I close the front door behind me. I let the bags fall from my hands, kick off my soaked boots, and peel off my soggy socks. "Hey. What's up, big brother?" I greet him with a smile. I walk into the kitchen, expecting him to follow me. He does. I rummage through the fridge and scavenge leftover beef pasta from two nights ago. Still good and enough for one person. Dave's leaning against the island counter, arms crossed. He continues to be silent while I put the Tupperware in the microwave and get a fork. He finally speaks when I sit down at the dining table.

"Who's sweater is that?"

I stop chewing. Crap. I have no reason to lie for such a small thing so saying that it's mine is out. Besides, it's so obviously male attire. It's swallowing me up, it's brand new (the tag is tangling from the sleeve, darn it!), and it's too plain for Abercrombie's female clothing. I act nonchalant. I continue chewing, swallow, and reply, "JR's." I try to avoid eye contact, acting like wearing a guy’s sweater is the most normal thing in the world.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you wearing his clothes?"

"It was raining and I don't have a hood on my jacket. And I was shivering. He was being a gentleman, Dave."

"Why him?"

"What do you mean 'why him'?? Would it be any different if MinHyun lent me his?"

"Yes. Yes, it would be quite different."

I almost choke on a noodle. "What?"

Dave frowns. "He doesn't have a crush on you. Not like JR so obviously does." I begin to cough. Okay, memo: never eat when David Prince is nearby . . . "Excuse me?" I ask as I wipe my mouth on a napkin from the holder. 'Not like JR so obviously does'. What makes him say that? Dave raises his eyebrows. "Really, sis? I know you're not dense." He sinks into a chair beside me. "Anyway, you like him."

I put down my fork. Okay, so, obviously, if I continue to eat during this conversation, I'm going to fall to my death. "Is that so? Who told you that?"

"You make it clear enough with that goofy grin you wear around him!"

Goofy grin?? I roll my eyes. "Okay. So I like him. So what? He's sweet, he's nice, he's funny, he's really cute, and, hey –" I reach up and untangle the tiara headband from my damp hair "- he got me this beautiful thing. It's so pretty, Dave!" I hand the tiara to my brother. He inspects it (while I get lost in its glamorous sparkle) then twirls it around his finger. "This cheap thing?"

I gasp and snatch the accessory away, irritated, before Dave could send it flying across the room and smatter it into smithereens. "It was not cheap!"

"I've bought you things that cost way more!"

I make a frustrated noise. "You're my big brother; you're SUPPOSED to spend money on your sisters –"

"Says WHO??"

"- but JR's a friend that I hardly know and he spent more than twenty dollars on me in one day!" Dave stares at the tiara. "That cost more than twenty dollars?" he asks, aghast.

"No, dimwit! That's so stupid that I'd call the police on the store if that was true. I mean, fifteen dollars is still expensive for something like this but it's pretty enough to cost that much." Dave snorts and I kick him underneath the table. Since I'm apparently not going to be able to finish my late lunch-early dinner with him around, I shove it back into the fridge and trudge my bags upstairs to my room. David doesn't offer to help, the rat. When I get up to my room, I throw the bags onto my bed and turn around to shut the door. When I turn back, David's leisurely laying on my bed, shuffling through the things in the shopping bags. How did he get in here?! I put my hands on my hips. "Hey! You! The one snooping through my stuff: GET OUT!"

He frowns at me and puts a hand over his heart and whines half-heartedly (while still rummaging through my stuff >>), "That's no way to speak to your wonderful, handsome brother, Starry. Oh, so what else did JR spend on you?" Dave stresses on JR's name in a sarcastic manner, expressing his dislike for my crush. I glare at him. Trying to evade the question while hanging up my new clothes I say, "What's it to you?"

"I want to know."

"Why? It's none of your business."

"Really? Some strange guy buys my little sister something and you say I have no right to know?"

"Not really," I answer haughtily. As I'm turning around, something flies towards me. I shriek and close my eyes, cringing. It hits my face and falls to the floor. When I open my eyes I see a handful of tampons at my feet and David smirking from my bed with the box of tampons still in the plastic bag but opened. He laughs, "Is this why you're getting all stubborn with me?" I glower at him and he just laughs again. I gather up the fallen tampons and shove them back in the box, crushing a few. If he wants to know so badly then I'll tell him. Can't really blame me, can he, since I'm only trying to please him. "Sooo, you want to know what else JR so kindly bought me?"

David looks up at me. "I've been asking for ten minutes now."

I narrow my eyes. "That box in your hands."

Dave stares at me then at the Tampax box. His eyes go wide. "You're joking," he says gazing back at me. I shake my head. Nope. "The guy didn't seriously buy you this. You're lying; Amber did." I shake my head again. Uh-uh. Dave's face is unbelieving. "You just said, 'Hey, I'm on my period. Can you get me a box?'" I wobble my head from side to side in a so-so motion. That's close to what happened, at least. "And he just ran off and got it?" David's voice goes up an octave at the end. I lean forward and rip the bag away from him. "Yes," I hiss in his face. "He did it without thinking twice. He did it out of generosity and kindness and worry for a friend. All the other guys froze; he went dashing off to find the closest department store. Would you have done that for someone you've known for a week??"

"No!" my brother exclaims, getting up off my bed. "I would send a girl to get that kind of crap! Where was Amber in all of this?!"

I throw my hands up. "Even she didn't think to get me anything right away, David! Only JR did something about it!"

"Why would he spend –"

My bedroom door opens and Daddy's head pops in. "Is everything alright?" he asks carefully. He glances down at the bag in my hand, tampons falling out and David's arms waving over his head. He looks between the two of us. "We're fine, Daddy," I say sweetly. "It's nothing," Dave adds. Daddy stares for a while longer before saying 'okay' and slowly backing out. We hear the door click. I purse my lips. I go back to unloading my mall spoils. Dave plops back down on my bed horizontally and stares at the collection of things on my ceiling. There's the usual glow-in-the-dark stuff (planets, the sun, shooting stars, unicorns, rainbows, flowers). Then there's five small posters. One's a poster of Marylin Monroe in a white bathing suit with black polka dots. There's a One Republic poster, a random manga poster that Courtney stuck up there during one of our sleepovers, a poster that reads "My life is loosely based on a true story", and another one that says "The best exercise is bending down to lift someone else up".

There are several hooks screwed into the ceiling all around. A string hangs from each one. At the end of the string is a clear, faceted gem, most of them made of glass. They're all different shapes and sizes. When the sun shines through my room at the right angle, hundred upon hundreds of tiny rainbow bathe the walls, the floor, the bed, my face. I've tried to take pictures of it, but it never turns out right. The magic that the image should hold isn't there; it's just something that someone has to be there to experience it in full.

I hang up a cardigan. "David?" I ask.

"Hmm?"

"Why don't you like the boys?" He makes a quiet, annoyed sound in his throat but he replies, "Because they're too different, Starr." I raise my eyebrows, pulling out a pair of jeans and folding them. "And this is something to despise in America," I retort with total innocence, though the sarcasm skimming underneath my words is more than evident. He sits up. He grumbles, "Don't be smart with me. There're too new; they're completely unaccustomed to our culture, our language, our forms of respect, stuff like that. At least Aron was born here and lived here for a while; he knows what it's supposed to be like."

"David," I say as calmly as I can. I place the tiara headband in my top dresser drawer. "America is welcoming foreign people every second. America is a country that decided to be a bit of everything. It snagged white people, black people, brown people, 'yellow' people –" I peek a look at Dave "- red people, green people, purple people, orange people, blue people – until it made itself into a rainbow. A melting pot. A salad bowl. Whatever 'culture' we have, David, is a big fat juicy mixture of a little bit of everything around the world. The 'ways' we have have originated elsewhere. 'America' isn't as authentic as you make it sound." At this point I'm facing my big brother. He listened respectfully with all his attention until I finished.

David waits a second to make sure I'm done with my fruitful speech before he simply says, "Very persuasive, little sis, I'm proud of you." I try not to look smug. He gets up, stretches – popping joints – and is heading out the door when he suddenly gets an inch from my face and warns in a low tone, "Stay away from them, Starr Prince. Especially their bastard punk of a leader." Then he walks off and slams the door behind him.

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A/N: Who here will dare refuse me the right to scream with joy at being back with all of you? For tonight, at least ^^; I managed to get Internet for tonight; I may not see you guys for another few weeks T~T *sigh* Alas! BUT---! Tonight I will update as many chapters that I've worked on that I dare to. I'm going to give you a heads-up: the next few chapters are (hopefully) amusing but NU'EST isn't involved. You'll read why in the next chapter. I still hope that you are all highly entertained. Depending on which chapter I leave you guys with tonight, the chapter after that should be when at least one member of NU'EST steps back in. ;) And it's probably not who you think it is; I remembered that I needed to work on Starr's relationships with all the members (refer back to chapter . . . uh >.> Well, I know it was before the Truth or Dare game chapter) so I decided she needed a one-on-one with a specific member.

ALRIGHT MY LOVIES! READ ON! FORWARD MARCH! MUSH! > w < See yah, soooon~~