Event

"Urgh."

Tezuka hid his smile as he watched his interpreter struggled with her name tag.

"I hate the idea of being labelled," Johanna muttered in irritation. "And what - there aren't any English speaking receptionists?!"

"They came..after our arrival," his gentle voice calmed her nervousness - and only his embrace could calm her. Johanna looked around. No embrace, too public.

Sensing her uneasiness - it was her first time attending such a - as she put it - "overseas big business event" - Tezuka could only externalise his calm composure, knowing that his interpreter would always be beside him, and - as she put it - "taking the vibes off" of him.

The young manager smiled warmly as he silently observed his fellow young delegate who by now - nervousness slowly subsiding - was open-jawed in childlike fascination at the architecture of the building. Surely she would say - and she did, "If only I could take pictures of its structure!"

Johanna Syusuke. Distant cousin of Fuji Syusuke, the genius of Seigaku tennis club, a regular who participated in various tennis matches - and won against a competitor who sucessfully mimicked Tezuka's every technique. Or rather, Hana Syusuke, as Fuji shortened it for her as she told Fuji that she would like to have a Japanese name in honour of her cousin who donated his blood for her during her medical condition in her earlier years - and to have a - as she told her cousin - "a proper Japanese passport".

"Please do not mind Hana," Fuji emailed to Tezuka. "She's not impolite but she is shy to look at you. I noticed that she would blush everytime you talk to her when you were tutoring her and when she tries to talk to you. But ever since that unfortunate incident she couldn't look at you as the hurt is too great for her. She told me that she is grateful and willing to owe you for what you have done for her."

That incident..it happened at Hana's first year when some Hyoutei's students came spying on Seigaku's tennis regulars and found her all alone. Tezuka was the one who held her as Fuji tried to wrap her around with anything the regulars could find and he unconsciously muffled her crying screams as she buried her face to his chest.

So much has happened through the years as Fuji emailed him constantly. "Perhaps this is fate.." one of his emails stated, "please take care of her as I'm not always with her."

And slowly the droning noise of the crowd brought Tezuka Kunimitsu back to the present. He sensed Hana's readiness to move to the lift lobby.

A voice, warm, gentle and strong whisper into her ear, "Sa, yudan sezu ni ikou."

With such a rare gentle humour in his voice too. Hana Syusuke did not hide her blush as she lifted her gaze to his.

"Hai, buchou."