gave Levi a faint smile,the male smirking lightly after seeing how the female managed the whole situation well.
With the group having left, Levi looked back at the datasheet that Saki had pointed out to. Even the male himself hadn't been made aware of such an incident happening at his own company, but he was even more furious at the way his employee had conducted this meeting.
"Sir, I can explain this.", the male who had previously snapped out at Saki and her colleague, Kogane, spoke up.
Levi got to his feet as a dark aura surrounded him.
"My office. Now.", Levi said as he headed to the door.
"B-But I-", the male got interrupted by the CEO.
"Did I stutter?", Levi said with a cold tone.
"No sir.", the male said as he lowered his head.
"T'ch, then get your ass in my office.", Levi said with a cold tone before he left the meeting room.
The male flinched at CEO's tone as he got to his feet with slight fear. Everyone knew that the man, who was just called to the CEO's office, was dead meat.
Some time later...
Levi sat in his office as a small sigh escaped his lips.
He was exhausted from having roasted the man who had caused a scene in the meeting this morning.
Let's just say the man looked like he would shit his pants after hearing Levi's cold tone and words.
The male had been fired by the CEO, the raven haired male already having appointed someone new for the position that had been vacant just several minutes ago.
The CEO was very strict with his colleagues since he had built up this company from scratch, so the raven haired male didn't let any mistakes go by freely. After all, his company wouldn't have reached the top if he took things lightly.
"Zen, get me coffee.", Levi told his secretary as he leaned back on his chair.
The tall male gave a nod as he left the room.
Once the male returned back with a cup of coffee, he placed it in front of the CEO, along with a small stack of documents that Levi had previously asked for.
"Sir, these have been signed and approved, shall I have them sent off?", Zen asked as he waited for Levi's approval.
These were the documents handed over by Saki's colleague, the female having told them to hand it in before noon.
"No.", Levi replied as he took a sip of his drink, "I'll personally hand them in.", he said.
Zen was going to suggest that there was no need to go to that extent when he could get someone else send them over, but the secretary knew that the CEO wouldn't do anything without a reason.
"Have the car ready in 15 minutes.", Levi said.
"Yes sir.", Zen gave a bow as he left the office.
The raven haired male then looked back at his phone, to the text message he had sent Saki just a while ago.
"We need to talk.", Levi had texted along with the time he'll be arriving at the café.
"It's time for you to owe me an explanation Saki.", Levi said before finishing his coffee and getting to his feet with the documents in his hand.
'We were close before, weren't we? So why did you disappear like that, without saying anything to me?', Levi thought to himself.
Today, he wanted his answer.
Meanwhile with Saki...
Saki stared at the text message from Levi as she sat in the car.
'How do you expect me to tell you?', Saki thought to herself.
"Mika, fill up my schedule today.", Saki spoke to the raven haired girl who sat in the front seat beside the driver, while the short female sat in the backseat.
"I'm busy today.", Saki typed in the message but hesitated to send it to Levi.
"Are you sure you want to do that?", Mikasa asked as the raven haired girl looked back at the short female.