Beware of child-kidnappers and bad internet connections

The Definition of Timeout

A/N A little late since Asano's Birthday was the 1st Jan, but better late than never. 

This is a little two-parter about our favourite strawberry, a princess, and an American boy called Kevin.

'...' Spoken in English

"..." Translated from character's native language. 

***

Gakushuu looked around the hotel in interest, his father keeping a hand on his shoulder as they walked over to the main Reception desk. He clutched his backpack tight, absorbing everything around him.

Washington was different from the last American state he'd visited, everything seemed more spaced out and bigger, with large monuments towering above. The hotel was big as well, but also old, decorated with plush red carpets and patterned wallpaper. The main lobby area full of people and lots of leather furniture.

There were lots of other kids too, mostly in large groups with some wearing their soccer team uniforms proudly while standing with their chaperones or coaches. They all looked so different and all seemed from different parts of the world.

His father nudged him forward as they were addressed by the receptionist. 'A reservation under Asano please,' his father spoke in English.

Gakushuu looked up a murmured the sentence under his breath to remember, his father had said he should use every opportunity to practice his English while they were here.

'Ah, yes,' the woman checking them in sounded overly-cheerful. 'Do you have your booking reference and a credit card?'

Gakushuu looked around while his dad got his wallet out. His gaze paused on a girl around his age dressed in a nice coat and purple scarf, with thick blonde hair that cascaded down like a Princess; he'd never seen a girl that looked like that. She looked like something from a fairytale book.

"Gakushuu?" His father nudged him.

"Huh?" Gakushuu blinked a few times like being broken from a trance and looked up at his father who had the hotel room keys in hand and didn't look impressed.

"Stop gawking at people and come along," his father said lightly, taking a step forward while gripping his shoulder like he was afraid he'd disappear.

Gakushuu kept walking ahead but then scowled faintly when he couldn't see the girl anymore.

***

The hotel they were staying at had a horrendous Internet connection, something with the Wifi signal in the room which seemed linked to the old structure of the luxury hotel that was as dated as the garish oak furnishings and strangely patterned wallpaper.

Gakuhou grimaced, trying to load up the revised budget proposal his assistant had emailed over for what felt like the tenth time within the hour. He checked the clock above, it was currently 8pm here in Washington which meant would be 10am in Tokyo right now, so if he emailed over the review by 10:30am Tokyo time so it could be discussed in the conference call—

Something thudded from the wall opposite where Gakushuu's room was. Gakuhou looked over at the wall irritably, before he started looking through the proposal, reading through three pages until another thud on the wall distracted him.

For goodness sake!

Gakuhou stood up and walked over to the doorway that connected his son's hotel room to the ten-year-old child seemed not to be studying quietly. "Gakushuu," he said sharply when he opened the door and found his son kicking the football back and forth. "What are you doing?"