It was the time for the tournament. Lili prepares herself for her entry while Leo and Sebastian sat on the nearest seats they could find in the heavy crowd of enthusiastic audiences.
The crowd shouts and cheers for Lili as she twirls and dances into the arena with digital rose petals mid falling around her and a Victorian era theme plays in the background. They've begun cheering for her louder when she turns to the camera's direction and winked.
Her first opponent was a giant egoistic man who've smirked down at her and bragged on how he could beat her within a minute; ironically enough, she'd manage to defeat him in 2 rounds in less than thirty seconds.
Leo and Sebastian gawks at her strong and quick performance momentarily before rushing down after she bowed down to the crowd and started walking backstage.
"No words can describe how magnificent you were, Ms. Lili!" Sebastian exclaims, wiping a tear in his eye with a handkerchief. Lili could only laugh haughtily and give Sebastian her proud signature smile. "I know Sebastian, I always do the best."
Lili turns to Leo, whose eyes glimmered and a wide grin spread on his face. He holds up a high five, Lili pauses for a second puzzled before realizing the gesture and returned the high five.
"Oh Leo!~" Lili sighs dreamily, her hands cupped to her chest.
Leo turns to her with an arched eyebrow. "What is it?"
"That man over there!~" Lili points at a Japanese sumo wrestler across the other side of the new battlefield with dreamy eyes. Though Leo himself was a little awestruck seeing her next rival, he was befuddled by her sudden change of attitude. "Oh it's a real sumo wrestler, hadn't seen one this close. But uh...what about him?"
"He has such a robust unibrow, just like my father's!~" Lili squeals as a light red blush forms on her face. Leo was, still again, befuddled; he kept his look steady at the sumo fighter and found a few resemblance to her father, though he couldn't understand what it meant until it dawned to him.
The young bodyguard whirls back at his protectee eyes widened; the lady was still fawning and sighing to herself, her gaze completely fixed at the sumo longingly.
The thought of Lili being infatuated to someone, especially to a person who seems old enough to be her father, tingles something inside Leo with distaste and resentment. He won't let his lady get carried with her feelings right now, no sir!
He puts a hand on her shoulder and shook her just enough to make her snap out of her crush trance. "Hey...hey, keep it together, my lady! You must stay focused for the next round!"
Lili stares at him dazed and confused for a good long minute then nods with newly founded determination. "R-right, right! Defeat the Mishimas first, then after is everything else!"
Unfortunately her motivation wasn't enough; she was just so close from reaching the semi finals when Asuka Kazama, her next adversary, defeated her with a strong kick to the stomach — sending her flying away in the air then breaking the concrete ground. Unable to go on, she laid there injured and still.
Sebastian and Leo were the first to her aid before the standby paramedics. As they manage her wounds, she couldn't look up to her butler and her bodyguard's worried gazes — she can only hang her head down in shame.
There was no use to spend around the tournament any longer after the lost, so they've retreated back to the hotel after Lili was patched up. Though even in her room, she continues to stare down the ground not saying a word still.
Leo takes a seat next to her and Sebastian dismisses himself to another room to give the young adults some privacy.
"My lady, are you alright?" Leo asked.
No reply.
Leo sighs and moves closer to her, placing a hesitant hand on her shoulder with almost no pressure. "I know it's hard to accept defeat, but sometimes you'd lose just as much as you'd win."
"But I should've won today." Lili finally spoke, growling the last word very clearly. Her hands curled up into fists, grabbing a bunch of her dress's fabric. "My father's state is on the line. I've done this all for him! All what happened was I made a fool out of myself internationally!"
The young man could only silently watch and listen to the teenager's rant. While her long tirades was full of curse words in a different language, the lady never raised her voice or shifted the blame on him for any reason much to his surprise.
Soon her rant dies down and all was left was a deafening silence, and then...Leo hears sniffles from her.
"My lady, are you crying?"
"No...don't look at me."
Lili covers her face with one hand, and sinks her teeth onto the other one as she tries to control her angry tears strolling down. She felt disgusted of herself; suddenly crying out of nowhere as if the loss was something serious to cry about — the last time she'd cry this much was when her mother died, then after that she took pride knowing she hides her feelings well. But now look at her — bawling out tears as her eyes and face swells up.
Not long did she feel herself being pulled into a hug by her bodyguard; she stopped and froze, but she didn't complain. Rather she found it comforting to feel his warmth, so she let herself relax as her head lies against his chest and let him wrap his arms around her shoulder.
They stay in an embrace for a long silence, the only noises were Lili's quiet whimpers and Leo's hand gently brushing her hair. "My lady you already were at your best in everything today and you couldn't be any better. It's just that sometimes you lose and that's okay. It's not your fault, so don't beat yourself; you can only hope next time, it'd be different."
Leo continues to stroke her hair while murmuring soothing words to Lili like how his mother did so often to him as a child. He can feel Lili's hitches and sobs slowly dwindling down when she begins to take long shaky exhales.
After some minutes later, Lili pulls away to grab her handkerchief to wipe away her tears. She turns to her bodyguard after with a sad but assured smile.
Sebastian timidly peaks into the room with his phone in his hand and said, "Ms Lili? Your father is on the phone — he demands to hear from you."
At that moment the lady's stomach dropped and her heart clenches up with anxiety; the whole tournament was almost filmed live so it no doubt has recorded her losing and uploading them to social platforms, her father has most definitely seen it and the last thing the lady wants right now is to hear his disappointment.
She can't handle this right now. She can't, she just can't!
She closes her eyes for a moment, mustering up the needed strength, then opened them up again. While looking calmer than before — her anticipation didn't falter. She stands up then solemnly heads to Sebastian and takes the call.