Chapter 1

.

.

At exactly 9:53 pm, when the moon has risen 16 degrees from the horizon, and the temperature was sitting at 8 degrees Celsius, 46.4 degrees Fahrenheit, Seto Kaiba was exactly 31 hours into his weekly marathon work routine. He took a sip from his cup of ginseng tea, something he recently switched to after his usual choice of Ethiopian coffee caused him elevated levels of irritability and anxiety. The doctor who diagnosed his addiction was promptly fired. In exactly seven minutes, the flat screen HD TV disguised as a Monet will automatically switch on, programmed to broadcast the morning news from the US.

As interesting as his rigid weekly routine is, this story is not about his monotonous choice of lifestyle. This story is about a few wonderful coincidences, a lot of drama and very little duel monsters.

Because at that same time, 9:53 pm elsewhere in Domino City, a girl got off a train, a suitcase in one hand, and a map in the other. She blew a strand of her wispy light blue hair out of her face as she walked down the platform her eyes wide absorbing all of the sights around her.

It's always hard to say where love starts. Sometimes it's in the spur of the moment, sometimes it is a work of art 5000 years in the making, but usually it starts with a boy and girl.

... ... ... ... ...

They met exactly 27 days later at 9:53 am, under a normal and slightly boring circumstance. Seto Kaiba who celebrated his first month since quitting coffee, got out of his limousine five minutes earlier in front of the Kaiba Corp Tower. Celebrating, in the context is heavily loaded with sarcasm. The coffee withdrawal was the icing on top of a large pile of unwanted annoyances. Mokuba had run off with his friends for a thoughtless trip to Europe, and only bothered to let his brother know seven minutes ago, five hours into his trip.

He really wanted coffee, so he reasoned to himself that one cup could not possibly bring an onset of addiction; after all it wasn't like cigarettes or cocaine. However since his switch to ginseng tea, all coffee products had been removed from his top floor so that there would be no temptations. He had to get coffee in the prestigious cafe on the first floor. When I say prestigious I meant one small cup of coffee was equivalent to an hour of minimum wage.

Usually Seto Kaiba dedicated one act of charity every month. As he stood in line for coffee instead of the usual "I own everything so I have ultimate line cutting power", he checked off that box. However when he finally made it to the front of the line, two minutes later, the girl whose name was Maiko had just reached her break time. Instead of getting the much desired coffee, Kaiba had to wait a further one minute for the aggravating girl to get replaced by some else, another girl who was clearly late, judging by the amount bowing of apologies that was going around.

"What can I get for you sir?" the girl said with a bright smile, adjusting the apron that she hastily tied on. The minute hand struck the fifty third minute.

Kaiba glared at the girl, something about her was uncomfortably familiar, though he couldn't recall what exactly that was. "I want a triple shot of Sidamo, black."

The girl nodded as she carefully wrote it down, feeling the hair on the nape of her neck spike at the hostility in her customer's glare. "Can I recommend our daily freshly baked raspberry tart?"

"No."

The girl bit her lip and forced herself to smile, "Ok that will be 653 Yen."

As per standard procedure, she left her till and went to make the coffee. It was her 9th day on the job, and she had learned to expect stressed employees as early as 8:00 am. This young man must be a new intern and possibly his boss has been giving him a hard time. After poorly speculating the circumstance, she would resolve to make the coffee to the best of her abilities. 30 seconds later, Kaiba took the paper cup straight from the girl's hand to his mouth.

Kaiba slammed the cup down, his eyes narrowed unpleasantly. "I asked for Sidamo coffee, this taste like instant coffee from the convenience store."

The girl's warm smile waned slightly as she looked at the cup. "I can assure you sir that I did not miss that, but I will make another one."

She turned around robotically and made her way back to the coffee machine, determined to get the order right. She was allowed to deny customers this service, if the waiting line was long, but oddly there was no one else in line. She shrugged off the curiosity and remade the coffee.

Seto Kaiba on the other hand had been scrutinizing the girl very carefully. He knew he had seen her somewhere before as he racked voluminous data in his head for the faint source of recollection.

"I hope this one is to your liking sir," the girl said with another smile, placing the coffee in front of him.

Kaiba took the coffee wordlessly. He didn't bother to taste it. Instead he swept around and started to walk away. He had wasted too much time already and there were far more important issues piling up on his unattended desk.

"Wait sir! You didn't pay!" the girl called after him slightly frantically.

This last comment was like the single neutron as it struck into a radioactive Uranium atom causing the end of WWII.

THe polished loafers of Seto Kaiba stopped as he turned around sharply. "How long have you worked here?" he asked deceptively calm.

The girl could feel the dread slowly filling her stomach, "I just started a week ago," she answered timidly.

"I see, well here's a piece of advice for your soon-to-be next job; take 20 seconds out of your pointless life and learn the name and face of the owner."

At 10:00 am, there were 63 couples in Japan that ended their relationship, 103 lovers sealed a final vow of marriage, and 276 kisses were shared.

... ... ... ... ...

Some people believe that when the stars in the sky make an arbitrary pattern, then star crossed lovers will find each other. Some people believe that it is a collection of choices that determines the end result. I don't know. But I do know that this love story started with a boy and girl.

A/N: Yay Romance and drama, I wanted to write something cute and sweet. =D Please review!