AUTHOR's NOTE

i changed my pen name again.., sorry

pansy25

thanks ^_^.., hehe.., that's my intention in using yzak as the third party.., so that athrun will have a decent rival..,

Reddawn Queen

thanks..., make cagalli love yzak? haha.., that's the original plan.., but right now.., i'm planning to finish this story as soon as i can.., but let's see what i can do about it.., hehe.., and i'm sorry that this chapter one took some time to finish...,

Lenora Jime

thanks.., but i guess.., some already know that it was yzak who gave her the kiss because i posted a drawing in the facebook group.., maybe that's the reason why less people read and reviewed this chapter.., haha...but of course this is still an asucaga fic.., i'm not changing that one.., ^_^

The President's Lover

Chapter 7

Cute Girl and Bonnet Boy

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed/ Seed Destiny

"Hey, Pan-Chan", Cagalli said while holding a big stuffed panda. "You know what, I'm already engaged", she told the panda. This stuffed panda had been her bestfriend even before Shiho came to her life. They've been together ever since she was little. It was the first stuffed toy she ever had. It may seem childish at her age but she had been talking to Pan-Chan ever since she had him. She told all her secrets, frustrations, and happy moments to him, especially those things which she cannot share with anyone, not even with Shiho. Shiho didn't even know about Pan-Chan's existence.

Nobody had ever seen her collection of stuffed toys. Most of those were her designs. She actually placed them inside one of the rooms in her house. It was the room that she kept locked whenever she wasn't home. The room contains three huge cabinets with glass doors, each containing her collections of stuffed animals of different sizes. The floor was covered with beige carpet where some of the stuffed toys sat since all three cabinets were already full. There was also a brown sofa where she always sat with Pan-Chan while admiring her collections.

"My father arranged it and I know I can't do anything about it", she continued to talk to Pan-Chan. "But don't worry I think he is nice. He might do something before they arrange the actual wedding. Who knows, he might fell in love with someone. But, even if the wedding pushes through, I believe he'll make a fine husband. If ever that happens, I'll still keep this house. If he doesn't want to live here, then we'll live separately. Apparently, he's also a workaholic like me so there's really no problem in keeping a nice attitude since we will rarely see each other".

The next day at the company, the people in Cagalli's design team were in a state of panic. Apparently, it was already 9:30 in the morning and the blonde president has yet to come. The thing was, she had an important meeting with a client company at exactly 10 AM. It was unusual for her to be late in their office when she had meetings like that or more likely, she was never late when she had meetings. They tried calling in her landline at home but nobody was answering.

Athrun stared at the panicking people in front of him. Truth to be told, he had no idea of what was happening since he never knew about the meeting on that day because he was only transferred to that team yesterday. He got no chance to ask what the commotion was all about but he was pretty obvious that all of them were looking for their terror president.

"Why don't you just go to her house?", the brunette lady who happened to be Cagalli's secretary suggested to one of the member of the design team.

"Nice idea!", a blue head said. "Why don't you do that, Miriallia", she added with a hint of sarcasm.

"Why me?", Miriallia countered. "I don't want to go to that house".

Then all eyes landed on a certain blue haired guy who hadn't spoken a single word since they started panicking and all.

Athrun sweat-dropped. He sort of figured out that they want him to fetch their president even before they tell it directly to him. Their eyes we're pleading as if their lives depended on it.

He let out a sigh and said, "All right, I'll do it. But, what is this all about?". After the explanations were done, Athrun hurriedly went to the parking lot and rode his motorbike. He dashed through the street without breaking the speed limit. Of course he shouldn't do something that might cause him more time if ever he'll get caught.

After a few minutes, he was now standing in front of the familiar door of Cagalli's unit. He was kinda hesitating to push the doorbell since he was not in good terms with the blonde president.

"Okay, if I won't do this, all of us in the design team will be fired", he told himself before finally ringing the doorbell.

He waited for a while but there was no response. He tried again for a couple more times but still there was no one answering the door. That was when he suddenly felt worried. He sprinted towards the receptionist's area and inquired if Cagalli was in her unit. The woman confirmed that she went home last night and that the blonde woman had not left the building earlier that day.

"Are you sure, Miss?", Athrun asked in a worried state.

"Yes, Sir", the receptionist replied.

"But nobody answered when I rang the doorbell. Can we use a spare key to open her door? I'm afraid something might have happened to her", he said almost raising his voice.

The receptionist, thinking it was an emergency, asked one of the guards to accompany Athrun to Cagalli's room. As soon as the guard opened the door, Athrun immediately went inside and found her messy place. Yes, it was messy again. He ran towards her room and found her empty bed which got him even more worried. He checked the other rooms in the unit until he came upon the room that was locked when he first entered her house. To his surprise it was no longer locked and inside, he found Cagalli lying on the couch. He rushed to her side and tried to wake her up. He noticed the dark circles under her eyes and the dry tears on her cheeks. She must be crying all night long.

The guard who opened the door already left since he already confirmed that the occupant of the room was fine.

"President Athha, President Athha", he tried calling her name but it did not work.

He tried to shake her body, but it did not work.

He tried to tap her gently on the cheeks but still, it did not work.

That was why he really slapped her on the cheeks, it wasn't full force but it was a little harder than earlier.

"Ouch!", Cagalli was finally awake. He eyes slowly opened while adjusting to the light. She touched her left cheek which was just slapped by the man who came to her room.

"Good morning, President Athha", Athrun greeted her with a sheepish smile.

Cagalli turned to look at him.

1...

2...

3...

"Aaaaaarrrrghhhh!", she exclaimed as she sat up. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM?", she yelled. Athrun had to cover his ears or he'll be deaf. When Cagalli calmed down, he took the opportunity to explain himself.

"You didn't come to the company and we cannot contact you so the members of the design team are worried. Then I found you sleeping soundly here, do you know what time it is?", he said almost scolding her.

"What time is it?", she asked not really minding the tone Athrun used in talking with her. She even grabbed his arm to look at his watch.

"It's already 9:45, you highness", he said.

"WHAT?", she exclaimed then stood up from the couch. "What to do? What to do?". She looked everywhere as if looking for something then ran towards her door.

"Just stay here!", Cagalli said with a murderous look before slamming the door and going to the bathroom.

It was only when Cagalli left that Athrun noticed the stuffed toys displayed inside the room.

"She must be an addict", he said to himself. He couldn't even figure out how many were there in that room. But in his opinion, it was a lot more than the ones displayed in their office. He continued surveying the room. He found a lot of teddy bears and other stuffed animals. But what really caught his attention was the panda bear on the floor. It was the panda Cagalli was hugging before she woke up. She accidentally dropped it on the floor when she stood up in surprise. He picked it up and raised it to his eye level. He felt nostalgic while staring at it.

A couple of minutes later, Cagalli came back to the room. She was wearing a blue dress with sleeve with a gray knitted vest on top. A towel was well placed on her head to absorb the water from her hair.

"Can you drive a car?", she asked.

"Yeah", Athrun replied then Cagalli left to her room in and remove the towel from her head as she grab a comb in front of the mirror. She untangled her hair which only took a few minutes since she had quite a short hair.

"Let's go", she said when she found Athrun on her receiving area.

"Aren't you going to lock that room?", Athrun asked while pointing at the room where he was earlier. Cagalli stopped from her track and silently scolded herself. She ran towards the room and locked it. After that, she rushed towards the door while Athrun followed her in the same pace.

The trip towards the meeting place was filled with silence until Athrun finally decided to ask something which had been bugging him. He took a glimpse of her from the corner of his eyes to check her temper. She was wearing a poker face so he assumed that she was not in a really bad mood.

"Do you mind if I ask you something?", he said.

Cagalli looked at him with suspicious eyes. "Is it something personal?".

Athrun laughed sheepishly. "Sort of", he said. "Actually, it's about that panda bear".

"What about it?".

"I just noticed that, among all your stuffed toys, it's the only one not in the display. I'm just wondering why", he explained while glancing at her once in a while.

Cagalli's face turned into a shade of pink as memories came flooding into her mind. As she may never admit it, the person who gave her that panda bear might be her first crush.

FLASHBACK

It was a pleasant Sunday morning. A lot of people were entering the newly opened theme park in Orb. It was to be expected since Sunday means family day so basically the kids would want to go to a place like that. Afterall, it was the first theme park in Onogoro City. Just as the owners planned, they opened it on the summer vacation.

Uzumi Nara Athha, being one of the wealthiest people in the country had a lot of contributions in the construction of the new attraction making him one of the owners. With that being said, he was expected to attend the opening with his daughter Cagalli Yula Athha who was only six years old at that time. She wore a cute dress just for the event. It was a white dress with blue skirt that reached a few centimeters below her knees. During that time, she kept her blond hair long.

After the ribbon cutting and some speeches from the owners, the operations of the rides and games began. The stalls for food, souvenirs and many others were already open. There was even a restaurant inside.

"Father! Let's ride the roller coaster!", little Cagalli happily exclaimed.

"You're not yet allowed to ride it", Uzumi replied with his strict monotonous voice.

Cagalli frowned. She really wanted to try riding that roller coaster thing. Instead of riding the other rides available in the park, her father decide to stay on the place with a table, chairs and umbrella (I don't know what you call that place... hahaha) and talked with his business partners. Cagalli had no choice but to sit on a chair and just stay there watching her father and his companions.

After a little while, Cagalli whispered something on his father's ears who replied with a nod then told her the instruction on how to go to the powder room although she was kinda expecting that his father will walk her to there.

Cagalli, during that time, had a very bad sense of direction so on her way to the restroom, she kept on asking for direction to the people she met along the way. That was how she was able to reach her destination. On her way back, she noticed that there dew fewer people on the streets so she asked a lady sitting on the nearby bench.

"They were probably at the magic show", she replied. "Do you want to watch it?", she asked when she noticed the sparkle in her eyes upon hearing the word 'magic'.

Cagalli nodded her head enthusiastically. She had never seen a magic show before.

It was an open stage performance so everyone could watch it. Cagalli eyes lit with glow seeing every performance. When the show was over, she hurriedly went back to her father but on her way back, she passed through a shooting game with huge stuffed animals as the prize. She stopped from her pace and stared at a certain stuffed animal.

"Here!", she noticed a boy giving some money to the man at the shooting game. That boy was wearing a simple turquoise shirt and black shorts. There was also a bonnet placed on top of his head.

The owner of the stand handed him a toy gun.

"Say Mister!, how do I get those big stuffed toys?", the boy asked.

"You must hit these five targets in a single row, without missing", he explained with a kind smile. "Do you think you can you do it?", he asked.

"Of course!", the boy answered confidently.

He fired his first try but it missed.

"Eh? It's hard", the boy said then tried again. He tried and tried and tried.

It took him several tries before finally winning the jackpot.

"YES!", he exclaimed as he punched in the air after hitting the last target.

"Congratulations boy!", the man said then asked which stuffed toy he wanted.

"That one!", the boy replied while pointing at the big panda bear so the man gave him the panda.

Cagalli noticed that the boy looked at her direction and started walking.

"Here", he said while giving her the stuffed animal.

Cagalli turned behind her thinking that he was giving it to someone behind her but she found no one so she stared at him with a puzzled look on her face.

"I saw you staring at this earlier so I thought you want it", he answered to the unspoken question. He had a sheepish smile on his face while scratching the back of his head.

But Cagalli shook his head saying that she was not and her face turned slightly pink.

"C'mon I saw you", the boy insisted.

"But I...", The boy noticed that her eyes widened in surprise and she was frozen in her spot. He raced her line of vision until it landed on a middle age man with a furious look on his face approaching them. Moustache was covering the lower part of his face.

Following his instincts, he grabbed her wrist and ran towards the opposite direction thinking that the man was a bad guy who was after the girl.

They stopped running when he finally thought that they were already in a safe place.

"Are you alright?", he asked while catching his breath.

"Why did you drag me here?", she asked. He could feel the fright in her voice.

"Because that man is after you", he answered.

"Of course he is... He's my father".

"WHAT? Sorry sorry sorry". He even felt more guilty when he noticed that she was about to cry.

"I'm really sorry, I really thought that he was a bad guy", he said in the most sincere way he could muster. Cagalli tried to hold back her tears. "C'mon, I'll bring you to your father and explain that it was my fault", he said.

"You will?", Cagalli asked. Her face turned a bit brighter.

The boy nodded his head. "But before that, I want you to take this", he said while handing her the panda bear. "Consider it as a gift from a friend".

Cagalli finally smiled and gratefully accepted the gift. They started walking back to the path they took when they ran away from Cagalli's father.

"By the way, what's your name?", the boy asked.

"My father told me not to tell my name to someone I just met", Cagalli said shyly.

The boy was a bit disappointed but smiled anyway. "I see, then I'll just call 'cute girl'", he said with a grin. The girl was surprised that she stopped walking. It wasn't the first time that someone called her cute but still, she wasn't really used to it.

"What's the problem, cute girl?", the boy asked in a teasing manner.

"Please stop calling me that", she replied while blushing.

"But I don't know your name, so I'll call you that. Why don't you call me with something too?", he suggested.

Cagalli thought for a while and observed him.

"Aha! I'll call you 'bonnet boy'", she replied.

The boy laughed at the name making Cagalli to blush even more.

"Then 'bonnet boy' it is", he said.

It wasn't too long before they found Cagalli's father. The kids apologized but Uzumi was far from being pleased. Anyway, he just let it pass for that day since a lot of people were already eyeing them and he decided to call it a day.

As the father and daughter were walking away from the boy, Cagalli suddenly stopped and faced him.

"It was the lion", she said then resumed walking with her father who wasn't really interested in what her daughter said.

The boy was confused with what the girl had said. As he passed by the shooting game stand, he noticed that the panda bear on the display was already replaced by a new one and beside it was a lion stuffed toy.

"It was the lion he remembered her say.

"WAAAHHHH!", he exclaimed as realization hit him.