1 One.

"Nora!" a soft yet powerful voice came behind her, and before even getting the chance to react, the owner of the soft voice jumped on her back.

"Did you get taller again?" the girl asked from behind, very close to her ear, still hanging onto her tall figure with all her might.

"You just stopped growing, get off." the tall one gently shook her off, as they now were walking next to each other. Nora glanced at her best friend, Kiko, her blonde hair got longer, she had bangs now, and of course her small black glasses remained. Kiko glanced back and flashed one of her cutest smiles before saying "Can't believe we're seniors now!"

Nora made a hm sound, as she looked around in front of the school's gate, with a bunch of students going in, she landed her eyes on a man in his early 30's who was looking at her direction from the corner of the gate, a tree's shadow consuming him, the man gave a simple smile. Nora, without a reaction, turned back to Kiko as she gestured her to go without her, "I'll find you later."

. . .

"Two beers coming up!" the blonde girl placed the beers on the big table, surrounded by probably a bunch of college students. As she was about to go back someone sitting at the corner of the table drew back her attention with a simple "Hey!", she turned around, looked innocently as she waited for them to speak again.

"You're really cute, can I perhaps get your phone number?"

The blonde parted her lips open to say something but was cut off by an old man's voice coming from the back without being able to utter a word.

"Kiko! These plates are not gonna serve themselves!"

Kiko gave a gentle smile while slightly bowing her head, as she quietly said "Sorry." and hurriedly left the table.

After graduating highschool, Kiko immediately started working at a small gift shop close to her apartment, she was quite fond of her job, however couldn't keep it for long. She had an argument with the shop's owner, and met an old man who offered a job to her at his establishment who was present during the argument with her old boss. She was confused as to why he would think she would be the perfect employee after witnessing her throw a bunch of curse words at the shop's owner, but thought maybe he just really needed a second hand and accepted.

The old man and Kiko got along just well, he quickly became a father figure for her. She volunteered to take care of him as well as his small business, since he had told her he no longer had any family members left. She was pretty much in the same situation so they spent a lot of time together. In the end Kiko was satisfied with how things in her life turned out to be, at least some of the things.

Her shift was going smoothly, although there were many customers, she wasn't complaining. As she was cleaning one of the empty tables, the old man told her he was going out for a few minutes and would be back soon. She didn't question and simply nodded and continued with the table. Not a minute after she felt a tap on her shoulder, "You're back already?" said as she turned around but instead of meeting the old man, three people were standing in front of her, two men with formal suits who looked indentical to each other, and in the middle a short, black haired woman who was as tall as the men, probably around 180cm, who also wore a suit and a black coat on top. Kiko's heart shrank, her eyes widened, as she immediately recognized her, thought that she froze for a moment so she gave herself a mental shake and all she could say in a quiet voice was "N-" before she was instantly silenced by the cold voice of the good looking woman, "Where's your boss?"