teamBLAZE: thanks for the encouragement! ^^

Their first impression of Echo Town was… quiet. The road—made of stone—was relatively empty. Nevertheless, if someone happened to pass by, he or she would always greet them with a smile. All in all, not a bad town to settle in.

They turned at the intersection and found a blonde woman standing in front of a small house. The blonde woman waved her hand excitedly at them; Reine found her cow print cowboy hat to be entertaining, at the very least.

When they arrived at the blonde woman, Dunhill gestured towards the house. "You can stay here," he told them.

Gwen and Reine blinked in surprise.

"Oh, by the way, this is Rio."

The blonde girl grinned at them. "I hope you like it."

"She built this house."

"And if you need reparation, you can just tell me!" Rio added. "I'd appreciate it if you have the materials with you already, though. You can get the blueprints from Rebecca, the architect."

"How… about the rent?" Reine asked. "We… don't have much for now, but…"

"Relax," Dunhill interposed gently. "We don't take rents here. We don't do lease, either. You can just stay."

"What?"

Rio smiled. "This is how we run the town," she explained. "You can stay as long as you like, but you must follow that one rule… be open-minded."

Be open-minded—they sure had heard this phrase enough for today.

It was then the door next to their house was opened. The four pairs of eyes turned towards the next building and a man appeared. He seemed to notice the strangers and smiled as he made his way towards them. "Well, well, wouldn't I just love this kind of distraction?" he snickered.

Reine saw Rio nudged—elbowed—him; he laughed it off. "Seems like we're going to be neighbors. I'm Allen, and I have a salon over there," he pointed at the building he just came from—two floors with blue roof. "Feel free to come to solve your bad hair day."

Reine wasn't exactly paying attention to what he said—unlike Gwen—but suddenly she felt a pull at the left side of her head. She jerked up, but then realized the pull was caused by Allen taking a tress of her hair and brought it forward. "Hmm… rose hair… unique, but you don't seem to have taken care of this crown of yours properly, huh? What do you say of free trial with my experienced hands?"

"No, thanks," the pinkette pulled her hair back and gathered them to her right side, where she could see them.

Gwen couldn't help but to stare at him ever since he came out. He was a redhead—his was a deep red, the color of blood—while his skin came off as slightly paler than Dunhill and Rio, which made his hair stood out even more. Did he dye it? He has a salon, she thought.

Suddenly, she found his icy blue eyes were staring at her. "Do you like what you see?" he smirked teasingly.

"A—I'm sorry!" Gwen apologized almost immediately. "I didn't mean to stare."

"It's okay, I know it's hard not to stare at me."

Gwen swore she could feel Reine rolling her eyes at this point of time. Gwen offered her hand. "My name is Gwen."

Allen took her hand. His hand felt slightly cold against hers—perhaps his salon was equipped with air-con?

"And this is my sister, Reine."

"I hope we can be good neighbors," Allen smiled. "See you girls later. Bye, Rio, Dunhill."

With that, Allen left to the forest. "He makes his own hair products from natural ingredients. Shampoo, conditioner, dye… everything," Rio explained. "If you have some time to spare, it's not a bad idea to go to his place, actually."

Job, of course.

"Is there… any vacancy?" Reine asked. "Any jobs… I can do?"

Dunhill and Rio looked at each other for a moment before turning at Reine again. "What did you work as previously?"

"Store clerk," Reine replied. "I'm okay with anything legal."

"I think she can help Hana out," Rio joined in. "There's an empty space next to Neil's stall, right? She can use that!"

Dunhill smiled widely. "You're right!" he said and turned towards Reine. "I guess we should move your stuff in first before discussing about the details."

Suddenly, Reine felt something hit her left shoulder. She reflexively shook it off, but it turned out that Dunhill was trying to pat her shoulder. The old man quickly pulled his hand back. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable."

Reine turned away and shut her mouth. She just possibly got another job—what if Dunhill changed his mind if he found out about her eyes?

Without being asked, Dunhill and Rio helped the sisters to move their luggage into their new house—a wooden cottage that was just cozy enough for two people. Reine and Gwen didn't bring much with them, so it didn't take a long time.

Afterwards, they sat down around the square dining table. It fit them just right—four people.

"As I say before, you can open a general store," Dunhill said. "Our general store owner, Hana, has been sick. She's too old to continue running the store. Her husband, Kosaburo, has a fishing supplies store that gives them enough to eat, so we were thinking that you should take over the general store."

"And selling in their house? I don't think that's appropriate."

"There is an open space in the town square," Rio said. "Usually, there's an animal dealer opening his stall, but there is more than enough space for you to open your stall next to him."

Reine nodded comprehendingly.

"I can make you a wagon to store your supplies and all," Rio assured her. "We should meet Hana after this, she is a very nice lady."

The sisters stared at Dunhill and Rio intently. It took a moment for Rio to notice it. "…Is there anything wrong?"

"Why are you being so kind to us?" Reine asked, again with her no-nonsense approach. "We are strangers."

"Reine!" Gwen chided. "I'm sorry, she didn't mean to be this harsh, it's just—"

"It's all right," Dunhill replied gently. "We know someone just like her… with a higher degree, actually."

"That's right," Rio joined in. "So, you say we are strangers, right? That's true, but there is something we have in common."

Gwen noticed that Rio's eyes were blue, too, just like Allen. However, Rio's eyes gave off a much more cheerful aura than Allen's. If Allen's eyes were like cold sapphire, Rio's eyes were the color of the bright summer sky.

"We left our old home for this town. No matter what the reason is," she emphasized. "…I think I can speak for everyone in this town that we all know how hard it is to keep trying on living when the world seems to just despise us. But, we all do—that's why we're still here."

After listening to Rio, Reine felt rather bad for having treated them quite harshly. The fact that they didn't seem to be offended at all somehow made her feel more uneasy and burdened than ever.

Anger, rejection, hatred… she could take all that. She had more than half of her whole life worth of experience. Her barriers had been put up and equipped to deal with all of these invasions.

Kindness from someone she barely knew?

Before she knew it, tears came flowing out from her eyes. It was just like an immune system; strong against known invasions, but weak against the unknown.

"I'm sorry, I…" she stuttered, unable to form a full, coherent sentence.

Both Dunhill and Rio smiled understandingly; she was not the first, after all.

"Welcome to Echo Town."

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