Devil in Disguise

Chapter 1

Yuuri's pov

"I'll cover the interview, you need to go home," I say firmly, looking at my roommate and best friend Phichit, making him pack his bag. He had gotten a call about a family emergency and I was making him go. We didn't have much for money but it was enough for a ticket home on such short notice.

"You shouldn't be doing this alone," he says stopping and looking at me. There was worry written across his face.

"I'll be fine," I reassure, throwing another shirt at him to pack. I was hoping it was enough for him to believe me. Phichit sighs, staring at me for a moment before packing it in the bag. Shortly after I'm pushing him out the door and into a taxi to the airport, knowing all too well that if I didn't, he'd decide to stay behind. Phichit was from Thailand and his grandmother was passing. I was not going to allow him to miss saying goodbye to her because of an interview with a company owner from Russia that was expanding into the US. Yes it was our final project but he let me go home to Japan to say goodbye to my family dog last year. It was the least I could do. I could handle it . . .

Since I had a little more time I carefully packed up our camera, tripod, notebook of questions, microphones, and lights all into "our" car. The guy from Russia that I would be interviewing was kind enough to get us a room at the hotel he was staying in to do the interview. Since they didn't yet have an official headquarters in the states, renting a room was our only option for the limited window they'd be in the country. Once my stuff was packed finding the popular hotel downtown wasn't too hard. Ten minutes later I was pushing the door open to the room we were supposed to use. I took advantage of the few minutes I had to check myself over in the bathroom mirror.

I was wearing a black button up shirt with black dress pants. I pray that it isn't too obvious that the pants were from the woman's aisle as I glance at the way they tightly hugged my hips. In my defense, I was in a pinch and they were the only thing that Phichit found that would fit. The button down shirt was more on the sheer side, something that was typically only worn during events related to my competitions . . . not business interviews. I look ridiculous. Good, but not for the impression I wanted to make. See, I wasn't supposed to be the one making an impression, I was supposed to be behind the camera, not in front of it. Phichit was going to do the actual interview.

I force myself away from my reflection to finish setting up, locking tripods into place and checking devices to make sure they were on and connected to the laptop that would take the audio recording. The camera audio was a back up option in case I fail to make the mics work, but I'm sure that it was all going to be fine. Maybe. God, I hope so. I can't afford to fail this, my family will be so disappointed in me.

The sudden loud knock at the door nearly gave me a heart attack. I stop fiddling with the instruments and hurried to answer the door. I felt my heart racing, my fear crawling up my throat. This is why I wasn't supposed to do the interview, damn it.

But I have to. I can do this.

I look up at the two discreetly dressed men that were at the door, each wearing finely in black tailored outfits.
"Are you Yuuri Katsuki?" One asks. I nod slowly.

"We're here to check the room over before Mr. Nikiforov comes down." The second explains, casting a glance at his partner.
"Yes ah, come on in. I guess," I stutter while stepping aside.

I remain quiet as they search the room. I didn't know that the man I was meeting with was so famous that he had special bodyguards. I found it a little odd. It could easily cause some problems if they started to mess with the content I could or couldn't use. "Mr. Nikiforov will be down in 15 minutes." One says before they both leave without sending me a second glance.
I was able to get my last-minute adjustments done before there was another knock at the door. Trying to get everything perfect was hard with only one person. I didn't want to mess anything up. I knew that everything was fine, but that didn't stop something in the back of my mind from prodding me with all sorts of worries.