The Phantom Rouge

Chapter 3

After the shocking reveal of Retz's true gender, all three of them decided to go into a restaurant and listen to Retz's explanation while eating their delicious food, all at the same time.

"I wasn't trying to trick you by not telling you. It can be dangerous for a girl traveling alone. That's why I always pretend to be a boy. When I'm out on the road." Said Retz.

"It's pretty common actually." Commented Killua as he began to rock back and forth on his creaky and old wooden chair while having his usual posture of his arms and hands behind his fluffy and snowball hair.

Wendy just looked between the two as, later, pink started to spread on her cheeks and she admitted, "I... uh... actually had to pretend to be a boy for two missions..."

After hearing Wendy, Retz was shocked that she wasn't the only one to experience it, but Killua stops rocking in his chair with shocked sapphire blue eyes as thoughts in his head started to bottle up, images of Wendy, but instead as a boy.

As Killua had those imaging thoughts, he goes up to Wendy as he bangs his hands on the table, making all the dishes and glass shake and clatter, as he says in a very shocked and exclaiming way, "WAIT! WHEN DID YOU DRESS UP AS A BOY?!"

Wendy turned to Killua shyly as a smile appeared on her face as she began to twiddle her fingers and explained to Killua, "Well... I uh... it was only for two occasions. The first time I took on my very own solo mission and I had to dress up as a royal guard. And the second one was with Ultear and Chelia inside a Host Club."

After Wendy's explanation, a combination of both red and pink mix together on Killua's pale cheeks of his skin thinking about more and more about Wendy's boy version of herself. He kept thinking of how much cuter she would be as a boy-wait! Why was he even thinking about that in the first place.

As Wendy saw how much Killua was silent and how red and pink he was, so in concern, Wendy asked him if he was feeling alright.

As Killua suddenly heard his blue-haired female childhood friend's voice, he snapped out of his thoughts as he looks away from Wendy and says in his regular tsundere tone, "I... uh... just thought that I would definitely figured out that it was you Wendy."

After hearing Killua's tsundere response, she puffs up her cheeks like a child, (which Killua thought was adorable) and says to Killua, "Well, Mr. Smarty Pants, why couldn't you tell that Retz was a girl either, huh?"

After hearing Wendy's call back, an irk mark had planted on his head as Killua slowly made his eyes look into Wendy's eyes as he had a very irritated and snarky expression on his face and said in a very annoyed tone, "Oh, shut up."

After hearing Killua's annoyed tone, Wendy starts to laugh as she had a very gleeful expression on her face, but that was soon interrupted as they then heard an awkward laugh coming from Retz.

"You two are real close, huh? I'm jealous." Said Retz.

After hearing Retz's comment, Killua just stares at her for a minute and then later rolled his eyes and closed his eyes as he tilted his head a little and replied with, "I guess."

After Killua's reply, Retz gives him a mean look and while feeling the cold shoulder and wall of tension, Wendy breaks that wall as she asks Retz, "So... are you traveling by yourself, Retz?"

"Mm-hmm. My brother's a puppeteer, so I decided that's what I'm gonna be, someday. That's why I'm traveling and honing my skills as a street performer." Said Retz with a smile.