Vera is sitting on her bed with her laptop resting on her lap. She was browsing the internet when she suddenly shut the laptop closed and tosses it on her bed. “I’m bored~!” she wined to her cousin, who was sitting on her own bed painting her nails.

Chiyo looked up at her with one brow raised. “And what do you want me to do about it?” she asks, a bit annoyed, while blowing her nails dry.

“I don’t know. You know the area, so why don’t we go out and do something fun.” She pouts.

Upon hearing that come out of Vera, a big grin starts to spread on Chiyo’s face. She jumps off of the bed and goes to the window pulling the curtain back. “Good, it’s night time.” She says more to herself. Then looking back at Vera with the grin still on her face, Vera was kind of regretting telling her to go out somewhere now. “Let’s go to the club!” her cousin gleams, clapping her hands together.

Vera looks at her as if she didn’t understand what just came out of , but then she just shrugs and asks, “Okay, how are we going to get permission from our moms?”

“Just trust me.” she answers.

Sighing, she slides off the bed and pats down her clothes. “Ok let’s go then.” Vera announced and starts to head for the door. But she feels a hand come down on her shoulder, stopping her.

Next thing she knew she was beginning pushed back to her bed. “Oh no, you’re not wearing that!” Chiyo protest in a disgusted voice, with her nose wrinkled.

Vera looks down at her plain blue tank top and her black skinny jeans. “What’s wrong with my clothes?” she asks with her brows frowned. ‘I’ve always wore these types of clothes to clubs and parties before.’

Her cousin shakes her head and gives her a light slap on the cheek, “it’s a club. You have to wear flashy clothes not boring ones like what you have on.” Vera looks up to ask why she did that but Chiyo was already at her closet shifting through clothes. She only looks at her when she finds what she was looking for. “Here put this in your school bag.” She throws something at her face.

Vera holds up the dress, or rather the piece of black cloth with glitter on it, in front of her. ‘I’m kind of scared now.’ She thought in her head.

---

An hour later they walk out their room with their school bags filled with everything but books.

They make their way to the living room were both their mothers were talking and drinking tea. The women both look up when the two teens enter the room.

“I’m going to cram school and I’m taking Vera with me, so she can have a feel for it.” Chiyo speaks up first.

‘THAT was her excuse?!’ Vera was freaking out inside but on the outside she just nodded and kept a cool face on.

“Isn’t it a bit too late for cram school?” Vera’s aunt asks and mother nods in agreement. ‘Oh god, they didn’t buy it!!!’ Vera was mentally running around the room.

“No, they are having late classes right now since finals are coming up.” Chiyo doesn’t miss a beat. “Oh and after class, we are going to go out to eat with my friends and don’t worry I will say that Vera is my host sister and make sure she doesn’t talk to them in Japanese. So don’t stay up waiting for us.”

‘Wow this woman is lying through her teeth like a pro!’ Vera had to praise her for that. She must have thought of a thousand ways to answer every type of question that could be thrown at them.

Vera’s aunt takes a sip of her tea before answering, “Okay, have fun you guys!” she says in a cheerful tone.

Vera’s eyes go big and was about to scream ‘what?!’ but her mother beat her to it. “Are you sure about this? I mean it’s pretty dangerous out in the streets at night for two girls.” Her mother looks at her sister with worry in her brown eyes.

“Oh don’t worry about them.” She dismisses the woman’s concern with a wave of her hand. “I’m sure Vera knows how to defend herself and so can Chiyo.”

Vera’s mother bites her bottom lip. “I’m not sure about this… maybe I should w  ”

“Oh don’t be silly!” Her cousin cuts her off. “Come on we can have the house to ourselves” Her aunt grabs her mom’s hands and pouts “we can have girl’s night in! Wouldn’t that be fun?! It would be like when we were younger. Come on let them go.”

Her mother looks at her once before giving in and saying yes. Vera and Chiyo let out a breath that they didn’t know they were holding. They smile at each other and Chiyo gives her a wink.

“I can’t believe we got away with that!” Vera yells out into the night as they walk to the train station.

“I told you to trust me, didn’t I?” Chiyo smiles smugly.

“Yeah, yeah whatever let’s just get to the train. So what’s the club called?”

“It’s called The Pink Chair.” She says the name in English.

Vera stops walking and looks at her with an eyebrow raised. “Are you for real? Is that really the name?” she started laughing.

“Yeah that really is the name. I like the name.” she says sounding a bit offended.

‘Of course you do because you don’t know what it really means.’ The American just shakes her head, smiling at the weird name.

---

When the two teens get off the train, they head straight to the restroom to change out of their school clothes. Vera walks into the closest stale and starts to undress. She s her bag and pulls out the black dress.

Lifting in front of her face, she gets a better look at it. ‘Hmm… I guess there is more fabric to it than what I thought.’ She thought, looking at the long sleeves dangling in front of her.

She puts her arms into the tight long sleeves and starts to wiggle the dress down her body. ‘On second thought, there’s still not enough to really cover that much. Stupid long sleeves, you tricksy!’ she waved a fist angrily in the air.

Looking down at the dress she looked at it as a whole. Sure her arms were covered all the way to her small wrist and her chest wasn’t showing at all because the collar was just a few inches below her neck. Since her eyes were just focused on the long sleeves at the time she didn’t get the time to look at how the rest of the dress looked.

The first problem was the length of it. It barely covered her koi fish tattoo, which was kind of placed pretty high on her thigh. Sure she could constantly pull down the dress all night long but that will just get annoying at one point and she knows herself too well, she will stop pulling it down at one point in time not really caring how highs it rides up.

The last problem, which she knew she can’t possibly fix, was the back of the dress. It was an open back that stopped at the small of her back. Since her back was exposed, she had to go braless. ‘Great!’ she thought as she unhooks her bra and stuffs it into her bag, ‘just when I thought I couldn’t feel any more exposed, I have to go braless in a room full of sweaty people!’ she crossed her arms over her braless chest as if that will help any.

“Hey, put this on.” Chiyo voice says from the stale next to her.

“I don’t think I want to wear anything else you give me anymore.” She says shyly, still covering her chest.

“Oh shut up and take the damn tights!” her cousin sounded annoyed.

‘Tights?!’ Vera smiles and grabs them from where they were hanging like it was a life line. Her grin drops instantly as she gets a closer look at them.

Fishnet.

“Why~?” Vera wined and banged her head against the wall.

There was a clicking sound from the other end and Chiyo walks out to start doing her make up. “Just wear them. they will make your legs look longer.”

She grumbles in protest but does what she was told. It was true her legs looked miles long now.

Next she needs her shoes. She looks in her bag but comes up with nothing. “Um do you by any chance have my shoes?” Vera asks.

“… !” is all she gets as a reply.

She shakes her head and slips back into her black and white converse high tops. ‘At least they match.’ Vera thought positively, happy that she has at least one thing that is her.

Swinging the door open she walks out the stale. Chiyo stands there in a silky pale pink dress that matches her nails. It was almost as short as Vera’s but the American wins by beginning a few inches shorter. She has on black pumps that make her even taller. So instead of looking like a dwarf next to her tall cousin, Vera looks like a hobbit now. Her long black hair is in a loose bun at the top of her head and her makeup was a simple smoky eye, nothing too fancy or over powering like how most girls go all out at the club.

Chiyo looks her over once before saying, “You’re so lucky that you’re short, that dress would be like a shirt to me.”

“Yeah, but it’s still short for even me.” Vera says as the pulling down of the dress begins.

“Your fine, now come here so I can do your hair and makeup.” Her cousin grins and waves her over.

She starts with the makeup. “Since you don’t really have uneven skin color I don’t really have to use a lot of foundation. Next your eyes.” She brushes things on her lids. “As for your lips, since you’re oh-so-lucky that you have naturally pink lips, so I’ll just put a clear lip gloss on.” Then she goes to work pinning her hair back into a tight bun, leaving her bangs out. She steps back to admire her work and smiles, “there all done you can look now!”

She slowly turns to face the restroom mirror and gasp at what was looking back at her. “Wow” is all she could manage to say. What had she done to her? Touching her face she looks at her big stormy eyes that look even brighter, even mysterious, with the smoky eye that she had on. Her lips looked plump and pink like her mother’s and her cheeks where high like her father’s. “I look like a mixture of my dad and mom.” She says, still looking at the girl in the mirror.

She hears a light chuckle behind her, “of course you do! You are their child after all. Now come on we have to put our bags in a locker.” She says as she pulls Vera away from the mirror and out of the restroom.

---

Vera can already hear the music as they walk up to The Pink Chair. “Come on let’s get in line.” Her cousin says pulling her to the long line.

They stand there for a few seconds, when Vera feels a vibration on her hip. She looks around before whispering into Chiyo’s ear, “Hey cover me, I’m going to pull out my phone.”

She just nods and gets in front of Vera to cover her. She faces the wall and in a quick motion she lifts up her dress and pulls out her phone from her underwear. Yes, I know nasty right, but were else could she have put it? In her non-existing bra? I think not! So she had to put it in her underwear, well not really in there more like at the waistband.

As she pulls down her dress she looks at the screen to see that she has four missed calls and a new text message. She looks at the missed calls first and sees a name that she knew she didn’t want in her phone. The name was: Mr. y Ruki (the non-short guy).

She chuckles and goes to the text. That was also from him. It reads: *what are you doing that’s so important that you can’t pick up my calls?!*

Vera wrinkles her nose upon reading it and was about to ignore it when she hears a deep raspy voice say in her head, ‘You’ll regret you didn’t answer.’

She feels a shiver go down her back as she walks out of line to stand in front of the club. She brings up her phone and takes a picture of the club name in hopes that he would be happy that she at least texted him back.

“Why did you do that?” Chiyo asks.

“Oh one of my American friends texted me and wanted to know what I was doing.” She lied.

“Well anyways, come with me to the front of the line.”

“What? Why? We’re going to lose our place in line.” Vera says as she puts her phone back in place.

Chiyo grabs her wrist and starts pulling her to the front. “I think I know the bouncer.” She explained.

And she was right, she did know the bouncer. So he let them in with a smile and yelled out, “Call me!”

Inside, the club was colored with lights of blues, hot pinks, yellows, and purples that played on the dance floor and all over the room. Also the music was blasting with the sound of upbeat techno or dub step that just make you want jump around to the beat.

The two teens stand there scanning the crowd when the older one, Chiyo, spotted someone and grabs Vera by the hand and pulls her along with her.

When they reached the person, Chiyo yells over the music in a giddy voice, “Hi Aoi!”

‘Aoi? How come that sounds familiar?’ Vera looks at the person’s back.

Only when the person looks at them is when it finally hits her like a slap in the face. It the school’s playboy! Vera stiffens as he smiles and for the first time she hears his voice. “Hey Chiyo!” he’s voice is deep like Ruki’s, but unlike the short blond one’s voice, this guy’s sent a creepy chill down her back.

Chiyo doesn’t seem to notice her cousin’s stiffness because she starts yelling a conversation with the guy. After standing there for a while, Aoi looks over at her and asks, “Who’s this?”

“She’s the new foreign exchange student from America. She’s staying at my house.” Vera looks at her cousin’s back with big eyes. Then she reaches over to pinch her , trying to get the message across that she doesn’t like her telling Aoi things about her.

But all she gets is an elbow in the gut. Aoi smiles and pats the bar stools next him. “Why don’t you guys sit down?”

Chiyo smiles and leans in to whisper into Vera’s ear, “let me sit next to him.”

Vera nods all too eager to get as far as she can from him, even if that means a stool away. She wiggles into the stool and rest her elbows on the bar. “Do you want anything?” her cousin yells over the upbeat music.

She thinks for a second and then leans over to her cousin, “yea give me a shot of anything.” Chiyo nods and says something to the bar tender while holding up to fingers.

The bartender nods and places two shot glasses in front of them. Vera picks it up and immediately gulps it down. “Whoa!” she exhales trying to relieve the burning sensation in . “Give me another!” she yells to Chiyo.

Her cousin looks at her with a brow raised. “Are you getting drunk already?” she laughed shaking her head.

“What?! No!” Vera lied. She wasn’t really that good on holding her liquor and with something this strong she will be at the border line from being a little tipsy to beginning full on drunk. “Just give me one more” she says lazily, with one finger in the air.

“I’ll get you something a little less strong, so I won’t have to carry you home.” Then she looks at the bartender one more time. “Give me two beers please.”

He nods, “have you already paid the guy for the shots?” Vera asks, not remembering her doing it.

“I thought you were going to pay.” She looks at her.

“ME?!” Vera points a finger at her chest. “I thought you were, plus I didn’t bring any money with me!”

“AH! I didn’t either!” she says putting her face in her hands.

“What’s wrong? This is a club your supposed to be happy not sad.” Aoi says with a grin. Chiyo looks up at him with a pout. She tells him what was happening. “Oh I’ll pay for them then!” he offers.

Her cousin tries to protest but Vera already grabs the beer that the bar tender placed in front of them. “Oh I’ll pay for them!” she mocked Aoi as she drank the rest of her beer.

With the last drop of her beer in her belly she starts to get a buzz. ‘Thank god Chiyo didn’t get me the other drink because I would have been drunk right now instead of a buzz.’ She thanks her cousin in her head.

Then at that moment she feels someone staring at her. So she pretends to scratch her chin with her shoulder as she peeks across the club to see a pair of dark blue eyes looking at her.

She quickly turns back around. ‘How did he find me?!’ she asks, already forgetting the text message she sent to him before. ‘Well he can’t do anything to me in this public place, so it should be safe.’ She reassured herself.

A hand landing on her shoulder suddenly makes her jump. ‘God it’s him! He found me!’ she yells and closes her eyes.

But the voice that came out wasn’t Ruki’s, it was Aoi’s. “Ladies want to dance?”

Chiyo squeals a yes. Vera just groans. Putting her empty bottle down, she slides off her stool and follows them into the packed dance floor.

For the next few songs Vera dances with a bunch of people randomly not wanting to get too close to Chiyo or Aoi so they can dance together. She closes her eyes to feel the music take hold of her body. She usually doesn’t like techno or dub step much because she doesn’t really know how to dance to it. Do you just jump around? Or do you swing your arms around like a crazed person? But tonight she loves the music, maybe it was because the DJ was doing an excellent job, like he could get anybody up and moving to his mixes. Or maybe it was that alcohol that made her sway her body to the music like they were one.

Vera was too busy dancing from group to group so nobody will claim her as their partner, that when she finally stops moving she notice that she had lost Chiyo and Aoi in the crowd.

She starts to look around to see if she could see her cousin, or god forbid, Aoi around. But she was too short and the crowd too tall. So thinking of the next best thing, she started making her way to the bar again in hopes that her cousin would be there taking a breather from dancing or something.

She was fighting the hot and sweaty crowd when she felt an arm wrap around her waist. Vera squeaks and stops dead in her tracks mortified of who was touching her like that as if they knew her. What if it was some creep that had followed the two teens all the way to the club? Just waiting for the perfect time when they got separated from each other to make his attack on one of them. And she just had to be the unlucky victim.

When a thought crossed her mind of some malicious looking guy, dragging her to a dark alleyway doing god knows what to her. She starts to struggle against the tight hold. Then in a swift motion, she was spun around and beginning enclosed around his familiar arms.

‘Wait, familiar arms?’ she thought blinking her eyes a few times to clear her mind. She stopped pounding the person’s chest with her fist. When she stops resisting the arms around her press her closer to his body. She couldn’t help think how good that felt and had to resist the urge to snuggle in closer.

She pulls her face away from his chest and slowly looks up. Upon seeing his face only one thought crosses her mind: that she would rather be looking at the creepy stalker then at the same pair of sapphire eyes that were looking at her before.

---
E/N: Sorry for the late update everybody. I've been having a hard time writing. -_-'