Chapter 4:

"Hey, wake up," I heard Ren-nii's voice as he shook me awake. I opened my eyes and blinked a few times, putting my hand up to block the sun.

"Good morning! I just wanted to tell you that before I went to class," Ren-nii smiled.

"That's all you woke me up for?" I gave him the best glare I could muster.

"We don't want you to wake up and think I disappeared, do we?" Ren-nii chuckled.

"I only had an hour of sleep that day!" I pouted.

"I'm laughing with you, not at you," Ren-nii smiled.
"I'm not laughing at all," I groaned into the couch pillow," and can I please go back to sleep?"

"You have school to do as well you know. You can't sleep all day, even if you really want to," Ren-nii told me, making me sigh heavily. I had completely forgotten that Sei-nii signed me up for an online school, to make sure I "don't miss out on anything of importance". It was stupid to me, but then again, everything was kind of stupid to me.

"Ren-nii, how did you meet Nanami Haruka?" the question slipped out of my mouth before I had the chance to think about it.

"She was a little late for the entrance test, and I helped her get in by explaining why she was late," he calmly explained while gathering his uniform.

"Why was she late?"

"She helped a girl who had lost her mother and umbrella. I bought Haruka another one before going to the school of course."
I blinked.
"Why? You two didn't even know each other at the time."

"Being nice to people isn't as hard as you think. It won't kill you either," Ren-nii chuckled.

"Just because it didn't kill you doesn't mean it won't kill me," I retorted.

"Why are you so against being nice to people?"

"It's simple. I just don't like people."
"And I will never understand why."

"It's because I'm not some flirt like you."

"You wound me with your words."

It was silent for a few seconds before I sighed and smushed my face into the couch pillow again.

"Anyways, I'm off to class. I'll see you at lunch," Ren-nii started to leave.

"Wait! What will I eat?" I questioned, looking up at him again.

"The cafeteria serves breakfast until 1," was his simple answer.

"Why do they serve breakfast until 1? What time is lunch?" I blinked.

"3:00."

"Breakfast until 1 and then lunch at 3? Those times aren't very far from each other. What a weird schedule."

"Yet you'll be glad when it's 12:30 and you want a breakfast type food," Ren-nii chuckled. I shrugged, unable to come up with a smart aleck answer, and yawned.

"I'll see you at lunch Emi," Ren-nii waved goodbye before leaving. I just sighed and turned to lay on my back before flopping back down on the couch.

"I wonder if I should get breakfast now," I wondered out loud. Now seemed to be a good time, since everyone was in class, but I still wanted to sleep. Sleeping was so nice, and it was a good way to pass the day. However, Ren-nii would never let me hear the end of it if I skipped breakfast just to sleep. I sighed and sat up, stretching lightly and yawning. I quickly got dressed in jeans and one of Ren-nii's shirts, patting my hair down as I walked out of the door. It wasn't as cold as it was the day before, but I still shivered lightly as the air hit my face.

I quickly walked to the building I had been in just the previous day, sighing contently at the blast of warm air that hit my face as I walked in. I shook my head, causing my hair to lightly slap me in the face, and sighed as I gazed in the many directions I could go in. I decided to go any way and turned left, hoping that I would run into a sign that would show me where to go. Luckily, I ran into one a couple halls down. Unluckily, it didn't show which way the cafeteria was.
'Jeez, what luck! I guess I should be glad Ren-nii woke me up, I'm going to get there right as lunch begins at this rate,' I thought angrily, scanning the sign a dozen times more in false hopes that it would show me where to go. I sighed heavily before actually reading the sign.

"S-C class and Recording Booths are left, and the Headmaster's Office and Dressing Room are right. Sounds interesting," I looked down both potential ways to go before deciding to head towards the Office and Dressing Room.

'If I explore until lunch, I can just follow everyone. Gosh, I am brilliant!' I giggled to myself, then rolled my eyes at how girly I was already becoming from being here. I ran into the Headmaster's Office pretty quickly, but skipped over it pretty quickly. I didn't need the heat I would get if I got caught snooping around there. Trying on the outfits would have to do for now.

'I wonder what kind of outfits they have in there. Would they have like, just girly dresses? I wonder if they have a leather body outfit! That would be so cool!' I held my breath as I approached the door, then released it in a dramatic sigh.

'Here goes nothing.'

I slowly pushed the door open, and my eyes widened at the sight. The room was huge, with what seemed like a dozen mannequins to my left and a large desk covered in needles, thread, sketches, and what looked like silk to my right. There were what looked like dressing rooms in the left corner of the room, with a huge, classily bordered mirror right on the outskirts of the doors. The rest of the room was filled with so many dresses, in so many colors, that I almost thought I was tripping on something.

"This is way better than I could have ever imagined…." I muttered in complete awe. I slowly walked over to a rack of outfits and began examining each one. Most were dresses, some of them were poofy, girly, and cute, while others were darker, and seemed to show a lot more skin. They were all extremely short though, no matter the design.

'Gah, I cringe at the thought of me showing THAT much leg,' I tried to shake the thought from my head, albeit unsuccessfully. I continued to look through them, admiring each one as I did, my body filled with a gripping sensation to try one on.

'I really shouldn't… what if I get caught? But gosh, I wonder what I'd look like in one of these. Would I look cute? What if I look gross? This is too much!' I felt my face heat up. Was I really thinking of putting one of THESE outfits on?

"Maybe I can find one that's less revealing," I muttered as I looked through them, paying close attention to for any that seemed longer. After a couple minutes of searching, I finally found one that seemed quite nice. It was on the poofier side, with a purple bow on the back, The sleeves flowed in a simple, yet elegant manner, their cream color quite a contrast to the dress' night black. A purple stripe strutted down the middle, covered end to end in gold lace. It was… absolutely gorgeous.

'The attention to detail, the perfect color coordination, it's absolutely amazing!' I excitedly thought. I quickly rushed into a dressing room, barely taking time to close the door and hang up the dress before hastily stripping. I sighed in hesitation as I took the time to actually think about what I was doing.

'Do I really want to face this inevitable disappointment…?' I sighed as I scanned my body thoroughly.. I reached down and lightly squeezed my side, grimacing at how soft it was, then squeezed my thigh and shook my head, turning away. I sighed shakily and turned towards the dress, looking it up and down many times.

'I guess it wouldn't hurt… to at least try,' I removed the dress from the hangar cautiously, and slipped it on with just as much care. Unfortunately, it was shorter than it seemed on the hangar, as it only reached my upper thigh. Another problem presented itself in the bust of the outfit. Or rather, my bust. It was a lot smaller than the size of the person this outfit was made for. Wait…

'I hope this wasn't made for a specific person!' I sighed heavily at the thought that I was wearing some huge idols' "big show" dress. 'But while I'm wearing it, might as well see how I look.'

"Well, here goes nothing," I muttered before closing my eyes and stepping out of the dressing room.

I didn't open my eyes when I did though. It was almost like I couldn't. I heard the dressing room door close behind me and… shoes?

I quickly turned around and came face to face with a man in a pink wig. It wasn't the dressing room door, it was the regular door that I had heard. I blinked twice, unable to do anything else. What could I do? Luckily, I didn't have to do anything.

"Well don't you just look so cute! You really know what you look good in! But… there are some problem areas… but I can help you with them! Come, come," he "led" me to the desk and turned me around, before he started rummaging around for something.

"U-Uh, I didn't mean to intrude," I quietly said.

"Don't worry, don't worry! I know you're Ren's cute little sister. In fact, I don't know anyone who doesn't," he chuckled. I blushed deeply and wrung my hands together, not wanting to say something and embarrass myself any more.
Suddenly, I felt the dress tighten considerably, but it was still quite a comfortable fit.
"Is that good?" the man asked, looking at me curiously. I nodded slowly and he seemed to glow as he started working on the dress again. Many other parts of the dress tightened a bit, but he never asked me again. Luckily, all of his alterations were perfect, so I didn't really need him to. Not like I would want to.
"Just need to replace the zipper with a smaller one and you'll be finished! Or at least, the dress will be. We need to add a few things to really make it pop," he sounded so excited, I thought he was going to start singing about it.

"Uh, o-okay," I quietly acknowledged his words.

"Also, that platinum highlight has to go."
I looked backwards in complete awe, but the look on his face was dead serious.

"I-I thought it looked nice on me," I reached up and twirled the edge of it before pushing it softly behind my ear.

"The highlight looks good, the color doesn't. Maybe go for a blue or red. Maybe even yellow, if you want to go for more of a "hidden highlight" type thing. I can show you, if you'd like," he opened a drawer on the dresser and pulled out many compacts with lots of different colors.

"W-Wow," I couldn't help but express my awe.

"Come, sit," he said as he pointed towards the chair tucked neatly into the desk. I pulled it out and sat down facing the man, sighing shakily for fear of what could possibly happen next.

"What color?" he asked curiously. I glanced down at the compacts on the desk before choosing a nice, lighter shade of blue. Aquamarine was the name I think. The man grabbed it and opened before grabbing my highlight and running the compact over it. He stepped back a bit and glowed happily, so I guessed it must have looked good. I glanced towards the mirror and stood up, taking a deep breath. Now I was really going to see myself. I had no other choice as the man hustled me over to it and placed me in the center of its reflection.

I looked… different. It was kind of weird to see me in something so girlish, yet I couldn't take my eyes off of my reflection. I twirled in many directions, seeing every single angle and crevice, staring in awe at how it just… wasn't bad at all.

"See! Just a few adjustments and it's a whole new you!" The man beamed, and I blinked slowly.

'A whole new me, huh?' I felt a growing anger deep in my stomach. My throat tightened and I clenched my fist.

"I'm just fine! I'm not changing for anybody or anything!" I yelled at the man. I quickly used my hand to wipe out the compact and stomped into the dressing room, unzipping the dress and carelessly taking it off.

"What happened dear? I didn't mean to upset you!" the man called, his voice teeming with uncertainty. I quickly threw my clothes back on, leaving the dress lying on the floor, and rushed past the man, who seemed to make no move to stop me. I shoved the door open and turned left, running straight into someone.
"Watch it!" their gruff voice snapped me out of my anger, shaking me to the core.

"S-Sorry," I stuttered, not even daring to look up. Whoever it was stepped around me and walked away in a whisk. However, he left behind a scent. It was sharp, yet sweet, and definitely hard to ignore.

'Wow, I wonder…," I thought as I turned around. However, whoever it was, wasn't there anymore. He must have gone down some other hallway. I got up and brushed myself off before walking down the hall I had come from. I only got a few feet however, before my stomach growled loudly.

'Thank god no one's around. I wonder what time it is,' I took my phone out of my back pocket and turned the screen on.

12:32

I still had 28 minutes to before breakfast ended. And that guy couldn't have gotten far…

Before I could stop myself, I was running down the hallway again, looking down each hall as I passed it. Three halls down, I saw a man with short, spiky grey hair and heterochromic eyes. I guessed that he heard my running down the hallway and it caught his attention. I started running towards him and caught that scent again. It was him! This was the man that I had run into!

In my temporary high from the satisfaction of finding him, I forgot that I didn't know him and crashed into him, wrapping my arms tightly around him.

"What do you think you're doing!?" The man shoved me off of him and I blushed deeply at the realization of what I had just done.
"I-I'm really sorry! I-I just wanted t-to know if you know where the c-cafeteria is," I didn't dare to look him in the face.

"Just keep going down the hall you were running down, then turn at the last right. Now get out of my face," the man turned around, completely dismissing my existence. I nodded, even though he wouldn't see it, and went back down the hallway, wringing my hands. That was so awful! Why did I do that?! God, Ren-nii would never let me hear the end of it if he heard about this!

'At least I know where the cafeteria is now. Weird, why would he help me yet still be a jerk? Ugh, I need food so I can think,' I sighed in relief as I approached the last turn. 'I need so much brain food, especially so I can think about how I'm going to explain my anger explosion to Ren-nii and Sei-nii. I'm going to be so screwed when they find out.'

I know I've been away for soooooo long but I had a 2 year writers' block and I got busy and I'm just really sorry please forgive me 3 I made this chapter longer to try and make up for the long wait, so hopefully that'll win your hearts back 3 Anyways, keep on the lookout for more chapters from me and thanks for being so patient! 3