A day may come when I would actually be on time for work, when I would be organised enough to sort out some food before I arrived and that I wouldn't get distracted by other things before I got there.

But it is not this day.

I had spent the day at school being interrogated by my friends about the so-called date. And my Monday did not get much better after that. When I arrived, the tall man that I had kicked was sitting on the sofa holding a crutch and scowling down at the piece of paper he was reading.

"I'm sorry I'm late!" I called as I entered the office. The tall, dark haired man looked up at me. I could only see half of his face as his hair covered the other half, but the side I could see was scowling. "Uh, I'm sorry about before…" I muttered awkwardly. If anything his glare intensified.

"Mai, tea." Naru's voice floated through from his office.

"Would you like some?" I offered the scowling man timidly.

"That will be quite unnecessary." He said before standing up and limping into the other private office.

Sighing, I went and made tea. I knocked before opening Naru's office door and brought his drink inside.

"I'm sorry I'm late again, only I heard something on the news when I was picking up some food." I said conversationally, keeping my tone light.

"Quite frankly, Mai, I don't give a damn."

But I held my ground; he might give a damn if he knew what I had heard.

"There was a report about an exploding car." I said, and though Naru did not look up from his work, I saw him pause in his actions. "The reports on the news said it was probably a faulty car part or something that caused it to happen, but they aren't sure yet. The police aren't ruling out foul play. But there was only one victim"

"Why are you telling me this?"

Time to play the trump card.

"It was a small red city car."

Just like the one we had used on Saturday, I continued mentally, surely I did not have to say that bit outloud.

Before I could judge his reaction though, a voice spoke from behind me.

"What is she talking about?" It was the tall man and he was speaking in English. Damn, why didn't I pay more attention in class?

"Nothing Lin." Naru replied in Japanese, was it for my benefit?

"It was a supposed to be a small explosion, not a big news piece!" Lin, the tall man, seemed very angry. My head turned back and forth, watching the conversation like a tennis match.

"It was small." Ah! Finally a piece of English I understood, not that it helped.

"You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" Lin growled.

"Drop it Lin. There's nothing that can be done now."

"You're getting careless." And with that, Lin stalked off.

"What was that about?" I asked. But Naru only raised an eyebrow at me. "Right, don't ask questions." I muttered as I rolled my eyes and headed back out to begin the never ending filing.

"Are you sure about this?" The redhead was asking the young woman. "You don't have to do this?"

"Of course I am sure." She replied snidely.

"If at any time you think your cover is blown, hit the panic button and we will get you out of there. We will take this guy down eventually, but he is not worth your life, okay?" A man, the eldest of the three, said calmly.

"Of course, I'm not stupid."

"Do you have a plan?" The redhead asked, obviously concerned.

The young woman stood up, straightened out her kimono and checked her black hair in the mirror.

"Yes." She said, smiling slightly.

"What are you going to do?" The man asked.

She laughed softly from behind the sleeve of her kimono. The two partners watched the young woman turn to leave without stopping her and she spoke over her shoulder as she did so.

"I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse."

There's no place like home, I thought tiredly as I entered my flat and crashed onto the sofa.

So I never received a straight answer about the car incident. See I probably wouldn't have thought much of it at all, but it had happened quite close to one of the properties we had seen on Saturday.

But I really felt sorry for the poor guy inside the car. They hadn't been able to identify the body yet because it was so badly damaged. Thankfully, they hadn't provided pictures of the body in the news reports or I doubt I would have slept again ever.

I honestly felt too tired for homework and not hungry enough for a proper dinner. So I picked up some fruit and made my way to my bedroom to get ready for bed. An early night would probably do me good.

As I made to shut my curtains, I stared out at the city beyond the safety of the glass window. Tokyo was bright even at night, shimmering like the centre of a galaxy. I sighed, shut the curtains and changed.

I hadn't expected Naru to act any differently today. He had said on Saturday that it was all just a cover and his general behaviour otherwise hadn't led me to believe there was anything else behind that kiss than making the cover convincing.

But he had smiled as he walked away.

That I had seen, or at least, I was 99% sure I had seen it. Yet I hadn't seen his eyes, so was he smiling for his cover or was he genuinely flattered I had blushed like crazy?

I mean, regardless of the fact that he was a narcissistic jerk who didn't tell me anything, he was still a handsome young man who had given me my first real kiss, even if it was only on the cheek. I was allowed to blush for that, wasn't I? It was acceptable, right?

It's not like I had any feelings for him at all.

Not at all.

I finished my fruit and found my Japanese literature reading book. Nothing like a good book to take my mind off things or so I'd thought.

I couldn't help but think back to that conversation in the office. When Lin and Naru had been speaking in English, I couldn't place Lin's accent. It certainly wasn't like any Japanese person who I had heard speaking English, but I didn't know what it was. Naru, on the other hand, was distinctly English. That had been easy to recognise.

I had seen enough American films to recognise the accent, as in American films, they had always used English actors to play the baddies. While I could rarely understand what they were saying in these films, I had to admit, the accent did fit the part.

So was Naru a baddie? An evil villain? An assassin?

I just didn't know.

However the following day, everything got a lot more interesting.

I arrived late for work again, not to anyone's surprise.

But to my surprise, there was someone there when I arrived that wasn't Naru or Lin or even Mori-san.

She was a young woman no taller than me with jet black hair and an annoyingly pretty face. She could have been made of porcelain, like a doll. The kimono she wore did not do anything to refute this idea.

"Hello, I am here to see Shibuya-san." She said to me. Despite being my height, she was still talking down her nose at me. And how on earth did she know I worked there? I was still in my school uniform!

"Of course, I'll just get him."

I quickly dumped my school bag and coat and rushed to knock on Naru's door. I entered and closed it behind me

"There's someone here to see you." I said as he looked up. "She was here when I got here."

"Who is she? There were no appointments made for today."

"I have no idea."

He sighed and rose from his chair.

"Tea." He said, and followed me out of his office.

I hurried to the kitchen to make tea for him and our guest. It was odd, I guessed she had to be a client, and though I had worked for him for over a week now, I had yet to see a client come in. Obviously he had to have had some clients because there were so many bloody files to sort through! But no one had ever come in while I was working in the office before.

I brought the drinks in and placed them on the coffee table. Naru was sitting with a clipboard.

"You can begin your filing now." He said dismissively to me and I nodded. Fortunately, I could hear every word of his conversation from where I stood sorting through yet more folders.

"You are Shibuya-san?" The young woman asked. She was batting her eyelids at him and hiding her mouth behind her kimono.

"Yes, and you are?"

"Hara Masako." She revealed.

"And what business brings you here today, Hara-san?"

"I want to employ your services."

"What is the case?" Naru asked curtly. He seriously needed to improve his way with people, I thought. But his eyes were full of suspicion of this girl.

But she did not answer. She giggled behind her sleeve and looked up at him, her face unreadable.

"Have we met somewhere before?"

"No, this the first time we've met."

"Is that so…" She said. "Perhaps we should continue this conversation more privately then."

If Naru was put off by this, he did not show it.

"Mai, ask Lin to man the front of the office for me." He said without looking round. I hastened to do as I had been asked and watched the two adults stand and walk into Naru's office, leaving the tea I had made undrunk on the table. What on earth was going on?

Author's note: Well there are 5 references/quotes in this chapter alone so to those of you that have looked for them when I mentioned them, I think they should be quite obvious? But I thought that about the others... Perhaps when I finish this I will post a list of them all for those seekers amongst you!

I'm really sorry for not updating yesterday I wasn't having a very good day... Chances are I won't get a chapter up tomorrow either as I have an evening Japanese class! But I should do on Thursday!

Well I hope you enjoyed this! I want to hear all your thoughts about it, so please review!