The Spur of the Moment.

"Wait!" Mai hurries, "Naru, wait!"

He stops by the steps in the gate and looks away from his book. He waits until she reaches him but she had other ideas and blurts a sentence so loud that a few students avoid her, thinking they were intruding in on an intimate moment.

"Will you go on a date with me?"

She knows she had gotten his full attention when he closes the book he was reading and after, he turns to fully face her. His hand with the book hangs to his side, waiting for her to continue or maybe catch her breath.

"I mean, I've always meant to ask you again… but I was afraid that you would, you know." After you rejected me that time during high school. Mai shifts from one foot to another, and stares at the spot past his head, her face a bright shade of red. "Just one date. Before you go."

He stares at her blankly, as if trying to look for an answer. "Go where?"

"To England," she says, looking at the floor. "I mean, I heard about your parent's letter and the numerous job offers you've got because, heaven knows, you are more than qualified."

When he doesn't reply, she gathers up the courage to meet his eyes. And he is staring back at her, a startling look that she has never seen before seems to have taken over his normally controlled composure. His eyes flickers to someone behind her and she is vaguely aware of the familiar snickers of the misfits called Yasuhara and Eugene.

He furrows his eyebrows and sends both guys a look that wouldn't only have withered flowers, but also let the place they'd grown on burned, salted, and quite possibly barren for the next few years to come.

"Mai," he says finally and, much to her embarrassment, she jumps in surprise of finally being addressed. "I'm not going to England."

"It's fine, I— what?" Her stomach plummets to the ground, please let the ground swallow her whole. "But G-Gene said- and Yasu. Oh. Oh."

"Exactly," he says. "I'm surprised you actually believed, but then again, if my brother had put in a word. Eugene can be very convincing."

"He said you were going to be part of the management in your father's company." Mai says, wanting to pull out her hair for her naivety. Then could you please pretend you heard nothing from me and can we remain as friends, or whatever it is that we are?

"I am. Martin is opening a branch in Shibuya and he wants me to be the president." Oliver says. "And I am accepting applications for my assistant, but if you would apply you have the job."

"I— what? Y-you're offering me a job?" Mai splutters, it never occurred to her that Oliver, of all people, would ever consider her. Throughout their school years, (half of her senior year and the entire time in university,) she's always thought he thinks of her less than… well. "Like a secretary?"

"An assistant," he corrects. "You've been my project partner for two years, you know, more or less, how the job goes."

"Yes, but isn't Yasuhara more qualified than I?"

He rolls his eyes, "He's already hired along with Eugene, the position is yours if you want it."

"Of course!" Mai beams, "I'd love to be your assistant, thank you, Naru."

And she said it in a tone that hints the end of the conversation, hoping that he'd forgotten her sudden confession.

"Since I've more or less offered you a job that would require you to see me every day, it might come a disappointment to you if we have more than that one date you have offered." He says, that rare flash of a smirk flusters her as he continues, "Let's limit it to one date then."

"NO!" Mai exclaims, adrenaline pumping, and her face is flushed again. "We can go on more than one date, in fact, would you go on numerous dates with me? Of course not all in one day, but you get the idea!"

She immediately keeps her mouth pursed after that and buries her face into her hands, Yasuhara and Eugene were laughing so loud somewhere around the corridor and the few students that were leaving earlier had already gone.

Somehow, in a stupor, she manages to peek through her fingers and weakly asks, "Does that mean we're dating?"

On the corridor, Yasuhara films everything on the phone.

"Here shows the birth of a new couple," Yasuhara says. Eugene lifted his hand up in the air and his boyfriend grins, giving him a high-five.

Snippet #1: Mai's High School Confession.

"I like you!" She exclaimed.

He looked at her as if she had grown two heads, and she regretted her choice. It must have been too much to confess to a guy who transferred into her class in the middle of the school year.

And then Eugene, his twin brother, walks in on them. Mai flushed at being caught but Gene gave her a thumbs-up.

Oliver sighed, "Gene, Taniyama says she likes you."

Eugene froze in surprise. Mai's mouth fell open in surprise. They both looked at each other, speechless.

"Are you fucking insane?" Eugene said in their mother tongue and Mai had been around Eugene long enough to know what he said.

Oliver raised his eyebrow at them but said nothing further.

Mai was numb, confused, but not so much hurt.

"Ugh! I cannot believe I am related to you!" Gene said, placing a hand around Mai's shoulders, "Well, might as well take advantage of that stupidity, at least we've got accepted to the same university. Noll's going to Harvard anyway."

Mai immediately brightened up, if only a bit, at the remembrance of her acceptance letter.

Snippet #2: Later, When He Went Home.

"You said you were going to Harvard too," Noll said when they reached the apartment.

"No, I said I got accepted at Harvard too," Gene said. "Mai got accepted to Tōdai, and so did Yasuhara."

Noll furrowed his brows, "You took the entrance exam for the University of Tokyo?"

"So did you," Gene passed him an envelope. "You got accepted too. Tōdai is a research university so the parents said it was okay."

He read the contents of the envelope and hummed.

A few weeks later, Oliver's name was listed along the list of freshmen university students.

Scene #3: On the Job.

The hold he had on her arms are so tight, she feels as if he would leave a bruise.

"Oliver, they're gone now." Mai gently coos, and Ayako is fussing around the others while she keeps Naru awake.

"Don't leave my side," he says, afraid that something would happen to her while he is unconscious.

"I won't," Mai nods, and Ayako wants to take over already but he won't let go of her.

"I promise," she adds.

And he lets his defense down and succumbs into darkness, hand still loosely wrapped around her wrist. Ayako complains about his attitude but starts her examination.

"Honestly," Gene mutters, "you'd think he was dying."

Because honestly, Mai had gone through worst in the previous cases, and all the current case did was try to drag her into the dark tunnel of a man-hole in the middle of the forest. And he simply just tried to help her when it tugged them both down.

"Two years into the job and he still thinks every ghost is out there to hunt you," Takigawa grumbles.

"I think that asylum case scarred him," Yasuhara adds. "It wasn't his fault his girlfriend has no sense of direction."

"That was one time!" Mai exclaims.

"You were on the operating bed, clothes torn, and about to be cut open in front of him," Ayako hisses, still mad about her for a case that happened on their first year of operation. Ayako grabs her hand and places it to rest on Naru's hair. "Don't blame the guy and do your job properly."

Mai flushes in shame and proceeds to run her fingers through his dark hair, because nothing can compare to the feelings she has towards her boyfriend.

A/N: Ah, got to love me some Mai x Naru. These are all connected, the first one is the actual story, then I added the scene mentioned; Mai's previous confession. Then Oliver's decision to stay at Japan for some reasons.