When Kiri Cheung woke up without the familiar warmth of her boyfriend to greet her, she felt around for the crinkling of paper that would alert her that he had remembered to write her a note that morning.

Finally, her fingers touched something that was most definitely not her blanket and she pulled it over to her, yawning.

Went to work early. Be back late. –Elik

"Thanks for the detailed note." Kiri grumbled softly, tossing the note back onto Elik's side of the bed with a sigh and staring up at her ceiling. A few moments later, she gave up on trying to get back to sleep and climbed out from under her comforter.

She regretted it as soon as her bare feet touched the cold floor, and immediately bounced over to the closet to get a pair of socks. Maybe she'd go jogging…

Deciding that exercise was always a good thing, Kiri pulled a pair of sweatpants out of the closet as well, pulling them on and slipping into her sneakers. She pulled her black hair into a ponytail to keep it out of her face and grabbed her keys from the table, leaving her apartment and heading at a steady pace down the street.

Being so early in the morning, the streets were deserted. Kiri was the only one jogging, so she headed down onto the beach to jog on the sand instead, smiling softly to herself.

She halted in her path when her eyes fell on a building in the distance.

"An idol, huh?" she muttered. "What on earth is an idol doing on the surface?"

XXXX

When Aryl Talaver's phone started vibrating, she turned over and pulled a pillow over her head. When it didn't stop, she grabbed it and threw it across the room.

Unfortunately, she managed to throw it directly in the face of her blonde-haired roommate, who was coming in to wake her for the class they had in an hour.

"Aryl!" Lexia Dravetra snapped at the prone figure in the bed as she fumbled to catch the phone before it landed on the ground and broke into pieces.

The black haired girl groaned, "Five more minutes, mom…"

Lexia sighed, flipping her roommate's cell phone open, "Hello?"

"Lexia?" A surprised voice filtered through.

"Long story. A's still sleeping, threw her phone at me, you know, what she normally does when she stays up all night. What's up, Kiri?" Lexia left the room, making sure to leave Aryl's door open so she could blast the girl with a super-soaker later and force her to wake up.

"I just wanted to ask if you two knew any reason there'd be an idol princess on the surface right now."

Lexia frowned, leaning on the kitchen counter, "Not that I'm aware of… There's an idol princess on the surface right now?"

"Yeah. Sensed her while I was out jogging this morning."

"Hmm…" Lexia thought for a moment, "I've got no clue, but I'll tell Aryl when she wakes up and ask her.

"Thanks. Call me if you figure anything out."

"Will do." Lexia smiled, "Thanks for letting us know."

"'Course."

There was a click and Lexia knew the older girl had hung up. She shut Aryl's phone and put it down on the counter, glancing through the doorway at the still-sleeping figure of her roommate.

Super soaker or shaving cream?

XXXX

After a quick breakfast and a chat with Lexia at a small restaurant not far from her apartment, Kiri headed back down the street, this time walking with no intention of speeding up, much to the delight of her aching muscles.

"Hello."

Kiri turned a little to see a blonde girl standing behind her. "Hello." She replied.

The blonde girl bowed, "I'm very sorry to bother you, but I dropped something and I was wondering if you'd seen it anywhere." She blurted out, not rising from the bow. Kiri started chuckling and patted the girl on the head, making her look up.

"Well, I can't tell you if I've seen it if I don't know what it is." She said, "Why don't we look for it together?"

The girl rose, a smile on her face, "Really?"

"Sure." Kiri smiled, "I'm Kiri."

"Luchia!" the girl grinned, "Luchia Nanami!"

XXXX

It took Aryl a half an hour in the bathtub to scrub the marker off her face. She had woken up about ten minutes after Lexia's phone call with Kiri had ended, and had immediately stumbled into the bathroom to make herself look decent before class, only to see that her ever-so-sweet roommate had drawn all over her face in a failed attempt to wake her up.

She resigned herself to the fact that she wasn't going to be getting to class (at least not on time, anyway), and decided to bathe and scrub the marker off, leading to the black-haired mermaid lounging in the tub with the faint remnants of a marker mustache still on her face as her purple tail flicked soap bubbles around the room.

She picked up her phone, trusting in her ability to keep it dry as she held it away from the bathtub, scanning through the text messages she'd missed while sleeping (all two of them.) One was her mother, being the obnoxious woman that she was, asking Aryl if she wanted to come home for her spring break, which was starting in less than a week.

Aryl sent back a quick message of "Why?" and moved onto the second one as quickly as she could.

Now this one interested her.

She pushed herself up so she could see the screen better, and read over the message, sent to her by Lexia only a few minutes earlier.

"Hope the marker mustache got to you well. Kiri called about an idol princess. Any idea why one would be on the surface? I'll get the notes for you. Have fun scrubbing."

Aryl frowned and put her phone down in its water-free safe haven under a towel. An idol princess, hmm? That was what Kiri was calling about? She leaned back, staring at the ceiling tiles as she tried to think about any reason an idol princess would feel the need to come to the surface.

Her phone vibrating ripped Aryl out of her thoughts and she wiped her hand on the towel before pulling it out, hoping it was a message from Kiri or Lexia.

Nope, just her mom.

Well, what's this? A rewrite? Ohmygoodness!

Nah, I got a review highlighting a few problems with the original chapter (and I couldn't agree more, but that's what happens when you try and a write a story as massive as this one is and only manage to post 32 chapters in almost four years.

I need to be faster. –sigh-

But that's not the point! But anyway, NO, I will not be rewriting all the chapters. I'll rewrite one through five for now, at my leisure, and I'll post a new chapter with the edit and alert you guys.

IMPORTANT THINGS FROM OLD AUTHOR'S NOTE:

-This is based in the world of the anime, though it ends up so skewed by the end you can't really tell. The main point of telling you this is so when the Pearl Piari comes up, you know that it's supposed to be a hotel.

-Luchia = Lucia. Yeah, I know, I know, but when I started it I kept it Luchia because that's the way I'd written it in the original draft, and now I'm just too damn lazy to go back and change it all. So, she's staying Luchia, but I know she's supposed to be Lucia.

And finally, I'm saying this last bit of info now because I figure it should be thought about from the beginning, rather than whenever I posted it originally.

All pairings are up to you guys. There are a few I've decided on based on suggestions by where I am now, so a few characters are out of the running for a romantic relationship at the moment, but I'm not going to tell you guys who because I want you to suggest anyone at all. If it goes against something I've got planned, I'm not going to ignore it, I'm going to consider it, throw in a couple scenes, do something. Even if it ends up a friendship or just creates drama, it's something.

And that's that. Hope the rewritten chapters help fill in the blanks and mold together okay with the not-rewritten chapters.

[Discrepancy that will be fixed once the second chapter's rewritten – In the original chapter, Kiri actually went to the Pearl Piari and met Luchia.]