NEW LIFE : A SECOND CHANCE

While the Smith Twins were facing a new scenario in their lives whereas the other Elite Five ... were certainly facing their own battles.

? Sam ?

Sam was sitting in the Student Council Room, tapping the pen on the table repeatedly in frustration. His face was scrunched up in concentration as he stared at the notes in his notepad while his fingers never stopped the pen movements.

The tikka-tikka-tikka rapid sound of the pen like a machine gun was starting to get on Sayuri's nerves. She looked up from her desk and saw that scene, sighing and got up. Swiping the pen from his hands, she tapped his forehead with it.

"Stop it, Sam," she said, putting back the pen into his hands, "What's wrong?"

Sam looked up at her, then around them.

Seeing that it was empty, he said, "Sayuri, you're the next CEO in your company, right? I need to dig your brains a bit on this, if you don't mind."

"Sure, not a problem," Sayuri said, getting all serious and sitting down next to him.

"There appears to be some sort of undercurrent going on at Smith Industries. I can't quite put my finger on it but ..."

"What sort of undercurrent?" Sayuri asked.

She didn't need to know the details of why Sam was feeling that way, for she has already seen his capabilities. He had a knack for analysing the situation so if he felt that there was something, then there would be something.

"Well, it's been a year now that Kyle's gone MIA," Sam said, "And Patrick had been keeping the lid on the actual situation."

"Officially, Kyle has gone off for further studies so should not be disturbed. No more of these so-called CEO-in-training work."

"That sounds solid enough, so what's the problem?" asked Sayuri.

"Despite that, there are some rumours floating around that Kyle ran away from home," Sam said, "And though that's all that it is, I can't help but feel that something's not right there."

"I mean, why would this rumour be persistent? Sure, Patrick had been sending those people to try and capture Kyle, but he always did it covertly and the cover story was that they were simply monitoring Kyle. Keeping tabs on him, rather than trying to catch him."

He sat up, "I've been monitoring the situation at the company but nothing seems out of the ordinary. It's running as per usual from what I can see, with the stocks being stable and no one raising the issue of Kyle being missing at meetings ..."

"But you still feel something is happening that can't be seen yet?" Sayuri said, putting it into words.

"Exactly," Sam said in frustration, flinging his pen on the table, "What if this was the start of a power take-over? You know how these internal strifes have been."

"So far, it's always been quite well contained in the Smith Line, since the manner of succession is through trials of blood and sweat."

Literally, blood and sweat, too. Kyle had fought for his position, showcasing his strength by not unleashing the Smith Anger in fights.

At that time, Kyle had only used the basic skills he had learnt from Master Shifu, plus the extra lessons Patrick had put him through. At that point, he was already good enough.

Kyle had only learnt the Kato Art, and the deeper skills of ninjutsu from Master Shifu after he had become the official Smith Heir.

So Patrick was completely unaware of the true skills Kyle had. He just knew Kyle was skilled but not that skilled.

"Once they have passed the test, it is undeniable and unquestionable," Sam said, "But then again, there's not been a Smith Heir that disappeared before."

"It sounds like your instinct is spot-on, even if you can't see any evidence yet," Sayuri agreed, "So the only thing you can do now is just to monitor the situation and have your men in place."

"Which, I am sure you are already doing," she said with a smile.

Sam rubbed the back of his neck, and sighed while admitting, "Yeah, but ..."

"It's still frustrating not to be sure," Sayuri nodded, "I understand. That's normal."

Betty came in at that moment, and saw how Sam and Sayuri were talking seriously. Their heads were close together, that smile on Sayuri's face and the tender look on Sam's face.

Betty's heart wrenched in pain.

The entire atmosphere looked so cosy and private - and she was the outsider.

Sam looked up upon hearing the door open and his face lit up to see that it was Betty.

Betty, seeing her beloved's joyful face, put on a bright smile as well as she hopped over.

Sayuri got up then, and said, "Well, I've got to get going now. See you two lovebirds later."

"Oh, no no," Betty said aghast, "You don't have to go just because I came. I'm sorry to disturb you."

Sayuri looked perplexed at that, "No, I'm not going because you came. I really do have to go because it's getting late."

"Oh, alright," Betty said, tugging on her twintails.

Sayuri went to her desk and cleared up her files, putting them in order for the next day. There wasn't really much to do, and she had basically done the urgent things already.

She just didn't want to be around when Betty came as Sam hardly had time for her anymore. These were the few moments they had to themselves and no way was she going to be a light bulb there.

All the dog food was too much to take.

All this time, she was never bothered at her single status. After all, she's still so young and all thoughts about love and romance were not important right now.

However, seeing those two whenever they got together was too much to take, really.

Sweetness overload is what it is.

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