"Professor, look what I bought!"

Ginrei burst into Go's office, a shopping bag hanging from her hands. The girl stopped almost instantly, worried, seeing the professor huddled at his desk, his head in his arms. She approached Go cautiously, and then poked at his back.

"Professor? I bought you mittens..." She said softly.

"Ah, thank you, Farmelle," he said absentmindedly. Ginrei glanced over, finding him poking the computer mouse back and forth. Ginrei took a step back, annoyed.

"Don't you have work to do right now?"

"I finished it a few minutes ago..." Go sat up and turned to face Ginrei. "The Chief came in to review it, so I have the evening off now."

"Well, why are you acting so weird?" The little Ginrei crossed her arms, looking at him with pity. "You should go out and get some exercise instead of just sitting here!"

"I just needed time to think..." Go picked up his fan from the other end of the table and pressed it to his lips.

"About the Chief?"

"...Maybe."

Ginrei tilted her head. "Do you like him?"

Go shrunk back, his fan spreading to cover the blush spreading across his face.

"Why don't you just tell him?"

"Goodness, no!" Go exclaimed, horrified. "I could lose my job!"

Ginrei, naive about the whole situation, simply dumped the bag of mittens on Go's desk and held out a large pair she'd bought. "I was going to give these to Mr. Kenji, but you can give them to the Chief."

"Ginrei, please, I'd like to think by myself," Go said, his tone sharper now. Ginrei moved back and ran into the hall.

She headed back to her room, deep in thought. She almost considered running back into Go's office and retrieving her pair of mittens, but didn't want to agitate Go any further. Ginrei knew she also couldn't just let Go sit around hopelessly pining over the Chief.

Let's see, she thought. The Chief is only a little bit older than the professor, so that's good. Nobody really knows what he likes, since he's always working...

Ginrei remembered a few weeks ago when she was in the middle of class - the IPO had its own in-house tutor for the young agents - and she had glanced out the window to find Go deep in the park outside, starting his first class of Basic Training. In a black jumpsuit and ponytail, Go was firing a gun haphazardly at a target while bawling in fear, and this continued for a moment until Chujo ran forward and grabbed Go by the shoulders, holding him back. She vividly remembered watching Go drop the gun and bury his face in his hands, while Chujo walked him back to the building and yelled at whoever was leading the training. She never saw Go out there again.

In Ginrei's mind, the two were made for each other.

But there wasn't a chance of Go telling the Chief anytime soon.

She went into her quarters and locked the door. After a moment of digging through her desk in search of paper, she pulled out the most sophisticated stationery kit she had; beige notepad paper with pink and brown flower print. She sat down at her desk with a pen and begun to brainstorm what Go would write in this situation.

Dear Chief Chujo,

Ginrei stared at it for a moment, worried she'd already made a critical error. She wished she could look at something Go had written for reference, but let it go and continued.

I must inform you that I have fallen in love with you. You are very nice and handsome. Everything about you is

She almost went with "great", but paused to look for a fancy word Go would use.

Everything about you is divein

"That's how it's spelled, right?" She asked aloud, a bit proud of herself for using 'divine' in a sentence.

Everything about you is divein, from your

"This just got really hard..."

from your ink black hair to your dark brown eyes.

"There we go!"

I really like even just seeing you. Please come to me and tell you that you love me too and I will be the happiest person on earth.

Love,

Go Gakujin

She paused. After a second, she went back in and drew a heart over the o's in 'love' and 'Go'.

Satisfied with the letter, Ginrei reached for an envelope, carefully folded the letter up and slid it in. She almost licked the envelope until she realized she'd never seen Go do that when he had to write letters. Sighing, she tucked the envelope flap into itself and went out to the hall.

She almost collided with Tetsugyu, whom was running up the hall. He saw the angry little girl behind him and started running away faster.

"Get back here! I need your help!"

The bulky sixteen-year-old headed back to her, looking down at her with confusion. "Why? What is it?"

"I need to deliver a letter to the Chief, but I can't do it alone!"

"You're scared to talk to him?"

"No! I just need to make it look more official!"

Tetsugyu paused for a moment, and then shrugged. "Well, all right. Let's go."

They reached the control room a few minutes later, finding the Chief pacing behind three computer operators at work. Tetsugyu and Ginrei gingerly stepped into the office, Ginrei clutching the fake love letter. Chujo turned to see the kids, an indeterminate look on his face.

"Kids, what is it? We're kind of busy."

Ginrei held out the envelope. "It's a letter from Professor Go."

Chujo's face didn't change. "Is it urgent?"

"Sort of." Ginrei glanced at Tetsugyu; he was biting his lip, avoiding looking in Chujo's direction. She had explained the situation on the way, and he hadn't reacted like she wanted.

"Well, I'll give it a look..." Chujo took the envelope and began opening it. Ginrei would have wanted to watch, but Tetsugyu grabbed her arm and pulled her out into the hall, giving them a narrow view around the doorway corner.

"Oh man," Tetsugyu chortled as quietly as he could. "When he reads that, he's gonna kill someone."

"No he's not!" Ginrei angrily whispered. "I bet he likes the professor, too."

"Are you insane?" He replied. "He's probably gonna come after you with his Big Bang Punch."

They quietly watched Chujo conclude reading the letter. He adjusted his glasses, and the two got a glimpse of his eyes wide and confused.

Ginrei moved up the hall, terrified. She was barely comforted by the sound of Tetsugyu's footfalls behind her. He was drawing closer.

"Big Bang Puuuunch," he sung, his fist slowly moving past the side of Ginrei's face.

"Tetsugyu, shut up!" She shrieked, shoving him away. She broke into a run back to the agent quarters.

Go decided to make himself busy by cleaning his office. He was in the middle of organizing his filing cabinet - strangely the most fun he'd had in weeks - when there came a knock at the door.
He went and opened it, but nearly fainted upon seeing who was on the other side.

"Chief," he breathed, looking around. Do I have anything strange sitting around? Does my hair look okay?

"Ah, good evening, professor..." His hand went into his jacket pocket and produced a small letter on girly stationery paper. "You wouldn't happen to have written this for me, would you?"
Go took the letter and read. His jaw slowly dropped.

"What...what..." Go looked like he was going to cry. "Of course not, Chief!"

"I had a feeling something was wrong with it. Your handwriting has never been this sloppy."

"I'm so sorry you had to see this, Chief..." Go's hands trembled.

Chujo nodded stiffly. "So, everything in this letter is a lie?"

"Well, er, uh..." Scared, he simply nodded. With a quiet voice, he added, "Um...yes."

"Well, that's a bit of a shame..." Chujo cocked an eyebrow, bemused. "It really did make my evening. I was even considering taking you out for dinner."

Go was unable to respond. A faint squeak escaped his lips.

A silence passed over the two.

"Would you be willing to—"

"Of course, Chief!" Go sputtered, his face flushed. "I'd love to!"

"I'll meet you back here at six," Chujo nodded, smiling. He turned and headed up the hall before Go could say anything, let alone digest what had just happened.

Ginrei watched Chujo leave, safely obscured by a corner far down the hall. Chujo had left fairly quickly, and with Go's office door open, she could see Go slump against the wall.

Panicking, she rushed up to his office. "Professor!"

He was huddled by the door, his head in his arms and hardly seemed to notice Ginrei's presence. She grabbed onto his sleeve and tugged on him repeatedly.

"Professor! Professor, I'm so sorry!"

Go turned to look at her with a dreamy look on his face. "Ginrei, this is the greatest night of my life..."

She took a step back. "Wait, what?"

"A date," he breathed, looking up to the ceiling. "I have a date with him..."

Relieved, Ginrei went back into the hall.

"Oh, and Ginrei?"

"Yes?"

"You're grounded."

Fin