Dangerous Souls

To Receive and to Deceive

"Your personal life has nothing to do with your work life," he replied, heading for his office with his cup.

"You just asked me why I was late!" Mai argued, putting her cup on the counter. Lin had already gone back to his office.

"No, I just said you having a bad week doesn't excuse you being late." That cocky little-

DING-DING. DING-DING.

The door had opened and it was Mai's turn to put her customer service face on. "Welcome to Shibuya Psychic Research, is there anything I can help you-" She stopped mid-sentence when she saw just who was at the door.

"I have a delivery." He was a young man, maybe early twenties. Dressed in a khaki and pale green uniform, the delivery man held something very peculiar. A bouquet of flowers. "You wouldn't happen to be Mai Taniyama, would you?"

She could only nod as she spit out, "Yes, that's me."

The delivery man smiled. "Well, a young man asked us to deliver this to you, said you could use a little cheering up." He handed her the bouquet and tipped his hat. "Have a good evening."

"Th-thank you, you too!" The man left the office with Mai raising a brow at her unexpected gift. "Hey! Naru! Do we have a vase or something?"

"Why would you need a vase?" He came back out of his office to see her holding the flowers. He simply stared.

"Well? Do we have one?" Mai asked impatiently.

"Where did you get that?" was his response. Luckily, her co-assistant heard her request and came out of his office with a glass vase.

"Thank you, Lin," she replied with a smile. Wait. Does he just keep random vases in his office?

"You didn't answer my question." Naru obviously was not pleased with the unexpected event.

"You never answered mine," she retorted as Lin filled the vase with water and placed it on her desk. The two held a stare down. Who will win? Who will cave? Never mind we all know. "A delivery guy just came in and gave them to me."

Naru just remained silent and watched intently as his assistant pulled out a note.

Heard you were having a bad week. Thought something almost as beautiful as you might cheer you up. Call me tonight and let me know if we are still on for Saturday.

Hope to see you then!

Shouta

Mai smiled as she finished the note, of course with all the crap she deals with everyday she finally had something to look forward to. With her crazy schedule and these demanding exams, she had to cancel her date with her now boyfriend over the weekend. A promise had been made to meet up the following weekend for dinner and a surprise.

"I'll have to call him tonight," Mai said to herself, folding the note and put it in her school jacket pocket.

"Who would that be?" Naru asked. Oops, she forgot he was still there. Since when was he interested in her personal life?

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Mai smirked, for once having the upper hand. "I thought my personal life has nothing to do with my work life?"

"That was before your personal life interloped into your work life."

"I wouldn't say it interloped into here, it was a harmless gift."

"Who sent you the flowers?"

"Tell me who your parents are."

What?

That's right, it was a question that plagued her mind since the Urado case. It had been more than six months since and nearly two years since she started working for him. She deserved some answers, right?