A/N:

Thanks for the reviews and follows.

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Mushroom Soup Mishap

"Cheers!"

The clinking of beer bottles and soda cans added to the din of noise inside the Italian restaurant.

Exam week has ended. The punishing hours of review, mock exams and the real deal exams seemed like a dream away. Now we only have to look forward to a somewhat dull week or two before the results of our hard work come out. Normally, this would also be the catching up week for other students who need to submit last minute reports or additional credit work to bump up their grades. I have a 30-page essay due on Tuesday too myself.

In short, it would be boring again to most students. An older classmate mentioned he'd probably go for an impromptu escape somewhere just to break the monotony and left early this evening.

But I don't envy him. I have been looking forward to this night. Kyoko Hori promised to pay for my dinner after I helped her with Sociology and World Literature.

I agreed readily, thinking it might be my only chance to be finally alone with her. I know it sounds really pathetic that I have not plucked up the courage to tell how I feel about her. But I have her best interests at heart, so I decided to wait until after the exams so as not to confuse her.

In my eagerness, it did not occur to me that our best friends would be tagging along as well.

She is sitting across from me looking slightly troubled ever since our orders of food came. She sort of noted my disappointed expression when we all met up outside the restaurant forty minutes ago. Maybe my forced enthusiasm is a bit too obvious, and she realized what's making me turn into a sourpuss. But how can a guy like me be in a more exuberant mood? All week, I've been secretly practicing in front of the mirror on how best I can tell her, and now my courage is being completely demolished like the lasagna my friend, Toru Ishikawa is currently doing with a fork.

"You're a pig, Toru!" laughing, Yuki Yoshikawa threw a bunch of napkins at him. Tomato sauce dribbled down his chin. The parmesan container almost got knocked over when he caught the napkins.

"Oy! Careful there!"

Letting out a resigned sigh, I caught Kyoko's worried look at my expression and decided to let it go.

I let out a tentative shy smile and held out a slice of pepperoni pizza to her.

Slowly, like sunshine peeking out from grey clouds, the corners of her mouth tug upwards.

I felt my insides melt. And my heart began to race again. Ah, well. An opportunity will come again.

She held out her plate as I place the slice of pepperoni pizza on top of it.

What happened next seemed too fast for me to comprehend.

I remember Kyoko's face changing to horror as she suddenly dropped her plate in a rush. I opened my mouth to ask what's wrong, thinking maybe the slice of pizza was too hot for her and she got her finger burned or something.

I wasn't expecting her to suddenly grab me with both of her hands, wrapping her arms around my neck and pulling me towards her, my face almost being squished between her breasts forward that I stood up halfway from my seat.

"Whaaa-?"

I heard a gasp of pain, and something liquidy, dribbling down the back of my jacket.

There was a loud clatter of heavy china, chairs being pushed away, and clinking of beers. A few patrons from the tables nearby paused.

My hands immediately clasp her elbows, pulling her away from me, but not before I saw a patch of her skin of turning from faint pink to red; thick, creamy mushroom soup still on top.

"I'm really sorry!" the male waiter said, mortified; trying to balance the hot soups on the tray he was holding. The restaurant was really crowded tonight that the space in between occupied chairs left little room for the restaurant staff to maneuver.

Yuki, sitting next to me immediately handed out wet tissue packets from her handbag. "Kyoko, we'd better get that treated!" She bumped a shocked Toru in her haste. "Move away, you git! Call for a first aid kit!"

A wait staff approach his colleague to help him with his tray, while another hovered near our table.

"Please, come with me, I have a first aid equipment in the staff room." She looked really concerned, wringing the dishtowel in her hands.

I stood up quickly, and pulled Kyoko out from her seat. Already, her arm looked blotchy from the scalding heat of the spilled soup.

"I'm okay." Kyoko said, her voice shaky. "It's just a tiny spill-"

I gave her a look that stopped her from what else she has to say. "Come with me quickly, it looks bad."

Then I turned to our companions. "Stay there and watch our things" I commanded our two friends, while roughly pushing and pulling Kyoko, following the staff who lead the way across the large room filled with patrons and into the hallway at the end, where a door stood ajar. It was filled with a worn out sofa and couch, plus a coffee table filled with scratches.

The female staff quickly pulled a large kit from one of the lockers and placed it on the table.

Without a word, I pushed Kyoko to sit on the couch, and I kneeled in front of her examining her wound. The blotchy red area is starting to look like a rough outline of the map of Japan from the looks of it. And I bet it feels nasty and painful. At least the area is not so big. My hands shook a little when I touched the edges of the wound.

Why does she have to protect me so carelessly? I felt irritated for putting herself in such a risk. If she didn't meddle, at most I would have been scalded on a small patch of skin. My jacket can protect me from most of the spill anyway. I don't want her marring her skin like that! What am I to her anyway?!

The staff continued to hovered nervously behind us that I can't seem to concentrate as I opened the kit and began to rummage around for an antiseptic and some cotton balls.

"Give me some clean wet towels, and a dry towel with some ice on it." I glanced back at the staff who nodded and quickly went to the staff washroom, producing two towels: one wet and one dry. Next, she took some ice cubes from a small, battered fridge inside the room and place the ice inside another dry towel.

"Go back to your shift. We'll be fine." I told her. "We'll alert someone if we need you."

The staff bit her lip before nodding. "We're really sorry this happened. If there should be a need to bring her to the hospital-"

"Please. We can handle this." Kyoko gave a small smile of reassurance to the staff.

She backed out of the room quickly, closing the door behind her.

Once we are finally alone, I cleaned the patch of her skin with the wet towel as gently as I could, removing the bits of mushroom and parsley, before patting it dry with the dry towel. I placed the ice wrapped inside a towel on the inflamed skin for a few minutes, trying to gauge whether its enough for the pain to subside.

We never spoke much when I removed the compress and began to sterilize her skin with the antiseptic-soaked cotton balls, applied some topical cream for burns which I found inside the kit, before covering the wound with loose gauze and taping it securely. I'm a bit relieved to see that the wound has lighten its angry red color. But still, I would be happy if I brought her to the hospital or something, make sure it's been treated well at least.

I leaned back, examining my work with a critical eye. I'm still slightly angry with her; her beautiful skin ruined when she saved me from being scalded. My jaw tightened in annoyance. This sort of thing only happens in cheesy shoujo manga. Not in the boring life of one Izumi Miyamura.

A finger traced the wrinkled lines on my forehead.

I looked up, startled.

Kyoko Hori smiling gently made my heart race again despite my initial irritation.

"I'm glad you're okay." She said softly.

A/N: Cue the squealling.