CONTACT
My Rude Awakening

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Ghost Hunt. I wouldn't be writing this if I did.

WARNING: May contain spoilers from the manga and novels, including Akumu no Sumu Ie.

CHAPTER 2
Suspension Bridge Effect
Published: 07.05.2014, Edited: 09.25.2015

Mai was lying on her bed in the girls' room, and Osamu Yasuhara was sitting on a chair next to the bed. The college student and part-time receptionist at SPR was her assigned guard for the hour. Ayako Matsuzaki, their resident medical expert, had cleared her for the night after confirming that she sustained no injuries from the drowning incident. Mai was tucked in warmly and was allowed to rest, but she woke up after sleeping for too long.

"Yasuhara-san, how long was I out?" she inquired groggily.

"Over 12 hours. Everybody had lunch already, would you like some?" he explained in a quiet voice.

She shook her head in response and sat up.

"So, Taniyama-san. Tell me," he started with a sly grin. "How was it?"

Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she turned to her companion. "What are you talking about?"

"You know, the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation with Big Boss? He did revive you, didn't he?"

"Yasuhara-san! How could you… I wasn't even conscious when he did CPR on me!" she answered with a flushed face.

"Alright, alright." The young man raised his hands in surrender. "You didn't have to get all defensive on me, Taniyama-san." He paused for a moment before resuming his interrogation. "How about telling me how it feels to be revived by the Big Boss with a kiss?"

Mai groaned softly and rolled her eyes at his persistence. "How about minding your own business?" She shot back at the bespectacled man.

"But I am curious. Everybody is, actually, although Takigawa-san became quite furious when he realized what happened. Something about his precious daughter being defiled by the big, bad boss." He chuckled as he recalled the scene, then shifted in his seat as he continued. "Did you know that artificial respiration is also called the kiss of life?"

Her eyes widened at his statement. She suddenly buried her head into her pillow and screamed into it without reservation. She lifted her head slightly from the pillow and met his gaze.

"They'll never let me live this down, will they?" she asked with an overly worried face.

"Well, you were literally kissed back to life by Big Boss. To say this is fascinating is an understatement." He ended by giving her a suggestive wink.

It took all of her willpower to resist the urge to smack the smile off his face.

"It wasn't even a kiss!" she whined loudly.

A week had passed since Mai almost drowned in their latest case. She was forced to stay in the hospital after she fainted during her conversation with Naru that night. The case had been solved without a hitch by the rest of the team by the time she woke up from her long rest.

She was currently sprawled on her futon in her apartment, unable to fall sleep. There were so many thoughts swimming in her head tonight, not even the breathing exercises that Ayako had taught her a few months ago helped her clear her mind. She resorted to counting sheep until she lost count at around 300 and proceeded to tossing and turning in her futon for hours to find the best position to sleep, but her efforts were still futile. She finally gave up on evading her thoughts when she saw that it was close to midnight. She slowly closed her eyes to focus on her musings.

First on her list of issues: college. She never realized how much she wanted to go to college until she almost died last week. University life promised so many new experiences and she could not wait to try out all the new things that it had to offer. She really wanted to study psychology because she wanted to help people get over their emotional scars and move on to a better future filled with happiness. She had seen so many people die with regret and anger in her work as a paranormal investigator and it broke her heart. She decided she wanted to help others while they are still alive.

This, she was sure of, but she was still bothered by the fact that she might have to choose between studying in college and her part-time investigator position. She was not sure if she would be able to balance her studies and her work at SPR. The latter took too much time and she knew that classes in the university were way more difficult than what they had in high school. She could not afford to skip school for a week or so at a time just to join an investigation, but at the same time, she could not bear parting with her family. The SPR team was her family now and she could not imagine her life without them.

Another issue was her boss's attitude towards her. She was tired of Naru's cold and rude treatment of her. After her outburst in their latest case, he tried being nice to her, but he had failed miserably. She attempted to point this out to him, but he simply snapped at her and told her to just do what she was told. The insults kept on coming and she could not stand any more humiliation from and by him. She stopped making an effort to think of witty comebacks to his teasing. She was just too emotionally exhausted to care.

She thought things between her and Naru would be awkward after her confession and the 'me or Gene' fiasco he had created, but he only became nastier after coming back from England. She would've preferred being awkward with him over being hurt by his scathing words any day, to be honest. His response to her confession had already hurt her deeply, after all.

At this point, she was certain that what she felt for Gene was fondness akin to brotherly love. She was not in love with the dead twin, but with the living, breathing one who was currently making her life a living hell with all these emotions he was making her feel.

It was so preposterous that Naru – as brilliant as he was – even considered that she was in love with his older twin brother when she barely knew him. Naru was the one who saved her when she was in trouble, and put up with her when she was being difficult, and went out of his way to make her feel better. She could go on with the list of things he did with and for her if it would and could prove that she was certain it was the younger twin she was in love with.

Then again, proof from an idiot like her would never stand a chance against his genius scrutiny.

Her mind drifted to the night he saved her from drowning and she flushed at the recollection. The first thing she remembered was the feel of his warm lips on hers as she regained her consciousness that night. She knew he only did what he had to do since she stopped breathing, but she couldn't not like how it felt.

She was aware that Naru had a strong aversion to touch, but he still went through something as intimate as mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for her.

Her head shook slightly at the thought.

No, it was not an act of intimacy, she convinced herself. It was an emergency, and he had no choice: he had to act fast or she would not be here right now thinking about it.

She mentally slapped herself for her wishful thinking.

It was nothing to Naru, despite what Yasuhara-san or everyone else thought. In the end, everything was just work to him and he was only looking after his stupid, accident-prone employee.

She really should stop making something out of nothing.

It had been two weeks since Noll saved Mai from drowning, but the events of that night were still stuck in his mind. His actions that night did not make any sense to him.

He was surprised when he found himself unable to pull away quickly when his lips touched hers. Back then, something urged him to let his lips linger for a moment longer, and it puzzled him since he generally detested physical contact, let alone an intimate one such as this. Needless to say, he gave in without much resistance, which is why he was reflecting on this non-issue.

He came up with several explanations for it, but in the end, none of them were logical enough to satisfy him. In the end, most of them led to the conclusion that he was – at the very least – physically attracted to Mai, which was definitely not the case.

Or was it?

He paused to consider another possibility.

Hypothetically speaking, if such reaction was really due to physical attraction, would it be possible for the incident to be a case of misattribution of arousal?

The panic he felt from seeing her drown may have led him to believe that the girl was very appealing at that particular moment, especially when he learned just how soft her lips were after giving her artificial respiration for the first time. He knew his senses were heightened that time because he was able to detect the slightest hint of her cherry lip balm that was transferred to his lips in contrast to the overwhelming bitterness of chlorine from the pool.

He halted his analysis at this point.

If his theory was sound, did it mean that he reacted on impulse when he…? The thought was left hanging and Noll let out a heavy sigh instead. Why did it matter anyway? All evidence pointed to her loving Gene. His dead older twin brother. He almost felt bad for Mai, if not for the occasional stab of bitterness that plagued him when he thought about her. The worst part of it all was he could not pinpoint the exact source of such feeling. Was it honestly because he was attracted to the girl? That cannot be true since he barely knew her.

He let out another sigh. It seemed like he was going around in circles so he decided to leave it at that for now.

He let his mind wander aimlessly for a while, but it went back to Mai once more.

In retrospect, her outburst took him aback, more than he cared to admit. Noll knew that he had to do something soon, before Mai was driven into a corner and really quit her job at SPR. God knew how hard he was trying to make things right after seeing her break down in their previous case. He never meant to hurt her, but he always ended up doing so anyway and could not, for the life of him, figure out what he was doing wrong.

Noll resorted to asking his older brother the other day when he finally caught him "awake" in the other dimension. All he got was a single line from Gene when it took him about ten minutes to explain the situation. The only advice he was offered was "Just ask her, Noll." The rest of the conversation was spent on his twin teasing him for "taking advantage of his adorable, but totally unconscious assistant." He mentally noted that the description was Gene's and not his. Noll attempted to defend himself from the false accusation, but Gene began fading from the mirror before he even got a word out.

His musing was interrupted when the door to his office opened to reveal the subject of his thoughts. His eyes narrowed in annoyance as he regarded his assistant.

"What? I knocked several times already, but you weren't responding!" Mai said defensively while making her way towards his desk.

A cup of fresh tea was carefully placed in front of him. She hastily shuffled towards the door before looking back at him to ask, "Do you need anything else?"

He raised his head to reply, but was distracted when his gaze fell on her lips.

Noll grabbed the perfect opportunity to verify his theory. He silently observed how his body reacted at the sight, and was glad to note that no change had occurred.

He was right again – Oliver Davis was not attracted to Mai Taniyama – but he already knew that, did he not?

"You may go." He dismissed her with a smug smile.

Gene was laughing his head off thanks to the pathetic reasoning of his brother. Noll was unaware that he had lowered his guard when he did the mini experiment on himself so the older twin was able to read into his thoughts easily.

Of course Noll's deduction was totally invalid and completely erroneous since he played the part of both the observer and the observed. Everyone knew that it was not scientifically sound to do so since it led to biased observations and ultimately, to wrong conclusions.

The idiot scientist did not even notice how his eyes dilated when she entered the room, or how his breathing hitched the moment his eyes focused on Mai's lips. Eugene Davis definitely saw these indicators from his vantage point inside the mirror that was on the living twin's desk.

The ghostly medium shook his head in disbelief after he was done laughing.

Oliver Davis may be a genius, but right now he was making a fool of himself by thinking this way. Gene could only hope Noll would snap out of his stupidity before he did something he would regret someday.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you once again for all the reviews, follows and favorites~! I hope you guys liked this chapter. It's the longest one so far (over 2K words). Oh, and please do tell me if Mai (or her musing) was OOC here. I find her difficult to write since she's too emotional. I can relate more with Naru and his logical thinking. Also, I'd like to apologize for delaying the more cute, fluffy parts, but I thought I had to set up their emotional states first. Please do look forward to the next chapter since the fun starts there!

PS. Can I just say how much I love writing Yasuhara? He is such a sly bastard who can get away with anything with his charm and wit (and I mean this as a compliment to him).

EDIT: I fixed some minor grammatical errors pointed out by my editor (my sister). All succeeding chapters were also edited, but no changes were done on the story details.