Author's Note: Whew, this took so much! I decided to go back in time and explode Hen-to and Fei's pasts with Daiyu and Khai. Turns out, I was going to reach page eighteen, but I just kept writing until this match was finished. You will see more of the past from the rest of the adults in the clan and maybe the children as well. How am I going to top this next week?


Match Four: Peony Boy:

-Hen-to-

Khai treated us like human beings when we were growing up. All of his family's rich friends saw Fei, Daiyu, and I as poor, dumb county bumpkins. Not Khai. At first, Fei and I didn't really trust this guy. Something about him reminded us of Daiyu's sleazy brother. After all, what would some rich boy want with our beautiful Daiyu? Granted, she was a real beauty, but her brother and health problems kept her from finding a good boyfriend.

Let me back up some.

Jianjun tried to use Daiyu for another con with Khai as the new target. The con fell through when Daiyu told him what was up. She warned him to be careful. Funny thing about that was that this little rich boy ended up hanging around Daiyu. She ended up showing him around the countryside and taking long walks with her. Fei and I didn't enjoy how close they were getting. My first thought was Khai was looking for revenge on being targeted by Jianjun.

The perfect opportunity came around to question him when Daiyu decided to introduce Khai us three weeks into his vacation. At first, the four of us acted all nice and causal. I had my eye on this little rich boy the whole time. I couldn't figure out what Daiyu saw in him. Despite being sick all of the time, she was always cheerful and made friends easily. This guy would rather be alone in a corner at a party somewhere. He wouldn't really talk to us. Instead, he just stared at his tea and didn't make eye contact.

"Is something wrong with him?" I whispered to Daiyu.

"Nah, he's just shy," she said, brushing me off. I raised an eyebrow as Khai glanced up at me. Daiyu clapped her hands together.

"Would anyone like anything else from the kitchen?" she asked.

"Tea," Khai muttered.

"I'm good," I said.

"Got any more of those cookies?" Fei asked. Daiyu rose to her feet.

"I'll see what I can find," she said. I waited until she had walked into the kitchen. I turned my focus straight on her guest.

"Look," I said. "I don't know what you are playing at, pal!" That was the first time, that little rich boy lifted his head.

"E-Excuse me?" he asked.

"If you are holding a grudge against our friend or trying to use her for revenge, you'll have to get past us," Fei growled.

"What are you talking about?" Khai asked. "I'm not looking for revenge!" Fei and I looked at him, intently. He sounded sincere, but Jianjun can sound the same when he wanted.

"Do you know who her brother is?" I asked.

"I have some idea," he said. Khai frowned as he said that.

"You do know that this wasn't the first time that he's done this," I said. "You aren't his first target."

"No?" Khai asked. I leaned back on the couch.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you were using our friend for revenge on her brother," I said. "If that's your angle, we won't let you do that."

"I am not here for revenge," Khai told us. "I really like your friend. She's nice, pretty, and doesn't treat me like a prince or that I'm better than her." He seemed so lonely. Fei and I didn't know how to respond.

"Everything okay?" Daiyu asked when she walked back into the room.

"Yeah," I was quick to say. "We were just getting to know your friend." Khai looked down in his cup and said nothing.

"That's good to hear," she said.

Even after that, Khai and Daiyu got closer. Oh, there is another thing that I have to bring up in this story. Fei, Khai, and I all love Daiyu. We still do. In fact, Fei and I used to fight over who would marry her. Little did we know that we would both lose. It began apparent when Daiyu started dating Khai. She would not stop talking about that guy. Fei and I would tease her about being so icky about that little rich boy. In truth, we were happy for her. She finally had someone other than that bastard Jianjun, the doctors, Fei, and I to talk to. Her illnesses and brother pretty much cut her off from much of a social, but she never complained. In time, we grew to like Khai. He tried us like we were his long-time friends. However, the real test would come when Daiyu went away to Beijing for college.


When he turned twenty, Khai invited Fei and I up to celebrate his birthday. From the start, we didn't have a good feeling about this.

"This isn't a good idea," I told Daiyu on the phone.

"What do you mean?" she asked. "Khai wants you there and I want you here with us."

"That's the problem," I said. "We won't fit in with his people."

"What are you talking about?"

"We are poor. His people would stick up their noses at us."

"They have been good to me."

That's because you are so pretty, I thought. I pushed back my deep brown hair and sighed. "Fine, we'll be there."

"Great!" Daiyu squealed on the other line. "We'll see you Saturday." The moment she hung up, I knew that I had made a mistake. Still, Fei and I never could say no to our dear Daiyu.


Sure enough, Fei and I stood out. There is no simpler way to put it. I remembered the first time we came to Beijing. Let's see… it was about…. 1986. China was hectic back then. All of those student protests and mayhem. However, the first time we came to Beijing, that hadn't started just yet. I think we got their about three months before it all went down. (Khai's birthday was October tenth.) I remember the morning Fei and I stepped off that train in Beijing.

"There are too many people here," Fei whispered as we looked around.

"Yeah," I said.

"He's picking us up, right?"

"That's correct." We looked at the people walking by. Back in Nanijie, things were much quieter. I mean, there wasn't much to do around that backwater village anyway. (Probably part of the reason why that scumbag Jianjun tries to rip off tourist that visit.) Nowadays, youth our age would just call up our friends and then meet up. However, this was 1986 and we probably we've been too poor for such a luxury anyway. So, Fei and I relied on the good old fashion wait and see.

"Hen-to! Fei!" somebody yelled out to us. We turned and saw Khai pushing his way through the crowd to get to us. To be honest, I was amazed that he didn't stand us up. (I trusted the guy, but still…) He stopped to catch his breath.

"How have you been?" he asked at last.

"Good…" I said.

"Where's Daiyu?" Fei asked.

"She's back at my place," Khai said. I tilted my head, blinking.

"Your place?" I asked. "She met my parents last night." He looked at us with innocent eyes. "Is something wrong?" I forced myself to smile.

"No," I lied. "Not at all." You idiot! What the hell were you thinking?! Why would you just throw her to the wolves like that? Fei looked at me as he seemed to share the same worry that I had. Would it be too late to try and take Daiyu home?


Sure enough, this day slowly got worse. First off, the other party guests stared at Fei and I. We could tell what they were thinking. Some of them didn't even try to pretend to be nice about it.

"Since when do the Liao clan allow servants to mingle with our class?"

"It smells like garbage already."

"Their clothes are so cheap."

"Why would the young master invite them here?"

"What are they doing here?"

Fei nudged me in the side. "Think this was a bad idea?" his eyes asked.

"Yes!" I shouted back with my eyes.

"Hen-to! Fei!" a girl's voice yelled from across the crowded dining hall. We lifted our heads in time to see our darling Daiyu racing over to us with a white box in her hand. Maybe this won't be so bad.

"I missed you both so much," she said. "How are mama, papa, and Jianjun?"

"Your mom and dad are doing great," Fei said. "Jianjun… is just Jianjun like always."

"Can we not talk about him today?" I asked. The room became silent when we heard glass clinking. A man dressed in gold and black stood at the main table.

"Welcome!" he said. "I would like to thank you all for coming to my son's twentieth birthday party!" Applause filled the room. Fei and I lightly clapped as we looked around.

"Sit and enjoy yourselves!" the man continued before he sat down.

"Come sit me with up at the main table," Daiyu said. We shook our heads.

"Nah," Fei said.

"We would look weird sitting with his family," I said.

"You sure?" she asked.

"We're good," Fei said. Daiyu tried not to look like a sad little kitty.

"Oh," she said. We watched her turn and walk up to the main table with the box in her hands.

"Shouldn't we…?" Fei began to ask. I held up my hand and shook my head.

"Let's just find a place to sit nearby," I said.

"Right…" He shouted so uncertain about this plan. Sorry, but this was going to be the only way that this would work out. Most of the party was going awkward for us. Everyone kept staring at us as we ate. I think they were waiting for us to leave. I would've tuned them out, but now some of them were whispering about our Daiyu.

"She's friends with those country pieces of garbage?"

"What does the young lord see in her?"

"Maybe she's a gold digger."

"I heard her brother was a con man."

"Maybe this is part of a scan that he came up with."

I gritted my teeth as they spoke their lies. I started to turn around and yell at them to shut up, but Fei grabbed my wrist and shook his head. Stuffing food into my mouth was the only thing that I could do.

The final straw came when Daiyu got up from her seat to pick up the white box she was carrying earlier. She had a big smile on her face as she walked over to the birthday boy. Everything was going well for her until she fell face down on the ground, landing face first into the white box. As she got up with chocolate frosting all over her face, I happened to notice that one of the noblemen drew back his ankle, smirking.

"Sewage belongs on the floor," he muttered under his breath. Something inside of me snapped as I raced forward to that asshole.

"Hen-to!" Fei yelled as he tried to reach for me. My fist connected with that jackass' jaw in a right hook. I panted heavily as he collapsed to the floor, chair and all.

"You!" I shouted. "Take that back about Daiyu! I saw what you did! You tripped her!"

"It's okay, Hen-to," Daiyu said as she tried to clean frosting off of her favorite party dress. "It's just a cake."

"No!" I shouted. "You went through the trouble of getting your boyfriend present and this jerk ruined it!" The nobleman rose to his feet with a red face, gritting his teeth.

"You piece of trash!" he shouted. Khai's father lowered his chopsticks.

"Chao, could you please remove the nuisance from our house," he said. That asshole nobleman smirked as the manservant got up from the table. However, his face changed to shock as he was grabbed by the shoulder and dragged out of the dining hall.

"Liao! What is the meaning of this?!" he shouted. Khai's father rose to his feet.

"We will not have anybody disrespect our son's friends," he said. That bastard growled as he fought off Chao.

"Why you…!" he shouted.

"You can either apologize to Miss Kim here or get out," Liao said. The jerkass nobleman snorted and stormed out of the room. Quite a few of those rich assholes followed suit. When they left, Khai's father sat down.

"That was much easier than I thought," he said. Khai gave him a strange look.

"What?" he asked. His father gave him a calm smile.

"You see, son," he said. "In order to run a successful clan, you have to have people that you trust. If your associates look down upon their people, they will eventually kill their business in the end."

"But what about our clan?" Khai's mother asked. Her husband smiled as he waved her off.

"It's fine," he said. "Khai will just build newer connections when he takes over in three days' time." Khai's father took his seat and clapped his hands. "For now, who's ready for dessert?"

"I am!" Fei shouted as he jumped to the main table. For the first time today, Khai broke into a huge smile. Later that day, he would admit that was the best birthday that he ever had.


Three years later, Khai and Daiyu got married. However, that now-rich man wasn't finished with us. He sent us tickets back to Beijing and had us come up to hear him out for an interesting proposal. At first, I sat there blinking.

"You want us to do what?" I asked.

"Come and work for me," Khai explained at his desk. "I want you both to be my personal advisors."

"Why?" I asked.

"You are my friends and I trust you the most," he said as he looked me in the eye.

"And what about our homes?"

"I am moving both of you onto the Liao property. I already had two of the houses fixed up. They haven't been lived in for so long."

"But why?" Fei asked.

"I figured you both would want to live in houses that were in top condition," Khai said.

"No, why are you doing all of this for us?" he asked. That rich man laced his fingers together on his desk.

"It's like I said because: you are my friends and I trust you," he repeated.

"Look us in the eye and tell us that Daiyu had nothing to do with this plan," I said with a stern look on my face.

"She didn't," Khai said. "She doesn't even know that you are here right now." I still thought there was a lie somewhere, but needless to say, Fei and I ended up working for Khai as his personal advisors and we forgot to go back home to Nanijie.

Little did we know, getting us jobs as advisors and moving us onto Liao property was part of his plan to seize Daiyu's heart all for himself. His next part of his plan? Finding Fei and I wives to distract us. Oh, those are whole different stories for themselves.


-Present Day-

Kiku was had wandered outside in the middle of the evening. The thick, dark clouds did little stir him. Six months and the Woman in Red's words still haunted him. Ludwig and Feliciano wouldn't tell what he said to the other countries, right? The Japanese man didn't know how to handle this. He wished that he could somehow make it go away. Kiku even forgot how to sleep.

He was about to walk back into his hand when he heard footsteps approach his fence. Kiku turned and saw Gilbert staring at him with panicked eyes. The expression on the Prussian man's face was all that the Japanese man needed to know why he was here.

"Tell me everything that you know about her," Gilbert said in a low voice.