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“Say, does Miss Mai look a bit upset?” Tracy nudged her teammates as they all stepped out of the campus, having just finished their practice for the day.
Ganji blinked and looked at their hunter player. She did indeed seem more reserved than usual, and a bit dim, but maybe that was just because she was tired?
“Not sure.” The batsman muttered back. Tracy rolled her eyes and turned to Eli, “Doesn't Miss Mai seem a bit dull to you?”
Eli hummed as he stroked his fat owl’s feathers, “Our practice session went well, right? What do you think caused her mood to plummet?”
On his other side, Aesop, silent until now, spoke up, “She has been checking her phone since we left the clubroom. Maybe she's waiting for a message from someone but didn't get it yet.”
Tracy blinked and thought hard about it, and then her eyes lit up with realisation, “Isn't today valentine's day? Could it be that…..”
She trailed off but her teammates understood. They all looked at Michiko's subtly troubled face again and nodded in sync, as if having finally received a great revelation.
“No way. Do you think her partner forgot?” Ganji whispered.
None of them had ever heard Michiko mention dating anyone before, but then again, they had only just recently become teammates, it wasn't necessary that Michiko should reveal everything right away,,,still Tracy had a feeling Ganji was right.
“Aw man, that would be very sad!!”
Eli shook his head, “Truly, that would also explain her dull mood from earlier.”
At this moment, Michiko suddenly turned around, and all at once the college students shut up as the older woman smiled, albeit less happily than usual, and told them, “Good work today. I will be leaving first then.”
Tracy made a split second decision, “Say, Miss Mai–”
“Just Mai is fine,” Michiko chuckled, “We are all teammates after all.”
“No way, no way!” Tracy shook her head vigorously, “You are older than us, moreover you are also someone so renowned. How can we be so casual with our senior?” Tracy cleared her throat and went on, “Anyway, we were planning on getting some hotpot together—”
“We were?” Ganji asked Eli, in what he meant to be a whisper but was loud enough to be heard by everyone.
Tracy shot him a pointed look and the batsman immediately shut his mouth as she looked at Michiko and spoke again, “We have all been working really hard!! It's only fair we treat ourselves. You should join us too!!”
Michiko laughed lightly, “Thank you for the invite, but I don't think I'll be able to join you today–”
Michiko's words were interrupted as a loud ringtone erupted from her phone. Surprised, she looked at the caller id. And then, as the rest of her teammates watched, she narrowed her gaze and pursed her lips. Sliding the red button to decline the call as she looked at her juniors again, “Like I was saying, I don't think I'll be able to join you guys today. I'm really sorry.” She seemed very apologetic about the fact, but Tracy was insistent.
“Aww come on, Miss Mai~” Tracy tried to persuade her again, “Besides, we haven't had a meal as a team yet—” Tracy paused, looking past Michiko at something else on the horizon, “Who is that person? Are they looking for someone?”
Michiko blinked and turned around. And froze. As if on cue, her phone started ringing again. But this time she did not reach to immediately decline it.
Tracy watched the woman waiting in the parking lot, standing by a fabulous red car as she looked about with her phone pressed to her ear. She was dressed in a white suit with red frills on her neck and a pretty red rose was pinned to the side of her light brown hair. She struck a perfect balance between elegance and beauty, and looked to be quite handsome too even while she was doing nothing but standing.
Michiko, who had also seen this, tightened her grip on her bag strap, unable to believe it. And then, as her phone rang for the third time, she finally reacted, muttering a soft, ‘Excuse me’ to her teammates before walking ahead towards the woman dressed in white. At first, her steps were only hurried, pace faster than usual, but then, evidently she couldn't contain her excitement, her face breaking into a smile as her steps grew faster and she was running before she knew it.
Her teammates watched, with dumbfounded expressions, as the former celebrated movie star now their teammate, Superstar Mai ran across the concrete parking lot towards the unsuspecting woman in the white suit, still engrossed in her search for something, or rather, someone she hadn't seen yet.
The woman finally put her phone down with a sigh, turning just in time to be tackled headfirst by an overzealous Michiko, who was laughing as she leaped into the woman's arms and hugged her tightly.
The woman seemed to lose her balance as soon as Michiko jumped onto her, but was fortunately able to steady herself at the last moment as she hugged Michiko back, so tightly that the two remained swaying in each other's hold for several minutes.
“I thought you had forgotten!!” Michiko said as she pulled back, face flushed with more than just the adrenaline of running and throwing herself at her girlfriend.
“How could I forget?” Mary couldn't even fathom that Michiko had thought that, “I wanted to surprise you but the plane I had booked was delayed for a while. So I immediately switched flights to the next one that would bring me here as soon as possible.”
Michiko had her arms wrapped around Mary's neck, eyes twinkling as she smiled and spoke, “You came all the way here just to see me?”
Mary chuckled, tightening her hold around Michiko's waist, “Of course, mon âme,” Mary looked at her, “I've missed you so much since you left to pursue your passion here.”
Michiko rolled her eyes but her smile remained, “We text and call everyday.”
“It's not enough!” Mary contended, sighing, “Just listening to you and speaking to you virtually is not enough. There were days I was sure I would die if I did not see you right away.”
Michiko blushed, “Okay that's enough. Too much.”
Mary did not seem to be mellowing out anytime soon though, “And then on days when I woke up too early and the sun hadn't yet risen, I was lamenting how you weren't by my side to enjoy the sunrise together. And on days when the night air was too cold, I was distraught to find that no warmth could compare to your love. And then when I saw the tea set we bought together in the cabinet–”
Her words were cut off as Michiko clamped a hand shut over Mary’s mouth, blushing furiously as she spoke, “Seriously that’s enough! You are embarrassing me in front of people I know.”
“Mmmghf mmmmgh?” Mary said in reply. Roughly translating to ‘People? What people?’
And right at that moment, the rest of team BLK had finally mustered up the courage to approach closer. Michiko turned around, letting go of Mary to clear her throat while she fanned her warm face. Then she turned towards her team members, smiling nervously as she spoke,
“Everyone, this is Mary, my…..” She hesitated, “...girlfriend.” She paused, to discern each of their reactions. The three boys just seemed dumbfounded, as if they hadn’t quite expected Michiko's girlfriend to turn up so suddenly here, which really, no one had. Tracy, on the other hand, also dumbfounded, wore a look of utter disbelief on her face,
“Y-you!” She pointed a trembling finger towards Mary, and Michiko tensed up but Tracy’s next words surprised her, “Aren’t you a CEO?? Of a bigshot company?? And an heiress?! Weren’t you in a magazine the other day—!!!” Tracy stopped, as if only realising now she was making a fool of herself in front of not one but two celebrities.
Mary blinked, and then laughed, as if a little embarrassed, “Oh you recognised me so soon,,, I was sure I was being subtle.”
“Subtle?” Michiko raised an eyebrow of judgement towards Mary, pointedly flicking her gaze towards the new fancy car Mary had brought along with her.
Mary coughed, and finally turned to formally introduce herself, “I am Mary, and you guys must be my dearest’s team members. She has spoken highly of you all. Thank you so much for taking such good care of my darling.”
Hearing Mary use so many endearments while referring to her made Michiko’s face redden again. She sighed and shook her head. Meanwhile, the boys finally closed their open jaws while Tracy stepped forward to complete the introductions, “Um. Hi, uh I am Tracy,” She scratched her head, wondering what good fortune she must have encountered in her past lives to be bestowed such an encounter in the present, “The leader. This is the rest of our team– Eli, Ganji and Aesop.”
“Hello, nice to meet you.” Eli smiled, and turned to his owl, “This is Brooke Rose.” The bird chirped in acknowledgement while Ganji and Aesop made their introductions as well. Once the initial awkwardness dissipated, Mary seemed to remember something. She turned around, reaching inside her car for something and then emerging a moment later with a large bouquet of red roses, unabashedly presenting it to a stunned Michiko, while the rest of the team watched on with varying degrees of being impressed, being surprised and being amused.
“This…..was this all necessary?” Michiko mumbled, but nonetheless accepted the flowers, unable to make eye contact with Mary as she turned away to compose herself.
“If you all don’t mind,” Mary addressed the group with an easy smile, “I will be taking my lovely darling away for now. We have prior plans after all. But,” She straightened up as she adjusted the brooch on her neck, “I promise that the next time I will treat you all to a meal, after all I still owe it to you guys for looking after my sweet–”
“Mary!” Michiko exclaimed in a hushed tone, reaching out to grab the woman’s arm and pull her away, “That’s enough!! Really now….” She glanced back at her team, casting them an apologetic smile as she spoke, “Thank you for your invite, really. I’ll join you guys next time for sure. Promise.”
“Pfft– take your time!” Tracy told her off with a wave and a grin, “We are in no hurry!! Have a fun day, Miss Mai!”
Michiko smiled, bidding her new friends goodbye as she got into Mary’s extravagantly parked car, while the latter herself settled in the driver’s seat and pulled down her shades, saying her own goodbyes to the team as well.
“Don’t worry I’ll return your Miss Mai to you right on practice time tomorrow—” She promised with a blinding smile before driving them both away into the din of twilight darkness and emerging city lights.
“Isn’t this too crazy?” Tracy finally said after a long minute of silence, “First we get a former entertainment goddess as our team’s hunter. And now her girlfriend is an actual bigshot super CEO?”
The boys all looked at each other.
“I mean,” Aesop shrugged, “In their circles, I am sure it’s normal to run into other renowned persons.”
“Regardless, Miss Mai seems very happy, we should probably issue an invite to her girlfriend for our next session of playoffs.” Eli was saying.
“Woah, imagine she books an entire row on the stadium.” Ganji interjected.
“Oh come on, she’s not that crazy,” Tracy paused midway through her action of rolling her eyes, “---I think.” She added unsurely.
Aesop crossed his arms over his chest, already willing to shift his focus elsewhere, “So are we still going for that hotpot.”
The suggestion seemed to instantly transform the mood as well. All the bewilderment, excitement and confusion turned into a chorus of agreement and overlapping arguments about which place would be most suitable for their upcoming night out.
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