Hello, everyone! It's been like three weeks I think. I would've updated last week, but I my computer just gave out on me. Apparently, the power supply was out of power (kinda like a cellphone battery dying). So I had to get it replaced. I'm just glad I have a computer savvy bro because he's the one who restored life to it (Thank GOD for him!). So I'm back now.
As far as updating goes, I hope to start updating ALL of my stories starting next week. I'll try to have at least one story updated each week. Maybe even two or three on a good week. I'M TELLING YOU THIS NOW!: I there will be some weeks where nothing won't be updated, and you have to realize that this is just what I want to happen. That means it most likely won't, but the idea is to get as close as possible to this as I can get . . . Thanks for your patience for those stories. Thank you for wishing me well on my exams (it turned out that I only had to take two exams from joint-enrollment program and none from my actually high school . . . I love exempting!)
So enough chit-chat about fanfic business, let's get this show on the road.
Chapter 20: Konnichiwa!
Ulrich shuffled along with the others as they entered the beautiful hotel that they'd be staying in.
"Okay, Yumi, you tell the receptionist, who we are, and that we booked like, uh, ten rooms."
Yumi nodded as she relayed the information to the receptionist. After receiving the keys, she passed them out to her fellow co-workers.
Ulrich yawned as they made their ways to their rooms. "So let me get this straight. We left at five in the morning which is like 6 in the afternoon to Japan. The flight took 13 hours and 40 minutes so when we got here it was . . . 7 AM Monday morning."
"Yep, we skipped half of Sunday."
"Time zones make everything so confusing." Ulrich said as he stopped at his door number."
"Oh, key for me and Sissi." Yumi said.
"Here ya go." Ulrich said as he gave each of them one.
"Ulrich, you do realize that we have dinner at my parents tonight?"
Ulrich blinked. "That is today . . . I HATE time zones."
"Wait," Sissi said. "You're going over her house to have dinner with her parents?"
"Yeah." Ulrich answered.
" . . . Yeah, and I'm inappropriate. But hey! You two are single. There is nothing stopping you two from being together. I'm on your side." Sissi said as she entered her and Yumi's room."
"Why today?" Ulrich whined.
"Oh come on. It's until 7. You've got 12 hours to rest up. And I told you to let me deal with the time flights. We should've left Saturday night. I knew this was going to happen."
"Oh shut up. You said nothing." Ulrich snapped.
"Well what idiot decides to not listen to the Japanese woman who goes to Japan every freaking year about the best time to leave to go there?"
"I've gone overseas before!"
"Well you've obviously haven't been the far out . . . baka."
"Hey! I've watched enough anime to know what that means. And you're the idiot."
"Hey!" Sissi yelled from her bed. "Shut up! People are trying sleep!"
"I'll let you rest. I'm going to call the guys and tell 'em we made it safely." Yumi said to Ulrich.
"Why are you so full energy?" Ulrich asked, annoyed by her perkiness.
"Because I knew it would be morning here. I slept on the way here."
"But you slept on a plane. How could you be well rested?"
"I'm used to it. You're gonna have to get used to it too." Yumi said. "Course if I picked the flight time, you probably could be going to bed at night instead of the early morning."
"Okay! I get it. The next time we book a flight to anywhere in Asia, you'll have full jurisdiction."
"Domo." Yumi smirked.
"So do your parents speak English? Or is it just your brother. I mean you were speaking English on the phone, but was he translating? Or what?" Ulrich asked as he and Yumi walked to her house.
"Yes, my whole family speaks English, Ulrich. Anymore questions?" Yumi answered. She was getting annoyed with him. Why was he so nervous anyways? She was the one who was seeing her family in who knows when. And they definitely weren't going to let her forget it.
"So are we gonna eat a traditional Japanese meal? I've had Japanese before, but not an authentic traditional meal."
"How the heck should I know? Oh, well my did say we were now that I remember."
"So is your father really protective. Is he gonna think there's something like . . . between us or, something?"
"Even if he did, I'll just tell him that you're my boss. That should make him back off."
"Okay." Silence. "You will tell him before he gets a chance to kill me right?" Yumi gave Ulrich a strained smile and continued walking.
"So when are they supposed to get here?" Hiroki asked his mother who was putting the finishing touches on dinner."
"Soon. Now you be polite to Yumi's boss. We don't want him getting angry. He could fire Yumi because of our inhospitality."
Mr. Ishiyama snorted. "I'm sure he won't be that bad. He might be an easygoing guy.
"He might an old fart." Hiroki frowned. "Some old man who's ready to croak any moment."
"Hiroki! That's no way to talk about your sister's boss. I'm sure he's a well abled man."
"That'd be really bad if he croaked during dinner." Mr. Ishiyama said. He then chuckled. "If he does we have all the reason to stick our chopsticks straight into our rice bowls. Just like how they do the rice at funerals. How appropriate."
"Both of you behave." Mrs. Ishiyama said. A knock on the door ended her would-be rant.
She opened the door. "Yumi-chan! It's so glad to finally see you in person!" Mrs. Ishiyama gave her daughter a hug.
"You say that like you're meeting me for the first time."
"Well it has been a while." She said as she looked at the man behind Yumi. He was around her age and quite handsome with his thick, brown hair and well-built body. He gave her a wave and he smiled uneasily at her . . . Boyfriend?
Before she could say anything, Mr. Ishiyama came to the door. "Dad!" Yumi said as they both kissed each other on the cheek.
"Yumi, we missed—who's the guy over there?" Mr. Ishiyama said switching into "There's no way in HECK I'm Letting Him Near My Daughter Mode.
"Kon-konbanwa." Ulrich stuttered. "My name is Ulrich. It's nice to meet you all."
"Hey, is that your boyfriend, Sis?" Hiroki asked. "I thought we were supposed to meet your boss today."
"So what are you doing here?" Mr. Ishiyama asked Ulrich. "You seeing my daughter?"
"Well, actually—,"
"Listen, I know how guys like you are. You're probably some nice co-worker who thinks he's got a chance, but my daughter doesn't need your kind. I don't know a lot of foreginers, but I know men."
"Well that's nice and all, but I just thought—,"
"I know what you were thinking. You're thinking about how you can make your move at the hotel room, right?"
"Well actually she already has a key to my room." Ulrich said nonchalantly. Yumi was enjoying this up until that comment.
"Whoa! This guy's got guts. I think your boyfriend's dead meat, Onee-chan." Hiroki said.
"He has a key? To your room?" Mr. Ishiyama shrieked.
"Dad! It's not like that!"
"Then what is it?" her mother asked.
"HE'S MY BOSS!"
The Ishiyamas looked at Ulrich. "OH! SO HE'S THE BOSS? SUGOI!"
"Yes, I'm Ulrich Stern. I'm the owner and head of Stern Co. Your daughter is a wonderful secretary and worker. I'm lucky to have her."
"Gomen!" Mr. Ishiyama quickly apologized. "I'm an idiot. I didn't realize that the owner would be so young. You're obviously smart and wise if you've gotten this far."
"My father gave me the company about ten months ago."
"Well you've done well to keep it going. So you're like a billionaire in the U.S. right?" Ulrich nodded. "So how much is that in yen?"
"Honey, don't ask him that!" Mrs. Ishiyama said. "I'm sorry for my husband's forwardness. He's a very headstrong man."
"I see where Yumi gets it from." Ulrich replied. He shook hands with Mrs. Ishiyama. "I also see where she gets her beauty from as well."
Mrs. Ishiyama blushed. "Oh, stop! I'm fifty, you know! I'm nowhere near beautiful!"
"Well you age wonderfully." Ulrich commented.
"Well aren't you the charmer."
"I bet you have all the women pining after you." Hiroki noted.
"Unfortunately, they pine for all the wrong reasons."
"Well that's because you're looking in all the wrong places!"
"That's sad. I think two of my exes went to church, and another one was actually Hindu."
"Well, they're just hypocrites! But you know who isn't a hypocrite?"
"I think I know where you're going with this." Ulrich muttered.
"Then you already know that Yumi's honest and loyal. She'll pine for all the right reasons!"
"Dad! Not even two minutes ago you were practically threatening him!"
"But that was before I knew he was rich! You marry this guy, and you'll be set for life!"
"Dad!" Yumi blushed.
"Oh come on! You won't ever have to worry about a thing. Shoot, he could pay for Hiroki's tuition!"
"Forget tuition. You buy me a nice super car, and I'll call you Onii-chan." Hiroki said. Ulrich laughed.
"Your family is very lively, Yumi."
"Yes, and just think. You can be your family." Mr. Ishiyama said.
"Okay, Anata, leave him alone. Let's eat dinner." They all had a nice time chatting, joking, and teasing (mostly Hiroki teasing Ulrich and Yumi).
"Arigato." Ulrich said as he and Yumi stood up to leave. "I really appreciate your hospitality."
"And we appreciate everything you've done for our daughter." Mrs. Ishiyama said.
"Like her paycheck! Which would be really lovely if she minded her parents who worked like dogs to provide her with the money to send her to NY University to even get the education needed for that job of hers."
"I'm sorry! I'll write you a check right now."
"Oh you don't have to do it now. If you loved us it would've been here before you showed up." Her mother said.
"Well honestly, I would've sent money, but after the pay cut, I really couldn't."
"Pay cut?"
"Oh, uh, Ulrich cut my pay." Yumi said, embarrassed.
Mr. Ishiyama looked hurt. "Why would you do that?"
"Well to put it shortly, I kinda got mixed up in the affair that was going on between his ex-fiance and another co-worker."
"Whoa, you gotta tell me what happened. That's like TV stuff." Hiroki said who was about to head upstairs to his room.
"Yes, you see my fiancé threatened to have Yumi fired if she didn't keep quiet about the affair she was having behind my back. Yumi did keep quiet, but she eventually told me because her pure, innocent heart couldn't take it. But I had to punish her for lying to me in the first place."
"You have such excellent judgement. You are a wise man! I love you!" Mr. Ishiyama.
"Uh, okay, thanks." Ulrich said.
"Thank you for not firing Yumi! We tried to teach her to always be honest, but you know how that goes."
"Actually I wouldn't, but if I ever have children, I'll remember that."
"Yumi would make a better mother than a secretary anyways." Mr. Ishiyama said. Remember that as well!"
"Okay, Dad. I'm leaving." Yumi said as she made her way to the door.
"Bye! We'll send Ulrich out later."
"Okay, Takeo. You need to go sit down. You've gone too far already." Mrs. Ishiyama said.
"Okay, I'm just joking. But you can seriously think on that." Yumi hugged and kissed her parents. She gave Hiroki a hug and playful punch on his shoulder.
"And you stay away from those college girls." Yumi warned.
"Too late." Hiroki joked. "I'm gonna get pointers from Onii-chan, right onii-chan?"
"I'll see what I can do." Ulrich said. With that, Yumi and Ulrich called over a taxi, and headed back to the hotels.
"Well that wasn't that bad was it?" Yumi asked him on the way to their rooms.
"No, it was very hilarious, especially your father. I mean I though you really wanted to find someone. Your father's more pressed about you getting married than you are."
"No, he's more pressed about me marrying some cute rich guy, preferably you."
"Oh he thinks I'm cute?"
"I hope not. But you think my mom's beautiful. And you think I get it from her."
"Well, it's called being polite. It was definitely not a compliment towards you. I just used you to get your mom to like me."
"You are an evil genius."
"That's no way to talk to your potential husband."
"You're also my potential victim."
"We can still be friends, right?"
"I guess so." Yumi said, pretending to think on it.
"So how was meeting the parents?" Sissi asked as they approached Yumi's room. The door was open, and Sissi was sitting on her bed look at her laptop.
"My dad's arranging the omiai as we speak. We'll be married before the week's out."
"Omiai." Sissi stated. "An arranged marriage. Well it's not like it doesn't work out for the best, anyways."
"Hey, no funny business in corporal business." Ulrich said.
"So what's the game plan for tomorrow?" Sissi asked.
"We go into Sony offices, and we take them by storm. Yumi I'm going to need you to handle all of the presenting. And let's go over my speech."
"But we've gone over it like 18 times! I wanna sleep!" Yumi whined.
"Yeah, well I'm worried I'm going to screw it up. I have to speak in front of a group of people where half of them don't even know what I'm saying."
"Why are you so full of energy?"
Ulrich smirked. "Because I slept all day."
"I hate you."
"Well your family loves me."
"Hey! People are trying to watch online TV here!" Sissi said. "Oh, and pass me that applesauce cup.
"Well let's practice in my room." Ulrich said. "And Fairly Legal sucks anyways! (No it actually doesn't)
"That's why you have like six episodes on your DVR!" Sissi said as she threw a pillow at him.
Ulrich and Yumi ran behind the door to use as a shield. Ulrich stuck out his tongue. "Aha! You missed!" Sissi then successfully hit him with a pillow.
"Baka." Yumi said plainly.
"Shut up." Ulrich said as he picked up the pillow in hit her with it. She laughed as they entered his room to do some finishing touches in preparation for the big meeting with Sony.
Okay, I'm cutting it right here. I MIGHT update next week. If not, the week after next for sure. It's not that long, but I think it's long enough. The next chapter might be around the same length—if not, longer. I could always decide to just continue on with the story in order to make it longer. But if it's long enough, we have three more chapters to go and then we're back in America. I really want to get back to America, because we have a rather slow progression of story (in my opinion) right afterwards, and I want to get past it so we can move.
I'm letting you know right now, there is a sort of short time skip coming up. It's just to keep the story going, plus I really don't want to make you (or me) suffer through with it because Yumi and Ulrich will NOT be together until after that time skip. So to get their faster, it will take place, and I'm not saying when exactly or why. You'll find all of that out eventually.
As a last note I wish you all luck on any exams or major tests you have to take. Good Luck!
