Saki stared at the text which she hadn't sent just yet.
The 25-year-old was not one to run away from situations, she faced problems head-on.
But at the moment...after all these years, Saki had no idea how to handle this. She knew that she owed Levi an explanation but her heart was not prepared.
Even so, Saki wanted to see Levi so the female erased the text.
"No, never mind.", Saki told her secretary since the short female had asked Mikasa to fill up her schedule.
With a small sigh, Saki rested her head against the car window, trying to think of what to say to the male.
…
Levi was sitting at a café, close to Saki's workplace since this was the meeting place that he had set up.
The raven haired male glanced at his watch, checking the time yet again as he wanted time to go faster so that he'd see the female.
His plan was to obviously find out the reason for her disappearance on that day, 8 years ago, but the male wasn't quite sure how to bring up the subject since there had been regret on his mind for a while now.
'Was it my fault?', Levi wondered to himself but shook away the memories that were threatening to invade his mind.
Now was not the time to be dwelling on old memories.
…
Saki adjusted the cap on her head as she walked into the café with Mikasa following behind.
"Just 15 minutes, alright?", Mikasa said to which Saki gave a nod, "You know that you have an appointment scheduled in, but why did you want to stop by here?", the older female asked.
"There's someone important that I need to talk to.", Saki replied, "Don't worry, it won't take too long.", she said.
Mikasa only nodded at this, as the older girl hadn't been told that Saki was meeting an important individual, but the raven haired girl didn't say anything else since it must be something urgent for the younger girl to drop by here.
…
Levi, who had already ordered himself coffee, was taking small sips of the hot drink as he was preparing sentences in his head.
The CEO had a bodyguard, who was seated on another table. The raven haired male had such protection since Levi had several rival companies who were waiting for the opportunity to destroy his company, even going to the extent of harming the CEO himself.
But the raven haired male had gotten used to this long ago, so this was the least of his worries.
Steel grey eyes landed on the door which opened, and caught sight of the short female he had been waiting for.
Saki had been looking around when she finally spotted the raven haired male who had arranged this meeting.
She found herself breaking into a small smile when she saw the male and the short female glanced back at Mikasa, telling the raven haired female to give her some private time for 15 minutes.
Mikasa glanced over at the male that Saki had seen, recognising the male as the CEO of the company that they had a meeting at, just a few hours ago. The raven haired girl gave a nod as she went to sit at a separate table while Saki walked over to where Levi was sitting.
As Saki took a seat opposite to where Levi was sitting, the female made no move to remove her coat or cap, but the male didn't pay much attention to it as he stared at her.
Unlike their first meeting at the reunion, the male had not been frozen but he felt his body becoming stiff while his heartbeats echoed in his ears.
Levi distracted himself from the female as he picked up his cup of coffee, although the male paused before the cup reached his lips.
"Do you want something to drink?", Levi asked.
Saki, who was no better than Levi, had also felt her eyes stay on the raven haired male for some time before she decided to look away.
At the sound of his voice, the short female looked up before shaking her head without uttering a word. The short female could tell that she was beginning to get nervous as she brought her eyes back to her lap where her hands were placed.
Fiddling with her fingers, Saki couldn't find any words to say, while the raven haired male drank his coffee although he could not taste the flavour of his drink.
The CEO finally decided to speak up since he didn't like the awkward atmosphere that was forming like the evening of the reunion.
"The papers.", Levi slid over the documents that were meant to be handed to the Financial Management Department.
Saki glanced at the documents before looking up at Levi.
'Is that why he asked to meet?', Saki wondered, 'But he said that he wanted to talk.', she thought, 'Maybe not.', the female thought to herself, which made her feel somewhat relieved.
"You could have gotten someone to send it to the office.", Saki said, "I thought CEO's are meant to be busy, you didn't have to go through the trouble of handing it yourself.", she said as she looked at the papers that sat on the table in front of her.
Levi no longer leaned back on his chair as he placed the cup back on the table.
The short female who had her hands on the table while looking at the papers, caught sight of Levi's hand being placed on the table, several centimeters away from hers.
Saki instinctively moved her hands away as she leaned back on her chair now.
The raven haired male had taken notice of the way the short female had moved away from any close proximity to him and Levi did not like this one bit.
His eyebrows furrowed in a small frown.
"Brat, where have you been for all these years?", Levi asked bluntly.
He had no intention to come across as aggressive but after what had happened in the past and after seeing how she avoided any close physical contact to him just now, Levi could not help but feel upset.
'Why was she being like that?', Levi thought.
Saki had been dreading to hear that question as she diverted her eyes away.
"Just around.", she said.
It was blatantly obvious that Saki had lied to him and this only put Levi in a fouler mood. But even if he was in a foul mood, the male couldn't bring it onto himself and lose his temper at the female.
If it had been Hanji or any other individual, Levi would have cursed at them without a care in the world, but with the female who sat in front of him, he couldn't do it.
That day when Saki had left, rather than feeling angry at the female, Levi felt more than pissed at himself.
He sat there in silence, focusing his attention on his now cold cup of coffee.
The short female looked back at the raven haired male, not knowing just what the male was feeling. She wasn't sure if he was pissed at her because she wasn't telling him the truth.
But the female was aware of one thing.
"If I had told you, you would have left me.", Saki whispered those words and the male looked up, having only heard the last part of the sentence.
Before Levi could ask her what she had just said, someone had interrupted their conversation.
"Saki, it's time to leave.", Mikasa had stood up.
The short female stood up without a word and Levi got to his feet as well.
The raven haired male blocked Saki's path as he stood in front of her and the short female looked up at him.
Mikasa was about to react but Saki held up her hand to the older girl, letting her know that there was nothing to worry about, since Saki knew that Levi would never try to hurt her.
"Is that all you want to say to me?", Levi asked as he looked at the short female.
With the 15cm height difference, Saki was forced to look up at the male.
"What about you? Don't you have anything to say to me?", Saki asked as her hazelnut eyes flashed with hurt which Levi had noticed.
The raven haired male's eyes widened for a split second as he quickly composed his expression and took a step back from the short female, while diverting his eyes somewhere else.
Saki looked at the male who was looking away from her before the female diverted her eyes to the ground.
The CEO glanced at the female once he felt a tug to his sleeve as the short female had lightly grabbed onto his sleeve.
"Levi, are you mad at me?", Saki asked.
The response came with no hesitation.
"No.", Levi replied as Saki looked up at the male to make direct eye contact with him, "I was never mad.", he said.
Even though Saki had left him without a word, not once had he felt anger towards the female.
She released his sleeve for the male to only grab her wrist gently before her arm lowered back to her side.
"That doesn't mean everything is fine.", he looked at her.
For a few seconds, they held each other's gaze without saying a word.
Levi finally released the female's wrist and Saki headed to the door where Mikasa was waiting. The male watched her walk away, almost as if he was waiting for something.
And it seemed that just like he had predicted, Saki turned back to look at him.
He couldn't help but let his lips twitch up in a small smirk as Saki sent him a small smile.
With the female having left, Levi looked back at his right hand, still being able to feel the female's wrist that he had held onto just a few seconds ago. Saki's wrist had felt so frail to the touch and Levi stared at his palm.
'Was she eating right?', the male wondered since her wrist had felt quite skinny when he had held it.
Levi looked back at the door that Saki had walked out of.
'I have lots of things to say to you.', Levi thought, 'But I have no idea how to utter those words, which I had longed to tell you.', he sighed quietly as he picked up his coat.
...
Saki touched her wrist when she stepped into the car.
"Is it him?", Mikasa spoke up and the short female looked up from her wrist, "The one you had previously spoken about?", she asked.
Saki faintly touched her wrist again.
"Hmm.", she hummed in response.
"You're not going to tell him, then?", the raven haired girl asked.
"When the right time comes.", Saki responded as she looked away from the older girl.
"If you don't take the initiative, that time will never come.", Mikasa said.
"If I were to tell him and he leaves me, what do I do then?", Saki asked.
"From how you had described him, I don't think he will.", Mikasa said.
"There's always the possibility.", Saki said.
"That time, 8 years ago, was also a possibility.", Mikasa said, "Yet you are well now.", she said before pausing, "Is he not important to you?", the female asked.
"He is my most important person.", Saki said without hesitation.
"Then what are you waiting for?", Mikasa asked.
Saki smiled lightly as she closed her eyes.
"It seems that you have gotten better at convincing, Mika.", Saki said.
The raven haired girl smirked lightly as she turned her attention back to the notebook in her hand.
"That is part of my job, isn't it?", Mikasa said which only made Saki smile widely.
...
The next day...
It was lunch time and Levi sat there with a bored expression on his face.
The raven haired male was sitting at a restaurant, although he was not sitting alone at the table. The table was engaged with 4 other individuals, excluding Levi.
Hanji and Erwin were sitting at the table and the other 2 new individuals were Mike Zacharias and Isabel Magnolia.
Mike and Isabel had not attended the high school reunion, even though they had been in the same year group with the others.
Isabel had to attend a family member's wedding that day, this having ended way past midnight. As for Mike, the male had a business matter to attend to.
Both Erwin and Mike ran their company together, so while Erwin had finished a deal here in Tokyo, Mike had also finalised a deal in Australia, hence why the male came back slightly tanned after the week's stay.
The group of five, including Levi, had been friends long before high school.
"Come on Levi, cheer up.", Hanji said.
The raven haired male was not one to eat out with others, usually enjoying quiet meals by himself. But the male's thoughts seemed to only consist of Saki, so he had taken up Hanji's offer to take his mind off things.
But this didn't really help either, since the mere presence of his high school friends, brought old memories back of when he used to have lunch with Saki.
"Maybe we should have invited Saki as well.", Erwin said, making the raven haired male look up at the mention of the name.
"Oh yeah, I heard she's back.", Mike said, "Saki attended the reunion, didn't she?", he asked.
"Yep.", Hanji chirped, "And you should've seen this guy's reaction.", Hanji pointed to Levi, "Did not utter a words for a good five minutes.", she said.
Levi clicked his tongue at this as Isabel snorted while Mike stifled his laughter, even Erwin had a small smile on his face.
"Well he did more than talking yesterday, didn't you bro?", Isabel said as she pulled out her phone and showed a picture on her phone.
It was a photo of when Levi had grabbed Saki's wrist yesterday at the café, this being clearly caught in the photo.
"Let's see.", Mike grinned widely as he stared at the picture, "Such a bold move.", he said with a smile as he handed the phone to Erwin.
The blond male smiled once seeing the photo as he passed the phone to Hanji.
"Didn't expect that you'd make a move at all.", Erwin said.
Hanji squealed once the photo.
"Oh my gosh! And then what happened?", Hanji asked excitedly.
Levi snatched the phone from the scientist and looked at the photo before he clicked his tongue and glared at Isabel.
"Don't you have a life?", Levi said as Isabel took her phone back before the male had the chance to delete it.
"Oh please. It wasn't like I was following you.", Isabel said, "I went to the café yesterday with my boyfriend. When I saw you, I was about to come over but then I saw who you were with.", she said, "It took me a seconds to realise that it was Saki since she was wearing a cap.", the female said before smiling, "But seriously dude, what made you grab her wrist?", Isabel asked with a grin.
Levi rolled his eyes at the way everyone was so keen on knowing what had happened yesterday.
"There wasn't anything.", the raven haired male said.
"Liar!", Hanji exclaimed, "Whenever that girl is involved, something interesting always happens.", she said, "Remember the first time when you two met.", Hanji said before everyone began chuckling as they thought back to the memory.
Levi sat there with his usual stoic expression, although his eyes softened the slightest fraction at the fond memory he held of Saki.
As if he could ever forget that first encounter...
Author's Note:
I will be using the Japanese school system for this story (not sure why I decided this...but oh well).
So the setting takes place between Junior High School and Senior High School.
The age range is as follows:
13 - 15 (There's 3 years of Junior High School)
16 - 18 (There's 3 years of Senior High School)
In this flashback, Levi and Saki are both 15 years old, although when you look at birthdays, Levi is obviously older than Saki by just a few months.
So this memory takes place, almost 10 years ago.
Right now, the whole group are in their final year of Junior High School.
*Flashback*
"Hey I heard that there's a new girl that transferred to Class B.", a male said.
"Really?", another male responded, "But why in the last term? That's really late.", he said.
Only one term remained before the 15-year-olds would be choosing their Senior High School, some may even decide to move to another area altogether.
So the rumour that a girl had transferred, with only a term remaining before she'd have to move to a Senior High School, wasn't something you'd hear often.
"Have you seen the new girl?", Isabel asked with excitement as she joined her friends at the canteen table.
On either side of the female, sat Hanji and Mike while across the three were two other males, Erwin and Levi.
Let's focus more on the raven haired male, shall we?
Levi had quite long hair, this being tied up to form a small bun at the back.
The male was...the perfect definition of a delinquent.
In fact, the whole group were delinquents hence why no one dared to join the table that the five were sitting at.
Out of the five, Levi was the most feared throughout the whole school, having been nicknamed as 'Satan'.
After all, Levi had quite the reputation at school, having been known to get into fights, most of these fights involved Levi being outnumbered but the male always returns unscathed.
But that wasn't the reason why he was known as Satan, it was because of his grades.
You'd expect most delinquents to do quite poorly in their subjects...but no, Levi wasn't like that.
He was the top student in the year group.
So that was why, people had nicknamed him as 'Satan'.
Levi gets into fights yet does exceptionally well in all subjects. This caused people to come up with a theory that the raven haired male uses some sort of black magic because none of his friends were as intelligent as him.
His friends also get involved in these fights, yet their grades were nothing compared to Levi.
So every student in the year group...more like every student in the whole school were petrified of Levi. They all feared that the raven haired male would be able to summon minions "from the other side".
It was all quite strange but Levi couldn't care less about the rumours since he didn't socialise with others except for the group that sat with him at the table.
"She is so small!", Isabel exclaimed with a large smile on her face, "Even shorter than bro here.", she pointed to Levi, earning a glare from the raven haired male.
"That's quite something.", Mike said with a faint smirk, surprised to hear that there was someone shorter than Levi.
Levi may be known as 'Satan', but this male was really short for a 15-year-old.
Even with the height disadvantage, Levi's strength made up for this though, so anyone who dared to make fun of his height, the male would usually beat the shit out of them.
"Then a perfect match for Shorty!", Hanji exclaimed with a grin.
"T'ch, Shitty Glasses if you try anything, I'll destroy that fucking experiment you've been working on.", Levi said coldly.
"Not my babies!", Hanji exclaimed, since the female had always been infatuated with her lab experiments for some reason.
Levi stood up to go and get himself a drink since he had finished eating his lunch.
Meanwhile, the subject of the rumour was sitting in the canteen as well, several tables away from the delinquents.
The short female, who had been described, was Saki of course, the 15-year-old having just joined this school. The female was rubbing her temple since she had a terrible headache at the moment.
The level of noise didn't help either and the female could feel the dizziness kicking in.
Saki stood up to head to the infirmary, although her vision blurred as she stumbled in the direction of the door.
Not being able to see where it was that she was walking to, the female merely felt herself collide into another individual before she felt herself black out.
The individual who Saki had bumped into had been Levi, and the raven haired male had been carrying a Doubleshot Espresso can which he had bought in the vending machine.
The can had been opened so when Saki collided into him, this went spilling onto the male's shoes and Levi was about to snap out at the person who had ruined his clean shoes.
But seeing a female passing out in front of him, Levi's eyes had widened a slight fraction before he had grabbed the collar of Saki's blazer preventing the female from hitting her head on the table behind her.
Seeing this, the whole canteen went silent as all eyes fell on the pair.
"Oh my gosh, he hit someone.", one whisper was heard.
"He really hit the new girl.", another whisper.
"Satan hit the transfer student.", then another.
"Did he kill her?", and another.
"She doesn't look alive.", then another.
"He finally killed a classmate.", all the students in the canteen were heard whispering similar things to this.
After all, it really did seem like Levi had hit the new girl.
The raven haired male stood there frozen, not having released the short female's blazer yet, as he had no idea how to handle this situation.
Levi's friends had all rushed over once hearing the commotion, now surrounding the raven haired male as well as the unconscious female.
"Hey Levi, did you hit her?", Hanji asked.
"T'ch, of course not.", Levi snapped, "She just collapsed.", he said.
"Careful, you're going to hurt her.", Isabel pulled Levi's hand off Saki's blazer, before leaning the unconscious female against the raven haired male's chest.
"Oi, what do I do with her?", Levi asked with a frown as he had been handed the unconscious female.
"Take her to the nurse.", Mike said since it was the most obvious thing.
"Why me? You take her.", Levi was going to hand the unconscious female to Erwin since the blond male had the least scariest face in the group.
Erwin shook his head.
"I think I have things to take care of here.", Erwin said since they could already tell that rumours are going to be spreading very soon.
"T'ch.", Levi clicked his tongue with an annoyed expression, before picking up the female bridal-style and heading out of the canteen.
"Where's he taking her?", one whisper.
"Is he going to bury the new girl?", another whisper.
"Oh god, he really did kill her then.", then another.
"Get all the pictures deleted.", Erwin said and the rest nodded.
While Levi took the new student to the infirmary, his friends had gone around to all the students, getting them to delete any photos to stop the rumours from spreading.
...
The next day...
His friends may have stopped the pictures from spreading around the school, but lots of whispers were still heard around the corridors.
Levi's eyebrow twitched in annoyance at the rumours he heard but the male didn't do anything about it.
After having taken the new student to the infirmary, he had left the short female with the nurse since the male didn't want to be around when Saki woke up.
Saki had been sent home that day since she hadn't felt well and only returned the next day to hear the rumours, although she had no idea that she had some involvement in it.
The female sat down at her seat, just as her classmates came up to her and asked if she was okay or if she had any injuries.
Replying that she was fine, Saki was a little confused as to why everyone was concerned to this extent when none of them knew her that well.
The female who was seated beside Saki, cleared up the new girl's confusion.
"Everyone was shocked after seeing Satan hit you yesterday.", the female was a brunette, named Sasha Blouse.
Saki frowned slightly.
"But no one hit me yesterday.", Saki replied.
"What do you mean? You collapsed in the canteen yesterday?", Sasha said, "Didn't that guy hit you after you spilled his drink on his shoes?", she asked.
Saki shook her head.
"I felt dizzy yesterday and I think I fainted after that, but no one hit me.", Saki said, "Who is this Satan you're talking about?", she asked since it was a very strange name.
As if someone would go around calling himself the devil.
"You don't know who that is?", Sasha asked as Saki only shook her head in response, "Come, I'll show you.", she stood up and Saki followed the taller female.
The brunette was seen peeking her head outside of the classroom. Saki stared at the female for several seconds, before following the female's lead.
As both females peeked their head out of their classroom door, Sasha pointed to a group who stood in the corridor quite a distance away.
"Do you see that group over there?", Sasha whispered as she pointed to them.
"Yeah.", Saki replied.
"The short guy with the raven hair.", Sasha pointed to Levi next.
Hazelnut eyes fell on the raven haired male, the short female not being able to recognise the male from yesterday.
"Well everyone calls him Satan.", Sasha whispered.
"Why?", Saki asked with a small frown.
Except for the stoic expression on the male's face, Saki didn't seem to find anything wrong with the raven haired male.
She wondered why he was addressed as the devil since his features didn't seem that harsh as you'd expect from a nickname like Satan.
"You should see when that guy gets into a fight.", Sasha said, "He does not come back with a single scratch yet his victims have blood, bruises and even broken bones at times.", she said, "Everyone stays away from that delinquent group, you should too if you don't want trouble.", Sasha said as the bell rang.
The brunette returned to her seat and Saki glanced back at the group again.
"Delinquent?", the short female repeated quietly.
...
After two hours of studying, it was finally break and Saki had asked Sasha if she could show her where the vending machine was since she wanted to buy a drink.
So the brunette accompanied the short female to the vending machine and Sasha watched Saki buying two drinks.
One was a bottle of water and the other was a can of Doubleshot Espresso.
"Saki, do you like caffeine?", Sasha asked since the espresso contained caffeine.
"No.", Saki replied.
"Then why did you buy that?", Sasha asked with a small frown.
"Oh, that's not for me.", Saki looked at the can.
"Who is it for?", Sasha asked.
"For Satan.", Saki replied with a small smile.
Sasha's eyes widened.
"Eh?!", the brunette was shocked to hear this, "Why are you giving it to him?", Sasha asked.
"Because I spilled his drink yesterday.", Saki said, "And I didn't thank him for taking me to the infirmary.", she said.
"If you approach him, you really will be put into infirmary for the second time.", Sasha said with fear in her eyes, "This is seriously not the time to be feeding Satan!", she exclaimed.
But Saki didn't think much of it as she had an amused smile on her face at the brunette's exaggeration.
"Is his classroom this way?", Saki began walking and Sasha quickly followed behind.
"That guy has a temper and you're already the subject of the rumour, what if he hits you?", Sasha said.
"It'll be fine.", Saki said with a smile as she spotted the delinquent group, seeing that there was only the three males, "Are you coming?", she asked, noticing that Sasha no longer followed beside her.
The brunette stood by the wall.
"I will stay here and watch.", Sasha said, "Give a shout, if he's about to hit you and I'll go get the teacher.", the brunette then hid behind the wall as Saki shrugged at this.
Saki didn't understand why people were scared of the raven haired male, and even though she had never spoken to him, the female thought that he was actually an okay person.
Because if the male really was the Satan as everyone described him as, the male had no obligation to take her to the infirmary yet he did.
Whether this was forced by his friends or not was another story, but the male still took her to the infirmary so he must not have a cold heart.
The short female then proceeded walking towards the group of males, Mike having noticed the new girl approaching before elbowing Erwin.
Levi, who had his back to the approaching female, noticed that Erwin's and Mike's attention was to something behind him and the raven haired male soon turned around.
Using seeing the familiar female, Levi just stared at her.
Saki stopped in front of the group before holding out the can towards the raven haired male.
"Sorry I spilled your drink yesterday.", the female said.
Levi looked from the female's face then to the can that she was holding out, but made no move to take it since he wasn't one to accept food or drinks from others.
"Ah, it's new.", Saki added quickly, "I just bought it in the vending machine downstairs.", she said.
The female stared at the raven haired male since he wasn't taking the drink.
"You don't like caffeine?", Saki asked as she tilted her head.
Saki couldn't exactly remember much before passing out, but she could have sworn that she saw a similar can yesterday, now she wasn't so sure anymore.
Levi felt this unexplainable warmth in his chest at the way the female looked at him.
"T'ch.", Levi clicked his tongue as he took the drink from her hand, since the warm sensation in his chest was beginning to irritate him.
Saki smiled up at him once he took the can.
"What's your name?", the short female asked.
The raven haired male didn't say anything.
"Because everyone calls you Satan.", Saki said, a little too bluntly.
Erwin suppressed his laughter and Mike quietly sniggered at the blunt words. Levi shot back a glare at the two males then turned his glare back towards the female.
But Levi noticed that the female wasn't fazed by his harsh glare, though that didn't mean he wanted to get along with this female who had just called him Satan.
The raven haired male was aware of the nickname he had gotten from the other students, but not once had any student addressed him by this name when face-to-face with him.
This was the first time someone had used that nickname right in front of Levi, yet the female didn't show a single sign of fear in those large hazelnut eyes.
"Levi.", the raven haired male found himself replying without much thought.
He watched those hazelnut eyes brighten up once he had answered her question.
"I'm Saki.", the female introduced herself with a bright smile.
To the present time..
Levi hadn't imagined that a first meeting could be this strange, but more than the weird encounter...he had never expected the large impact Saki would have on his life after that day.