My eyes snap open suddenly, and I take in my surroundings.

The sudden bright light makes my head pound and I groan in pain. I rub my forehead gently, hoping to ease the pain.

I don't recognise this room.

The walls are beige; the furniture is so expensive looking. This is definitely not my bed. My bed was cheap and is uncomfortable whereas this bed is like a cloud, not to mention my sheets are a bright pink and these sheets are white.

I sit up, completely startled. The sudden movement making the room spin dizzily.

The sheets that were covering my body slip down, and reveal my naked torso. I squeal and yank it up quickly as my eyes dart to the figure lying next to me.

Oh god.

No.

His long black hair is sprawled out against the white pillow, a stark contrast, and his eyes are shut. His gorgeous face looking serene and peaceful. Like me, he's completely naked too.

Why him?

I sit there completely frozen and speechless.

Yes this is a dream come true, but to be honest, I would have much preferred it if it stayed that way – just a dream.

I throw the sheets off me quickly and hop out, picking up my discarded clothes quickly and yanking them back onto my body. Once dressed, I quickly run my hands through my messy hair and look around for my bag.

"Fuck!" I swear under my breath as I dart around the room, my search for my bag completely and utterly fruitless. I leave the room and find my shoes and bag down the hallway in a messy pile. I must have been in quite the rush when I arrived here…

I pick them up and flee the apartment as quickly as possible, not wanting to spend another minute here.

LNLN

"Yuki! It isn't funny!" I hiss towards my best friend. Her warm brown eyes close and she throws her head back as laughs posses her body.

"Not only do you look like shit, but you slept with your boss? You do realise that's the most cliché story you've ever told me." Yuki quips once the laughter subsides. I clench my mug of tea harder.

"I'm being serious!" I retort.

"I know, I know. I believe you. What are you going to do about it though?"

I shrug and I look around her living room, my eyes wide with fright due to the situation at hand. Her living room is untidy as usual, magazines sprawled over her coffee table, and her bright green walls are covered in pictures and posters, all of which have been stuck up with blue-tac. I'm perched on her old leather sofa and she's sitting in her favourite baby blue arm chair.

Yuki runs her hand through her highlighted hair and she smirks. "Well, there's not much you can do. You could go to the local paper and sell your story. Make some money out of it. Since he's an adored celebrity, maybe you'll gain celebrity status from it too."

I shake my head quickly. "No! I'll be fired from my job! I also don't want to be known for sleeping with my boss! Who does that?" I splutter in protest. The whole idea of being famous is revolting, and I doubt the money I'd get from it would cover the money I could possibly make at Uchiha Lawyers. No one would want to hire me if I'll end up backstabbing the company in some way. It's a bad idea, I'm better off staying quiet and pretending it never happened.

"You apparently." She takes a sip from her own mug. I narrow my eyes at her and tilt my head to the side.

"There's no way I can turn up to work on Monday, I'll call in sick or something. I'll just pray he doesn't remember it too."

"Wait… you don't remember what happened?"

"No! I went out with my work friends as usual, and I think I got too drunk. Last thing I remember is drinking another shot and then I woke up in his bed!" I say, my voice trembling.

"Wow. It sounds even more cliché than it did before. Congrats babe, you're the main character in an overly cliché story." She smirks when I throw a glare at her. "Anyway, more importantly, was it his apartment? If so… the paps may have spotted you." As the words leave her mouth she puts her mug down on a magazine and picks up her phone.

"Well yeah… it definitely wasn't a hotel room and no one else was there."

Yuki's perfect eyebrows furrow slightly as she scrolls through what I assume to be a news article. "Yeah, bad news. You were spotted. 'Mystery girl leaves Itachi Uchiha's apartment this morning after a wild night!'" My eyes widen and tears prick my eyes.

"I can never step foot outside. I'm going to have to move to China and change my name." I begin to panic.

"Chill. You'll be fine. I'm sure Itachi has it under control and is probably shutting down the stories." She says reassuringly, but somehow I know the damage has already been done.

I place my mug down on the coffee table and bury my face in my hands.

"My mum is going to kill me." I mumble.

That is how I, Akira Hanakawa, turned into the main character of a cliché story, as my best friend lovingly put it. I might as well change my name to Mary-Sue and get rid of my flaws.

I look up at my friend. "What should I do?"

"Well, I don't think it's ideal for you to show your face out. Going home is a bad idea, you'll get followed and they'll figure out where you live." Yuki mumbles, her eyes staring at her blank TV screen.

"I need to go home though! Someone has to feed Kyoko!" I object. "You must have some sort of disguise. I don't know, a wig or something?"

Yuki's brown eyes look over to me. "Brilliant idea, Einstein." She says sarcastically. "You ain't going nowhere in that dress. They'll recognise you for sure."

"Let me borrow clothes? I'll wash them and give them back, I promise." I beg.

"Fine. Let me get something for you. Then you get dressed, you throw a wig on and we head to your house. They won't look twice at us."

With a blonde wig, faded pair of blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt on, we leave her apartment building.

As she predicted, there are several people hanging around outside with cameras around their necks. They're all engaged in conversation, their eyes watching the doors like hawks.

Please don't recognise me!

They don't bat an eyelid at us as we walk past them, I keep my head down as we walk quickly to her car and climb in.

"I don't think they recognise me." I mumble when we're in the safety of her car. I look over to see Yuki holding a pair of sunglasses to me. I take them gratefully and slip them on my face as Yuki puts her own on.

"Good, we should be able to get away." She says happily. She pulls out of her parking space and drives past the paparazzi, still completely unnoticed.

"Still cliché?" I ask Yuki.

"Hmm… I don't think so. Unless you turn up to work and he confesses his undying love for you."

I snort. "Ha! Like that will ever happen. He probably doesn't know I exist."

"That there is a line straight out of a cliché novel. You do realise plagiarism is illegal, right?" Yuki says, a playful tone in her voice.

I roll my eyes, even though her eyes are on the road and not looking at me. "It's true though. I'm just an employee."

"More cliché-ness right there. Babe, if you keep on plagiarising I'm gonna have to take you to court."

"But it's the copyright holders…" I say but Yuki interrupts me before I could finish my sentence.

"I'll alert them then." She glances over at me and smirks. I laugh.

"Okay, sure." I say and smile.

We finally pull up to the block of apartments where I live. It's a pretty basic apartment block, with stairs leading up to the floors. There are no paparazzi outside luckily, as they probably haven't yet found out where I live. Thank God.

"Thank you so much for doing this for me, I'll give everything back soon, I promise." I open the car door and step out. I give her a quick wave and walk up the steps to my apartment door.

I pull my key out of my bag and unlock the front door and step inside. Kyoko, my orange tabby cat, quickly runs to me and meows happily at my return.

"I'll give you your breakfast now. I'm sorry I'm late home." I bend down to quickly scratch her ear before heading to the kitchen. I reach to the box of cat food above the fridge and pull a sachet out. I rip it open and empty the food into her dish.

My apartment is small. It's just the living room/kitchen, my bedroom and a bathroom. It's all I need. I could afford something slightly bigger and live comfortably, but I don't need the room. I definitely couldn't afford anything in Tokyo, it's so expensive to live there. Plus, I'm closer to my parents here and this is where I grew up. The commute to work isn't too bad though, it could be worse.

I head to my bedroom and grab some clean clothes before heading to my bathroom to shower.

LNLN

Mystery Girl Leaves Itachi Uchiha's Apartment After a Wild Night!

At roughly 11am this morning a mystery girl was spotted leaving Itachi Uchiha's apartment. Is she his new fling?

They were spotted together last night at a club where Itachi was celebrating his 25th birthday with his colleagues and friends.

More updates will follow shortly!

Throughout the article were pictures of us dancing together last night, as well as me leaving his apartment in a rush.

I only ever went to the club because Izumi, the lawyer I'm a personal assistant for, invited me. She's quite close to Itachi, so she was obviously invited, and she invited me since I needed "a night out". I hadn't met Itachi before then, obviously I'd passed him in the corridor and muttered a "hello" to him out of politeness, but that was it. He never really looked my way.

Wow, this couldn't get any more cliché. I roll my eyes.

It doesn't help that Itachi is famous for being an Uchiha (they're Japan's most famous family) and because he's incredibly good looking.

I remember most of what happened last night. I turned up with Izumi, had a few drinks, spoke to Itachi for a bit, danced with him for a bit… had some drinks and then nothing.

Oh God. It couldn't get anymore cliché than that. My phone buzzes in my hand and I look at it, a picture of my mum is on the screen. I tap the green icon and put my phone to my ear.

"Hello?" I say awkwardly, scared of what my mum has to say about it all.

"So how did it go?" She asks. Has she not seen the news yet? Hopefully she's too busy working and hasn't seen it yet. I cross my fingers.

"Good, I had a lot of fun." I say quickly. Hoping to end the conversation as soon as possible so she doesn't ask what time I got home. "I have left over work to do-"

"Aki, I've seen the news articles." She says. My heart sinks.

"Oh."

"Yeah. Why didn't you tell me that happened this morning?" She asks.

"Uh…" The words get stuck in my throat. "I-I um…"

"Spit it out."

"You know that I don't agree with one night stands!" I blurt. "And he's my boss! It's not right. What if I get fired?" I begin to nibble at my nail on my index finger.

"I'm sure you won't get fired. If you do, you can work for me and your father, so don't worry about not having money for your bills." She offers reassuringly. However, I don't think that working for my parents is appealing. I'm supposed to be independent, I want to be free and working in a career path I want. I didn't spend several years at university to just get landed with a job I could have gotten previously without a degree.

"Still! I don't think I can ever show my face there again!"

Mum doesn't say anything but I can hear my younger sister. She's too quiet to properly distinguish what she's saying. "Rin wants to talk to you." The phone is passed over and I hear my sister instead.

"Hi! Omg you slept with Itachi!" She squeals. Meet my younger sister, the more outgoing and excited version of me.

"Sshh." I hush her. "I don't know if I did…"

"But you left his apartment this morning! You two totally banged! Fuck yeah, my sister is a celebrity." She continues to squeal happily. I roll my eyes.

"I'm not a celebrity. They don't even know my name and in a weeks time I'll be forgotten about."

"But Itachi rarely has one night stands, you'll totally be remembered, sis!" I sigh.

"I doubt it. I'm just going to hang low for a few days, call in sick on Monday and then everything after that will go back to normal." I pause. "I'm not going to be a celebrity."

"Everyone is talking about it though. Soon they'll know your name and you'll be famous." She stops talking and I hear my mum talking to my sister. "Sorry, Aki, but I have to go help mum with the shop. Talk later!" The line goes dead as she hangs up. I sigh.

My sister wasn't wrong, hours later my name is plastered everywhere.

It seems like Itachi hasn't been able to stop them from reporting what happened.

LNLN

The automatic doors open for me and I step into the empty building. I make my way towards the lift and press the button. The doors open and I step inside.

I never thought I'd have to return to work so soon. I've never been here on a Sunday, so it feels so foreign.

The lift doors open once more and I step out onto an unfamiliar floor. I've only ever gone to the fourth floor, which is where Izumi's office is.

I walk down the hallway and look at all the name tags on the doors, some names I recognise and some I don't. At the end is the door with Itachi's name on it and I knock.

"Come in."

I open the door and step into a very well furnished room, almost identical to Izumi's office. Except she has more pictures in hers. Itachi Uchiha's is rather plain, much like his bedroom.

Itachi is sat behind his desk in a very expensive suit, his eyes on me. My face turns red and I awkwardly walk towards the spare chair in front of the desk.

"Good morning," I say politely and he nods.

"You may have seen the news articles that were published yesterday." I nod. "By the time I realised they had been published, it was too late to do anything." I cross my legs awkwardly when he pauses.

"Am I being fired?" I ask, my voice trembling. He shakes his head. His hair moving slightly from the motion.

"That would only add more fuel to the flames. Right now it's just rumours, there's no solid evidence that we slept together." My cheeks burn more. "I've decided to just tell the press that nothing happened, that we're nothing more than friends and you got too drunk so I took you to my house to make sure nothing bad happens to you." I nod. He pushes a piece of paper towards me and I look down at it. A contract. "I'd like you to sign this. This means that if you go to the press about what happened I'm able to sue you. You are to not say a single word to anyone about what happened and if anyone asks you are to say we're just friends."

"Okay, Uchiha-san." I say and grab the pen next to the piece of paper. I scribble my signature down and place the pen down on the desk.

"It'll also be a good idea that we meet up from time to time in a friendly manner. It will help sell the story that we're nothing more than friends and that nothing happened." He says calmly. My face heats up more. Could this get any more cliché? I resist the urge to bury my face in my hands and scream. "That is all. You may leave. Thank you for your cooperation." He says and I nod. I stand up from the chair and bow.

"Thank you, Uchiha-san. Good bye." I then quickly leave the office and head home.

'That was odd' I think to myself when I'm sat on a quiet train.

Couldn't he have asked me tomorrow to sign it? All of that to just sign something. Does he not realise that not everyone is filthy rich and can afford a quick trip to work?

I guess he was probably worried I'd run to the press with the story – even though I don't remember anything, but then he doesn't know I don't remember. I would make a ton of money from it, he's probably worried that that would be enough to convince me to sell what happened.

It's not like I would anyway, not for millions and billions of yen. Never. I don't want to be famous, I like being unknown. I like being able to go shopping without strangers recognising me.

The rest of the train journey is quiet, but when I leave the station there's photographers everywhere. It's too late to turn now, they've already spotted me. Fantastic.

"There she is! Hanakawa-san! Look this way!" One of them calls out to me. I quickly tilt my head forward and push past them.

"What was it like? Please tell us. Give us all the details!"

I pick up the pace and make my way to my parents' house. I'd rather they didn't know where I live, and the stories about my parents' shop might bring business.

"Aki!" My sister says excitedly from behind the counter. She's wearing her green apron, meaning she's taking over for my parents.

"Where's mum and dad?" I ask quickly, I look behind me. "I think I'm being followed."

"By who?" She says, excitement filling her voice. Her blue eyes glimmer with anticipation.

"By paparazzi. I need to hide."

"Why? Sell your story! Become famous!" She stands in the way of the door leading to my parents house. She crosses her arms.

"I can't tell anyone. I signed an agreement." I hiss at her, I throw a glance over my shoulder and see that no one is there yet. I quickly push my body into her without warning and she budges. I make it through the door and slam it shut.

I make my way up the stairs and into the bathroom. I slam the door shut and slide the lock into place. I lean against it.

"Hopefully I don't have to stay here too long. I really need to go home to catch up on TV." I look around the clean bathroom. I close the toilet lid and sit on it. I pull my phone out and open up my internet browser.

"Who is Akira Hanakawa?!

"After some digging, we've found that she's an employee for Uchiha Lawyers! She works under famous Izumi Uchiha, one of Itachi's close friends. So it's no surprise that the two met this way! How romantic! She's living every girl in Japan's fantasy."

I roll my eyes at that statement and continue reading.

"She's 24 and graduated from Tokyo University. She must be intelligent, and this must be why Itachi fell for her. She's rather plain, especially compared to Itachi Uchiha's rumoured previous ex girlfriends."

I frown at the statement. Then I see the silver lining. "Haha! I'm not a Mary-Sue in some cliché novel! They're all gorgeous! Take that, Yuki."

Chances are Itachi was very drunk, like how I was, and it was a mistake. Chances are that once this blows over he'll forget who I am.

I type in the popular gossip news site into a search engine and look at its most recent articles.

"Just Friends? Itachi and Akira's relationship!

""Nothing happened between Itachi Uchiha and Akira Hanakawa. Itachi Uchiha had taken Akira Hanakawa to his house after she got too drunk and was too ill to go home by herself. They're good friends and he wanted to make sure she was better before letting her go home." A reliable source has just revealed.

"It's not the first time that Itachi Uchiha's relationship rumours have been shut down as the pair were reportedly "just friends". Either they want to keep their relationship on the dl for now, or they aren't an item. We'll never know."

I lock my phone and dump it back in my bag.

I unlock the bathroom door and open it, I poke my head around the corner to see that the hallway is empty. I make my way down the stairs and open the door to the shop. I open it a bit to see the shop is empty, and so is the front of it.

I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding and open the door fully.

"There you are. They've just left." She says. She flicks her brown hair over her shoulder and glares at me. "You had the perfect opportunity to get famous, Aki."

"Maybe I don't want to be famous?" I snap and walk out of the shop.

The roads are empty and I make my way to my apartment. My stomach rumbles and I realise that I haven't yet had lunch, and it's already about mid-afternoon. I almost sprint home, desperate to eat something.

I get to work 15 minutes early as usual, and paparazzi are already stood outside. I guess I'll have to run in, I can't exactly hide out here until they leave. They might never leave.

I ignore them like I did last time and make my way into the building, where security guards stopped them from following me.

I sit down behind my desk and turn on my computer. Izumi Uchiha is here before me as usual.

"Good morning, Hanakawa-san." She says and smiles. Her brown hair is pulled up into a bun – which is different from her usual ponytail. I wonder what sparked the change?

"Good morning, Uchiha-san." I reply. "Is there anything you want me to do?"

"Oh yeah. Hold on a sec." She opens her drawers and goes through her folders. She pulls one out and passes it to me. "I need you to email my client, the day for her court hearing has changed." I take it from her and see a sticky note on the front with the new date and time written on it.

As I type out the email, Izumi speaks.

"So, I heard Itachi-chan brought you here yesterday. What happened?" She asks, I turn to look at her and her eyes are on her computer screen.

"Yeah. He just got me to sign something, so if I went to the press I could get sued." I confess.

"Of course." She chuckles. "He's very careful. He doesn't want to ruin his image. His name and this business means the world to him, he doesn't want to disappoint his parents and the reputation they've made."

I stop typing and look at Izumi. Her dark eyes are carefully watching me, she has a soft smile sitting on her lips.

"I wouldn't do anything to ruin that. I promise. I'm not that sort of girl; I won't ruin someone for my own fame. I don't even want fame." I say honestly. Izumi's smile widens.

It briefly turns into a smirk and she turns back to her work. "That's very good to hear, Hanakawa-san."

LNLN

I take a sip from my mug as I browse through the news articles on my phone. I'm currently sitting in the break room during lunch. I'd go out to eat as I usually do, but chances are I'll be followed by the paparazzi. Yeah, no thanks.

So the break room it is.

"I thought I'd find you here." A cheerful voice says. My head snaps up and I see Izumi leaning against the chair opposite me. In her hand is a paper bag. She drops it down in front of me. "I grabbed you lunch, I don't want you to starve."

"Thank you, you didn't have to." I say politely. She smiles at me.

"You're very welcome. I have a meeting to get to, so I'll see you later." She quickly leaves the room. I open up the bag to see a toasted sandwich, something I normally buy for lunch. I pick it up and begin to eat it.

I continue scrolling through the news. There's lots of articles speculating whether we're secretly dating or whether we really are just friends. Most bring up the fact that Itachi has never had a public relationship, and they've all been secret and labelled as just 'friends'.

"In the past he's claimed they were just friends and then he was never seen with them again. We all suspected a possible break up, maybe she wasn't happy about being a secret? He hasn't had many girlfriends, but they've all ended up the same way. They've all been known though, not as famous as he is, but known. They were all either daughters of rich men or they were quite high up in a business or company. They were all claimed as just being 'just friends' too.

Akira Hanakawa, however, is rather unknown, which is what makes this particular story rather unusual. Itachi being secret about it isn't unusual though; which is why we believe that she is his girlfriend. It could be that they're just friends, but they've never been spotted together. So they've either recently gotten together or it was a one-night stand.

Maybe she'll end up like his previous flings and we'll never spot them together again.

Time will tell."

I take a bite out of my sandwich grumpily. They're not wrong about the one-night stand, but we're definitely not dating. He's my boss for heaven's sake. I'm never ever dating my boss, it's weird and it's wrong. I could never fall in love with my boss either, even if he is really good looking.

I finish my sandwich and I crumple up the paper bag before tossing it into the bin. I stalk back to Izumi's office and continue answering emails, waiting patiently for her to return from her meeting.

The news articles continue to swim around my brain persistently. Itachi couldn't have thought of a better excuse, could he? "Just friends", really? Of course they won't believe that. It's the excuse all celebrities use these days. He could have said I'm good friends with Izumi and I got too drunk, so he took me home to look after me: since Izumi was quite drunk herself.

Unless he plans on using the whole "just friends" to his advantage, but I doubt that. If he really wanted to be friends he could just talk to me, I'm his employee after all. Even better, why would he want to be friends with me? I'm some unknown employee who lives in some small town. I'm lower middle class, nothing special. I went to an average school; I did end up going to a really good university but that's beside the point. I'm painfully average, I'm not even that good looking. I've had one boyfriend and he was completely crazy.

I don't belong in his world, and he knows that.

Me being invited to his party was a one off. It was just because I get along well with Izumi and she wanted to get me to have a night of fun; because apparently I'm quite a loner who does nothing but binge drama shows on TV.

"Hello, Hanakawa-san!" Izumi greets cheerfully. She falls onto her desk chair and immediately sets to work. I look at my screen and realise I'm still on email number one. My blood leaves my face and I immediately set to work, typing like I've never typed before.

"I have great news, Hanakawa-san!" Izumi says in a sing-song voice several emails later. "Itachi-chan wants us all to go out Wednesday night. You're invited, of course. I think you made quite the impression on him." She winks at me and my cheeks turn red. Not at the fact that she winked at me, I don't swing that way, but the mention of Itachi.

"Why am I acting like such a teen?" I hiss to myself in my head. "I don't like him. No way. He's my boss. Be gone, impure thoughts."

"Sure, I'll go." I agree. "Where is it and what time?"

"It's at the new restaurant that has just opened. We've arranged for a taxi to pick you up at 7 at your apartment. The dress code is formal, so make sure to wear something appropriate." She gives me a wink before her eyes revert back to her computer.

I nod and return to answering emails.

LNLN

"No way! You're already seeing him again? Haha. Oh wait a sec… I'm getting a call. From all the authors of those trashy Mary-Sue stories. They're taking you to court for copyright infringement." Yuki cackles at her own joke, and I can imagine her head tilting backwards as she laughs relentlessly.

"It's a work dinner!" I protest. I readjust my phone to my other ear as my arm begins to ache. I grab a cushion from my sofa and rest it on my lap.

"It's a date," Yuki says in a taunting tone. "It's totally a date and you know it."

"No! There's going to be so many people there from work. It's not a date." I protest more and it only adds fuel to the fire that is Yuki's laugh.

"It's a multiple date then. Everyone is dating." Yuki laughs more. The sound distorting in my ear. I roll my eyes.

"It's a work do, Yuki." I sigh.

"I know, I know. Just let me ship my ship. I ship you two. You'd make the perfect couple in some trash fiction." She giggles.

"Please don't ship me and my boss. It's weird."

"No it's not. Everyone ships …" Yuki pauses as she tries to think of a famous couple who are boss and employee.

"You can't think of anyone, can you?" I laugh.

"Wait a sec." I hear her nails tapping on her laptop's keyboard.

"Googling it is cheating, babe."

"No it isn't! I'm calling a friend. It's allowed in quiz shows, it's allowed here." I roll my eyes at my best friend, even though she can't see me.

There's silence on the line for a few minutes, I sit back and wait patiently. "Everyone ships Edward and Bella! That's just gross, he's one hundred and something and she's 17." Yuki protests.

"I'm guessing your search on popular boss-employee fiction was fruitless?" I mock.

"No! You just don't know of any of the books. You know Twilight, everyone knows Twilight."

"I'm not dating my boss."

"But you could be living in your own Twilight fanfiction world! Maybe he's into BDSM…"

"I'm not dating my boss, Yuki."

"He's only had a handful of girlfriends too… and they don't speak about their relationship… and he had you sign an agreement…" Yuki trails off. I let out another sigh.

"He had me sign an agreement so I don't run to the press about sleeping with him, not to stay quiet about his extra-curricular activities." I explain.

She huffs in disappointment. "Just let me ship it."

"No."

A/N: Hello! Welcome to my story!

I was unsure whether I should post this or not, but as you can tell I decided to.

Please leave a review! I want to know what you think :)

- Yin