Flip The Script

~That was stupid.~

He walked along, hands in his pockets and shoulders hunched, staring at the ground. Toshi wasn't intentionally trying to appear brooding but had always been introspective. In his old world, this demeanor might have been off-putting. Here, it just made him look melancholic, and apparently, that attracted attention from girls wanting to cheer him up—especially someone as delectable as Toshi. He nearly collided with a girl who deliberately stood in his path. Her long, black hair fell into his face as she tilted her head down to look at him. "Why the long face, Pochi-kun?" This was an upperclassman and judging by those who surrounded her, she appeared to be one of some status.

Toshi stopped short and backed up a step as he stared at her. He looked around reflexively, wondering if she got the right guy, then turned back to her. He pointed at himself and mouthed the word, 'Me?', whereupon she nodded. He cleared his throat and clarified, "Toshi, actually." The two friends of hers off to the side, leaning against the lockers smirked as they giggled.

The leader of the trio laughed, "Wow! Are you naturally like this or do you practice that surprised puppy look?"

Toshi squinted slightly as he turned his head to look at her askance, He was about to open his mouth when a familiar voice called out, "NAORA-KOHAI." Naora and her friends all flinched as Hinako came storming out of the lunch room and down the hallway towards the four. Toshi just stood there and looked around while Hinako walked up and by sheer presence caused the other three to back off. Naora smiled sweetly at Hinako, "Why hello, Hina-ban. Something on your mind?"

Toshi squinted at his sister who seemed pissed off by the nickname. He interrupted her reply by saying, "Oh, hey, Sis!" He hooked a thumb at Naora, "Friend of yours?"

The three recoiled a little further, "Oh?"

Naora waggled a finger between Hinako and Toshi repeatedly as she asked, "Wait. You two are-"

Hinako sneered as she grabbed Toshi by the arm, "Yes. So kindly stop hitting on my brother." Before proceeding to yank him away from the conversation towards the lunch room.

Toshi looked over his shoulder at the trio and waved, "Nice meeting you!" He looked more than a little confused. The three blatantly checked out Toshi's behind as he was led away.

Hinako pulled Toshi into the lunch room, "What did I tell you before?"

Toshi looked at his sister, "I hope you enjoy going to my school?"

When they arrived in line she glared at him, "Don't talk to any girls!" Toshi pointed towards the entrance which they came from and opened his mouth, but was cut off by his sister, "ESPECIALLY HER."

Toshi held up his hands in a gesture of surrender, "Okay! Okay! Fine!" He sighed, "You know, I'm not some delicate flower you need to protect twenty-four-seven."

Hinako nodded as she looked exasperated, "I know! A flower I could plant somewhere and keep safe! You are a helpless little puppy, tripping over his own giant floppy ears in front of a pack of hungry tigers!" Toshi just stared at her like her head had fallen off. Hinako sighed and rolled her eyes. She pointed at him, "That. That look right there. That shows me you have no self-preservation instinct at ALL."

Toshi bit his lower lip as he contemplated recent events, ~I think I will NOT tell my sister I was just blackmailed into giving up a kiss.~

Ruri sat at her desk where she normally ate lunch.

She didn't eat at her desk because she had that much work to do, but because she couldn't stand going out into the hallways and meeting the other students. Nobody liked her and she frequently got bullied by the others. When she complained, it only got worse and her mother wasn't any help. Staying here in the classroom to avoid everyone else was the only compromise that worked. It also gave her way too much time to dwell on things.

~I'm doomed! I blackmailed a guy into kissing me! Not just anyone, HONEY WHITEFOX!~ She pulled out her cell phone and scrolled through her saved videos on FaceTube. There it was—the music video for Honey Whitefox's latest single, "All My Time." He was practically licking the camera as he jumped around, wearing only a few scraps of cloth for a shirt and tight shorts. She focused on his face, which was hard to make out with his platinum blonde hair constantly falling over one eye and the glittering star painted on the other. She froze the video at a spot where he flipped his hair up, revealing his full face.

~Change the hair to grey, get rid of the star...~

It was him, no doubt about it. She dropped her head to the desk and slowly banged it against the surface. ~Stupid! STUPID! Someone like that has got to have enough money to ruin me, not to mention sending me to JAIL!~ She lifted her head to look at the video again, then started researching him. She visited all the fan sites, but the information was the same. About two weeks ago, he vanished. He never made it to his last concert, which led to a full refund. Rumors were rampant, ranging from a drug overdose to a suicide attempt. Someone claimed to have seen an ambulance taking him to a hospital, but which hospital? Nobody knew. He'd done an excellent job of keeping his real name a secret. Some speculated it was because he wasn't eighteen yet.

He sure looked eighteen in all his videos.

Then a bombshell hit the forums. A week ago, Honey Whitefox disappeared from the internet. His profiles on YouBook, FaceTube, and even his record company's website had changed. There were no more concert dates, and the only official statement indicated that his absence was "due to health reasons." Speculation ran wild: some thought it was a publicity stunt, others believed he was taking time off for a wedding, and still others suggested he was working on a new album.

"Something... bad?" She mumbled to herself.

Something bad must have happened to him, and now he was moving to this school. Why? Did he snap? Have a mental breakdown? What was it? He looked a lot younger in person, maybe fifteen or going on sixteen. She could see why most people couldn't figure out that Toshi was Honey Whitefox. Leaning back in her chair, she wondered, ~Why was he so quick to kiss me? Was he that afraid of people learning who he was?~

She froze and went back to checking the fan sites. There was a pattern, one that her perfect memory was adept at identifying. Patterns always jumped out at her, and this one was no different.

She started checking the comment sections, scrolling through as fast as she could, counting on her perfect recall to point out what it was that was scratching at her brain. There. Someone had been posting repeatedly the same messages on every site even vaguely related to Whitefox. Every day, multiple times a day, multiple sites, not even just fan sites, but all over. The username was what puzzled her the most: WFFW.

'Where is Honey Whitefox? Has anyone seen him? What hospital is he at?'

Then on one site, she saw something that was rather chilling.

'I think Honey Whitefox's real name is Toshi. Does anyone know what his family name is?'

Ruri could be a rather obsessive fan, but she wasn't THIS crazy. This WFFW was trying to dox Toshi.

She started scrolling back through the various forum's archives. She didn't stop to read anything, just trusting in her mind to point out what she needed to know when she finally stumbled across it. She paused just as the period bell rang. Now this was disturbing: A post from just before Whitefox's last concert. "I finally figured out how to finally show Whitefox how much I care. I know exactly how we're going to be together." The username was different, but it was obviously the same person:

WhiteFoxsFutureWife