Meeting People (Shion)

"Huh?" Melody was taken by surprise when Shion had her outburst. She insisted that the blond must be lying, that she wasn't interesting... and that she'd been acting because she'd been afraid Melody wouldn't think she was worth talking to. She was also hugged again, which both caused her to blush, and to feel kind of sorry for Shion.

"I'm not lying," she spoke in a tone that was gentle but firm, holding Shion's head with a hand to comfort her. "A girl as good at slipping into and out of characters as you is automatically interesting." The blond let out a small sigh as the wind picked up her hair a bit.

"You seem like a really sweet girl under all of your characters," she was starting to piece together more or less what Shion had been doing. She had no doubt the girl actually was an actress of some sort. It was the rest that had been made up. Melody had once acted like a tough jerk so she wouldn't seem lonely and nervous, so the concept wasn't foreign to her. "Know what though?" She moved to where she could look Shion in the eyes, smiling what was possibly the most well-meaning and gentle smile she had had in a long time.


"I'd be much more interested in getting to know the real you than you'd think. I want to be friends with my roommate. I mean, who knows what could happen if we really got to know each other, right? Maybe we'll end up being the best friends ever. Maybe..." something more? There was no way Melody could say that! She'd just met her, and... they were roommates and things... "What I mean is, I'm not looking for a biker or a model for a friend. I'm looking for a nice girl who I can talk to and share things with."

TAG: @shionbusujima | Melody said too much... lol

It was going to come any moment now, she just knew it. After leading the pretty blonde girl on ever since they'd met she'd just fessed up to making up just about everything she'd spoken. Melody was well within her rights to push Shion away and scold her for being such an inconsiderate jerk to a roommate. Someone who had claimed to be both a tough biker and award-winning model was nothing more than a charletan in fact. How anyone as kind, talented and also vulnerable as the blonde could bear to be in the same area let alone continue talking to that charletan was beyond Shion. Just her luck that the acting talent which had gotten her into Fukui was what ended up pushing away the first chance she'd had of making a strong relationship.

Instead... she was being hugged. Her head held by a kind voiced young lady whom she had sworn would want nothing to do with her after the admission of everything being an act. This wasn't supposed to happen! Happy events like this only took place in movies or plays, not in real life. Real life meant that someone wouldn't waste their time with an uninteresting girl who lied her way into conversations and wasn't nearly as important as she liked to make herself sound. But it was clear that this was a very real happening rather than one of her daydreams. A girl was hugging her, telling her that it wasn't going to ruin their relationship that Shion had been acting all the while. Shion was a little taller but she managed to look up at Melody from the position she'd assumed in the embrace. A smile was slowly starting to return to her lips as the girl made a little speech about wanting to know the real her, rather than Sting or pinup!Shion.

That confused the heck out of her. She was interesting? That couldn't possibly be the truth no matter how sweetly Melody said things to the contrary. Shion had always been a bland girl in a sea of faces who never stood out from her peers whatsoever. Nobody had ever really given her the time of day during her years in school before finding drama club. With drama she managed to put on airs of importance instead of living with the drudgery of being forgotten. Behind it all she was worse than the girl who hadn't stood out no matter what she'd tried to do. Just someone desperately trying to make herself relevant so that her abnormal height wasn't the only thing people remembered. Melody on the other hand genuniely sounded like she meant ever word about wanting to know the real girl. That was scary to think of.. but maybe it was worth grasping onto.

"You're s-sure you want to.. I'm... really boring besides.. the acting.. and I'm n-not really.. er.. good at anything..." Shion began, fidgeting nervously, "But... I really want you to know me too.. um.. I mean, I want to get to know you too! Well. Really well.. um.."

Shion blushed even more deeply, then reached to put her mask back on - only to realize it wasn't there! She gulped and added, "And.. you're really nice.. I wouldn't mind if we became really close.. like.. beyond best friends and all...."

Realizing that might be way too much right now, she laughed nervously, "So I'm okay listening to what you say and talking, I"m just not very interesting and all.. but I do have a lot of old fashioned clothes.. and dating sims.. and.. um.. yeah. Stuff. Is that okay?"

Melody would have probably laughed at Shion's insistence that shew as boring and uninteresting, not to mention not good at anything... if she were that type of person with people she cared about. The laugh would have been good-natured, dismissive laughing, but instead she just shook her head fervently. "I Don't know what you're good at and what you're not. But there's lots of things I'm not good at either, you know. Like... anything not music related. Or talking in a group setting. Or... lots of things," she insisted.

She returned to a bigger blush with the insistence maybe they could be 'beyond best friends.' They both knew what that meant, and immediately images of that particular possible future danced through the blond's head. They were roommates... that just made it... well the particular image was a bit easier to put together in her head. With a gulp, Melody finally opened her mouth to address that one. "I uh... that's... well, they say anything's possible at Fukui... right?"

Melody shrugged both mentally and physically to herself, trying not to read too much into what Shion had said. How easy would it be to just take this opportunity to randomly date her roommate? How quickly would she discover it had been a terrible idea and have a really awkward rest of the year? Not that she thought it would be a terrible idea... but... what if it still was? What if Shion hated her and... "It's okay, you're plenty interesting... I'm just happy to have someone to talk to when I get back from classes," Melody decided.

Tag: @shionbusujima

Still not totally sure that this was going to work out well, Shion was willing to at least accept that she wasn't hated for her taking on characters rather than being herself. Some people certainly would have judged her harshly. Melody was not one of those people by any stretch of the imagination. She was just as ready to point out her flaws as Shion was of her own, which was very comforting. There was a lot of common ground with regard to self-worth between the roommates and that was very reassuring. Dwelling on their shortcomings wasn't going to make this an enjoyable first day together as at least friends though. Anything she could do to combat the huge blush which had splayed across her face was perfectly welcome. Maybe letting a little bit of her model character in wasn't absolutely terrible.

Thankfully she found an opening to change things up a bit in the form of a tall blue vending machine just on the outside of the park area where they'd been strolling. As a middle school student she'd developed quite the taste for the beverages those particular machines had on offer. The day was just warm enough that liquid refreshment might not be out of the question. As Melody again assured her she was interesting, the brunette fought off worries about what might happen if they did go beyond friendship. Certainly Melody was pretty, kind and definitely fascinating, all of which made her very tempting to just date right now. That might be a mistake before they got to know each other a bit better. How quickly would the blonde come to realize that Shion was actually pretty boring and leave her? No! No time to worry about that, she had to do what the award-winning model would do! She stopped in front of the Suntory vending machine and smiled at the image of its mascot: a middle aged man with short hair and a mustache, a pipe jutting from his lips. Coffee Boss!

"Anything's possible at Fukui, and if we end up.. um.. very close, I wouldn't mind," she replied to Melody's statement before motioning to the machine, "Here, this is something I have to do for a pretty girl! I made you.. um.. listen.. to my issues.. so let me buy you a cold drink! Would you like coffee, tea, water or something else? This machine is always the best for tasty cool refreshment!"

Then Shion added, "Let's make sure to always talk when we're done with classes too! Maybe we can help each other with homework or reports or something... um... wait.. what year are you? I never thought to ask.."

The blond had her own worries as well, funnily enough they were the same sorts of worries Shion had, except that she didn't think she'd ever find someone 'not interesting.' Anyone she'd ever responded in such a way to had been people she'd bullied in middle school. Everyone was more interesting than she'd pretended at the time.



The pair stopped in front of a vending machine, and the girl sweetly offered to buy her a drink in order to thank her for listening to her 'problems.' Melody chuckled. It was flattering to be bought something by someone who seemed to be in the same position she was. Were they destined for some sort of love? The thought made her blush intensely while she looked at the drinks. "I could uh, use a coffee I guess," she decided. "Thank you." she gave the other girl a small bow of thanks. she was pretty sure people did that here. If not she looked stupid in front of her... oh well...



Melody took the coffee when it was bought, popped it and sipped it shyly. "Sounds like we'll be best friends, at least," she agreed to do as Shion wanted. "I'd be happy to do all those things."



Shion suddenly asked what year she was in. Wasn't she supposed to be paired with people of the same year? "I'm... a second year..." she stated in a confused tone. "Aren't we in the same year? If not let'snottellanyone!"



@shionbusujima

On a warm spring day the girl nobody should find interesting was buying a drink for a pretty girl who might've been right out of her daydreams. Fate truly had a way of messing with a girl's perceptions. Maybe all of her years of hard work and dedication to the craft of acting had brought her that which being herself could not. Though if it had, the result was in spite of her acting rather than because of it. Shion blushed as she put a few coins into the vending machine to buy each of them drinks. A satisfying plunk told her the money had been accepted. Without too much thought she pressed the same button twice so that the pair could share the experience of Coffee Boss.

Melody might be a foreigner, but she seemed to fit in just fine with Japanese customs - that bow was something Shion forgot to do sometimes. Whether they were destined to be more than friends was up in the air. Right now thinking about it that was was going to overwhelm the actress' senses to the point where conversation was no longer possible. It was so hard for her to make conversation in the first place that such would be horribly detrimental. Just like her roommate she popped the top of her can and sipped it; in her case this was to savor the rich blend of coffee the Boss had on offer. Her nerves calmed a little as she tasted it, just like when she had The Pungency milk tea. Such a name sounded aristocratic, but something was a bit off about it. Maybe Melody could clear that up for her. That could be a discussion for later, as Melody revealed that she was a second year. Had somebody made a mistake? Even though it wasn't supposed to happen, she was very greatful for the error.

"I'm glad that you want to be my friend.. I mean, I never really had any friends until I started doing my whole Sting character in middle school. Of course it got me a few fangirls, but none of that ever worked out.. um.. yeah. So best friends at least.. just as Shion, not anyone else," she responded before laughing nervously, "Sooo.. um.. you thought I was a second year? I guess I get that a lot.. actually I think sometimes people think I'm a fourth year.."

Then she admitted, "Actually I'm just first year.. and really tall. But yeah, let's not tell anyone!"

Ugh, Shion was so much more adorable when she was being herself. Melody almost couldn't stand it - it made her threaten to crush on her more. It wasn't fair. She meets a cute girl who happens to also like girls and... now she had to be patient? Being friends was important too, she knew. Especially since they would already be spending so much time together. While Shion rambled about being best friends, Melody allowed thoughts of them falling in love over homework or something to play through her head. She really shouldn't, but the thought was almost too romantic.

She shook her head to clear the thoughts though, when she realized Shion was asking a question. "Er, yeah. I mean, I thought we were the same age because of the dorms..." Melody admitted. "But hey, you're like, supermodel height, so your character wasn't exactly unbelievable. And... er, well..." see now it was awkward to say. She scratched her cheek as she blushed. "I was just gonna say you're cute enough for it..." she stated more quietly. Her voice picked up in tone a little more after a moment. "Er, yeah, anyway... I like the real you," she nodded. She really needed to chill. She knew better. Her feelings could be entirely from finding out they were both shy girls who liked girls... though she was admittedly cute, and apparently Melody found her quirkiness adorable. So... that helped. Probably.

@shionbusujima

Both girls being shy types who liked girls was probably more than just pure coincidence. Much as she didn't necessarily want to believe in that she wondered if perhaps this really was a case of destiny as it were. This was quite far from what she'd envisioned in her daydreams of course. Those had all taken place in castles straight out of an odd mix of European and Japanese fatasy settings. The princess was always a pretty girl trapped in the castle awaiting her beloved or a rescuer or whatever, and that was that. Try as she could standing next to the Coffee Boss machine she couldn't envision any of the princesses from daydreams past. Instead she was the princess herself, trapped in a castle of her own self doubt and suddenly offered an avenue of escape. By a.. well, she was pretty much a pretty princess herself. With the comment about her height being appealing Shion blushed and her mind raced to decide how to mask it. Quickly she took a long swig from her coffee, hoping that would help hide how red she was in the face.

"If I have to, I can always pretend to be a second year but I don't think I'm quite that smart yet," Shion joked after swallowing the coffee, "And.. I'm not sure I'm cute or anything.. but thanks. I appreciate it." Then she tried to shift the conversation a bit, "But enough about me, I want to know about you! After all I'm rooming with an older woman, how scandalous!" A nervous laugh showed she wasn't at all serious about the latter part. "From everything I've seen, you're really.. um.. neat.. and pretty and kind.. so... what's it like living in the west? I can only imagine.. and it's hard to find good metal out here to listen to.."

Shion was totally cute. Melody thought so, anyway. At least Shion thought similarly about her. It was an interesting start to her new home at Fukui academy; Melody would have never guessed she'd blush so much so soon... if at all! She smiled a small nervous smile at the compliments given back to her, and hooked some of her long hair behind her ear as a nervous reaction.

"What's it like? Hmmm..." Melody had to sit there and think for a moment. "Well, I mean... our cultures are a little different... but not as different as people sometimes think, I think... You got the handshake right earlier." She sipped at her own coffee with both hands, her heart beating faster than she was used to. She didn't already have a crush on her roommate, did she?

"Um... I didn't live on the campus at my last school..." She really didn't want to tell Shion about how stupid she'd been in middle school. Maybe she would later, but not now. "I dunno what else to say... I studied a lot of Japanese things at home."