"It's alright. I think you look lovely, even with the pudding."

Ms. Kilara blushed another light shade of read at the memory of Mr. Kyuzo's words. Rolling her eyes, she tried to shove thoughts of their date last week into the back of her head. Entering the elevator, she straitened and pressed the button to her office floor.

Slowly, she felt it come to life under her feet as it began its ascend to the seventeenth floor.

Opening her small mirror, Ms. Kilara took in her sight. Her hair was down for once in light curls, with the exception of two hair combs on either side of her head, keeping her hair from falling in her face.

"You have lovely hair."

The combs were an expensive gold that were so polished that you could see your reflection in them. They had pretty swerves that dressed the top of each comb. She had gotten the combs as a birthday gift from her family two years ago and had never had the courage to wear them until now, always thinking that the occasion would never call for them.

Floor 3.

Her outfit was quite the sight. Her usual gray suit jacket and matching skirt was replaced by a light blue dress that swept right above her knees. It pinned her at her waist and breasts, but still held a modest loose look to it. The color was not too high, but not low in a 'v' cut with no sleeves to it. She had a necklace on too, that was gold and easily matched her hairpins.

She had on light natural make up to add to her appearance. Normally, she didn't dress up this much just to go to work.

Floor. 7.

But today was the first day that Ms. Kilara would see Mr. Kyuzo since their miss – hap date last week. Kilara shrunk at her thoughts and reached to press some more buttons on the elevator to stall for time before she reached her cubicle on the seventeenth floor.

Floor 9.

She recalled that after their ride on the apartment elevator she had gotten off covered in chocolate pudding and completely embarrassed.

"It's alright. I think you look lovely, even with the pudding."

She wouldn't have gone through with the date if her boss hadn't coaxed her into his car with his gently words and compliments. Fortunately, there were no more incidents until after they had gotten to the restaurant and had ordered their meals.

The waiter just had to screw things up by tripping over a chair and accidentally bumping into her purse and spilling its content all over the floor. The poor fool got her into so much trouble. She had completely forgotten about her resignation papers in her purse, being too caught up in the thought that her boss was coming back to her apartment after dinner.

Ironic that it never happened.

Floor 11.

She should have known that he would be a gentleman and assist her in cleaning up her purse's contents. It was just by sure chance that he would have come across her resignation papers.

Sucking in a quick breath. Ms. Kilara stretched out her hand and stopped the elevator completely on floor 12.

'I can take the stairs from here.' She thought to herself as the door rang and she stepped out. Glancing around, Ms. Kilara sagged with relieved to see everyone at work, taking little or no interest in her. Apparently no one knew of her date with the company's top boss.

Timidly, Kilara made her way to the stairs on the other side of the floor. Her thoughts still lingering on last week.

She hadn't meant for it to happen, honest to all. But the look on his face after reading her papers just made Ms. Kilara feel miserable.

He hadn't said anything as he silently handed her papers back. Smiling sadly with a face she had never seen on him, he asked her in a small voice if it was alright if he resigned a bit early.

She was so shocked and disappointed that she hadn't responded and had been force to watched as he whispered a distant goodnight and left. She had been so paralyzed by what took place that it had taken her an extra ten minutes before she had left the restaurant.

Of course, part to blame for her delayed departure was the fact that she had to finish cleaning up her purse, but the effect was still the same.

And now here she was climbing stairs in a fancy dress with her high-heeled shoes in one hand, trying to delay her time before she reached floor seventeen where she would no doubt have a lovely confrontation with her boss.

Sighing sadly at what could have been, Kilara watched as she passed floor thirteen. Unknowingly picking up speed in her distressed state.

'Oh, why do both our offices have to be on the seventeenth floor!' she whined to herself, watching with dread as she climbed her way past floor 15 with anticipating drama.

Back in his office, Mr. Kyuzo watched the clock intensely as the hour rang up four minutes before nine a.m. – four minutes before his secretary came in for work.

Mr. Kyuzo's eyebrow twitched at the thought of her. He recalled that evening with her and how betrayed and saddened he had felt seeing that after all the time he had spent waiting for her had been wasted. He knew now she had just wanted to leave the company and had been kissing up to him.

Kyuzo flinched. It was a fact that still stung.

At first he had been furious and had come back to his townhouse with the plot to fire her. But after some thought, he realized, she was resigning and after a few phone calls, had settled to have her office moved to the other side of the floor and far away from him.

Mr. Kyuzo just couldn't stand the thought of having her cubicle across from his office one more day after what had happened. Her being that close to him was just too painful. Besides, she would be gone in a few days. It was only a temporary solution anyway.

Sighing to himself, Mr. Kyuzo looked at the clock. It read one minute until nine. Rising out of his chair with a bit of sluggishness, he reluctantly made his way out of his office.

His secretary as of yet didn't know about her new cubicle whereabouts and would no doubt come back here to her usual spot. Mr. Kyuzo anticipated such a move and planned to have someone inform her of her new office so he wouldn't have to tell her himself.

But knowing that she would be close to him, even for such a short time was too much for him to handle. So he decided to leave for a little while.

"I think I'll take a walk."

Panting to herself, Ms. Kilara looked at her watched. It read nine exactly.

"Great, I'm late!" She groaned to herself. Picking up her speed, she made it to the seventeenth floor and paused to catch her breath before sliding on her shoes and making her way steadily to her cubicle, taking extra care to be as quiet as a mouse.

She made a silent prayer for peace and turned the corner to her office, only to see it completely vacant, save for a few scraps of paper.

Her first reaction to such a sight was to assume that she was in the wrong cubicle, but after a couple of rational seconds she realized it was her cubicle. Further more, she realized that someone had moved all her possessions.

'Or thrown them away.' She thought grimly. Her thoughts only worsened when she saw a man moving what she assumed were his own items into her office. The man wasn't rude, but he took no notice of her as he busied by her, making quite a few trips from the cubicle and back again. Only pausing after he was finished to ask her,

"Are you the previous occupant of this cubicle?" Ms. Kilara stood silently as more thoughts of rejection and despair entered her mind all the while tears collected in her eyes.

"What does it matter?" She cried suddenly before turning swiftly around and jolting clear across the room and as far away from there as she possibly could, failing to hear what the rest of the man had to say.

Panting, Ms. Kilara picked up speed while she wiped viciously at her teary blurred vision. She had no idea where her legs were taking her but at that moment, she didn't care.

"How could he do this to me?"She asked sadly to herself. As she turned a sharp corner and found herself in an empty lounge.

"Am I really that awful? I didn't mean to hurt him. I was even starting to rethink my resignation!" Crying loudly she made her way remorsefully into the room, reaching out to a vending machine closest to her to steady her balance.

"Why did this have to happen!" Her voice died out after that as her words became quiet sobs.

Reflecting Ms. Kilara looked into her reflection through the glass window on the vending machine. Her teary eyes reminded her of another time. A time when she and her ex had first broken up. It had been six months after they had first started going out and they had gotten into a petty fight and had hurt each other's feelings with rash words that neither of them meant.

Of course, they had gotten back together in a record of seven hours but it had hurt all the same.

Ironically, the last fight that they had hadn't been as serious.

'It's because he was slipping away from me and the feelings that I had had for him were gone.'

"I only cry about people who I think are important to me!" She realized to herself, crying louder with the clarity.

"I wanted to give Mr. Kyuzo a chance! I really liked that guy!" Kilara was surprised that she was getting so upset over a guy she had only gone out with once, but in an after thought, she realized that she had known him for a while now and had on secret levels always been fond of him.

"I hate this!" She shouted suddenly after her tears had dried someone. Viciously, she pounded against the vending machine, all the while sinking against it for support.

It had been quite some time since Ms. Kilara had had any time to let anything out, being the reserved person that she was. And she found that she felt a lot better afterwards, so she continued. The fact that no one was in the lounge room made things all the better.

"I don't even care if this costs me my job. I just want a chance to make things right with him." She continued as the drama finally caught up with her and she began to exhaust herself.

"Those stupid papers…" She muttered to herself as she sagged into a sitting position on the floor. Her hair now resembled an exotic mess, but Ms. Kilara didn't care. Absently, she banged her fists once more against the vending machine, still finding it nice to vent in such a way.

And after realizing that her voice was now hoarse from all the excessive crying, she found that she could still hit the machine with non-productive force to satisfy her frustration and angered sadness.

"…I'll rip them up." She vowed to herself as she momentarily closed her eyes in drowsiness and rested her forehead against the vending machine. After a few minutes of utter silence, she opened her eyes and leaned away from the vending machine to study the damage done to it.

Surprisingly it only had a few small dents in the window and on the inside a few of the supplies had fallen from their rightful positions on the racks.

"Wow. This thing is sturdy." Kilara muttered to herself and sniffed before standing up to study the machine some more.

"I don't think anyone could actually break this thing." She thought, happy to let her mind wonder to such a trivial matter.

Timidly, Ms. Kilara made a fist and swung half-heartedly into the vending machine window. It made a dull thud and the window shook a little, but aside from that it was still intact. The only damage done was to her small fists that were so unused to such treatment such as punching vending machines.

They mildly burned and Ms. Kilara reflected with a scowl that they would most likely be red and swollen tomorrow, but at the moment she didn't care.

Bracing herself, she made another fist before swinging it.

"That's company property, my dear." So surprised by the sudden voice, that Ms. Kilara jumped and squealed making it impossible for to continue her action of punching the vending machine. Caught in complete surprise, Ms. Kilara realized in shame that she hadn't even turned around to survey the lounge room and check if anyone was in there before she started her tantrum.

"I must admit. I thought I had you figured out," Ms. Kilara trembled at the easily recognized voice. Keeping her gaze down, she brought her head up to eye level with the speaker that she could now detect was in the far side of the room. She could almost feel his smirk.

"but that show you just put on completely proved me wrong." Shakily, she sucked in a deep breath before bringing her unreadable eyes up to meet Mr. Kyuzo's.