"So Mai, what happened at the premiere?" the counsellor asked.
Mai bit her lip.
"Well, I went," she began. "And the film was brilliant, truly brilliant. I took Sophie, you know, my writing friend."
"And did she enjoy it?"
"I think so."
"And did you speak to your friend afterwards?"
"Sophie?"
"No, Oliver."
"I… Yes. Yes, I did. He invited us up to the VIP booth. I had told Sophie that I had won a competition. She doesn't know the truth."
"And what happened then?"
"Well, we chatted for a bit. I think Oliver's friends knew what was going on a bit, because one of them—" MASAKO HARA! "— took Sophie to one side to talk. And then Oliver asked if I wanted to go somewhere else and talk…"
"And did you?"
"Yes. I don't know how we did it. We managed to sneak past security and the paps and everyone. London is full of little parks, right? So we found one of those. I snuck off and got us milkshakes. He didn't want to be recognised, of course. And then we sat in this park and drank our milkshakes and talked."
"And what did you talk about?"
"He told me about getting rid of his father. Yasuhara did a load of the legal work for it. There was a big fight, but his dad wasn't going to physically fight them. Lin was there. But apparently he did hit them as children. I don't think I am surprised by that, he is an arse…"
"What else?"
"Well, he told me some of the bits about the kidnapping case that I did not know about. I didn't go to court unless I was actually asked to, right? But he went every day. How they kept that out of the press I don't know. They didn't keep the whole sacking their father thing out though. But they only spoke to one journalist… Maybe they made a deal or something."
"That's quite likely. Give the journalist a story to stop another story breaking."
"Yeah, that's what I figured. I… We also talked about other stuff. Just like dumb stuff. Like stuff normal friends talk about. He told me about his master's exam. I told him about my writing club. It was… It was just really nice."
"And how do you feel about him?"
"I… It was so easy to talk to him again."
"Are you still angry at him?"
"I don't think so. I don't think I trust him entirely again yet. But I'm not angry at him."
"And will you see him again?"
"Well he's away with work for like a month now," Mai said. "The only reason our conversation stopped is that he had a flight to catch. Lin came and picked him up," she began to laugh, "Lin was furious. They'd been looking for him for hours."
The counsellor smiled and waited for Mai to go on.
"But he said he was going to take some time off after that, and that if I'd like to meet up, we could."
"And would you like to?"
"I think so," Mai said with some reserve. "I'm a little worried about stuff. Like, the press can be brutal. Like seriously brutal. But he's also… I do want to see him again." Mai laughed again. "He offered to pay for a bodyguard for me if things get… Well if I needed one. I laughed it off but I don't think he was joking."
"It sounds like he does care for you a lot."
"I think he does," Mai admitted. "His brother sent me a message the day after, like once they landed. He said that it was the happiest he'd seen Oliver in a long time. His brother is nice, you know? I think there is also something going on between him and Yasuhara."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah, they spend way too much time together for it to be entirely professional."
"And how do you feel about that?"
"I'm happy for them. In a way, seeing that Yasuhara can cope with the whole fame thing helps. Like, if he can do it, why can't I?"
"So you're going to meet up with Oliver when he returns, what then?"
Mai thought about this for a moment.
"We sort of discussed this a bit. We agreed that maybe we should just be friends for a while. I mean I say that, I don't think I'm going to be looking for anyone else to date or anything. But…" She bit her lip. "We're not going to put any pressure on anything being romantic or anything."
The counsellor nodded.
"It's not like either of us needs to rush."
"I think that sounds very sensible."
Mai smiled.
"I was worried before all this about going. Like, what if he had been different? But he was the same person. And I still lo— I still care about him a lot. I'm glad I went."
"I'm glad you took the chance. What would you have done if it had not gone so well?"
"Cried, a lot, probably. But I guess at least then I would have known. It still would have sucked. But I think not knowing would have been much worse."
The counsellor nodded and checked their watch.
"How are you keeping in contact with him?"
"I mean I have his number. He's got this fancy phone contract so he can use data and stuff wherever he is in the world. I mean it makes sense, right? So he video calls me every now and then." She smiled to herself. "The rest of the time, we just message each other."
"Sounds like you've got stuff pretty sorted then."
Mai nodded slowly.
"Yeah, I think so…"
"Well, I think that's a good place to end today. I'll see you again next week."
Mai left the office with her head held high. She had hope for the future and—
Oliver: How was your session?
She smiled.
Mai: It was great. How was your photoshoot?
The reply Oliver sent was of a photo of him and his brother, dressed up in some high fashion get up.
Mai: You look like someone just sicked up plaid onto you…
Oliver: It's fashion Mai.
Oliver: Gene said he agrees with you.
Mai laughed.
Yeah, she definitely had hope for the future.
Author's note: AND THAT IS THE END. With no edits again because I am lazy. Also if you want to join a discord server for GH peeps: discord . gg / JryRXS4 . It's not mine, but we're having a competition there to see who can get the most people in. And I'm not competing but I want to win so...
Hopefully, that will format properly and you guys can write it out. if you already have discord you just need the JryRXS4 bit...
Hope you all enjoyed this, please review!