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— Intentions —

7# - Payback
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"Confidence isn't optimism or pessimism, and it's not a character attribute.
It's the expectation of a positive outcome."

— R. Moss Kanter

—

— U. Takumi

TWO WEEKS FLEW BY quite smoothly. Every morning, we would wait for each others. And before we became aware of it, I'd get a ride to work in exchange for bringing her morning breakfast. Soon enough, this routine felt as natural as if it has always been like this for years. And without much surprise, I have been showing up at the office more often than I ever did in the past three months.

"By the way, what's your name?"

Our relationship, even though I knew she didn't want to call it that way, has started in quite a strange way. And through all these mornings we had spent together, she never asked for my name until now. I never happened to dwell on that matter as being only the two of us alone, we never really called each other's name when talking. We always made a point when we needed attention to call with a "hey" or even an "you", but never did our names slip in our daily conversations.

"Mmmh..." I hummed, glancing at her.

"It's kind of strange, you know?" Lost in her thoughts, she carried on as her eyes were set upon the road, a troubled smile curving her lips. "I mean, we know each other for already... what?... two weeks? We ride the same car to work together, and still, I don't even know your name."
She briefly glanced at me, taking in my slightly smug expression before diverting her gaze back to the road.

"Well, who said she 'wasn't interested in me' in the first place?" I quoted after her, trying to conceal the smug smile on my pretended serious face. I then pointed her a look that told her she was the only one at fault for that outcome.

And guilt was what showed up on her face, as her smile became an embarrassed and apologetic grin. "Come on, no hard feeling, yeah?"

"I don't know..." I paused, before an idea came up to my mind. Faking a hurt expression, I chose to take full advantage of the situation.

"You know, that hurt my manly ego..." I crossed my arms and leant back in the car seat. She eyed me suspiciously from the corner of her eyes, eyebrows arched high as a sly grin broke on her face. She was enjoying my performance.

"Treat me to dinner and I might tell you."

I expectantly waited for my reply, but she only laughed and sneered at me.

"You should improve your acting skill, you know." I could only grin at her unabashed remark, letting my performance go to waste.

"I believe I am quite skilled, I just didn't want to lay it too thick for you..." The expression on her face told me she was totally not buying my speech. And well, she wasn't wrong on that point, but I still kept going, my finger slowly stroking my chin. "You'd be too easily fooled by my excellence."

"Wow, you're ridiculous..." she chortled, apparently delighted by my poor play. I kept the posture and wiggled my eyebrow when she pulled at the stop light and got her full attention. She stared at me with that wide and beautiful smile of her before she softly shook her head and looked down at the driving wheel.

"Your arrogance... It definitely deserves a dinner," she approved, her gaze shifting back to the light stop. Her voice was so quiet I could barely hear it. But for nothing in the world I would have missed that single sentence.

—

— A. Misaki

Remorse was gnawing at me every single morning I pulled in front of his workplace.

The Community newspapers' office.

I was about to sue his company, and could make him lose his job. Still, I dared to befriend that person as if nothing would happen. Of course, I couldn't break the society's stigma and I had to face the truth: we were gradually going from stalker to strangers and now, moving into a casual to a regular friendship.
Ever since I moved here, I've always felt out of place, save for my position as a lawyer and my apartment. I just didn't know anyone much or bond with anyone here apart from my co-workers. I felt like I was lost in this big city with too many unknown faces surrounding me. Admittedly, I was simply lonely and homesick.

And so, I grew to enjoy his company. He was charming, and I didn't mean that as physically attractive, though I could tell his appearance was beyond average. What I liked was how relaxed we were, when talking. He was witty, knowledgeable and I really admired his stand point on many topics, even though we were not always sharing the same feelings on fews. Such a relationship could only bring benefits to both of us, I thought.

—

Later that evening, I went down to the residence's lobby at precisely 6:45pm, fifteen minutes earlier than the time we agreed on. I looked around, searching for that blonde mop of hair but it was nowhere to be found. There only was a middle aged couple, I assumed, as they were sitting close together in the long U shaped sofa.
Deciding to wait for him, I walked across the couple and sat on the far edge of the sofa, facing them. Quickly glancing up, I saw them whisper hushed words to each other ears. Not wanting to intrude on their intimacy any further, I pulled out my smartphone from my purse and kept myself busy by checking my work-emails.

I was in the middle of a cross examination report when my attention was drawn by a soft giggle. Lifting my gaze from the screen, my eyes tumbled in front of the scene facing me.

They were kissing playfully, small pecks and giggles. My eyes met with the man's one and he grinned into the kiss. Following his gaze, the women winked at me as she kept giggling. She lightly smacked his chest before he showered her with kisses. Utterly embarrassed, I turned back to my phone, and hid behind my hair.
Over-conscientious of the show, I could only stare down blankly at my phone and listen to their voices. Minutes later —that seemed like days to me—, their giggles and pecks gradually changed into sloppy sounds. Perplexed, I dared a quick glance at them. And the sight I came across was not so pretty to witness: shamelessly sucking their mouths out of each others, they were a tangled mess of limbs sitting in a position way too indecent for public exposure.

Err... Gross.

They probably totally forgot my presence because that was a little too much for a residence lobby.

Beet red, I swiftly made my way out of the sofa, heading back in front of the elevator. Glancing at my wristwatch, I rashly exhaled. Barely five minutes had passed.

The lift opened on a few gentlemen and they stepped out, leaving the elevator empty. Determined to wait the ten minutes up at my apartment, or at least as far as possible from the crazy-without-moral-concept couple that sat feet away, I walked inside and directed the lift to my floor.
As it began its ascension, the thought of being waited on taunted me. I would rather want to be there prior to him and wait, rather than the opposite. And especially when I already showed up earlier in the first place. On a whim, I pushed the top floor button. Feeling my palm moisten as if I was caught of wrongdoings, I patiently waited for the door to close back when it reached my floor.

Would I intrude by doing that? I didn't want to be rude or anything.

Unfortunately, the automatic door closed before I could talk myself about getting out.

Having no more time to regret, I uncertainly walked out when it opened on the top floor of the residence and stepped to the left side of the corridor. This floor only had three penthouses, and he had once told me that his was the left one, having the view on the sun rise every morning. Lucky freak.

I strode towards his front door, puzzled by the fact that there was no name tag on the doorbell. Well, since all this dinner set up was for the sake of getting his name, I guessed that it would be a letdown, was I to find out his name right then.

Seven minutes left to wait.

I crouched down against the wall, waiting for him. My heart was pounding as I wondered whether he would be ready on time or not. Maybe did he forget the whole ordeal? I sighed. It felt so unlike me to be fretting all over a simple dinner.

Putting all my worries asides, I stood up and directly went for the doorbell. The ring faintly sang on the other side of the door as I could hear his footsteps stomp in my direction. My heartbeat rate rising up all too quickly, I barely had the time to plaster my business smile onto my face before the door flew open.

His hand still gripping the door handle, he was holding a phone to his ear with his free hand. His expression displayed mild surprise and I noticed that he wore thin framed glasses that fitted his face all too perfectly.

"Misaki?" His husky tone brought me back to reality as he pulled the phone's speaker out of his voice reach.

Ughh... What with the world being shamelessly indecent lately?

A towel was hanging around his neck, down to his bared and hard chest and I couldn't help but glance down, relieved to find that he wore black slacks. I prayed that I still had that business smile sealed with super glue on my lips.

Otherwise, my astonishment would be pretty comical to see, and he wouldn't let it go without a good laugh.

—

Author note:

Thanks for the support everyone, you guys make my procrastination habit not as bad as it is ;p