The heat of the room woke Ema up in the morning.
She was in a warm bed: it was the first thing she noticed. The second was, when she opened her eyes, the horrifically pink surroundings, from the pastel pink wall, to the hot pink ceiling, to the dark pink carpet covered in a light pink rug. The third was the warm, thin limbs splayed across her, and the hair tickling her nose. She sneezed.
The body beside her jerked and let out a rather ungodly snort, and Ema lifted a hand to expect the hair; golden and shiny and matted. She turned her head and blinked, confused, to find her best friend sleeping at her side.
"Kiyomi," Ema called, poking the blonde girl. "Ki. Wake up."
Unceremoniously, Kiyomi rolled over and fell out of the bed.
Ema blinked.
"What the—?" Kiyomi squinted in the morning light, glaring at Ema, who was struggling to stifle a giggle. "Oh, right. You're here."
"I am." Ema shuddered, remembering the exact events that got her there. "It all feels like a nightmare. What happened that I fell asleep here?"
"Correction," Kiyomi said with a yawn, "you fell asleep in the car. Kaito called Katsu at, maybe like, seven last night, and you were in a total panic. Katsu sent me in a car to go get you and you passed out before the ride started, so I brought you back here to my house; I was gonna let you sleep alone in the bed, but by midnight I still couldn't fall asleep on the floor so I crawled in next to you. Hope you don't mind."
Her tone had an odd timbre to it that let Ema know that even if she did mind, there wouldn't be anything she could do about it because Kiyomi would do it the next night anyway. But as it was, Ema didn't mind at all, and instead said,
"You let me stay the night at your house? Are your sisters home?"
Kiyomi's three older sisters, Kiyaki, Kizuni, and Kimiri, hardly ever had time to be at home. Kiyomi's family wasn't particularly rich; in fact, they were quite the opposite. They'd grown up fairly wealthy until both of their parents passed away when Kiyomi was seven and the eldest, Kiyaki, was seventeen. Before she could turn eighteen and inherit their parents' money, an estranged uncle had taken it and gambled it all away, leaving the three eldest sisters to work multiple full-time jobs to provide for the youngest, unfortunately leading to a distant relationship among the four daughters. That, coupled with the three older sisters' natures being noticeably colder than Kiyomi's, meant that Ema feared them quite a bit.
It was why Kiyomi wrinkled her nose at the mention of her sisters: they never necessarily got along quite well.
"Yeah, they're home. It's only Kiyaki and Kimiri who are home right now. Kizuni's on her way back."
"She is?" Ema blinked: Kiyomi had mentioned once that the second-oldest Akiyama sister, Kizuni, worked night shifts, so it wouldn't make any sense for her to be coming back from work unless . . . "Wait, how long have I been asleep?"
Kiyomi's pretty face flared up a pink brighter than the walls of her room. "It's about nine in the morning now. So about fourteen hours, going on fifteen."
Ema flinched. "My . . . my brothers, the last time I went missing—"
"Don't worry about them." Kiyomi said curtly, silver voice tainted with anger. "I took care of it."
(For a moment, Ema had to wonder if the tiny girl had gone and murdered thirteen men.)
"I . . . don't be mad . . . but I called your dad. He's downstairs with Kiyaki right now."
Her golden face turned away from Ema with every word she spoke, paling in shame as she cowered from the taller girl. When she'd mentioned the last name Asahina to her sisters, Kimiri had, in shock, blurted that that was the last name of her favorite hairdresser named Louis, and Kiyomi had pounced on the opportunity to get a hold of his contact information, then use it to get Rintarou's number— and she hadn't been able to resist the urge to ask the soft-spoken man what exactly had happened that night.
Ema, by his account, was terrifying when she was angry.
Not that the anger wasn't well-deserved, in Kiyomi's opinion. If she had her way, those brothers would already be in a kayak halfway across the world and Ema and Kaito would be twenty years married. But as it was, not everything could go Kiyomi's way, and she supposed that Ema giving them the lecture of a lifetime was as close as she could get for now.
Fortunately, her friend didn't seem to be too upset with her for informing her father of the situation— Ema flinched, however, at the mention, and seemed somewhat hurt that Kiyomi would be afraid of her. So Kiyomi straightened and cleared her throat. "You should probably go see him."
"How much does he know?" Ema urged gently.
"Not that much— no, I don't think he knows anything at all, really. But that all-knowing brat Katsu might have told him something— Katsu stopped by this morning and ran into your dad while he was waiting for you to wake up."
Ema couldn't tell which was more surprising: that their stoic, bespectacled upperclassman had come to visit her, or that her father had managed to take time out of his busy day to do the same and even wait. Either way, she hopped out of bed and started straightening her clothes, noticing that Kiyomi was wearing the exact same outfit she had yesterday. Ema felt a small amount of guilt and a large amount of gratefulness: as bratty and kittenish as Kiyomi may have seemed, she was a good person by all accounts, and it wouldn't shock Ema if Kiyomi had given up most of her night taking care of her distressed friend.
So when Kiyomi slipped a pretty yellow sundress from her closet for Ema to wear, Ema engulfed her in a big embrace as Kiyomi let out a muffled mmpf! into the shoulder of Ema's school uniform.
"Thanks, Kiyomi," Ema whispered into the spun-gold locks that tangled into her cheek. She pulled away ran a hand across her eyes to dry the tears that had begun to form. As she changed into the dress and Kiyomi flopped onto her back on the bed, Ema said, "The truth is . . . I don't know what's going on. But I think Kaito and I—" she let out a strangled sob, "—I think we broke up last night."
Cherry lips parted as Kiyomi took in the news, stunned. "You— I— wait, are you serious?"
Ema nodded, crying earnestly now. That explained things then, and explained Kaito's odd behavior when he'd handed Ema off to Kiyomi the night before; "I messed up," he had said, and "tell her not to hate me." If anything, it was Kiyomi herself who needed to be told not to hate him. Nevertheless, she took a deep breath and stopped herself from marching over to Kaito's house and snapping his legs.
"Do you want to explain everything that happened?"
So Ema did as gentle hands guided her to the vanity and began braiding her hair into a woven crown— it was easy to talk to Kiyomi, telling her about how she'd yelled at her brothers and how she finally had had enough and told them exactly how she felt, in exactly the way Kaito wanted her to. Finally, as she got to their falling out, her tears began to dry as she simply miserably recited Kaito's words back to the blonde.
Kiyomi pursed her lips. Most of it was in accordance with what Louis had told her, especially the harsh honesty of Ema's words. But she hadn't known that Kaito was the one who encouraged such veracity. Kiyomi had no doubt that it would have happened eventually, but if Ema was only being honest to please somebody else, then what was the point of changing?
But she wasn't about to tell Ema that. She knew that her best friend was under an intense amount of pressure: her brothers pulled her one way, Kaito pulled her another, and she certainly didn't need another party being thrown into that mix. Yet in Kiyomi's opinion, while she sided with Kaito, she knew his methods weren't ideal. Ema's brothers' obsessiveness were the root of this whole mess, and while Ema had certainly done something about that, she needed to be more assertive to assure she could nip it in the bud in the future. And unless that change happened on her own terms, that assertiveness wouldn't stick around. Kiyomi definitely agreed with the boy; while none of this wasn't Ema's fault, not really, it still could have been stopped earlier if Ema had been more clear with her feelings. But she really didn't think it was necessary or wise to push her so much with the end goal of the two of them ending up in a relationship, even if it was a relationship that Ema herself wanted; it only led to an explosive mess of longtime bottled-up emotions. Kiyomi made a mental note to chastise Kaito for pushing Ema too far, too fast.
Instead of voicing her disapproval, Kiyomi ran a hand tenderly down Ema's hair, smiling softly at the hum it illicited, and said, "I'm proud of you for telling them finally, but I'm sorry that it all led to Kaito breaking up with you. I think he's right in wanting to be in a relationship without sneaking around, and I think he's right in wanting to help you grow as a person. But I don't think he's right in pushing you so much under these circumstances, because it's not right to change for anybody, Ema— whether the change is good or bad. And in my opinion, you're changing for the better, but you're doing it so you can be in a relationship with Kaito. You shouldn't do that." Tucking one final strand behind Ema's ear, Kiyomi rested her hands on Ema's shoulders and her chin on Ema's head. "You don't have to change yourself by loving your brothers, but you don't have to change yourself for Kaito either, even though you already love him. He already loves you, even if you don't think it right now— and if the desire to be in a relationship with him is the only reason you're making this change for the better, then whatever improvements you make aren't going to last forever."
A knock on the door signalled the end of anything else Kiyomi had to say as both girls jumped in surprise. Kiyomi sighed and intertwined one hand with Ema's, laying a quick kiss on the back of it. "You know what you want, my dear. But don't let anyone push you harder than you're ready so that you can get it. Now go. I'll be waiting right here for you when you need me."
Kiyaki Akiyama was, undeniably, stone cold. As the eldest sister, she possessed the classic Akiyama gorgeous sunny hair and the same blue-violet eyes and the same lovely, willowy limbs, but that was where the resemblance ended. Her features were sharp and regal, posture rigid where Kiyomi's flowed like water. In Ema's opinion, while still cold, the second-oldest Kizuni was kinder and the third oldest Kimiri was kinder still. And then Kiyomi, the youngest, was somehow an angel in disguise despite her icy sisters.
Rintarou Hinata was unlucky enough to bear the brunt of the three eldest sisters while Ema got the pleasure of dealing with the fourth. He wrung his hands in the living room; it was clear that Kiyaki had done the bare minimum that etiquette could require, serving him tea and water and seating him in the living room. She watched his movements with dagger-eyes, cutting him off with a stern "no" if his hands ventured near the few valuables that the Akiyama sisters could afford.
Kizuni tried making some light conversation, just barely manging to hide her boredom behind stunningly gorgeous features. Kimiri, to her credit, appeared genuinely interested in most of the man's travel stories, but her button nose twitched every now and again, and as soon as Ema entered the room, Kimiri was out of it, happy to pawn off their guest onto someone more fit to deal with him.
Ema shrank back when Kiyaki rose to her full, intimidating height. It seemed everything in the Akiyama sisters was a trickle-down effect: the eldest Kiyaki was the tallest, meanest, and most beautiful, whereas the youngest Kiyomi was the shortest, kindest, and just a little above pretty. It barely even felt to Ema that she was dealing with someone in the same family.
"Ema," Kiyaki's low and sultry voice seemed to fill the room despite its quiet tone. "Your father is here."
And with that, she left the room, Kizuni breezing out after her. Ema felt Kiyomi's hand squeeze hers before she, too, retreated back into her bright pink bedroom.
Rintarou stood slowly. All it took was for him to open his arms, and Ema was running into him— it felt like running home.
He took her to get ice cream then: he ordered hazelnut with pecans and she ordered strawberry on strawberry. They sat in the ice cream shop— he took the complementary logoed paper hat that the ice cream shop gave out and convinced Ema to wear hers as well, and Ema giggled at how silly they both looked as they licked at their cones.
"I met your friend Kiyomi today," he said. "and Katsu as well. Kiyomi is a very sweet girl. Katsu is a nice boy, and smart too; you couldn't have dated him instead?"
Ema laughed. "No, I lov— I like Kaito." She put her lips to the cone to hide her frown. "Anyway, Katsu's actually kind of scary."
"He'll grow up to own a business someday, I know it," Rintarou said with the confidence of a seer, making Ema giggle again. "Ema, he filled me in on some things. Not everything, but he did tell me that there's been some trouble with your stepbrothers?"
Ema didn't bother hiding her grimace this time. She was grateful that Rintarou hadn't brought Miwa along; she had absolutely nothing against the woman, but sometimes she missed her father beyond words. Adopted or not, he was and always would be her dearest family.
"I . . . Yes, I am. It's been difficult for reasons I'm not sure I should name."
Rintarou twirled his ice cream cone in his fingers, contemplating. His calm, pensive nature was one of the things Ema loved about him and the reason she considered him an anchor. When he finally spoke, it was slow and deliberate.
"I am . . . aware . . . of some things. Only some; not all. Much of it I have been able to deduce myself from how many of the Asahina boys have been treating you whenever I come around— and, if I'm honest, they seem to fear me a little more than they did before." He winked at her with the last statement, grinning. "But yes. While I don't know the specifics, I think I can infer what drove you to leave the home. And I have told the eldest Miss Akiyama that you are allowed to stay."
Ema choked on her ice cream. "You told Kiyaki that?"
Rintarou gave her a reproving look. "Ema, I know you're friends with Kiyomi, but her sisters aren't entirely that bad. They are a little . . . abrasive, but Kiyomi doesn't get her kind heart from nowhere. These are three girls who gave up their educations and work eight part-time jobs among them just so that their youngest sister has a chance to survive in this big world. It was Kiyaki who offered to give you a place to stay while things cool off back at home."
Ema blinked. She hadn't thought of it that way, though in hindsight, it was odd that even though the eldest was twenty-eight, she hadn't even finished college. Was it all for Kiyomi? She shook her head clear of the thoughts; they could wait. Right now, Ema had more important things to worry about.
"I don't want my brothers to think I'm running away," she said softly. "And if I stay, I might never want to go back."
"You're not running away," Rintarou said. "You're the strongest young woman I know, Ema; maybe too strong, since I wish I got to be with you more when you were a child. But I'm proud of who you've grown up into, no matter how sad I am that I wasn't there for much of it. It takes strength to leave. But you— I know that you have the strength to return."
Ema's felt her eyes growing misty as she watched her father smile gently at her— when had those wrinkles around his lips appeared, those dark hairs on his head grow gray and white? Suddenly, she felt a pang of sadness and reached out to embrace him, wishing for more time.
"Thank you, Papa. Thank you so much."
No matter who was fighting for her love, at least she knew she would always have her anchor.
Wow. I really have no excuse for how late this chapter is besides me getting a ton of writers block and quite a few rude PMs about both the direction of this story and my writing style causing said writers block. But I got some incredibly kind reviews this past month, and I'm really trying to force myself to write for something, anything, so I decided it might be time to give Green-Eyed and potentially Livewyre another go. It's kind of been helping, because now I'm finding that forcing yourself to write is the best remedy to get into a creative rhythm again.
Chapter 14 for this is already in the works. I'm incredibly sorry for the wait, but I hope you guys are willing to give this story another chance as I try to breathe life into it again! Love you all!