CHAPTER 45

          "See, I always like a good plot twist, but her brother's murderer being her girlfriend? What the actual—"

          "It's way too cruel," Saki agreed, tightening her hold around my arm as she reached over for a scoopful of popcorn with her free hand. Considering the silence of the movie theatre I was internally grateful she cut off my swear.

          "They can't end up together now," I agreed, feeling a tug at my heart. "Even if it was an accident that's messed up, man."

          "Oh, I already read a spoiler Mi-chan," she said. "They do still end up together."

          "What, for real?"

          "Yeah, there's another plot twist where the whole girlfriend being the murderer is a set up and the one who killed her brother is actually her neighbour."

          "Like, her neighbour she thought she was madly in love with until she met Mao?"

          "Yeah, that swoon worthy one. Ryuji. He apparently got into some trouble with her brother at a party, and—"

          "EXECHUSE MEH."

          The shout that rang out from behind us snatched our focus. Saki loosened her grip on my arm and we craned our necks back. Through the darkness it was difficult to place the face it belonged to, but I was betting it was the sourpuss lady a couple rows up.

          "Exechuse yourself," I shouted back. "We're trying to watch a movie here."

          "We'd appreciate some peace and quiet, please," Saki added.

          The middle-aged woman, the only other spectator in the entire theatre besides us, was gawping. "You're the ones spoiling the—"

          "See, look, there's Ryuji now," Saki whispered to me, extending out her finger to the large screen.

         I hummed through a mouthful of popcorn. "That is definitely the face of a killer."

          "AGH," grunted the woman.

          Saki rose off my shoulder to glance back at the groaning and moaning lady.

          "She probably has cramps." I nudged her back. "Let her suffer in peace."

          "Aye, aye," Saki chirped, replanting her head on my shoulder.

          Ignoring the rather graphic sounds going on behind us, Saki and I refocused ourselves to the movie. By the time the credits began to roll and we left the dimly lit theatre, we were still raving about the craziness of that romantic mystery.

          "I am so glad I listened to you today," I told her, tossing the empty popcorn container into the trash.

          "I told you it was great," Saki replied.

          I fought a smile as we made our ways to the exit. "And who knew how empty the theatres were during the day. Having an almost empty one to yourself is awesome."

          "That lady was pretty rude though," Saki said as she carefully sidestepped around the ice in our path.

          I waved it off. "It's not our fault she couldn't grab a friend to see a movie with. Besides, I give her serious props for coming here during her time of the month. That's never a pretty time for me."

          "It's never a pretty time for anyone," Saki snorted. She glanced up at the clear sky and then down at her cell. "It's only two o'clock. What do you want to do?"

          "When do you need to get back?"

          "Not too soon."

          I nodded. "Then let's just walk around for a bit."

          Saki agreed with that, and we walked side-by-side through the bustling streets ahead of us. Considering the time of year, Christmas lights and decorations decorated the exteriors of passing houses as well as stores. Saki was all sparkly-eyed as we passed them by, earning my amusement.

          "It's almost Christmas, huh?"

          "Are you doing anything for it?" I asked.

          "My parents usually take me to Christmas galas held by their fellow business partners," she replied, ogling the beautiful decorations displayed on the passing stores. "I'm not too sure about this year. Maybe it'll be something with just Yuji and Hiro's families."

          Her words piqued my memory of last year's gala and that whole situation with her hospitalization. So they did that yearly...

          "How about you, Mi-chan?"

          "Since my parents are home we'll probably do something on the 25th," I guessed.

          "Mi-chan's parents?" Saki reiterated, beaming widely. "I want to meet them!"

          My features fell, as did my bangs into my eyes. "I don't know if you'd want to... It wouldn't be particularly interesting."

          I peered her way, but Saki was twinkling—like, legitimately sparkling. Sweatdropping, I brushed back my bangs which allowed for my hair to fall over my shoulders.

          "Maybe one day before they leave again... you can come over."

          Though expecting Saki to break out into a cheer and prod me about a possible day, her gaze instead became fixated on my face. Soon enough, I grew uncomfortable under her scrutiny, until her widened eyes finally blinked.

          "Mi-chan, your hair grew out so long."

          I subconsciously picked up a strand of my hair. Albeit it'd typically hang by my chest, it had grown down to my lower back. I then twiddled with my equally as lengthy bangs. "Yeah, it's becoming a hassle to deal with. I need a haircut."

          She giggled, and squeezing my arm tighter, drew even closer. "Want me to do it for you?"

          I stiffened, but Saki's bubbling excitement hadn't dulled. She was serious? "Uh, I mean..."

          But Saki, as energetic as always, was already raving on, hopping up and down. "Come on. We'll do it at my house, Mi-chan! Please? I'll make it super pretty!"

          "Right now?" I flubbed, trying my best to accustom myself to bystanders' gaping stares. I'd nearly forgotten just how bright and optimistic the girl was.

          "Yes! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!" She slipped out her cell and was already pressing the phone to her ear. "I'll call my family driver to pick us up."

          Before I could even have the chance to protest, per usual, Saki was already babbling to her family driver our location and our plans to head over to her house. I stood stilled into place, watching Saki grin as brightly as ever, arm looped tightly through mine as to not let go. I eventually sagged my shoulders, releasing a heavy sigh. A family driver, huh?

          Damn rich people.

——————————————————

          "Your parents aren't home?"

          I entered the house after her, eyes glued to the splendidness of the grandiose scenery I'd familiarized myself with a couple weeks back. Saki smiled at the lady who'd opened the door for us and broke out into a polite bow. She received our coats and politely gestured us further inside. I could never seem to get used to all this maid/butler business associated with wealthy families.

          "They rarely are. They're always busy travelling for work so it's just me and my siblings," Saki finally responded as she led me up the staircase.

          She left me in the hall as she dipped into her bedroom. She surfaced with a handful of hair supplies and beckoned I follow her into the neighbouring room. Along with a revolving chair and tall mirror, a little tarp had been laid out on the floor, as if one of the maids had known ahead of time what we were up to and prepared for the mess.

          Saki set the hoard of supplies onto the little countertop in front of the mirror, roaming over it with her eyes. Watching it honestly made me more and more reluctant on entering the room. We were seriously doing this? The girl seriously looked completely accustomed to such a situation, but this was Saki I was talking about. Would I really be fine?

          "Mi-chan, aren't you going to come in?"

          I teetered on the balls of my feet, avoiding her gaze. "Can I... use your bathroom before we start?"

          "Of course." She beckoned over my shoulder. "It's straight across the hall, to your left."

          Uttering a faint 'thanks,' I made my way along the way she directed. The entire household was unnervingly silent as I ventured along the carpeted floors. The unease most likely stemmed from the fact that this place was humongous, but it seriously felt like anybody could pop out of nowhere at any given moment. I located the bathroom before long, and it was possibly the most well-groomed one I'd ever seen. There was so much white—it was everywhere. The bathroom sink was even so polished I could see my reflection in it.

          I finished my business before long. After washing my hands and having my bangs get in the way of my vision for possibly the umpteenth time today, I admired the length of my hair for a moment. It really was too long. Although Saki cutting it nagged at me a bit, what was the worst she could do? Even if she did manage to screw up, I could always go to my regular hair salon and try to fix it. The world wouldn't be over. Besides, I should somewhat be grateful Saki was going to cater to my lazy demands and cut my hair to a manageable length. If she hadn't suggested anything, I probably wouldn't have got it cut for a while.

          Regardless of my attempt to ease my nerves, apprehension continued to gnaw at me long after I exited the bathroom and trudged my way back to the room. Once I returned, Saki immediately brightened.

          "Mi-chan, you're back!"

          She hastened toward me, clapping my shoulders before easing me into the tall seat. I wasn't left the opportunity to refute, mainly because Saki had already excitedly lifted a brush off the counter.

         "Your hair's so pretty," she gushed, using her fingers to lift strands. "It'll be such a waste to cut it."

          "Thanks, but it's way too long like you said." Anxious knots formed at the pit of my stomach when she began running a brush through. "Um, are you sure you know what you're doing?"

          A gasp left her mouth, and she momentarily stopped. Her face reflected through the mirror was evidently hurt. "You can't trust me?"

          "...Should I?"

          "You should!" she insisted. "You have nothing to worry about. Not only do I cut my own hair, but I do Iku-nee's and sometimes my mom's too."

          "You do?" I asked, startled.

          She nodded. "Yup. When I was little, I had this dream of becoming a hair stylist so I practiced really hard. I screwed up a lot though on myself, and that's part of the reason why I started wearing my hair in pigtails. But once I was good enough not only in cutting, but styling and dyeing too, Iku-nee and my mom started letting me do theirs."

          She started brushing through it again, gently enough so there was no pain at all. I tilted my head back a bit. "A hair stylist, huh?"

          "It was such a far-fetched dream," she giggled. "What about you, Mi-chan? Do you have something you want to do in the future?"

          My lips met in a purse. "Dunno. I haven't stopped to think about it."

          "I bet you'd do anything anime-related," she prodded. "Animator, voice actor..."

          "Those sound cool," I said. "But I don't think I'd do so great at either."

          "Why not? You're the most passionate about anime!"

          "Yeah, but... I'm mediocre at most."

          She pouted, but not wanting to give up, said, "How about a chef? You're an amazing cook."

          "I don't know if I'd call myself amazing. Since my parents are gone most of the time, I just do it. And it's not like I make anything special. Sometimes I'm even too lazy to make myself lunch."

          I stiffened upon seeing the look of distaste scrunching up Saki's features. "You're putting yourself on such a low podium, Mi-chan! If you actually go for them, you can do it. You'd be amazing at them!"

          Her pressuring gaze made me falter before long. I averted my eyes at once. Me, a voice actor? Sure that would be amazing but that was so far out of reach. A chef, too. That kind of occupation would never suit me. It wasn't like I had the talent of Yukihira Soma...

          "The same goes for you, too."

          Saki blinked, slow and careful.

          "Your hair stylist dream," I continued, fixing my gaze to my knees. "It shouldn't be too far-fetched. Why don't you just go for it?"

          Inwardly, I somewhat regretted saying what I did. I hadn't even seen her capabilities yet. As my thoughts ran with words to save myself, it was to my surprise to find Saki softly smiling in her reflection. She gingerly lifted up strands of my hair again with a little laugh. "I like how we're talking about things we normally didn't get the chance to. When I was on the Disciplinary Committee, I often wondered if I were still with you everyday, what would we talk about? We're the only girls in that rowdy group so I assumed we'd be super close and talk about fashion and boys and other things. But knowing you, I guess that wouldn't have worked so well."

          "I am the furthest thing from the word 'girly,'" I agreed. "But... yeah, sorry about that. If I actually gave you a chance in the beginning and wasn't so rude we probably could've had a lot more fun together."

          "Mi-chan!" Saki swung her arms around my neck in a behind hug, tight enough to suffocate me. "You really did soften up without my knowing," she cooed with a bright smile. "It's so, so adorable."

          I tapped hastily at her arm for freedom, unable to muster up my voice with her pressing my throat the way she was. Soon enough, she released her hold.

          "Sorry. Can you breathe?"

          "Barely," I admitted, coughing.

          She tittered in apology before expunging a gasp. "Oh! Before we start, how about I show you something to keep you busy?"

          She dashed out of the room in a hurry, leaving me with a cluster of thoughts. I sighed and ran my fingers along my neck she was constructing moments before. Seriously, how did I forget how energetic she really was?

          Saki returned before long, beaming with a neatly decorated book in hand. She handed it off to me and amidst confused, I eyed the cover. 'Toddler Memories #1' it was labelled. My eyebrows rose to my forehead.

          "A photo album?" I guessed.

          Opening it confirmed it straightaway. But instead of stereotypical family images like I was expecting, the majority of the neatly laminated pictures were instead of three adorable toddlers.

          Saki smiled. "You were flipping through one of them the last time you were here, but honestly, I have almost ten books full of pictures of us."

          I could only return one as I scanned through the images. Them in matching preschool uniforms, costumes for Halloween. Even one of Hiro and Yuji facing off with little plastic swords.

          "You guys were so cute," I laughed.

          "Weren't we?" she agreed. "Our families have always done everything together so we took way too many pictures because of that."

          While Yuji was tall even from back then, Hiro stood at a shorter height than Saki and had the chubbiest cheeks and limbs. Some of the depicted images of him were playing baseball on a small field with other children. It was all baseball related, and he was smiling a lot more than I'd ever thought possible of him, at least now. Hiro had said that he'd given it up for Wannabe, but was it really okay for him to leave that regret? Yuji had reluctantly taken up basketball again to train the team, so imagining Hiro playing baseball was kind of something I also wanted to see.

          "Wasn't Hiro the cutest?" I jumped a bit, not quite expecting the closeness of Saki's voice. I reeled away the book, heat crossing my cheeks. Was I staring at his pictures too intently? Fortunately, Saki peering over my shoulder barely paid it any mind. She carried a laugh through her tone as she grabbed a hair tie to split up my hair into manageable portions. "Even if Kazuya did ask him, he should've just kept playing."

          Saki thought so too? Well, part of my reasoning for thinking so stemmed from my immense love of baseball animes, so why would my desire to see Hiro pursue high school baseball really matter? Then again, so long as the HC was around, this entire setup was impossible.

          "How short do you want it?" she asked after a pause, as if catching on that the conversation wasn't headed anywhere.

          "As short as Nishikino Maki's would be nice."

          She paused.

          I snorted. "Up to my shoulders."

          "Gotcha."

          In part, the silence that engulfed us ebbed at me. It could've stemmed from the slight worry that she would still screw up, but with the reassurance that she cut her family member's hair allowed that fear to not be as strong as before. Then was it because she still hadn't bombarded me about it yet? Hiro and her were close, weren't they? Didn't that mean Saki knew about what happened between us...?

          "Speaking of—"

          My heart skidded against my chest. "Wh-what about Hiro?"

         I hadn't meant to shout, but when I did, it riddled Saki with immediate amazement. "How did you know I was going to ask about him?"

          My shoulders tensed, my grip around the photo album tightening considerably. Dammit, my brain jumped to conclusions. "O-oh, u-um... Did I say Hiro's name? I-I meant to say—"

          "Is it because we were already talking about him?" Saki cut me off with a giggle.

          "O-oh, u-um—yeah. Th-that's exactly why his name was said."

          Saki's laugh turned awkward. I shrunk myself, mentally berating myself for my terrible save.

          "Anyway," she pressed onward, "Hiro's birthday is coming up. December 24th. Yuji and I always celebrate it with him, but last year, I got hospitalized for my asthma remember? That's why we wanted to make it up to him this year but it turns out the day Hinata invited us to come to his family gathering is the same day. That's why I was wondering if maybe instead us, you can—"

          "No."

          Saki gaped. I dodged her lurking eyes at once. "That easily?" she demanded. "I was going to ask if you could—"

          "I cannot."

          My rebuttal didn't sit well with her. "Please, Mi-chan! You're not doing anything, right?"

          "So?"

          She pouted, then brightened. "Didn't he get you something for your birthday?"

          I flinched, much more than I wanted to. Who did she hear that from? It was the most random gesture, after clubs last month when we all stopped by a cafe to eat. But that was... "It was a small cake," I tried to defend myself. In front of everyone. Before I knew about his feelings. "How could my stomach ever turn it down?"

          "That's exactly why," Saki reasoned. "If you want to make it up to him, he'd really appreciate if you celebrated with him. Especially since Yuji and I can't."

          I knew she had a point, but the idea itself was much more nerve-wracking than I ever wanted to admit. Even if it was to make it up to him, being alone with him would be a little...

          "You have a friend over? No wonder you've been so loud."

          Not expecting the voice, Saki and I immediately whipped our heads behind us. Impassive features drilled into place, Ikumi stood by the entrance of the room in a casual outfit, phone gripped in her free hand.

          "Iku-nee?" Saki demanded, energy dissipating. "What are you..."

          "Can I not walk around my own house?"  

          "That's not what I really..."

          Ikumi's eyebrows furrowed as her sharp eyes fell onto me. I returned a dirty look. Saki, who caught sight of our interaction, evidently sweatdropped.

          "Um," she mumbled. "She's Hoshino Miyuki."

          "I remember her," Ikumi gave up our staring contest at that, much to my surprise. She slipped her phone into her pyjama's pockets and sauntered forward, inside the room. "You're cutting her hair?"

          We followed her with our eyes, Saki in a much more astonished state than me. "Oh, uh, yeah."

          "Lucky for her." She flopped into an open chair at the back, crossing her leg over the other. "Cut mine too."

          My own eyebrows knitted together. Where was her usual sass? Her degrading remarks not only at me, but Saki?

          Judging by Saki's speechless gawping, clearly I wasn't the only one lost by this situation.

          "That Christmas gala is coming up," Ikumi continued, dismissing our reactions easily. "I want to look nice. You can't?"

          "I mean," Saki eventually sputtered. "Of course I can."

          "Then I'll just sit here until you're done with hers."

          She went back on her phone, blocking us off entirely. Saki carefully met my eyes, only proving the oddity of this development. The girl really was a puzzle. Someone constantly being so uppity and condescending, calmly interacting with Saki like a normal sister would. This wasn't the first time Ikumi asked Saki for a haircut, but this judging by Saki's shock, it must've been the first time she ever asked so normally. Then, why...

          "Did I say something weird?" Even without shifting her attention to us, chagrin carried in Ikumi's voice. "Why are you two staring at me like that?"

          "Why are you being so... nice?" I eventually asked, for the both of us.

          Ikumi rose her head. If my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, a subtle blush claimed her cheeks. "What does it matter to you how I talk to my younger sister?"

          "Maybe because you barley treated her as one for as long as I knew you?" I countered.

          Her blush deepened. She licked her lower lip, hesitating on opening her mouth. "I... know," she whispered. "That this entire time, while I thought I was helping her, in reality, I was the one hurting her most."

          Saki's eyelids peeled back, stunned. My mouth fell as well. If there was one think I knew about Ikumi, it was the fact that she wasn't the type to put on an act. She was always so brutally honest—a realist—that never faltered in the face of anyone if possible. And yet, right now, in this given moment, unmistakable sorrow had welled in her features.

          "I know it's a lot late," she continued, feebly. "After Hoshino yelled at me that day, and especially after the Sports Festival, it really sunk in. How needlessly harsh I've been to you, Saki. Because you've always been chewed out by mom and dad, I accepted it as the norm. I never stopped to think how hard we were being on you. And I only made it worse. All our lives, you've been able to make friends so easily while I lost them left and right. Maybe... my jealousy of that made me want to pull you away from your club. I just didn't want you to get hurt by friends. I wanted to show you that family would always be there, like you were for me."

          "Are you... apologizing?" I asked in place of Saki—who was definitely more shell-shocked than I could imagine.

          Ikumi's bashfulness grew, and she rubbed hastily at her eyes. "I— just feel guilty. I've been treating you so horribly since you arrived. But that day, when I was at my lowest, you still stood up for me. You were more of a sister for me than I ever was. That's why... from now on, I want to do my best to think before I act. I'll talk to Eita, mom and dad, too. Things... need to change. And I know this is a lot late, but..."

          Before I could process it, Saki tossed the supplies onto the counter and crushed her sister into a huge hug. "Iku-nee!"

          "Don't cry, idiot. Your friend's watching," Ikumi hissed. And although trying to yank Saki away, you could somehow tell she didn't mind it in the moment. "I hadn't even meant for this to be so sentimental, but all my thoughts just came out. Let's wait until she leaves for us to have this moment—"

          I let out a breath, unable to suppress my growing smile. She was such a huge jerk, but I guess she really didn't mean to hurt Saki. Her robot tendencies and unfeeling heart had gotten in the way, ironically.

          My eyes travelled downward to the photo album. Ikumi was able to be honest, so couldn't I do the same? I knew I was avoiding him; the entire situation. My lips caved into a frown. I had to figure this out soon.

But... what exactly was I supposed to do?