Hello, everyone. I'm back with yet another thrilling chapter. This is probably my favorite chapter so far, and I know it won't be my favorite for long. I wanted to get this in soon, seeing as the last chapter was short. I hope you'll like it, and I know you're going to hate me after this. So here it is.

Chapter 7: A Dreamy Nightmare

It was beginning to be a long day today. Ulrich didn't know how he was going to make it through. He had been up all night trying to write his novel, but Emily had came over and wanted to "spend some time" with him. He had to admit it. It was hard denying a beautiful woman like Emily, but he had always promised his parents that he wouldn't have sex until after he was married.

But Emily was the least of his worries. After he turned down Emily he tried working on his novel, only to find him stuck in a very annoying case of Writer's Block. He sighed and finally went to bed, thinking that he needed a good night's sleep.


Ulrich arrived at his office not feeling any better than he did the night before.

"Hi, Ulrich." Yumi mumbled as she continued typing away at her computer. Ulrich mumbled something under his breath and he shuffled towards his office.

Yumi looked up at Ulrich concern. "What's up with you?"

"I'm just (yawn) tired." Ulrich said.

"You see, that's what you get for staying up late playing video games." Yumi joked.

"Technically, that's a part of work, and I wasn't even playing video games."

"So what were you doing?"

"I was trying work on my novel, but I just seem to be stuck." Ulrich said as sat down in the chair next to Yumi's."

Yumi got up to get a paper out of the fax machine and upon her return. She patted him on his shoulders. "You'll push through somehow." She then patted him again. "Hey, you are tense. You're like a freaking statue."

"I know." Ulrich said as he sighed.

"If you don't mind, I could loosen you up a bit."

"I'd hate to get a massage from you. Especially if you massage the way you joke. That'd be too painful.

"Shut up." Yumi said as forcefully grabbed his shoulders and began massaging him.

"See, this is painful." Ulrich said as he twisted his face in pain.

"That' because I getting in the deeper tissues of your body."

After a minute, Ulrich felt a very light aura come over him. "Hey! This is relaxing once you get used to it." She continued but began to slow down, making it even more pleasurable. Ulrich let out a deep moan.

Yumi stood up and smiled. "See, now don't you feel better."

"Yes, I do. But you've got manly strength in those hands." Ulrich teased receiving a frown from the Japanese secretary.

"I have magic hands!" Yumi protested.

Ulrich looked at Yumi, and she smiled down at him. "Yeah, but there's this one tight spot right in my left shoulder could you get it?"

Yumi nodded and began focusing a massage into the area. Ulrich watched her as let out another moan. Yumi's face inched closer and closer to his until their cheeks were practically touching. When she finished she turned to him and said, "There." They were still very close and realized that they were too close, but neither one pulled away.

"Thank you." Ulrich mumbled. They closed the distance and kissed. Ulrich pulled Yumi into his lap as he deepened the kiss between him.

BEEP BEEP BEEP! Ulrich shot right out of bed and quickly turned his alarm clock off. He was sweating and his heart was beating 100 beats a second. He looked around, realizing he was asleep and had just dreamt of making out with his own secretary. This was definitely the last thing Ulrich needed.


Ulrich approached his office and before he stepped in, he pinched himself to make sure this was for real this time. He entered to see Yumi typing away at the computer. Just like she did in the dream.

"Hi, Ulrich."

"Hey." Ulrich curtly said as he quickly made his way to his office.

"Wow, you got a rocket strapped to your butt or what?"

"I-I just wanna, uh, get to work!" Ulrich stuttered. As he opened the door and closed it before Yumi could say anything else. He stayed in the office, and whenever he needed something, he used the intercom system. When lunch time came, Emily knocked on his door and gladly went to lunch with her.

As they made their way out of the office Emily slowed down and decided to chat with Yumi.

"Yumi I heard about you and William." She said. "I just wanted you to know that I'm totally disgusted with what he did." Emily lied. Yumi had look of disgust that seemed to be directed towards the girl instead of more at William in thought. Ulrich noticed this and looked at Emily.

"Yeah, but Ulrich was kind enough to console me when it happened." Yumi smiled as she looked at Ulrich.

Ulrich prayed he wasn't blushing. "Aww, how sweet."

"Looks he's blushing!" Yumi cooed. Ulrich silently cursed his faced.

Emily gave Ulrich a half-hearted smile. "How nice of you Ulrich. Good thing you'd never cheat on me."

"Not even in my dreams would I do that." Ulrich said. He then chuckled a bit at the joke he made.

"What's so funny?" Yumi asked

"It's nothing."

"I want to know too." Emily persisted.

"No, I just thought it was funny because if I did dream about a woman it would have to be you because you are the woman of my dreams." Ulrich quickly said.

Yumi frowned she could tell he was lying, but she kept silent because Emily was gushing with love from his comment. Ulrich saw Yumi shaking her head and gave her wink. Then he thought about it. If the woman you dream about is truly the woman of your dreams, didn't that mean that Yumi was his dream girl and Emily wasn't? Why was he even thinking about this? It was just a dream!

"Ulrich are you listening?" Emily asked.

"Huh?"

"I said I want to go to this new restaurant my friend told me about."

"Oh, okay."


Ulrich sat at the table as Emily continued talking about wedding. Now Ulrich really did care about the wedding, but he was still sleepy and the dream took all of his concentration away from practically everything.

"Ulrich, are you okay?" Emily finally asked.

"I'm sorry, Em, I'm just tired. I've been working all day and night, and I haven't gotten enough sleep."

Emily smiled. "Why didn't you say so? Why don't you go back to the office and take a nice nap in your office."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. You're not doing yourself good here if you keep falling asleep. I might get mad and kill you." Ulrich chuckled. "I'm serious." Emily glowered. Ulrich frowned in slight fright. Then Emily laughed. "I'm joking." Ulrich laughed as he stood up and gave Emily a kiss on the cheek.

"Besides I'm not hungry anyways." Emily added.

"You sure aren't. You barely touched your food, and you didn't even order any fish. You love seafood."

"Yeah, but I thought I'd get something else. Guess I should've stuck with fish." With that they both went their separate ways.


"You're back early." Yumi said.

"Yeah, I'm just tired, so I came back to take in a little nap." Ulrich said as he took a seat on the sofa in the office.

"Well you rest up." Yumi said as she patted him on the shoulder. "You really are tense though." Yumi said.

Ulrich remained silent as he remembered the dream and tried to nap, but just couldn't. He was actually scared that Yumi might try something on him. He never told anyone, but the one thing that scared him the most was cheating on Emily. He had seen how affairs worked out with several of the businessmen at the companies, and it was a royal nightmare. He had heard stories of the businessmen and women and even their significant others sleeping around. It was just sickening. He laid on the sofa wondering if that was the reason he was so angry with William for cheating on Yumi. It was a devastating thing indeed. He had several girlfriends do it to him, and he felt like they had just set his heart and his love on fire and let it burst into flames.

Ulrich was awakened by someone shaking him. He opened his eyes to find Yumi looking right at him. He yelped as he sat up, blushing like a fool. Yumi raised an eyebrow. "Y-You scared me." Ulrich said. "I mean I don't wanna wake up to your face." Ulrich said snobbishly.

Yumi snorted. "My face is more beautiful than any woman's face you've ever seen."

"Not Emily's." Ulrich protested.

"Well of course you'd say that, but ask anybody. I'm the most beautiful woman in the world." Yumi said in a sing-song voice as she pranced around the room like she was a snobbish princess.

"Hey, Yumi." Ulrich said changing to a serious tone. "If William gives you a hard time, just tell me. I'll fire him if you want.

"Ulrich, I told you—,"

"I know. But that was then. You might not really be over it. If you aren't, I'll fire him for you." Ulrich said.

Yumi gave him a questioning a look. "Why do you care so much?"

Ulrich was taken aback by her question. "Um, I just—I mean you're my friend. Plus, I can't have my secretary distracted by such things."

"So why not fire me?" Yumi asked.

"Well, I need you more—I mean you're, you're more reliable, and we don't need William that much."

"Right, I mean sure he's the assistant head to one of the biggest parts of this company, but the least that'll happen is that the business falls into turmoil and we don't get to expand into Europe." Yumi said.

"But he can't be trusted!" Ulrich said defiantly. "He's a cheater and a liar, and I don't need that in my company. He did the wrong, and if anyone's leaving, it's him and not you. You are very important to this company. I—this company needs you. It needs people who are honest."

Yumi looked down and frowned. "Okay, Ulrich. But you won't have to fire him. I'll be oaky." Yumi said.

Ulrich hugged Yumi, and slowly let go. He rubbed the back of his neck, and went straight towards his office. He sat in his chair and spent most of his time just thinking about what was going on with him. He only knew her for about half a year. But why was he going out of his way like this? Sure they were friends, but he was putting her problems over a multi-billion dollar business.


While working on the contract that he had received from Britain, Ulrich received another knock on the door. Emily slowly opened the door, and gave him a smile.

"What're you doing here?"

"I couldn't find my cellphone, and I remembered I left it in here when I had to text to my mother."

"You never used it in here."

"Yeah, I used it in Yumi's office, but it seems that William needs you to approve one of the games, so I thought I'd tell you and see if you were doing any better."

"You worry about me too much." Ulrich smirked as he walked out the room and towards William's office. Ever since he demoted him, the air between the two of them was completely cold. As he walked over to the jerk's office, he walked into Yumi.

"Oh, Yumi, why aren't you in your office?"

"Just thought I'd stretch my legs." Yumi beamed at him and quickly walked away before he could question her further.

Ulrich knocked on William's door and then entered, not waiting for a reply from him. William was currently on the phone, and jumped out of his seat when Ulrich walked in. "Uh, yes, I'll make sure to take care of those false gaming files." He said, and quickly hung up.

"Who was that?"

"It was our Research Development Dept. Something about a bad make up of a board game we were trying to get through."

"You got the papers." Ulrich said curtly.

"Papers?"

Ulrich glared at him. "Yes, papers! You know the ones we use to sign off of when we approve a game!"

"Oh! Yes, they're right here." William said as he pulled a small stack of papers from amidst a larger stack of papers. Ulrich quickly wrote his signature and then gave William a glaring look.

"And the next time you screw another board game, I'll fire you!" Ulrich said, making sure he put emphasis on 'screw another' so William would get the hint.

Ulrich smirked as he returned to his office. Yelling at William kinda felt empowering.

He opened the door to his and Yumi's joint office, to find the room empty. Just where was Yumi? She should have been back. He made his way over to his private office only to find Emily still there. She looked up and ran up to him and kissed him before he could say anything.

"Oh, I just wanted to give you a kiss goodbye before I left. Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah." Ulrich said slowly, still confused.

"Good! Bye."

What was going on? Why was everyone, including him, acting so strange? Did everyone have weird and questionable dreams or something?


Ulrich arrived home, feeling more drained than he ever did in his life. He felt weirded out by everyone and was still hung up over his dream.

"Good afternoon, Master Ulrich." Ulrich personal butler, Bastian greeted. "Your father wanted me to notify you that he and your mother were going out to eat this evening so you have the house to yourself."

"That doesn't mean much. I mean as big as this house is, a hundred people could occupy it and never see each other for weeks." Ulrich joked. Bastian smirked at Ulrich's comment.

"Funny you should say. There are exactly 100 servants to your family, and I must say, I hardly ever see the same person at least once a month."

"See! I knew it."

"Would you like to have dinner now or later?"

"No dinner tonight, I'm too tired to eat, I'm just gonna sleep. That will be all. Why don't you go see some other servants? You said it's been a month since you've seen most of them anyways." Bastian gave a very formal chuckle.

"Thank you, Master Stern. You are most kind."

Ulrich kept tossing and turning in his bed, he was still plagued by the dream and by the way Yumi and Emily were acting. Yumi was very depressed. She may have said she wasn't, but something was still bothering her and he could tell. Yet she would not let Ulrich come close to firing William. And then there was Emily. She "forgets her cellphone", and then waits for him to return just to kiss him. Who does that? Was it a woman thing? That time of month? Nah. Ulrich began wondering just why Yumi wouldn't let William get fired. He also wondered who the other girl was, and why he hadn't heard anything about her. I mean to cheat on someone; you needed someone else to cheat with. Did this girl already know what was going on? Or was she a victim like Yumi? Why did he even care about this other girl?

Ulrich knew why he cared. It was that stupid dream. It all goes back to that dream. He kept wondering if he had feelings for Yumi, but he never thought of her in that way until that dream. Sure they joked about—even in front of Emily—but he never gave it a second thought. After hearing about William cheating Yumi, who he thought would make a great companion for any guy; he had started fearing whether or not he would fall into temptation as well. After all, if a guy could find it in himself to cheat on a girl like Yumi, then there wasn't much stopping Ulrich from cheating on Emily, right? Then the idea came to him. What if Emily was cheating on him? I mean anything could happen right? Ulrich wondered if Emily ever had dreams like the one he had last night. What if Yumi had a dream about her and Ulrich together too? That could be scandalous!

Ulrich spent his time thinking of different scenarios about him and his friends cheating on each other. Making his own ideas of a soap opera. Ulrich cheating with Aelita; Sam cheating with William; Emily cheating with Odd; Yumi cheating with Jeremie; Yumi cheating with Jeremie AND Odd (now that one was funny); Emily cheating with William; William cheating with Aelita, etc. Ulrich still remembered the time they played that couples game. If he based affairs off of that then this is what would happen: Ulrich would be cheating on Emily with Sam and also with Yumi. Odd would be cheating on Sam with Aelita. Yumi would also have a fling with Jeremie. Emily would have an affair with William. Ulrich wondered which one would most likely happen. He couldn't really see any of them. Although Sam was pretty cute, and she did seem to find him interesting.

"I am the Great Ulrich Stern!" Ulrich proclaimed, using the name Sam normally referred to him as. Hmm, William and Emily. Now there's a couple. William was suave and charming, while Emily was sweet and innocent. There's a deadly combination. No one would see that happening; they were from two opposite worlds. But that's what would make it work. They could make it work, but it would only be a lustful relationship. In the world of affairs, they were perfect for each. Ulrich had to admit, if Emily would cheat on him, it would most likely be someone from work. She hung around all the time there, and she knew everyone. Now there's a though: Yumi find William and Emily together and she actually devastated by it so much that she's actually sad for Ulrich and not herself. But Yumi would tell Ulrich if it was Emily. Right? No, she wouldn't, because Ulrich knew that he'd never believe that. She'd be lying if she said that. Sissi told that same lie. Come to think of it, she even said that William was the guy she was cheating with! Maybe . . . nope, it's coincidence . . . right? Wasn't it? William and Emily couldn't possibly be together. Ulrich was now in deep thought. William would do it, no doubt, but not Emily. She was too nice to do something like that. But Yumi had taken an interest in stabbing a joke at Emily every chance she got and vice versa. Well maybe that was there way of bonding. But that look Yumi gave Emily—it sent chills down Ulrich's spine just thinking of it. But that must've been for William! Right?

Ulrich began laughing. Why was he even thinking of this? Why would Emily be the one to cheat with William? Sure it'd be perfect because no one would find out if you hid it well—especially whenever William was dating Yumi; it gave both a good cover. Then add in the fact that if they were found out, Yumi couldn't tell him because he'd never believe her. Emily could lie and say that she was jealous, and then William could deny it—but then he didn't believe William anyways because Yumi already said he was cheating on her. Wait. What if the only reason Yumi didn't want William fired was because if he was, William would then expose him and Emily! Ulrich knew that if anything like this ever happened, he'd want Yumi to confess. Sure she didn't have much of a chance, but he trusted her. If Yumi knew, there were only two reasons she wouldn't tell him. She was either using it for blackmail, or she loved her job too much to put in jeopardy. Would Yumi really use him like that. Well, technically it's not her fault—she's stuck, but if it were true, she'd have to be willing to lie to him, and that meant that she was lying to him on several occasions. Plus, he was going to marry Emily. Was Yumi so selfish that she would let him marry a heartless witch? Now that he thought about it, if she had known for the past month, he'd be disgusted. She really didn't care that much to just leave him in a "blissful ignorance."

Ulrich laughed harder this time. Why was he entertaining this? It was absolutely preposterous. There was just one thing. Why did Emily want Ulrich to sleep with her so badly? Ulrich remembered her saying that she'd never give up her virginity until after she was married—she said that, she really did. So why was she so pushy all of sudden? Especially when their marriage was only four months away? Maybe she just really wanted to be with him.

Ulrich finally drifted off to sleep as the images of the day ran through his head. His small dinner date with Emily and the fact that she seemed so queasy she wouldn't even eat . . . and then Yumi depressed in the morning but then beaming later on . . . Sissi and Yumi were actually talking today and yesterday . . . William seemed more agitated than when he was demoted . . . Emily was very jumpy when Ulrich returned and she seemed like she was hiding something come to think of it . . . Yumi was obviously lying to him about being okay with William in the same building with her . . . Emily seemed to have recovered from her sickness so quickly because she looked great that afternoon . . . Wait . . . wait a minute.

Ulrich's eye opened and he jumped out of bed. He quickly put his clothes back on and ran out the door. Something was not right. He didn't know what—actually he was denying what it was—but he had to get to the office quickly. Something bad was happening. He could barely breathe at the thought, but he just felt that something at the office would tell him what was going on. All he knew was that if he was even remotely right, someone was going to pay.


"Mr. Stern. What're you doing here?" the entrance security guard asked.

"I forgot something."

"Okay." He mumbled. "Weird, there's a lot of that going on."

"What do you mean?" Ulrich asked.

"Just a minute ago, your fiancé said the same thing. And Ms. Delmas and Ms. Ishiyama haven't left at all. They said they had work to do because they forgot to finish it beforehand."

"Sissi doesn't have any work." Ulrich said.

"Well Ms. Ishiyama said she needed her help."

Ulrich sighed. "Come with me."

"Huh?"

"Get up, and come with me to my office."

"Is everything okay?"

"No." Ulrich said as he stared straight ahead. "I'm ending this. It all ends tonight. I need you to come with me. Bring two other guards and come to my office." Without another word, Ulrich entered the building and made his way over to the elevators.

His pace was quickening with every step. Soon he was in a mad run as he ran towards his office. When he arrived he found a very interesting scene going.

Yumi, Emily, and Sissi were fighting over a phone machine. They were calling each other every name in the book, and seemed that Yumi and Sissi were actually working together.

"STOP IT!" Ulrich roared. The girls all froze in fright. Sissi lost her balance and fell, knocking over the trash can and dropping the phone machine, which sparked Yumi and Emily to make a mad dash for it.

Something caught Ulrich's eye that he quickly pocketed. He then grabbed the phone machine and wrenched it out of the two girl's grasps.

"Get up." Ulrich growled to Sissi. She stumbled to her feet and stood next to the other two girls. "You three are going to tell what exactly is going on. And if I don't like what I here, someone will leave in tears. Now what's going on?"


Told ya, you'd hate me.

Next Chapter is Chapter 8: The Plan