13 Mahiko Zachi

———SETSUI'S PERSPECTIVE———

"Setsui-san!"

I turned my head towards the direction of what I had assumed to be Syan-san's voice.

(In Korean)

"Mr. Setsui."

A woman wearing a white Ryley midi bodycon dress with a red Gucci coat hanging around her shoulders stood in front of me, blocking my view.

"What a coincidence meeting you here.", said the lady who goes by the name of Shiya, a popular Korean solo artist who debuted in Japan not long ago.

Apparently she also starred in the movie as one of the main characters with Mahiko, acting as his lover in the play.

"Ah yes. Nice to meet you too Miss Shiya."

"Oh please, don't need for the formalities, just call me Shiya. Would you like to head upstairs together?"

"Oh um, sorry, I am actually waiting for someone."

"Is that so? Who may that lucky person be?", she asked with slight curiosity in her voice.

"My plus-one.", I replied with a smile, trying to seem as polite as possible since I could not just straight up reject her on the spot.

"Ah! I see. But I'm a bit embarrassed, I forgot to invite someone to attend this party with me. So um... would you please do me a favor and follow me up first? Surely, your guest will be able to make her way to the gathering area herself right?"

"Oh bu-!"

Before I could finish my sentence, she grabbed my hand and linked our arms together.

"We seem to be attracting a lot of attention from the cameras and reporters outside, let's go in first.", she whispered to me.

I sighed.

I could not bear attract more attention than I already had, so I just went along with her.

Syan-san should be able to find me.

———SYAN'S PERSPECTIVE———

(In Japanese)

"Setsui-san??"

Who is that woman he is talking to?

I squinted my eyes to get a closer look at both of them who were already inside the building.

OMG! It was Shiya Kwon! I can't believe she actually came to attend this gathering too.

Come to think of it, I never did ask Tanaka-san or Setsui-san the purpose of this celebration.

I'm such a doofus... Sigh...

Ah! She held his hand! Now they are walking away together!

"Wait! Setsui-san!"

"Excuse me, young lady, may we see your invitation?", the security guard standing at the entranceway asked me.

Invitation?? What invitation?

"Um, I am the plus-one of Haru Setsui from the Setsui Corporation."

"Invitation please."

"Wait, there seems to be a misunderstanding, Setsui-san has the invitation. I really am his plus-one."

"Aren't we all?", he said sarcastically, "so, the invitation?"

"I... don't have one.", I told him.

"Well, no invitation means no entrance. Sorry young lady, but we cannot have crazy fans and admirers like you entering the building secretly. Please cooperate with us and leave at once."

Crazy fans?? Crazy admirers??! ME??!

Was this security guard seriously being like this?!

I turned away immediately and walked to the side. I took out my phone and clicked onto my contacts.

Wait. I don't have his number, I can't call him, and Tanaka-san just left me here. What am I going to do??

I started panicking... how was I going to get in??

All entrances were blocked and guarded with security staffs, there was no way I could enter that easily.

Okay. Breathe Aki, deep breaths. Now is not the time to be panicking. I'm sure after a while when Setsui-san realizes I'm not here yet, he will come down to personally find me. I just need to wait.

Yeah, let's just wait, that's all I can do at this point.

The main entrance was SWARMING with reporters, cameras and fans. It was crazy!

I guess there will be many famous people attending this celebration tonight.

Sigh... when was he going to come down?

———30 MINUTES LATER (SETSUI'S POV

)———

Where is she? Why hasn't she reached yet? It has been like half an hour since the gathering had started.

"My my, if it isn't Setsui-san! How have you been?"

I turned around to see yet another CEO of some small company.

"Oh good evening sir, nice to see you again..."

I couldn't even leave if I wanted to, people just kept coming and starting conversations with me one after another. And it wasn't helping that Shiya was constantly beside me like glue, she wouldn't even leave me for a minute.

What's her problem? Still, I placed on my professional smile and carried on with the never-ending approaches from the higherups.

Where was Syan-san? I hope she is okay.

Speaking of missing people...

"Where is Mahiko? Isn't he suppose to be the main star today?", I asked Shiya.

"Oh! Apparently, I heard from some others, that this gathering was actually created by his manager and that they were trying to get Mahiko to come and show his face for once.", she replied softly.

"Ah I see.", that makes more sense now.

The Mahiko that I knew would NEVER bother holding a celebration for his own movies.

I turned to the elevator and saw many staff running around as if something was wrong.

"Please excuse me for a moment Shiya, I need to use the washroom."

I rushed away from her as quickly as I could and disappeared before her sight before she could say another word.

"Excuse me, is something wrong?", I confronted one of the staff.

The young man dressed in a waiter's outfit bowed to me and responded, "You do not have to worry about this issue Mister Setsui, we will have it under control soon."

The waiter boy then tried to run away but I stopped him in his path and asked again with a stern voice, "Is something going on?"

The young man gulped and finally confessed, "Actually, we are all trying to search for Sir Zachi. He was here at the party just moments ago, but suddenly went missing, so we are all trying to find him now."

Missing? Haha. Knowing him, he was probably trying to run away.

Nevertheless, it was an issue that needed to be solved quickly, we could not have the main host of the party be gone.

"Thank you for telling me young boy. I appreciate your help a lot.", I threw on my smile and turned away from him, speedwalking towards the elevator.

I was going to go find him.

———MEANWHILE ON SYAN'S SIDE———

"It's been 30 minutes! Why hasn't he come down yet?! Did he

forget about me?!"

I sat back down on the flight of stairs that was right outside the building.

The night breeze blew, it was chilly.

It was the beginning of spring and the atmosphere was rather cooling.

Especially when nightfall came around, it would become quite cold when the wind blew.

*achoo*

I sneezed and started getting fed up with waiting for him.

That's it! I am going to go in there THIS INSTANT.

I stood up, turned around, and suddenly bumped into yet, another person.

Seriously...I have a severe problem with bumping into people behind me...

But this time, I was going to fall down the stairs!!!

"Woah! Careful!!"

A warm hand suddenly grabbed ahold of my waist.

I looked up and saw a man wearing a dark hoodie covering his head.

Since it was dark, I could not see much.

However, the light from the building allowed me to see half his face.

I gasped.

"Mahiko Zachi."