I was so immersed in the song I was listening to when suddenly, I saw three foreign-looking men dressed in suits while chasing after somebody in jeans and gray t-shirt. When they caught him, they started punching and kicking him in the face. The poor guy fell on the ground. He was badly beaten. My messiah instinct got the better of me so I threw away the onigiri I was eating and came to the rescue of the poor man. I gave the three gaijins a flying kick which I learned in karate school. They were shocked. And I heard somebody yelled, "Cut!" The badly beaten guy rose to his feet and stared at me incredulously. He was shaking his head. When he took off his cap and sunglasses, I stared at a familiar pair of insolent eyes. It was Liam Hemsworth! I felt a sudden burning of my cheeks when I realized what I have just interrupted.
"Fvck! That was one hell of a kick!" complained one of the gangsters I kicked. He was holding his side as if in pain. The other two did the same.
"I'm so sorry! I really am! Sorry, sorry!" was all I could say. I bowed in front of the director and offered another apology in Japanese. I heard someone chuckled. And everybody burst into laughter. I straightened up and glanced at Liam. He was the only one who did not see any humor in the situation. He was still irritated. From the exchanges that the cast had with the director, I understood why he was mad. I interrupted a supposedly flawless execution of the scene. Now, they have to repeat it. That was their tenth take already.
When I saw that everybody was busy preparing for the scene again, I stealthily left the place, but not before Liam had noticed. He kind of glared at me. I immediately avoided his gaze and run to the hotel where I work.
**********
"What? You did that?" Akiko exclaimed in Japanese, not believing that I would mistook a shooting for a real one.
"Well, in my defense the guys in suits were very convincing. This is Roppongi. Anything can happen here. I just wanted to help out, that's all."
Akiko laughed.
"Didn't you hear the news? He actually came here to shoot some commercial ads. You should read gossip magazine sometimes."
I touched my cheeks. They were still burning from embarrassment. I was pretty sure that that Liam guy would now think I was an idiot or something. I tried to shake him off my mind, but he kept on coming back. It was difficult to forget his icy, blue eyes.
"Don't worry, girl. I heard Liam is a nice guy, so I don't think he was mad at you. He's probably laughing at you right now," Akiko said, as if reading my thoughts.
"D'you think so?" I asked. Still worried.
"Yeah. Okay, see you around," and she went to attend to the guest who requested to have her blood pressure checked.
After making sure, my uniform looked okay, I went to my work station. I've just sat on my desk, when the emergency button rang. I carefully checked the room number before heading for the elevator. I was just in time. The guy was convulsing on the bedroom floor. I hurriedly clear the area near his head and immediately radioed for a paramedic. After 10 minutes, they came with a stretcher. While they were attending to the guest, I searched for the latter's identification card to see who he was and I saw his medicines. I gave it to one of the paramedics. He thanked me and rushed to the door with the patient in a stretcher.
I was already waiting for the elevator to take me downstairs when my mobile phone beeped. It was a text message from Akiko. She asked if there was anything she could help. I called her up.
"Everything's okay now. The paramedics already took the old man to the hospital. I hope he'll be all right. I already called up his wife."
"It's good to know that you went to the right room this time," Akiko teased.
"Stop reminding me of that incident! I'm trying to forget it already!" Yeah, I was trying my best, but couldn't seem to erase Liam's naked body in my head. Just the thought of him standing with nothing on made my pulse race again. I closed my eyes. That's when I heard the elevator announced the floor number where I was, so I opened my eyes. As soon as my eyes were wide open, the elevator door clicked and there he was, standing inside. He seemed a little surprised to see me. For a few seconds, I didn't know what to do. There was a voice in my head that said, "Run!" But I knew it was too late.
"I'm going to the first floor, so ----," I said awkwardly and pressed the closed button. I was kind of shocked when the elevator opened again and I saw him looking a bit bored. Bored and irritated. He motioned for me to get inside.
"This is going down," he said.
I glanced at the arrow in between the elevators and I saw that it was pointing upwards. But before I could tell him that, he ordered me again to get inside. I was a bit startled at how arrogant and rude he was. But I got inside. I thought Akiko said that he was a nice guy.
When the floor went up to the fifteenth floor, I glared at him. He didn't return my stare, but I saw a glint of laughter in his warm, blue eyes. When the elevator opened, he stepped out and smiled at me. "Have a good day, Yuki-chan," and he winked.
Before I could respond, he was already halfway to his room. I stared at him in disbelief. He remembered my name? He remembered my name!
I smiled. I felt so good, I couldn't stop myself from smiling. When the elevator stopped at the tenth floor where I was originally waiting, a group of old Japanese salary men came in. Some of them looked at me in a funny way. I tried to stop smiling. But I just couldn't help it.
"Mesurashii onna, ne. (That girl is strange)," one of them remarked when I was already a few feet away from them. That made me smile as well.
