Chapter Two: Stranger at the Bar:

Okinawa is beautiful this time of year. It is like summer all of the time for me. My family and I always vacation here during my breaks. I guess it wouldn’t be bad to go here twice. The flight was a nice and quick one for me. I just slept peacefully the whole way. Unlike Kiku and Hikari, I do well with plane trips. I had to sit by Hikari to keep her from having a panic attack. I leaned into her ear at one point.

“Shhh,” I whispered. “It’s okay; just think about all of the fun we’re going to be having this weekend.” My friend nodded at me quickly. She slowly made herself relax. I gave her a calm little smile.

“There you go,” I whispered. “You’re feeling better, already.” My friend slowly shut her eyes and went to sleep. I gently leaned my head onto her shoulder.

“Sleep well, Kari,” I whispered. Then, I closed my own eyes and followed my own advice. The plane trip went on smoothly from there. We all arrived in Okinawa just a little bit before noon. My boyfriend had to wake up Hikari and me to get us off the plane. I got up quickly, but we nearly had to drag Kari off of the plane. She’s such a heavy sleeper. Godzilla could be destroying all of Japan, but she wouldn’t know because she would be out cold. I wish I slept that good at times.

Aki and Kiku took care of the hotel and rental car arrangement. I offered to pay them, but my friend and boyfriend insisted that they take care of everything.

“Save that money for you!” they told me. “This is your weekend!” I looked at them on that one.

“You sure about that?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Aki insisted. “It’ll be okay, my princess.” I slowly put away my money.

“Okay…” I said at last. My boyfriend smiled at me sweetly.

“It’s going to be okay,” he assured me. “Trust me on this one. You just spend your money on yourself and we’ll take care of the rest. Okay?” I nodded at him. Aki lightly kissed me on the lips. I kissed him back. We were interrupted by someone clearing their throat at us. Aki and I looked up to see Suki looking at us impatiently.

“Come on!” she said. “You two can get all lovey-dovey later, we’ve got to get to the hotel before the sun goes down!” We nodded quickly and caught with the crowd. Kiku drove us all the way to the hotel. I was surprised when I looked out the window. This was the very private hotel my family and I stayed at every year. I turned to my friends in surprise.

“How did you know?” I asked them. Kiku smiled and shrugged as she looked in the rear view mirror at her.

“We talked to your mom,” she said. “She suggested that we come here.”

“Oh, I see!” I said. She smiled back at me in the rear view mirror. We got out of the rental and got all set up for out vacation. Aki wanted to stay in the room for most of what was left of the day. Fine with us. His loss anyway. So, we’ll have a girls’ night out.

And that is what happened. Kiku and Chika’s treat, of course.

“Whew!” Chika cheered. “We’re going to show Setsuna how we common people like to party!” *Sweat drop on my head* I almost forgot about how much of a party animal Chika was. Aw man, this is going to be a long night! Maybe it won’t be so bad since Suki and Kiku are here. I hope…

We came to this bar called Black Cherry. It was Lady’s Night then. This was supposed to be an amazing night. But, this is where my misfortune began, my friends. The girls and I all sat at the bar ordering our drinks. We had only begun the night drinking and partying at at least three different clubs. Chika was already lost in the excitement. The rest of us stayed mostly sober for our party tonight. (It’s too early to be that drunk, you know?)

Once we got our drinks, we started looking around at all of the guys in the bar. I’m not a cheat! Aki and I can look but don’t touch. The guys looked kind cute tonight.

“Check him!” Suki whispered amazed as she looked further down the bar. We all looked up at where she was staring. A charming gentleman was sitting at the bar alone having a drink. Well, he wasn’t really drinking. He just had the drink sitting in front of him. This was a beautiful man. He looked as pale as snow in Japan. From his neatly cut hair and his army boots, he was all coated in black. This man was sexy! If I wasn’t in a relationship, I would… Oooo! Hikari gave off a low whistle.

“Wow!” we all whispered.

“Who’s the looker?” Kiku asked.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Chika slurred out. I just admired the gentleman quietly. Then suddenly, he looked up and saw us. Excitement fluttered among us all.

“Oh my god, he’s looking at us!” Suki whispered. The gentleman licked his lips at us. We really were overjoyed from there. We all turned to each other like gossiping little schoolgirls.

“I think he likes us!” Hikari whispered.

“Let’s go and talk to him!” Chika suggested.

“Wait! We can’t all go over and talk to him!” Kiku pointed out.

“Right,” Suki agreed. “So one of us should go over and talk to him for the rest.”

“And who should do that?” I questioned. I suddenly noticed all eyes were on me. I looked around quite confused.

“Me?” I asked in shock. They all nodded at me eagerly. I quickly shook my head at my friends.

“Oh no, no!” I said. “I have a boyfriend already!”

“But it’s your birthday!” Hikari insisted. “Besides, you might not like him. So what do you have to lose?” I thought about that for a moment. She did have a point… I finally nodded.

“Fine,” I surrendered. “I’ll do it!” My friends all cheered happily.

“Go get him, girl!” Suki cleared. I sighed as I set down my drink.

“Okay,” I said, trying to humor them. I climbed off of the bar stool and walked over to the gentleman. He watched me the whole time, smiling. I finally made it over to him. I stood in front of this charming man nervously.

“Hi,” I forced myself to mumble. This man looked me up and down once. He smiled at me warmly.

“Can I buy you a drink?” he asked. I blushed almost immediately.

“S-Sure!” I answered. He patted the stool next to him. As if under a spell, I automatically sat down next to the guy. It just felt so weird. I couldn’t explain what was going on. Just like I couldn’t explain what happened for the rest of the night. All I know is that one minute we were talking as if on a date. The next moment, I ended up in this fine man’s hotel room hours later into the night.