A/N: Hi guys, the story is going to pick up pace from now on. Yay! Enjoy!

I don't own Skip Beat or any of its characters.

Chapter 21

Kanae was quite apprehensive about coming to the office since Yukihito proposed all of a sudden in front of Jude. She took a day off and had the displeasure of meeting the Fuwa brat and surprisingly Kuon. She was even more concerned because she knew what her answer was.

She didn't really dislike Yukihito. It's just it crosses several lines of professional decorum and she wasn't keen on having that problem while she was new to the work. This was her first job and right off the bat she got a highly sought after position and like some shojo manga her boss wanted to date her? What's up with this development!

She sorted out the schedule, reviewed it twice before walking up to Yukihito's office. She knocked before entering and saw him hunched over the paperwork. He didn't even notice her entering.

As soon as Kanae walked up to his desk she realised Yukihito looked really pale and was having trouble breathing.

'Yashiro-san? Are you okay?'

With no response she went to the other side of his desk and nudged him.

He looked up and she could see how distressed he was. On the desk there were several documents and on top of the pile where Yukihito was looking intently, there was something weird. The letter wasn't addressed to Yuki. That's strange, he wasn't the type to read other people's mails. It was exceptionally weird because unless someone deliberately put it in his desk or Yukihito himself took it from the person it was intended for, the letter should not have been in his desk to begin with.

It was addressed to Hizuri Kuon.

The sender's name read Mogami Seiji.

Kuon was busy with his meetings in the morning, his mask of Tsuruga Ren perfectly in place. He was a little fatigued and it was kind of hard for him to swallow anything. He drank milk tea with sugar this morning instead of coffee and that's the only thing that felt good. It was so weird.

He was sorting through his mails in the office when he received an email from him.

His knuckles tightened and eyes hardened. His mask fell and fury tainted his aura.

It was that damn bastard. He thought he got rid of him but he was extremely persistent.

But reading the content of the email made if blood run cold. It said that he was disappointed that he didn't reply to the mail he sent him. But he sorts out his mails every day and this is not something he can miss.

His office phone rang, it was Yuki-nii.

"Yes, Kuon here"

"Sorry to bother you Hizuri-san, but could you please come to Yashiro-san's office. He doesn't really seem okay and he refused to let me call anyone else….." Kanae's voice floated through.

The phone disconnected before she even had the chance to finish her sentence and within several moments Kuon was entering through the door.

Yuki was sitting on the couch with haunted eyes. He finally looked up when Kuon was sitting beside him and trying to coax him to talk.

Kanae left to give them some privacy and locked the door to make sure they were uninterrupted.

"Mogami" Yuki said while giving the letter to Kuon.

The letter was formal but straight to the point.

"He wants to meet me. He threatened you with exposure if you didn't let me see him. How did he know of LA? That was years ago. You were a kid and there should not have been any public record. Only we know of the incident. Nobody else other than the family knows of it. How is that possible?"

"I will take care of it."

"Kuon, it's not that simple. If it gets out that you had criminal charges against you when you were in LA, the board would not let you stay in HTC to save the public image of the company. You are the representative and this could plummet the stocks in the Japanese market."

"I will not let him get his hands on you! You know how shrewd and vile that man is. You know what he did!"

Yuki could not utter another word. He felt like fainting with all the stress.

"Why after all these years. Is it due to me taking over everything? But what can he get out off me? Its not like I am afraid of the reputation being ruined of dead people. He has a part in this too. He wouldn't drag his own name in the mud" Yuki said.

"He has something against us. When the incident happened, the only thing he wanted was to merge into the Yashiro fortune. He had expressed his desire openly when dad married mom and he failed to get his daughter marry my dad and my uncle both" he added

"My dad wasn't in his consideration because he was a Hizuri. Also his reputation wasn't as stable as your father."

"He was the one to plant discord between Uncle Yuta and father. All the legalization of removing me as the heir and Uncle Kuu of inheritance was his plan."

"These are things we found out after several years of investigation. The old bastard is alone now. His daughter died that year. He didn't have any grandchildren to marry off to uncle Yuta's sons. He, till the end wasn't able to get his hands on the Yashiro name after all."

"So I guess he wants some sort of revenge? He is obsessed with the Yashiro name."

"I will take care of this. Before you say anything, we all have our battles Nii-chan. You helped me fight mine. If you weren't there I would have become a murderer by now. You and Nee-chan are my salvation. You both protected me from going mad. Its my turn. I will deal with the Mogami bastard."

Yuki sighed as Kuon left the office. After sometime Kanae entered. With a mug of hot cocoa.

Yuki instantly felt lighter after seeing her. He gratefully accepted the drink, it was spreading warmth in his hands.

"Are you feeling better? Should I call for the car to drop you home?"

"Yeah… i would like that."

"Do you need anything else?"

"I do but I can't impose on you like this"

"No please tell me. I was…. I was really worried about you and I don't want to feel that way ever again" Kanae mumbled the last part.

"If you insist, can you comfort me?"

Comfort? How do you comfort someone? Kanae was at a loss. But at that time the look on Yuki's face reminded her of Kyoko and how she looks when she is extremely sad.

"I have only ever comforted my sister so I don't really know what you are expecting but I will try my best." Kanae approached him with hesitation and sat down beside him.

"But before that I wanted to say that I thought about what you said the other day and the answer to your question is yes… you can hope something from my side as well. I would like to know you a bit more…. Ammm r-romantically…." She stuttered.

Yuki's brain took a bit more time to restart and process the information. He smiled like a lightbulb and looked at Kanae with such adoration that she was blinded momentarily.

He suddenly got up and held out his hand for Kanae to take. She hesitantly took his hand unsure of what was happening. He walked them to the mini kitchen in his office which was out of the line of sight from the window or someone accidentally walking in.

He kind of picked Kanae up and sat her on the counter so that she was a bit more taller than him. He leveled his eyes with her and smiled the lightbulb smile again.

Kanae blushed at the attention. Yuki seemed like the boy next door type and she assumed that he would not be very assertive in terms of initiating affectionate gestures. This attitude caught her off guard because a few moments ago he looked so sad.

"So first things first. I really really like you Kanae-san and I can't tell you how happy I am right now. I am the type to be quite honest with my feelings and sometimes I show it without any prior thoughts. So please take care of me."

"Amm, I do have a request to make." Kanae blushed.

"Yes…. Go on"

"Can we keep it a secret in the office that we are dating?"

"Are you ashamed to admit that I am your boyfriend? You do want to be my girlfriend right?" Yuki asked, feeling dejected.

"Its not that…. Its just I just started working and that too as your secretary and now if people thought we were dating than they would assume that I seduced you or something….."

"I understand. I don't mind keeping it a secret. But I also have a request. Two actually."

Yuki put his hands on both sides of her and leaned in as if to tell her a secret.

"What is it?"

"I want our parents to know, and my cousins. That I am courting you. I am not just dating you because I am attracted to you. I really want to spend my life with you Kanae. If this bothers you then this is your last chance to walk away from me. I promise I will never burden you with my feelings."

Kanae was swept away by his words. She has been approached enough times to know if the guy was serious or not and Yuki had this unexplainable look in his eyes that held promise.

"I won't walk away," she said quietly.

"Then my second request, please keep an open heart so that I could woo you properly. I don't want to worry about showing my affection for you when we are in private. I promise to be a complete gentleman in front of people but I just wanted to show you my feelings through my gestures."

Again, Kanae was taken off guard. He was so straightforward that it was refreshing.

She nodded in agreement. Yuki smiled like he won the lottery or something.

"Now that that's out of the way, comfort me" he said and buried his head against her neck, his internal turmoil catching up to him again.

Kanae stiffened with the sudden gesture. He was now full on hugging her.

"Ammm Yashiro-san…"

"If you hate it all you have to say is no Kanae-san, I promise to behave"

Kanae thought about saying no but she didn't hate it. His behaviour was rubbing off on her. She relaxed and hugged him back tentatively.

Yuki hugged her tighter and she got concerned. Especially because she was sure she felt it against her neck where he buried his face….

Wet tears… this man…. He was….

She hugged him tighter.

Kuon was on the phone with the head of his security team. Hand picked by Lory himself, exceptionally talented individuals who were the best in their job.

Kijima Hidehito, the current head, was given rapid instructions by Kuon to get to the bottom of this. Who from their company or and associates were in contact with Mogami Seiji presently or in the past. He wanted results immediately. But even he knew that the request was very hard to complete. He gave Hidehito a month to find the leak. He hasn't been feeling good since yesterday. He decided to go home for the day because he couldn't concentrate on work because of a dull headache.

When he got home he was welcomed with a warm aroma of food.

'She is here' he thought.

Kyoko suddenly poked her head out of the kitchen to greet him.

"Welcome home Hizuri-san"

It's a surprise what few kind words did to change this girl's treatment towards him from hostile to polite. Ren was created for that purpose so he can't complain. Also he promised his brother that he would behave.

He nodded in reply to her. His voice was not coming out properly and he wobbled while entering the house.

"Hizuri-san, are you okay?" Kyoko was concerned when he came inside and was walking to his room.

He didn't answer her and went straight to take a shower. He didn't really eat anything the whole day and only had milk tea. So he knew he had to get something to eat. With sheer willpower he walked into the kitchen and sat down. The food was fairly simple and he was grateful for that.

Kyoko's instinct told her that Kuon wasn't feeling good. He looked flushed and he was breathing heavily.

"Hizuri-san, do you have a cold?"

"I don't get sick", he smiled his gentlemanly smile which got Kyoko more worried.

He concentrated again on the food.

He really wasn't feeling well but didn't want to admit it. Especially to her.

Kyoko moved towards him and mumbled an 'excuse me' before putting her palm against his forehead.

Kuon was taken aback by this sudden contact but his sick body leaned in on the touch. It felt so comforting.

"Hizuri-san you have a fever. I think you have a cold."

She picked up her phone and dialed Darumaya's number and her sister picked up.

After explaining the situation she got permission to tend to Kuon as it was quite late for her to travel back home.

She walked towards him and asked where the medicine cabinet was.

He didn't have one, only a first aid box. But thankfully it was stocked.

Kyoko made him drink some medicine and helped him get up for the bed.

But as soon as they were close to the bed Kuon's leg gave up and he collapsed on the bed, taking Kyoko with him.

Kyoko registered her position after a few moments of disbelief.

She tried to shove him off but he felt like an iron wall.

She tried calling him. But there was no response. He was out cold.

Pinning her under him with no sign of waking up.