Stigma

Ivy adjusted the mask on her face with her gloved hands. She is almost freezing cold! This is her second winter in this foreign land, and until now, she always hated how cold it could get. She feels better though, when she remembers Sachie telling her last night that it was -15degrees in Tokyo. She would freeze to death by then, she thought.

She checked her wristwatch, it's 10 minutes past 6 in the evening, and she realized that it was already dark. She began to type a message on her phone.

"Where are you Hiro? I'm freezing now!"

She went inside the waiting area again and sat on one of the chairs. Today is Friday, December 21st, and she had promised her father that she will spend the holiday break there then she will go home to her mother for the celebration of New Year.

It has been almost 1 year since the relationship between Hiro and Ivy became clear. That time, she asked her father not to publicly announce that she is his daughter, in order not to make a ruckus in their social circle and in the company, where Hiro is the president. If it's made public, its either they cannot make their relationship known or Hiro would be branded as a bastard child and the company would be affected.

Although the company originally belonged to Mita's family, Yukio worked hard on expanding it. When Mita's family was the one running it, it was just a mere textile and transport company that operates only in Tokyo and neighboring prefectures. Then Yukio was able to expand the company that it was able to dominate the transport industry all over the country, in just less than 20 years of managing it. When Hiro turned 22, Yukio turned over the company to him. In just 10 years, Hiro further expanded the company to include not only transport industry, but also manufacturing of vehicle parts. The YY group of companies now owned a transport group, manufacturing group, chain of hotels and sports club, and large shopping malls and supermarkets built from north to south of Japan. Now, at the age of 33, he is one of the youngest and richest CEO in the country. Just last year, they started branching out to other countries, particularly the Asian market.

If Hiro's complicated family background is made known to the public, his credibility might be affected, and other business partners might shun him, and his entire family. This is what Ivy does not want to happen. She knows how much the sense of shame and honor is respected and being uphold by the people of this country. She has no wish to humiliate him, his family, and her own father in this country. In any case, it does not matter to her one bit if she will never be recognized as her father's daughter, as she literally grew up without one. She is, in fact, very contented with what's going on in her life now. She could not ask for more.

"What are you dreaming about?"

The cold voice and warm touch on her forehead woke Ivy from her deep thoughts. She opened her eyes in surprise as she did not hear the helicopter landing, nor his footsteps.

Looking at her intently is a pair of deep dark brown round eyes, the ones she missed so much. Hell, she has not seen him for almost a month!

"Hiro!" she leapt from her chair and hugged him, her arms around his neck.

"Woah!" Hiro was surprised too, but he instinctively put his arms around her waist as he smelled her sweet scent. How he missed her!

After a while, Ivy let go of him, and as she looked at his smiling eyes, she smiled back, then pouted at him.

"It took you too long to come here, " she stated, with an accusing look, "Don't tell me they have heavy traffic in the sky now".

Hiro laughed sexily, and pinched her little nose covered with the mask.

"Sorry about that, no excuses. But know that I did try to finish all my work as fast as I could to come here and pick you up." He explained then how he missed her for the past weeks. He was in China, Taiwan and Korea to look over the opening ceremony of the YY shopping malls in these countries. It was indeed so tiring for him but he wanted to be present there as the CEO, and he had to meet all the managers assigned in each area, and supervise some decision-making meetings.

She cast him a sideway glance. Of course, she is not angry at him, for even though they were not able to see each other personally during almost a month, they always see each other on video call every night. Hiro would always call her every time he arrives in his hotel room, and they will talk with the video on for hours until they both decided to sleep. But seeing him in person is different, of course.

Finally, she smiled at him. And he laughed.

"You are a little schemer. You just want to hear me say sorry, " he touted.

"Ha-ha", she mimicked his laughter. "Indeed, it is a real pleasure to hear Mr. CEO say sorry to me", she smiled sweetly at him.

Then, as he was about to pinch her nose again, she held her arms in his face. And sneezed. "Sorry, " she said, a bit embarrassed.

"It's too cold, let's go." Hiro put his arm on her shoulder and guided her towards the helicopter. The pilot bowed to them as they went inside, then after a few moments, they are up in the air. Inside, Hiro wrapped his arms around her, as she was taking off her mask. She also took off her gloves and touched his cheeks, and he winced at how cold her hands were.

"I told you I'm freezing, " she giggled at his reaction. She was wearing a thick winter coat, turtleneck heat-tech long sleeve tops, and heat-tech thick leggings. However, her whole body was still so cold with the weather. Meanwhile, Hiro was only wearing a long sleeve collared shirt with a knitted vest and black pants.

Doesn't he feel cold at all?