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Here's the next chapter. Tell me what you think about it! ^ v *
Masako stood in front of the church, thinking if she should still do what she went there for.
It seemed like the best idea in the world that morning – visiting Fr. Brown and telling him about her plan of going to Belgium to help look for Oliver. He was Prof. Davis' friend after all. He would be happy to hear that they had a lead on where to find him.
And perhaps she would invite him to go with her to Belgium? So he could see Oliver again as well?
But as she reached the church she realized how pathetic her reason for visiting was.
Gene was Fr. Brown's friend, not Oliver. Why did she really want to go there?
Masako looked up at the church.
She wanted…to tell him something she couldn't tell her friends about…The dream, the uneasy feeling about still fighting for Oliver…
She wanted to talk to him about her dilemmas - something she didn't think should be consulted with a priest, nor with someone you barely knew.
Sure, they shared breakfast, they worked together at one point, they knew someone in common, but they weren't real friends, were they?
Which makes her wonder - why Fr. Brown? Why ask for his advise?
"Hara-san!" she suddenly heard from behind her. She gasped and covered her lips. She slowly turned to look at the priest she was sure was standing behind her.
"I'm sorry," John said shyly. "I didn't mean to scare you."
"Oh no, no," Masako said shaking her head. Her cheeks were in flames.
"Would you like to go inside?" John asked. "It's quite chilly today."
Masako smiled and shakily nodded.
John chuckled and led her to the quarters.
"What is Lin planning to do?" Luella asked Madoka as she browsed through the files on her desk.
Madoka was in her office with a stack of files in her hands.
It was work day in the SPR office and they were doing their best to get back on track with the case reports that were submitted to them.
"With looking for Noll, I mean," Luella said.
Madoka shyly looked away as she sat down on one of the chairs by Luella's office table. "Well," she began. "He and Baehler are planning to go to Belgium. Two days from now."
Luella nodded. She looked up at Madoka. "Are you on my husband's side?" she whispered.
Madako froze and stared at Luella for a moment, before she burst into laughter. "You don't want to find Noll yet, do you?" she whispered back.
Luella shyly looked away. "It just feels so wrong," she whispered.
Madoka sighed and nodded. "You like Ms. Taniyama?" she asked.
Luella smiled at Madoka. "I haven't seen her yet," she said. "But if Noll thought she was good for him, I think I'll like her."
Madoka chuckled and nodded.
"Have you seen her?" Luella asked.
Madoka nodded, recalling the first time she saw her – when Noll saved Taniyama Mai in the market place.
Luella gasped in excitement. "What does she look like?" she asked.
"Brown hair," Madoka answered. "…Short girl, very cute in my opinion. And she seems to know how to tease Noll back. She sees him as…a normal guy…I think," she said recalling how Mai reacted so calmly and normally with Noll.
Usually girls would start stuttering, or start being too self conscious around Noll. But Mai acted like he was just an average guy. Perhaps that was one trait Noll liked about her.
Luella giggled. "Oh I wish I can meet her," she said. "She seemed like a really nice girl based on those stories given by Emi-san. And those photos of Ms. Taniyama in her house! I just can't help but wonder what she looks like now."
Madoka chuckled. "I thought you liked Charlotte," she said.
Luella shrugged her shoulders. "Charlotte's not bad," she said. "But if Noll is already in love with someone, why insist that he marry Charlotte? Marriage is a lifetime commitment after all. He might as well marry someone he would want to be with for the rest of his life."
Madoka nodded. "I really thought you supported the professor on this one."
Luella sighed. "He's being stubborn," she said. "He's afraid for Noll. He doesn't want to lose Noll the way we lost Gene. He still blames himself you know? He thinks that if he didn't give Gene his blessing so Gene could go to Japan, we wouldn't lose him."
Madoka's face saddened. "But it's not your fault," she said. "I bet Gene doesn't blame any of you."
Luella chuckled. "Gene doesn't blame anything to others," she said. "Those twins never blame others for what they go through. Well, they would annoy each other by pointing fingers at each other but they only do it to tease one another."
Madoka nodded. "You know what convinced me that Ms. Taniyama is good for Noll?" she asked smiling at Luella.
"What?" Luella asked.
Madoka chuckled. "Ever since he saw her again here in England, Noll had been more like himself again," she said. "When he was with her, he was like the Noll we knew – the Noll who still had Gene."
Luella's eyes were filled with tears. She smiled and wiped her eyes. "I think it's time we girls join this game of hide and seek," she said.
Madoka chuckled. "I was just about to ask you about that."
Charlotte stared down at the nightscape from her hotel window.
She had just arrived in Belgium and she couldn't wait to get out of the hotel to look for Noll.
"They seem to think he's somewhere other than Belgium," she remembered one of the detectives tell her hours before she made the trip to Belgium.
She hired a detective that would spy on the detective that the Davis family hired. What Prof. Davis told her was that they thought Noll was in Belgium. But he didn't tell her that they were considering another location.
Charlotte sighed.
Were they considering that Japanese girl to be Noll's legal wife in England now? Impossible! The girl didn't seem like she finished a degree. According to her detectives, the girl worked as a maid and got into England illegally.
Why would Noll want such a miserable girl for a wife?
She could only think of one reason, and that was black mail. That was the only way to lure Noll into doing anything unusual anyway, like elope to some place in Europe with an impoverished girl.
Charlotte walked to her bed and sat down on it.
She had a number of suitors, but none of them was as handsome and as intelligent as Oliver Davis. So many men admired her beauty, but none of them included Oliver Davis.
Even when she garnered several awards in the field of science, Oliver Davis just saw her as his student – a girl unfit to be anything other than an acquaintance.
So to think that he fell for an impoverished Japanese girl who didn't get a degree and didn't graduate highschool with academic honors was…preposterous.
Charlotte lied down on the bed. If there would be one girl Noll would want to be with, it should be her. She was the female version of his self after all.
They said the best way to impress a narcissistic man, is to show him that you are his female version. So she strived hard to be like him. She felt proud to be a braniac. She did her best to look perfect.
But he still hadn't looked at her the way she wanted to.
Charlotte turned the lampshade off and covered herself with the blanket.
Perhaps if he realized how she looked for him, how he tried to save him from the claws of the opportunist that was holding him captive, Noll would see how good she was for him.
Noll would finally see her as someone important, someone…someone he won't be able to live without.
Charlotte closed her eyes.
She would find him, be it in Belgium or somewhere else. She would find him and she would bring him home.
Mai walked into the bedroom.
She had just finished brushing her teeth and was about ready to go to sleep when she saw Naru still sitting up on the bed and reading a book – the same book he had been reading every night.
She thought for a moment before she walked to the bed.
They were a couple now, right? Since they already knew that they really loved each other? SO…he wouldn't mind if…
Mai crawled up the bed and shyly leaned her head on his shoulder.
Would Naru push her away?
Mai felt his arm push her.
She winced and closed her eyes.
Does he hate her for being too forward?
But she felt his arm pull her closer so her head rested on the crook of his neck. He kept his arm over her waist.
Mai opened her eyes and smiled. She wrapped her arms around his torso and looked at the book he was reading.
It was in English…And it had Gene's name on the page?
"What are you reading?" Mai asked. "I know it's a book but why does it have Gene's name on the page?"
Naru smirked. She already pre-empted his sarcastic reply. "It's my thesis," he said.
Mai gasped. "You made a thesis about Gene?" she asked.
"Florence didn't tell you?" Naru asked.
Mai shook her head. "She just told me you were a geek," she said.
"Of course, idiot," Naru muttered sighing.
Mai scowled and looked up at him.
Naru turned the page of the book.
"I thought a thesis should be about something related to what you studied," Mai said.
"I studied paranormal psychology," Naru said. "Gene is a medium – an exemplary one."
Mai looked down at the book. "He let you study him?" she asked.
"It was one way of educating his fellow mediums, and making ordinary people understand that mediums are not schizophrenic patients," Naru answered.
Mai nodded.
He had a point. Not everyone believed in ghosts so possessed people were usually believed to be clinically insane.
"Did Gene teach you anything when you saw him in your dreams?" Naru asked.
Mai thought for a moment. "Yes," she said. "He taught me how to how to speak English."
Naru smirked.
Was that why she was so fluent with English now?
"He also taught me how to manipulate my dreams," Mai said.
Naru stiffened. "Manipulate your dreams..?"
Mai nodded. "I changed the backgrounds," she said. "We were in that black void. Well, it's not really a void. It had lots of dancing lights and we were floating inside it."
Naru held Mai closer.
"You said you changed the backgrounds of your dreams," Mai said.
Mai nodded. "We went to different places," she said. "I thought we were just changing the backgrounds in my dream but…I saw you in the house while Gene was with me. I didn't know he was Gene then."
Naru's eyes widened. "You…saw me?"
Mai nodded.
She remembered how it happened – how Gene told her that what he taught her could be used to locate things and people…
Mai looked at Naru. "Can I try to focus on a person this time?"
"Go ahead," Naru said.
Mai closed her eyes and wondered what would happen if she concentrated on Naru. Would they end up in that dark place with white lights again?
She didn't see Naru smile sadly at her. He knew what was going to happen next.
Mai remembered Naru's face, his name, his arrogant personality…
She slowly opened her eyes.
She found her self standing inside her house with Naru beside her. She was about to chuckle when she heard the door open and from it walked Naru in a pair of dirty jeans and a grey shirt.
His eyes were narrow in irritation and he immediately walked to his luggage – pulling out clean clothes, after throwing a bag into the refrigerator. He then took his towel from a hook on the wall and went into the bathroom.
Mai heard the shower turn on.
She froze. She didn't understand what was going on.
"How…how could that…" Mai turned around and saw Naru on his black shirt and slacks standing behind her. He had a sad smile on his face.
"I'm sorry," Naru said.
"You're…You're not Naru, are you?" she asked.
Naru shook his head.
"I tried to look for you," Mai said. "I was thinking it won't work since you were with me in my dream already, or if it did work I would find you sleeping. When I opened my eyes, I was in the apartment and you were there…awake. You couldn't see me. And there were two Narus in the room. Then one of them said he wasn't Naru."
Naru sighed and combed Mai's hair with his fingertips.
That was one other thing he would need to explain to his parents – that Mai met Gene months after his death, that she helped him find Gene, and that Gene had been her spirit guide.