Ahaha! I had a lot of fun with this chapter :) Hope you enjoy it!~
**********
Chapter 7
Dressed in clothes that were more her style in the sense that it wasn't squeezing the life out of her body, Misaki was starting to dread weekends. If it weren't for Kanami, she wouldn't mind the breaks from work. But now her weekends went directly into Project Ruin November – something she didn't even want to be a part of.
It had taken her more than an hour to get ready, something that she never did on a regular basis. There was too much to consider as part of this operation. Both Li and Kanami had told her it was easy, as long as she remembered everything they told her. Unfortunately, she had no grasp on these relationship things that they seemed to be experts on.
First, she had to carefully consider her outfit. It had to be something club appropriate, not that she would ever dress like her normal self at one. At the same time, she didn't want it to be over the top like that Chinese dress was. Another factor was that it had to be appealing because no one would want to know her if she didn't look attractive.
Secondly, she had to consider what to do regarding her face. They said not to go like she did last time, which was with her contacts and lots of makeup; at least it felt like a lot of makeup. Between the two of them, they must have ransacked glasses stores because she had about thirty different fake pairs to choose from. It was hard enough to get dressed; now she had to find glasses that matched.
Lastly, and this one was the most difficult of the three, was her hair. Kanami had put in loose waves that other time, something she had no patience to do. It was easy to throw it into a ponytail, but it didn't match her outfit. As a result, she had been struggling to put it up using one of the accessories that Kanami had provided.
Her hair was so long, she didn't know how to keep it up using hair sticks. Hair claws didn't seem to be big enough to hold it up either. When she tried to use bobby pins, they slipped out of her fingers as she wasn't skilled enough to hold back the piece she wanted to and slip the pin in at the same time. All in all, it was a nightmare.
The main reason why she wanted to clip it up was so that it didn't seem as obvious. In her opinion, one of her dead giveaways was the length of her hair. Not many people had hair as long as hers. If she could clip it all up, somehow, then it wouldn't be as obvious; it wouldn't be as easy to draw the connection between her now and the her last week.
It didn't help that they didn't let her go on Sunday, saying that it was too obvious. She was supposed to "play the field" by going randomly to any of the three, as long as she didn't go to the same one twice in a row. She already didn't like going to clubs in general. It wasn't going to help that she had to go fight her way through the other ones.
Because of their rule, she chose to go to Casablanca. It was better than going to Sakkaku where she didn't have time to get ready after work… At least, not at the rate she got ready. Besides, she needed the extra time to mentally prepare herself for this. She never expected she would have to go there again after she deemed the clubs inappropriate for their purpose. Unfortunately, neither Li nor Kanami agreed with her judgment.
**********
Moving around the club as much as she could, Misaki held her drink close to her chest. Honestly, she didn't want to meet anyone. Keeping in mind what happened after last week, she especially kept her eyes out for Kouno. He was the last person she wanted to meet. It would be so awkward…
They said to capture his attention by walking by his area, except she couldn't even get there. If it were up to her, she would just rush in, walk by and get the hell out of there. Though she wasn't claustrophobic to begin with, she was pretty sure she was going to develop symptoms at this rate. There were smelly lewd men surrounding her and half-naked women dancing around.
Despite Li's original verdict on the idea, he actually seemed to be enjoying it. Cursing herself for thinking of asking him, she should have kept her mouth shut and let things fall to the sideline. Instead, she opened her big mouth yet again to dig a deeper hole for herself.
Inwardly sighing, she was starting to harbour murderous thoughts towards November and all his kind. If he wasn't such a jerk to begin with, she would never be in this situation to begin with! She would happily go on with her life, working at the office and going home to sleep. She could go out to eat for fun on the weekends and randomly go shopping with Kanami when she was dragged into a promise. And never, ever, would she have had to set foot into this social phenomenon known as a nightclub.
As she tried to move her way through the club, squishing in between random people, her ungracious thoughts continued to grow. Because they were friends, none of them were directed towards Li or Kanami. The unfortunate victim of her thoughts was the man who had started the whole thing. She had only moved a few feet and she was ready to punch him at this point.
Another few feet and she was ready to kick him as well. Every few feet seemed to append more and more violent acts to her reaction towards him. She was comforting herself with first punching and kicking him, then throwing her drink in his face and smashing something on his head, then sticking his head in the toilet… The last thing she would do was shoot him, so there was one less player to deal with.
She laughed out loud and the people close by to her turned to look; she didn't notice. She was actually enjoying this – at least the thoughts in her head. She would think of rules and regulations when it came to the punishment of all useless men who preyed on women's fragile hearts. She would have her sense of justice. That would teach them!
"Hey."
Grinning to herself, Misaki took another sip of her drink. It wasn't really a plausible idea, especially with her being an officer… But it took her mind off of the task at hand – an impossible task. In a way, this whole thing seemed to be awakening her dark side. Her innate sense of justice was being warped because of the disgusting situation she found herself in. A situation she couldn't escape because that would mean that she was being unfair to Kanami; yet a situation she hated above all else because she hated this type of thing with a passion.
"Hey!"
Someone grabbed her arm, making her spill her drink. Whirling around in surprise, that was the last straw. She paid good money for that drink! Narrowing her eyes, she glared at the person behind her. A slight sense of shock registered in her mind, but she was more irritated than anything. Apparently, Kanami and Li were good at calling the shots because the very man she had been torturing in her mind was standing behind her.
Her angry gaze travelled from his face slowly to his hand where it rested on her arm and slowly back to his face. Her expression didn't change. Using her free hand, she brushed him off in one swift motion. He seemed stunned by her reaction and didn't speak, even though he had clearly been trying to get her attention.
"Well, what is it?" she asked frostily.
"Uh… I…"
"Snap to it! I'm busy and you happened to spill my drink."
"I thought you were someone else," November finally stated.
"Thanks a lot! Wasting my time for no good reason," she snapped. "Are you happy now? You just ruined my mood."
He didn't say anything and Misaki glared at him again. With all those negative thoughts festering in her mind, she clenched her fingers around her cup, highly annoyed. When he didn't move or speak or do anything, she finally snapped and tossed her drink in his face.
"Get out of my way, you fat oaf!"
Tossing the plastic cup on the floor, she finally shoved her way past him and stormed off. At least they couldn't say that she didn't get his attention. It didn't turn out exactly how they had planned it, but she didn't care. If they wanted to stick to a plan, they could come act it out for all she cared. Making her way out of the club and back to her car, it took her a good fifteen minutes to calm herself enough to drive home in one piece.
**********
Back in the club, November was stunned as he stood rooted in place with Long Island Iced Tea dripping down his shirt. During the week, he had been thinking about the enchantress from Pink Ginger and how he could go about wooing her. He could remember it quite clearly, the moment that she had fallen into his arms and everything that happened afterwards.
He thought he had seen her, hence why he tried to stop her – especially since he didn't see her boyfriend hovering around. She didn't seem to be with anyone tonight. Purposely excusing himself from his group to follow her, he had never expected that type of reaction.
It wasn't her as she was wearing glasses that just didn't fit with his memory of the enchantress. In fact, it ruined the whole image. Even so, she had been overly upset. Sure, he was at fault for grabbing her like that. At the same time, she didn't have to go so far as to toss her drink at him and even insult him. In no way was he fat. Then she had shoved her way past him without a second glance.
By the time he looked up, she was long gone. It had been an honest mistake, so what kind of reaction was that? Confused at this point, he felt very unsatisfied that she only glared at him. She should be smiling when she saw him; after all, even his seductress had recognized him.
Eventually, he recovered from the shock and cursed as his shirt was completely ruined. The night was still young and he was covered in alcohol. If it had been a man who tossed it on him, that was one thing… But to have a woman toss it on him and insult him to his face; it was a colossal blow to his pride.
Making his way back to through the crowd, he rejoined the girls and they had looks of horror on their faces when they saw what happened to him. Pushing aside the thoughts in his head, he smiled instead. They didn't need to know what actually happened.
"Oh no!" April exclaimed. "What happened to your shirt?"
"It's totally ruined!"
"It's nothing to worry about girls," he replied smoothly. "We can still have fun."
"But your shirt…"
"I can clean it for you," Corinna stated.
"No, you can't. That's not fair! You're just trying to get into his good books so he'll pick you next time!"
"No I'm not! I just can't stand the idea of him wearing something dirty!" she exclaimed.
"Girls, girls… It's fine."
Despite his words, they continued to bicker and he retook his seat with Amber by his side. She smiled at him, but didn't sit too closely. He couldn't blame her as he was wet… Even so, he refused to leave early because of that demonic woman. There wasn't anything he had done to deserve such treatment. She was the unreasonable one; he wasn't going to let her ruin his evening.
Unfortunately, it wasn't like he could just take it off, as would have been his first inclination. There was a dress code in effect after all. His two options were to stay and keep it on or to tuck his tail between his legs and run home to get out of it.
**********
Finally at home, Misaki sighed to herself as she pulled the clips out of her hair. Somehow she had managed to keep it up for the night. She needed a beer before going to bed. Then tomorrow, she would sleep in and completely ignore everyone, Kanami included. Updates could wait, unless she was going to break into her place and drag her out of bed.
Tossing the clips on the coffee table, she made her way to her room and quickly changed out of the clothes she had borrowed. Taking a change of clothes with her, she went to take a shower. Though she had calmed down, she couldn't shake the feeling of disgust that had come over her. She was sober and she had been that close to that fiend; not to mention that he touched her.
After her shower, she went to the kitchen to grab that much needed beer. The hot shower had helped in relaxing her tense muscles and clearing her thoughts. With a towel wrapped around her hair, she sat down on the couch and leaned back into it. Despite doing nothing all day, it felt like it had lasted 50 hours rather than the 17 hours it had actually been.
The refreshing cold drink went down in between deep breaths to keep her mood in check. Refusing to dwell on it, she was going to relax. After all that she had been through so far, she deserved it. She was going to enjoy her day off, like she was supposed to and no one was going to disturb her – absolutely no one. The last thing she did before she finally crawled into bed was switch off her phone.
