Based on the song Mosaic Roll- I do not own Vocaloid. Please read and review!
CHAPTER 1: THE REPRESENTATIVE
There's a mirror in our house.
It's upstairs, tucked into a tiny closet, hidden by racks of towels and moth-eaten blankets. You wouldn't even know it was there.
But we know.
In fact, the whole town knows.
And that's why, at this moment, the state Representative is ringing our doorbell, and Mother is letting him in kindly.
And why I'm staring into the hole in my bedroom wall.
Mom doesn't know about the hole. That's because I made it myself- whittled out with a pencil in the dead of night. Took me a while, but its there. Just wide enough to peek into the closet and see what's happening inside.
So now I wait. I see light flood the closet as the Representative eagerly opens the door, stepping inside. Closing the door behind him, he flips a light switch, and surveys the room. He won't find anything with his eyes at first. He has to search for it.
He starts digging through the towels and sheets greedily, mumbling to himself, "Where? Where?" I almost want to laugh at his impatience.
But I don't. I watch, and I wait.
Every person's reaction is different. I take it all in as he finally finds it, shrieking with delight and propping it up on the empty rack in front of him. Then he stares into it intently, and I stare at him intently, and we all stare. And we all wait.
And then the grin slowly spreads across his face.
Mother told me once, when I was little, that the mirror can show you anyone. Whoever it thinks you need to see. Sometimes, it might show you your enemy. Sometimes, it might show you your secret admirer. Or it might not show you anyone. Whatever it thinks you deserve.
I'm not allowed to look into it.
Its locked 24/7, except for times like this, when curious people pay mother a small sum to take a look. Then mother unlocks it for them, for two minutes at the most, and then they leave, and she locks it again.
I think mother looked into it once. She claims that she never wants to look in it again. But the way she stares at the closet with such longing tells me otherwise.
Maybe she saw Father. He's been gone for six years now, ever since he threw himself off the third story window.
Mother's locked the third story too.
When the Representative leaves, the house is quiet and still, as it was before. As it is every day. I can hear cicadas in the distance, filling the thick air with eerie chirping.
While I'm in bed pretending to be asleep, Mother opens the door and peers in, light flooding into the dark room. She does this every night. Probably just to check that I'm still alive.
She used to do this with Gakupo too, but he was soon fed up with it, and made her quit.
She leaves as quietly as she came, closing the door with a soft click. I turn to my left side, facing the whitewash walls, my hair falling over my face. It is 2 in the morning, and I haven't slept at all. School starts in six hours.
An eerie squeak emits from my window, where the branches of a tree are raking its fingers down the glass. I cringe and plug my ears as the wind whips it back and forth, hitting the window noisily.
Knock, knock, knock.
I sit up, taking my hands off of my ears, and call softly, "Come in."
The door pushes open slowly and Gakupo's weary face appears in the crack of light. His messy violet hair sticks up everywhere, and his eyes squint in the dark, searching for me.
"Over here." I whisper. "You can turn on the lamp."
He does so, and a faint light illuminates the room. We can see clearly now, and smile kindly at each other from across the room.
"Morning, sis. What are you still doing up?" He mocks, sitting down on the bed next to me, propping up an elbow on his knee.
"I'd ask you the same, but I'm not really surprised."
"Night owl, that's me." Gakupo drums his long fingers on the bed frame. At last he mumbles, "Representative, huh?"
I laugh bitterly. "We're getting some big name customers now."
"Won't be long before the Prime Minister himself comes." Gakupo teases, hopping off the bed and crossing to the window. He watches the representative's long black car pull away into the night. Eventually he turns, closing the blinds behind him, and places his hands on his hips. "So. You playing hooky with me tomorrow?"
"Um, no." I roll my eyes. "There's this thing. It's called school."
"Don't be a smart ass. You're in the top 5 percent; you can afford to miss one day. Live a little." He tosses a throw pillow in my general direction, and it pathetically misses its target.
"That's not the way it works. Grades come first, Gakupo, you know that."
"Your priorities are ridiculous. Where is your social life? What about boyfriends, parties?" He's half-joking, I know it. But it still rubs me the wrong way.
"There's a fine line between getting good grades and being a slacker like you. Why'd you come in here anyway?" I snap, digging down under the covers.
Without replying, Gakupo stands up and leaves. I want to tell him I'm sorry, but my eyelids are already closing.