Spiral and Escape

“Uhm, I’m going ahead now guys.” Saya waved at her friends and quickly started to walk away, ignoring the man who had just approached her. She whipped out her phone from her purse and was about to call for her driver when a hand caught hers. She felt her fingers tingle ever so slightly when it made contact with that familiar touch. Turning her head to face him, she was about to yell at the top of her lungs when he asked, “Can we talk, just for a while.” But before she could utter a word; his grip on her hand tightened as if to tell her that he won’t take no for an answer. Saya quietly nodded, her eyes were downcast as she did. She could tell that her friends were watching her as she went along with him.

“Do you think she’ll be alright?” Kaori asked as the pair disappeared from sight.

“I guess so. That is our Saya after all.” Moses replied. He had known Saya for more than seventeen years but not once had he seen her cry or told them about her problems. Instead, she was the one that people used to turn to whenever they needed advice or a shoulder to cry onto.

“Why did you take me here Haji?” Saya asked in a rather icy tone, as she sat down on the bench, arms crossed squarely over her chest. For some unknown reasons, Saya found herself to be worrying about what’s happening and what might happen, seeing as this is the first time they’ve seen each other after five long years. ‘You’ll be fine Saya, you HAVE gotten over him already and it was YOU who broke things off. You can totally face him now.’ She reprimanded herself mentally.

“I wanted to ask you a few questions if you don’t mind.” Haji too, took a seat but at the opposite side of the bench from where she sat.

“Sure, but I’ll give you only five minutes.” She was fidgeting slightly in her seat as she waited for him to speak.

“That’ll be plenty, thank you.”

“Shoot then, I haven’t got much time.”

“Alright, well…for starters, where did you go after graduation?” he said in the cool and calm voice that Saya used to love hearing.

‘Tch. He forced me to come with him all the way to the park just to ask what I did after graduation! God he’s annoying and he’s wasting my time!’ “Hm? I took up fine arts in Italy, My dad’s first cousin twice removed, Uncle George, took care of me during my stay over there. The scenery there was lively and refreshing; I’d sure love to visit it sometime soon. How about you, what did you do after graduating high school?” she tried her best to sound cool and collected as she replied to his inquiry.

“My father sent me to Strasbourg for college, then after that, I stayed for two months in Nantes to temporarily take over my uncle’s business there in place of him since he was away overseas.”

“I see, well, your five minutes is over. It was nice to see you again Haji.” She smiled at him and stood up, about to leave when she suddenly felt two strong arms around her shoulders. “I still haven’t given up.” He breathed over her ear; sending shivers down her spine, before quickly letting her go.

‘What did he mean by that?’ Saya wondered as she got into the car.

“Saya dear, I’ve prepared a little masquerade ball for you this Saturday to celebrate your return.” Her father told her over dinner.

“Thank you father but you shouldn’t have bothered to do so.” Saya replied with a smile. It wasn’t unusual for her father to hold balls and parties every now and then. He would use even the most nonsense excuses just to have a celebration or two.

“Oh, but our family’s friends and associates haven’t seen you for a while. And being the only heir to business, you need to get more publicity and more small talk with people here and there. After all, you’ll be taking over in a few years or so.”

“Don’t rush things yet father, I’m still far too young and inexperienced!”

“Nonsense, my child! Remember the project you came up with when you were just in 8th grade? It was a raving success and earned us millions within just a couple of weeks!”

“Thank you father, but I know that I’ve still got a long way to go before I accomplish anything near what you have.” She answered modestly.

“Ah, we were indeed blessed with such a good and humble daughter. I’m sure your mother would’ve been very proud to see that you’re growing up to be a fine young lady.” Her father gave her an affectionate pat on the head. Saya smiled back and politely excused herself from the table, “I’d like to retire early tonight, I still have a little jet lag I’m afraid.”

“Good night then my little princess.” He smiled at her.

“Good night father.” After giving her father a kiss good night on the cheek, Saya retreated back to her room. She took a quick shower before changing into a long, black nightgown that almost reached her ankles. Getting under her covers, Saya did her usual routine of talking to her mother about what happened to her that day as if she was really there with her.

“But mother, what really puzzled me is that, before I left, he said that he still hasn’t given up. I don’t want to hurt his feelings anymore since I’ve been over the break up even before we graduated high school….and I…I’m so tired now mother, so. Good night.” yawning one last time, she slowly closed her eyes and let sleep overcome her.

“Why didn’t you tell me the truth Saya? If only I had known it that day then I would’ve never let go of you!” Haji shouted as he shook her shoulders. “I would’ve fought for you, for us!”

“No, nothing would’ve changed anyway. It was best to break things off earlier than to feel the much more pain now.” she replied, avoiding his piercing gaze as she gently pushed him away.

“And do you think I did not get hurt? Saya, I loved you since the day I met you and I still do. I’ve waited for five long years just to see you again and I’m willing to wait even for a million years more cause there’s no one else that I’d rather be with than you!” Haji knelt on one knee and took her hand. “Saya, you rejected me when I first proposed five years ago, and you also broke up with me and left, but I still haven’t given up. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. So please, this time, don’t say no. I promise I’ll make you the happiest bride in the world, marry me Saya.” he took out a beautiful silver ring that had the words I will love you til’ the end of time engraved upon it, out of his jacket. Looking at her hopefully with his sincere, warm eyes, he was about to put it on her ring finger when she closed her hand and moved it away. “I’m sorry… We just can’t be together…” Saya whispered sadly before running off hastily. Tears she could no longer hold back, started to run down her cheeks.

Rrrrrrrrrring!!! Rrrrrrrrrrrrrring!!!

“Huh? A…dream? T-thank goodness!” Saya sighed in relief. But then, when she touched her cheek, she found it to be wet and wondered why she had cried, after all, it was all but a mere dream.

Hearing a soft thumping sound on her door, she quickly wiped her tears on her sleeve. “Come in.” she said.

“Good morning young Madame, I’ve brought your breakfast.” Julia curtsied and went forward to put down the tray before Saya.

“Thank you, now I’d like to take a bath after having my full. Lavender would be lovely for this morning.” Saya told Julia while she took a slice of baguette and spread over it a thin layer of her favorite cheese.

“Yes ma’am.” With a small bow, Julia turned and left to attend to Saya’s order.

‘I have a feeling that there will be a lot of surprises today.’ Placing down the bread, she reached for the glass of orange juice.

After she was finished with her breakfast, Saya had a nice warm bath before getting ready for her scheduled appointments that day. Browsing through the closet that contained her business and formal clothes, she decided to wear something simple and yet classy. When about half an hour or so of changing from one set of clothes to another has passed, Saya finally found the outfit she was looking for: a crisp black blazer, a light pink silk blouse with long sleeves, a black pencil skirt and a pair of black heels. She tied her hair into a long, neat ponytail and applied just a little amount of make-up before she was finished. “Perfecto!” she exclaimed, and smiled at her reflection in the mirror.

“What’s my first appointment Julia?” Saya inquired as she lazily tapped her perfectly manicured fingernails on the small space beside the car window.

“At 10 pm, Mr. Goldschmidt will be introducing you to the main stockholders of the business.” Julia began scanning her organizer. “Then after that, you’ll be having lunch with Mr. Goldschmidt.”

“Hm..So my morning will be hanging out with father! Oh how exciting!!” Saya said in a mock irritated tone and made a face before bursting into laughter. But she really didn’t mind that at all. Her father, though he had many things to attend to in the many businesses their family had had for generations that seemed as old as the history of France itself, never once had he ignored or forgotten his responsibility as Saya’s father. He’d rather postpone a meeting or decline a business proposal to attend to his daughter whenever she was sick or just to attend family day at school. He spent as much time as he can with his daughter during weekends and holidays too. Even without her mother by her side, Saya was able to grow up well and happy thanks to her father

“So, how was the day of our little princess?” Mao teased. “I bet your father had arranged for you to meet and choose a husband out of lots of rich, handsome bachelors dying to have your hand!”

“Oh God, far from it dearie! I spent nearly two hours being forced to smile and make small talk with a bunch of old and boring business tycoons!” Saya replied dryly before she shoved a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.

“Hahaha…And you’ll be meeting them more often when the time comes for you to take over your family’s corporation! I’m so glad my only problems are to deal with the adorably annoying little rascals at the kindergarten.” Kaori added.

“Thank you for your supportive and encouraging words guys.”

“It was our pleasure!” Mao and Kaori chirped happily in response.

“Hmf… well at least at the moment, father hasn’t brought up the conversation we had four years back about the arranged marriage thing.”

“Was that the reason why you broke up with Haji?” Kaori asked as she ate a slice of blueberry cheese cake.

“N-no! Of course not.. I broke up with him because of, uhm.. a lot of reasons that I don’t think we have a need to open up since it’s long been buried in the past!” Saya retorted immediately.

“Uh-huh..well about the guy your father will have you married to, have you two been introduced yet?” as soon as the topic was turned to love and marriage, Mao’s eyes brightened up excitedly. “Was he a hot guy? I mean, it’s okay to have an arranged marriage as long as the guy you’ll be marrying is handsome, right?”

“Geez Mao, all you ever think about is the looks and money!” Kaori pinched her cheek as if she was reprimanding a mischievous little kid.

“Well, of course I’d like my future children to be handsome and beautiful ones!”

“Before worrying about what your future kids will look like, you should find and stick to one guy first. I mean, you can’t spend all your life just changing from one boyfriend to another within just a week or so.” Saya chimed in.

“Ayee! Stop preaching to me!” Mao shouted and placed her hands over her ears. “So what if I hadn’t found ‘the one’ yet? I mean, I’m still twenty two! Sheesh!”

“Well, back to the topic, have you two met already? Your fiancé I mean.” Kaori inquired.

“No..we haven’t… and I’d very much rather not meet him If I had a choice…” Saya muttered as she stared on her bowl and swirled the melting ice cream round and round.

“I see… well, if it turns out that the guy you’ll be marrying is an awful, so-not-cute man then we’ll help you run away and put you into hiding!” Mao told her enthusiastically and raised a balled fist into the air.

“Yeah! You can count on us Saya!” Kaori also joined in.

“Thanks but for now, let’s forget about that… my stomach’s telling me that there’s something far more urgent that I need to attend to immediately.” Saya interrupted them.

“She’s hungry again isn’t she?” Kaori turned to face Mao.

And a loud growling sound from Saya’s stomach confirmed their guess.

“Don’t you ever get full Saya?”

“H-hey! I’m still a growing girl!” Saya replied.

“You are almost twenty-two and the time for growing has stopped for you ages ago! You’re just being a glutton honey.” Mao retorted with a raised eyebrow.

“At least I don’t get fat!” she giggled and poked a finger at Mao’s stomach before quickly running away knowing full well that Mao would be chasing after her because of her little joke.

Yuki’s notes:

That’s the second chapter done, and it makes me happy. And me being happy hasn’t happened much lately especially since a couple of weeks ago, I found some writer here at fanfiction who copied off my previous Blood+ work ‘Stay with Me’. She just changed a couple of words and names and added a lemon scene at the end and claimed it off as her own. Now isn’t that worse than copying off someone else’s plot line?!! Anyway, at least the stolen story’s been removed! I really hope it’s never gonna happen again! I mean, REAL WRITERS COME UP WITH THEIR OWN STORIES AND IDEAS AND NOT STEAL THEM OFF FROM OTHER PEOPLE! Right?

Hmm….sorry for my rant, I just had to let it out cause that terrible incident had really troubled me and caused me stress that then caused me to not be able to work on ‘crossroads’ for some time. (sniff)

That’s all for now, cheerio mates! I’ll do my best to update soon! (smiles)