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Here are the next chapters. ^ v ^ Ghost Hunt is not mine. Please read and review!
They said that when you die, all the memories that you have in your life flash right before your very eyes.
At that moment Mai saw two blinding tried to run but the vehicle was too fast. She screamed as she felt the stone-hard bumper hit her waist, hurling her upper body forward – crashing her face hard on the solid glass. Pain surged from her face, from her waist, from her limbs…
Then she felt her body bounce and roll from the vehicle to the pavement. She started to feel small flames burning in every part of her body. By the time her body stopped rolling, she could barely move...
...And in front of the truck was Naru – running toward her with a frantic expression on his face – something she was sure her memories of him or her imagination could never conjure.
"NOLL!" Madoka called as they saw Oliver run in front of the truck.
Lin was about to run to get Oliver out of the truck's way when he saw a young woman stunned and standing at the place where Oliver seemed to be running to.
He stopped and watched Oliver quickly pull the young woman toward his chest.
Mai didn't know what happened next. The only thing she remembered was seeing black, feeling a strong force push her somewhere, and falling seated on the stone pavement.
She felt the warm arms hold her close to someone's beating chest. She opened her eyes and saw her mobile phone on the place where she must have stood earlier.
She gasped in shock as a truck drove over it – crushing the phone to pieces.
"The phone," Oliver heard Mai mumble under her breath.
He eyed the crushed remnants of the phone. By the looks of it, he concluded that it was a very old, if not ancient, model – Mai was being extra thrifty to her self…again.
He sighed and looked at Mai whom he held tightly against his chest.
It felt as if his body missed every inch of the gesture. It brought back memories he had inside the cramped apartment one night when she seemed to have had the most terrible nightmare. It brought back the surge of adrenaline in his veins upon seeing her struggles to breathe, her pale skin, and her purple lips. It reminded him of that same state of relief when she began to feel better upon holding her tight in his arms – upon reminding her that he was there and that he needed her beside him.
It was only after coming back to England with the painful realization that he had let her slip away from his life forever, that he realized what the nightmare she had that night would have been. It was ever since that nightmare that their ties took a drastic turn. He gained the freedom to do intimate gestures he never thought he could do, while Mai slowly immersed her self into a pool of secrecy – masking every pain she felt with her smiles.
The nightmare she had must have been Gene's last moments alive – the same vision he had upon touching Gene's shirt.
He couldn't blame her. He himself barely enjoyed sleeping ever since. His body felt like drowning every night that he tried to sleep.
"Are you alright?" he asked her without thinking about how out-of-character it was.
Mai nodded sadly. "Yes," she said. She now understood why the stranger tugged her into that corner. She was so stupid not to notice the truck. "Thank you for saving me," she said noticing only the gold key that hung against the man's warm chest.
The stranger helped her stand.
"Two years, and you're still the idiot that you are," the stranger muttered.
Mai's eyes went wide in shock. The stranger wasn't a stranger. How idiot in deed she was to not recognize the voice and the scent of the man still holding her in his arms as they stood. And he used her native tongue to speak to her!
Oliver watched Mai's eyes look at him tearfully.
"Nar…"
Oliver was about to smirk when Mai gasped and covered her lips.
"Dr. Davis!"
Oliver was taken aback. Well, if Mai was there she was sure to know who he was because of the press featuring him in several articles lately.
But he felt a touch of disappointment upon hearing them. His chest twisted painfully at the realization that everything between them had changed.
Mai watched his eyes give a glare at her. She swallowed loudly, realizing that she may have ruined his plans of mixing in with the crowd. He was quite a popular figure there after all, and seeing how people seemed to ignore him was odd.
He must have been trying to hide his identity and there she was spilling everything.
"I'm so sorry," she said.
Oliver quickly pulled her by the wrist into a narrow alley nearby. "You're such an idiot," he muttered.
"Aw," Madoka dreamily sighed. "Noll saved that girl!"
Lin eyed Oliver and Mai from the corner where he and Madoka stood. He watched them talk closely to one another in the shade of the narrow alley.
Oliver seemed to know her personally, as the girl did the same.
Lin's brows shot up in realization. "Taniyama Mai," he whispered to himself.
"Kaiba-san got you here after all," Oliver said looking at her while still holding her wrist in his side.
Mai shyly looked away. "He really did everything to get me here as a maid," she said. "He even defended me from being transported here as a prostitute. I'm really a housemaid here."
Oliver's eyes widened.
She almost got shipped into the country as a harlot..!
Mai stepped back, wanting to cover her face in his intense stare. She and her big mouth…she shouldn't have spilled too much information.
She tried to lift her hands but she realized that he was now holding her by her wrists.
Oliver noticed Mai's fearful expression change into confusion, deep thought and then shock.
"The vegetables!" she gasped. She quickly turned to where they were before and found the vegetables she bought crushed on the pavement.
Oliver pulled her closer to him, sensing how much her body wanted to faint at the sight of the severed groceries.
Mai sighed in disappointment – water filling the side of her eyes.
"You should have paid attention to your surroundings instead of talking on the phone," Oliver said in his usual cold tone. "It was your fault."
Mai frowned at Oliver. "Geez, Naru. You're such a comforting person, aren't you?"
Oliver smirked seeing the pout she always made when she frowned, and hearing his nickname from her lips.
Mai looked away, not realizing that he called him 'Naru.' She was still to busy thinking about how mad the people in the house would be if they learned that she let a truck crush the food she bought using their market budget.
"I'm going to need to call Florence," she mumbled.
Oliver winced.
And who the bloody hell would this Florence be?
Mai looked at him again. "Do you know where I can find a phone booth here?"
Oliver raised a brow. "Is this your first time to be in the market place?"
Mai scowled. "Yes," she said. "And because I know how all-knowing you are, I was wondering if you could give me some directions on where I could use one..?"
Oliver pulled out his phone from his pocket and handed it to Mai.
Mai noticed that it looked like the same phone unit that he had two years ago.
She slowly took the phone and stared blankly at it.
Oliver sighed. "That's a mobile phone," he said. "You dial a number, press the call button, hold it against your ear, and talk to the person you want to talk to."
Mai glared at him. "I know that," she said, dialling Florence's number. She then held it against her ear and waited for Florence's voice.
"Florence! This is Mai," Oliver heard Mai say on the phone after a moment of waiting. He couldn't help but feel amazed at how fluent Mai sounded in English.
It was then that he noticed the key dangling against his chest. He quickly hid it beneath his shirt.
"I have a bit of a problem," Mai said. "Oh I'm already in the market. But the vegetables I bought were overrun by a truck…"
Oliver heard a loud 'what' from whoever was on the other line.
"Calm down, Florence," Mai said. "I'm okay. No, I wasn't hurt but the vegetables… No, Florence. I wasn't wounded or injured. I called because I was wondering if you could help me get the groceries home later... I'm planning on withdrawing money from my account so I can replace the vegetables that were overrun by the truck. No, it's okay. Don't worry. I can do this on my own. I'll just need some help getting the groceries home…"
Oliver smirked. Mai was a housemaid. She must have been given the task of buying groceries in the market.
He looked at the crushed vegetables.
"I'll…oh uh yes the phone," Mai said sadly. "It got smashed too. I dropped it when I was pulled away from the truck's way." Oliver saw a bright blush creep up to her cheeks. "Uh…A friend of mine saw me and saved me…and he lent me this phone."
Oliver heard a loud 'he' echoing from the phone.
"Yes, 'he,'" Mai said. "It's a long story. I'll tell you when we meet later, okay? I'm eating up his minutes…"
Not really. Oliver rarely used his phone so he didn't mind having Mai use all of his call minutes.
"Sure, I'll meet you there before lunch. Okay, see you!" And with that Mai ended the call and handed the phone back to Oliver. "Here, thank you."
Oliver took it and kept it in his pocket again. "You shouldn't have bought those vegetables in this part of the market," he said.
Mai froze. "Oh…"
Oliver looked at her. "Vegetables here are still too expensive for their quality."
Mai looked down. "I see…Um can you tell me where I should go?"
Oliver walked away from her and went toward the direction that the truck took.
Mai stood watching him.
Oliver stopped and turned to look at her. "Are you just going to stand there?"
Mai smiled stiffly and quickly walked by his side.
Oliver held her wrist in his hand.
Mai felt her cheeks warm up. She looked at Oliver.
"Look at where you're going," Oliver said. "I won't look for you if you get lost in this crowd."
Mai looked away shyly and smiled. "So…Dr…"
"Don't call me that."
Mai stiffly turned her head away. "Um…Oli…"
"No."
"Shibuya-san..?" Mai asked.
Oliver smirked. "So that's why you're such an idiot. All your intellect was replaced with courtesy. At least you're of some use."
Mai glared at him. "And all your courtesy was replaced by your egoistic nature!"
"…Which makes me a very striking intellectual," he finished.
Mai rolled his eyes. "You forgot narcissistic, NARU."
Oliver smiled and pulled her closer.
Madoka bit her lips from letting out a giggle.
She and Lin walked subtly behind Oliver and Mai.
Lin eyed Madoka in confusion.
Madoka looked up at him and smiled. "Aren't you amazed at what that girl could do to Noll?"
Lin raised his brows.
Madoka chuckled. "Look at them," she said turning to the youngsters walking in front of them. "Noll despises such close contact, especially with someone from the opposite sex. But look at him now. He's even the one pulling her closer to him."
Lin watched Oliver keep his close distance with Mai as they walked through the crowd and smirked in understanding.
Madoka sighed. "They look like a really cute couple," she said. "Do you think Noll would mind if we tell Luella and Martin about this?"
Lin was sure that Noll would be as mad as hell if he found out that he and Madoka spied on him. He might even be angrier if he learned about them telling his parents about a girl he acted so intimate with.
Aside from those probable facts, Lin also wasn't sure if Noll's engagement would still be affected by Noll having an intimate relationship with another girl.
"As much as I would love to keep him from such a problematic engagement," Lin began. "I'm not sure Noll would agree to use that girl to get him out of the situation."
Madoka nodded.
