The Muse: Love Once Again

First Melody

The first thing that awoke Haruka was the sound of her alarm clock going off. Her first instinct was to wake up but, after realizing that today was one of her rare days off, she decided to doze off a little longer. She had finally began to fall back to sleep until her phone went off. 

"Mmmmmmm..." she replied drowsily as she reached out her hand from underneath the covers towards the vibrating phone next to the alarm clock. She flipped it open.

"Hello?" she asked drowsily.

"Were you sleeping? Sorry", the voice answered. 

"Un-un", she replied. "Just woke up. What is it, Rei?" 

"Just wondering if you were coming down to eat breakfast. If you were, I was going to make another plate."

"Yeah, I'll be coming down."

"Ok", he replied. Just before Haruka was about to hang up, he added something real quick. "Ah! Also, do you mind waking Ren and Sou up? I bet they totally forgot about their photoshoot and drama today."

"Sure", Haruka replied with a chuckle. 

"Thanks. See you downstairs. Bye."

"Bye."

With that, Haruka hung up the phone and went to the bathroom. She decided to wear her pajamas down since there was really no other people in the dorms besides the four of them. As she finished washing her face and brushing her teeth, she decided to go wake the two of them up. Walking up the stairs with her bunny hood bouncing up and down, she came upon Ren and Sou's doors. Their rooms adjacent from one another. 

"Wake up! Ren! Sou!" she called out. "Don't you guys have a photoshoot and drama today?" 

Immediately after she finished her first sentence, she could hear the banging of solid objects against one another as they fell. Ren came barging out of his room after 5 minutes, all dressed up with bed hair. 

"Shit! I'm gonna be late! Bye, Haruka!" he said before running down the stairs to the dining room to grab a slice of toast. 

"Good morning, Haruka", Sou said sleepily. 

"Good morning, Sou", Haruka said with a bright smile, to which Sou responded with a slight smile. "You're not going to be late?"

Sou shook his head with a faint chuckle. "The director of the drama said that I don't need to be there so early today since they're going to shoot another scene first. I still have two hours. I won't be late."

Haruka shook her head knowingly. "Well, breakfast is downstairs. Come down and eat when you're done."

"Yeah", Sou replied as he stifled a yawn. "I'll go wash up."

After waking the two up, Haruka went downstairs to greet Rei. The first thing that came into view was Rei wearing a frilly apron. She widened her eyes in surprise and almost fell as she walked into the dining room. 

"Haruka! You're down here early", Rei said with a smile. 

"Yeah, I'm here", Haruka said with an awkward chuckle before asking again. "What's with the apron?" 

"Huh? You mean this?" Rei replied as he looked down at himself. "I wore it so the oil wouldn't splash onto my shirt. Besides", Rei added with a blushing face. "I should be asking you the same question...I didn't expect you to wear your pajamas down."

Haruka looked at herself and became conscious of her bare thighs and legs. Her whole face had turned red, including her ears as she hid her face behind her tiny hands. Even Rei had turned around to the other side, trying to hide his blushing face.

"What are you guys doing?" Sou said behind them, looking at the two of them suspiciously. 

"N-Nothing! Let's eat!" Rei answered hurriedly as he motioned for Haruka and Sou to sit down. Haruka sat down, her face still slightly red from embarrassment while Sou moved to sit next to Haruka, eying Rei as he did so. 

"Well, I'm leaving the house in about one hour. I'll be leaving you two alone in the dorms. You better not do anything weird to Haruka, Rei", Sou said as he bit down on a sausage. 

"D-Don't worry. Nothing will happen", Rei said calmly. But even he couldn't hide his nervous wreck from Sou's eerie and low voice. Haruka just surveyed their interaction with a blushing red face. They continued to eat in silence, not wanting to raise Sou's suspiciousness again. He could be so scary when he gets angry, Rei thought as he munched on a small tomato. 

They sent off Sou with a smile on their faces as he went off to his film site. As he did so, he stared daggers at Rei, causing electricity to spark everywhere. Rei chuckled nervously with a sweat drop on his face. With Sou gone, Haruka and Rei were now alone. As they put their hands back to their side, their finger brushed lightly against one another causing Haruka to jump in surprise and flinch away from Rei. 

"Haruka?" Rei asked, perplexed at her sudden action. 

"Y-Yeah?" What is it?" Haruka replied, trying to act as normal as possible. But, her efforts were in vain as she flinched back a little. 

"Are you okay?" Rei's expression was a mixture of confusion and worry. He didn't want to admit it but it seemed as if Haruka was ignoring him. 

"Y-Yeah! I'm perfectly fine! I'll be going back to my room now. I won't be needing lunch so have a nice day!" she replied before speeding upstairs back to her room. Rei was left there stunned and with a gaping expression as he tried to process what had just happened. 

Haruka closed the door behind her and locked it, facing her back to the door, she gasped for air and clutched her beating heart.

"Why is this happening?" she asked, face red. During these past three years, somewhere in the middle, she began to grow conscious of Rei's presence near her. His face, his sweet voice when he whispers into her air, his cool breath against her skin, and the sensation of his skin against hers. Her heart pounded rapidly whenever he was near. At first, she thought it was her illness acting up again but the doctor said that there was nothing wrong. She was on the edge of going crazy, trying to figure out this feeling!

"Let's just work on the music for now", Haruka mumbled to herself. Working on music always calmed her down but this time, it didn't seem to work out well. Whenever she wrote down some notes, the image of Rei singing it appeared. 

"Ahhhhhhhh!" she screamed. "This is getting nowhere..." Steam was coming out of her head and her eyes were circling around as she buried her head into her arms as she laid atop of the table. She gave up on writing music and crawled back into her blanket. 

Meanwhile downstairs~ 

"Ahhhhhhhh!" a voice screamed from upstairs. Rei came out of the kitchen and looked up, recognizing the voice as it had come from Haruka. 

"Is she okay?" Rei mumbled to himself worriedly as he washed the plates. He decided to go up and check on her once he finished. During these three years, Haruka and them had spent so much time together that each of them had passed several moves onto her, but she seemed to be unaffected by it all. Although the love scandals had been rather useful in affecting her. 

He knocked on the door to Haruka's room. "Haruka?" 

There was no answer. Before he knocked again, he heard the light breathing of Haruka. She's asleep, he thought with a relieved expression. He walked back to his room satisfied. On the other hand, Haruka opened her eyes as her heart began acting up again. She rolled around in her bed, throwing off the covers, trying to cool herself off. 

Thank god those acting classes had paid off, Haruka thought to herself. 

Finding herself in a desperate situation, she decided to pay Shining Agency a visit tomorrow to seek advice. This feeling in her chest was getting her nowhere. In fact, it was becoming almost like a barrier to her and Rei. She pulled the covers over her again, this time, going to sleep for sure.