Baekhyun pursed his lips in frustration as he walked the inner city blocks of Kyoto. Bright patterns and colors littered the streets. The giggles of young apprentices and the haughty laughs of experienced geisha filled his ears. Baekhyun wished Takuya was striding next to him, pointing out various landmarks and tossing out seemingly pointless facts. He had gotten used to the ambassador's childlike kindness, while Chanyeol simply tolerated it. That night though, Baekhyun had received a call as he hurriedly wrote down quotas and directions for work the next day. At first, it had gone deaf in his distracted ears, yet the ringing soon got the best of his curiosity. The call had come from the mistress of a local teahouse, who had said that an anonymous person had summoned him. Baekhyun was skeptical, yet nonetheless intrigued.

"Chanyeol, if I've not returned by morning, something has gone wrong and I want you to go to the Momomiya teahouse."

"Baek, what's going on?" Chanyeol furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he looked above the steel rimmed glasses that sat atop the bridge of his nose.

Baekhyun paused with an eerie silence. "I... I don't really know."

Baekhyun soon found himself being lead down a long hallway, with doors lining the walls every few feet. When he and Chanyeol had attended a party at the Sakurada teahouse, the atmosphere had been warm and welcoming, with the lights bright and alive and the noise of conversation blaring. The Momomiya teahouse, though, was quiet and dark, with the floor boards being a little too tight for comfort. He cleared his throat rather awkwardly when the teahouse mistress lead him to a room that was even darker than the hallway, and most importantly, empty.

"Uhm... what is going on? I apologize for being rude, but this is quite suspicious," Baekhyun shrugged his shoulders with a terrified smile, like a soldier staring down an oncoming sword.

"If you please, forgive me, for I do not know. A call from the Kurokawa okiya came earlier, and they asked for you," the mistress answered, gesturing for him to go inside the room.

Baekhyun complied, and he sat in the silver beam of the moonlight as he leaned his elbows on the wooden table. The tatami mats vibrated against his knees as the teahouse mistress slammed the door shut, her heavy footsteps becoming smaller and smaller as the distance between her and the room grew.

Baekhyun was an easily bored man. With an interesting thing on his mind, he would be entertained for weeks, yet sitting alone in the black silence of a small tea room was similar to death for him. The first few minutes were spent attempting to adjust his eyes to the unlit area, his face squinting and scrunching as he tried to make out familiar shapes. The room was bare though, it's only inhabitants being Baekhyun and a table. After tapping his nails on the rim of the wood and humming a few popular songs that had played on the radio, Baekhyun's mind, of course, went to Taeyeon. He spent his time sitting without sound, his eyes locked shut, as he imagined the geisha singing a soft tune to him. Having never heard her singing voice however, his imagination drew pink winged butterflies, koi splashing through a running stream, and beams of bright golden sunlight bursting from her red lips. To the average ear, that would sound terrifying, but the pastel and fluid colors sparking up with each "note" sung from the geisha put Baekhyun to a sort of ease. So eased, that he barely noticed the two hours that passed by.

"But Oneesan,"

"Suzume-chan, I said no."

Suzume impatiently tilted her weight back and forth atop her feet as she stood in the doorway of Taeyeon's room, the older calmly removing her layers of makeup. "Oneesan, you don't understand,"

"What do I not understand?" Taeyeon glared at the younger through the reflection of her mirror, causing the smaller to clutch her hands to her chest in fear.

"I must go to the Momomiya tonight. It is very important!"

Taeyeon sneered. "And it's important that you go alone, right?"

To this, the younger halted. "Wh... what do you mean?"

"She means that you must be sleeping with that young business man." Sanako whispered, startling the young maiko into nearly collapsing into the paper screen door.

"Sanako-sama, when did you-"

"That is not the point, little one. The point is that your entire career is at stake." Sanako sighed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Your big sister must not be doing her job correctly if you have not learned this by now. Calling a man late at night to spend some time alone in a shabby teahouse can only lead him to think one thing! Suzume-chan... you're already spreading your legs wide open, for you must've misunderstood."

Taeyeon set down the warm towel that she had been dabbing her face with, her eyebrows in a sympathetic furrow. "Sanako-sama,"

"Our professions as geisha are not to touch when we get greedy. We are artists, dancers, singers! And what you are planning on doing makes you a common e. A shame to our house."

"Sanako-sama, I can handle this," Taeyeon stood from her spot after the faint sound of the youngest tearing up appeared in the room.

"I don't care if your intent was to go there to have a simple talk. The fact is that the situation looks like another from the outside." Sanako's reddened cheeks finally pinked, and with one last twitch of her closed eyes, she muttered. "If you're going there to love that man, then you are breaking our code. If you want to stay a maiko, and become a geisha, you must never love."

Just as Taeyeon's long slender fingers found a place on Suzume's shoulders, the geisha taking a motherly stance behind the younger, Sanako stepped away, her treads down the hallway near silent as if she perfectly glided above the wood. Suzume swiftly spun around then, her arms locking around the thin obi and robe that surrounded Taeyeon's waist. She emptied her eyes there.

"I should listen to you, now. Sanako should too. We have been horrid sisters to you," Taeyeon gently pinched Suzume's chin, lifting the girl's face to look into her dark coffee-like eyes.

"Oneesan... I... I visited Tadao-kun at the hotel a few days ago." Suzume began, automatically cutting her voice off as she waited for Taeyeon's interjection.

"Your friend from Tokyo?"

"Yes... him."

"You don't suddenly have feelings for him, do you?"

"No, Oneesan! He is my childhood friend. We grew up together in Tokyo, and I like to see him every now and then." Suzume swallowed nervously. "Anyway, a man saw us talking at the hotel a few mornings back, and I'm guessing that he thinks I am seeing Tadao in... that way. Oneesan, my intention for inviting him to the teahouse tonight was to clear up any rumors. You've worked so hard to give me this life, and I don't want something of a misunderstanding to ruin it."

Taeyeon was quiet, as if she couldn't find it in herself to speak or move. She bore into the younger's tear filled eyes, reading her emotions detail after detail. It was true that she knew of Suzume's old friend, whom she'd visit to bring both gifts and conversation. While Suzume's life had stumbled her into the arms of the Kurokawa okiya, the string that held Tadao's life hadn't been as kind. One went to art, beauty, studies, and fortune. The other went to hatred, dirt, despair, and unkindness.

"Suzume-chan, for the sake of your possibly damaged reputation, I am going to go in your place tonight. You are not to follow me, nor are you to tell anyone about any of this. I will explain everything to this man, and to Sanako." Taeyeon grinned at the younger's beaming smile, said girl thanking her multiple times as she squeezed her waist as tight as she could. "Ah, ah, hey... there is one rule though."

"R-Rule...?" Suzume tilted her head.

"You are never to see that boy again. Do you hear me? That servant has caused too much trouble for you as it is, and I won't have him ruining anything else."

Instead of protesting and stomping her foot, Suzume nodded, taking her place on the mats below to formally bow at the geisha. "Thank you, for everything, Oneesan."

Taeyeon lead her to the makeup stand, where the two sat down on the soft cushions as Suzume helped Taeyeon reapply a less formal but still breathtaking style of makeup. As the younger was brushing thin blankets of salmon colored blush upon the older's cheeks, Taeyeon inquired,

"So, who is this man I am meeting tonight?"

Suzume chuckled under her breath. "Byun Baekhyun."

The night dragged on longer than Baekhyun expected, and it was only after imagining a full scale opera in his head, that the business man realized he had been sitting alone in the dark for three hours. A glance at his watch and a longing and tired stare at the trees past the window told him to leave right then and there. Just as he switched his legs to his side in order to push his aching body up, the screen door slid open. Sitting by the frame was a kimono of beautiful navy blue silk, matching the night sky, with golden leaves trickling down like misshapen stars. The eyes lined with black and silver, the lips painted of a blushing rose, and the locks pinned up loosely, a strand of hair wrapping around the forehead. Baekhyun widened his eyes. Taeyeon smiled.