Chapter 33

Misaki lay in her bed, playing with her bunny's ears instead of trying to sleep.

Is he really going to post those photos? What if it has an adverse effect and angers people? We need to sell more albums, not agitate his current fanbase.

She reached for her phone on the nightstand and turned it back on.

A torrent of message notifications flooded her screen.

Is there a point in reading them?

Unable to fight her curiosity, she scanned through them.

'You don't deserve to be in the same room as them.'

'Their fans will abandon them, all because of you.'

'You should've stayed underground, where you belong.'

'Aki was right about you. You can only function with someone telling you what to do. Does that make you the brothers' new toy? I doubt it'll last long.'

Misaki stared at Akihiro's name on the screen for a while, tears forming in her eyes as she wondered what he had told Oichi about her. And what he actually thought of her.

Hoping it wasn't as bad as Oichi said, Misaki looked up news articles about Hayase working with her and scrolled to the comments.

'Who is she?'

'I wonder what she sounds like.'

'Must be good if they want to work with her.'

'OMG! Is she making music again? Love her.'

'Why would they want to work with someone blacklisted?'

'It's official. Hayase is going downhill.'

'Couldn't they find someone better?'

'Used to love her voice.'

'She'd better keep her cheating hands to herself this time.'

Misaki took a deep breath. It wasn't as bad as she had expected, but some of them definitely didn't want her working with them, let alone dating.

How do you even know which comments are real these days? I wouldn't put it past Oichi to post as many comments as she can, trying to bash me. Retaliation would be useless, and I wouldn't stoop to her level.

She sighed and checked the comments on a different article.

There sure are a lot of these.

Knock, knock.

Misaki froze, wondering if Ren was hoping for an answer to his confession.

"It's me," Shun said gently, hoping she was still awake. "May I come in?"

"O-okay," Misaki replied as she sat up, wiping the tears from her eyes and hiding her phone just under her leg.

"Thank you." The door clicked shut behind Shun. "I just wanted to check on you." He pulled her chair over from her desk to sit in front of her.

"I-I'm okay." She forced a smile.

"Please don't fake a smile like that in front of me; it's unnecessary, and I can see straight through it."

She cringed and looked away. "Sorry," she mumbled.

"It's okay. I just wanted to make sure you had someone to talk to freely, even if it's about Ren. I know us being brothers might make you want to hold back, but I have the most experience dealing with him, even more than our parents, so I know how it is."

Misaki nodded, a shy smile forming. "Thank you." He's always so sweet.

"And I'm sorry about his confession, and whatever it is he's up to now. I'm still not sure..." Shun sighed, shaking his head. "I try to rein him in, but the stronger he feels about something, the harder that gets."

The stronger he feels? A warm feeling spread through her chest.

"And while I may be rooting for you two, you aren't obligated to date him just because he confessed like the lovesick puppy he is."

Bing. Her phone got another text, and she shuddered.

"Do you need to check that?" Shun raised an eyebrow.

"N-no, it's probably just Emi." She swallowed hard. "I can get back to her later." I really do hope it's her.

"Well, I wanted to make sure you were okay, and that you knew I was here if you wanted to talk—"

Bing. Another text came, and she quivered ever so slightly.

"Maybe you should check on that," Shun suggested. "I can wait."

"It's fine; I'll get it later." Please be Emi.

He narrowed his eyes, carefully watching her. "Misa, what's going on?"

"Nothing." Damn it. She averted her gaze, running her hand through her hair. "I'm feeling a bit tired now, so if there isn't anything..." She trailed off as he suddenly leaned in close to her.

What is he doing?! Her heart rate spiked.

"I'm sorry about this," Shun whispered into her ear and slipped the phone out from under her as he backed away.

"What?" She stared at the phone and touched where it was under her leg in disbelief. "You just..."

"I apologize for the invasion of privacy and for going all big brother on you, but you've been acting worryingly odd..." His brows furrowed as he looked at the texts and scrolled further up at the ones she got earlier. "What the hell is all of this?" he growled.

Misaki shuddered and bit her lip, staring at her nightstand instead of him. "Spam?"

"Is this that woman again?" Shun's hand shook as he gripped her phone tighter. "Oichi?"

"Who can be certain?"

"Misa... please don't take this so lightly. This is serious harassment. We should take this to the police."

"Don't!" She shot to her feet and tried to pull her phone away, but his grip was too tight. "It's not worth it."

"Not worth it? Who knows what she might do after this? You don't deserve to be harassed, so of course, it's worth it."

Her hands shook, and her voice hitched. "But if we do that, another scandal will be tied to me, and it'll reflect badly on you two, no matter who is at fault."

"We can't just ignore this. What if she escalates things?"

"Isn't Daichi already looking into her? He knows what he's doing, right? He knows how to handle people."

"Misa..."

"Please. I don't want to be a bigger burden to you two than I already am."

"You're not a burden." He patted her head with his free hand. "I thought we settled that already."

Knock, knock.

"Misa, can we talk?" Ren opened the door right away to peek in, since it wasn't locked. He spotted the two of them and froze. "What's... going on here?"

"Don't you dare even start down that train of thought; I made myself clear before, and I stand by it." Shun's hand dropped, and he stepped away from Misaki. "We have something to talk about." He pointed at Ren.

"But I wanted—"

"This takes precedence." Shun glanced back at Misaki. "And I'm confiscating your phone. The landline works if you need to call someone."

"Wait... Shun, don't!"

He frowned at her, stopping her in her tracks, and wrapped an arm around Ren's neck to drag him out of her room, closing her door behind them.

"Ha..." Misaki sighed, flopping back on her bed. "Now what?"

I should've shut off my phone instead of trying to hide it. Can't believe he took it... Okay, maybe it's not that surprising, considering the circumstances.

She glanced at her bunny. "Things are only getting worse, aren't they?"

I wonder if I should stay off the internet and focus on work while Ren and Shun deal with publicity. It's always better to focus on music.

Unable to sleep, Misaki headed back to the studio to continue working on songs for the album.

"Daichi can fix this, right?" She overheard Ren ask Shun as she passed by his room. "We can't have Misa being harassed like this, and we can't keep her phone either."

"I know that, but he'll probably need the messages as proof," Shun said.

"Maybe we should just get her a new number to use for now."

I shouldn't be listening in, even if it is about me. She scurried away, afraid of hearing something she didn't want to know.

In the studio, she pulled out the incomplete songs and sat at the keyboard. We've got to at least finish the album. I hope they don't think I'm overstepping by doing so much on my own...

She shook off thoughts of anything else and focused on the music in front of her.