'Mmmmm' Alex moans to herself. As she rolls over to face the wonderfully sunny day as she realizes it was all just a dream. 'But it seemed so real', she thinks to herself. She eventually decides that a light jog would do her good, but after a few minutes at the park she realizes she's exhausted from a poor night's sleep.
Sitting down on a bench, she decided a break would be good when her cell phone begins to ring. 'Oh crap', Alex thinks to herself, she forgot that she had to chauffer Mai around again today. But instead of being mad at her, Mai immediately goes straight into a story about Charlie and Joey and how she's fanatically angry at Joey for acting so immaturely. Apparently she had gone out with Charlie last night and run into Joey and the crew at a popular bar in town. Joey got drunk and started patronizing Charlie in front of Mai and eventually a fight broke out. Alex finally asks Mai,
"So who do you really have serious feelings for? I can tell that there is some kind of connection between you and Joey, but you've been spending all your spare time flirting with Charlie."
Mai responds, "I'm confused…you know I just don't have time for this kind of mess this weekend of all weekends? Oh, just come and get me. I need to get ready for my next duel, which is more important right now."
Later that day, Alex and Mai head to the dueling stadium for the semi-final rounds. Alex could tell that Mai had her game face on. She was seriously determined to prove herself in the dueling world. She hated how it was full on egotistical boys and thought it was about time for a change in the male dominated game. Alex, on the other hand, was anxious to run into Seto today. For some reason she wanted to see him again, even though she felt that it would inevitably end up in a confusingly irritated miscommunication of their thoughts and words. The idea of his presence made her spine tingle in a way that she could not ignore.
The dueling that day was amazing to watch. Everyone, including Mai played in unbelievably superior form. As most people predicted, Seto and Yugi made the final round which meant Mai placed in the top 4. In the grand scheme of things that was a phenomenal accomplishment considering this tournament was only open to experienced duelists all over the world with a certain caliber of talent, but she still seemed disappointed. Alex tried to cheer Mai up but it was no use; Alex's words were just noise to Mai at this point. She was surprised to see Joey come over to the suite. Alex guessed he wanted to grovel for forgiveness, which seemed to make Mai happy. She made him work for it, she was good at that; manipulating the men in her life that is. Charlie was busy with his miscellaneous Kaiba Corp. duties and preparing for the formal awards ceremony later tonight and hadn't stopped by the suite the entire day. Mai didn't even seem to notice. She and Joey seemed to be having a nice time together watching the last duel of the tournament. They were sitting on a couch, teasing each other when Charlie finally popped his head in the door. His face immediately went sour when he saw Joey sitting next to Mai. She jumped out of her seat, ready to stop a fist fight but amazingly Mai stood up for Joey, explaining that Joey was just there to make his apologies. Joey didn't look like he was up for another brawl and just looked away. Charlie was a gentleman, so he simply just asked Mai to call him later. 'Phew, glad that went over smoothly' Alex said to herself.
For her, however, watching the duel just made her think about her dream last night with Seto. It was definitely a turn on to see the take charge side of his personality in action. She hopes that she has another run in with him this evening, but that is probably asking too much considering their final words with one another last night. The recent memories were on the top of her mind, but she tried not to dwell in them and continued to watch the duel. About halfway through the duel, Seto takes a minute to look across the span of the stadium. The entire stadium was dead silent as he took his time before making his next move. His gaze paused at the glass Alex sat behind but only for a second, 'was he looking for me?' she pondered. Moments later he plays all three of his blue eyes white dragons as if his momentary pause was for dramatic effect. He went on to beat Yugi by a very narrow margin and as the commentator announced the winner of the duel the crowd went wild. Seto's fans cheered for what seemed like an eternity and she realized just how popular Seto was with the public. Even with his distant, cold personality everyone still admired his talent, skill, and perseverance. Alex, Joey and Mai decided it was best to head over to Yugi's suite to see how he was doing. Plus, Yugi's suite was next to Seto's suite so why wouldn't she want to increase her chances of running into him?