Tori had just finished with school, and she was on her way to the convenience store with Yuichi. Yuichi parked his bike outside and they went in. Tori took a few bills from her wallet and put them along with a fake ID on the counter. “Can I please get a six pack of beer?” she asked.

“Hello Mihara kun.” the shopkeeper greeted her with a warm friendly smile. “Your father sent you to get beer again?” He took the bills and placed the change back into Tori’s hand. She pocketed the money and then grabbed the plastic bag with the beer from the counter.

Tori nodded. Her father and the shopkeeper were pretty close friends and the shop keeper trusted that she was giving the beer to her father and not drinking it herself. The reason why the shopkeeper had addressed her as a guy was because her father felt that it didn’t look good for girls to be buying beer. Even the fake license said that she was a male. And what she found surprising was how easily people believed her. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

 Yuichi saw Tori deep in thought and then patted her shoulder. “Want to have a race? Loser owes the winner a week’s worth of lunch.”

Tori smiled and playfully pushed Yuichi’s shoulder. “A race?” she asked. “You’re on.” There was no way in hell that Yuichi would be able to beat her. It was useless for him to even challenge her.

On his way back from the gym to the company Kazuki listened to music on his radio. Darn was this a long red light. He then looked in his rear window and saw two teenagers apparently racing. The one on the bike was desperately trying to keep up to the one on the skateboard.It was a pretty strange sight. Eventually the one on the bike just gave up and turned the corner onto another street. The one on the skateboard looked back. When seeing that he had won he got caught up in his excitement.It was obvious that this teenager wasn’t paying attention to the road. He’s probably going to run into something.

Bang. ! Out of all the cars he could have run into, it had to have been his car? And he thought his day couldn’t possibly get any worse. This stupid teenager was the final straw. He’s going to make that brat pay. 

Kazuki got out of the car. And while other cars passed him by he walked over towards the teenager. The teenager was wearing gym clothes, and hesat in an awkward position on the floor with his knee bruised, broken glasses, a bloody nose, and a plastic bag that lay on the floor with a few cans of beer that had fallen out. The boy was a mess but that didn’t keep the short tempered Kazuki from letting him off.

“What is the matter with you, kid?” shouted Kazuki who gained the attention of several people that were just passing by. “Why don’t you look where you are going? Look at the ding you made to my bumper. It’s the size of a golf ball!”

Tori just sat there in shock, finding it difficult to process what had just happened in the past few seconds. She was on her way home from grocery shopping with Yuichi and they had decided to race. Yuichi had given up and then bang she was on the floor and a man was now yelling at her. She tried to get up but when she felt pain in her left knee and she collapsed back on to the floor.She must have banged it pretty hard. Luckily nothing seemed to be broken or sprained.After a few deep breaths she looked up to meet the gaze of the young man who she didn’t know was known as Shinohara Kazuki.

After Kazuki’s anger had died downa bit, he then began to tend to the boy. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“Just my knee,” replied Tori. Tori was more worried about how she would pay for the damages that had been done to the car. All of her past year savings probably couldn’t pay to fix that expensive looking car. “About the car,” she said.

“How can I expect a student to pay for this.” He said.

Phew, she was off the hook.Maybe this guy wasn’t so bad after all. Kazuki paused and smiled.

“Don’t look so relieved. I’m not letting you off that easily. I will make you work off your body and soul to pay off this debt, kid.” He stuck out his hand. “Give me your student ID.” He said.

She scrambled for it, but she realized the only ID she had on her was a fake ID her father had made her to be able to purchase beer for him.She sighed and handed it over. It was probably better to use a fake ID anyways. She didn’t want her school knowing that she got into this kind of trouble. They might rethink her reputation as a student.

Kazuki snatched the card into his hands and looked it over. “Fake ID, huh? You barely look like you are out of high school. I should have known. How else would you have all this beer? He tucked her card away into his pocket. “Come with me.” He said as he pushed her into his car which was locked from the outside.He threw her plastic bag with beer cans inside afterwards. Tori caught the bag and buckled her seatbelt. Hegot in, buckled his own seatbelt,sped on the gas,and off they went.

“You’re still a minor, aren’t you?” he asked. No response. “What were you doing with the beer anyways?” he asked. “Woman trouble?” he joked. Kazuki had fun teasing this kid. After a stressful day at workand the hospital, he had now found a sure way to relax and vent his anger.Usually playing squash was enough to relax him, but not on a day like this. Too many things happened today and even his smart mind found it difficult to process it all.

Tori merely snorted. This psycho guy had completely dismissed the fact that she could have been a girl. Of course the fake ID didn’t help either. She wondered what he was up to and where he was taking her. Hopefully he wasn’t taking her to the police station. She didn’t want to drag her family into even more debt.The pain in her leg had started to die down now, and she wiped her face with a handkerchief. If people did not see her knee, then it would look as if she never got into an accident.  

“What kind of guy are you?” Kazuki asked. “Are you one of those pretty boys that women dig? From what I see you are just skin and bones.”

“I’m not as weak as you think I am.” replied Tori.

“That’s true…” pondered Kazuki. “You managed to bang into a car with nothing but a few bruises. You really should have paid more attention to the road.”

“I normally do… jerk.” she whispered.

“What did you say?” asked Kazuki. “Jerk? You should be thanking me for not taking you to the police station brat.”

The car slowed and finally stopped. Tori looked around. In front of her stood a twelve story office building, which had tinted glass windows on every floor. She looked down and noticed that he had parked in the VIP area. A secretary came and opened the car doors to let themout. The secretary started relaying information to the strange guy. Did he have some authority here? After the secretary finished talking she looked at Tori.

“Who is this?” she asked. She started to inspect Tori, pulling one arm up after another and looking all around.The middle aged woman was getting too close for personal comfort.“What department will he be working in? He’s a cutie.”

“Labor,” answered Kazuki. “This brat owes me money.” Tori assessed the situation and then she realized that she was brought here to pay for the damages of the car. And this guy was apparently in charge. When she looked at Kazuki she had just noticed that he was wearing a full suit and on his wrist was a Gucci watch.

“Really?” asked the secretary. “I was sure that you brought him to be a model.” She seemed disappointed.

“He starts working today.” Answered Kazuki.

“What?” asked Tori. “Why do I have to slave away for you?” What did this guy think he was doing? Dragging her here and telling her that she needs to work. She would rather be at home studying than working for this guy. Although school was over for summer break it would restart in a month, what would she tell her father? Couldn’t she try to make it up to him some other way?

“Just listen to me.” said Kazuki. “This is probably the fastest way you can pay me off and this way I can also keep an eye on you. I want to know if you’re actually working and not just goofing off.”

Tori nodded. It would be bad to not taking responsibility for her actions. That would be against all morals her father ever taught her.

He grabbed her arm again and brought her up to his office, which was on the same floor of his living quarters. He got to stay here on the top floor of the company’s main building because his position was just below that of his grandfather’s. He sat her on the couch and sitting next to her, he pulled out his laptop and placed it on the table in front of him.

She fidgeted on the sofa. She wanted her to work right? Then why was he pulling out his laptop? Maybe it wasn’t the type of difficult labor she thought it would be! Maybe it was just accounting? But then he had a secretary to do that for him…

He turned the laptopon and typed his password. He then opened up a word document and labeled it “Slave Contract.” And after a few minutes typing all the regulations he printed it out. First he signed it then handed it to her. “Sign it.” Kazuki instructed.“I want to be able to hold you legally responsible if you were to run away from your duties.”Tori started to sign,but paused halfway through. Wait! Why was she doing this? How could she be so stupid to sign something without reading it over? He could be a ert and want to do dirty things with her. You never know. She read the regulations over.

“1. Mihara Tori is to work here until his debt of 300,000 yen is paid off.

2. You will work for sixty days, roughly earning 5,000 yen a day which will go towards paying your debt.

3. The length of your typical work day would be eight hours long.

4. Working hours are from 9 to 12 and from 1 to 6.

5. Any slacking may cause extra days to be added on.

6. All orders by the boss must be obeyed and executed immediately.

7. Failure to abide by these rules will result in reporting you to the police.” Read Tori.

What for 60 days? That was more than the amount of her vacation. And for eighthours each day? Without even weekends off? What a way to start her summer break.  She had never been assigned so much work to do.

Kazuki looked at the expression on her face. “Yes, for the next two months you are my slave.”Tori just gulped.

After a rough day of moving around props, bringing water to employees,and organizing papers, Tori was dead tired. Without her realizing after she had justautomaticallyslouched on a chair to rest.She would just rest for a few moments then go home. Her eyes slowly closed and she crossed her legs.

Suddenly she felther arm being grabbed. She was about to fight off whoever it was but then she was blindfolded. In the end she began to lose consciousness when a wetpiece of fabric was placed over .“Mmmph.” She tried to speak, but eventually out.

When she woke up she found herself sitting on a chair. Someone untied her blind fold and she then looked around her.

“Welcome to Shinohara Co.!” shouted some people that she recognized from work and others she didn't know. She still didn't know anyone by name yet. For some strange reason they had brought her to a bar to welcome her to the company.

“Surprisingly you were pretty light to carry here.” one man said. “Could it be that you’re actually a girl?”

“There is no way in hell that brat’s a girl.” said Kazuki. Tori glared at Kazuki.

“Why the heck did you guys bring me here?” she asked. “To make fun of me?”

“Exactly.” Said Kazuki. He had a smug smile on his face. “And it’s not like I wanted to be here either. It was his idea.”

“Let’s have a drink,”said the guy from earlier. He poured her a glass of sake and offered it to her.

“No really, I shouldn’t.” stated Tori. She was still underage and what would her father say?

“Are you denying our hospitality?” said the one who had poured her the drink.

“I can’t hold my liquor well.” She lied.It wouldn’t be good if the fellow employees found out she was underage.  

“This is coming from the person who drinks beer?” stated Kazuki. It was tempting to take him up on that offer but she knew that no good would come out of it.

“Let’s play the truth or dare game!” said the secretary. “If you can’t tell the truth or do the dare you will have to drink a glass of sake as a penalty.”

The guy who had poured her the sake introduced himself as the special effects person in the studio. He decided to ask Tori a question first.“What kind of girl do you like?” This angered her, although people mistook her for a boy this was the first time it was pushed this far. 

“I don’t like girls.” said Tori. What kind of question is this? And everybody just looked at her strangely. Why couldn’t they even think about the possibility that she was a girl?

“Well.” said the special effects guy. “I guess in this society and age its okay to be…”

“Don’t say that.” said the secretary. “Maybe he has had a bad experience.” She continued. “Sweetie, I think you’recute, want to go out with me.” Obviously the secretary’s “womanly” charms weren’t working on Tori.It actually kind of disgusted her. The woman was twice her age.  

After a few rounds Kazuki the director became drunk. He had refused to give out any answersand decided to take the penalty shots of sake instead.After a whole round of people asking him questions (people she didn’t’ recognize)it was the special effect person’s turn to ask a question. “What is it that has made you such a cold person?”

“I refuse to answer that.” Said Kazuki in an automatic voice. He looked extremely drunk and Tori doubted that he could down another glass. The only thing that would save him is if he took up the dare.

“Fine,” said the special effect guy. The director was going to lose and have to raise all of their salaries if he threw up.Something he definitely did not want to do.He had to take the dare thought Tori. “I dare you to…” Yes, yes keep going. “Kiss Tori kun!” ‘Shoot the director has to kiss me???’

The director hugged Tori and kissed her. Darn it that was her first kiss! He then draped his arm around her shoulders and had a big impossible smile on his face. “More please!” he shook his hand with the cup in it. Soon after doing so he fainted and layon Tori’s lap, a strange smile still glued to his face.

Everyone was in shock. The director had never displayed this sort of friendliness before. Was he really gay? However, this was their first time seeing him drunk. He became like that because he was so stubborn. Or maybe had Tori caused his friendly side to emerge?

The next morning Kazuki woke up from bed and went to his office like usual. He couldn’t figure out why his head hurt and he couldn’t remember anything from last night. He took two painkillers and drank a glass of water. He looked at the time and called his secretary to bring Tori up.

Tori, who had woken up an hour before Kazuki was frightened, should she or shouldn’t she go to work today? After the way her director had acted, it scared her to go to work. But what scared her most was the fact that he would take her to the police. She decided to go. On her skateboard she went with high concentration skating carefully as to not cause any more accidents. She arrived in the huge offices parking lot and unbuckled her helmet.

When she walked into the lobby she got strange stares from everyone. But when she tried to make eye contact they would all look away. There was only the director, the secretary, and the special effect person there last night. How had news spread so fast? The secretary walked up to her and bowed. “The director would like to see you now.” They took an elevator which led up to the penthouse on the 12^thfloor. They stepped out of the elevator and right in front of them was a door labeled Director Kazuki’s Office.

The secretary sends Tori in then takes her leave. “Come here.” Beckoned Kazuki. Oh no! Don’t tell me that he is going to do something again. “Why are you ten minutes late!” he shouted.

“I’m-m sorry.” replied Tori.

“Anyways, do you happen to remember what happened last night?” Kazuki asked. “My memory is a bit fuzzy.”

“N-nothing,” shereplied. “I did nothing but sort papers while you were in your office looking over some documents.”

“Why do you appear so nervous?” He asked. “I’m not that mad about you being late. Unless you did something wrong. Don’t tell me that you lost a file! Get out of my office and fix the problem, whatever it is.”

“The problem is what you did.” Tori whispered to herself.

“What?” asked Kazuki. “Just get out of here!” At least he didn’t seem to remember but it looked as if he was the only person in the office who didn’t know what happened last night. Tori just left. She had to put up with him for only 59 more days. Little did she know that the contract wasn’t the only destiny the two shared between them?