(Author's note: Sorry I took so long with this chapter, I had a bit of a writer's block, as well as other stuff)
Ring! Ring! Pick up, Mother! Why do you think I woke up early to FaceTime you? Kyoko impatiently tapped her finger on the table while waiting for her mother to pick up her call. "Kyoko! Darling!" Finally! Her mother said cheerfully, "it's so rare for you to call me so I was shocked to see your name on the phone!"
"Mother, I'm sorry for bothering you while you are on your honeymoon with father," Kyoko said. Her mother and father got divorced before Kyoko was born, but after her mother retired, her father somehow reconnected with her mother and swept her off her feet. Now, They are married and moved to Japan to live happily ever after.
"Hello, Kyoko, darling! I haven't seen you since our wedding! Why don't you ever come and visit us? Is it because Sho never gives you the time off! Why that little boy!" Her father's face suddenly appeared on the screen.
"Ahahaha, I'll visit you guys soon, maybe…" Kyoko said unsurely. She still doesn't know much about her father, just that he is a big shot investor or something. He seems very secretive about the job he's doing.
"Honey, you were in the middle of cooking!" Her mother said, pushing her father away. "What's wrong, Kyoko? You don't call for no reason, darling," her mother asked again once her father left.
"I want to know what happened to me before the age of 5 and how I got that scar on my back."
Her mother's expression fell from a happy one to a depressed one, "as I told you before, I took you to go apple picking one day and you fell off a tree, a tree branch scrapped you in the back, and you hit your head. That's how you lost your memories and how you got that scar."
"Then, why does a boy besides Shoutaro appear in my memories?"
"What boy, Kyoko? You've only grown up with Sho-chan ever since you were little."
"No, a boy who lived in a mansion, where there were lots of vases full of flowers and a garden maze!"
"Ren! How did you get to know Ren?" Her mother asked, eyes widening.
"I never said the boy was Ren, but you just clarified that I did know Ren when I was younger!" Kyoko said, squinting her eyes, "So what happened between me and Ren?"
"Never mind that! What's more important is what happened between you and Sho. What happened? You are supposed to be engaged to Sho, so how come all the news outlet have reported that you ran away from the engagement?" Her mother asked, obviously trying to steer the conversation away from the past.
"I broke off the engagement! There's no way that I am going to marry a cheater!" Kyoko shouted.
"Cheater?! Unacceptable! I am going to call Yayoi-San and complain!" With that, her mother hung up on her.
"Mother, wait! Uhhhhhh!" Kyoko grunted in frustration and ended her call.
Knock, knock, knock! "Come in!" Kyoko replied, hearing the knock on her door. Chiori and Moko came into the room, "good morning, Chiori and Moko! What are you doing up so early?"
"Hey! Hey! I heard you stayed over at Ren's house! How was it? Was it big? Did you guys do anything?" Chiori bombarded Kyoko with a lot of questions once she entered the room.
"Cut it out! Your questions implied that Ren did something to Kyoko!" Moko said, hitting Chiori on the head.
"Ow! Well, I would find it strange that Ren had a cute girl stay over at his house and did nothing to her! I mean, Kyoko's such a cute girl, I wouldn't be surprised if Ren touched her!" Chiori said, hugging Kyoko's neck. "Just a minute, what is this? Why are you wearing a scarf indoors, Kyoko?" Chiori asked, noticing the scarf around Kyoko's neck. "What are you hiding?" She asked playfully, unraveling the scarf, revealing the hickey Ren gave her the night before. Kyoko immediately covered the hickey with her hand. "Ho! Ho! Just because you covered it, doesn't it mean that we didn't see it~right, Moko?" Chiori said in a sing-song voice. Moko nodded, "it was a hickey, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, it certainly was," Chiori nodded.
"What did you guys do?" They both asked in unison. Kyoko's sweat dropped. She was about to say "nothing at all" until she heard a knock on her door. "Come in!" Kyoko replied, feeling relieved. Okami-San opened the door.
"Good morning, girls! I am so happy nothing bad happened to you, Kyoko-Chan. Ren called us yesterday and we were so worried, but I'm glad everything is alright!" Okami said.
"Yes, everything is fine! I'm very healthy!" Kyoko said proudly.
"I'm glad! Breakfast is ready, girls, come and eat." Okami said. The girls nodded their heads, Kyoko got the scarf back from Chiori and wrapped it around her neck, and followed Okami to the dining room.
"Good morning, chef!" All three of them greeted in unison, the chef nodded his head and they all sat down to eat. After they had finished, they cleared the table and washed the dishes.
"Okay! We are both leaving for school! See you tonight! Okami-San, Chef!" Chiori said, grabbing her stuff and left with Moko.
"I better get going too! See you tonight, Okami-San, Chef!" Kyoko said grabbing her things and car keys. Kyoko got into her car and drove to the company.
"Don't forget your promise to Rick, Ren! Don't think that I will let you go that easily!" A woman said, storming out of Ren's office, and into the elevator, just as Kyoko was getting off, and followed by a tall man with silver hair and silver eyes.
"I'm not letting go of Ren that easily! Let's go, Reino!" She said to Kyoko and closed the elevator door. Just as the elevator was going down, Reino's eyes met Kyoko's and smirked. Kyoko suddenly filled chills down her spine.
What was that? Who were they? Kyoko thought as she entered Ren's office to hand them their drinks.
"So…what are you going to do, Ren? Tina has been investing in Love Me Enterprises using Rick's inheritance money. What if she really is going to stop?" Yashiro asked. "Thank you," he said when Kyoko handed him his drink, "Kyoko-Chan!" He yelled when he saw who handed him his drink. "What are you doing here this early?!"
"What? I am here to work!" Kyoko answered.
"I thought I sent you a text message saying you don't have to come to the office so early in the morning, come at noon," Ren replied, "did you not see the message?"
Come to think of it, there was a message when I was face timing mother, I swiped it away and never bothered to read it. "Sorry, I forgot to check…" Kyoko apologized, "but who were they?"
"Don't worry about them for now," Ren answered, "as long as they didn't do anything to you. Both of you may go and do your work now."
"Okay, then…" Kyoko and Yashiro said, leaving the office.
"Yashiro-San, who were they?" Kyoko asked once they were out of the office.
"Umm…Tina and her bodyguard, Reino," Yashiro answered.
"Tina? Tina…Tina, her name sounds familiar…who was she again?" Kyoko asked.
Yashiro looked at her with his mouth wide open, "Tina is an award-winning actress, she won an award for acting in The Moon in the Castle and she is our exclusive model for our beauty products!"
"Oh!" Kyoko clapped her fist on her open palm, "that's why her name sounds so familiar! I'm really bad at recognizing faces, but why was she here? Why did she say she wouldn't let go of Ren?"
"She said that to you?" Yashiro asked, pushing the elevator button.
"Yeah, as she was leaving. What's her relationship going with Ren?"
"She's someone that Ren had promised to take care of. As for who he made that promise to, you would have to ask Ren yourself. Well then, Kyoko-Chan, I'll see you later!" Yashiro said, getting on the elevator. "Hello, Ogata!" Yashiro greeted as someone stepped out of the elevator and into Ren's office.
She's someone Ren had promised to take care of? Kyoko asked herself and put her head down on her desk. Somehow, I don't like that… Ring! Ring! Ring! The phone on her desk rang.
"Come into my office, we need to discuss the itinerary for the training camp for new employers."
"Got it" Kyoko answered. Training camp…come to think it, they also have a training camp around this time too, Kyoko thought and went into Ren's office.
"Kyoko, this is Ogata, the head of HR. Anything you need, this is the man to go to" Ren said.
"Hello, Ogata-San!" Kyoko greeted.
"Pleasure to finally meet you, Kyoko-chan" Ogata greeted back.
"Alright, let's go over the itinerary," Ren said. The meeting was a long one, they went over the nitty gritty details of expense, busing, lodging, and the list of new employees as well as managers who are attending, as well as training materials that will be headed by each of the head managers.
"So with that, we have listed 300 employees for the training camp. We are lodging at Hana Sakura Inn in Pennsylvania for 3 days and 2 nights. The 5 buses will be leaving here on Friday at 3 pm. The expenses will be given to the accounting department. Kyoko will type up the itinerary and email it to the employees and managers attending. I believe we have covered everything" Ogata reported. Ren nodded his head and Ogata left the office. Kyoko was about to stand up and leave the office but was grabbed by the wrist and pinned on Ren's desk, with Ren hovering over her.
"Ren? What's wrong?" Kyoko asked.
"You seem distracted during the meeting. What were you thinking about? Was it Tina and Reino? Did they really leave you alone?" Ren asked.
"No, they really didn't do anything to me. I was just distracted because Queen Enterprises also holds a training camp during this time of the year too, and they always lodge in the Hilton hotel right next to the Hana Sakura Inn."
"I see," Ren said and sighed as he lowered his head on Kyoko's shoulders. "I was worried that Tina might do something to you."
Kyoko hugged Ren's head, "I won't ask about what your relationship with Tina, but I won't let her hurt me."
"I see, you really are a tough person," Ren said, lifting his head and unraveling Kyoko's scarf. He traced his fingers on Kyoko's neck. Kyoko gasped as she felt a shock went through her at Ren's feathery light touch. "You must be getting used to my touches," Ren smirked, as he bent down to suck on the hickey he gave her the night before. He trailed his tongue up her neck, to her jawline, and planting soft kisses on her lips, as if he was begging her to open her lips. Kyoko gasped and Ren kissed her deeply with his tongue. He unbuttoned Kyoko's blouse, covered Kyoko's eyes with one hand, and moved his tongue down to her collarbone and sucked hard. He moved his hand up Kyoko's skirt and …Ring! Ring!Ring! Ren put his hands down and looked at the caller ID on the office phone. It was from Yashiro's office. What an impeccable timing he has, Ren sighed. "Umm…I'm going to type up the itinerary and email it to everyone," Kyoko blushed, as she was buttoning her blouse and straightening her skirt. Ren nodded and she left the office. Too bad the phone rang, I wish I could feel more of his touches, Kyoko sighed, as she sat in her chair, turned on her computer and start typing.