"Yes, I'll be sure to include that on the meeting notes," Faro quickly jotted down something as he ended another phone conversation. He glanced at his watch, it wasn't even 11am yet, but it felt as if he had handled a million calls for his boss Sera Orstead. He looked at his screen and let out a long exhale. Due to the opening up of markets and the division of Kasva to handle local flights, the airline had been busy negotiating and renegotiating routes. Every airport in the world seemed like it wanted some of the company's time, there were meetings almost continuously up until Xelhan New Years (25 January). However, if they made it through to the other side of New Years, performance bonuses would be handed out for non-management, for which he qualified. Not that the regular pay was bad, but the bonuses did give incentive to remain at the company.
"Hey Faro," one of his coworkers yelled out to him, breaking his concentration as they came up to his desk. "Already thinking about what you're going to do with that bonus?" he chuckled before adding in a lower voice, and leaning towards Faro, "Going to ask your boss out for Kasitsys?"
"No, Malik" Faro chuckled weakly. "If I wanted to get classy, I'd go all the way."
"Oh?" Malik raised an eyebrow. "How much classier?"
"The queen," he said without missing a beat, almost causing Malik to choke on his tea.
"That's, a pretty lofty goal there, I think you'll need more than just this year's bonus, even if Ice Bird is doingas well as they say it is," he wheezed.
"Well they say aim for the stars," Faro chuckled for a moment before stopping and looking very serious. "Yeah..."
"Whoa, don't tell me you were serious?" Malik blinked. "I mean sure she lives about an hour away and isn't very hard to meet at the square's Knight's Coffee. But that would be way out of any of our leagues."
"You say that, yet I knew her in secondary school, and they often say you never forget the people you met in high school. Xelha is a strange place, I guess. It's the only place where a normal person like me can even think of being in the same school as someone with such a lofty status. Like the Bells never go to the normal schools, always like the girls' schools or the gifted schools. It's like the normal system isn't good enough for them. But Tsuyu went to school with us. Her name was one of the first on the roll call so she often took roll calls while the teachers would set up class. I've heard her call my name multiple times! I have had her sing less than a couple of meters from me, and I've seen her in a PE kit. She has angry, embarrassing and happy moments, and gets up to mischief just like any other career student," he added with a chuckle. "She's not really that different from the rest of us. What's to stop a man from dreaming that he can pursue a woman from the same school he attended?"
"Realism in the form of HRH behind her name, because right now I think you're being a little idealistic here," Malik said in a deadpan tone, finally having fully recovered from wheezing. "The queen probably has suitors much better off than anyone in this building except maybe your boss. You can't just go up to her and say, 'Remember me, we went to high school together, want to get together?' She's bound to probably laugh you to scorn, that's if she remembers you at all."
"Is that a bet I smell?" Faro interrupted. "The usual wager?"
Malik stopped, mouth agape, blinked at Faro before shaking his head and laughing. "I don't even know if this is a fair bet. As another person I'd happily take the odds, but as a friend that would be just taking advantage of you."
"Scared to lose... again?" Faro smirked. "You haven't won a bet in a long time, I suppose it's only right that you'd be scared," he added with a shiver.
"Hey now, I won that bet on the XHL All Star Game! And that was a payout equal to all the little ones that you've had in between," Malik sniffed.
"Oh come on! That was almost a year ago," Faro snorted. "They're preparing to announce the rosters of a new All Star Game, and you haven't won anything since. You're stalling and refusing to take this one so you can continue saying the last couple were lucky." He then added waving his finger and a sly smile, "because a wise man once said, 'It can't be luck if you do it more than ten times in a row.'" Malik groaned as Faro continued, "Besides, like I said, she's a queen, but she's still one of us. It's not like she's a snobby royal like what they have in Ruzenia or Carida. And her dad married a commoner."
"Her dad married a childhood sweetheart. You may have been in her childhood, but she went to Botany School and you went into Bookkeeping. She hasn't seen you for at least six years and only god knows how many teenage crushes she's had in that time."
"None of importance to her if she's still single," Faro said with a wink and finger snap. "That means I still have a chance right? Not Zero percent means not impossible."
"Fine, fine! Since you seem so intent on embarrassing yourself in front of an old classmate, the usual wager that the queen doesn't laugh you out of Knight's Koffee."
"Excellent," he smiled as they shook hands. "Remember this handshake, it will be the first of your future king."
"King of fools may haps, I don't know about King of Xelha," Malik grinned as he reciprocated the handshake.255Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRMj61py4QP
