Chapter Thirty-Seven

-Miku-

"Here, the dress has had some last-minute alterations," Miki says, shoving it into my arms. Now hanging from the seam is a ruffled lace design. I nod. "Do you like mine?" she asks, offering me a mending smile.

Miki is wearing a form-fitting cream dress with a simple mahogany woven belt around it with a French cuff. Over this is a pastel blue cardigan blouse, of which the bottom half is folded down to look just like the wrinkles in a ribbon. Her cream bow-heels match the color and sophistication of the handbag she carries in her left hand.

"Lucky," I fake-pout, then break into a smile. Her whole outfit seems to go perfectly with her red hair that's swept up into a bun behind the top of her head. "At least you don't have to strut around looking like this," I strike an overly fierce pose and make a face to match it as I flip my loose hair. She giggles. "But look… Show is soon, I should probably be getting to hair and makeup, right?" I grin.

"Right," she nods with a giggle, "You should probably go to hair first, you want your makeup to be fresh!"

"Thanks!" I call back, already on my way there. I stop, taking a wild guess at which room must be the hair room. My nose tells me to go with the one that smells dreadfully like hairspray. I cringe at the thought of my hair becoming chemical. I hesitantly push the door open wider with the tip of my finger. I see four people- Two hair stylists, Seeu, and Seeu's hair (haha).

"Welcome," says the absent-minded girl working on Seeu's massive curls, which I see have brightened in beige color to match the highlights on the dress she is wearing. "Ia, would you like to start on her hair?" she asks, motioning with the flat iron in her hand to me. The girl called Ia nods.

"Hello, I'm Ia," the girl says softly, approaching me gently.

"I'm Miku," I introduce myself.

"Take a seat," she smiles gracefully. I slide into the black chair behind a desk full of hair pins, hair ties, ribbons, bows, flat-irons, curling-irons, scissors, hairspray, cream, combs, brushes, blow-dryers, dyes, and even wigs. Ia examines my hair, her own almost stringy transparent opal-colored hair seeming to move on its own. How did she- "Your hair is beautiful," she remarks, cutting off my thoughts, "It's full of lovely potential."

She runs her tiny fingers through my hair, turning my chair around to face the mirror. My long teal locks, once taken out of the twin tails, pile up at my feet. I can't help but cringe as Ia picks up a pair of scissors.

"Don't worry, Ia's a pro," Seeu's stylist says, catching onto my worried look. She pulls her own short dark brown hair behind her ear, sporting a chic vintage pair of white heart shades that bring out her modish white highlights.

I let Ia snip quietly at my hair, watching as the teal strands collect on the white marble tiled floor. I look up at the mirror, seeing that when she's done, my hair stops at the small of my back. I guess I look far more sophisticated this way- though it hardly looks like me. I frown, even though Ia did a wonderful job.

"Sit back down," Ia scolds lightly, putting the scissors back into their case and picking up the blonde hair dye. My eyes widen. But teal is my favorite color! In her other hand, she picks up a cloth and begins to clean the cap, and then she sets it down back on the table. Thank God. "These bangs need to be fixed," she sighs, placing a warm hand on my forehead and sliding it up to pull my bangs up with the rest of my hair. She tilts her head and frowns. "Makeup will fix that," she hums to herself. Gee, thanks.

In the blink of a heavily-mascaraed eye, Ia seems to whip my bangs up and pin them back out of view so that it looks like I never had them in the first place. However, I'm sure that they're still there because she didn't take her scissors back out. "Perfect," she says distractedly, obviously not talking about me, but about her work.

She then takes the curling iron, examines it, and begins curling a section of my bland hair gently. She holds the iron under my hair for a couple seconds, and then lets it go, unraveling my hair. It falls in the perfect loose spiral curl. She does the same thing with the remaining sections of my hair.

By the time she's finished, my hair looks almost stunningly beautiful. I hardly even recognize myself. With my bangs out of my face, I look older, with a taller, clear, face. It perfectly works with the black dress I have on.

"Am I done?" I ask, turning around to face Ia as she stands up. She nods wordlessly. "Thank you, Ia," I smile, "It looks absolutely fabulous."

"You're very welcome," she says gracefully.

"Wow, Ia, you really outdid yourself. Katsumi looks absolutely lovely," says the girl in red with the heart shades, still not taking her eyes off Seeu's enormous hair.

"Oh, um, it's Miku," I correct her, my bottom eyelids rising as I try an awkward smile. The girl finally looks up. Her warm brown eyes dart to the side and then back at me.

"Oh…" she stammers, "I… okay." I giggle in reply. "Makeup is the door across the hall. You'd better get there quick," she advises me, hiding her smile.

"Goodbye," I wave, pushing open the door and crossing the hall to the already open one on the other side. "Hello," I greet the four people in this room. This time, I see three makeup artists, Teto, and Galaco. Just like Seeu, I don't know much about these two. A faint smell of roses and makeup mixes in the air.

"Hello, you must be Miku," says a tall blonde man, turning around from working on Galaco's vibrant makeup. She's far more colorful than Seeu and I. At least Miki has her bright red hair.

"That's me," I say cheerfully. He turns around fully, flashing me a dazzling white smile as his bright green eyes shine through his golden hair. He's wearing a lilac button down dress shirt, of which the top couple of buttons are undone.

"Have a seat," he says, turning my chair around so that I can slip into it. "My name is Leon," he smiles, "Now, turn to face me." I do as he tells me, looking up at him. He hums, suddenly cupping my face into his hands. My eyes widen. "I'm only examining your face," he adds, sensing my discomfort, "But what a lovely shape it has. I'm sure we can work this into a true work of art."

"Thank you," I grin. He then begins to trim my eyebrows as I close my eyes. The small brush he uses against them to flatten them almost tickles. When he's done, my eyebrows look twice as defined and only half as thick.

He then silently picks up a skin cleanser and begins rubbing it on my cheeks and forehead. It feels cool and smooth against my skin. Next is the foundation, which, as I look in the mirror in front of me, matches my skin perfectly and makes it look twice as clear. He then rubs a bit of concealer under my eyes. It feels almost like a strange massage.

"Alright, now I'm going to start with your eyes," he informs me quietly. His eyes dart about, his calculating gaze seeming to take in my entire eye structure and color. "You have the prettiest eyes, did you know that?" he compliments me with a smile.

"Thank you," I can't help but smile.

"You're welcome. Close them," he tells me. I close my eyes, careful not to wince or press too hard. "Eh… raise your eyebrows," he decides. I do as he says. He starts brushing a tan all around my eyes, stopping at where my eyebrows are. He then caps the color, and pulls out a rich taupe and applies it gently. Just like the eyebrow brush, it tickles my eyelids. It takes the whole of me not to flinch. He seems to be done in seconds.

"Keep them closed," he says. It's not long before I feel a soft wet feeling on my eyelids. It's probably the liquid eyeliner. Again, this process seems to go by extremely quickly, and before I even know it, he's done with the eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara.

"Can I open?" I ask, my voice coming out louder and higher than I expected.

"Go ahead," he grins.

I open my eyes and gaze at the mirror. Where… am I? I search the mirror desperately, my heartbeat soaring as I don't see myself. A small smile suddenly graces my lips as I realize that the stunning teal-haired girl with a dumb look on her pretty face must be me.

"I look amazing…" I murmur, fearing that the simplest of blinks might ruin the masterpiece, "Thank you." Leon simply chuckles lightly to himself.

"You can blink, you know," he smiles. My two rows of bombshell eyelashes meet each other. "I'm not done yet," he adds.

He then outlines my lips with a bit of lip liner before shading in toward the centers of my lips. "Can you turn to face me for a moment?" he asks. I tilt my neck toward him. He scrutinizes my eyes, reviewing his work, before seeming to come to some realization. He then quickly sifts through his collection of lipsticks before pulling out the perfect shade of pinkish red to compliment my eyes. Unlike Luka, I've never been the artist type, but I can tell that this color brings out my teal eyes and hair without making me look too childish or girly.

Leon then quickly applies the beautiful color to my lips and caps the lipstick, making a glamorous popping noise. After he's done, he examines my face. "Honestly, you don't need blush, your cheeks seem to have a natural glow," he commentates with a smile. I guess this only makes my cheeks redden further. "Now, showtime is soon, you had better do your final practicing," he says.

"Thank you so much, Leon," I bow slightly, something I hardly ever do. I guess this time, it just felt… right. After sneaking one last look at myself through the mirror, I duck out of the room, only to crash into a small figure. I look up to see Miki with a smile on her face.

"Hey," we both grin, letting out heavy breaths, only to break into smiles.

"What brings you here?" I ask, "Your makeup is done already."

"Ah, I know, but I was just checking to see if you were done too," Miki tilts her head, her red hair bouncing with her. I look up and notice her ahoge has been cut off.

"Will yours grow back like Piko's does?" I ask, pointing at the empty space above her head. Her eyes seem to brighten as memories dawn back on her.

"No," she shakes her head sadly, "It's gone forever." A part of me seems to crash to the ground.

"B-But… But wasn't that something that you two shared?" I gasp.

"Yeah, but I guess it's okay now, since we've both moved on. The past can't be changed-"

"And it can't be forgotten, either," I finish for her. Her eyes soften. "Look, if there's one thing I want you to remember from meeting me, it's that it's totally okay to move on, but never forget who Piko was to you… even if he's not that person anymore. Look, it took you sixteen years to finally be with him," I point out. Miki tries to conceal her smile as her gaze drops. "And you worked so hard for that moment too… isn't that something worth remembering?"

"Thank you, Miku," is all she can really say.

"Now, get your pretty little face out there and shine like the supermodel you are," I flash her a silly grin, pushing at her shoulder.

"Thanks, but we still have fifteen minutes," she points out. A silence falls between us. We suddenly both burst out into giggles.

"Sorry, I was just getting really..." I crack my knuckles and stretch, "Motivational right there." Miki grins, her dimples poking holes in her cheeks. "What do we do now?" I ask with a tilt of my head. I watch in confusion as Miki's grin spreads wider.

"Whatever the heck we want."

*Yawns* I'm tired, and I really shouldn't be staying up this late anymore every night anymore (it's almost 1:00am), but really, I think it was worth it, being able to finish this chapter and all. I got this crazy idea, maybe I should write three extra chapters in the boys' points of view, once I've finished all the rest. Leave a review if you think I should! :)