Falling For Them: A New Adult Reverse Harem Collection

by C. L. Stone

  We stayed in our room and Sota put away the futon after breakfast, and he began our lessons.

  “Kneel,” he told us.

  Ryuu and I looked at each other and knelt on the floor.

  Sota snapped his fingers sharply as we did and made us both pause. “No,” he said. And then he demonstrated. He stood tall and then dropped instantly to his knees, and rested on his heels. “You don’t squat and then sit. You sit.”

  Perhaps because we didn’t have such formal lessons out in the country, Ryuu and I struggled to not sit how we’d done so by habit. It took twenty minutes before we mastered sitting, and even then it still felt unnatural to us.

  “You’re kidding me,” Ryuu said, sitting on his heels on the floor. He rolled his head back in frustration. “You brought us here to show us how to kneel properly? What else are we behind on?”

  “Nearly everything,” Sota said. “We have to start at the beginning.”

  Ryuu called it ridiculous to relearn how to walk, sit and rise, but I was grateful for the simple lessons while I couldn’t stop thinking about the student that had been taken.

  I threw myself into Sota’s lessons just to keep from feeling the guilt.

  7

  APRICOT

  For two days, Ryuu and I saw nothing except the inside of our room.

  Sota brought us books from the library, fed me double what Ryuu got every day, and taught us how to behave like royalty. I started to gain weight. Ryuu lost a little. We practiced everything, from sitting to bowing, to how to address everyone from the emperor down to the lowest of servants. We learned of ranks I hadn’t been aware of.

  Mostly Sota taught us how to speak our minds in ways which were polite, even to the emperor.

  “It’s important to be honest,” he said. “Omitting the truth is as bad in his eyes as flat out lying to him, which is inexcusable.”

  I couldn’t imagine what I would say if I ever met the emperor, and secretly hoped this would all make sense if I was chosen.

  Not that I held much hope. The guys tried to tell me I needed more confidence, but it was hard to feel confident when every day in the hallways I saw beautiful young women and men practicing their dance and politics, leagues ahead of Ryuu and me as far as practiced sophistication.

  On the third morning, I woke to Ryuu snoring in my ear.

  I rose, rubbing my eyes. Sota was gone, and Ryuu was on his back, an arm over my chest as if it were a pillow, deeply asleep.

  I eased his arm off of me and he rolled over onto his side, and continued to sleep.

  It was early, with the sun just beginning to rise. I went to the window, and let the restless Taka out. He took off, doing a loop in the air, filling the day with song.

  I hummed with him, mimicking his tune. I didn’t know many to teach him, but I remembered an old folk song from my childhood, something I learned at school from Dr. Aoi.

  The bird sang it right back to me, and repeated it without prompting. He learned quickly.

  I redressed in the blue kimono before Sota returned, carrying a tray laden with rice porridge, dried fish and fresh plums.

  I was delighted by the sight of the plums, something I hadn’t had in years. He placed the tray on the table, shifting the bowls to split between us.

  Suddenly, our room door snapped open, and loud enough to wake Ryuu.

  Apricot stood in the doorway. She was in a similar blue kimono like we wore, and without makeup, but she was still measures beyond beautiful. She looked at the guys and then to me, motioning to me with a curl of her finger. “I need to speak with you. Now.”

  I rose, lopsided and sloppily in my haste. She was a future empress, and I tried not to look directly at her face, but I couldn’t help but be in awe of her beauty and curious about her intent.

  Sota immediately got up, too.

  Apricot waved dismissively at him with a delicate hand. “No, not you. I just need her.”

  Sota paused in his steps and frowned, clearly displeased but as she outranked him, there was no discussion.

  I tried not to show her I was trembling. I followed quickly.

  She brought me to her room. Her escort wasn’t with her and didn’t join us.

  Apricot had the biggest room in Mrs. Satsu’s house. Her futon was still unmade on the floor, and there was a new kimono hanging on a dressing dummy in the corner. Its delicate silks were in vibrant oranges and browns, rich like the turning leaves of autumn.

  She rolled her bedroom door closed and then went to a small stool near a mirror. On a table in front of her was an array of small bowls and jars and brushes.

  “Mother insisted I show you how to apply makeup,” she said. “So I’m going to show you by making you apply mine. I’ll walk you through it.” She motioned to the various clay pots in front of her.

  Mother? “Mrs. Satsu?” I asked.

  “Who else?” she said, rolling her eyes. “Please just focus. I don’t want to be here all day.”

  “Where is your escort?”

  “I dismissed him for this so I could walk you through this myself.”

  I didn’t feel comfortable without an escort around, especially without Sota to tell me what was appropriate or not.

  I stood behind Apricot, looking at her through the mirror instead of directly.

  She showed me her collection of makeup and what each was used for. First, she had me apply a special lotion to her cheeks and forehead.

  “A dot is enough for a patch of skin,” she said, having me dot my fingers with a bottle of white liquid.

  I did it as she instructed, and applied the lotion, along with rubbing wax along her face to smooth her skin as she asked.

  I kept looking at the door, expecting her escort or Sota to walk in at any moment.

  She grew annoyed. “Do you want to learn this or not?”

  “I’m very sorry,” I said quietly, lowering my eyes. “Please forgive me.”

  “Don’t be sorry, just do what I tell you!” She opened a jar of white clay and showed it to me. “Smell this.”

  I took the jar and held it to my nose.

  “What does it smell like?” she asked.

  “Like flour,” I said. “And a little sweet.”

  “Yes,” she said, a smile finally lighting up her eyes. “Very good. The smell will tell you if it is right. If it smells bitter, throw it away. It has gone stale.” She showed me a brush and taught me how to apply it to her face. “You must coat my face like a mask, but leave a thin line around my hairline. We want it obvious it’s a mask.”

  I did as she instructed, using broad brushes across her forehead and cheeks and neck, and smaller ones around her eyes and nose. When I was done, she appeared to me like I pictured a human ghost would look like.

  “I bet you’re wondering how the daughter of a former royal dresser ended up a soon-to-be empress.”

  I nodded, afraid to ask all the questions in my head. She wasn’t an empress yet, but still she out ranked me, a lowly peasant from a fishing village.

  “It is not official, yet, that I will marry him,” she said with a sigh, gazing dreamily at herself in the mirror. “I have a final inspection of my own to go through. This time, I will be presented to the emperor himself, and given my rank among the other women selected to be his wives.”

  “Did he not select you as a wife?” I asked.

  “No,” she said. “His ministers picked for him, much like your upcoming registration. It is only by his new decree that he is now allowed to even rank the wives chosen for his bed.” A sadness crossed her delicate features. “And if he had his way, he may even dismiss us all before it becomes official. He’s incredibly picky.”

  “That seems unfair,” I said.

  “I was selected out of thousands of women, like you, who qualified from rank and level of beauty. I surpassed all inspections up until this point.” She looked up, turning her head to look my way. “I’m surprised you weren’t asked to be part of that. Didn’t your local government tell you abo
ut a chance to become an emperor’s wife or concubine?”

  “No,” I said. “I must have missed it.” I couldn’t imagine being summoned like that. I was too busy trying to garden and stay alive.

  “It’s too bad,” she said. “You would have passed inspection in a heartbeat, I think. They were strict about the level of beauty allowed.”

  Her compliment of my appearance gave me pause. “Your beauty is far superior,” I said.

  “I shouldn’t tell you this,” she said, “but since it is almost over, I feel I can talk to you. The only reason I bothered with you is because of Mother, but the other girls I need to be careful around, too. Because the wedding isn’t yet complete, they could turn on me. Some of them had been rejected.”

  My eyes widened and I lowered the makeup brush. “They were rejected? And now continue to compete for a new position?”

  “They know full well what influence my mother has with the emperor. Count yourself lucky, but also watch your back.”

  She then showed me how she burned a piece of thin wood to make charcoal, and paint her eyebrows. She then selected a thick red paste, and spread it over her lips and cheeks.

  She did this herself with her hands and brushes, showing me how steadily she transformed herself into a living piece of art.

  When she was finished, she had me dress her in her kimono, folding it over her body, how to tie a formal obi, and even how to set her hair into place with ornaments. I wasn’t the best at it, but her instruction taught me how complicated it was, and why she needed someone else to dress her.

  “If you are selected for a high position,” she said, “this is how you will look every day. And your escort will dress you as you’ve dressed me. I feel it is good to know exactly what your escort will have to go through, and how to do it yourself if you need to teach a new one.”

  She did a turn in her kimono, and the delicate leaves on the silk seemed to dance as if blown in a breeze. She was truly beautiful. I couldn’t believe she thought I could be like that.

  There was a knock at the door, and Apricot told me to go and see who it was.

  A maid was there, and looked at me, and then beyond me to Apricot. She passed me a slip of paper and then scooted down the hallway and disappeared.

  Apricot frowned and motioned to me to bring her the paper. “Read it to me.”

  I shut the door and then read the characters. “You are creating enemies. Please check your kimono boxes.” I showed her the paper, wondering if I’d read it incorrectly.

  Apricot’s frown deepened and it wrinkled her lips. She motioned to me to hand her the paper, and she dropped it into a pitcher of water on her table. The ink smudged and dispersed, staining the water.

  She turned me by the shoulder and ushered me to the door. “Come,” she said.

  The hallway was dim as there was a roll of clouds hanging over Kuni. I slid across the wood platform behind Apricot, who could walk so silently.

  We went around the wooden walkway around the courtyard, past the maids’ quarters and to the store room.

  “I’m not supposed to be over here,” I said.

  “Not uninvited,” she said. “I’m telling you to come with me.”

  Apricot opened the storage room side of the far building. She took a lantern and passed it for me to hold.

  She urged me into the room to light her way. I wasn’t sure why she wanted me to walk ahead of her, but she urged me on, and I sensed she was nervous to be in the storeroom. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to be in here either.

  The room was wall to wall filled with red lacquered boxes stacked one on top of the other, so tall that some stacks were taller than either of us. A path was made between them so we could access ones deeper in the room.

  As we inched forward, I could read some of the black etched lettering on placards.

  Hatsu - White yukata with blue cranes.

  Yuki – Blue formal kimono with pink flowers.

  Always a name and a description. Some had the name of the former empress inscribed on them.

  “These are all the kimono my mother owns,” she said. “People pay a lot of money to even rent one for an evening. Some of these belonged to empresses of the past.”

  I swallowed, fearing being caught even looking at the boxes. I held the lantern high.

  On the far side, just before the end of the rows of boxes, we finally found a couple of stacks with Apricot’s name on the outside.

  “Here’s yours, too,” she said, pointing to boxes two stacks to the right of hers.

  “Mine?”

  “What she plans to give you if you are selected. You’ll probably wear one on inspection day.”

  I trembled at the thought. A kimono as lovely as what Apricot wore would be given to me. I couldn’t picture it.

  Apricot had me hold the lantern nearby and opened one of the boxes with her name on it.

  Inside was a delicate powdered blue summer yukata robe with white and purple flowers. An obi in a deep green color was included alongside.

  It seemed fine. She closed the box and then moved on to a second, another kimono. She lifted a sleeve partially, but nothing seemed out of place. “Check yours,” she said.

  We moved together toward the stack with my name. I took a deep breath and opened the top one.

  Inside was a fine yellow kimono with green leaves fluttering in the breeze, alongside an orange obi.

  Only the smell of it was unbearable.

  I closed the box immediately, but it was clear that someone had dropped something foul inside the box intended for me.

  “We have to get these out!” Apricot cried. “Whatever is in there will ruin all the kimono!”

  I set aside the lantern carefully. Apricot slid each of the lacquered boxes into my hand, two at a time, until I couldn’t carry anymore.

  We carried what we could out of the storeroom and further back into the rear of the kitchens where food was stored. There was a table there where we stacked the boxes.

  I went to retrieve the others boxes left behind and the lantern, and by the time I got back, two of the maids, and Mrs. Satsu, were standing in the rear kitchen next to Apricot.

  The smell hit me as soon as I walked in. It was rancid, like sewer water and dead rotting flesh.

  Mrs. Satsu examined the open cases and covered her nose with her hands. “I don’t see what could be causing the smell.”

  The maids lifted each kimono out, inspecting them. “I see nothing,” one said.

  “It must have been sprayed on, like perfume,” Apricot said.

  “Then they are already ruined,” Mrs. Satsu said with a displeased expression. She raised her eyes to me. “This will cost thousands of taels to replace.”

  My heart sank. The kimono she had intended for me was unwearable.

  She had the maids close the boxes and send them to a cleaner to see if they could be spared. Other maids were sent to the storerooms to check all the boxes and make sure nothing else was destroyed.

  In the end, only mine had been tampered with. We had been lucky to have been told, or that smell might have escaped the boxes to ruin all the kimono in her store room.

  Sota and Ryuu were summoned. Apricot returned to her room and Mrs. Satsu brought us to the tatami room.

  She shut the door and used the white crystals quickly.

  “I’m so sorry about your kimono,” I said, and sank to the floor, kowtowing before her. “I’m so sorry.” Sota and Ryuu fell into place behind me, bowing as well to her, following my lead.

  “They will have to be replaced, Mizuki,” she said in a low tone. She came to me, standing over me.

  I stared at the floor. I didn’t know what I’d done, except I couldn’t help but wonder if this was my fault.

  “You must have done something to have caused someone to do this to you,” she said.

  “I did nothing,” I said, but without conviction. I didn’t know if I should tell her about the letter Sota had sent off and how I was involved. Would she have
felt I tattled on one of the students she expected to be chosen? Would she see it that I’d done it from jealousy?

  The fact that Sota didn’t speak up about this told me he didn’t think we should say anything, either.

  “As I don’t know who else to blame, I must charge you the costs of those kimono. Those were invaluable, passed to me by the grand empress.”

  I gasped, daring to look at her, and sure she was mistaken.

  Her face was solemn. “You are her size, and your features are similar to hers. I thought it a good chance they would help you. Now, you have nothing.”

  I lowered my head again, defeat reeling through me. I might not have made the kimono smell, but my actions caused someone else to do this to me, and to Mrs. Satsu, who had nothing to do with this. Those would cost a fortune in taels. She was at a severe loss. There was slim chance I could be selected without a fancy kimono and I now had none. I had already lost before even registering. “I can get my things,” I said. “I can go home.”

  “Home?” she spat at me. “No.” She knelt and touched my shoulder with a harsh shake. “Do you know how much money I’ve lost? I can’t let you go home right now. You will never pay this off in ten thousand lifetimes.”

  I closed my eyes tight, feeling the swell of emotion in my throat and the knot in my stomach increase. She was right, of course.

  “Not unless you go and win everything,” she continued. “Not unless the emperor picks you.” She tugged my shoulder to get me to sit up and face her.

  I did, with tears sliding down my cheeks. Fear captured my heart, keeping it contained within a cold glass jar. It was hard to breathe, hard to think. “I can’t win,” I said.

  “You can,” she said in a softer tone. “You have to.”

  I sniffed, and tried to get my raging emotions under control. I gained nothing falling apart in front of her.

  “She can pay you back out of her taels when she succeeds,” Sota said in a gentle tone behind me. I sensed he had sat up.

  “I can pay you from mine if I gain a position,” Ryuu said. “And if not, I’ll trade from the northern country to the south and back to help repay it.”