Miki's PoV

My head snapped to the right, shocked to see him there. I've never seen him with an expression that scary.

"Let go of her right now." he stated firmly. The two boys in front of me obeyed right away. They took a few steps back.

"But we were ordered by--"

"Get out of my sight." Asher says, a dangerously blank expression on his face.

They quickly scurried away.

"...Thanks."

"It's no problem, Nolan went a bit far here, anyway." He smiled at me, emphasizing his dimples and bright brownish yellow eyes.

"Wait, come again?" I say, taking a step closer to the male. He just chuckled.

"He only told them to scare you, not to almost rape you." His expression was ironically carefree as he spoke.

"Come on, I'll walk you home." He says, "I didn't drive today, anyways."

I push my bike along the way while walking with Asher down the street.

"Don't you have some sort of fancy limo to pick you up?" I ask out of curiosity.

He hung down his head, his jet black hair shadowed his eyes.

"They're too busy with my brother." He mumbled, barely audible though I still caught it.

I was about to apologize for asking, when a girl randomly ran up to him. She looked really angry as she swung up an arm, attempting to slap him, but Asher moves faster and dodged out of her reach.

"You son of a troll!" she cursed, "you liar! I was a fool to have ever believed you thought of me as special!"

Two other girls, probably her friends, pulled her away right then with concerned expressions.

"Who was that?" I ask.

"...Not sure. Maybe a past girlfriend?" he scratched his head, he looked genuinely confused.

Exactly how many girlfriends has he had to have not even recognize one?

"Here's fine. See you tomorrow." I part half a block away from the hospital. Asher was a lot easier to talk to than I thought, and he's sunny...most of the times.

"Always here to help a pretty lady out." He says with a classic wink before heading down the way we came from. So he went out of his way to walk me?

"Miki!" someone shouted from across the street when I was right in front of the hospital mom was in.

"Baba?" I ask, feeling weird when I realize I just said my own surname out loud. Isn't it so weird when you meet someone with the same surname as yourself?

"Saw you outside. You're visiting your mom, right?" he asked as soon as he ran up to me, "can I accompany you?"

"Sure...."

I have mixed feelings about this, why? Probably because he half-threatened me the first time we met.

"Hi, mom!" I greet cheerfully. She returned the smile equally, but then her smile somehow froze when she spot who was behind me. I look behind me. Baba's expression was unreadably shocked.

Several thoughts ran through my mind as I looked back and forth of the two gaping at each other, just as I was about to say something...

"Ms. Miki Baba? I'd like to talk about your mother's condition." The doctor called me out at the last minute, and the worst possible time.

"...what..?" I heard Baba whisper before I left the room.

"Ms. Arian's condition has suddenly took a turn." The doctor explained the chart and mother's condition for me. I understood all the terminologies and process.

"...My suggestion is two more months, Miki." Doctor looks at me with apologetic eyes.

"I understand. Thank you." I say. As soon as he left I let out a long sigh. I've got to get money as soon as I can.

I head back to mom's hospital room.

Baba's PoV

I didn't feel like myself at all that day at my usual bar, where the ladies couldn't stop talking to me.

I was on my way back to the hotel, when I spot Miki in front of the city hospital. Why not? It'll be a good distraction. I called out to her.

She opened a door to a private room, I peeked inside from behind her at the perfectly white room.

"Hi, mom!" she says, sounding cheerful. I heard a gasp, so I shift my gaze to the patient who's lying in bed.

I blinked.

I will forever recognize those pair of eyes.

"Ms. Miki Baba? I'd like to talk about your mother's condition." A voice called from behind me, whom I assumed was the doctor.

"...what did he just say..?" it slipped out before I could process. Miki passed me and out the door. Come to think of it, Miki never told us her surname.

I lock my gaze with Arian's. She hasn't changed at all. She fidgeted uneasily as she finally drew back and looked elsewhere.

All of a sudden, everything came together. Why Miki has so many of my and her features, why she has my surname, why she's calling Arian 'mom'.

"..You left because you were pregnant?" I ask softly while taking a few steps closer to her.

Her shocked eyes met my calm ones. Hesitantly, she nodded, then she clutched onto the bed sheets.

"Why did you leave? Couldn't you have trusted me?" I stand beside her bed and lean down towards her.

"I-I'm sorry...I didn't know what to do...I panicked...." Her timid voice instantly washed away any sort of anger I might've had. All in all, I realize I miss her. A lot.

Just as I lean in, attempting for an embrace. There were footsteps coming near the door. I almost fell when Arian abruptly pushed me away. Man, she's stronger than I remember!

I stood against the wall to gain my balance when Miki walked in with her head hung down.

"Mom, two more months." She says with her eyebrows tightly knitted together.

"O-oh...is that so...." Arian says distantly. I'm fairly sure Miki meant that she needed to stay in the hospital for two more months. No wonder she was so worried about money that other day.

Miki glanced at her watch: "I have to go. My part time at the convenience store starts in an hour. See you, mom."

And with that, she left again. Probably forgetting that I'm still here.

"How long have you been in the hospital already?" after a few seconds, I sit down on the chair by Arian's bed.

"...four months now."

I frowned, "and you haven't even thought of contacting me even once?"

"I-I didn't—"

"Do you know what Miki is going through trying to get the money?" I unconsciously raise my voice half an octave. Natural over protectiveness to my own daughter flushes over.

"W-well, she has a bunch of part time jobs, that must be it...."

"Are you lying to me, or do you really not know?" I lower my voice, "Miki went around black markets to steal things, although only from crooks. That's how she ended up at the Tres Spades underground auction."

The extremely surprised expression on her face alone tells me that she didn't know a thing about this.

"What?!" she almost jumped up. She lost her balance and tilted over, looking as if going to fall off the bed. Under reflex, I quickly reach my arms out and held her arms. At the physical contact, I realize how much I have missed her touch.

Seems like she felt the same. We didn't move from that position for nearly a minute, until she blinked several times, tears started to form in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry...." I held out my arms and she leaned into them.

"I miss you so much." I tucked her head under my chin, we stayed like that for a long time.

"...Baba?" she spoke up first, sounding guilty, "I don't think I'm ready to see Miki's reaction, yet."

"That's alright. I promise I'll take care of her while you're still here."

Miki's PoV

I sprinted down the campus way as a hoard of students were chasing after me and throwing random stuff at me. Every single teacher just glanced over, then did nothing.

Shiz, these people....

I made my way into an empty classroom and shut the door behind me. The hoard ran past me. I let out a small sigh in relief.

I turn my head, only to get completely startled when I see Hanazawa, calmly sitting at a desk, staring silently at me.

"H-Hanazawa...sorry to interrupt you. But I had nowhere else to go." I bow when I saw an open book in front of him. I obviously intruded at his morning reading time.

He sighed, "It's alright."

I was slightly surprised when I heard his voice for the first time. It was more...masculine, than I would've thought.

"Nolan went too far again. He's just immature, I hope you don't mind too much." He says, his glasses reflecting the sun light coming in from the large windows. There was no emotion whatsoever shown on his face.

"You're asking me to not mind much?" I cross my arms, "when you're not even trying to stop him?"

The edges of his lips curl up into a rather attractive smirk that he pulls off perfectly as he spoke: "that's just our way to rule the school. Just so you know, all three of us come up with ideas."

"Even Asher?" I blurt out, since he seemed like such a laid back and care free guy.

"He plans most." Hanazawa says with a light scoff. "He plans simple pranks, I make preparations most of the times, and Nolan gets people to do what we say."

I blinked, "didn't know making others' lives miserable required so much planning and team work." I say sarcastically.

He looks away, his smile broadening, "you have no idea."

"And I don't ever want to." I walked over to him, "why do you guys do this? Just because one student talked back to him, you three forced him expelled?!"

He didn't even blink at me: "his fault for not watching his mouth. We merely taught him a lesson that in the future workforce world, you should never speak back to your superior, no matter what. Real life isn't a TV show or novel, most of the times, things don't go your way. He needed to know that."

I was at a loss for words and couldn't muster any come back, when the classroom door opened, students started to fill the classroom. I needed to get ready for my own class as well.

That guy is so weird...all three of these 'kings' are weird in their own way. Why would Asher help me when he knew Nolan planned those two boys to bother me?

Ugh, this is too complicated.

At lunch, I was sitting on the rooftop, alone again. I thought about Satomi. Could I blame her? After all, I stood up for her, but then now that I'm in trouble, she stopped talking to me completely.

When I got back to the penthouse that evening after my work, I was greeted by a rather awkward atmosphere.

"Um...hello?" I shifted around a little, nearly everybody in the lounge were staring right at me. Only Soryu and Eisuke had their heads buried in work.

"I totally should've guessed this sooner!" Ota exclaims with a large grin on this face, "You look exactly lik--"

"Shut up, Kisaki." Even Mamoru added in with a puff of his cigarette smoke.

I glance at them weirdly before heading into the suites. What're they talking about?

"Hey there...Miki." Baba greeted somehow hesitantly as I put my bag down on the couch.

"Evenin'." I say casually.

"So hey, I was thinking it's about time I introduce the auctions to you, don't you think?"

I look up at him. He had on a natural expression.

"Sure. When's the next one?" I ask. I'm used to illegal stuff now.

"The next one is tomorrow, starting at 10:00p.m."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

im sorry xP

Note: NEVER TYPE AT THE SAME TIME WHILE WATCHING TV it makes ur writing turn crappy ;-;

Thanks for reading~

August, 16th 2015

-Lily

Edited: July 16, 2016