Chapter 6 “Unexpected Encounters”

The rain had just ended and she looked out the window of her room.

“People say that good luck comes when you get a four-leafed clover just like when they say that you find a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow.”

On the other hand,

“They say that when it comes to love, it’s all about following your heart. Thinking about where my heart is leading me, I wonder if love can be found at the end of the rainbow.”

It was a Tuesday morning when Mizuki left their house in a hurry for school. A few minutes after running, she arrived at their school’s gate. She looked at the sign board of their school and read, “Sakura High.” She brought out her handkerchief and started wiping her sweat. At the same time, she continued to pant as she began walking on her way in.

Mizuki is a girl who comes from a poor family. She has a sickly little sister who is in elementary school and also a mother who works hard just to keep the food on the table and to buy medications for her little sister. Unfortunately, Mizuki doesn’t have a father because he died in a car accident when she was still in kindergarten. The only memory that she could remember about her father was when he showed her a very beautiful rainbow a few days before the accident. Because of their family’s condition, she swore to do her best in school, enter college and finish a degree. This way, she will work and be able to provide for their family. Thankfully, Mizuki was able to earn a scholarship and enter one of the prestigious schools because of her excellent grades. Currently, she is a junior student.

Hours later, the bell rang which sounded the time for lunch.

“I’m so hungry! Ne, Mizuki chan let’s go have lunch together at the cafe,” one of her friends invited her.

“You go on ahead. I’ll catch up with guys soon enough,” she replied.

Just as soon as her friends left, she sat back down on her chair and placed her hand on her stomach. *grumbles*

“I took so much time reviewing my notes last night that I fell asleep so late and woke up late as well. Because of that, I totally forgot to prepare my bento.”

She stood up, left the room and walked towards the Juice machine that was outside their school’s cafe.

She checked her small coin purse and uttered, “This is the only allowance I have left for this week.”

She brought out the remaining coins she had and inserted them one by one into the juice machine.
*tit*

She waited for a few seconds for the machine to dispense the yogurt drink that she had chosen but unfortunately, the drink got stuck.

“Eh?! Fall off!” she whined as she started shaking and banging on the juice machine.

After two to three minutes of whining and banging, she finally gave up.
*grumbles* “I’m hungry. And now this damn machine took my money and didn’t give me this drink.  Grr!!!” she said grumpily as she pointed at the yogurt drink.

She turned around and walked slowly when someone went towards the juice machine. The person inserted a certain number of coins and pressed a button.

*clank*

Mizuki heard the sound and turned around.

“Ooh! Lucky! I got two drinks,” the person declared.

Just as the person was about to walk away...
“Matte!” Mizuki shouted.

“Huh?”

She approached the person and saw that the person was her crush Chinen Yuri.

“Eh, um... Nandemonai,” she answered as she took a step backwards. *loud grumbling*

Chinen looked at her from down up and handed, “It looks like you’re hungry. Here, have the other yogurt drink. I only wanted one but it dispensed two drinks.”

“A... Arigatou,” Mizuki said as she took the drink from Chinen.

“See ya,” Chinen waved at her as he left the scene.

Mizuki’s head finally cooled down after her encounter with her crush. “But really, I bought this. Thankfully he was the one who used the juice machine and gave me the drink that I failed to get.”

She continued to giggle to herself as she returned to their classroom and until their lunch break ended. Seeing her behavior, her friends wondered what she was so happy about.

She shook her head as she stopped giggling and said, “N... Nothing.”

Chinen Yuri is the son of a well-known Finery tycoon in the World of Fashion. His mother is a well-known model throughout Japan while his father is a Fashion Designer who owns about two hundred Fashion Houses as well as a hundred Jewelry Enterprises throughout the country. He has three siblings namely an older brother, older sister and youngest sister. His older brother manages one fourth of the Jewelry Enterprises in Northern Japan while his older sister is the apprentice of their father in designing clothes.  He and his little sister are still studying but from time to time they are called by their mother to act as models for their father’s Fashion runways. Despite their family’s popularity and wealth, Chinen is one who is humble and he takes up a different interest and that is acrobatics. His parents wanted him to go to the Diamond Laurel Academy which is a school suited for their family’s standard, but during the school enrollment, he ran off and enrolled in a school which he had always thought of attending in named, Sakura High. Eyes quickly fell on him during their school’s opening day three years back. He is considered popular in terms of fashion, looks, acrobatic skills, personality as well as his smile that has a magnetic attraction to it.

Mizuki left her friends in a hurry just as they exited their school. Minutes later, she arrived at the cafe where she takes a part time job in as a waitress. She was greeted by their cafe’s female manager, Yuka, as she went to the locker room to get changed.

She grabbed a round tray as she passed by the kitchen. She began her work taking orders and serving until such time at about six thirty in the evening, the entrance door opened and a group of guys came inside.

She gave out a sweet smile as she looked at them but to her surprise, she quickly covered her face with the tray and mumbled, “Yabai! This is bad!”

She took the order of the customers in front of her and immediately hid behind the bar’s counter.

“Mizuki, what are you doing?” Yuka asked her.

“Um, nothing,” she answered.

“If you’re not doing anything then would you mind taking the order of those young men who just came in?”

Mizuki took a peek at the guys and hid again.

“I don’t think... I can go and take their order.”

“Why can’t you?”

“It’s because, he is there.”

“He who? Who are you talking about Mizuki chan?”

Mizuki took a peek again and pointed at a guy who was smiling happily with his friends.

“Eh?? Mizuki... Could he be your?”

“Don’t say it!” Mizuki panicked as she covered her manager’s mouth.

“Well, you have no other choice since it’s your job,” Yuka said with a big smile on her face after removing Mizuki’s hand.

Yuka gave her a slight push on the back and Mizuki had no choice but to go. She slowly walked her way to their table and said, “Anoo... Good evening. May I take your order?”

A guy with brownish hair, sitting on the far right and who was holding the menu said, “I’d like iced coffee.”

His companion who had an ear piercing on his left ear grabbed the menu and had a quick look at it, “Bring me some ice tea.”

Mizuki turned her gaze to the left and the blonde-haired guy immediately said, “Latte”

Lastly, Mizuki shifted her gaze to the person on her near left. He was wearing a black jacket, bow tie, and a checkered polo shirt as an inner.

Their gazes met but the guy didn’t give out any sudden reaction towards her. Instead, he smiled at her and said, “I’d like some orange juice please.”

Mizuki’s face immediately flushed as she stated, “H... Hai! Coming right up...”

A few minutes later, Yuka called Mizuki to take the boys’ drinks to their table.

“Eh... Can someone else do it for me?”

“Hmm... This is really not you Mizuki chan. From what I remember you were the type of girl who would volunteer herself for others but this time...”

Mizuki pleaded to Yuka, “It’s just for now please...”

Yuka shook her head and gave the tray of drinks to Mizuki.

“I feel that you’re enjoying this aren’t you?” Mizuki asked her manager.

Yuka simply gave out a smile and answered, “I wonder...”

So once again, she had no choice but to do as she was told.

She couldn’t help but feel even more nervous as she took a step closer to their table until...

“Eek!” shrieked Mizuki.

Everything happened so fast and by the time she opened her eyes, her face was inches away from Chinen’s face.

But a terrible addition to that, the tray of drinks spilled all over his clothes.

“You idiot!” shouted the guy with the ear piercing.

“Do you have any idea what you had just done?!” said the blonde guy.

The other burst out into evil laughter as he stated, “I hope you’ve got enough salary to pay for those clothes you klutz.”

Mizuki was pinned down by the angry remarks of Chinen’s companions. She ran back to bar counter and grabbed a towel and returned to their table. Unfortunately, she slipped on the spilled liquid on the floor causing her to fall once again. She was about to burst into tears when she saw someone offered a hand in front of her. She looked up and saw Chinen.

“How could you smile like that when I spilled your drinks all over you?” she thought.

“It’s okay. Come on. You don’t want to sit on the floor now do you?” Chinen stated.

Chinen’s companions looked at him as he helped Mizuki stand up.

“I... I’m really sorry for spilling the drinks over you. I promise I’ll find a way to pay for it,” Mizuki told him as tears flooded her eyes.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing. They’re just clothes,” Chinen said.

“Just clothes?! Dude, do you have any idea how much your clothes cost?!”

“He’s right man. Moreover, isn’t that what you’re going to show off on your father’s fashion runway this evening?!”

“Damn dude! That’s what we keep telling you. You shouldn’t wear them when we go out. Now look what happened again?! (Yes, AGAIN. Because this is the nth time that Chinen got into trouble like this.) Your parents are so going to yell at you again.”

Chinen brushed off their statements and answered, “Guys, you know very well that I’m already prepared for that. That I have an extra suit at the venue.”

“We know but seriously man; all the clothes that you wear and get soiled/stained don’t come cheap.”

 The blonde guy stopped his other companions from saying anymore since it’s very obvious that no matter how many times they reprimand Chinen, he still won’t listen to them.

“Well then, I guess it’s time for us to go since the fashion show is going to start in an hour,” Chinen told them as he checked his watch.

Chinen’s companions looked at Mizuki with cold expressions painted on their faces as they passed by her.

“Well, I’ve got to go now. It was nice seeing you spill drinks on me. Make sure to immediately have a change of clothes okay,” Chinen smiled as he passed Mizuki.

Chinen left the place and as Mizuki looked around, all eyes were on her and not to mention people started whispering about what took place. Because of this, Yuka decided to let her take her leave at an earlier time.

Mizuki cleaned the mess and returned to the locker room to change.

Questions filled Mizuki’s head while she changed, “What fashion show were they talking about?  In addition to that, how could he react that way? I spilled drinks on him and yet he managed to smile and say that it’s okay as if it wasn’t a BIG DEAL. And when he said nice seeing you spill drink on me, was he speaking sarcastically or was he thanking me for it?”

The following day (Dismissal)...

As Mizuki walked her way to her seat to get her bag, she noticed several classmates of hers muttering about something while reading a newspaper. Curious, she approached them and looked at the newspaper that they were holding.

-.-.-.-.-.-

“Chinen Yuri!! You come down here this instant!” his mother shouted from downstairs.

“Mom, what’s up with the yelling?” he asked.

“You come with me because you’ve got some explaining to do,” his mother told him as she walked to the living room.

He saw his mother grab something and slam it onto the coffee table in front of him.

“Would you mind explaining to me what this is?”

He browsed over the contents of the newspaper and found a small photo of himself beside the large photo of his father.

“Ooh cool. Mom, I’m in the newspaper,” he spoke confidently.

“Why won’t you try reading the caption below it?”

 “Chinen Yuri: Youngest son of the famous designer comes out of a cafe soaking wet while wearing one of his father’s latest fashion designs that were to be presented during that night’s fashion show.”

“It’s no big deal mom since I had a spare suit ready at the venue last night.”

“You think that it’s not a big deal!? This is the nth time that I’m going to tell you not to wear your father’s designs before the fashion show! Now look at what you’ve done! Moreover, that was the very first suit that was made and you think that it’s no big deal! Spare suits this, spare suits that. Yes we are rich and wealthy but that doesn’t mean that you can just go asking for our tailors to make a spare suit just so you can go out with your friends and soil the very first one! If you want to go out with your friends before going to the fashion show then make sure not to go out wearing your father’s designs!”

*sigh* “Seriously mom, that’s my way of presenting dad’s designs. I was presenting it out on the streets in advance. Now look, if I haven’t done that then orders and customers won’t be crowding our fashion houses on the first day. Moreover, not everyone can go to the fashion show that’s why presenting it in that matter made things a lot easier.”

His mother was going to say more but unfortunately his son hit another bull’s eye with his clever remark.

“Alright then, if you think that you’re so smart, then if you plan on showing off your father’s designs on the streets then make sure to wear your spare suit instead of the first ever suit,” his mother managed to say.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Chinen told his mother as he left the room.

-.-.-.-.-.-

Chinen was busy typing a message on his phone when unexpectedly; he bumped someone on his way out.

“Ittai!” as the person began rubbing her back.

“Oh, I'm so sorry,” Chinen said as he helped her up.

“You!” they spoke in unison.

-.-.-.-

Just as Mizuki saw what was written in the newspaper, she couldn’t help but think about it.

“I’m so pathetic. Hahaha He’s my crush and I have no idea who he is. He’s actually the son of a famous designer and model. No wonder he’s so good-looking, and kind and charming and handsome and...” Mizuki giggled to herself as she walked going to the cafe.

With so much giggling and daydreaming, she didn’t look where she was going and *BUMP!*

-.-.-.-

Another unexpected meeting fell upon the two.

“I’m really really sorry about that,” Chinen told Mizuki.

“It’s okay. I wasn’t looking at where I was going that’s why I bumped you,” Mizuki apologized as well.

“Are you sure?”

Mizuki smiled at him and nodded.

“T... Then, if you don’t mind me asking, where are you supposed to go?”

“I think you already know,” Mizuki told Chinen as they began walking together.

“You’re going to the cafe?”

Mizuki nodded and asked, “How about you?”

“I don’t really know. I was about to send a message to my friends when I suddenly bumped into you.”

“Oh I see. Well then, I have to hurry since I still have work to attend to,” Mizuki stated.

“Wait,” Chinen said. “Can I go with you?”

“Huh? Me? You want to come with me to my work?”

Chinen nodded eagerly.

“Are you sure you want to come?”

“Yes,” he quickly answered.

“Oh well, I have a strong feeling that I won’t be able to convince you to not to come already,” Mizuki decided.

>Now what will happen at the cafe???? Could this be a start of a new relationship as well??<

_Sorry for the long update!!! SO SO SORRY!!! I’m planning on just putting 2 chapters for each couple but I guess I won’t be able to do that considering the ideas that are going through my head just to give this two a good ending. So do expect a lot of twists (if there will be any) just so that I will squeeze out... Moreover, meet the ending that’s going through my head. I promise I’m update as soon as possible. And that is the reason why this chapter is really really long. XD It’s because I was really trying to fit the story into 2 chapters.. XDD PEACE OUT!! Do tune in to the upcoming chapters! And THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING!!_

^_^