Heyyy, yall! Not—that much of—a late update this time, woohoo! To get this done, I was bribed with a picture of a shirtless Naru by one of my friends on here... I have no shame... Lol!

Hope you enjoy the chapter! I had fun writing this, poor Mai! And I think I only have like four chapters left of this story... *wipes tear* Although I'm not sure yet. Who knows what my mind will make up! Anyways, thank you for the 23 reviews on the last chapter! Every time I read a review from yall, I can't get this goofy grin off my face! Ahaha.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost Hunt...or any other anime no matter how badly I want to!

Mai's POV

"This is Oliver's girlfriend, Mai Taniyama." And cue polite smile. They engage into a very brief conversation then we move on to the next person.

I swear that if I have to hear that sentence one more time I'm gonna lose it! Not to mention standing there like a fool with a stupid smile on my face while I have no idea what they're saying. At least Naru hasn't left my side the whole time we've been here. After Caroline and Michelle left us, Luella began guiding us around and introducing me to everyone.

The first introduction went horrible. This man—probably in his forties—held his hand out to me when he reached me. I had furrowed my brows together in confusion, clueless as to what he was doing at first. Then Naru gave a slight cough and nudged me. Suddenly I had remembered that English and American customs shake hands. So that's what I did, only to receive an odd look in return. It was only after the man left did Naru care to inform me that, at these kind of things, the men kiss the back of the ladies' hand.

Oops. My bad.

The Davis' should've apparently taught me how to act here instead of worrying about how I looked.

After that I avoided the others that were to come as much as possible. I had to force a smile sometimes when I heard people murmuring behind me. I didn't know what they were saying—like usual—but their 'discreet' glances made it painfully obvious they were talking about me. Naru and the others never seemed to notice because they would always be speaking to the other guests. I had nothing to do, but listen to the murmurs around me while I quietly stood there. I never told Naru about my suspicions with the gossipers—I didn't want to ruin anything. I only wished I knew what they were saying.

"So are you enjoying yourself?" I heard from behind me. I turned around and saw Michelle with a big smile adorning her face. It took me a few moments, but I was able to reply.

"It's gr-eat." I nodded, avoiding telling her how I was and instead stated how the party was. It really did seem great—everyone else was enjoying themselves.

"I'm glad..." She breathed in relief. I smiled at her. She really does seem nice; if only one of us could speak fluently to each other... Michelle flicked her eyes over a bit looking behind me before they narrowed. "Oliver." She said with a small amount of distaste. She had said Naru use to always call her annoying... that must be why she doesn't care for him all that much. I silently giggled.

"Oh, hey Naru." I smiled at him when he stood beside me.

"What are you doing?" He asked. I slightly lifted my shoulders.

"Just trying my best to understand our conservation." I answered, gesturing to Michelle. Naru only raised a brow with amusement swirling in his eyes. Only a few selective people know this, but if you look into Naru's eyes, you can usually always see his emotions.

"Wait! Oliver, it's not fair you get to talk to her! What is she saying?" Michelle questioned, although whatever she said sounded more like a demand if you ask me.

"Now you know how Mai feels when we speak in English in front of her." Naru said, subconsciously shifting closer to me. He kindly translated what he said for me. Michelle gasped as her hand flew up to cover her mouth.

"Oh my gosh! I feel horrible..." With one of her hands, she cupped her cheek in thought. "Oh, I know! Tell her I'm determined to learn Japanese so that the next time she comes to visit we can actually have a conversation!" She smiled happily, her hazel eyes sparkling brightly. Although I felt Naru stiffen at her words. When he gave me a small glance and translated, I understood perfectly why. There wasn't going to be a next time. We're going to be 'breaking up' once we go back to Japan.

"And tell her I'll try my best to learn more English." I told him, giving him a knowing look that—despite what I'm saying—I understood, and he did as asked. I smiled regretfully to myself.

"And there have better be a next time, Oliver! Do you hear me?!" Michelle asked, annoyed at Naru's lack of response. I giggled, fortunately knowing what she had said, while Naru visibly scowled. He never likes being told what to do—everyone knew. "I should hope you don't treat Mai this way. If so I'll just have to keep her away from you~!" Our hostess smirked playfully as she tried to grab my wrist and pull me to her. Naru, however, expertly slipped my hand into his so I was firmly in place. Unless he moved I knew I wasn't going anywhere.

Before Michelle could retort on Naru's actions, we heard man's voice, who Luella had said was Michelle's father, Brandon, announcing that dinner was apparently now being served. Without a word Naru tightened his grip on my hand as we followed the other guests to the dining hall. This place was crazy huge, but I think it might have been just a tad smaller than the Davis'.

Reaching the insanely long dining room table, Naru held a chair out for me as did Martin and Lin with Luella and Madoka. As I stood in front of it, Naru slipped the chair closer to me and I sat down with a blush. Who knew Naru could act so...gentlemanly! So he does have manners, it's just a question of when he wants to use them or not. I immediately paused though when I saw what was in front of me. Three different glasses, those fork things, and spoons! Why would you have so many of the same thing?! I tried not to show it on the outside, but on the inside, I was panicking.

In no time the servants came and placed our food in front of us, filling one of those glasses with water. The meal seemed to be just a plate full of fruit... I glanced around at the other guests to see them sticking the food with a fork. My eyes shifted to Naru, who was beside me, to find he was looking at me from the corner of his eye.

"Just eat the appetizer, Mai." He whispered so quietly I could barely hear him. My eyes went wide though. This is an appetizer?! B-But there's so much food! How are we suppose to eat this and the main meal?!

I gulped and gave a small nod to him before looking back at the fruit. I picked up the fork and twirled it around between my fingers a bit. Across from me, one lady that I noticed cut a baby tomato with a fork and knife. I didn't question it; instead I decided to just do as she did. I tried to stab the tomato with the fork, but unfortunately it just kept rolling around on the plate every time I tried. After a while I grew frustrated with it. I couldn't stab it with the fork so I opted to just cutting it directly with the knife. However, it completely missed the knife on the first try and somehow or another flew off my plate. My eyes widened for a second time that night—but this time in horror—when it flew across the table and landed on top of that same lady's hair. 'Oh no, oh no! Crap, what do I do?!' I mentally panicked. Thankfully the lady and any of the other guests didn't seem to notice in the slightest bit.

A sudden stifled laugh, which no one seemed to hear, caught my attention. I looked to my left down the long table and saw Michelle with a hand firmly covering her mouth. 'Oh no, she saw me!' The amused expression she was wearing told me she wasn't the least bit mad though.

"Mai!" Naru's voice harshly whispered, causing me to snap my head towards the right. 'Crap...he saw me too!' And his expression told me he wasn't the least bit amused. I mouthed a hasty 'I'm sorry' to him. Swiftly, I flicked my gaze to that lady to see a red dot still in her hair. For the rest of the appetizer I ate my food like a normal person. Lesson learned.

The servants came back out and switched the appetizer plate with the main meal. Then they filled one of the other glasses with wine. I blinked several times as I stared owlishly at the drink. They're serving alcohol at a sixteen year old's party...? That's illegal in Japan! You have to be twenty to drink there so I've never tasted wine or any other of those kind of drinks... Just as I reached out to pick up the glass, a hand immediately grabbed my wrist. I traced my eyes up the arm to look at its owner. Midnight blue eyes stared back at me with a stern gaze.

"What?" I asked.

"Don't even think about drinking any of that, Mai." Naru warned me quietly. I frowned.

"Why not?" That just seemed to make Naru's eyes harden considerably. I flinched, knowing I was already walking on a thin line with him with the baby tomato incident—that poor lady still has it in her hair. I reluctantly retracted my hand from the glass and Naru let go of my wrist. "Well, are you going to drink yours?" I questioned. If he was then he was being unfair.

"No, I don't drink." He replied shortly. "Even if I did, it wouldn't change my opinion about letting you drink." He declared. I pursed my lips but said nothing else. The main meal appeared to be steak with potatoes and bread with some other things too. Cringing I knew I'd have to use the stupid knife and fork again. But looking at the others, they used the second untensils of the three sets. I picked mine up as well and began cutting the steak.

Luck seriously wasn't on my side tonight. At one point I accidentally jabbed my elbow out too far when I was cutting a tough part of the meat, and I hit a man that was sitting on my left side in the chest with my elbow. To make matters worse he was drinking his wine at the same moment so it spilled all over him. I gasped and stood up as the man began—assumingly—cursing under his breath. All the guests' eyes widened and watched in shock at the scene that represented itself to them.

"I'm sor-ry! I'm so sor-ry!" I repeated over and over as I frantically grabbed a clothed napkin and began patting the man's chest, who kept yelling at me to 'get away', not that it really did any good. That giant red stain is never coming out. The servants quickly came and began cleaning up the mess I made, gently pushing me out the way.

I dared to look at Naru and his family. I had been so nervous all night about messing something up that I unintentionally made everything worse. Naru had his eyes closed with an overly annoyed look at his face, his jaw clenched tightly. Martin just had his mouth gaped open in utter shock while Luella and Madoka both had their hands covering their faces, secretly peeking through their fingers at me. Lin... well, Lin actually looked kinda amused about the whole thing.

"I'm so sorry." I told them with tears gathering in my eyes. I messed everything up for them—embarrassed them. "I didn't mean to, I'm sorry." To escape the embarrassment and shame I put myself under, I did the only thing I could think of.

I ran.

"Mai!" I heard Michelle call after me, but I ignored it and kept running. To where, I have no idea, but I still did it. I ran out the dining room, into some hallways, up a staircase, and before I knew it I was outside on a balcony.

...Poor Mai. I probably made her over do it, didn't I? ^_^; Oh well. Sorry.

I believe that at formal events and things they dance and then eat...but for this I had to reverse it lol! I also hoped I got the dining part right as well... my grandma taught me and my siblings all about how to 'properly set a table and eat' and all that... I kinda forgot though. But give me a break, I've got a killer migraine right now, and I'm going to bed immediately.

Please review! ^.^