Work a Miracle

There has always been this unwritten rule where the hot boss (Kuroba Kaito) should be deserving of a sexy personal assistant (Anyone but Nakamori Aoko), but we don't always get what we want. Boss/Assistant!AU

A/n: Wooo, this is actually the 10th AU I've posted omggg. Honestly didn't expect I'll last long writing AUs though, but nonetheless, hope you'll like this one

It had been two days since Kaito's previous personal assistant threw in her resignation letter after a talent agent scouted her on the streets, and for those two days, Kaito had missed his flight schedule to Hawaii, failed to turn up for his own magic performance, suffered huge losses and a sponsor wanted to back out from their partnership because of his negligence. But other than that, everything was still great; at least he got to spend those two days in his private room, twinkling with some of his father's old tools.

"You need someone to set your life straight." Jii told him one day, or eight days, or perhaps on all the 365 days of the year.

"That's why I'm now looking for a new personal assistant." Kaito said as he scrolled through a model agency website on his computer. "I'm getting one that's around a three and a half star because anyone above my four stars' criteria often leave within three months, which is quite irritating if you ask me."

"I've already settled that for you, Kaito-botchama." Jii cleared his throat. "A personal assistant that you really need."

Kaito swirled around in his chair, looking away from his desk and finally at Jii. He didn't have the chance to ask "who?" when he spotted a woman standing just by his door, wearing a blouse that covered most of the things he wanted to see.

He took a second to break the silence. "You mean her?" Kaito grimaced.

"This is Nakamori Aoko," Jii gestured her over. "As of now, she will be your new personal assistant."

"I haven't agreed on that." He retorted and glanced over at Nakamori Aoko as she reached to Jii's side.

She's only worth half a star.

Nakamori Aoko bowed slightly when they made eye contact, though the way her nose wrinkled right away conveyed the opposite of the respect she was supposed to give. She seemed rather unimpressed, even though she was standing right in the middle of a penthouse she could never afford in her life and looking right at one of the few internationally famous magicians in the world.

"It's based on my recommendation." Jii urged strongly.

Kaito snapped a finger into Nakamori Aoko's direction and mustered the biggest grin. It was unexpectedly hard when his mood wasn't at its best. "Then as of now, you're fired."

Jii was about to rebuke when Nakamori Aoko wryly smiled back, one that was levelled enough to compete against his based on the lack of sincerity in her eyes. "As you wish, then. But before I leave, please look through this document," she pulled out a file she hid behind her back and flipped it open, showing the papers right in front of his face. "It was stated in my contract that I am required to complete what I have to do as your personal assistant today, even if I were to resign or be fired."

His eyes widened by a faction. This was much easier than he expected. He caught Jii's disapproval gaze and pretended it was just the act of his increasing wrinkles before staring at the documents in Nakamori Aoko's hand. His head started to throb at all the words he hated.

"Summarize this for me." Kaito muttered drily.

"It's the agreement to discontinue the sponsorship because you failed to turn up at Hawaii for your magic performance."

Kaito cringed, gritting his teeth and turned to Jii. "Is there no way to rectify that?"

"In my opinion," she inputted when Jii simply shook his head. "I feel that they were really keen in sponsoring you, but your negligence destroyed their decision."

"Destroy?" This woman's words are as harsh as the sunlight, geez.

"Yes." There was no hesitance in her voice. "But there might be a way around this. Their company is celebrating their thirteenth anniversary three days later, and even though they were seemingly firm about the dismissal of the sponsorship, you have the invitation to the event. That's one step you can take to change their mind."

"Wait," Kaito pinched the bridge of his nose and slightly twirled in his chair to properly face her. "What event again?"

Jii sighed.

"Their company's thirteenth anniversary." Nakamori Aoko replied blandly.

"Right." He closed his eyes and run a hand through his tousled hair. "Remind me about it when the day comes. What else is there?"

"But I have been fired." She blinked innocently at him and looked over at Jii for confirmation. "Just two minutes ago, to be exact."

"..."

"..."

"You're... unfired."

.o.

Just a week ago, Kaito threw a party to celebrate Aoko's unwavering dedication to her personal assistant job by sticking to it even after three months, which was the longest out of all the PAs he'd hired (literally all 28 of them). The party was over before it started because the guest of honour didn't arrive according to his mailed invitation, so in the end, he spent his night drinking champagne alone in his penthouse, with the company of his two hundreds doves (Aoko did turn up after the party was over, which was a day later, and demanded she wanted her due paycheque instead).

Ticking off the list, Aoko wasn't that bad. Other than treating him like dirt occasionally, rolling her eyes at his jokes and being nearly as conservative as a nun, she was responsible and the only one who was capable of keeping him align with his schedules (She once almost tore his bathroom door apart because for some magical reason, she knew he was playing candy crush on the toilet cover instead of getting ready for his flight).

But there were times when he wished she didn't stay on and actually leave him like what everyone else did, just because she was too good as a personal assistant, too responsible, and too on time for everything, which was basically what he wasn't and what he hated.

"Wake up." The words from hell struck him early in the morning as his warm blanket was flung away, exposing him in the cold.

"-the heck!" Kaito cowered into a ball to keep himself warm enough before snapping his head over to Aoko, stretching his eyes wide open to gawk at her unbelievably. "What if I've slept naked? I'm going to sue you for sexual assault."

"Your heater is only scheduled to be fixed in the later afternoon today, which means if you're still alive and didn't freeze yourself to death, you couldn't be sleeping naked." She pulled the end of his trousers and managed to drag one feet off the bed.

Kaito dug his head further into his soft pillow, hoping to drown away Aoko's voice if he hadn't smothered himself to death first. "Stop analysing everything."

"You're going to be late for the photoshoot for the magazine." Her voice was still sharp and as clear as day.

"It doesn't matter." He groaned.

As seconds of silence passed and Kaito thought he could finally drift back to his peaceful sleep, a loud shrill of alarm blasted into his ear and his soul nearly left his body.

"Get up."

"Fine! But shut that bloody alarm!"

Aoko let it play until he wearily hoisted himself to sit up on his bed.

"Good morning." A satisfied smile crept across her face.

"One day, you're literally going to be the death of me." He ran a hand across his hair and grudgingly looked at Aoko, who was standing before him. "And then I'll come back as a ghost to haunt you and make your life a misery."

Unfazed, Aoko continued scrolling through her phone. "And how is that different from what you're already doing?" She shot back without looking up from her screen. "You have half an hour to get ready before a car comes to pick you up."

Lifting himself off the bed, he trudged towards the bathroom, one hand scratching his stomach under his shirt until he stopped and turned to Aoko. "Pass me my phone."

"You don't have time to play candy crush."

"I want to check my emails."

She almost laughed, crossing her arms and leaning her weight against on one foot as she raised an amused eyebrow at him. "Really?"

He gave an undignified noise in return and muttered "Why did I even try," before slamming his bathroom door shut.

.o.

It was the usual after party that Kaito always had to go when he finished his show somewhere in a country. Besides the ridiculous amount of handshaking and toasts he had to give to his sponsors and partners, what irked him the most was that silence of doom he had to suffer when he couldn't remember the names of the people that came up to him to have a chat. As if it wasn't vexing enough when people couldn't stop comparing between him and his father on the media or behind his back, topics varying from the difference in skill set, poor etiquette and lack of responsibility.

Kaito drummed his fingers on the glass counter, half contemplating if he should just set off the fire alarm or put on a disguise as the manager of the hotel to call the party off when a glass of whisky was pushed to his front.

He distractedly muttered a thanks and picked his drink up, taking him two sips before he realized he was staring into space behind the counter, the bartender he thought had served him wasn't there at all. Blinking a couple of times, he turned his neck to his side and stared right at the person who he didn't expect, yet was the only one he needed to see the most (even if he was never going to admit that).

"You're the main star of the party, you know." Aoko gave him a pointed look, gesturing over at the crowd behind his back, which he didn't feel like turning to see. "Some of them are asking for you."

"Tell them to drop an email or something." He waved her off. "Best mode of communication."

"It doesn't matter what mode of communication they use if you aren't interested to talk to them." She twisted his shoulder none to gentle and forced him to face the crowd. Kaito instantly winced at the vast number of people in the hall, their chatters and murmurs magically started to echo loudly in his head for some reason.

"That man with the polka dot tie is Kashiro Hyuuga." She subtlety pointed into the direction. "He was the one who owned the theatre you performed just this evening."

Kaito tilted his head towards her, their face nearly touching. "And?"

She jabbed a finger into his cheek and pushed him away, clearing her throat. "He's interested to have your future performances dedicated to his fair share of theatre halls allocated around the world."

"Shouldn't it the other way round?" Kaito scoffed and rubbed the little imprint Aoko's fingernail had left on his face. "Like his theatres being dedicated to my shows?"

"Anyway," She pointed to another direction. "That man with the wine glass is Satoshi Nakamura and the lady next to him is Mimiko Hinabi. They-"

Groaning inwardly, Kaito slacked his shoulders, like how most children would when they failed to convince their parents to buy them ice cream. "How many more are you going to introduce?"

Not missing a beat, she replied suavely. "Six."

"You know I can't remember all of that." He flicked his gaze up into the air, an obvious sign of defeat. It was the only battle he was willing to lose.

"I know all you wanted is to perform your magic," Her eyes briefly softened for a millisecond before it was gone, like it never happened. "And that you're too lazy to interact with people, too apathetic to build relations, too self-aware to be moved by their insignificant compliments—"

"Like usual, you're never soft on your words-"

"—I also know that you have an excellent memory," she scratched the side of her nose, looking almost sheepish. "But you choose to use them on unimportant things, like remembering all the birthdates and names of your two hundred doves."

The usual snide remarks again. It was enough to retrieve the voice he'd lost for a moment when he was taken aback by her short-lived compliment. "Hey," Kaito interjected defensively. "They are important-"

"You have more than the capability to simply remember who the six people I want to introduce to you are, and perhaps even able to recite their birth certificate number at once if you are willing to try. I know you just can't be bothered. I know that." Aoko pursed her lips into a fine thin line, like a dare for him to interrupt again, which he didn't in the end because he knew better. She continued after heaving a loud sigh. "That's why I'm here to help clear up the things you hate, but there's a limit I can do. You have to talk to them for your shows to continue."

Kaito looked at her, almost dumbfounded the entire time. "Really," he muttered almost to himself. "Who else in the world could ever understand me better than you?"

It was a little too late before he was conscious about those words that tumbled out of his lips. It couldn't have been the whisky doing the talking when he barely had two sips, so for the next second that passed, he was pondering if it was truly his voice that spoke. And while he was facing his turmoils and cursing himself about the embarrassed slip up in his mind, Aoko innocently hummed, her brows slightly crease as if she was intensively brooding. Once Kaito noted her odd reaction, he quirked an eyebrow, scrutinizing the side of her face in puzzlement. He wasn't sure if she was acting or really considering what he said, but she gave him no time to think further when she finally replied;

"I guess no one."

He clenched his jaw, muscles flickering at the side of his cheeks while trying to ignore how the back of his neck was slightly burning at her direct (and correct) answer. "It's a rhetorical question." He snapped before clicking his tongue at himself once again because this answer was not any better than his previous sentence.

Her eyelashes fluttered wildly in genuine surprise. "Not a sarcastic one?"

That moment had turned strangely awkward as Kaito tugged a finger between his neck and shirt to loosened his collar just a little in order to have some air. It was never a good idea to idle around a conversation that would touch upon his feelings or emotions, so as usual, he moved on from the topic and pretended they never mention about it at all. "So let me recap, that man with the polka dot tie is Kashiro Hyuuga?"

She clapped her hands softly and nodded like how a proud mother would to her child. "Well done."

Kaito sent her a withering look. "A yes or no would suffice."

.o.

"Honestly, I don't mind if you want to lock yourself inside a freezer to practice your trick," Aoko wrenched a towel over a basin of ice water, making sure it was wrung dry before setting the cool towel onto Kaito's forehead. "But at least don't catch a cold while doing it, idiot."

"There's a saying where idiots cannot catch colds." Kaito smirked, which was a bad move as it made his nose itchy again and he sneezed out loud, the impact was almost great enough to levitate himself off the bed.

"Then you must be one special idiot then." Aoko rolled her eyes, standing up from her chair and headed for the door.

"Hey," Kaito whispered meekly, his hand trying to stretch out for hers even though he knew fully well that he couldn't reach it. "Where are you going?"

"Checking on your rice porridge. It should be done now." She left the room without glancing back, but when she turned towards the corridor, she poked her head back inside. "Do you want some soy sauce?"

"I want fried chicken." There's no harm requesting.

Almost as if she'd expected his reply, she nodded impassively to herself. "I'll take it as a no then."

Five minutes later, Aoko carried a bowl of piping hot porridge resting on top of a bed tray and placed it over Kaito's lap. She took the wet cloth off his head and helped him up before fluffing the pillow for him to rest against his bed headboard comfortably. He might appreciate her soothingly chilled hands touching the back of his neck if he wasn't shivering from his own cold right now.

"You're capable of feeding yourself." She simply said and sat back on the chair beside him, watching him like a hawk.

He fiddled with the spoon, stirring the white content in slight agony until he was fed up and let the spoon slowly sink into the porridge. "This doesn't help my appetite."

"It's not about the flavour." Aoko crossed her arms, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "You need to eat something that doesn't agitate your stomach after taking your medicines."

"Fine. I'll eat it," Kaito said when an idea struck his head. Aoko eyed him suspiciously as he tried to suppress a grin. "If you accept my following request for your private Instagram account."

"No." She blurted out loud without a millisecond pause. No mercy at all.

"Why?" Kaito grumbled out a near whine, his dry throat slightly hurt. "Did you secretly post my naked pictures?"

"Believe me, that's the last thing I'll ever post onto my social media account." Aoko plucked a couple of tissue from his bedside table and wiped the handle of the spoon she scooped out from his bowl. She grabbed his hand and tightened his grasp around the clean spoon and ordered him again. "Eat."

"Harsh as ever." He reluctantly took a mouthful of the rice porridge, and his eyes brightened at the next moment. It didn't taste as bad as he thought. In fact, it was good. He sneaked a glimpse over at Aoko, who was now focusing on scrolling through her phone screen. It was a lucky thing that she didn't catch the satisfied look from his face because he didn't feel like explaining to her that the reason was he liked her cooking, since it would only add on to the list of hundred accidental-confessions of why she was the best personal assistant to him.

"Are you looking at your Instagram now?" Kaito stared fixedly at the way her slender fingers curled around the back of her phone. It was a wonder why he didn't realize she had such nice fingers until now. Still, better late than never.

"No. I'm reading your emails." Aoko kept her phone away and crossed her arms like a sort of shield he didn't understand why she needed to wear around him. "The tickets for your New York's performance is already on sale and are selling well, so the only thing you need to do now is to get well as fast as possible."

"I'm trying to, in case you didn't know." He sniffed and continued eating. "But how can I recover well, with the thought that my personal assistant hates me?" He dramatically wiped an invisible tear from an eye and shoved another spoonful of porridge into his mouth.

"Close enough," Aoko sighed and faced the ceiling, deep in thought. "But I don't hate you."

"Thanks." He mumbled through his porridge-filled mouth. "That comforts me a lot."

She gave another heavy sigh and pulled out her phone, keying in her long passwords to unlock her phone to do whatever she wanted to do. Two seconds later, she crossed her arms again. "Hope you're happy now."

Kaito straightened his back. "What? Seriously? That was easy." He said, while trying not to recall his shameless persistency for the past two months. He regained his composure quick enough and slipped a hand under his pillow for his phone, lighting up the screen with a push of his home button. True enough, the latest notification showed Aoko's account accepting his follow request.

Right in front of Aoko, he began his stalking. He could sense her slight shaking of her head, and he did what he always do best by ignoring it, though it didn't last for long when he was halfway through her profile page.

"Isn't this Squawky?" He squinted his eyes and continuously scrolled through her photos. "And Destroyer? And Alex?"

Aoko frowned, standing up from her seat to look over at his phone. "I'm pretty sure that's Alexandra."

"It's Alex. I know it's Alex. And besides that," Kaito scowled and jabbed a finger onto the screen. "Why did you post pictures of my doves?"

She blinked in surprise and slumped back on the chair. "Am I not allowed to?"

"It's fine. I don't mind." Kaito explained calmly, but his tone of agitation didn't hide for long. "But why?"

"They are cute."

"I know but, I mean-" He made a dying whale noise. "What about me?"

Aoko looked as if she'd witnessed a mushroom growing out of his head. "You?"

He didn't bother to hide the fact that he was pretty much offended. "Yes. Me."

"I only upload cute stuff." She picked up the near empty bowl from his bed tray. "I assume you want a second serving?"

"Yes, I would very much like a second serving," Kaito hissed and yelled at Aoko before her back disappeared out of his door. "And what do you mean by only uploading cute stuff?"

"You're not cute. As simple as that." She returned a loud shout from the stairs, as if desperately wanting him to hear her reply loud and clear.

Kaito glared at his phone again. Plentiful of her posts were his doves, not that it was surprising when he had 200 of them to be proud and enthusiastic about. Some of the remaining posts were images of fancy desserts, while the rest were mostly sceneries of the countries she had been to when she was travelling with him on his tour.

If she didn't accept his following request, he would at least still have the chance in hoping that somewhere in her profile, there might be a cool picture of him while he was on stage, or something like that. But there was none, and not even his shadow could be seen anywhere.

Really, ignorance was truly a bliss.

.o.

After Kaito hung up the phone to stare across the large grass field before him, he briefly wondered why he didn't think of calling Jii in the first place. It was a much better and wiser choice to make when Jii could definitely provide better insights to his ideas and loopholes to his magic trick, but instead, he called Aoko by instinct. And before he knew what he was saying, she told him she would be on her way to the park he was at within ten minutes. She was coincidentally nearby anyway.

True to what she said, he spotted her walking towards the bench he was sitting on, dressed down with a plain blue shirt and jeans and a little sling bag. It all suddenly made sense to him why he decided to call her at that moment. It just naturally felt right to see her.

"Looking casual." Kaito eyed her up and down sharply.

"Just so you know," she slumped onto the seat next to him. "Today is my off day."

Kaito quirked an eyebrow, earnestly surprise. "Seriously?" Maybe, just maybe, he might have forgotten about what she'd told him two nights before that he wouldn't have anything on for today, which was why she claimed she could finally take a day off in peace since she knew he wouldn't need a nanny to remind him about his life. No wonder he woke up feeling weird today since there wasn't anyone (a.k.a Aoko) yelling at him to get up.

Seeming to know what he was already thinking, Aoko didn't bother to remind him anymore. "Anyway, you said on the phone about having a new idea?"

He didn't have the chance to ask why she even bothered to pick up his call if she wanted to get a day away from him so desperately. Then again, he guessed her answer would probably be something along the line of because you might be trouble and I'm responsible in clearing your mess.

"Look at that tree." He pointed at one among the hundreds of it. "What is the first thing that came to your mind?"

She tilted her head sideways, exposing the curve of her jawlines. "Green?"

"Then what about the sky?"

"Blue."

"What about me?"

"Infuriating."

Kaito afforded a cold smile. "Ignoring the last bonus question, most people tend to put colours as the first thing that came to their mind. I was thinking of creating a trick involving colours theme and I need you to stock up on my coloured smoke-bombs."

Aoko nodded her head in understanding. "I'll get onto it. And is this new idea of yours at its infancy stage?" Her brows slowly merged. "Are you going to include the trick in your next show? It's just two weeks away."

"Don't need to worry about that." He waved her off and leaned back on the bench, stroking his chin while thinking of his new plan. "I'm not going to overrun my performance."

"I'm not talking about that." She rebuke lightly, heaving a soft sigh. "I'm just afraid you'll overwork yourself within these two weeks."

He blinked rapidly at the air before his head spun to her direction, his neck would have broken if it turned any faster. "That's probably the nicest thing you ever said to me since forever."

She rolled her eyes and stared ahead at the field, where a couple of children were playing soccer instead. "I don't want to handle you being sick again. And it'll be even troublesome if you couldn't make it to your own show."

"Will you die to just sugar-coat your words?"

On the cue when he finished grumbling out his sentence, he felt something kicked his foot and he glanced down, to see a soccer ball by his leg. He curiously picked the ball up and looked over to the kids who were starting to run towards them.

"Thank you oji-san! Can you pass us the ball?"

What a bunch of ungrateful brats. "Who are you calling oji-san?" He snarled and cast a sidelong glance when he heard a snicker coming from his side. Aoko didn't bother to hide the slow, erupting laughter from the pit of her stomach.

He aversely flung the ball across the air, and till he deemed it high enough and also the correct time to execute his magic, he snapped his finger and the soccer ball instantly disappeared, what replaced it were three white doves flying away into the sky.

A triumphant smirk automatically glided across his face while Aoko gaped at him, with two eyes that nearly fell out.

"What?" His grin grew wider.

"That's so cool! Oji-san!" The couple of children jogged over to their bench, eyes glittering with appeasement to what they saw. Kaito clapped his hands a couple of time and with a poof!, the originally missing soccer ball solidified out of air.

The chants of excitement continued.

"Here's your soccer ball. And don't call me oji-san. Call me onii-chan." Kaito then jabbed a thumb over at Aoko's direction. "But you can call her obaa-san."

Aoko responded with an irritated scorn.

"Are you a magician?" A tom-boyish girl squealed.

It was hard not to mirror the children's gleeful faces. "Yeah."

"Can you show us more tricks?" Another kid exclaimed.

"Of course," Kaito leaned forward in his seat and put two fingers to his lips, blowing out a whistle that only he knew how to make. Within a few seconds, the sounds of flapping wings grew louder and louder until his three faithful doves returned to his side. One set on his shoulder, the other on his hand while the last one-

"Alexandra!" Aoko chimed as she gently rubbed a thumb over the tiny head of the white dove, which was sitting on her lap obediently under her caress.

"Wrong owner." Kaito growled, his frown deepened. "And it's Alex."

"It's Alexandra." She rebuffed briefly with a lack of care, but her eyes showed the opposite when she was entirely focused on her hand sliding down the white feathers.

He'd given up trying to convince her otherwise since ages ago. His attention returned to the bunch of kids, annoyance immediately wiped away and a smile was plastered on his face. "Who likes sweets?"

"Me! Me!" Everyone chanted the same.

"You might not know but my doves are special," he whistled another tune and his doves automatically got into action, hopping to his right hand like he trained them for. Except for Alexandra- Alex, yes, Alex. Except for Alex, as it remained on Aoko's lap, eyes slowly closing under her soothing massage.

"Can you stop that?" He gritted his teeth over to Aoko, eyes nervously looking over at the anticipating kids. "You're distracting Alex and ruining my show."

With a soft huff, Aoko reluctantly let go, her arm slipped back to her side. Alex was on its feet and it fluttered its wings before joining the other two doves that were already positioned on Kaito's hand. With his signature snap of his fingers again, the doves flew up and magically turned into white puff of smoke, instantly littering the ground with dozens of sweets from the sky. The children began screaming with joy and dancing on their feet before scrambling for the sweets once they all landed onto the ground.

If Kaito wasn't so focused on being amused by the children's innocent behaviours, he might have noticed how Aoko was staring dazedly at the side of his face.

When most of the kids finished collecting their treats, Kaito waved a hand to the particular tom-boyish girl among the boys and a bright red rose popped in between his fingers. The girl gasped out loud, her nostrils humorously enlarged. "That's so cool!"

"Aren't you right? This is for you." Kaito tactically tilted the flower to her face charmingly, which the girl took it with her goodies-filled hands.

"You just love to use every chance you have, don't you?" Aoko shook her head with disdain and sneered over his shoulder.

Kaito feigned a hurt look and dramatized it by putting a hand on his chest. "It's my nature."

"Fujiko-chan," one of the boys approached to the tom-boyish girl as she was in the midst of admiring her rose and sweets. He cleared his throat once the girl gave him her attention. "Can I have your rose in exchange of these chocolates?"

The girl peeped at the couple of sweets in the boy's hand and bluntly counted out loud before nodded enthusiastically. They made their transaction officially and quickly, much to Aoko's bemusement and Kaito's indignation. So apparently, his special rose was only worth five pieces of chocolates.

But that wasn't the end of the show. The boy, who was twiddling nervously with the rose he exchanged for, abruptly turned towards Aoko, a blush adding to his already reddened cheeks from playing soccer a while ago. He then shoved the rose nearly to her face. "Onee-san, this is for you!"

Kaito's jaw dropped.

Aoko's surprise face fell lax and she beamed, the crinkle of her eyes at the corners contained not a trace of mockery. "Thank you. It's really nice of you to give it to me."

The little boy ran away in a flustered manner, not long before he turned and called out his friends to continue the soccer game.

Still numbed at whatever just happened, Kaito tentatively glanced at Aoko in silence, watching her dip her nose into the flower, her crescent-shaped lips still in place. When she was finished being enchanted by the fragrance of the rose, she turned her head over to Kaito, which he hastily looked away in time before he was caught staring at her.

"It's surprising that you can take better care of flowers than yourself." She chuckled.

He rubbed the front of his neck roughly, in attempts to shake off that weird feeling lingering near his chest. "I shall take it as a compliment." He muttered dryly.

"And you're great with kids too." She added, brushing a thumb over the petals.

"Speak for yourself." Kaito snorted and gestured his head over the rose.

Aoko bit her lower lips, her eyes widened in slight awe. "Don't tell me you're jealous?"

His eyes almost rolled to the back of his head. "I'm n-not." Damn the hell out of him. Why the heck did he stutter?! He cleared his throat and tried again. "I don't care, okay. I'm just saying." Kaito nearly spat.

He inwardly thanked all the gods when she didn't pry further. Instead, she simply moved on to the next question. "Are you still planning to stay here?"

"I guess not." He almost slipped out an apology for calling her all the way just to sit with him for ten minutes and leaving, but he kept his mouth sealed before it happened. It would've been a little insincere when he wasn't really apologetic in the first place, since (in all honesty) he wanted her to come down, which he didn't want to admit either. Best to not mention about anything at all.

"Then are you going to find Jii-san to discuss your new idea or are you heading home?" She stretched her legs and brushed her jeans to get rid of any tiny feathers Alex(andra) had left before standing up. She stuck the stem of the rose into the tiny opening of her sling bag. "Did you drive here?"

"No. No. Yes." He jumped off his seat and tugged both hands into his pants, giving an once over at Aoko.

Aoko looked vaguely confused. "Then where are you going?"

"Where are you going too?" He questioned back.

"To have my dinner." She shuffled a foot over the dried grass patch. "Until you called."

"It must be divine intervention because I'm hungry too." He continued when Aoko only blinked in reply. "I'll drive you to your favourite place to eat. My treat, just because I'm such a great boss." Kaito then initiated the walk and she followed suit, their steps in sync as he led the way to the secluded car park just a distance away.

"I don't think you'll like the idea." She gave a cunning-like smile, both of her eyebrows raised in challenge. "My plan for today was to visit a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. My favourite, but you know, lots of salmon."

Kaito took quite some time to regain back his composure to speak after hearing something that was affiliated with fish. "You're saying it on purpose." He remarked disapprovingly. "Then what is your second favourite place to eat?"

She chortled behind the back of her hand and leaned just a bit closer to him, which she never did before for the past one year she'd worked for him. He wondered if her good mood had to do with the rose he'd indirectly given her today. "There's this restaurant near here that sells really good mackerel and rice-"

"You're definitely saying it on purpose."

Her laughter grew slightly louder. "I'm not. I really like them."

His narrowed eyes could only squint as far as he was doing now. "What else do you like that doesn't involve things swimming in the sea?"

It took her nearly eight seconds to reply. "Ramen."

His lips tugged. "Great, now we're talking."

"It's actually my seventh choice." She informed with a wry smile.

"But it's still on your favourite list, right? That's all that matter." He stated plainly before pulling out his car keys and swung a finger through the key ring, merrily skipping over the grass field to the parking lot, his car already in sight. "Let's go."

.o.

Despite how reckless Kaito could live sometimes, he would never defy the traffic laws. The least he could do, as the son of the deceased Kuroba Toichi who died in car accident years ago, was to not follow his father's footsteps on this path. But when one mind went distorted with fear and feelings came into mix, it was hard to remember how it was dumb and illegal to beat the traffic.

He was on the temporary stage with Jii, trying to assemble his makeshift fire pit for his performance when he received a call from Aoko. She was at the small magic factory and helping him to collect his props, like usual. Her voice was cheerful and her jabs were sarcastic and painful, like usual (He was starting to weirdly wish she was by his side, like usual) until all of the sudden, the call was cut off and all Kaito could hear from the other end was a beep.

Worried, he called back thrice but all the calls went to the voicemail. Before Jii could ask him what was wrong, he flew off the stage, out of the hall and to where he parked his car and zoomed his way to the magic factory. He'd beaten two traffics and nearly smashed into a barricade, which he didn't thankfully, but his stupidity didn't stop until he realized he could've called the owner of the magic factory to check on what could possibly happen to Aoko.

"Aoko-chan was sent to the hospital a while ago! One of the workers didn't see her behind the tall cartons of boxes he was carrying and crashed into her. She became unconscious and-"

His car instantly made a 180 degree turn as he changed his direction to the hospital he'd demanded to know.

By the time he reached the floor where the nurse from the front counter told him to go, he was lacking the energy to stand straight for running all over the different hospital blocks just to get to Aoko's ward. At least he deserved something, he thought as he was catching his breath at the door, like being the first to see Aoko's wellbeing or her fluttering eyelashes when she opened her eyes. But his delusions were snapped back to reality when he witnessed something he wasn't expecting, or rather, something he didn't want to see.

Aoko was fine (thank god) and smiling, though that wasn't the problem. She was smiling at a blonde who was standing by her bed, his face was filled with warmth and a form of kindness that Kaito didn't like in his gut.

Kaito was pretty sure something in chest broke. Perhaps a bone? Not sure what it could be, but it was definitely squeezing the life out of him at that moment. He was initially debating if he should just leave and pretended he didn't come, until Aoko noticed him from her bed.

With a bandage wrapped around her forehead, her eyebrows couldn't raise to its fullest potential. "W-What are you doing here?" She flicked her gaze between the blonde and Kaito, looking pretty much in shock and someone who was caught having an affair. It was so close, yet ironically far from the truth. "Aren't you supposed to be with Jii-san, preparing your props?" Aoko continued.

He pushed his hands deep inside his pockets and shrugged as nonchalantly as he could. "You cut me off on the phone and I was wondering why the hell is taking you so long to complete your task and heard you're here." He made his way and stood next to Aoko's bed with his skilled poker-face, one he rarely used on Aoko since he didn't need to put up his defence shield when he was with her, except now. "Just want to see if you're really injured or faking it to slack off with your work."

The blonde turned to face him and wrinkled his nose. "Who is this?" He asked, with almost no hint of any foreign accent.

Aoko sighed, adjusting her upright position on her bed uncomfortably and gave a sheepish smile. Again. "He's my boss."

"Your boss?" He gave a horrified gasp.

"Is something wrong with that?" Kaito's face darkened.

He gave a completely obvious fake smile. "My name is Hakuba Saguru. I would like to remind you that even though you may be Aoko-san's boss, please speak to her with respect."

Kaito returned the same treatment, possibly even better, if he wanted to boast. "In what position are you in to care?" His grin nearly reached from ear to ear.

Aoko was about to cut in when Hakuba gently touched her hand and nodded his head in assurance. He returned back to level his gaze with Kaito. "I'm Aoko-san's boyfriend."

The ward pretty much plummeted a full ten degrees. Kaito's glare slowly and steadily fell away from Hakuba's as he stared at Aoko, who was too numb to speak or move; which was rare of her since in most circumstances, she always had the power with her words to make him feel something. It seemed her silence was more impactful this time.

"I didn't know you have a boyfriend." Kaito could only offer his quiet voice.

"Uh," She started blankly and stopped when Hakuba squeezed her hand.

"Her silence doesn't mean willingness for you to push her around." Hakuba straightened. "The fact that she's injured while fulfilling what your job requires her to do showed that you're unmindful about her wellbeing. And as an employer, you thoroughly lacked responsibility. Aoko-san deserves better than this."

Aoko tugged onto Hakuba's sleeve weakly. "Hakuba-"

"Responsibility, huh?" While Kaito's eyes fixedly remained on Aoko's blue ones, he let out a sharp breath that resembles a laugh, though his solemn face showed nothing to prove the laugh represented anything funny. "Your boyfriend is right. I do lack responsibility; I always do anyway. Seems to me you're suffering when you're stuck with me. Let me do you a favour and spare you from this agony." His throat unwilling turned sour. "You're fired."

For the first time since the very beginning, from Sir, Boss, Idiot and Kuroba, Aoko finally breathed out his name. "Kaito," She called out, but that was all she said.

"You're fired." He simply repeated before turning for the door.

It took him nearly bloody twenty minutes to find his car, and it didn't help to lift his mood when he found a ticket stuck on his windscreen wiper, a fine for his illegal parking. He was on the verge of finding a doctor inside the building and asked to be operated on in order to get rid of this sharp, sinking feeling in his chest.

Kaito entered his vehicle in shame and slumped onto his seat, knocking his head onto the steering wheel and closing his eyes with exhaustion. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get rid of the image of Hakuba standing next to Aoko's bed and their indecent smiling at each other. And especially the words that left Hakuba's stinky mouth too, so true and haunting even till this moment.

"I'm Aoko-san's boyfriend."

"Aoko-san deserves better than this."

The heavy feeling was back, pulling his entire body down twice the gravity.

His phone suddenly vibrated wildly on the passenger's seat next to him as he wearily glanced over, to see Jii's name as the caller ID. He reached out for it and fumbled with the phone screen, answering the call with a low and choking drawl. "Hello."

"Where have you been?" Jii's voice wailed into his ear. "It's been over an hour!"

Dumbly, he looked around his surrounding and realized pathetically that he was still next to the hospital and at the illegal parking zone. "Uh, I'm going to the magic factory to collect the remaining props." He began starting up his car.

"Isn't Aoko-chan picking them up for you?"

"No she's-" Kaito swallowed hard, which was almost as painful as eating a cactus. "She's fired."

"W-What?"

"I'll talk to you later." He cut the call and dumped his phone behind the car's seat before driving out to the main road. He needed a distraction badly, and if he wanted it, the fastest way to get one was to quickly collect his props and return back to work with his magic.

.o.

In the late evening and empty penthouse, Kaito was sitting alone on his long brown couch, the colour of how shitty he was feeling for the past five miserable hours. He constantly flipped through the channels with the TV remote until it ran out of battery, now ultimately stuck with an animal documentary about a penguin crying in the cold after catching its wife in an affair. He could almost hear a mocking siren at the back of his head, telling him this was his destiny.

As the TV showed how the penguin was about to die from its injuries gained from the fight with the third party, Kaito heard a familiar beeping sound of the password being entered at the door and it was unlocked in the next second. He turned his head quizzically at the corridor, eyes droopy to see who it could be. He was half thinking if it was Jii since he was the only one Kaito had left in this world, but the universe proved him wrong when Aoko stepped right into the light.

His stomach went through an Olympic phase until he breathed. "What are you doing here?"

In her hands was a familiar looking file she always carried around during her time as his personal assistant. "You forgot to do the paper work after you stomped out of the factory and left with the props without a word." She waved the very file that had been through so many memories with them. "You know they can sue you for theft, right?"

He turned his focus back onto the TV, which was hard when he was more concerned about the bandage over her head. "I've already paid them."

Aoko placed a hand on her hip and mildly shook her head. "Still, you need to go by the books-"

"Is that the reason why you came here for?" His words pierced right through her sentence, stunning her silence. He took nearly his entire billions of nerve cells to not glance at her.

"Sort of." He heard her voice faltered. "Maybe."

"The paper work could at least wait after you're healed." His lips slowly pressed into a thin line when he realized what he'd just said. Irritably, his words often never tallied with the correct circumstances, as much as he tried to change. "But anyway, you're already fired." He finally corrected himself with a scratchy tone. "So before your boyfriend comes to complain, just leave the documents on the table. I'll take care of it."

Aoko sucked a long breath through clenched teeth and placed the documents onto the table like what she was told. Kaito was almost sure it was the same as having her throwing a brick onto the glass table, shattering his heart equally the same. But instead of leaving, she took tentative steps towards him while fumbling with her fingers in front of her chest.

"I think there's some misunderstanding about what happened at the hospital." She began carefully, as if she was talking and soothing an abandoned puppy on a street. Eerily similar again.

"What?" He drawled and moved his lazy gaze over to her.

She sat onto the couch, with ample amount of space between them to conveniently prevent her from hearing how his heart was cracking itself to dust. "Hakuba-kun isn't my boyfriend."

"Congratulations- Wait." Kaito straightened his posture, eyes widened at Aoko's nervous-looking features. He almost felt like he was dancing on the moon when the heavy weight of an unseen force sitting on his shoulder disappeared. "What?"

Aoko moved a loose strand of hair behind her ear and dared herself to look at him in the eyes. "He's my high school classmate who's now working as a detective. He was interviewing a victim on the same floor and happened to see me as well."

"That doesn't explain why he claimed to be your boyfriend." Kaito leaned towards her hastily with worry. "Is he actually a stalker? A psychopath?"

"No he's not," Aoko sighed of half-amusement, half-irritation. "Because like he said, you're being an asshole and he wants to teach you a lesson."

I wouldn't have said all those shit if he wasn't there in the first place. Kaito grudgingly muttered in his head.

"But after you left, I told Hakuba-kun off," Aoko continued. "Not because he ruined my career but because he didn't understand you like how I do. The fact that you're there at the hospital was enough of a proof that you're not the asshole you often like to portray yourself as with your words."

He leaned back to his own space, mouth opening and closing like a goldfish. "Don't try to analyse me." He grimaced when he found back his voice.

"I could," her usual teasing grin appeared, and it didn't take Kaito long to realize the vast difference between her current smile and the awkward one she showed to Hakuba at the hospital. "Just because you're occasionally plain and stupid like that."

"What kind of employee actually calls their boss stupid straight in the face?" Kaito mumbled vexedly.

"Are you still my boss?" Her smirk grew bigger, eyes wavering in sheer delight. "I thought I was fired."

"You're unfired OKAY. Unfired. One day, I'm going to send you to a course on how to respect your boss properly." He crossed his arms defyingly, but his weak shield was torn apart in the matter of seconds when he moved his attention onto her head. "Anyway, how's your injury? You really shouldn't have come all the way here."

"Just a small bump." Aoko pushed a part of her fringe away to touch her bandage before looking back at him with eyes that produced enough warmth to last the entire winter. "Besides, it'll take more than this to stop me from getting you through your responsibilities, something I know you can't do alone."

"Then you better live a long life because really, I'll never be able to do it myself."

"I supposed I have no other choice, do I?"

(She may only be worth half a star in comparison to all the busty women in the world, but the light she was radiating from that half a star right now... it might be too much for Kaito to even handle.)

.o.

Ever since a new labour law was established over the country, it was compulsory that in any workforce, be it small, personal or public businesses, every employee had to fill in an employer survey and submit it to the Ministry of Labour and Welfare at the end of the year. It was a hassle for Kaito, but what were the choices?

He printed out the template from the official website and handed one each to Jii and Aoko on the very day an email was sent to him to remind him of this yearly trouble. Maybe he wasn't all that worried about Jii because he knew his old favourite man always got his back, but this was just another additional pressure Kaito had to go through as he wondered how Aoko felt about him. He tried to decipher her expression when she received the paper from him, but she didn't give him a clue.

The day passed as slowly as he remembered and he couldn't keep his mind off about that stupid form ever since it left his hands. In the middle of the day, he would randomly asked Aoko if she had completed her feedback, to which she would ignore him and went about reminding his schedule. And as if it wasn't obvious enough again, he tried to give her lots of break to go out and take a long stroll in a park, after finding out the location of where she kept her form (She immediately hide it in a different place afterwards).

It wasn't till night fell when Kaito had his chance.

Kaito had just finished tweaking with his old equipment and getting ready for bed when he passed by his dining table that was filled with documents and contract plans for a Christmas performance he was scheduled for in a week time. He wouldn't have spared a second glance since he hated these administrative stuff the most, but one particular paper caught his eyes and he halted on his track to look, just to make sure.

Jackpot.

He tiptoed over to the table, wanting to pounce on this only chance he could have when he stopped, his fingers curling back into his fist. It would be like sticking his head inside a hornets' nest; briefly interesting, perhaps, but a terrible, stupid mistake he would regret later on, if he happened to uncover the truth he didn't want to know. But in the end, the temptation was growing as each second passed and before he knew it, his hand finally snatched the paper from the table and he started to read.

Is your employer fair in the line of work? Does your employer effectively communicate and answer question you or your colleagues asked? Most of the question were the typical ones and Kaito was confident enough to receive a positive yes. He glimpsed through the answers, to be grateful that what he received were the ones he thought he ought to have. It was only the tenth question, which he had reached, that made him slightly anxious.

Do you wish to switch your occupation in one year time?

He looked down.

No was circled.

In response, Kaito showed a toothy grin to the paper, as if it had given him a pot of gold as a gift. He flipped to the other side of the form and looked over at the final short-ended question.

Are there any further comments about your employer?

With a glance, Aoko only wrote down a one-line answer, and judging from that, he was sure to not expect any kind of nice or constructive feedbacks coming from her. Still, he adjusted the flimsy paper in his hand to prepare himself to read.

"He's irritating, troublesome and have the poorest time-management an employer could ever have, but I wouldn't want to have it any other way."

He almost couldn't control the big smile that was about to explode his entire face.

Happy strides, cheerful grins, he skipped back to his bed and slipped under the covers.

"It was supposed to be confidential, you know." Aoko spoke, stirring in her position to face him with a slight disapproving pout.

"What?" Kaito chimed innocently before snaking a hand over her curvy waist. "There's nothing about you that is confidential to me, actually."

In return, he received a tight smack on his arm. He yelped out a small cry, but Aoko showed no hint of being merciless at all. "You're so irritating."

"And troublesome, and have the poorest time-management an employer could ever have." He didn't give up and move closer to Aoko, till her strawberry-scented hair touched his lips. "Likewise, you're infuriating, demanding and the most stubborn personal assistant I've ever come across."

"Are you going to fire me again?" Aoko muttered into the crook of his neck, messing up his senses. He easily and ironically cured his feelings by hugging her tighter, his chest pressing firmly against hers.

"Nah," Kaito closed his eyes and took another deep breath, pretty much sure he hadn't liked strawberry this much until now. "I wouldn't want to have it any other way either."

.end.