Chapter 25 - Date at the Chinese Restaurant

Date at the Chinese Restaurant



The next night after showering, Kaede stood in her room, dressed only in her underwear and a dressing robe, with her wardrobe door open, picking out dress after dress, throwing each discarded one onto the floor.

There was a knock on her door and her grandmother entered, smiling. Kaede beamed at her and turned back to her wardrobe. She picked out her dark purple dress that she had worn to the ball where she had first danced with Seto. She smiled as she touched it, remembering how much she had tried to convince herself that she hated him.

She hung it up on her dressing screen, smiling at it fondly, then she realised her grandmother was still in the room. She apologised quickly, but her grandmother waved away her apology.

`No, don't worry, I know what you young people are like, so I don't mind.'

Kaede smiled and looked expectantly at her grandmother.

`Yes, well, I was just coming up here to tell you to enjoy yourself,' her grandmother smiled back at her. `And I thought you might like my advice.'

`No, it's okay, I'm alright, just trying to find a dress,' Kaede flapped.

Her grandmother pushed past her to the wardrobe and began pulling out dresses at random.

Kaede sat on her bed and watched, occasionally looking at the clock. It was getting gradually closer to seven o'clock and she hadn't done any make up or chosen what to wear. Seto would be so mad if she was late, and so she started flapping her hands in urgency, and began to pace up and down her room, muttering continuously.

`Here,' her grandmother held out a dress. Kaede took it and examined it. It was dark blue, with a slightly floaty skirt and with the straps hanging delicately off the shoulders, held up at the chest by a slight corset inside the dress itself. Kaede quickly kissed her grandmother's cheek and ran behind the screen to put it on. She curled her hair up tightly and pinned it up. She put on a little flower necklace and some dangly earrings and stepped into some delicate little high heeled shoes.

She ran downstairs and grabbed a coat just as a black limousine rolled into the driveway.

`Bye, see you guys later,' Kaede waved at her grandparents as she ran out of the house. She climbed into the back of the limousine where Seto was sitting. Kaede slid over the seats and kissed his on the cheek, then leant against him as the limo began to move out of her driveway and out of her street.

`So, where are we going?' Kaede asked as Seto put his arm around her shoulders.

`You'll see,' Seto grinned. Kaede watched through the window as they drove past familiar streets, people staring and pointing at the limo, keen to she who was inside it. Kaede smiled as she remembered that she used to be like that, wanting to be inside the limo, chatting to the rich people who could afford such luxury. Now she hated the stares, wishing that for once they could just go out in her crappy van or a run down car, because at least then they wouldn't draw so much attention to themselves.

She sat up as the limo slowed down, looking around her. They stopped outside the beautiful Chinese restaurant The Golden Dragon. The outside was a really traditional Chinese building, and as Seto pushed Kaede inside just in front of him and the waitresses took her coat from her and lead her to their table, right next to a large window, overlooking the harbour. She sat down and looked around her, stunned.

Seto sat down opposite her, grinning at the look on her face. She looked up at him and suddenly realised what had happened. `How…what…ahhh!'

`Your grandparents told me that this was your favourite restaurant, so I decided that I should bring you here.'

Kaede stared at him for several moments, letting the fact that he had gone behind her back with her grandparents slowly sink in. She would have strangled him if she hadn't also taken into account that he had done this for her, and was spared the embarrassment of not being able to think of a good reply to him by the waitress bring them a bottle of champagne and the menus. Kaede took a sip of champagne and remembered she hadn't said thank you yet. `Oh, thank you so much, Seto,' she spluttered quickly, not wanting him to think her ungrateful.

`Don't mention it,' Seto shook his head, smiling at her. Kaede smiled back at him and looked down at her menu. She loved this restaurant, and whenever she came, which wasn't very often, she usually had the same thing, but now she wanted something that the two of them could share.

Seto seemed to be thinking the same thing, because when their waitress returned he asked for their two persons meal. The waitress nodded, and then left with the order. Seto leaned forward and looked at Kaede seriously for a second, then looked away.

`Um, what?' Kaede asked, reaching over the table. Seto looked back and took a deep breath.

`I have something that I have been meaning to return to you for a long time. I am so sorry that I took it, but please forgive me, because I had too,' Seto said slowly, letting it all sink in.

Kaede had just taken another sip of champagne, and had to shake her head several times to clear it. She vowed never to drink champagne again when she was with Seto, it just complicated things.

`Well, what it is?' she asked, raking her brain trying to imagine what it could possibly be. She couldn't think of anything, because there was nothing she didn't have that she had lost recently. She looked at him questionably, and so he sighed, removing a small box from his coat pocket. He handed it to her, and she took it, looking suspiciously at it. She laid it on the table and opened it slowly.

Inside lay her mother's necklace. Kaede choked when she saw it, almost not recognising it. But then the memories of it came flooding back to her, the hospital room, with the machines beeping around her as she entered. She remembered the fear she had felt as she walked over to the bed, where her mother was laid, the white sheets covering her stained with blood, her arms cut and scratched. She remembered sitting down on the edge of the bed and taking hold of her mother's hands, letting the tears roll down her face. Her mother spoke to her, telling her to remove the necklace that she was wearing. Kaede's hands had shaken as she removed it, the silver of the chain glittering underneath the harsh bright lights of the hospital. Her mother's dying words still rang out in her ears. `Take care of it Hun, look after it just like you look after yourself.'

Kaede's eyes were filling with tears as she remembered it, and she quickly wiped them away with her napkin, and looked back down at the necklace. Its silver chain shone brighter than it had before, and the little silver figure of the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis was no longer dull and dirty, but reflected the lights of the restaurant like it was brand new. But she knew it was the same one, the golden collar around Isis's neck was the same gold, the blue of Isis's pendant was the same blue that the Ancient Egyptians used in their hieroglyphics. Kaede looked up at Seto smiling broadly, and then remembered he was the reason she didn't have it.

`Did you give me this champagne so my head would be too cloudy to slap you when you gave it back to me?' she sighed, leaning her head on her hand.

`Well, that and I know you like champagne,' Seto replied, looking slightly afraid. Kaede shook her head at him, smiling slightly. She got slowly to her feet and walked around the table to him. He looked away as she got closer, as if afraid that she was going to hit him. She knelt down next to him and turned his head to meet hers.

`Thank you so much,' she said, quickly kissing him and then sat back down in her seat. She held the necklace in her hand, turning it over in her fingers. She looked up at Seto, who was looking at it strangely.

`How did you get that necklace in the first place?' he asked.

`It belonged to my mother, and has been our family heirloom for centuries,' Kaede replied, holding it tightly in her hands. She placed it back in the box and shut the lid, wanting to protect it, desperate not to have it taken away from her again.

`Kaede,' Seto leaned forwards to whisper across the table. `What happened to your parents?'

Kaede's breath caught in her throat as she heard this, and tried to breathe again, her hands shaking. She closed her eyes, trying to phrase it in her mind, but the words didn't seem to click in her mind. `Well,' she started, opening her eyes and biting her lip, trying to stop herself trembling.

`Just before I came to Japan, my parents were working at the tomb of one of the Pharaohs of Egypt. My sister Lara and my brother Sho were helping them with their work one day, and I had been sent to the library in the nearest town to take out some books for my parents to use. Whilst I was gone, the tomb they were in collapsed while they and some of their workers were all still in there,' Kaede stopped for a breath, and dried her eyes on her napkin again. She took another breath and then continued. `The surviving workers tried to dig them out, because they could hear their screaming, but the only one they managed to get to in time was my mother. She had been crushed by a large boulder, and was rushed to the nearest hospital. I meet her there and she gave me this necklace, just before she died.'

Kaede swallowed as the memory of that moment swam into her head. She saw herself taking the necklace from her mother and watching as her mother's eyes clouded over and her whole body went limp, and the hand that she still held loosened its grip on her own hand, and she was gone, walking to a place where Kaede couldn't follow her. She remembered her own helplessness and her loneliness when she attended the funeral, dresses from head to toe in black, face covered by a black veil.

For weeks afterwards black was all she wore, until she meet her friends. With their help she stopped crying herself to sleep every night, stopped hating herself because she wasn't there with them at the time and because she couldn't be with them.

Seto had stood up and walked over to Kaede's side of the table. He knelt down beside Kaede's chair and put his arms around her. Even as she was hugging him back, she still refused to cry anymore. She choked back the tears and let go off him, and sat upright in her chair again. Seto too stood back up to go and sit in his chair, but suddenly behind them was a huge crash. Both of them whipped around in time to see the glass of the front of the restaurant shimmering to the ground like a waterfall, showering the tables next to it.

Two cars from the road had smashed into the front of the restaurant. The noise of the traffic outside flooded the restaurant, and so did the sound of screaming.

Kaede jumped up from her seat and ran to the front of the hotel, where most of the people who had been sitting near the window had jumped up when they saw the car coming. All of them, except a little girl who was stuck beneath one of the cars. Kaede flung herself onto the ground, feeling some of the glass beneath her cutting into her legs and stomach, and as she crawled about on her hands and knees more got suck into her flesh. She bit her lip in pain but slid forward to help the girl.

She reached forward and took hold of the girls arm, trying to pull her to safety. Several of the people from the restaurant ran forward to try and help her. As much as she pulled, Kaede couldn't get this girl free.

`She's stuck underneath the car, you're going to have to lift it up,' Kaede yelled, and the people helping her ran forward to lift up one end of the car. The girl cried in pain as it came free, and when there was space, Kaede tugged on her arm again and she came sliding across the heavily polished wooden floor. Kaede hugged the girl tightly to her and pulled her away from the wreckage.

A woman who was apparently the girl's mother ran forward to retrieve her. She swept the little girl into her arms and kissed her repeatedly, thanking Kaede as she did.

But Kaede didn't hear her, because she had gone back to the cars to help the drivers. She crouched beside one of the cars that had been turned over on impact and looked inside. There was a man inside, but he was apparently unharmed. Some of the waiters pulled him to safety. Kaede was about to go to the other car and look inside but Seto grabbed her arm.

`What are you doing, these people need our help?' Kaede yelled at him.

`I know, and that car,' he pointed to the car that Kaede had just looked into. `Is my car.'

Kaede's face went white. Seto looked as though he was about to be sick. He jumped over the debris of some of the tables and ran towards the flipped over car, ripping open the door to the passenger door and ducked inside. Kaede heard a shout and swearing, and ran over to help. Seto emerged carrying Tenshi, who was unconscious. Kaede checked her body for any breaks or fractures, but she was okay, except for a little cut on the head. Kaede grabbed one of the table clothes from a table standing nearby and used it to stem the blood seeping through her hair.

She looked up as Seto emerged from the car again. Kaede gasped in horror as she saw it was Mokuba he had in his arms this time, and that Mokie's little body was covered in cuts. His head was bleeding from his ear and he too was out cold, but Kaede feared more for his safety than Tenshi's. Tenshi would probably have mild concussion, but Mokuba needed to get to a hospital, and as fast as they could get him there.

But, drowning out her thoughts of Mokuba, someone who was helping them had checked inside the other car and pulled out the unconscious body of a young girl. Kaede saw that the girl's blonde hair and pink top were stained red with blood. Someone was tapping on Kaede's arm, but she ignored them, and handed Tenshi to them, getting up as if in a daze. She slowly walked over to the other car, and sat down next to the girl, brushing her hair out of her face, covering it with blood from her own cuts. She wiped away as much as she can, tears streaming down her face as she looked at her. She vaguely heard somebody behind her calling her name and the sound of the approaching ambulance. Kaede just sat there with the girl, crying her eyes out for her. It wasn't until Seto came to get her to come in the ambulance with him, Mokuba and Tenshi that she took any notice of the world around her at all. Seto knelt down next to her, trying to recognise the face through the blood. He gasped when he recognised her hair and face.

`Yuula.'

Fresh tears sprung to Kaede's eyes when Seto said her name. This time she couldn't even bring herself to wipe away the tears. She just watched as the lights of the ambulance neared and she stood when Yuula was placed onto a stretcher. She followed the stretcher and climbed into the ambulance. She looked around just as the door to the ambulance shut and saw Joey standing watching her, guilt on every corner of his face.

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