Chapter 23: Tokyo Tales

Tokyo weather in early autumn is still warm with an average low of 21.3°C and average high of 26.8°C. Wearing their light clothing, the group was immediately met by a chauffeur outside the VIP terminal at Haneda Airport. In less than 20 minutes, the Audi Q7 carrying the passenger of 4 had arrived in front of Sukiyabashi Jiro.

At the restaurant, they were quickly greeted by the manager and guided to their table. Shu Li had previously made reservations for the omakase menu. The four were able to savor a quiet meal and occasionally chat with the chefs with Shu Li being fluent in Japanese. Dinner was finished in 30 minutes as the sushi was eaten one after another immediately as Jiro and his son made them.

It was truly an excessive luxury, flying out internationally in a private plane without any sort of notice, to taste a specific cuisine. Even when the Lee Family business was at its prime, they couldn't afford such extravagance. Miyeon was only able to experience such opulence due to her close friendship with Shu Li. To say that she was not appreciative of this would be a lie. However, this kind of superfluous generosity is sometimes rather burdensome, for all Miyeon could ever give back would be her loyalty and friendship.

After leaving the restaurant, the group opted to first check-in to the hotel with the intention of soaking in the Japanese style bath in their suites. When they finally made it into their room, Shu Li quickly grabbed Miyeon to sit on the bed.

"So, what is up with you and Jesse?" she asked excitedly.

"Ah? We had lunch this morning. He pinged me when you guys were at the after party during your birthday remember." Miyeon explained with a yawn. It's barely 10 o'clock and she was dead tired. 'How are they so active? They even want to go out for drinks later.' she thought.

Shu Li cupped her hands on either side of Miyeon's face and fixed her friend a long searching look. Except for a pair of beautiful but tired eyes, there was no change from Miyeon's usual indifferent expression.

"Still didn't make a move huh.. What a chicken." Shu Li murmured to herself.

On the other hand, Miyeon began walking to the bathroom and called out, "I'll use the shower first alright? What did you want to do about clothes?"

"Oh, I'll have one of our secretaries bring us clothes for tomorrow. Let me grab us some drinks for the bath." Shu Li answered back.

After a brief shower, Miyeon began to soak in the japanese style bath overlooking the views of the financial district and the imperial palace gardens. It was dark outside and there were barely any stars visible in the night sky yet she found this type of scenery calming. Funnily, she would always be reminded of C Country when she went to Japan now that she has moved back to C Country, she thought of Japan. After relaxing in the bath for 15 minutes, Miyeon turned to look at the spread of alcoholic drinks on the table and had to resist the urge to laugh. 'I'm pretty sure that those didnt come from the minibar. That girl even ordered champagne, sake, tequila, gin, whiskey, vodka...there's even some fruit slices. What kind of combination is this? Is she trying to make her own cocktails?'

Finally, the lady in question emerged from the shower. Clad in a bathrobe, Shu Li asked Miyeon what she would like to drink. Shu Li had such a self-satisfied look on her face that Miyeon just laughed out loud. "Sake bomb for me. There's beer in the fridge." Miyeon responded.

Shu Li had a slightly disgusted look on her face, "I can make you any drink and you choose a sake bomb?"

"Is it not classy enough for Stella Wei?" Miyeon asked as she came out of the bath and wrapped herself in a bathrobe.

"Come on. Choose something else.' (Shu Li)

"Gin and tonic." (Miyeon)

"Irene Lee!" (Shu Li)

"Then gimme an old fashioned. Hold on, let me get the door. You called the guys over yeah?" (Miyeon)

**Ding Dong Ding Dong**

"Yep. Choose another!" Stella hollered from her makeshift bar area.

......…...

Miyeon opened the door to let Rich and Jesse in, both of whom had just come over after taking a shower themselves. The trio stood in the hallway of the suite. Miyeon's bare face was extremely attractive. Her cheeks were slightly flushed from the hot water, her wet hair was clinging to her pale ivory skin which was slightly exposed from the loosely tied robe and her cute pink toes peeking out of the hotel slippers painted an irresistibly seductive picture to both men.

"Baby girl, This is dangerous. Did you just come from the bath?" (Rich)

"Huh? Yeah. Did you guys try yours? The water is great." (Miyeon)

"We didn't get a chance. You should hurry back in first. I forgot I had something to speak to Jesse about" (Rich)

"Right now?! Oookay. Well Stella is taking drink orders over there. Are you sure Jesse is alright? His complexion is a bit... does he have a fever?" Miyeon asked concerned.

"Jesse's fine. He's just thinking of THAT important thing we need to discuss."

Miyeon hesitated for a few seconds, shooting Jesse a worried glance. The latter had turned his body away from her and kept his gaze on the floor.

"Baby girl, I promise he's fine. Run along." cooed Rich as he turned Miyeon's shoulders towards the direction of the room.

Once he was certain that the culprit was no longer in sight, Rich turned to Jesse and gestured toward the latter's obvious reaction. Red faced, the man began to recite Britain's National Anthem as his friend continued to stifle his laugh.

"God save our gracious Queen,

Long live our noble Queen,

God save the Queen!"