Three: Will


Leaf, curious as to what was happening to the group, goes to the atelier after school. She notices the signage by the door that reads, Paradise Kiss.

Remembering her goal, she slowly opens door, but what welcomed her eyes shocked her wits out of her.

May and Drew were hotly making out in the table.

May notices the newcomer. "Leaf!"

Leaf shuts door in shock, and sees Harley who was holding groceries on his arms.

"Leafy! Hello.", Harley greets with a smile.

"Harley.", she mumbles. As Harley was about to enter, Leaf stops him. "Don't go in there!"

May comes out of the atelier, half of the buttons on her top undone. "Sorry about that, Lea. It's OK now."

Leaf stared at her in horror. "Your tits are showing."

Harley sighs. "That's no way to act in front of a visitor." He drops the grocery bag on the floor and buttons May's top again. "I just step out, and..."

May laughs sheepishly. "Blame Drew."

Leaf proceeds to ask. "Are you a couple?"

May nods in response. "Yeah, it's my job to tame his sex drive." Leaf's eyes widen. "Giving lip, taking lip, being top, being bottom... all day long."

Drew shouts from the inside. "May, shut up!"

The trio outside laughs. Now he's embarrassed.

"Next time you pay a fine.", Harley tells May.

"A fine?"

Leaf lost interest on the conversation when she sees Gary arrive.

Gary's features broke out into a grin. "You're here?"

He has such an innocent smile.


Inside the atelier, Leaf now gets measured by May. When May was to measure her bust, she squirmed as the measuring tape touched her armpits. "That tickles!"

May laughs. "Keep still. I can't measure you."

Leaf is reminded of the signage on the door. "What's that Paradise Kiss thing on the door?"

May smiles. "That's the brand name the four of us have set up. Paradise Kiss. We catch on, form a company, and make lots of money, Drew says."

"A company?"

"I want us to stay together after we graduate. We've got test clothes out in consignment stores." May smiles dreamily. "Wouldn't it be great to be a top brand someday?"

Leaf can't help but smile at that.


May and Leaf return to the main room after the measuring. "I've got Lea's measurements."

Drew exclaimed. "Finally!"

May pouted. "She kept moving around!"

Gary smiled. "Show me." May hands him the clipboard, and Gary proceeds to read it. "Bust, 83 centimeters..."

Leaf grabs clipboard in shock. "Hey! You pervert!"

Drew and Harley laugh at her reaction. "Pervert?", Gary asks.

"That's private!", Leaf exclaims.

Gary smirks. "I need your size for your dress."

Leaf looks sideways. "I didn't say I'd do it."

Drew grows pissed. "Then why are you here?!"

Before an argument broke out, Gary looked at a dress behind him. "May... put that on her."

It was the dress he was holding when he came to the atelier the day they met Leaf. A brown silk dress adorned with black roses, and only hangs on the right shoulder; strapless on the left. The bottom part of the dress is made of white lace with a floral pattern. It was very elegant.

"Really? Is it alright?", May asks.

Gary nods. "Yeah. It should fit her, more or less."

Grabbing the dress and Leaf's arm, May excitedly went into the dressing room with Leaf.


After a few minutes…

May comes out of the dressing room and holds the door open. Coming after her was Leaf, now wearing the dress.

"I knew she was right.", Drew mumbled.

Gary's attention was glued on Leaf.

May grinned. "It's amazing! It fits perfectly everywhere. Even though it's for Gary's muse."

Leaf grows confused at the unfamiliar term. "Muse?"

Harley nods. "Every designer needs a muse. That one perfect woman..."

Leaf proceeds to look at her reflection in the mirror. Even she was at awe in how good it looked when it was worn. A thought nagged at her. How did this fit at exactly every curve?


After the fitting, Gary decides to drive Leaf home.

"Hey, about this "muse" thing...", Leaf starts.

She was reminded of Gary's words again.

You don't know who you are.

Leaf shook her head. "Nothing. Never mind."

She decides to start a different topic.

"Did your mother ever slap you? Mine would hit me if I didn't get good marks... or if I talked back... or if I didn't hold my chopsticks right. A kid who grows up like that... is always afraid of getting hit, and never develops any courage. I failed a test once... and I thought she'd leave me right there in the snow. Maybe that's why all my life... I've never seen any other way but study, study, study... and avoided any responsibility."

Gary turns to a different direction upon hearing everything she said.

"People say different things..." then Leaf notices the sudden change in direction. "Hey, aren't you taking me home?"

"No, somewhere else."

"Where?"

Gary smirks. "A hotel."

Leaf sighs exasperatedly and sunk to her seat.


At the hotel…

Leaf just stood still by the door of the room. What are we doing here?

"Want a shower? I don't care. You're fine as you are.", Gary says

"For what?" Leaf asks. She realizes when Gary unbuttons the first two buttons of his shirt, which prompts her to get out. Before she could get out, however, Gary was fast enough to close the door shut.

Gary pulls Leaf by her wrist, causing her to drop her school bag. "I didn't drag you here."

Leaf hits his arm to make him let go of her. "My brain had stopped working!"

"Fine."

Gary pushes Leaf to the bed, and tries to kiss her. Leaf evades his lips and struggles.

"Just lie still."

"No!"

"Don't move!", Gary says and forcefully holds her in place. "Is it someone else's fault you walked in here? Like it's your mom's fault you lack guts? And our fault you came back? Now you're saying no so you can blame this on me. Just what do you want to do?!"

Leaf stops moving.

"I want a model, not a puppet.", Gary mumbles. "We'll just do it once for the books. Keep still."

Gary tries to kiss her again, seeing as she stopped moving around. When she spoke, it stopped him.

"Do it, then."

Gary stops and stares at her. Leaf had tears on her eyes.

"I hate you. That dress of yours means nothing to me! My will is in this frumpy school uniform... of one of the country's best schools."

Gary just stared at her and listened.

"Do you know how hard I had to work just to wear it? I'm proud of it, and I don't see why I should take attitude from you!"

Leaf finally pushes him away, stands up and walks away. She stops by the door, and looks back at Gary.

"I'll do your modeling for you.", she spat as she left the room and ran out.

Gary just stared at her as she left. She doesn't even notice that she left her bag.


The next day, as classes flew by; Leaf wasn't even listening to the teacher's discussion. She was staring into space, after what just happened to her and Gary.

This behavior didn't go unnoticed by Brendan.

They were at cram school after classes when Brendan finally decides to ask, "Is something wrong?"

Leaf shrugs. "No, nothing."

Brendan smiles. "Shall we skip out? I'm sick of studying, too."

Leaf looks at him in shock. "Even you?"

Brendan nods. "Yeah. Want to go somewhere?"

"I don't want it to be my fault if you fail.", Leaf frowns.

Brendan laughs quietly. "Oh, well. Let's both get down to it, then.

Now it's your fault I'm stuck here."

Now, Leaf smiles.


At the atelier…

The ringing of the phone can be heard. In the atelier was Drew and May, working on the dress.

Drew says, "That's Leaf's phone."

May went to the school bag on the couch and gets the phone. "It's probably her."

Drew sighs. "You shouldn't answer it."

Upon opening Leaf's flip phone, May sees Brendan's photo with Leaf. She goes silent for a while.

"I'll be back, Drew. I'll return this to Lea."


At the mall nearby the station…

Leaf, deciding to show up at the atelier, tells Brendan, "I've got something to do."

Brendan nods in understanding. "See you at school."

But before they separate, Leaf sees Gary approaching. On impulse, she hid behind Brendan.

Gary, seeing Leaf's reaction, just passes by. Leaf was relieved there was no confrontation to happen, but she spoke too soon. Brendan speaks to stop him.

"Are you the one? The reason she's upset?", he said, glaring at Gary.

"Brendan?", Leaf asks in confusion.

Brendan spats. "Leave her alone, will you? Or deal with me."

Gary turns to look at him, and smirks.

Leaf tugs at Brendan. "Brendan, what are you doing?"

She sees May, who was walking towards them.

"May! You brought my bag! Thanks!", Leaf said in relief.

Brendan looks behind him and mutters in shock. "May?"