I Deserve A Second Chance

The sliding door was opened, and Shao Yan had her view displayed to a very spacious room with little decorations. Minimalist tatami covered the whole area. A low section of display panels stretched out on one side of the room, with flower vase and ceramic pots and plates were placed on it to bring more colors to the room.

Four bamboo lamps stood on each corner of the room, and a wooden table sat in the middle of the room with four Japanese chairs all around it.

"This is the best seat in the whole garden," the hostess started to explain the room to Shao Yan and Li Xiqing, "The view is facing the koi fish pond directly, and you also get to hear the mini river stream while you eat."

As she was explaining more things, Li Xiqing turned his head to look at Yan Yan. He noticed that she was wearing a light blue jean dress with knitted flower belt wrapped around her waist. Without her signature wedges, she looked tinier than how she used to when she stood next to him; and he could not help to purse his lips in amusement.

He turned his head back to the hostess, "We are not sitting here. Let's go to the Horigotatsu room."

Shao Yan looked at him in confusion, "Horigotatsu?"

He smiled back at her, "You'll get to see it soon," and then he crooked his arm, and offered it for Yan Yan to hook her arm around his, "Shall we?" As they started to walk, the hostess just bowed her body a little to show respect for Li Xiqing's decision.

.....

They walked to a room just right next door. What he meant with 'Horigotatsu' was actually a smaller room, with similar decoration as the previous one. The room still came with a wide wooden table in the middle that was placed inside a recessed floor.

Li Xiqing led Shao Yan to the table, and as they got closer, she gradually saw what he meant. The surfaced of the floor in front of her was dipped lower than the ground. She looked back at him, and saw his encouraging smile. Shao Yan then stepped down and slowly sat on the cushion. The recessed floor allowed Shao Yan to stretch out her feet.

The hostess who was standing on the side then understood, this gentleman was only taking care of his girlfriend, and he saw her wearing a dress and might be difficult to sit on a normal tatami floor. That was why he requested for this room. She slowly put her head down, and smiled, 'Such an understanding man. His girlfriend surely is lucky,' the hostess praised inwardly.

.....

She slowly straightened up, and then walked over to the couple who had sat down on the cushion. The hostess then slowly lowered her knees and crouched down; she started to prepare a pot of green tea for the couple.

"We have two sets of lunch menu today. The first one is vegetarian. We just received a fresh shipment of tofu skin Yuba from Kyoto. The second menu will be charcoal grill eel or salmon in soy sauce. Our shipment is from Tokyo."

Shao Yan curiously looked around the room before she brought her eyes back to Li Xiqing, "I will go with the vegetarian."

Li Xiqing nodded and smiled at her, "I know you will choose that, it's your favorite tofu," and then he turned his head back to the hostess, "Then please give us one set of Yuba, and one set of grilled eel. Thank you."

The hostess did not say anything, and just nodded. After the tea was prepared, she poured the fragrant green liquid onto two ceramic cups and handed each one to them. She swiftly straightened up, and slowly walked out of the room. Her steps were dainty and soundless. After she stepped out, she closed the sliding doors; leaving the couple to enjoy the warm tea and feast their eyes with greeneries before they started their meal.

Just before the door panels were closed, the hostess thought that she had the best looking view of her lifetime. In front of her eyes were a couple of lovers who were sitting facing each other. Each of them was holding a ceramic cup in their hands. The woman was blowing onto the hot cup slowly, while she kept her eyes looking at her man. Her lips moved, and engaged him in her chattering.

The man was just holding the cup in his hands, his eyes were showing such a tender smile, adoringly looking at his woman. He was intently listening to each words that she was saying animatedly. To the woman's left side, and his right side, the window was opened to a full view of peaceful looking garden, with an orchestra of streaming water in the background.

.....

After lunch and a short walk around the garden, Li Xiqing drove Yan Yan back to her office.

As she sat down at her desk, and checked her email, she saw that Risa had sent an invite for next week. It was for a lunch with 'potential customer' and that Shao Yan should and must attend no matter what.

She squinted her eyes while staring at the email and kept reading it over and over again. Shao Yan was still upset at what she saw in the afternoon, she click 'delete' on the email invite right away. She took a deep breath and started to work through all the pending emails she had received while she was away.

But a sense of guilt kept eating inside her.

While she worked, Shao Yan kept ignoring the nagging feeling to check the 'trash'. She pushed the guilt deeper and started to concentrate more on her pending items.

.....

The sun had set, and people started to leave to go home, but Shao Yan was still on the phone with her suppliers.

Suddenly, she received a tap on her shoulder. Shao Yan turned around reflexively. Her eyes went big and round and exclaimed in surprise.