The Pleasure Palace by Jiani Yu, Golden Dragon Production

Chapter One
    "Surprise! Happy Birthday!"
    "Oh my goodness. I can't believe you guys!" Deanna said as she tried to get a grip on the situation. “What are you guys doing here?
    “It’s your birthday party!” Kimiko, Deanna’s spunky 20ish, co-worker shouted above the music.
    “Yeah, Kacho/boss had us plan this for you. Are you surprised?” asked Yumi, the other equally spunky co-worker.
    “Oh surprised doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel right now.”
    Right now all Deanna wanted to do was wring David Ito’s neck.
    Interview my ass! He had duped her. Immediately her thoughts went back to the conversation that led up to this.
    ‘He called Deanna into his office under the pretense that he had gotten the OK from the owner of this male host lounge and wanted her to do an interview today! ’
    Now here she was expecting to do an interview, only to be show up to her surprise party!
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    David Ito, slowly walked up to Deanna, and braced himself for the tongue lashing he was sure Deanna was going to give him. He gave her a hug and whispered, “So I take it that you’re not upset with this?”
    "I don't believe it! You are so bad! You know I’m going to get you back?" she replied through a forced smile.
    David broke the embrace and looked at Deanna, “Don’t be like that, besides you need to enjoy life again. So smile and work the camera.”
    He was right, she hadn’t enjoyed herself. She had been an excellent model. A-list material. Knew all the right people in the fashion and in the film industry. At least up until 24 months ago. When her husband suddenly died from stomach cancer. David was Deanna husband’s best friends. So when he died, David convinced her to move to Japan and start a new life. But even the move, she was still finding it hard at time.
    So she turned, faced the camera and gave them the look of surprise!
    Kimiko was in stitches, holding her stomach from laughing so hard,
    "Deanna, if you could see your face, it's priceless!" She said between laughs.
    Yumi, another co-worker, stood off to one side to catch the surprised look with her little camcorder, “Kimiko, I have it all on tape.
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    Wait until we show it at work.”
    By this time two young Japanese men, one with blonde hair, the other with black hair came up to Deanna, they took her by the hand,
    "Welcome to Sono Yorokobi Goten/ The Pleasure Palace." they both said in unison.
    They led her past tables and booths, each one filled with groups of women young and old. She wondered to herself, what had Kimiko, and Yumi had gotten her into. All she could think of being the center of gossip. If the two guys weren’t holding her by the hand, she would run out of there. Finally, they came to a private party room near the back of the lounge.
    When they entered the room, it was painted in red with mirrored squares randomly placed on the wall and a long u-shaped couch against one of the walls. For a brief moment, Deanna wondered if there were cameras hidden behind those mirrors, she made a mental note, not to do anything outrageous that would show up on the internet later.
    "Did we surprise you?" David asked.
    “Yes you did. Here, I'm thinking that I'm going to this night club for an interview only to be surprised with a birthday party. I should have known something was up when I couldn't find Kimiko and Yumi after lunch, and 6 | P a g e

    then you suddenly disappeared."
    "Well Deanna, I hope that you enjoy yourself. It’s time to live again. And besides, if you can get a story out of this party, it will be an added feature in the next month’s issue."
    "Oh come on David, you've got to be kidding!" Deanna pleaded, "What did I do to piss you off? I’m a fashion writer. Not some two bit gossip writer.”
    "You didn't do anything to piss me off. I just think it would be good for you to do something different." he said with a slight smile.
    Deanna raised one eye brow questioning his decision, "You're kidding, right?"
    She hoped