Akira Kanbe

"And who are you?" The woman asked as she picked up the napkin, with her face cringed up in disgust. She carefully patted down her dress that had been stained with wine, all the while glaring at the man who stood in front of her.

Her face was awfully white and her makeup was loud. Her bright red lipstick didn't flatter her face and her arrogant demeanor did not match her for even a second. With just a glance, one would be able to tell that she was forcefully trying to fit in this place where she did not belong. She stood out like a plain rock, painted white to fit in with pearls.

"I'm extremely sorry about that," The man who had poured the drink on her by mistake apologized first before giving her an answer to the question that she had asked, "I'm Akira Kanbe."

Today seemed to really have not been going great for Akira. He was only told to make a small appearance at this party, but before he could leave, he somehow managed to get himself involved in this sticky situation.

The woman rolled her eyes almost to the back of her head as she heard him. She took a sharp breath in before she sharply glared at Akira and with her high-pitched voice, started complaining, "Do you even know how expensive this dress is?! It's a one-of-a-kind piece created by a famous designer from Italy! Even if you sell the whole wine company, it would still not be enough to buy this one dress! What the hell are you going to do about it now?! Can you even afford the dry cleaning?!"

Akira blinked in surprise as he took a closer look at the dress after hearing her.

"Ma'am, I was careless, I admit." Akira smiled as he spoke, "And I'm ready to pay for your dress, but…"

"But what?!" The woman snapped as she saw Akira looking around, "What now? Are you going to say you don't have enough money to pay?! Or are you worried about losing face if you say that?!"

Akira sighed as he heard the woman and replied in a low volume, "I am certainly worried about someone losing face but it's not my face that I'm worried about."

The woman scoffed as she heard the man. She immediately took out her phone from her purse and exclaimed, "If you don't want to pay, let me just call the police."

"And tell them that I poured wine over your dress by mistake?" Akira couldn't help but want to laugh as he asked, responding, "I don't think the police would appreciate having to waste their precious time on something so trivial."

"Then pay for it!" The woman snapped as she obediently put her phone back in her purse.

Akira bit his lower lip as he nodded and took out a cheque from his pocket, "Then let me pay for it. How much was it for?"

The woman's lips curled up in a small smirk as she heard this, but she refused to show any excitement evident on her face as she clicked her tongue and rudely replied, "Two hundred thousand dollars."

Akira, who was ready to write down the amount, stopped as he repeated it in his mind. He took a moment to react as he chuckled at the ridiculous amount that the woman had proudly blurted out.

"You're laughing?!" The woman's eyes widened as she glared at the man.

"Do you think this is funny?!" She fumed.

Akira shook his head as he tried to explain himself, "This situation is not funny, but did you know that you'll be able to earn a whole lot more than two hundred thousand dollars if you were to sell the wine company? The wine that was poured on your dress is more expensive than the price you claim your dress to be."

The woman gritted her teeth and got ready to retort, however, Akira didn't let the woman speak as he continued.

"And what's funnier is the fact that you actually think your fake dress is that expensive."

"..." Her face immediately turned white before turning red with embarrassment. She frantically looked around only to notice people talking and snickering among themselves after hearing Akira calling the woman out for lying.

"Y-You! How dare you say that?!" The woman shouted at the man as she tried to defend herself, "Why the hell would I lie?! Are your eyes just for decoration?! This dress is clearly an original!"

Akira smiled brightly as he heard this and responded with a nod, "My eyes are indeed perfectly working. That's why I'm able to say this. Your dress is fake."

"!!!" The woman certainly looked to be both pissed and embarrassed as she heard him but Akira didn't seem to care about it too much as he continued.

"The fact that you don't even know the designer clearly shows that there is a problem. This dress wasn't made by an Italian designer. It was actually made by a designer from Japan called Asahi Sato and was released last year as part of the spring collection from KS."

"H-How would you know that?! Don't spout bullsh*t!" The woman snapped and for a second there, Akira almost felt a little pity for the woman who kept on digging her own grave further.

"Of course, I would know," Akira sighed as he rubbed his head, making it look as if he was having a headache.

"And why the hell is that?!"

"Because I'm Akira Kanbe," Akira responded as he introduced himself once again and the woman was left confused as she still didn't manage to understand what he was trying to tell her.

However, thankfully, it seemed that everyone else present was not as clueless as her.

Nobody knew who had gasped first but after one did, the rest followed and the whole crowd that was gathered around them started whispering among themselves.

"Akira Kanbe, the C.E.O. of KS fashion group," Akira sighed as he spoke and the woman's eyes widened as she immediately understood the situation that she was in.

"It's really him!" Somebody from the crowd exclaimed in an excited tone and Akira smiled and nodded as he looked over toward the direction where the voice had come from.

"I-I…" The woman stuttered as she looked down, trying to hide her embarrassment that could probably kill her at any moment now.

"So give me the real price," Akira sighed as he clicked the pen and waited to write down the cheque.

The woman gulped as she dare not do anything.

"Do you not want to let me pay anymore?" Akira asked in confusion as he innocently tilted his head.

"Get away from me!" The woman suddenly shouted at him as she raised her head and at the very next moment, she turned around to run away from the place, even breaking her heels in the process.

Akira blinked in confusion and surprise as he looked at her moving silhouette till it was out of his sight.

Turns out, she was a forgiving woman who didn't need Akira to pay for her ruined dress…

Akira sighed as he looked around and immediately understood that his plan to secretly sneak away from here wasn't going to work out as he had planned it to.

"Akira Kanbe?" He suddenly heard the voice of a man calling out to him and it made Akira turn around only to be met with the smiling face of his rival.

"Kaito-san," Akira smiled as he acknowledged the man.

Kaito Takahashi was two years older than Akira and had been his senior in college.

Even after going to the same school and college, since the two were in different grades, it was only natural that they had never been familiar with each other.

The first time Akira even found out about such a person was probably when Kaito took over his father's company.

Kaito Takahashi was a handsome man who was both respectable and hardworking. He had always been nice to Akira, and this was exactly the reason why Akira didn't like the man.

They were both in the same business industry and were rivals so it really didn't make sense for them to get along well with each other, however, Kaito would often approach Akira whenever they came across each other and it truly annoyed Akira.

"It's a surprise meeting you here," Kaito chuckled as he spoke and Akira could feel that the man was genuinely happy to see him.

Akira nodded his head with a smile as he responded, "It's a surprise for me as well."

Kaito opened his mouth to say something more but was suddenly interrupted by someone who came over and joined the conversation between the two.

"Akira-san!~" The young man who was probably a year younger than Akira smiled as he greeted Akira.

"Ah! Yuzu?" Akira blinked with a bit of surprise as he immediately recognized the young man.

The young man called Yuzu smiled brightly and nodded his head. His right hand hooked around Kaito's arm affectionately as he looked at the man and whispered a question in the man's ear that Akira couldn't hear.