He remembered what Gene told him. No matter how interesting and amusing he found Mai's reactions, she will feel insulted every time. It's not the way. "Mai, I'm sorry." He apologized.

"Why are you apologizing?"

Naru stopped typing. He turned from his laptop. "I didn't mean to say it. It slipped."

"What's the difference. That's what you think about me. It doesn't matter if you say it or not." She stated indifferently.

"I don't. I just like-" He stopped. 'To see your reaction.' "But Gene told me to-" he paused again. 'be nicer to you.'

"I have no idea what you are trying to say but I don't mind it, if you really don't mean it that way. It's fun to provoke you sometimes so I guess you kinda feel the same. When you are doing it, it looks like bullying tho." She laughed. She made Naru smile. "So which me do you like more. The one from before or the one now?"

"Both." The girl blurted out immediately. "Wait a second." She lifted her head from the table. "You just made me confess, wasn't the first time enough?"

Naru smirked as he got back to typing. Maybe he shouldn't listen to Gene that much.

"So, can you tell me what you are writing? It's that book from last time, right?"

Naru nodded. "It's about Gene. Well, more about how he managed to survive. I'm trying to understand what happened that day." He then turned to Mai. "Actually, I never thanked you for helping back then. So, Thank you, Mai." The girl looked confused. "I helped?"

(Events were changed. It's not the same as the manga)

Now, Naru was confused too. "You don't remember?" Both of them were so focused on the topic that neither of them noticed the door open. "I remember that day. We just ended one of our cases. Back then it was only You, Lin and Me. The others were not joining us as often. We stopped on the way back to tank the car. It was somewhere in the middle of nowhere." Mai then slowly put her head back onto the table. "You then suddenly run out of the car as Lin was filling the tank. He dropped everything and chased after you. I joined him soon after. We added up crossing the street and running into the woods. There was a lake. You suddenly jumped in and-"

"Not really. At first, I was standing near the edge when you came next to me. You kept staring at the water-"

"Ah, that's when I called for Mai." A voice cut in interrupting the conversation. Mai jumped up to see Gene on the other side of the table. Yasu next to him waving at her. Upon looking around she discovered the rest of the team all over the room. "So what happened next? I want to know." Ayako asked intrigued.

Naru was a little irritated because he himself didn't notice the group but continued. "At that point, I was still not sure if that was the place I was looking for. I simply had this weird feeling. But as Gene said, he must have somehow contacted you. As you were standing next to me and staring at one point in the water you whispered one word."

"Alive." Gene said. "That was the word I was screaming into your head."

Naru nodded. "That's when I jumped in. And found Gene...alive. Since then we were analyzing how the hell he managed to survive and thus the 'book' I'm writing."

Suddenly Gene took a deep breath. "I'm so glad you were there Mai. If Naru was alone he would have just walked away." But Mai couldn't remember that particular moment at all. "Wait, you jumped in just because of one word? Are you crazy?" She realized.

Gene smiled. "It's good to hear that my brother was so desperate to find me." He then turned to Yasu. "You wanted to know how I survived right. Well, that's the case. We still don't really know it. I might take a long time to figure it out." Yasu smiled. He was kinda pissed because he was really interested and wanted to find it out. Something that couldn't be explained with logic. "And you wanted to know who I like, right? Well too bad, now you have to information to exchange it for." He just kept smiling.

"So what happened after that." Ayako pressed. "Gene was taken to a hospital and Naru kindly informed that the SPR will be shut down." Mai answered. Naru raised an eyebrow again. "I believe I said temporarily closed. And you were paid for the two months I was away. So what's your point?"

"Nothing, boss. I told you that you were the best boss, remember?"

Both teens left out one specific event of that day. Mai's first confession. Well, officially there was no second one.

Back then upon hearing Mai's confession, Naru became speechless. He had an inner urge to ask her the question 'Me or Gene?' but successfully managed to fight it off.

Mai saw her boss turn away from her. He looked in the opposite direction. Mai knew his answer.

Naru couldn't help it back then. He wasn't sure what to say and an actual blush appeared on his face. He turned to hide it. Just then he noticed Lin approach both of them. He had to join Gene at the hospital. In the end, he didn't give Mai an answer.

She got rejected without him even rejecting her. As she watched both of the figures getting further away each second she did not think that she would get to see them again this soon.

"So what is it that you found." Naru asked interrupting Mai's thoughts. His own too, actually.

"A big nothing." Takigawa answered. "Nothing looks like it's hiding a demon."

"Then what does look like it's hiding a demon?" Ayako asked him which slowly turned into an argument between them.

Mai sighed. She could give away everything she had just be able to be in bed. "You can take a break if you are tired." Naru said. He had to stop reading her mind.

"I am taking a break since I sat down."

"Go to your room and get some sleep." He knew she understood what he meant but was intentionally being difficult. "Can I take Masako with me?" She asked getting up.

"In a few days, you won't be able to breathe without Masako." He smirked only to remember that Mai had a pretty bad day so there won't be any reaction following. "Go, take the charm."

Mai murmured something about always having it in her pocket, took Masako and headed out. It was however not long before both of them came running back into the base. Mai was suddenly wide awake but still looked tired. "Our room is all messed up." She informed.