Author's Notes: If it's not clear by the fact that all of the named characters in this story hold political positions that are open only to people aged 25 years and more, all of the people participating in sexual acts in this story are over the age of 18.
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***
Michael was ecstatic. And a little terrified as well. And maybe a little intrigued, surprised and unsure of himself. Probably, he was all of those and more, at the same time.
With the way his life was going recently, he had ample reason to feel like that.
Just a couple of months ago, he was just one of the thousands of foreign students finishing their studies in Japan. Unlike most, he chose to study at a rather small, local university in an even smaller and relatively isolated city, which was soon to be reclassified as a large town, preferring its quiet and almost rural atmosphere to the chaos of mega-cities.
And unlike almost all of his fellow foreign students, he chose to stay in this country instead of going back abroad, successfully naturalizing not even two months after gaining his degree thanks to the services of a highly-experienced attorney specializing in helping foreigners to obtain the country's citizenship.
As he quickly realized, he was quite lucky in this regard as municipal elections were right around the corner, meaning that he would gain the right to vote just in time for them. Or, as he satisfied all the necessary criteria, he could even be elected into an office, a possibility which quite enticed him the more he thought about it. Winning an elected office weeks after gaining citizenship? It seemed crazy, but he knew there was a possibility he could do it.
After a few days of hesitating over what to do, with many of his friends proding him quite a lot to do so, he finally decided to go for it.
Following a short, awkward, impromptu campaign based mainly on showing that he existed and was there, hoping that his foreignness will be enough of a drawing factor to push him through the finish line, he woke-up the day after the election to learn that he had claimed the twenty-third place out of the forty contested ones.
It worked.
A few months after being just a foreign student residing here, he was now not only a citizen of a country situated half a world away from his birthplace, he was an elected representative in this town.
His career was on the up, and he wasn't the only one who knew it. Just weeks after being elected to the city council, he became one of the most active and famous members of the body, with various local businessmen approaching him first whenever they needed something done at the council, seeing him as the perfect person to represent their interests thanks to him being an approachable, young, foreign-born political outsider who needed all possible help from local power-brokers to preserve or even further his political career.
He had no problem obliging their demands. Why not? If he didn't do what they wanted, somebody else would do it, working with them could only boost his political career while working against them could only hinder it, and ultimately, he was simply a people-pleaser.
Even the mayor seemed to like him, having no problem with hanging out with him a couple of times in their free time, in addition to conversing with him in English even at work, as his Japanese was still unfortunately quite rusty. All of this, he believed, was because, just like him, she was quite young and just elected into the office for the first time, so she probably sympathized with him.
This friendly relationship of the two of them culminated with her calling him yesterday to join her today for a dinner at a rather obscure, but quite high-class, restaurant at the edge of the town.
It was there that he was now headed, and it was because of it that he felt that strange feeling.
He had no real idea what to expect of it. He knew, however, that this was the culmination of everything that was building up for the last few months. What was going to happen today was certain to majorly impact his life, possibly even more than getting elected did.
As he parked his car in the small, half-filled parking lot near the restaurant, he felt his heart beating crazier than he ever remembered. And what he saw when he looked around did nothing to calm him down.
"Oh, God," he muttered to himself as he looked at a female figure staring back at him from behind her car parked just a few empty spots from him "Why's she here as well?"
The woman, dressed in a quite beautiful kimono and staring at him like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, was one of his fellow city councilors and the mayor's other favorite, Amber.
His relationship with her was, interesting.
Although both of them were immigrants who were starting their political careers using the same strategy, she didn't like him and did her best to make it as obvious as possible.
The reasons for that were quite obvious and stemmed mostly from where their similarities ended. Unlike him, she, being mostly of Japanese heritage with a smattering of Korean and Chinese ancestors, moved here not just for the economic opportunities like he and so many other foreigners did, but also due to the feeling of kinship she felt for this country and its people. Unlike him, she didn't fight for a political office mostly for personal glory and power, but also due to true desire to help better the country she had no doubt was hers and to improve the lives of people she, likewise, had no doubt were her people.
And so, when she saw someone like him, with motivations and goals so different from hers, reach the same status as her as quickly as she did, it was only natural that she didn't like him, as the stare she was still giving him reminded him.
Nevertheless, they were both invited here and it was obvious they were going to spend at least a few hours together, so, wishing to make this time as pleasant to both of them as possible, he strolled toward her, hoping to start a friendly conversation with her.
"You really came here in those rags?" she asked before he had a chance to speak, referring to the cheap suit he wore.
"I don't have a suit there, and this is the best I could buy yesterday," he replied "Besides, what's the problem? Yuriko doesn't really care about stuff like this."
"First off, if you have to speak English, she's Madame Mayor to you," she said, lecturing him with a scoff "Second off, it's not so much about her as it is about the other patrons. Do you have any idea how high-class this place is? You're gonna stick out like a fucking swollen thumb."
"Well, she wants me, and you as well, to call her Yuriko, so that's what I'm gonna call her," he replied with a slightly mocking tone "Besides, she likes to speak in English with both of us since you aren't really proficient in Japanese either," he said as she replied him with a look that could freeze a heart in terror "And, honestly? I don't really care about those other patrons there, she's probably more important than all of them, and we're her guests, so..."
"Whatever, let's just go," she said, giving up in trying to get him to see her point. If he was going to make a fool of himself, then she should let him. She could only profit from that.
As they walked toward the door to the restaurant, he took the risk to discreetly check her out with a few glances. Whatever their feelings toward each other, he was a young single guy, and she, however much he'd like to deny it, was an attractive young woman.