Well, Happy New Year Everyone! I'm glad to say that after quite a bit of writer's block and a lot of stress relieved I'm back in business! With so many other ideas that I can't wait to put into this fic and so glad to say that some of my favorite ideas and plot twisting moments are about to come and can't wait to get to them! In the meantime enjoy this new chap and forgive me for the little but of Naru OOCness. I can still see him and Lin having that sort of conversation, you'll understand soon! Enjoy!

Chapter 3-Difficult

December Day 2, 1:52 P.M.

"Are you sure?" Naru asked the medium as they sat in Base waiting for Mai to return with his notebook.

"Like I said, I do sense several spirits here, but they are blurry, transparent if you will," Masako replied.

"Isn't that like most spirits?" Ayako teased, earning a scoff from the medium.

"What I mean is, they are almost hollow, like when Naru was possessed a few cases ago. I can't even tell you the ages or whether the spirits are male or female. I simply can't see them clearly."

"As though they are hiding themselves?" Naru asked, but she shook her head.

"No, that's just it, it doesn't feel as though they are hiding themselves. It's as though they are being forced to hide."

"Interesting…" he muttered to himself as the door to Base opened.

"We're back," Mai called as she walked in with Yasuhara, Monk, John and the other monk behind her. "This is Yuudai, he's the monk the principal hired." She handed her boss his notebook after introducing the monk. "That's Ayako, Masako, Lin, and my boss, Shibuya Kazuya."

"Nice to meet you," came the instinctive reply of the girls as they bowed.

"And you as well," Yuudai replied with a bow as well. "I hope my student here hasn't been harassing pretty ladies like yourselves, has he? He had some issues with that when he first came to Mt. Koya."

"Flirting with girls?" Mai raised a brow.

"No, the fact that he couldn't flirt with girls!" the monk laughed, causing Monk to cross his arms.

"Now, this guy is a total liar!" Monk reprimanded. "He's the one who would flirt with the mikos during ceremonies!"

"You're guilty of that too, Houshou-kun!" Yuudai laughed. "I gotta say, it's good to be working with you again. Like old times."

"Yeah, it had been a while," he commented.

"So, Naru, what do you want us to do next?" Yasuhara asked. Naru opened his notebook, jotted something down and closed it.

"According to the EVP session yesterday and what Hara-san has told us, we appear to have several spirits here, one we can assume is Kaede, the child who passed away several weeks ago. Yasuhara, I want you, Matsuzaki-san and John to research the property and try to find the identities of the other spirits," he ordered. "Hara-san, I would like you and Mai to visit room 3B, you said you weren't able to get in there due to students having class, according to Matsuoka-san, they should be having gym now."

"What are you going to do?" Mai asked him.

"Lin and I will brief Monk on what we know so far, and cooperate with Yuudai, to hopefully resolve this case quickly and efficiently." He stood up and looked at his team. "If there are no more questions, I would suggest we get to work."

Everyone stood up and went their separate ways.

Well, this is unusual, Mai wondered to herself. Naru has never really partnered me with Masako before. He normally wants Ayako with her because she can defend herself. Well so can Masako, but Ayako can exorcise spirits. Maybe he doesn't want to exorcise anything just yet?

"Are you going to just stand there and daydream or are you going to at least pretend to be productive?" Masako's smug voice broke Mai from her reverie.

"Geez, I'm sorry that I don't know what you want me to do, it's not like I'm paired with you every case," she retorted, crossing her arms. What the hell is wrong with her!

"I don't understand why Naru paired us together, either, we are on two totally different levels." Her kimono sleeve in proper position.

"And what exactly does that mean?" Oh she knew exactly what she was going to say.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm superior to you when it comes to this field," she explained, adding softly, "amongst other things."

"What was that?" Oh she definitely heard her right.

"I was saying the Ayako was more of a help, despite being of little use to us so far," she lied as they entered the 3B classroom.

"That's not fair, she has been helpful and so have I," Mai retorted, glad the classroom was empty. "I get that you're a world renowned medium and have far more experience than I ever will, but why do you have to be so stuck up? Because you can see spirits? Well guess what, I've been starting to see them too, and not in my dreams and visions."

"Oh, like when we were dealing with the ghost maids at the Ishikawa hotel? You only saw them, because they wanted you to see them, you haven't seen any other spirit-"

"What about the ghost kid at Noriko and Ayami's house? Or the children I saw when I was attacked at Yasuhara's high school?"

"Again, they wanted you to see them-"

"You weren't here the last two cases, so you don't know that I had to take your place!" Mai finally retorted.

"Impossible. You couldn't possibly replace me."

"No, I probably can't, but I made a pretty good substitute," she continued, her heart racing. "I managed to do a lot during that time, Masako, I saw several spirits. I even cleansed one."

"You performed a cleansing?" the medium was finally interested.

"Yes, and like you, I even had spirits lead me to answers literally." She took a deep breath. "Look, I'm sorry I snapped at you, but it's not right for you to degrade me to feel better about yourself. Even if I am the only one Naru calls by their first name, I can't help that-"

But Masako just began to laugh. Mai was thoroughly confused. "Are…are you laughing at me?" Mai was about to be furious.

"No, Mai," she calmed herself down with a breath. "I'm laughing because Ayako and John were worried over absolutely nothing."

"Huh?" Her head tilted to one side.

"Last week I had lunch with Ayako and John and you came up in our conversation. About how you went through some personality change, and you were depressed or something," she explained, even crossing her arms in a very un-Masako way. "Whatever they were worried about, obviously isn't too serious. With that argument you're definitely your old self."

"So, even John was worried about me," Mai replied softly.

"So you were in a bit of a depression?"

Mai snapped her head back up to try to make up some excuse, Masako hadn't been around the last couple of cases, she didn't have to know anything. But she couldn't think of any lie that would satisfy the medium. "I guess you could call it that," Mai sighed and sat on one of the desks. "To be perfectly honest, I've been having nightmares, and difficulty sleeping since the last case you were on with us." She crossed her arms and closed her eyes. "Go ahead, say I'm weak. I let everything get to me and now I'm paying the price-"

But Masako began to laugh again. Since when does this girl laugh!

"So you've been on edge, because your visions have become nightmares and now you're having difficulty sleeping and you think I'm going to call you weak?" The medium waltzed over to the girl slightly older than she and placed a hand on her shoulder. "No, Mai, you're not weak, in fact it seems your powers are growing stronger, especially if you were able to cleanse a spirit. Not everybody can do that."

"Masako-"

"I have been through the same sort of thing, and it takes a while to get over, but it is possible, you just have to be patient," she assured her. "Now, we should probably get something done before Naru yells at us for doing absolutely nothing."

Mai looked up at her friend and smiled. "Sounds good."

December Day 2, 3:11 P.M.

"Why do you always get to make the tea?" Masako asked, once the two made it to the cafeteria. The children had already gone home and Mai had already figured out where she would be able to make tea for her addicted boss. Mai had grabbed kettle from the cabinet, before she turned to her partner.

"Uh, because, Naru pays me to make him tea?" she replied going to the sink. "Sometimes, I think I'm just here as his personal tea slave-" Masako stood in her way and grabbed the kettle.

"Why don't I make it? He won't ever know the difference," she suggested. Mai was about to argue and snatch the kettle when she realized.

"Sure, go ahead, less work I have to do," she decided and watched the medium with a surprised grin fill up the kettle and prepare the tea.

You may be a medium, Masako, Mai thought to herself. You may also have had to grow up young because of what you were able to see, but deep down, you're still a seventeen-year-old girl. Masako happily poured the hot water into the teapot. Yup, just a seventeen year old girl with a crush on Naru.

Mai and Masako walked into Base with trays of tea in hand to find the two monks with headphones on. They placed the trays on the table and sat down to drink their tea while they waited.

"So, seven spirits?" Monk asked once the tape had finished.

"Or eight, that laugh at the end didn't sound like any of the other voices," Yuudai added, removing the headphones. "I didn't realize that so many plagued this place, maybe one or two more than Kaede, but seven?"

Mai stood up and handed the team each a cup. Once she reached Lin, he looked up at her. "I never had the chance to commend you on your first E.V.P. session," he said, shocking the high school student. "It was beautifully executed and you did very well in examining the tape. Well done."

"Oh," she replied shocked. Then she smiled. "Thank you!"

"That was your first E.V.P. session?" Yuudai asked.

"You went through the recording and highlighted it?" Monk asked at the same time.

"Well, not my first E.V.P. session, just the first one I was able to conduct. And yeah, Naru showed me how to cut it up and highlight the sounds and increase the volume, clean it up and all that stuff," she replied, sitting back down. "It was pretty easy actually."

"Well, look at you, trying to become another Lin," Monk teased and Mai stuck her tongue out.

"At least I'm more useful now," she answered with a smile.

"Did you find anything out on your walkthrough?" Naru asked, ignoring the chatter from her assistant.

"Like I said before, I do sense several spirits but I cannot sense them clearly, as though they have a film over them," Masako replied, taking another sip. "Although, I did say I can't sense their specific ages I can tell you I sense two younger presences, possibly Kaede and another child."

"That gives us something to work with, Mai, what about you?" he asked, shocking his assistant.

"Uh," she began after downing her tea. "Naru, you know I'm not very reliable with that sort of thing, if anything, I would have to agree with Masako, but that's just from the evidence that we gathered."

"And that's exactly what I wanted you to say," he said, jotting something else in his notebook. "Yuudai-san, what about you? What are your thoughts?"

"Like I said, I originally thought it was just Kaede here, maybe another spirit, but not as many as were heard on that tape," he began explaining. "But I feel that since we know the exact amount of spirits and we have the right amount of spiritualists and exorcism should be all that this building needs."

"Monk, your thoughts?" Naru asked seeing the young monk shake his head.

"I don't agree," he began, crossing his arms. "Even if we know the amount of spirits and have the right amount of exorcists, we still don't know just how powerful these spirits are. There might be an easier way to take care of the situation if we had more information on who might be haunting the building."

"Since when did you need the who's, what's, when's and why's?" Yuudai asked in a mocking tone. "When I was training you all you could think to do was exorcise the hell out of the thing to impress the priestesses."

"No, that was you flirting and trying to impress the priestesses," Monk shook his head. "I'll admit I was more adamant about exorcising spirits when I was younger, but in this case we really do need all the information we can get."

"I agree with Monk," Mai piped up. "I don't think a simple exorcism is going fix this. We don't even know which spirit or spirits are responsible for harming the students. That is where we need to focus our energy on."

"Well put, Mai," Naru complimented and then turned to the other investigator. "Yuudai-san, I said we would cooperate and work with you to help resolve this case, but seeing as I don't agree with your suggestion, I will not go through with it. However I cannot stop you from trying. Once we have more information, I will take your idea into consideration. Until then, we will be conducting our own investigation."

The monk chuckled and stood up. "To think you're only eighteen," he chuckled. "I don't mind, but I'm going to do a walkthrough of my own. See if maybe I can find anything you girls missed. I'll be back."

And with that, he walked out. "Well, that was interesting," Mai commented after a moment. I think I understand why Naru doesn't like to take other people's cases…

"Hara-san, show Monk around the school, he hasn't had a chance to see the areas with activity," Naru ordered, examining the notes in his notebook.

"Of course," she agreed standing up and showing Monk out.

"So how was Switzerland?" Monk asked as they headed out.

"Nice, cold, but it was nice…"

So that left Mai alone with her employer and co-assistant in silence. Just like any other day at the office…

"Mai, tea." Came Naru's usual call.

"Naru, you have a full cup in front of you," she argued.

He put a hand to the cup and began to jot something down in his notebook. "It's cold, and I pay you to make tea, not Hara-san."

"Poor Masako won't be happy that you don't enjoy her tea," she guilt tripped him, crossing her legs.

"Lin will accompany you, seeing as you're just a magnet for danger," he added, earing a scowl from his petite assistant. His taller one simply stood up, ready to go.

"I'll be fine on my own," she argued, Lin just walked over to the door and held it open, waiting for her to just obey her orders.

"Your school, the Minnie case, Yuasa High school, the church, Ryoukuryou High school, the prime minister's mansion, the Kimura house, the summer camp-"

"What are you doing?" Mai raised a brow.

"Just listing all of the cases in which you were injured in some way," he replied simply.

"Yeah, let's also mention the nursing home case, oh wait, I managed to not only protect myself and Shouta from a spirit, but managed to cleanse her as well," she countered.

Lin just put a hand on her shoulder. "Before this goes any farther, let's get some tea," he suggested, as the brunette looked up at him.

"And let him win? Fat chance!"

"I always win, Mai, face it." Naru's smirk graced his face as he continued to write in his notebook. Just what was he writing?

"The Yoshimi case, The prime minister's mansion, the Ishikawa hotel case, the nursing home case-"

"What are you rambling about?"

"Cases where you didn't quite win." Finally, she stood up and gave a dramatic bow. "Shall I get you a plate of crumpets to enjoy with your tea, Your Majesty?"

"That would be lovely," he replied.

"As you wish," she said giving another exaggerated bow as he co-assistant held the door for her.

"He means well," Lin finally said after they had traveled down the hall.

"Sure he does," she scoffed, crossing her arms. She could have sworn she heard Lin chuckle behind her.

"Well, you are more involved in this case than you have been before aren't you?" he said.

"I guess," she sighed and looked up. "Yeah, he is treating more like an apprentice and actually teaching me, so I guess the least I can do is-"

But she didn't finish. Something scurried past in her peripheral vision. She quickly turned her head and swore she saw a figure run by down the hallway they were passing. "Mai? What is it?" the tall Chinese man asked.

"I just," she began but gave her head a shake and continued walking. "It was nothing, come on, Naru's going to want his tea.

After Mai had made her boss, tea, she found herself sitting on the table at Base, just to spite her employer who chided her to sit down. And to sit down on an actual chair. She didn't feel like it and was feeling rather rebellious today. And the table was more comfortable than the metal chair. "Table more comfortable than the chair, Mai?" Monk asked, once he and Masako returned.

"Hara-san, there is a good chance she's possessed by one of the spirits here," Naru said. "She's being rather difficult, would you make sure whether or not she's being possessed."

Masako just put her kimono sleeve to her face and stifled a laugh just as Mai's face turned into a glare. "No, Naru, she's not possessed," she chuckled, as the black clad teen shook his head.

"So she's just being annoying and difficult?" Naru looked back to see Mai crossing her legs with a big grin on her face. He shook his head knowing her next response.

"Aren't I always?" Naru just shook his head as the door to Base opened.

"You know, that's a really good idea," Yasuhara said once he saw Mai sitting on the table. "The chairs are really uncomfortable, how's the table?"

"Much better, not great, but it is an improvement," she replied as the college student took a seat next to her on the table.

"Ooh! You are right!" he said excitedly.

"And this is what happens when you work with teens who desperately need their winter vacation," Ayako commented, sitting down in one of the chairs. "Although, these chairs aren't that great at all."

"Okay, now I gotta try this," Monk said, sitting on the other side of the brunette. He squiggled his butt around until he determined, "yup, this is much more comfortable."

"See, Naru?" Mai said with a smug smile.

"Yasuhara, what did you find?" he asked, ignoring his childish assistant. His taller Chinese assistant just smirked behind his laptop.

"Well, after quite a bit of digging, done by me and Ayako and our favorite blonde priest over there, we have come up with," he said giving a long dramatic pause. "Absolutely nothing."

"Excuse me?" Naru said, leaning back in his seat.

"He's right, Kazuya," John answered. "We looked through the whole history of this building, it's not very old and there were no accounts of traumatic death or anything of the sort."

"The building was built about fifteen years ago and the most traumatic thing we could find would be Kaede's death," Ayako added, crossing her legs. "And before the building was here it was just farmland, there's no reason for there to be so many spirits on the property."

Naru, as usual, assumed his thinking pose. "So, we have documented about seven or eight spirits, yet the only once we can identify would be Kaede. The others have no record of dying here or being affiliated with the building."

"Well, there was one teacher that died not long after the school opened," Yasuhara added. "But she was an older teacher that was just a substitute and died of a heart attack at the age of eighty-five about two years after the school opened. She died in her home in her sleep. There is a slim possibility that she may be one of the spirits here, but-"

"Then why would activity from her only start within the last month?" Mai asked with a confused look on her face. "I don't think she's one of the spirits."

"I have to agree with Mai," Masako added, sitting next to Ayako. "I may not be able to sense specific ages of the spirits here, but I can tell you none of them are quite that old."

"So, we're back to square one," Naru commented, assuming his thinking pose again.

"So where's Yuudai?" Yasuhara whispered to the girl next to him.

"He, Naru, and Monk had a bit of a disagreement," she whispered back. "Well, I kind of got into it too, but Naru agreed with Monk and I and Yuudai said he was going to do a walk-around to see if Masako and I missed anything."

"Huh, so I wonder what our next move will be," he replied and everyone waited for the teenager to come up with an idea.

"Our best move now is to hold another E.V.P. session," he determined, then checked the watch he was wearing.

When did he start wearing a watch? Mai wondered, then internally rolled her eyes. He probably started when I was late to work after meeting with Hozumi. Yeah, that makes sense.

"Mai, you have more exams tomorrow, right?" he asked, she nodded.

"Yeah, I have two more tomorrow and another two on Thursday, and my last one will be on Friday, why?" she replied.

"Will you be alright conducting another E.V.P. session, before you go home tonight?"

"What time is it?" she asked.

"It's almost five, I assume you would like to study tonight and I would prefer if you lead the session, but it can always wait until tomorrow," he said, everyone in the room was a little shocked.

"I-uh," she stuttered, unsure of what to say. "I can do it, it won't take very long."

"Conduct it in the library, Take Monk, Matsuzaki-san and Yasuhara with you," he said. "Father Brown and Hara-san, find Yuudai-san and see if he found anything."

"Sure," John agreed and everyone stood up to leave.

"Mai, you're forgetting something," Naru called, before she walked out. She turned back with a confused look on her face and he tossed something to her. She almost dropped it, but caught it at the last second. It was a tape recorder.

"Oh, right," she said, sheepishly scratching her head. "Thanks, Naru!" She closed the door behind her.

"You'd think she'd be a little more appreciative that I'm including her so much," Naru grumbled, sitting down with his notebook.

"She thinks you're messing with her, she's not used to you giving her so much control," Lin answered, while typing. "She thinks something's up, and she's not entirely wrong. You only just started to include her, her now having a boyfriend and your sudden attitude change just seem too coincidental. Madoka feels the same."

"You told her I'm jealous of Mai's boyfriend?" he asked skeptically.

"You said it, not me," Lin replied. "I only told her that your sudden changes occurred right after you found out she was dating someone." He still continued to type and took a sip of the cold tea Naru never drank. "I think it's good for her, the cases have probably started to take its toll on her and her going out with someone will get her away from it all. Although, Madoka is very upset that I never sent her flowers to her office when she was having a bad day."

"You're dating Madoka now?" Naru raised a brow. "When did that become official?"

"You know her as well as I do, this is a very complicated situation." Naru just stood up. "Where are you going?"

"I'm done gossiping and would like to get some work done." And with that he marched out the door.

And Lin's phone began to ring at that moment.

^.^3Madoka3^.^

"Well, speak of the devil," he chuckled to himself as he picked up the phone. "Moshi, moshi. It's Lin."

"I still don't see any flowers on my desk," she said, her voice held a tone of annoyance.

"Naru is giving you free reign again? Is the world ending?" Ayako teased as they were setting up in the library.

"No, Lin's our Naru expert and he hasn't confirmed it," Yasuhara assured them. "And, just in case, every so often I've been checking outside and no zombies have appeared so we should be good."

"Alright, Mai, you're the boss, what do you want us to do?" Monk asked, ignoring the other two.

"Well, let's sit down and turn off the lights. The camera in here is night vision so we're good there. And Ayako, you have the flashlight, right?" Mai said, a little more confident than she was the day before.

"Yep," she said, turning it on once the lights went out. "Ready when you are."

"Alright," Mai said taking a breath, turning on the recorder. "In the library, Mai."

"Ayako."

"Monk."

"Yasuhara."

"Is there anyone here with us right now?" Mai asked once Yasuhara had introduced himself. "Can you knock on the wall to answer us?"

Not a single knock came. Not even a tap. After a little while, Ayako shook her head. "I don't think the spirits are here," she finally said, getting ready to stand back up. "Maybe we should cut this short and you can go home and get studyin-"

But that was when Mai felt it. A cold breeze, very slight but it sent chills down her spine. She just shook her head. "No, they're here," she said and swallowed, taking a breath. "Can you tell us your name?"

Something fell behind the brunette. Ayako shown the flashlight on the area and found a book had flown off the shelf. "Is your name in the book?" Monk asked and the book skidded toward the middle of the circle they had made.

"Were you in classroom 3B yesterday?" Yasuhara asked and the book opened. It flipped to the seventh page.

"Do you know why you are still here?" Monk asked. It flipped to page thirty-three. Then to forty-six. And finally to page one.

"Thank you for speaking with us," Mai said, picking up the recording device. "Yasuhara, turn the lights back on." Once the lights were on and it looked like there wouldn't be another paranormal episode like the day before, she spoke clearly, "End of E.V.P. session."

"I was expecting that to be much more interesting than it was," Ayako commented, standing back up. "The session yesterday seemed more exciting."

"Well, since when has a spirit been cooperative with cases like this?" Monk asked, as Mai picked up the book from the ground.

"Page seven, thirty-three, forty-six and one, right?" she asked the college student next to her.

"That's what I saw," he replied. "Whelp, guess we better show Naru."

"Yeah," Mai agreed, standing up.

Just as Naru had said, once the E.V.P. session was over, the investigation was done for the day. Ayako once again drive Mai home and Yasuhara promised to pick her up the next day. And to interrogate her about her boyfriend as well.

Mai raced into her apartment just as the snow started to fall. Just a light flurry, but that didn't mean it was sunny and seventy-five, she needed to be inside where it was at least a little warmer. After shaking off the cold, she wandered into her small kitchenette, where her phone and answering machine were located and saw a red light flashing. She pressed the button next to it and listened to the message that awaited her.

"Hey Mai! It's Shouta. I know you're on a case right now and probably won't hear this until later tonight. I also know that the last two weeks have been living hell for you with the exams, so you might not even get this message until tomorrow, which is fine. It's not that urgent so long as I get an answer before the weekend," she heard her boyfriend's laugh and smiled. "Anyway, Michiru's party is Saturday, as I'm sure you know, and I was wondering if I was meeting you there, or picking you up from your apartment or if I needed to pick you up from work. It's up to you, but I would like to know seeing as, well, I kind of do need to know." He laughed again, and Mai's smile became a grin. "Can't wait to see you, it's going to be a blast and remember, I love you."

And the recording was over and Mai found herself giggling like a lovesick schoolgirl. Hell. That's exactly what she was! She was allowed to giggle like mad!

She turned and headed for her room. She changed into some bumming around clothes and found herself looking in the small mirror she had hung up in her room. Her hair was reaching her shoulders and in a scraggly mess she noticed. She needed to get that taken care of before the party on Saturday.

She went for the kitchen and picked up the phone, dialing a number she had memorized long ago. "Moshi, moshi."

"Michiru? It's Mai," Mai said into the receiver.

"Mai! What's up! You're work schedule is interfering with your school schedule, this better not mess with your vacation schedule next week! I plan on hanging with you and your rather attractive boyfriend next week! Does he have a friend just as cute?" Michiru rambled, earning a laugh from Mai.

"Michiru, we've been through this before!" she laughed. "He hasn't introduced me to anyone that would be your type, I'm still keeping a look out for you."

"You better be, damn it!" The girl on the other end laughed too. "So, what's up? You had to have just gotten home and probably have some exams you need to be studying for. Whatcha need?"

"A favor," Mai replied. "I know you're probably busy getting ready for the party on Saturday, and I haven't had you do this in a while, but do you think you can give me a trim? My ends are getting pretty nasty."

"Girl, I thought you would never ask! I'm sorry but your dead ends were starting to bug me!" Michiru laughed. "Of course I'll cut your hair. When do you want to come over and do it?"

"Well, I'll probably get off work around this time tomorrow so I can have my friend drop me off at your place."

"It'll be dark long before you'll be able to walk home, why don't you stay over? We haven't had a girlie slumber party in ages! I'll invite Keiko too, we can do your hair, study, and drown our stresses out in ice cream!"

"Sounds absolutely wonderful!" Mai laughed. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"That's right! If you don't show I'll get a team and hunt you down!"

"I know you will!"

"Bye!"

"Bye!"

Mai hung up her phone and just knew things were already getting better.

Kiki: Ta Da!

Naru: ...

Kiki: Sour puss! Anyway glad I finally got the new chapter out!

Monk: Don't mind Naru, he's finally starting to realize that he's missing out!

Ayako: Took him long enough

Masako: He didn't like my tea? *sad face and sulks in corner*

Mai: *sweatdrops with sympathetic face* No! No! He just knows that he pays me to do that sort of thing, he doesn't want to burden you with that job! That's all!

John: Now, Masako, remember, Naru's not quite himself. I'm sure he likes your tea, but since Mai now has a boyfriend she's not paying him the same amount of attention. He also seems to like to push her buttons.

Masako: Why doesn't he want my attention?

Yasuhara: *places hand on John's shoulder* You're not helping, John.

Lin: thank you for reading and reviewing we hope to hear from you all soon and that the next chapter won't have so much of a wait!

jaa nee