(Natsuki POV)
Natsuki glares at her 'tormenter' who happens to be one of her best friend, Nao, the owner of one of the hottest club in town.
If she didn't lose her job, she wouldn't be in this unfortunate situation. Well, she doesn't feel sorry for throwing a male colleague on the ground; she does regret losing the job though. Well, that male colleague had to keep pestering her to go out with him.
The said male colleague happens to be the son of the boss. So when she threw him on the ground as a reflex reaction of being touched (on the shoulder) without consent, her body did what it does best. Defend. And the best defense is offense.
After laughing her ass off hearing Natsuki's story, Nao finally has something to say. "Natsuki, of course I would love to hire you. I need a bouncer."
"Nao, what is the catch?" There is no way in this life time that Nao will be nice to her.
"Oh, there is no catch. Just I get to pick the uniform."
And when Natsuki sees the "uniform", her face flushes so hard at the dress. The said dress is deep V at the front and low cut at the back. And couldn't the dress cover more of the thigh?
Thankfully, Mai's ramen shop is not far. At least she could cool her head down over a lunch.
"Natsuki, what are you doing here at this hour?" Mai is genuinely happy but surprised seeing her best-friend-since-high-school at such an early time of the day.
"Well, I kinda lost my job."
"And it makes you so upset?"
"It is Nao. She offers me a bouncer job. But with a ridiculous uniform."
"Really? I have got to see it for myself." Mai unintentionally voices her honest thought.
"MAI?! Not you too!"
With a chuckle, Mai says, "Whatever uniform that gets you this upset, that has to be one interesting uniform."
"I am desperate, ok." Natsuki's grumpy mode now officially becomes grumpier.
"Fine. I will serve your favourite ramen to cheer you up."
"Thanks." This must be one of those days when everything seems to be going against me. Natsuki eats her food and now heads back to Nao's club.
Nao doesn't harbour any evil intention, but that doesn't mean Nao derives no pleasure from tormenting her at every available opportunity. And Natsuki just serves that big fat opportunity on a fancy plate.
"Fine, I will do it. When do I start the job?"
The night Natsuki starts working is officially the worst day of her life. She thought that bouncer is supposed to be off the limit. How innocent of her to think that Nao would at least help, but NO, Nao has to encourage customers to try hitting on her.
And those customers have a healthy mix of both male and female customers.
She would not let Nao has the satisfaction of seeing her in agony. At least she tries by keeping a straight face and throwing eye dagger everywhere.
Nao, on the other hand, absolutely enjoys seeing her friend in absolute agony. Natsuki's frown deepens with more and more customer hitting on her. Oh, life is good.
(Shizuru's POV)
Shizuru likes taking customers and colleague to Nao's club. At least the cute waiters and waitresses in the club help to distract the customer and colleague who try hitting on her. And alcohol does help.
Growing up in an elite family, Shizuru is taught to behave nicely to people, even people she doesn't like.
Today's not her lucky day. Today's client, Tomoe Marguerita is particularly aggressive and doesn't seem to be distracted by the cute girls on the dance floor.
Not that she has problem with a female trying to hit on her (more like trying to get into her pants), but she does have a problem with someone she doesn't have feeling for constantly bugging her.
It gets harder to pretend to be pleasant with this Tomoe client.
"Excuse me please. I have to greet the club's owner." Shizuru leaves without giving Tomoe a chance to reply. And she desperately needs to get away, even for a brief moment, from Tomoe's excessive hinting of 'the night is still young'.
Greeting the club's owner at the bar is the polite thing to do. "Nice seeing you, Nao-san. Ara, you have such a nice bouncer there."
"Shizuru-san, you could try to hit on her if you want. I bet she would love it."
"Nao-san, I would love to but I don't think she would appreciate it. Did you say that to all your customers? That must be why she has such deep frown."
Being a regular in the club, Shizuru obviously spots the new bouncer in club. Well, based on the amount of customers hitting on her, many customers notice that too.
"A friend's misery is my pleasure. And hers in particular."
"I hope she is not your girlfriend. Or she would be extremely upset with you."
Nao looks like she just swallows a fly. "Natsuki?! Not in a million years. I don't even think that stoic ever kisses someone before. Talk to you later."
Shizuru tries to hide her surprise. Someone as attractive as the bouncer can hardly stay single for long. And she can't help thinking that Natsuki is such a pretty name.
Coming back to the table, Shizuru notices her drink is full even though she never orders another one. "Shizuru, I order the same drink for you." After a small sip, she notices something is not right. She doesn't drink that much of liquor to feel this drowsy.
She immediately reaches her hand to someone outside the table. "Help. The drink..." she could only mumble those few words before collapsing.
Tomoe sees her chance and immediately says, "Sorry, my friend has too much of drink. I will take her."
"No, you don't." If Natsuki is annoyed before, her annoyance has just escalated to a whole new level.
***
(Natsuki's POV)
She tries to rush to this table when she spotted the teal-haired lady putting something in the drink. Nao did remind her to be aware of guests' sneaking in illegal drug.
And when she gets to the table, her temper flares when this woman collapsing in her arm after mumbling a soft "help".
"You better don't come back here again." With a tone as harsh as steel, Natsuki warned the teal-haired woman.
Natsuki lifts the woman in her arm and heads to where Nao is. "Nao, this customer..."
"Shizuru? What happens to her? She was nowhere this drunk when I talked to her earlier."
"Someone at her table spiked her drink. Is there somewhere I can put her down?"
"Just go to my office. I will deal with the 'friend'. No one messes around in my club."
As soon as Natsuki drops the woman on the couch, she sighs. "Well, you need to be more careful next time." Looking at the woman, Natsuki couldn't help thinking that the woman is indeed an exquisite female specimen, with the awfully good look and body.
"And who are you, stranger-san?"
Natsuki, surprised by the voice, now finds herself lying on the soft rug carpet. And the fine-looking woman is now on top of her.
"Ara, it is Natsuki-san~~~"
"Get off me." Something tells her the woman is not acting right.
"Not until you answer my question. Have you never kissed someone before?"
"Who told you that?" Blushing and caught by surprise, Natsuki unknowingly gives her answer.
"Nao-san did. But you have such fine lips..." Before Natsuki could even curse Nao, she finds the woman's face now only at a breath away and is KISSING her.
"What..." And a tongue slides in the moment she tries to open her mouth.
Natsuki realizes that she is being given French kiss by the stranger. As soon as the realization kicks in, she goes on defence mode and wrestles her way out.
"Ouch! That hurts." Shizuru pouts when she is flipped and now lies on her back.
"Stop! Moving!" And what is with that ridiculously cute pout.
"I was just trying to kiss you." Shizuru says, while putting on her most innocent look. With her one free hand, she starts traversing the curve of her captor.
Catching the other mischievous hand, Natsuki puts more pressure on Shizuru's wrist.
"Natsuki, is everything alright?" Nao goes into the office when she notices Natsuki is still not back to her post.
"Nao! Get her off me!" Natsuki, both arms holding Shizuru's wrist on the floor, says the most incorrect request ever.
"Well, well. It seems I should be getting you off her, don't you think?" With a smirk, Nao looks like she just catches the biggest dirty secret of Natsuki. And this dirty secret is so much juicier than Natsuki's secret lingerie collection.
"She keeps mo...molesting me." Natsuki is officially a tomato now.
"Natsuki, her drink is likely to be spiked with some drug. I don't know what drug that is, but I have an idea what it does now. Well, you take care of her. I will manage things at the bar." Oh-my-goodness, all their close friends, especially Mai, would kill to get the details of the story from her.
"Wait, Nao! Don't leave me here with her."
"Don't worry. The drug will wear off after some times. In the mean time, don't worry. I will lock the door for you." Hiring Natsuki is the best decision ever. She can have endless fun teasing Natsuki later.
"Nao, wait!"
As soon as the door clicks, Shizuru reverses her position with the distracted Natsuki.
Natsuki groans at the pain in her back, but silently she thanks the soft rug for absorbing much of the impact. Looking at Shizuru, Natsuki thinks that this is going to be a very long night.
Thankfully the drug wears off after some 30 minutes; anyway, Natsuki lost count of time. She has to keep pinning the drugged woman to avoid her from moving around or more precisely, from keep molesting her. When the exhaustion kicks in and movement weakens, Shizuru starts dozing off.
Finally~~~ a very relieved and blushed Natsuki gets up. After putting a blanket on Shizuru, she leaves the room and off to face the unavoidable worst disaster.
"Natsuki~~~" Come on. Not Mai too.
Mai comes as soon as she wraps up work in restaurant. Well, thanks to Nao mentioning that Natsuki is hitting off with a female stranger in her office.
"NOT. A. WORD." Natsuki says. Her tone suggests a high level of annoyance and grumpiness, while her blushed face portrays an excessive amount of embarrassment.
"Aw~~~ I want to meet the lady you..."
"NOT. ANOTHER. WORD"
**** THE NEXT DAY****
"Ara, Natsuki. Thank you for so much for saving me yesterday." And without much hesitance, Shizuru kisses Natsuki's cheek.
Natsuki takes a sudden leap backward holding her now-very-blushed cheek. "Just because you are cute, that doesn't mean you can do what you want."
"Ara, Natsuki thinks I am cute. I am flattered."
Natsuki has feeling that her days will never be in peace again.
-END-