A faint, familiar bell rang and everyone inside the classroom started to pack their bags, talking with each other before leaving to try the currently trending fruit parfait in Shibuya.
Looking around the classroom, you knew this place is a prestigious school almost right away before trying to find your phone inside the bag — finding a garakei¹ instead.
It was pink with many charms hanging off on its corner consisting of pink bunnies, sanrio characters and flowers — a very feminine one, indeed.
Walking out from the class, your heart beats so hard that it was enough to make you feel nauseous and lightheaded, no one trying to approach you and the walk felt empty as you went to Shibuya.
Summer was barely around the corner and the parfait was as good as it looked. Strawberry ice cream with strawberry, cherry, peach and cheesecake — filling your empty stomach almost immediately as you tried to compare the picture you took before eating it and then looking back at the empty glass.
Leaving the café with a smile, you were sure that it was the best parfait you have ever had before sitting on a bench, letting out a heavy sigh before start to think about what you had been doing.
"Now, why am I spending my time like a kid instead of treating this seriously..."
You muttered to yourself, feeling scared that it was real — time travel, a mysterious incident that left you in silence and fear, unsure how to undo everything as you walked away from Shibuya.
There was nothing you could do except wander around, trying to understand where and why you were here before stumbling upon a group of bosozoku².
There was nothing you could do since all of them are armed while beating a kid up and running to them meant it was an alternative to die in the most gruesome way.
"What should I do, come think, quick!"
You walked back and forth, trying to find anything you can use as a weapon before collecting big and medium stones, hiding behind lines of tall bushes before throwing it at the delinquents as they start to bleed and trying to find who threw stones at them.
Noticing a specific spot, one of them ran in your direction, pulling you out from your hideout as you smashed a sharp rock between his forehead and eyes, watching blood running down to his chin as he screamed in pain.
"You little whore—"
The leader (based on your observation) pulled you by your hair as his friends started to hit you with iron pipes and baseball bats, leaving you bruised and bleeding on the ground.
"RUN!"
You yelled out at the kid as his friends took him away from the delinquents, making sure they were at a safe spot before you were thrown to the concrete, hoping they got enough time to call the police.
"I will kill you!"
The leader screamed in anger, pulling you by your tattered uniform and wrapped his hands around your neck, putting pressure against it as your consciousness started to slip away — your view kept getting darker and your head started to feel really light.
You could only think that, if this was how you were going to die, you didn't mind and it would probably be another another that was painful and scary.
Your limp body was tossed to the hard concrete as its texture clang and ripped your bleeding wounds, leaving no time for it to heal — only burn and sting along with the summer wind.
Opening your eyes, you could only see a blurry image of olive ceiling with dark brown for its accent.
The smell of summer filled up your nose. It was warm, musky and slightly salty — you started to imagine a beach nearby with you sitting under the shade, sipping on watermelon soda and eating plump prawns.
Looking at the outside, you assumed that it was still five in the morning. You didn't know whose room you were at, but somehow, you were pretty sure this was your room.
A western room with pink wallpaper and white vanity table. There were a lot of makeup and skincare products with a couple of Sanrio characters figures.
The bedsheet was pink and lacy while the blanket was white with Hello Kitty, My Melody and Charmmy Kitty covering it — truly a fan of pink, Sanrio and cute things.
Getting off the bed, you turned on the light and sat down in front of the vanity table — staring at your reflection in silence and realisation, feeling your face with your hands.
It was for sure you, but with younger and child-like features. Your hair was really long with loose curls at the end and dyed pastel pink. Your nails were painted in pink with white French tip.
Then you looked at your face, examined the thick bandages covering almost your whole body and numerous bandaids all over your fave — something that made you realise now that it wasn't a dream.
Walking out of your room quietly, you went downstairs and walked straight to the kitchen — trying to find something to eat, or at least to cook.
"One by one."
You muttered to yourself, holding on the railing tightly as you smiled in victory when reaching the end, looking at the bright kitchen — making you wonder who would be there around such an ungodly hour.
Staring at long honey blond hair from behind, your only thought could only stop at one specific person — someone who would always cry for, laugh with and be angry at you.
"Emma?"
She whipped her head almost instantly before falling onto the tiles when she heard your voice, her heart dropped almost instantly and when she was able to regain her strength, she ran to you and started to scold you with tears rolling down her rosy cheeks.
"You crazy bitch!!!"
Everyone finally woke up and started to eat breakfast in silence.
Grampa was the first one who woke up after hearing Emma's scream, running straight to the kitchen while holding your weak body — trying to avoid any fight that could resurface while calming the crying Emma down.
Shinichiro was the second one, he could only stare at the unfolding event in front of him before taking the breakfast and placing them on the table, pulling Emma in a tight embrace before giving you a kiss on the forehead.
"You coulda die!"
Emma cried, holding onto Shin tightly as she would sob in between each word before cleaning up her face and sitting down beside you, pulling you into a tight hug before apologising for her sudden outburst.
An hour later, Mikey woke up and looked at four of you in silence, feeling unsure which one he should approach first and asked about the situation that occurred during his sleep.
"Brat, do you feel okay?"
You nodded in silence, eating down the warm food Emma made this morning before deboning your mackerel and cutting it into tiny pieces, topping them onto your warm rice before you finished your meal with a bowl of warm miso soup.
Feeling curious about what happened, you decided to ask them before Mikey raised his hand, volunteering to be the storyteller.
As soon as you lost your consciousness, those gangsters were in panic and ran away, fearing the thought of killing someone when some of them weren't a minor anymore — the pressure was much more intense when the one who came wasn't cops, but Mikey and Draken.
Draken took your body away to some kids at the corner, asking for them to keep an eye on you before finishing the group almost singlehandedly with Mikey — winning in no time before they ran away and swore they would never come back.
A kid with blond hair said he was saved by you and introduced his name to Mikey, saying he owed you his life while Mikey started to kick his stomach repeatedly — feeling angry that because of him, his sister was on the brink of death.
Draken, on the other hand, decided it was enough for Mikey to hurt them. Even though he secretly agreed with Mikey, be stopped him right away when thinking that he was too much to Takemichi.
They went back home and earned a harsh scold from Grampa for not picking you up while Emma nursed you — from changing your clothes to stitching the wounds and changing the bandages, also making food for you once in a while in case you woke up and hungry.
Due to your condition, you were unable to attend the school for days and visit the class meeting — but, lucky for you, the day you left school was the final exam meaning you didn't need to worry about missing out on any important things.
"Mikey, Emma!"
Mikey hurriedly ran to the front door before opening the door and let out a boisterous laugh, pulling a blond kid to the dining table as he looked at you with a soft smile, holding out a white plastic bag with his right hand.
"Hello, I'm Hanagaki Takemichi — the one, you know, you saved that day."
His cheeks were red and he bowed down, placing the plastic on the table — saying it had all your favourite snacks as a thank you gift.
"Mikey called me and said you're already up so I came here with some gifts. It's not much but I hope you like it, my girlfriend got the bunny plushie for you, though."
You took out the pink bunny plushie. Its fur was soft and shiny, black beads for its eyes and no stitches to make its mouth. It had bandages around its head and hand while one of its eyes was covered with a heart-shaped eye cover.
"Uh, does your girlfriend know me?"
"Yeah? I don't know, she said both of you went to the same cram school. Her name is Hina — Tachibana Hinata."
You weren't sure if you knew her or not but regardless, you still asked Takemichi to send your thanks to her and hope you would be able to meet her next time at the cram school when you felt better.
Takemichi smiled widely at you, giving a thumbs up before running outside with Mikey and Shin — preparing these before going to Shin's workshop as you and Emma decided to take a bath and do some shopping for the summer festival.
Apparently, Draken had asked her out for a date during the festival and it was enough for the blonde to scream against the pillow when she entered her room, pinching her arm hard to make sure she was dreaming — feeling slightly regretful when she left him unanswered beforehand and finally texted him for the proper reply.
"How about you? I'm sure there'd be a rich guy from your school who asked you out."
She raised her brows repeatedly, teasing you out as you pushed her away to the side before laughing together at the hallway and entered the bathroom together.
As you enter the bathtub, Emma tapped your upper arm. Her eyes were tracing down from your hair to your upper arms before letting out a heavy sigh then looked down.
"Do you think Draken prefers bigger boobs like yours? Am I enough? Do you think he's joking? What if he stood me out? Do you think I'm pretty enough? I heard he's surrounded by pretty girls only and always goes to the brothel every day."
Looking at Emma in silence, you couldn't help but admit that your brain got electrocuted by the sudden, numerous questions that hit it repeatedly before answering her one by one patiently, assuring her that Draken loved her unconditionally without any doubt.
"You're right!"
Pulling you out of the water, Emma dried herself and told you to dress up as soon as possible, saying today would be the preparation for the best day of her life (with you as her little, cute arm candy) as she skipped into her room with a hum.
Standing in the bathroom, it took you a while to realise the whole situation and let out a small giggle, going straight to your room with a smile.
"Oh, well. Nothing bad could happen anyway."
¹ : Galapagos mobile phone/flip phone. Very popular in Japan and still used by many people today.
² : A group of teenagers who aren't allowed to ride a bike yet. It's also a Japanese youth subculture that's known for modified bikes, pompadour, long military coat & defying rules. It was mainly inspired by the greasers.