A/N: Hey, lovelies. Been ages, haven't it? Well, here's a new chapter- enjoy!
5.
"Yep, I got it. I'll be there."
Elena couldn't rush any further to cut the call. With a loud sigh, she slumped on the barstool and rested her face on the counter. Cold hard marble counter, which hurt her cheekbone.
"What happened, bub?" Troy put her plate of food beside her head. It consisted of classic eggs and bacon, with apple juice.
Elena stuffed her face with egg, the smell of food too good for her to keep sulking. "I have to go to this stupid high-class party." She moaned at the taste of the crispy bacon. "This is too good, Troy."
"I know, thanks." He leant against the counter, after setting aside two plates for Riley and Julia, and himself indulged in oatmeal. Elena hated oats. She didn't know how people actually ate that mush. "Why, is this party important?"
"Yeah, my dad's back in town. It's a corporate party and it would be rude if I'm in America and I don't go." Elena waved around her fork to explain. "I would love to see him again but the party is in DC, and it's a long way from here. I'll be too tired for my birthday tomorrow."
"Tomorrow's your birthday? Why didn't we know it?" Troy asked. Elena could see offence wasn't an effective look on his face. He looked more like a frowning baby, too cute.
"How does it even matter? It didn't matter to my family anyway." She mumbled and started stuffing her face again. Family sucked. Food didn't.
She knew Troy wouldn't have let the topic go if it wasn't for Julia and Riley entering the kitchen with exciting chatters about Julia's new pants.
School is… complicated? Yeah, maybe that's the word. Hard to understand, that's what school is. High school, harder to understand. A high school student's locker opening with a flurry of colourful envelopes was the hardest to understand.
"What the fuck is this junk?" Elena looked around to see if the one responsible was around. 'How would you even recognise the culprit? They wouldn't move around with signs stuck on their forehead, I STUFFED YOUR LOCKER. Stupid.' Elena hated her brain.
"Whoa, El, are we getting love letters now? A bit too soon, isn't it?" Julia whistled as she picked one of the envelopes.
Elena groaned and opened one of them too, "What did I even do to these people?"
"Apparently nothing. They're for Kai. Damn, he's getting fan-mails now?" Julia snickered. Elena stood beside her and peered over her shoulder to see the letter content. It was, well… what category did 'choke me, daddy' fall into?
They looked through some more just for giggles and shit. The letters ranged from fluffy to outright-death-related horny. "KFC is wild." Elena shook her head. She started piling the fallen letters against the lockers. It irked her OCD.
"Shit, where did more of this come from?" Tala, who Elena didn't even notice coming up, exclaimed. Julia frowned at him and rubbed her ears to get rid of the ringing. Elena felt sympathetic, Tala had a really shrill voice when he exclaimed.
Elena looked at him with a frown, "What do you mean more? I thought they mistook my locker for Kai's."
"No. These must be the ones that didn't fit in Kai's locker. Just 15 minutes ago, this letter shower happen from his locker too."
Julia stepped aside from the pile of the fan-mails, "Where's model boy anyway?"
"Went home. There was a hoard of fans outside school. His parents thought it was unsafe for him at school, so he's homebound until this madness slows down." The warning bell rang and they proceeded to class. Elena felt sorry for Barry, the janitor, for having to clean all the junk.
"Didn't they think that this will happen eventually? Hiwatari's is a famous brand after all. People are bound to notice their new teen model." Julia hitched her bag up and walked beside Tala. Walked too close beside Tala. So close that their knuckles were grazing. Elena didn't say anything, deciding to observe their weird behaviour for a bit more before reaching any conclusion.
Tala shrugged, "Dunno. Maybe they were thinking about the sales more than the safety of their son. Rich people are crazy." He turned to Elena and said sheepishly, "No offence, Elena."
"None taken. It's not new for the rich to neglect their kids." She said the last line with a hard expression and realised she caught Julia and Tala's attention away from Kai's situation.
'Change the topic. Change the topic. Change the topic, goddamit.'
"Did you guys start on the character sketches in The Scarlet Letter?" Smooth save. Elena Merkel to the victory once again.
'One party. One stuffy party and they're off your back for the rest of the year.' Kai chanted in his brain for the thousandth time that day.
He didn't hate parties that much (it was the socialising that scared him). But high school parties are different from corporate parties, especially if said corporate party is a welcoming party for some business tycoon.
Parties like those turn into ass-kissing real soon.
Kai gave himself a once-over in the mirror and nodded at the attire. His parents designed this, and he must give credit to those fashion designers because the black suit with a thin glittery navy blue border fit him like a glove. A white shirt with clear blue buttons hung on his body loosely, and his slacks were snug around his thighs.
He side-eyed the glittering bowtie lying lonely on his dresser, he respected his parents' designing skills but they tended to forget he was still him. Kai Hiwatari would never wear a stupid bowtie.
.
.
.
Kai Hiwatari had to wear the bowtie because his mother threatened to write him off her will. He wouldn't dare to cross Anastasia M. Black. Troy did that and it didn't end well.
Elena didn't like to fuss about her appearance much, maybe because she always had people around her to do that. Yet, she wasn't used to the feeling of confusion. To go for the black or the purple. Bodycon or full-length gown. Satin or lace- well, that wasn't hard, it's satin, always. Hair up or hair down. Heels or flats.
Thankfully, she had Julia and Troy to help her through the misery. Riley was just excited to click her pictures after she was all dolled up (purple bodycon dress with black boots, and side-swept hair).
It was so different though. Because with her friends, Elena could at least give her two cents. Back in Germany, the maids had specific instructions, no matter how much Elena protested, at the end of the day she was prepped up to the standards of her family.
She had just gotten comfortable in the limo when the driver announced that they had reached the destination. Taking a deep breath, Elena stepped out. She was ready, to meet her father and the judgemental looks of her aunt.
The venue was a typical high-class building, with all glass windows shining in the night sky. Wealth screamed from the walls of the lobby itself. Of course, the elevator was fancier than her room in Riley and Troy's place. Elena zoned out from her surroundings, her mind wandering off to her family. How would her father react after seeing her? Well, he would hug her and tell her how much he had missed his little pumpkin.
Elena sent a quick prayer before entering the room.
'If you are real and if you actually hear us human-lings, please let there not be Anna.'
She plastered her practised smile on her nude coloured lips and stepped in. As she had expected, the party was filled with rich snobs dressed up in pretentious suits and dresses that cost more than a working-class person's yearly earnings. Elena looked around, her relatives nowhere in sight, and swiped up a flute of champagne from a waiter. She downed all the alcohol in one gulp, liquid courage as they say.
With a bit of walking, she heard the snarky voice of her aunt. Her father was standing beside Anna.
Elena looked up angrily, giving God a glare. 'I'm so not attending mass from now.' Not like she did before, but that wasn't the point.
"Dad," Elena smiled at Morgan Hans Merkel, a man in his forties, with blue eyes like his daughter and brown hair, a warm inviting smile adorning his face.
"Pumpkin," Morgan opened his arms for Elena to step in and gave her a bear hug. Probably a couple of her ribs cracked, but she didn't care. She was home. Her home was her father. Elena's eyes filled with tears as Morgan kissed her temple, telling her how much he missed her. Her 'missed you too, Dad' got muffled on his suit.
Of course, her bewitched aunt had to interrupt one happy moment Elena could've been in front of her.
"Elena," Anna's clipped voice brought Elena out of her bubble. Blinking away any tears she had mustered, Elena smile tightly.
"Aunt Anna, nice to see you again."
Anna raised a perfectly trimmed eyebrow, her lips lifting in a condescending smile. Or one could say sneer instead smile. Because Elena didn't ever remember her aunt smiling actually. "I could say the same for you, but seeing your outfit, I'm not feeling nice enough."
"Anna, let her be," Morgan warned. Elena felt pride surge in her heart. Even though she had a witch for an aunt who just couldn't mind her own business and an entire family of equally greedy fuckers, she had her father backing her up.
"Little brother, you don't understand how your daughter's rebellious get-up can drown this family's reputation in a minute. Wearing childish shoes to such prosperous occasion, ugh." If she wasn't before, Anna was totally sneering now.
"Anna-"
"Mr Merkel, could you excuse us for a moment? This is Richard Keeley from Keeley Corps…" Morgan gave Anna a warning stare, and smiled apologetically at Elena, "Gotta go, pumpkin. Enjoy."
Elena mournfully watched her father being snatched away by the claws of business tycoons and other influencing people she couldn't bother knowing professions and titles of. Without paying her aunt any heed, she walked towards the snack bar.
However pretentious these rich parties were, their food was something to be praised off. The bite-sized food was too good to be ignored. Elena decided to station herself at the bar for the rest of the otherwise boring evening.
Kai was ready to die any moment. Any minute he would fall down and that would be the ultimate end. Seventeen years was a good run. Could've lived further if it weren't for his parents chattering away with another couple who worked in fashion. Fabrics, buttons, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, faux fur, and similarly other terms were thrown around 10 times in one sentence.
If he had to, Kai could easily write a 1000 word essay on fashion and get an easy A. And he sucked at English.
Someone up there definitely heard his misery, because soon there was a new voice, a non-fashion related voice. "Blake, Anastasia, Rosie, Thomas. All four of my talented and fashionable friends." A brunet said welcomingly. He seemed the same age as Kai's parents.
"Morgan Merkel, the man of the night himself." Thomas, one part of the French designer couple, greeted. After a few more greetings and 'how is life going's, Morgan Merkel turned to Kai.
"And this must young Kai, I presume."
Kai, ever the pretend gentleman, thrust his hand forward and shook the older man's hand. "Nice to meet you, Mr Merkel."
Morgan Merkel smiled warmly at him. Kai hadn't seen that smile much, especially from a fatherly figure. "I think my daughter knows you. I probably saw your picture on her social media."
Why would his daughter know him? How exactly? He didn't have many friends, namely 3-4, so how did someone get so close to putting his picture on her social media? And the bigger question was, why did this middle-aged man know what his daughter was doing on her social media?
Kai didn't have to ponder over the thought much as a new voice approached the circle. "Dad, why did you text me when I was just across the room?"
'Elena?'
It was Elena indeed. She looked all prim and proper for the glamorous evening. If it was possible, Kai would drool over her. But that couldn't happen, because Kai Hiwatari doesn't drool over anyone. Even if it was the foreign girl, whom he was slightly attracted to, in a body fitting dress, looking gorgeous as ever.
"Honey, texting is still magic for my generation so let me use it to my desire, would you please?" Morgan hugged his daughter sideways who was rolling her eyes like it was her second nature.
"My dad is a proper boomer, and I don't need any more proofs."
Morgan gasped at the comment, "Now that is a term I take offence to. I prefer the term 'millennial'." They laughed good-naturedly at him. "Ladies and gents, this is my beloved daughter, Elena."
That was when Elena's attention shifted from her father to the others. She smiled at the adults but when her eyes landed on Kai, her eyebrows shot up in surprise.
Appropriate enough.
"The Elena Merkel, the only person Morgan's ever talked about. What are you studying, dear?" Rose-Anne Marsha asked Elena.
Elena turned to her, giving her the full attention, "I'm a high school senior at Seattle's Crestview High, ma'am."
Kai looked at his parents, both looking back at him. He knew what was coming for him later, a long lecture on why he never bothered to tell them that the daughter of one of the biggest business-person in the world was in his school.
"Crestview High, huh. Do you know my son by any chance then, Miss Merkel?" Anastasia's long manicured nails clinked on her glass, creating an intimidating atmosphere.
"We're actually friends, Mrs Black."
Suddenly the room became interesting to Kai. The long curtains, made of the sheerest material to not overpower the floor to ceiling windows which gave a great view of the city. A stage at the end of the room where Mr Merkel would definitely give a speech soon enough. There was a long bar, of drinks and snacks alike. The walls were of beige colour, as expected.
Interesting shade, huh.
Elena bit her cheek to stop herself from losing the shit right there as she saw Kai avoid his mother's acidic gaze. This party was way much entertaining than she expected.
She nudged her father, passing a silent look with Morgan. Morgan nodded back, assuring her that he had it. "Why don't you all come and meet my sister, Anna? After me, she's the one to look for."
Elena frowned, 'that stung.' She looked at her father's retreating back with a mixed feeling. She was glad for the adults to be gone, but her father actually thinking Anna worthy enough for the next big deal in the business was demotivating. Especially after the amount of career planning she had done to take after her father one day.
"I'm still waiting for a thank you, Hiwatari. Saved your ass out there, didn't I?" Elena said to Kai.
Kai's expression changed from relieved to disbelief in seconds, "You're the one who went around announcing that we're friends."
Elena picked a slider from a passing waiter. This was the best starter ever made and she already had five of them in the past hour. "Didn't know you were such a pansy in front of your mother. Sorry about that."
"I'm no pansy," Kai grumbled.
Elena snickered at his state. For all his aloof exterior he tries to maintain, he's somewhat cute. 'Where the fuck did that come from?'
"You're wearing a bowtie, babe. You're not in a position to make arguments here."
The party dragged on for hours, the two teenagers simply enjoying the free food and alcohol, and each other's company. It was around 10 o'clock when Morgan, after giving his big speech of thanks, came up to Elena.
"Hey, Pumpkin. You should head home now. Big day tomorrow." Morgan smiled apologetically and Elena understood what he meant. He won't be around. It broke her heart a bit. Her father never missed her birthday. This would be the first time celebrating away from home, away from the only person she can call her home.
Elena smiled back and hugged him. "I'll miss you. Will come home on Christmas, okay." She swallowed her tears and just revelled in her father's warm embrace.
Morgan leaned back and kissed her temple. It felt too much like a parting kiss as if it would be long before they meet again. Something didn't sit right with the situation but Elena paid it no heed. It will be months before she'll see her father again, so the feeling was liable.
"Happy Birthday, Pumpkin. Take care."
A/N: Hope y'all liked it! Can't promise when the next update will be, but I hope soon.
Stay safe and keep reading,
Rome :)