CHAPTER 1 - LEN

Kagamine Len - a third son of wealth and fortune - sat on the patio of the wooden villa as he eyed the girl in the silk kimono walking towards him. Her pink hair was tied up in a bun decorated with small flowers and the way she walked had a graceful gait to it. She was nothing but a daughter from a family of the lower class but Len fell in love with her already, but he knew that her feelings was for another man of blood.

'Good morning, Len,' Luka smiled at him. In her hand was a big pink blossom that matched her hair colour and she offered it to him. Len felt his face grew hot as he looked at her gift for him. He accepted it quietly and she asked, 'Is Gakupo home?'

Len nodded and gestured into the house. Luka slipped off her wooden sandals and carefully approach the steps of the house, careful not to step on the expensive silk of her kimono that Len guessed his brother must have bought for her. The flowery scent of her perfume reached his nose and he breathed in the sweet scent. After Luka disappeared into the house, Len gazed back into the horizon opposite his father's land where farmers and their buffaloes were plowing the fields. He sighed deeply, promising himself that one day he would set off and find a loved one of his own.

Right at the edge of the land was a Buddhist temple where he spotted his second brother. Unlike the other two brothers, Kaito had his hair cut short but he managed to tie it into a short ponytail. Len often wondered why he had rejected all the girls who had tried to woo him in the village and instead chosen the art of painting. Kaito was indeed a handsome young man but he had told them that he didn't want a woman to look out for him everyday.

'What are you painting, now?' Len asked as he approached the blue-haired man.

Kaito painted a pink streak on his canvas and pondered for a moment. 'I have not a clue,' he replied. He suddenly noticed the blossom in Len's hand and smiled at him teasingly. 'Gakupo's maiden had a gift for you, I see.'

Len hid the flower behind his back and glared at the ground. 'It is nothing,' he said. 'Her heart is for another man.'

Kaito sighed and painted another streak on the canvas. 'One day you will find your own, and once you do you got to cherish her,' he said and suddenly he dotted the canvas angrily with red. 'Too much trouble for me. I rather the carefree days of an unwed man.'

'What are you gonna do, Kaito?'

'Ah, my dear brother,' he said as he seemed to be sketching with a variety of colours. 'I want to travel all around Japan. To capture the most ethereal scenery on a canvas, and later I'm going to sell my beautiful artwork. You think father's money is enough? He has to divide it between the three of us. But I want the satisfaction of earning my own so that I'll be known as a hardworking and dignified man.'

Len glanced at the household behind him where Gakupo and Luka had appeared the on porch steps where he had been sitting earlier. 'And what would you do after that?'

Kaito chuckled. 'When my hands will be too old and frail to paint anymore I would find a nice young woman to settle down with, that's when my carefree days are over. You see, Len, a man cannot live happily without the care of a young and beautiful woman.'

'You would be too old, Kaito. I am sure that no woman would want you by then.'

'That's why in the East are houses of brothels,' Kaito replied as he pointed in the direction. 'Rich men will hire young and beautiful ladies to - ah - satisfy you. When I earn my money I would purchase one or two of them and live my life as an old man happily.'

'You already have your life planned so far ahead of you,' Len teased. He was eyeing his oldest brother as he cupped the young ladies' face and kissed her gently on her lips and wondered if he also had his life planned far ahead of him.

'Your time will come, Len,' Kaito said as he stood up and leave. Len watched him go before he took a look at what he had painted on the canvas.

Kaito - with his artistic hands - had captured Gakupo and Luka in the middle of an embrace, Luka's kimono was slipping of her shoulders and all modesty on the lower part was gone. Red flower petals danced all around them as they were just one.

Len stared at the painting for a few more moments and walked away with the image permanent in his mind. By then he was planning that after few years past, he would find his own woman and cherish her until the end.