Chapter 3
"What are you talking about? You were great last night- everyone loved you! Did you hear the applause, and all those girls who were practically throwing their numbers at you?"
Rin sat on her bed, balancing her cell phone in one hand and flipping through a manga with the other.
"You're too much, Rin-chan," the voice on the other line chuckled, "They loved your voice too. I personally thought it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard."
Rin couldn't help but blush at his compliment. For the past two weeks, she had been going out with Ted and Teto nearly every day, except the last week and a half had been just her and Ted. Teto said she had to finish some Christmas shopping or do other things that Ted "absolutely cannot see or else it'd ruin the surprise" and thus thrust Ted into Rin's care for the time being. Rin didn't mind though, she actually liked keeping the guy company. Last night she showed him her favorite restaurant, and Ted happened to get roped on stage to sing. He wouldn't go down alone, though, and pulled Rin up. They ended up performing "Romeo and Cinderella" in front of the entire restaurant, but the rendition was "so beautiful" the restaurant manager let them have their meal for free (hooray for her wallet)! And though it was horribly embarrassing, Rin really enjoyed herself. She never actually had any real guy friends, aside from Len, for some reason. Every time a guy approached her, the next day he'd have all these bruises and cower from her in fear, then avoid her like the plague.
But Ted was the first guy who didn't run away after the second day. And he was also the first guy to speak so nicely to her… or to call her… or heck, he was pretty much the first guy (besides Len) she went anywhere alone with!
And she really, really liked all this attention. Rin absentmindedly chewed on her bottom lip. Could it be that… she was starting to get a crush on Ted?
"Ne, Rin-chan, are you still there?"
"Oh, haha, sorry I zoned out for a second," Rin laughed, "Go on, I'm listening."
Somewhere along the line, the two had exchanged numbers. Rin told Ted to call her cell from Teto's house line, though, since she didn't want to waste Ted's minutes. Rin had tons. Nobody ever called her. Except Teto and Len.
Ted had taken the liberty of giving her "wake-up calls" every morning from then on, for which Rin was only partially grateful for. She wasn't a morning person. At all. …But she guessed it was ok, since it was Ted calling.
Len yawned and scratched his head. It was 8am. Usually, he slept until a little later since it was the holidays and all, but high-pitched giggling coming from Rin's room stirred him from his sleep. He wondered, was one of her friends over or something?
"Stop that, Ted! Honestly, what am I going to do with you?"
Len narrowed his eyes. Ted? Wasn't that a guy's name? No, maybe he heard wrong. Perhaps she said Teto. He pressed his ear against the door and listened closely. And just faintly, he could hear a low chuckle.
…That was definitely too low to belong to any girl.
The door to Rin's room swung open.
Rin jumped, slightly startled by the presence of a flustered looking Len standing in the doorway.
"Rin," he deadpanned, "Who are you talking to?"
"Geez," she put a hand over her chest, "You could've at least knocked or something!" She then turned her attention back to her cell, "Hey, listen I've gotta go now. I think my brother is hungry. Meet you later!" A click ended the call. Rin jumped off her bed and skipped towards the door.
"Rin," he grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her so that she stared him straight in the eye. She was taken aback at how serious his expression was, "I'm asking you again, who were you talking to?"
The younger girl frowned, "Why does it matter who I talk to? I can't have friends all of a sudden?" She felt a small bit of anger alight within her. How come whenever she talked to someone Len always got mad, but then he could go around flirting with every girl in and out of Tokyo and everything would be alright? Psh, no, that was not alright.
"That's not it, I'm just worried that-"
"Whatever," Rin brushed past him, now sufficiently pissed off, "And if you must know, I was talking to my new boyfriend."
Len tensed.
Did he hear her right?
In a heartbeat, he snatched up her phone and hurriedly sorted through her recent calls list. It couldn't be, Rin couldn't have a boyfriend, he'd-
"Kasane Teto" popped up as the first name on the list. Len relaxed. Geez, what was that girl thinking? Scaring him like that…
Rin couldn't stop giggling as she flipped the twin omelets in her pan. The look on his face! Ha! If only she had a camera handy at the time… oh boy.
"Haha very funny," she heard a chair scrape against the tile behind her, "As if someone like you can ever get a boyfriend."
Rin turned around to stick her tongue out at her brother, "Shush, you! You're mean."
Len smiled, "You shouldn't scare me like that, though."
"And why not?"
"Because you're my most precious person. I wouldn't want anyone to take away my dear little sister."
Rin stared with her mouth agape. "You… D-Don't joke like that!" she could feel her cheeks becoming red. "Here," she hurriedly scooped an omelet onto his plate, "Eat up."
Len laughed and poured her a glass of orange juice, "You're cute when you're flustered, Rin."
Again, her blush deepened.
As they ate in silence, Rin couldn't help the thousands of thoughts that seemed to be racing through her mind at a million miles per hour. What did Len mean by that? That idiot… always confusing her! He really shouldn't say stuff like that, people would think that he liked her or something.
And there was no way Len would ever like someone like her. Rin didn't exactly know why she felt sad all of a sudden. All of Len's girlfriends had curvaceous figures and well-endowed bosoms, whereas Rin's was… yeah. And all of them had long hair. Rin was the only one with shortened locks. Maybe if she shaped up he'd pay more attention to her.
"Say, Len, do you think I should go on a diet?"
"Why?" he blinked, "You're already a flat stick figure to begin with."
Rin grit her teeth, "Not what I meant! Ugh, you're hopeless. Maybe I should grow my hair out… or get a breast augmentation."
She squeaked when he slammed his glass onto the table.
"L-Len?"
"No," Len's voice was serious again, "I like you just the way you are."
All Rin could do was stare. Was he serious?
"Don't," he looked at the floor, "Don't change."
"…"
"Leeen, you're blushing."
"A-Am not!"
Rin laughed and poked him in the cheek. He pouted, but then smiled. The two then continued their breakfast, but this time talked about random things, happenings in their lives. Rin grinned inwardly. This was the first time in forever that they just sat around and talked. She looked up at the clock and almost spit out her orange juice.
"Crap! It's already this late?" Rin hurriedly dropped her plate in the sink and ran towards the bathroom, "I've gotta go get ready!"
"You're going out again today?" Len poked his head around the corner and watched as his sister jumped around.
"Yup," she called, grabbing a towel and a handful of clothes, "To the movies."
Len frowned, "Hey, Rin, you don't remember what today is…?"
"Today?" she paused, "It's… Sunday?"
Len sighed and was about to explain, when a thought suddenly popped in his head. "Actually, nevermind. Just make sure you come back early tonight, ne?"
"Why? Is something happening?"
"I guess you could say that," he grinned, "Don't be late."
Rin tilted her head in confusion but smiled anyways. "Kay, I'll be back by seven!"
"Uwaaah, that movie was great!" Rin stretched her arms toward the sky as she exited the movie theater with Ted, "Do you remember that one scene where he fell off the building? That was so intense, I was almost shaking!"
"Yeah," Ted turned away, "That was cool."
"What about you, Ted? What was your favorite part?"
"Huh? Oh, I, uh, thought the entire thing was pretty ok."
Rin frowned. For some reason, Ted had been refusing to look at her. He was also unusually quiet… Maybe he wasn't feeling well? "Hey, is something bothering you? You're acting pretty strange."
The taller male suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"Oof!" Rin bumped into his back, "Sorry! Why'd you stop all of a sudden?"
There was a pause. Ted fidgeted nervously with the edge of his sleeve before turning around to face her. He was blushing!
"Rin-chan… there's been something that I've been wanting to tell you," Ted began, slowly and quietly, "In a few days it'll be the end of winter break and I'll have to go back to Hokkaido… but this past week has been really fun. Even though I've only known you for a short time, I think… I really like you."
Rin's eyes widened, "T-Ted?"
"I know this might seem really fast but I've never felt this way about any girl before. Teto always told me stories about you, and I guess my fondness for you started there. She made you seem like such a courageous, outgoing girl, and I really admired that. After meeting you, I realize she wasn't exaggerating. You're cute, kind, funny…"
Rin really didn't know what to say. Nobody had ever said anything like that to her before. As she struggled to form some kind of coherent sentence, what came next totally caught her off-guard.
"So…" Ted pulled his scarf up to hide the serious blush covering his face, "Will you be my girlfriend?"
Now, Rin was seriously at a loss for words.
"I-I…"
What should she say? How should she respond? She never had to deal with this before! This is all so sudden… But didn't she like Ted too? So it should be no big deal, right? Then… why couldn't she say yes? And why was he so close to her all of a sudden, she needed space to think!
"Ted, I-"
Her words were silenced as a pair of lips suddenly pressed against hers.
Ted… was kissing her.
"There," Len grinned and stepped back to admire his creation. The kitchen was a mess, flour, eggshells, dirty bowls and utensils crowded the sink; even his hair had traces of dried batter. But that didn't matter. What mattered was what was sitting on the center of the table.
A cake.
But not just any cake, this was their birthday cake. Yup, that's right, today was December 27th, the day they would both turn 17. And he had taken all day to prepare this banana-and-orange-vanilla-crème cake, which finally, after the third try, was able to get a decent, edible looking result. The frosting was meager, but hey, it's harder than it looks. Taking some yellow food coloring, he put some icing in another bag and piped out some crude but recognizable looking flowers, and then wrote a "Happy Birthday Rin + Len" in the center. Orange and banana slices were added as the finishing touches.
Beside the cake was a box wrapped in pink and yellow gift paper, with a giant white bow tied the same way as Rin's ribbon. Len blushed. He really hoped she liked his gift. He actually worked really hard on it.
Len sighed and wiped the sweat from his brow. Who knew baking a cake took so much work? Well, it was time for him to start cleaning up.
He sweat dropped at the chaotic mess before him. …At least Rin wasn't at home to scold him. And this would probably be a good work out. Oh boy.
After about two hours of scrubbing and toiling, the kitchen and Len were once again spotless. He rubbed his hair in a fresh towel and glanced at the clock. 6:00PM. Didn't Rin say she would be at the movies and be back somewhere around 7? Gah, that girl was so slow!
"Maybe I'll go meet her," Len smiled. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea. He grabbed his jacket and set out the door.
The evening air was cool and refreshing. Len was surprised to see so many out and about so soon after Christmas. He especially noted that a lot of them were couples. As he approached the movie theater, he saw a tall, red-haired guy kissing his shorter, blonde girlfriend. A few passing by whispered how cute they looked. Len tilted his head to the side. That girl… she had the same haircut as Rin. And the same white ribbon, the same petite figure…
He froze.
No…
Len felt all color drain from his face as he sunk to his knees. His body was overcome by shudders. This couldn't be true, it just couldn't! He clenched and unclenched his fists, shaking his head and refusing to believe the sight before him. Was this some sick joke? Was he hallucinating?
Len panted and forced himself to look up.
No, he wasn't.
That guy, whoever he was, was kissing Rin.
His Rin.
Len's entire being screamed for blood.
He let out a roar that was scarcely human and rushed towards his prey.
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