New Life : A Second Chance

"Okay, so it\'s pretty simple as to what we want to know," Kyle said, "Things like location and such isn\'t what we\'re interested in as that has already been looked at. What we want to see is customer service."

"Like, how long they take to serve us, how polite are they and all that, right?" Xing Han said.

"Yup," Kyle replied, "Though I\'m going to do worse than that."

"Meaning?" Xing Han asked.

"I\'ll deliberately create trouble, then see how they deal with the matter," Kyle explained.

"So, do we split up?"

"That\'s not necessary. We can do the bad-cop, good-cop routine," Kyle answered.

Xing Han thought about it, then said, "Sounds good."

Kyle gave him another file, "Here are the employees who are working today. The owner\'s son will be there, as the manager, so it\'s the best time to check it out."

"So that\'s why you want to be the trouble maker, huh?" Xing Han said with a knowing smile.

"Heh," was all Kyle would say.

Kyle dressed up like a normal teenager, opting for his hooded sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers. He had a single stud earring and some thin leather bracelets. He wasn\'t planning to look like a gangster nor act like one, but rather, he was going to be an unaccommodating and difficult customer to please.

As they walked into the restaurant, Kyle looked at his watch briefly and waited. There was no one nearby and none of the servers actually looked at their direction. Finally, after a minute, Kyle simply walked over to a table and sat down.

He sat back, looking about and saw that there were a few customers. It wasn\'t the lunch crowd yet, though from the looks of it, it didn\'t appear as if this place would reel in the customers. Kyle frowned at that. The accounts given didn\'t seem to tally with what he was seeing here.

Of course, one could say that this was a \'slow\' day but it did not explain why the servers weren\'t even aware that they had entered - and sat down. Their table didn\'t have a menu, which should already be an indication that they hadn\'t ordered yet.

Who was assigned to this table? No one?

Finally, one server came into view and Kyle just stared at him. The server, however, wasn\'t looking around but lost in his own world. Rather, he was engrossed with his work of carrying the food to the table, but even after placing it down, he did not look around to see if anyone needed his attention - or if he should be attending to anyone.

Xing Han had been quiet this entire time, but he saw the way Kyle\'s eyes narrowed and the slowly forming dark cloud above him. Though he said that he was going to be the \'bad\' guy here, it looked like he didn\'t really need to act it out.

Memories of Company LV came to mind when he went to do the \'cleansing\'.

At that time, his cold demeanor was something he put on in order to do it. Right now, though, it appeared as if his anger had been ignited and it was slowly being fanned as time ticked by.

Xing Han decided that being the \'good\' guy wasn\'t needed in this case anymore.

He was just here to watch the show.

? ? ? ?

Sayuri looked at her new apartment.

It was a studio apartment. A super single* bed that had a bookcase at the foot of it, which basically separated it from the living room. There was a small dining table right beside the living room and next to it was the kitchen.

For the first time, she would be living out of her house and on her own. This seemed like a drastic step for her to take, but it\'s not like she could complain since she had basically failed the past two missions.

Fortunately, she knew how to do basic household chores. Her grandfather was rather \'old school\' in the belief that even though they had lots of maids and people working at the house, it did not mean she would do nothing.

Her room was her own responsibility to keep clean. Knowing how to cook was essential as food is the basic necessity of life - grandfather didn\'t believe in eating out or having meals delivered. Eating with the family once a day was important.

Thus, cooking and cleaning was not an issue.

There was a washing machine, a television and the kitchen had all the necessary equipment (pots and pans, cutlery etc). She opened the fridge and saw that it was well stocked. She closed it and checked the cupboards.

Spices, a box of cereal, were among the items there.

What made her a little bit sad was seeing that there was only one dinnerwear set. She touched the plate, bowl, cup ... running her fingers on them with a sigh.

Alone.

She was alone again.

She turned to look at her apartment, the place that she\'d be in for one year and took a deep breath. Grabbing her suitcase that she had left at the door, she went to her closet and started unpacking. She didn\'t have a lot of personal items.

Her clothes went in quickly and three sets of the Sakura Academy uniform were hung up. Her books were put on the bookshelf and her stationaries on her desk. She gingerly took out a framed photo and put it on her desk.

She sat down, putting her chin on her hands as she looked at the picture.

"Welcome to my new place, Mama and Papa," she said softly, "I won\'t let you down. Just wait and see. Your little Sayu will become stronger."

She touched the picture, while a tear fell down her cheek.

"I promise."