Chapter 2:

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This chapter is corrected by Kamikakushi, THANKS A LOT!! Gives Kamikakshui a BIG hug

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"Uncle, are you okay? You look so tired."

A worried little boy looked up from his breakfast at the beautiful man who was sitting across him.

Fuji only made a little nod and continued to drink his coffee. He didn't feel like eating breakfast today—it made him feel sick somehow. Fuji looked at his own reflection in the coffee. Yeah, he really did feel very tired, and bad. He hadn't slept at all yesterday, as he was thinking about the children of St. Maria orphanage throughout the night. No matter what, he would protect the children from Tezuka. No matter what!

"Are you sure? Because you look like a panda right now."

Yuuta kept staring at his uncle worriedly while he pointed at his own eyes.

Fuji felt a sudden pang of guilt. He knew this little boy was really worried about him. Maybe he shouldn't have been so rough to this sweet little child. After all, he had nothing to do with the tragedy from a decade ago…

Fuji put the coffee cup down and smiled down at the little boy while he picked up the pencil and a sheet of paper and wrote:

I'm fine. Don't worry about me…

Before Fuji could write more, a deep voice rang from behind him.

"Yuuta, shouldn't you be getting to school?"

Fuji didn't have to turn around to see whom the deep voice belonged to. He knew it was Tezuka. He could feel the tension in his body, but he kept smiling to the innocent child that was sitting across from him. There was no way that he'll show any of his weaknesses!

"Ah, you are right, brother Kunimitsu. Then, see you later, uncle Syusuke and brother Kunimitsu!"

Yuuta jumped down from the chair and danced out of the kitchen, before waving sweetly at Fuji and Tezuka.

Fuji smiled and waved back to the child. But after he had left the kitchen, it felt suddenly very, very cold.

"Dear uncle, are you ready now?"

Fuji shook his head while he lifted his hands.

"I will be ready as soon as I have seen my father."

"Very well. Then I'll meet you at the living room later," said Tezuka, before he turned and walked out of the kitchen.

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Fuji was surprised to see his sister, Yumiko, sitting beside his father's bed at this time—so early in the morning. He tried to ignore his sister by walking directly to his father, but a worried voice caused him turn around to face his sister.

"I'm worried about you, Syusuke… You shouldn't have come back…"

Fuji narrowed his eyes while he signed with his hands.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to take the property of the family away from you, or to inherit the company. You know that; so there's nothing you need to worry about," said Fuji sarcastically.

She looked at Fuji, hurt.

"You still can't forgive, can you? I know I don't have the right to ask you for your forgiveness, but you don't understand me. I'm worried about you. This place is no longer safe for you to stay. Therefore, you should return to the US as soon as possible. The Fuji Family is no longer the Fuji Family you once knew…"

Fuji looked at her confused. Was it fear he just saw in his sister's eyes?

"You must watch out for Tezuka; he's known to be very sly and a cruel businessman in the market. Therefore, don't trust him! He's a very dangerous man; you'll never know what he'll do to you, or the orphanage."

Fuji looked alarmed when she mentioned the orphanage.

"What do you know about the orphanage?"

She closed her mouth immediately, she turned around and walked out of the room quickly, muttering, "I know nothing, I know nothing…"

Fuji stared at his sister's back until she disappeared from the room. What was that all about? Fuji was sure that she knew something about the orphanage. He thought about what she just said about Tezuka. But… he had no choice to but follow Tezuka's order! In order to protect the children in the orphanage, he would do anything…

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They came to a beauty salon called "The Kikumaru Beauty Salon". Tezuka guided Fuji into the shop, while he looked at the worker who was standing behind the desk.

"Nya! Welcome, welcome! Wow, I never thought that you, the manager of the Fuji Company would come to my salon! What kind of wind is blowing today, nya?"

The cheerful voice sang out in the salon. Fuji looked at the beautiful young man who was walking towards them from behind the desk. This man with dark red hair reminded Fuji of a cat, somehow. His eyes were large and bright, shining like a star. He was a little bit taller then Fuji himself.

"Shut up! Oishi has already told you that I would be here today, right?"

Tezuka looked annoyed at the cheerful person who was still smiling, mocking him.

"Did you think that I, the Great Kikumaru Eiji, planned to spend my whole day standing here, behind the desk, waiting for you? Neh?"

Another mock laughter came from the cat-like man who called himself Kikumaru Eiji.

"Then hurry up. Your big mouth will only bring you more trouble!"

While Tezuka stared at Eiji angrily, he took up a cigarette from his pocket and was about to light it, when suddenly, Eiji snapped the cigarette away from his hand.

"My dear Tezuka, didn't you know that it's banned to smoke in public places? If you do things like that on purpose, you will only get into more trouble. Do you believe that I won't throw you out of my salon?"

That bastard! Tezuka growled angrily inside him. He stared angrily at his friend while he put the lighter back inside his pocket.

"I don't have time to waste!"

Eiji narrowed his eyes while he smiled innocently.

"Nya! Yeah, the great manager of the Fuji Company must be really busy! So busy that you actually have the time to do something meaningless like this. How come I don't find you busy at all? And how come that I, Kikumaru Eiji, am so bored that I have nothing to do besides watching Tennis behind my desk? How dare you to say the word 'busy' in front of me?"

Eiji smiled coldly at Tezuka.

"Are you going to do it or not?" Tezuka bursted out angrily.

"Of course I'll do it! As long as I get the money! Who would be stupid enough to push away money like that?"

Eiji turned around and faced Fuji with a big warm smile.

"What a pretty person. Too bad you chose this guy, 'cause this guy is the most arrogant person you'll ever meet!" He sighed. "Too bad…"

"If you don't want to take this job, then shut up! We'll find someone else."

"I was just bubbling. You don't need to get so pissed, mister ma-na-ger!"

Eiji turned around and faced Fuji with a big warm smile. He walked up to him, and held his arms up and guided him into the salon.

"Come back in about 2 hours and you'll see what great work I do. Within these 2 hours, I don't want to see your face! You got me?"

Tezuka snarled at Eiji before he turned and walked out of the salon, pissed.

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"Your eyes seem confused. Your whole face seems to be filled with questions, and your whole body is asking 'why?'. Haha… do you really want to know the relationship between that bastard and I?"

Eiji was holding a pair of scissors in his hand while he was cutting Fuji's hair. He smiled kindly at the reflection of Fuji in the mirror. When Fuji heard his cheerful laughter, he was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts. After hearing what Eiji had just asked him, Fuji was about to shake his head. Luckily, Eiji guessed that he would do that before he continued with cutting his hair.

"Hey, don't move! You don't want to have a big hole at the back of your head, do you?" warned Eiji mockingly.

Then…how was Fuji supposed to 'talk' to him if he can't move?

"Nya! Don't look so down. The relationship between us two is very simple; we were friends since we were kids. We lived in the same orphanage. Thus, I know utterly everything about him, including how arrogant and selfish a man he is. But how could I have guessed that even if he's 25 years old, he still hasn't change!"

Knew everything about Tezuka…Friends since they were kids? Then…could he know about the death of Tezuka's family? Fuji looked painfully at the red head's reflection in the mirror. Maybe he's another victim from the tragedy for ten years ago…

"You are very clever. You've figured it out already."

Eiji sank his hands down while he looked at Fuji's weird expression at the mirror.

"I believe that you know the strategy from 10 years ago destroyed many families. It's not a surprise that you have already figured it out. Besides, I don't have anything to hide from you—so yes, I'm another victim of the tragedy from that time, just like Tezuka."

Then…how could he smile so warmly at him? Fuji sat stiffly in the chair, looking confused and poignant at Eiji. How could he smile so warmly towards him after everything? If it weren't him, they wouldn't have lost their families…

"Don't worry; I don't hate you at all. Please believe me! I really don't hate you."

Fuji looked very surprised at Eiji. Eiji turned the chair so that Fuji was sitting so that he faced him.

"I know that you didn't do that on purpose, and I'm sure you were really shocked back then. Please believe me, I don't hate you at all! Like me, you were just another victim. Because if you weren't, then you wouldn't have left your home and lived in the US for all those years alone, right?"

"I know that you feel very suspicious about me, dismissing all the hatred towards the Fuji Family. But I want you to know that everyone has his or her own way to live. Like me, I don't want hatred to control the rest of my life. Because I have found something more important then revenge in my life! I'm very happy now. I know it's hard for you to trust me, but please give me some time. I'll prove that I don't hate you! And I'm sure we'll figure out a way so that we can become friends, all right?"

Asking him…to become friends? Fuji gazed stupidly at Eiji. This man was actually offering him friendship. One of the victims from that time was actually offering to be his friend…He must be crazy! Fuji kept looking at Eiji. That smile of him was so friendly and so…warm….Fuji knew that Eiji was not crazy; Eiji was just too nice… His heart hurt….

Fuji could feel the tears were running down from his face. Friend was such a foreign word for Fuji. Because of that terrible tragedy, he had lived a very lonely life in the US. He had always wanted someone to call him a friend. He had waited and waited… and waited for 25 years…

"Okay, then I take that as a yes! We are friends from now on!"

Can I? He asked himself. Do I really deserve a friend?

Fuji finally looked up at Eiji and smiled warmly back at him and nodded, as tears ran down his cheeks…tears of happiness.

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The ball was held in a very luxurious mansion. Many famous people and other celebrities were invited to this ball. People were dancing, chatting or eating. A very beautiful and sexy young woman, dressed in a skin tight red dress, entered the mansion. She was the famed model, actress Miaka.

There were five handsome men whom were standing off in the corner of the ballroom. A man dressed in all black, was starring at the entrance all the time, and had a scary face that made people back away from him. Standing beside him was another tall creepy guy with glasses. He was also dressed in black. He kept mumbling something under his breath while he was jotting notes down in his notebook.

"Geez, they are late! Do you think Tezuka will make it on time?" asked another tall man, who was dressed in a dark blue suit.

"Momo-chan-senpai, he's just 5 minutes delayed. Right, Oishi-senpai, Kawamura-senpai?" said a shorter man beside the one who's name was Momoshiro.

The one who was called Oishi and Kawamura both nodded without hesitation. There was no way that Tezuka wouldn't come.

Suddenly they heard gasps coming from the crowd around the entrance. Many turned towards the entrance, curious. What they saw was the handsome young manager of the Fuji Company and his partner. Some of the man could feel their heart beat increase as they gazed upon the beautiful young woman beside Tezuka—and some of other women were looking admiringly or jealously at her. The one who looked jealously at the mysterious beautiful lady was, of course, Miaka.

"Let the show begin!"

The five in the corner snickered cruelly.

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"If you would please excuse me, I have something important to do. I'll be back soon."

Before Fuji could 'say' anything, Tezuka walked away from him and into the crowd of people. Standing in the middle of clique alone, Fuji felt extremely scared and nervous. First of all, he's not use to such a big party. And second, many people were all staring at him, as a woman. Fuji felt so naked; it felt like people were staring beneath his clothes and into his skin.

Fuji could feel that his head was spinning, and the sweat was running down from his forehead. Suddenly, Fuji saw a very attractive woman walking towards him angrily.

Great, that was the woman from the picture—Miaka.

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To be continue…