White tiger hills village, Hunan Province, China

It was evening and after the wedding took place peacefully, it was time for dancing. Almost everyone was dancing with their significant others in the backyard of the temple, while Julia was standing and watching them from a tower window. Technically it was the boundary wall of the temple, made with stones and looked like medieval European castle tower. There were staircases that lead to the tower window. Julia excused herself when she found out that all her friends got busy dancing with their partners, while she was, well, alone.

She was looking at them from the window, all of them. Tyson was holding Hilary in his arms, Max was with Emily and of course the newly wedded couple Ray and Mariah. On the other side were Mathilda and Miguel, Daichi and Ming Ming, Tala was dancing with his fiancée Claudia. All the others from PPB all starz, White tiger X, Barthez battalion, Blitzkrieg boys, and even the BEGA bladders, were busy. Julia sighed when she saw even Raul was dancing with a guy, with whom he was introduced earlier by Kane from the psychics. The only person she could tell was a bit sad was Mariah's brother Lee, for obvious reasons.

'Too bad I don't have anybody to dance with, not like this is the first time I'm attending some wedding. But it's Raul who dances with me every time. Now that he's got someone, I hold no value. Is this all that's gonna happen in life later on? When Raul's gonna find someone for real, he's gonna forget about my existence. What will I do then? Where am I gonna go then? I thought we'd be together for a lifetime. I spend the whole of my day thinking and worrying about him, and there he is, who don't even bother about the fact that his sister is there too.' Julia was almost crying in her thoughts.

Suddenly she heard footsteps behind her, coming nearer.

She looked back to see who it was.


Mariam was already three drinks down when she found Lee sitting in a corner of the yard while everyone else was dancing. Amused, she went to talk to him as she wasn't doing anything too.

'Hey there Lee!' Mariam waved but Lee just looked at her, said nothing.

'Wow! That's rude...' Mariam thought but when she looked carefully into Lee's eyes, she found them filled with tears.

'Lee! Are you alright?' She sat beside him, he nodded but didn't reply.

'I know!' Mariam tried to comfort him, 'Mariah was your only family and you've been living in the same house for most of your lives. Now that she's married...' Mariam looked at Lee.

'Now that she's married I'd have to find out a way to manage without her,' Lee opened his mouth. 'I guess..' He sighed.

'Hey, relax Lee; I know you'd find a way. And you have Gary and Kevin, and all of us.' Mariam placed her hand on his shoulder. 'And Ray and Mariah will always be your family, just like before.'

'Yeah I know, but my baby sister is now married and I can't believe it. Honestly speaking, right now I'm so jealous of Ray. My grandfather chose him to control Drigger, my sister chose him to spend the rest of her life with, why it's always him who gets the best?' Lee let his thoughts out.

'And you've got him as your best friend and now, brother-in-law. Count that in too.' Mariam smiled.

'That's the most important thing, he's my brother!' Lee smiled back, noting that he was much more relaxed than before.

'Not everyone is lucky here Lee,' Mariam was feeling drowsy.

'Are you drunk Mariam?' Lee asked being concerned.

'Yup!' Mariam nodded, 'Drunk in someone's love...' she looked straight at Max who was dancing and smiling at his love Emily.

'You should've confessed first, I'm sure Max would've considered you over Emily.' Lee tried to convince her.

'I know, but no...No way Max would've considered me over her. She's so smart and intelligent and moreover American. I stand nowhere in front of her. I'm a tribal girl who's from a village nobody's heard of. And I...' Mariam couldn't finish.

'Mariam you're not as bad as you're describing. You're good at heart and that's enough.' Lee replied.

'Not enough to be in Max Tate's arms.' Mairam sighed.

'But I'm sure you'd be enough for someone to love you, we all deserve to be loved.' Lee said, 'Let's go, I'll show you your room for tonight, you need a nap.' Mariam didn't argue and followed him.


Kai wasn't exactly enjoying the dance, because he had nobody to dance with. His eyes were searching Julia everywhere but couldn't find her. Not like he was willing to ask her to dance with him, but mostly for some reason, he wanted to make sure she wasn't dancing with anybody else.

Yes, he settled at the fact that he wouldn't tolerate someone else to see her, or ask her out.

'That's absolutely rubbish Kai Hiwatari! You don't even know if she's already with someone or not.' Kai told his inner voice.

'No, she isn't.' His inner voice replied.

'And how are you being so sure about it?' Kai asked.

'She's always alone whenever she comes to Japan,' inner voice replied.

'Hm, maybe she has someone in Spain?' Kai questioned.

'Do you think she's seeing someone? Maybe he's better than you?' inner voice questioned back.

'NO! No way!' Kai yelled in his mind.

'Then you have only one way to find out, ask her.' Inner voice suggested.

'No I can't, I can't just go and ask her about her personal life. We aren't that good of friends. And I have an image to maintain.' Kai closed his eyes while leaning against the stone wall of the same tower.

'Whom are you kidding Kai? You can't ask her because that'd be a very 'Un-Kai' thing? Forget about the density of your friendship and face the fact that you like Julia Fernandez.' The reply came.

'No I don't.' Kai fought back, at least, tried.

'We've had this discussion several times in the past four months Kai.' IV replied.

Kai said nothing and shook his head. He wanted to talk to someone badly, and that surely wasn't his inner voice. He wanted to connect to Dranzer, his best friend. And for that he needed a quiet place.

'Maybe I should go to the top of the tower,' Kai thought while unbuttoning the first two of his black shirt, and left the yard.


Julia looked back to see from where the sound of footsteps were coming, to find Kai walking towards her, with his hands in his trouser pockets.

Julia could feel her heartbeat racing suddenly, when Kai came closer. Neither Kai was expecting her to be inside the tower. He was climbing the stone staircase when saw a piece of dark pink fabric flying in the air, he just wanted to discover who it was at the tower when everyone was out in the yard, enjoying. He soon found out it was her. Julia was looking at him, their eyes locked. No one could utter a word for some moments.

Julia was looking at the extremely handsome Kai, wearing grey tuxedo, with his bow tie undone and first two buttons opened. On the opposite, Kai was looking back at her, she was wearing the same dress and had her hair tied up, with some bangs falling from both sides of her face. She was looking mesmerizing but Kai could see tears in her sad eyes, those perfectly beautiful emerald eyes. Julia was sad due to her previous thoughts about Raul ignoring her.

'Uh.. Hey, Kai!' Julia said.

Kai didn't reply for a few seconds, he was observing her carefully. Then, he asked,

'Why are you crying?'

'Uh, oh no, no I'm not..' Julia took eyes away from him, making a failed attempt to hide her tears from him.

Kai didn't bother much to wait for her to look up, he took his handkerchief out and offered it to her.

'Here,' Kai couldn't say anything more that it.

'Huh?' Julia muttered and looked up, to see Kai offering her a white handkerchief. Julia looked straight into Kai's eyes in disbelief.

'Take it, don't think too much.' Kai said and smiled a little.

Julia took the handkerchief and helped herself with it, while Kai was gazing at her beautiful face. Julia was feeling uncomfortable and looked back at him.

'Do you want to tell me something?' Julia asked.

'Uh... well...no' Kai has nothing to reply.

'Okay...Well...' Julia said.

Silence followed. Julia took her eyes away from Kai again and looked outside the window like she was doing before Kai's arrival. 'Why's he here?' She thought. 'Well no wonder, it's Kai. He likes to stay separate even at a party, but then, why did he want to dance with me at the BBA gala?'

'Why aren't you out there, dancing?' Kai broke the silence and asked.

'I... couldn't find anyone to dance with me, everyone's already got someone.' Julia replied without looking in his direction.

'Hm,' Kai took a pause, and then asked again, 'do you like dancing?'

Kai had no idea why did he ask that.

'Of course! I'm Spanish Kai, and moreover, a girl if you do generalise.' Julia smiled, looking at him.

'Hmm,' Kai was seeing her smile for the first time in the evening. Kai remembered every single moment of them dancing together. That time she didn't know it was him.

'Didn't you get anyone, too?' Julia asked softly.

'I didn't want to dance, with anyone.' Kai closed his eyes and replied.

'Okay.' Julia said.

Another five minutes of silence followed. Kai still had his eyes closed in that duration.

'May I have the pleasure to dance with you, Julia Fernandez?' He opened his eyes and finally, asked.

Julia was speechless. She looked at him in surprise. She couldn't believe Kai, Kai Hiwatari was asking her for a dance. He'd finally gathered the courage to ask her, forgetting about his male ego which was the most probable reason behind him going to seek help from Max last time.

Kai was still holding his hand out, waiting for her response.

'Yes.' Julia blushed and gave him consent. He took her hand in his and held her waist, pulling her closer to his chest. They were both looking into each other's eyes. Julia smiled.

They started dancing, to the music that was coming from the Yard. They danced for a while, without taking eyes off each other, out of the reach of the others, where nobody could see them.

'Can I ask you something, Kai?' Julia questioned in a low voice. She wasn't sure if she should ask that or not.

'Hmm.' Kai replied with his eyes locked with hers.

'Why didn't you ask me for a dance at the Gala? Then Max's couldn't have played those dirty tricks of his on us, like spiking our drinks and making me end up at your place, bothering you the whole night and leaving me confused in the morning.' Julia let it all out at once.

Kai didn't take his eyes off but soaked each of her words deeply. He didn't reply, he couldn't reply. That dance and that night, which she was calling 'Bothering', was probably the best night of his life till then. He never regretted it, or wanted to settle anything out with Max. Because that night was something he could never forget, something he couldn't be thankful enough for.

Julia thought Kai wasn't going to reply after waiting for a while. She took her eyes away from him and looked down. She sighed.

However, she had to look back at him again soon, when she heard him asking,

'I know maybe it's too early to ask, but... can I kiss you?'


Hey everybody, hope you liked it.

Please R&R. I'll be waiting.

OMG OMG Kai's talking to a girl normally OMG! Hahaha anyway, I hope everything goes well between them.

Love you all.

Till the next one.

-SMG-