A/N: A lot of you who were kind enough to give me review and told me to hurry made me excited (and also kinda put a pressure to me haha ;) to sit on the next chapter right now, and read and edit some of it (thankfully I'm feeling better now. October, I think, is not my month because a lot of bad things happened to me in the first 6 days of the month)

KENSHIN'S MATE – I've read it in a forum, I think it's in animesuki but I'm not really sure because it's been so long since I've read it ;) I'll tell you more once I have time to look at my files

Ayou – anong nangyari? Di ba may account ka sa FFN? Tinatamad mag-log in? ;)

Chapter 10. Glimpse

She strode purposely towards the private elevator. She's at her family's hotel and would stay there for a few days for business matters.

This morning, she had an appointment at 9:00. Though it's still early to leave at 7:00 am because travel time would only take half an hour, she was going already. She hadn't had enough sleep last night. Ever since she arrived in Osaka yesterday, she was unsettled for some reasons unknown to her.

She came here for a two-day conference on new innovations about architecture and design, and another day for a business meeting to represent their family business.

Once on the ground floor, her driver slash bodyguard for so many years reached for her briefcase to carry it towards the waiting car outside.

---o---

Aya gazed one more time at the imposing building in front of her.

"This is the place."

This was the hotel where she's going to meet clients for a breakfast meeting. She hoped it would turn out well.

Purposely, Aya went to the entrance and was greeted by a security. After stating her purpose, the security opened the door for her and after thanking him, she went inside uneasily.

How come she's feeling uneasy at this moment?

It's only a meeting. And she knew she can handle it well.

Besides, she had already met the clients before, and they seemed to be nice people and easy to deal with.

Once inside, she walked towards the information counter to inquire when someone caught her eye. Frowning, she gazed at the woman striding purposely and elegantly towards the exit.

She couldn't see her face, but looking at her back, she could tell that the tall woman had a beautiful figure and a long, flowing black hair.

And she had the bearing of a princess…

And there's something familiar with the way she walked, something she couldn't quite put a name on it…

And there's also something that made her want to come after her, to call her, but that would be silly.

She didn't know the woman.

She didn't even saw her face to tell if she really had met her before.

Besides, if she had met someone like that, she surely wouldn't forget her easily. Even with her back, she could tell that the woman was beautiful.

It just didn't fit her imagination for that woman to be not good looking. She looked…

"Excuse me, Madam, how may I help you?"

She turned around in surprise and was met by the smiling face of the receptionist.

While inquiring, she forgot about the woman with long black hair.

Once she was at the hotel's restaurant and waiting for the clients, however, the woman came into her mind again.

"This is ridiculous. How come I keep on thinking about her?"

The image kept on coming in her mind.

She was pondering why it was so when thankfully, the clients arrived and her attention was diverted to the matter at hand.

Later on, even with the success of the breakfast meeting, the image kept on flashing in Aya's head that made her confused.

Why in the world couldn't she keep the image away from her head?

She had seen a lot of tall women with long black hair and yet no one had managed to linger in her mind even for a minute except that one at the hotel earlier.

That night, she fell asleep with the thought of the woman. And when she had her usual dream, her dream was about the woman with long black hair.

The events in her dream were the same.

A person was calling her in her dream and as she came nearer to that person, the person seemed to move far away. But this time, the person had a long black hair, although she still couldn't see her face.

Even her dream about the person at a beautiful room with a magnificent bed, she could see that the person had long black hair, too. However, she couldn't still make out the voice. But now that she thought about it, she realized that the voice belonged to a woman.

The next day, when she woke up, she thought that she probably could see the person in her dream with long black hair because of thinking too much about the woman at the hotel yesterday.

It couldn't be possibly a woman calling her to come to bed.

But the next night, Aya still had the same dream, and the woman was in her dream again.

When she woke up the following day, she was beyond confused.

How could it be possible to have the same dream with the woman?

True, the dreams were the same except for the presence of the woman.

But why that particular woman?

Why couldn't be it her mother who might be telling her to sleep in the bed?

Or Yana?

At the thought of Yana, she smiled. There's no way that person could be Yana.

Now though, the woman from the hotel really intrigued her.

Why would she dream about her twice?

More importantly, why would she be in her recurrent dreams, her dreams long before she saw the woman?

She wanted to find out the answer to that question.

That morning, she went back to the hotel, trying her luck to see the woman and probably try to understand why she couldn't get her out of her mind.

One hour…

Two hours…

And more…

She's been at the lobby for hours. Her neck already hurt upon glancing around, but no trace of the woman she saw two days ago.

She probably left already.

But then maybe she hadn't yet.

After waiting for a few more minutes, she decided to leave.

The woman had probably left the hotel already, maybe even on the day she saw her. She just wasted her time for nothing. Better go home already.

After looking around once again, she sighed and proceeded to the exit.

---o---

She was thankful that the elevator finally reached the ground floor of the hotel. Her head hurt from too much lack of sleep since three nights ago, the night she arrived here in Osaka.

True, she wasn't sleeping much at night anymore for so many years now, but her nights here in Osaka were the worst. And for the life of her, she couldn't understand why.

As she turned towards the exit of the hotel, her eyes settled on the back of a woman with long brown hair. She would have ignored her like she usually did to anyone who was not a matter of necessity in her business or other things that could affect her. However, there's something in the woman's movements that seemed familiar, something that made her want to come after her, to call her.

But then, why would she do that?

She didn't even know the person.

But why was her heart skipping a beat faster?

She was about to walked towards the exit to follow the woman when someone greeted her from behind. She turned to see the manager of their hotel. She greeted her, before turning her attention back to the exit.

The brown-haired woman was already gone. She couldn't see her anywhere anymore.

Frowning, she turned to the manager and talked to her briefly but in her mind, the image played along and refused to leave her thoughts even when she was already at her meeting, and even on her way back to Tokyo.

And even days after, the image of the woman with long brown hair would still visit her thoughts, but she pushed it at the corner of her mind.

That woman was nothing.

She was of no importance in her daily routine.

She was just somebody whom she happened to saw at the hotel in Osaka.

So what if she caught her attention for a moment?

She was just tired that time.

There's no need to think much about it anymore.

A/N: Another chapter was done after having such bad days (for me). Losing money because of being impatient and impulsive (I bought something that I really wanted but sadly, it was useless ;( and then having a bad cold followed by a cough, it was my fault that my roommate's laptop had problems and needed to be fixed, I wasn't able to enjoy my weekend, unable to sleep, and then lost track of my things! This morning before going to the office I was like, "Where's my jeans, where is it? Where did I put it?" And then I started rummaging my things, got irritated because I'm running out of time. I decided to abandon the hunt for that jeans ;) and settle for something else. If the jeans wanted to hide from me, then so be it. If it will show up soon, good. If not, then goodbye haha ;)

I hope my bad days are finished and I can have good days again for the rest of the month. And the next months…and the coming years and so on haha ;) You, guys, too, who are being nice to me, thanks and have nice days ahead of you ;)

My cold is almost gone now so I'm feeling better and was back to work, and back to doing things not related to work during my breaks haha ;)

Also, reading the reviews this morning lifted my spirits ;)

---Arvendell---

06 October 2008

2:45 PM