Chapter 7

They were in the middle of their meal when Emma's phone rang. She quickly grabbed it and answered. Few minutes after, she faced the two.

"Sorry guys, I have to go. My husband and kid are in Star Mall, waiting for me." She tsked and looked down on her food, which was still more than half of the serving.

"How are you going to Star Mall?" Aiko asked.

"I'll commute. Don't worry about me and enjoy yourselves, guys. I'll see you both tomorrow." And she went out.

"I really like her," Aiko said.

"Oh, yeah. I've been in the lab for three years and I can't say anything bad about her," he said patronizingly. Then, "So, what happened to you yesterday?"

"A headache, a severe one. And I always faint when it hits the extreme." She toyed with her food.

"Is it always like that? What if it suddenly strikes when you're driving? It's dangerous, Aiko."

She smiled. "It rarely occurs, Kurt. I wasn't able to take my pain reliever immediately because I left it in my office."

"Trunks took you home." It was a statement. Kurt's face was serious and she could see the animosity in his eyes.

"I woke up and saw Mr. Briefs, Kurt. There's nothing wrong on what he did. I'm sure you'll do the same if you were there."

"I was there, Aiko. But he threw me out. I know he's interested in you."

She sipped her orange juice and slowly looked up to him. "What about you, Kurt?" she asked directly. "Are you interested?"

"I like women who are straightforward and not coy." He smiled with appreciation. He held her hand then softly said, "I made it too obvious, Aiko. The first time I saw you in the lab."

She took her hand. "Then you should know that all is fair in love and war."

Kurt focused his attention to his food. He took time swallowing, then, "Trunks' my sister's boyfriend, Aiko. He let her down once, four… five years ago by marrying another. I can't allow him to hurt her again."

"And you think I'm interfering their relationship?"

"If Trunks would be serious with you, then yes. But my feelings doesn't base on that, Aiko Matsui. Before I knew that it was Trunks who hired you, it was already obvious that I'm interested in you, if you noticed."

Of course, she noticed. But she didn't want to discuss his 'interest'. "I'm not defending Mr. Briefs, Kurt," she said in a conversational tone. "But just for the sake of argument, why did Mr. Briefs married another woman if he loves your sister? And if he's single now, whatever happened to the wife, why still he doesn't offer marriage to your sister?"

Kurt stopped on tracks. He frowned as if that was the only first time that he thought of what Aiko had said.

"He's… only using Sofia." He stammered.

"Doesn't Mr. Briefs have concerned and respect for your parents?"

"Well…" Suddenly Aiko saw uncertainty in Kurt's eyes.

Then he opened his mouth to say something when somebody caught his eyes.

"Kurt!" the voice from behind. "I'm not expecting to see you. Since what time are you here?" She looked down at Aiko who was still sipping her juice.

"Thirty… forty minutes ago. Sofia, meet Aiko Mitsui, our junior analyst. Aiko, my sister Sofia."

Aiko lifted her face, smiling a little. Sofia immediately covered her mouth to suppress her gasp. Her eyes widened in shock. Aiko was confused on her sudden reaction.

"Nice meeting you, Sofia…" she said and offered her hand.

Sofia reluctantly grabbed her hand, recovering from her initial reaction. "N-nice meeting you, too. W-what is her name again, Kurt?"

"Aiko. Aiko Matsui. You can join us, sis." Kurt took a chair for her but Sofia declined.

"I'm with someone. I'll go ahead." And without glancing back, she marched away.

Kurt followed his sister's direction, and to the man beside her who wrapped his arm around her waist. He didn't miss when the man kissed his sister.

"Wait here…" Kurt told Aiko and immediately got up.

Her eyes were questioning but then she shrugged. She focused her attention to the food in the table. Curiously, she took a piece and nibbled on it and found it appetizing.

Few minutes later, Kurt was back.

"Is there any problem?" she asked. She could sense that he was angry.

He didn't answer her. He took his wine and called the waiter to give him more. Then, he looked at her and forced a smile.

"She's more beautiful in person."

"She is," he said drily.

"Only two of you? Siblings?" She was making a conversation. She didn't understand the sudden change of his mood.

"We're four. Our eldest is in Europe. The second one is in LA, the only married man. I have a nephew by the way." His eyes softened a little. "Sofia is the third and the only girl. I'm the youngest."

Her smile held envy. "I wish I have brothers and sisters. I'm an only daughter."

"You must be very precious to your parents."

She thought about her family's overprotectiveness. Then she realized she didn't want to discuss her family with Kurt. "They sure love me. But if you think I'm spoiled, think again." Aiko laughed happily, thinking, not for the first time, that this young man who had shown obvious interest toward her was really as polished as he was handsome.

She stared at his black hair, a little longer than the clean cut. And the dimples on each side of his cheeks added a touch of boyishness that made Kurt endearing. She was sure that she wasn't the only one to notice it.

"I'm sure all your brothers are as tall as you, Kurt, while Sofia's endearingly petite. And what about your parents? Are they here in Japan?"

"Yes. Sofia still lives with them while I have my own flat. Oh, actually, Sofia's adopted. We didn't keep it a secret. Everyone knows it."

"Oh."

"My parents already had two boys. At that time, they wanted to focus on the business so they decided to adopt a girl. Sofia was almost three years old when accidentally Mom got pregnant, with me." He shrugged his shoulders. "Another boy. So they were so thankful for adopting her."

"Surely you are not an excess baggage?" she teased.

"Oh, no. But my parents spoiled her rotten. We, my brothers and I, actually spoiled her, too." His eyes suddenly went dim. "Let's forget about my family. Let's talk about us…"

"What do you mean?"

"I like you, Aiko. A lot."

"I like you, too." She said sincerely. "But only as my friend."

"I don't want 'friendship" for us, Aiko. I'm sure you know that."

She sighed. "I'm sorry Kurt. But that's the only thing I can give. Friendship."

"Are you committed? Do you have… a boyfriend? I didn't ask you that before?"

She wondered for a while. Shocked that in her mind she wanted to answer his question with yes. She shook her head and sighed.

"No. I don't have a boyfriend. And I don't have any intention to have one yet." She said firmly.

Kurt nodded. "Perhaps, I'll accept whatever you offer. But just to let you know, perseverance is my middle name. I can make you change your mind about me. Bet on that."

She smiled. She really liked him. And she was in the right age to enter a relationship and it wasn't bad if it was with Kurt. But there was a part of her deliberately opposed.

"I've been waiting for you for hours," said Sofia when Kurt opened the door of his apartment unit. She was there, lying on his sofa browsing Playboy magazine.

"So I noticed," he said grimly. "I also want to talk to you about you and your companion earlier." He threw his keys on the bureau. "My god, Sofia. I was fighting with Trunks for you. I always wanted to punch his face every time he took you for granted, or so I thought. But look at you, with my own two eyes, I saw you kissing another guy."

"He is just a date, Kurt." She said carelessly. "Don't make it a big deal." She stood up and placed the magazine on the table.

"A date, damn you! I followed both of you at the parking. You almost had sex with him inside his car!"

"Shut up, Kurt." She said. "I don't want to talk about it. I want to ask you something."

Kurt just realized that it was the first time that Sofia used the key that he gave her. She didn't go to his place unless for important reasons. And always, she would call first before coming.

"What?" he snapped. He walked to his kitchen and grabbed a can of beer and gulped.

Sofia reached for her bag and lit a cigarette. "Who is Aiko Matsui?" she asked before she puffed and then blew the smoke upward.

"Our new junior analyst. My colleague. And why the sudden interest in my dates, Sofia?"

"It isn't about you, Kurt." She took another puff. "Is Trunks aware of this particular employee?"

Kurt noticed the edge on his sister's voice. "Trunks hired her."

Sofia stopped. Her eyes widened and stared at him. It took few minutes before she spoke again. "Her name's Aiko Matsui? Are you sure it's Aiko Matsui?"

He rolled his eyes. "What is this all about, Sofia?"

"Kurt," she said gritting her teeth, "Aiko Matsui is the carbon copy of Trunks' wife!"

"What?"

"Aiko looked like Pan."

"Are… are you sure about this?" He walked on the nearest sofa and sat.

"As sure as I'm standing here. I met Trunks' wife in LA." She said emphatically. "Right in his apartment unit when I learned from Bulma that he was back, with his wife. Oh god, I would have killed him that night…"

"Trunks must have noticed the similarity," he said unbelievingly.

"Similarity isn't the right word. Aiko's a dead ringer of Pan! I almost fainted when you introduced her to me. The only thing that stopped me from losing control is that she really doesn't know me. That she was pretending not to know me crossed my mind, too."

Kurt stared at his beer. "So, that must be the reason why Trunks is so interested in her." He murmured, more to himself. "He took Aiko home yesterday when she fainted."

Sofia cursed. Hatred was so evident in her eyes. "I want to know everything about this woman, Kurt. I want her investigated. Maybe she's Pan."

Kurt's attention returned to her. "Oh, don't be stupid. You will be wasting money and time. Do you think Trunks didn't do that?"

"What do you mean?"

"He hired her among the applicants. And now we both know why. So, think about this, Sofia. If you want to know whether Aiko is Pan, then much to Trunks. He was crazy with his wife, you told me so. He can't forget her. Now I finally realized that you don't stand a chance. Aiko is right. If Trunks had loved you, or even a little, he would have married you long before. Especially when his wife was gone."

"No!" Sofia was furious. "He made me believe that we were going to marry-"

"Shut up, Sofia! I can't see any reason for Trunks to give you any hope in marrying you. Don't use me against him. I can't even remember him dating other women. The playboy thing was from you. And even if he dated, he made it to the point to be discreet about it. And still, I wouldn't take it against him. He is a man, for crying out loud! While you, I saw you twice with different men.."

"Kurt—"

"I didn't tell you the first time I saw you with other guy because I thought there was nothing wrong with friendly date. But I saw you this afternoon, Sofia. And then there were rumors, which I chose to ignore. You were telling people that Trunks is your boyfriend and yet they would see you with different men?"

"They're male friends! Don't be an idiot. What are you, a caveman?"

"And all this time, Trunks remained a perfect gentleman." He said, ignoring her. "He never said anything against you every time I provoked him".

"I'm making Trunks jealous, Kurt. That's why I'm dating others."

"Maybe. But you can fuck all those men, Sofia, but I'm sure Trunks wouldn't give a damn. For him, you're only a daughter of one of the stockholders, a minor one for that matter. And if he really wants, he can buy you from Dad."

"We slept together, Kurt." She confessed, desperately defending herself. "When he came back here in Japan. So, what can you say about that?"

He looked at her grimly. "He was vulnerable. He lost his wife. I won't be surprised if you were the one who took the initiative to seduce him, at his lowest moment."

"I don't understand you!" she shouted. "Why suddenly you're turning your back on me?"

"Because I can now see your obsession with Trunks. Our parents spoiled you being the only girl. What Sofia wants, Sofia gets. Except Trunks. And that's the truth that you can't accept." He walked to his bedroom.

Sofia ran after him. "Kurt! I need your help…"

"Back off, Sofia." He said without looking at her.

A/N: Thank you guys for the reviews! :)