CH 9: CINDERELLA

The bath itself didn't take too long, even though it felt like an eternity compared to his normal shower time.

But no matter how meticulous he was, or he could force himself to become, he was still a man. There were limits to the amount of time he would take to just bathe.

Once he felt that he was clean enough it was time for him to get out of the shower and wear the new clothes provided to him by Yui.

Everything was ready for him to wear. So, he put them on one by one; they oddly fitted him perfectly.

On the stand, he could see a pair of glasses that gave him a more mature feeling overall, different from his usual nerdy glasses that…well…made him look like a nerd.

'How the hell does she even know the perfect power level of my vision?'

He shook his head and took a look at the rest of the attire he put on. Yui had clearly chosen a more mature style for him to appeal to her customers.

Perhaps, her clients liked the mature type? No reason to worry about that now since he'll find out once he gets to meet them.

The attire itself was a classic but fancy three-piece suit. A black, borderline gray, jacket and a vest of the same color over a clean-white shirt with golden buttons fitted across. For the lower torso, there were black premium pants that gave off a clean feel and finally a pair of elegant black leather shoes.

The cuffs for the shirt were custom ones, made in the form of the letter A, clearly denoting the first letter of his name. It was a custom-made suit to perfectly represent him.

His hair was swept off behind, giving it a more wild look compared to the nerdy look that was emanating from his forward bangs that partially hid his eyes.

Standing in front of the mirror, Adam could hardly recognize himself with this makeover.

They say that clothes don't make the man, it's what inside which truly matters. But as he looked at himself, gawking at the sight of his new look, he couldn't help but think that they sure helped a great deal.

At least, it was necessary to create a solid first impression. They also helped to maintain an image and aura that would otherwise be hard to build with just one's personality alone.

"Oh my… I really need to give a raise to my stylist. I simply gave her a photo of you with your measurements but the results turned out to be incredible, to say the least."

"So…are we going to ignore how you entered the room while I was changing and how you also know all my measurements even though we haven't contacted all these years?"

"If you want to complain, then complain to Tsubasa and not me. I just stole your current measurement from her."

Yui laughed it off as she entered the room with great strides. She took the black tie with an elegant gold patch straight from his hands and approached him to tie it around his neck.

All this while, Adam simply stayed silent as he observed her. It was a pretty intimate gesture. Like a wife taking care of her husband or a big sister helping her brother. But he did not point this out to her as he knew that would only spell trouble for him in the future.

At the same time, It was the first time he realized that Yui was shorter than he was. Like with his mother, she had always seemed so tall to him when he used to be by her side.

"You have grown up quite well, Adam. You're even taller than me now."

Yui chuckled and took a few steps back to admire her handiwork.

"Umu. You will take all of them down. I can practically imagine them being swooned by your moves."

Adam nodded. He then hesitated a little before asking, a tentative note could be observed from his tone.

"So now what?"

Yui raised an eyebrow at his nonsensical question. She couldn't help but be astonished

"Any reason in particular for this question?"

"I… Okay. Since I will work with you from now on I need to go speak to the manager of my part-time about leaving my work. And… If possible, I wish to be home before midnight."

"Seriously? Are you Cinderella or something?"

This time, Adam couldn't help but blush at her remarks. He hadn't blushed even when she had walked in on him changing but this was really embarrassing to him.

He couldn't help, he knew more than anyone how weird his request had been but he had to do it nonetheless.

Yui tilted her head in confusion for a moment before remembering a piece of information about Adam that she had forgotten over the years.

"Your birthday is tomorrow, right? You still have the same weird rule going on for you?"

"Yeah…"

"Hmmm, I see. Then again, giving respect to the dead is pretty important in itself. This is perhaps one of the things I like about that mother of yours, maybe the only thing now that I think about it. Anyways, hmmm…"

Yui thought for a while before speaking in a level tone…

"Okay, I wanted to make you learn everything now, but I guess a crash course will be enough. You already have most of the criteria down already."

She continued to nod to herself.

"Okay. Let's go Cinderella. Time to learn how to become a prince."

Adam immediately understood that the name Cinderella might become his new nickname at the rate this was going.

———

The two went up to the main room above, where Mammoth could be seen wiping out a few glasses.

Raising his head, he gave a look toward Adam and whistled in admiration, "My man. You are one handsome lad now. I guess the others will really feel the competition."

"Heh, I knew Adam would be perfect. Though I am disappointed you refused to join big guy."

"You know me, boss. I am not much of a ladies-man. I wouldn't know how to chat them up. Pretty sure I would also scare them just by greeting them alone."

"Hahaha. Indeed. Now then, give me a glass of my usual. As for Adam here, just give him some non-alcoholic beverage."

"Roger."

Yui led Adam to a rather private zone before sitting down, though she could see Adam looking at her weirdly.

"What…?"

"Non-alcoholic, seriously?"

"Are you saying to me that you have drunk alcohol before?"

"No. Wasn't particularly interested."

"Then it shouldn't matter. Also, tomorrow you will be 21, right? I want to drink with you for the first time then."

"You truly are a weird criminal boss."

"Even criminals have a few principles they need to stick to, you know?"

Like this, the two of them continued to have a back and forth between the two of them before their talk came to a halt with the intrusion of Mammoth, serving them their drinks.

Yui talked about teaching him but she was mainly giving him the basic rules to keep in mind.

The most important of this rule was if possible avoid any relationship outside of the bar with the clients.

When the women came to this place, it should be to enter a dream, or at least a personification of it. To avoid reality. To finally encounter the dreamlike scenario they ceaselessly imagined about in their sweetest hopes.

For a moment, a short instant, it would be all about them. The Host assigned to them would listen to them and would make them their princess. Giving them the love and appreciation they could not find in the real world.

In the meantime, they would pay for drinks that were overpriced as hell.

Sometimes they would come with small gifts and other times they would throw big parties in the club. But at the end of the day, it wouldn't matter at all.

Because it was simply a dream. An illusion created for an extremely short time in reality.

But the moment a relationship was confirmed outside of the premise of the bar. It stopped being a game and became all too real.

Yui didn't want to deal with some catfight involving jealous women tearing each other apart in her place.

It would be funny if it were to happen between normal women. But with how much power the women she would invite had, any fuck up would bring really bad consequences for everyone involved, particularly…her.

Consequences she didn't want to have to deal with.

Outside of this Yui only went over what should be expected.

If she had to be honest, she did not have many expectations for Adam about the opening night. While he had the necessary physical appearance, he lacked the skills that the job demanded of him currently.

She wanted him to mainly observe and learn how things were done and then slowly build things up from there.

Looking up, she could see that they had discussed for nearly two hours already. She had been quite happy to see him again so she ended up wasting more time than she thought to be manageable.

"Well, I guess this is good enough for now. Tomorrow you can come in the afternoon if you want. Ideally, of course, you should be present a maximum of two hours before the start. This will give us enough time to work on the rights and wrongs that you need to work around. What do you think?"

"I will be there on time."

"Perfect. Mammoth, call a taxi for Adam please."

Mammoth nodded, while Adam looked down at his get-up, "I think I need to change."

"Nope. Not gonna happen. I gave it to you. You keep them. Try to become used to it. I have already prepared a few more sets just in case, tomorrow you will put on a new one."

"You truly act like a creepy elder sister you know?"

"Heh, I would be happy to have a handsome brother like you."

Yui smiled and brought the glass full of amber liquid to her mouth. Her crossed legs showed a slight teaser of her beautiful thighs as well as a hint of the eastern dragon tattoo vividly etched atop her tantalizing skin.

"You know, in some way, aren't you technically my first client?"

The smile on Yui's face changed into a grin, "Trust me. I plan to take many of your firsts."

She laughed out loud at the dumbfounded look Adam gave her, "Well, enough with the chit-chat. I need to finish my work."

Standing up, she approached Adam and hugged him tightly, "I am happy to have you back."

"Me too."

"Now then, you should get going now Cinderella. Midnight is approaching. We don't want you to transform here now, do we?"

"This nickname is gonna stick, isn't it?"

"You have no idea. Hehe."

He shook his head speechlessly.

"The ride is here."

"That was pretty fast."

"This is K-town, you know? Taxi drivers would be crazy to not swarm the surroundings around this time."

"True. Well, I guess this is a goodbye for today. See you, tomorrow guys."

"See you. Go back home well."

———

After Adam left, the smile on Yui's face slowly slipped off until it completely vanished.

Now, the slightly teasing and gentle Yui was no more. She was replaced by Feng Huan Yui, the undisputed overlord of K-town.

"Mammoth, I need you to take a look at the list of invitees. I believe we have a special guest that might be very helpful to Adam."

Mammoth nodded.

"Also, tell the boys to be on the lookout. It seems like some bastards from Vegas are trying to make Fairy Dust circulate in my territory. Seems like that Idiot Boris got hoodwinked by them."

This time Mammoth frowned heavily, "Fairy Dust? That shit is…"

"I know. Either way, the source doesn't matter. Those pale fuckers are going to deal with this themselves. I only want to keep my own territory calm. The rest can go to hell."

She entered and conquered K-town because there was no big organization here compared to Little Tokyo and Chinatown and now that she was finally big enough to put her hand in the more political side of things, there was no way she would let anyone come and mess up everything at the very last moment.

"Everything must go well tomorrow. You hear me?"

Yui waved her hand and began to walk away. Her mind was awash with dangerous ideas. She could feel that someone was trying to swallow her territory. But she did not intend to go down at all.

She would fight back with everything she had. Like a mad dog, biting until her very last breath.

This was her way of life and she did not intend to change it even if it brought her to her death.

That was what Feng Huan Yui was all about…

Nothing more, nothing less…