Chapter XIV
Kazuya's phone rang later that day, and it displayed Anna's number. I was busy listing down the songs and my mother was busy listing down the itineraries for the party.
"Speak up so everyone can hear you." Kazuya answered. He put his phone on loudspeaker so everybody would know her report about the function room and all the stuff needed.
"Hey, guys. Everything's okay in here, all the lights are placed, and all the decorations have already been put up."
"Did you hire a sound guy for the performers?"
"Wait…" I objected, "…a sound guy? Performers? Don't you all think that it's too much for a party with a limited number of people?
"Why do you have to be such a killjoy, son? It's your birthday, everyone should be happy, even though you aren't. You don't appreciate our efforts…" My mother scolded.
"Sergei, honey, I thought that having bands performing live would be better than hurting your head thinking of the songs that everybody wants to listen to." Kazuya said, squinting his eyes at me.
"Sir, I contacted five bands, two of them are locally known, and the others are from the international scene." Anna replied.
"How much do they want?"
"Cancel those bands, Anna, I don't want them. You can just hire the sound guy to play my songs." I said angrily. Kazuya and my mother looked at me in dismay, making me feel quite the antagonist in this whole affair. I heard Anna sigh on the other line; "so how is it going to be, Mr. Mishima?"
After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Kazuya finally agreed, "alright, it's his birthday, let's do as he wishes." My mother nodded her head and stroked her temples. Kazuya said goodbye to Anna as he stood in the middle of the room, "I hope that you're happy now."
We all went downstairs to check out the room ourselves. There was a stage on the rear end of the area, and there were spotlights almost everywhere. The speakers were on every corner, and decorations hung in every part of the room. There was also a podium on the stage, probably for the host (which I think will be my mother or Anna) and for everyone who wanted to speak about yours truly. The whole area still seemed to be pretty large for my celebration, unless there are some people who wanted to crash in. I gave the list of my songs to the sound guy as he gave it a dry run. It sounded good on large speakers so it kept me amused for a moment. Kazuya and my mother were practically yelling at each other since the music was so loud with Alice In Chains on the speakers. It was a funny sight. I was surprised when a high-definition wide screen was put up by the workers over the stage. I asked one of them about its exact size, and they said it was 120 inches wide. I don't want to object anymore because they might smash the whole thing over my head. Nothing can be hidden in this party, so it seems. Everything was in black, including the tablecloths, the seat covers, the upholstery, etc., and it looked good on my eyes, it almost looked like a rave party. I tapped Kazuya on the shoulder and yelled at him as well.
"I WANT SKULLS AS CENTERPIECES ON THE TABLE!"
"WHAT?"
"SKULLS ON THE TABLE!"
"CAN YOU TELL THE SOUND GUY TO TURN DOWN THE FUCKING MUSIC?"
I did just as what he told me, and the sound guy quickly obeyed. I finally told devil boy what I wanted without yelling anymore, "I said I want skulls as centrepieces on each table."
"You're goddamn crazy."
"C'mon, baby, it's my birthday!"
"Whatever you like, as long as you stop bitching about everything." He left as he told Anna about my request. She called up the supplies store where she got the decorations from. She made a thumbs-up, which means that they have it—quite miraculously regarding the state of the damn country we're in. They have one hell of a store, it seems. Suddenly, my phone vibrated in my pocket, and it was one of my buddies back in the HQ.
"Hey."
"Comrade! We have arrived, but there's a little problem…"
"What is it?"
"I know that you only invited seven of us, but that's not the case anymore."
"Oh. So how many are you now?"
"Well, I think there are fifty of us, and here's what's more, the colonel and the major are coming too."
"No shit…"
"Ivan has a big mouth. I told him not to tell anyone when you called, and the next day the whole battalion knew about your birthday."
"I'll kill him when I see him."
"So, what are your orders, sir?"
"Head off to where I am—the hotel near the Iron Fist Arena, it's the only one there is, and I'll meet all of you in the lobby when you get here."
"How about our accommodations?"
"I'll talk to the owner. See you later."
I hung up and went over to Kazuya who was overlooking things from the balcony.
"My friends have arrived." I said as I put my arms around his neck.
"You're kinky, risking the secrecy of our relationship by doing this on public." He replied with his arms around my waist as he gave me a light kiss.
"It's quite dark in here, no one would notice." I said, but I was wrong. I didn't notice that the camera was focused on the both of us and whatever we were doing was displayed on the widescreen for everyone to see—'everyone' composed of only three people, thankfully. It was the crews' break so everyone was out except for my mother, Anna and Bruce who, in turn, grabbed the camera and focused it somewhere else. My eyes widened with shock and thought that if this happened in the actual party, we're screwed.
"What were you two doing? That was dangerous!" Anna screamed as she wiped sweat from her forehead.
"That was unexpected." My mother squealed. Bruce sighed and shook his head.
Later that day, I told Kazuya about my comrades, and the two officials that are coming. This is very delicate and we must be very careful about everything, we must not let anything show through. My mother was almost panicking when she knew that the colonel and the major were coming.
"This should all go well! Son! When you introduce Kazuya to your bosses, tell him to behave."
"He knows that, mother."
"Kazuya! If you love my son so much, don't grope his ass in their presence."
"I-I will never do that…"
"Good boy!" She exclaimed as she pinched him on the cheek. All that Kazuya did was look surprised. I bet no one ever did that to him before. He caressed his cheek as he went off to the kitchen to grab a drink. My phone rang once again in my pocket, and my comrade told me that they have already arrived in the lobby.
"I hope there are enough rooms available for all of them." I told Kazuya inside the elevator on the way down.
"Of course there is, there's a lot of vacancies on the tenth floor, and for your bosses, there's still the presidential suite."
"That's in the penthouse beside our room."
"Yeah, so?"
"Is their room soundproof?"
"I don't know. Ours is."
"That's pretty scary."
"Why?"
"Think it over."
He placed a finger over his mouth and really thought about why I'm asking about the soundproof room until we reached the lobby. It was a sea of browns and greens with my comrades on the waiting lounge.
"It looks like your party isn't limited to a number of people anymore." He exclaimed.
"Don't do anything stupid." I told him through gritted teeth.
Everyone gave a salute as soon as they saw me, and I saluted back, specially to the major and the colonel.
"Sir, it's an honor to have you come into my party." I told the colonel.
"Don't think about it, comrade. We always counted on you for almost everything."
"By the way, colonel, major, this is Kazuya Mishima, the owner of this hotel and also one of our allies."
"Mr. Mishima! It's a great pleasure to meet you. I see that you have met our top-guns here, Dragunov, yes?"
"Yes, colonel, he and I are very good friends." Kazuya replied with a smirk as he shook hands with the two officials.
"Oh, I see. Forgive him for being too temperamental all the time, you see, he's very concentrated on his job."
"He is, and I'm used to his attitude. We know each other very well, anyway. And he's doing a good job for me too, blow by blow."
I laughed nervously and violently elbowed him on the side. Although nobody knew what he really meant, it still made me nervous.
"Really? Are you a long-time friend of his?"
"Most likely, yes."
"I see."
"Alright, I'll tell the butlers to bring up your entire luggage in your rooms. Your keys will be given later. In the meantime, why don't you take them to the restaurant, Sergei?"
"Yeah, sure. How about you?"
"Go on ahead, I'll just make arrangements on their rooms with the manager and I'll follow you guys in the restaurant."
"Alright, see you later."
He smirked and bowed to the rest of my comrades as he left—with a wink that is. I thought; "Shit that is so retarded of him." I turned around to look at my comrades' reactions, but they didn't seem to notice since they're too busy looking around in awe, even the major and the colonel looked impressed by the grandeur of the whole place. Thank goodness it went off that easy, until Ilya, the one I called "Ilya the Idiot" came up to me and whispered, "did he just wink at you, sir?"