Chapter One
The obnoxious ringing of the alarm woke me up. Groaning, I sat up on the bed pushing my hair out of my eyes.
"Ah, Misaki, ohayou!" , a black haired man greets me cheerfully. Thankfully, I know enough japanese to greet him back, but...
Who the hell is he? I don't dare ask in case he is a colleague of my father's, which I am certain he is. But why did he just call me Misaki, though? I decided to let that slide as well.
"Excuse me, but could you please tell me what day today is? I seem to have forgotten" , I ask him. Weird question, and stupid too, but I really need to know if I have school today. I mean, I think yesterday was a friday, but the problem is, I think it was friday.
"What's wrong with you Misaki? Why are you being so polite with your own Nii-chan? Hurry up and come downstairs; it's thursday and you have school" , the stranger said and disappeared. The fuck? My brother? I'm a single child! Unless my parents adopted him, which is impossible because the guy looks at least twenty-five! Looking around my room, I realize this isn't my room at all. I am about to take the covers off when I realize this isn't even my arm. A foreign heaviness between my legs grabs my attention and I start praying to each and every God there is. Hesitantly, I stroke my chest over the shirt - there is nothing remotely feminine about it. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK. OH. MY. FUCKING. GOD. I am a boy. I am definitely frantic now. I manage to make it to the bathroom and just gawk at the reflection in the mirror. Okay, not too bad- whoever this boy is, he looks pretty feminine. Messy, shoulder length chocolate brown hair, huge emerald green eyes and delicate features. Okay, I can make this work. This is hopefully a really bad dream, but for the time being, I need to make this work. I quickly brush my teeth and take a shower. After that, I try to find out whatever I can about this Misaki person, which actually turns out to be easy - apparently the guy kept a journal. Also, I managed to dig out some school and medical records. So this is what I have-
Name- Misaki Takahashi
Birthday- August 18 , Zodiac - Leo
Current grade- High school sophomore
Height- 162 cm (I can't believe this guy is so short; I used to be 170 cm when I was 15!)
Parents- deceased; reason- car crash
Legal Guardian- Takahiro Takahashi, brother
I nearly died of a cardiac arrest when I had a look at the guy's report cards- C's and D's. That's it. Not even a B. Then I nearly had another one when I recalled that I am this person now. And I was a sophomore in high school too but, in another country. I grabbed all books and notebooks and quickly went through them, relieved to find out that I know most of it. Thank God I had a mom who was crazy about studies and made me take advanced classes in , seems like my obessession with Japanese culture and history will pay off too, finally. I put the diary in my school bag to read later, along with textbooks and notebooks I would need. Deciding I've dug up enough to survive as Misaki, I started getting ready for school. I took off my clothes with no hesitation, however, I couldn't bear to look- after all, I have been a girl for fifteen years. The gakuran was really boring, but I dare not add any special touches- unlike what was portrayed by various anime, Japan's school were extremly strict about the dress code. After I was done ensuring that the uniform fit perfectly and there was not a single crease anywhere, I decided to get started with the hair. Running my fingers through it, I was pleased to find it was wet no more and actually quite soft. I tried to brush it down, but to no avail. I hunted around the room and finally found a rubber band and some hair clips. I managed to tie my hair in a messy ponytail and secured the bangs with some clips. I checked my appearance one last time to make sure it was not too feminine and then went downstairs to find Takahiro, no, Onii-sama, setting the table. His eyes widened comically when he turned to look at me.
"Misaki? What, I mean-"
" My hair was too messy to handle to I did this. Is it too feminine, Onii-sama?" , I cut him off. I know very well that it is a very rude thing to do, but it didn't look like he knew what to say anyways.
" Ah, no, no! You look quite nice. Wait, Misaki, did you just call me 'Onii-sama' ?" , his eyes seemed to widen more, though I don't know how that is even possible.
" Yes, I did. Being polite is not a bad thing, is it?" , I replied.
" Of course not, of course not!" , he exclaimed. " I'm just not used to it. What's with the sudden change, though? Are you stressed because of today's math test?"
Now it was my turn to be surprised. There is a test today? And math at that? Oh my God, I haven't studied at all! This is not good, this is so not good; what if I fail ?! No, no, no, self. Calm down. You know everything. You are not going to fail.
" No, Onii-san" , I said, switching to a lesser formal title. " Is that better now?"
" Yes, I suppose. Now come and have breakfast, it's seven thirty already " , he said.
And that's when another thing hit me. Where is the school? Maybe I could use Google Maps? No, I'm pretty sure I'd end up in Yukon.
" Misaki, what's wrong?" , Takahiro asked me.
" Nothing, Onii-san; just spacing out ", I said and joined him at the table.
Breakfast was delicious and I thankfully did not have any problem with the chopsticks as I feared I would. I glanced at the clock and saw it it was ten minutes to eight. School begins at eight thirty in Japan, does it not? I decided I had enough time, so I began to clean up the dishes while reviewing the formulae.
" Onii-san? Can you please do me a favour?" , I called out as I put away the last of the dishes.
" Yes, Misaki, what is it?" , Takahiro asked, sporting the same surprised look he wore when he saw me this morning. Looks like Misaki wasn't the type to ask for favours; good. Neither was I, but this is an extreme emergency.
I put the book back in my bag and slung it over my shoulder. I saw Takahiro standing at the threshold, dressed in work clothes. Of course, he must have been employed to support them-us- after their-our- parents' death. Feeling stupid, I chnaged my mind.
" Give me a good luck hug" , I said, instead of asking him to walk me to school. I knew the name- I would have to Google the directions and hope for the best. I was immensely to surprised to be engulfed in a bone crushing hug.
" I don't know what's going on with you, Misaki, but I'm loving this new side of you!" , Takahiro exclaimed.
" Love you too, Onii-san" , I said with a chuckle. " Now let go of me or we'll be late."
By the grace of whichever angel watches over me, I managed to make it to school on time and ace the test. Well, not exactly ace, considering I got a ninety seven out of hundred, but then again, I didn't even know about any test, I think I'll let this one slide. I got quite a few surprised glances from people, but thankfully no one approached me. Looks like Misaki was also an introvert, which, again, is fine by me because I only enjoy the company of selected people- so far, Takahiro is the only one in the group. I was also especially happy that I managed to find not one, not two but three part time jobs. One was as a waitress in a cafe` , one in the library on weekends and one at a publishing company called Marukawa as an assisstant editor to an author named Akihiko Usami. To be honest, I was actually surprised to get a job like that, but apparently they only want to look after the author and his editor, Eri Aikawa, so I guess it's more like baby sitter than assisstant editor. Nevertheless, I was extremely happy. I planned on buying the author's books and actually reading them; of course, I had searched up the author and the read the reviews of all his books before I applied, but it would be better if I actually read the books, which of course is not a problem beacause I adore books and the reviews and plot of all the books was actually very good. From my research and from the interviewers, here is what I have found out about Akihiko Usami-
He is the same age as Takahiro and they went to the same high school. (Is it possible they know each other? )
He is an extreme introvert and dislikes crowds ( I have a feeling I'm going to get along with this guy)
He is the youngest recipent of the prestigious Naomori award.
He graduated from Teito University at the top of his class. ( He studied law, though it beats me why. Maybe he decided to be an author at the last moment )
He mostly writes romantic, lachrimose stories.
He is apparently very childish and stubborn and always misses his deadlines ( Looks like we may not get along very well after all )
I got a bit of information about Misaki too, from his diary. Apparently when their - our - parents died, Takahiro denied their relatives' offer of adopting the both of them and took care of Misaki - of me - all alone at the age of eighteen. He gave up his dream of studying economics at Mitsuhashi university to take care of his younger brother. It's official now - Takahiro is the best brother in the world and i love him.
Looks like being Misaki would not be as bad as I feared.