Hi, I Have Caterpillars in my Hair (Junpei)

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Oh, wow! She agreed! And so excitedly too, Junpei was suddenly getting tickles in his stomach at all the excitement. Even if she was going to take him for tea afterward. Unfortunately, tea was the one beverage that Junpei couldn't really stand. Not because it tasted bad, but because that was all his family ever served or expected him to drink. They even tried to teach him the tea ceremony, a practice that he hoped noone would ever find out about as he positively hated the dress. But for Yue, Junpei thought he could enjoy it. Even if he didn't like the tea, he would enjoy being with her......

It was around this train of thought that Junpei started wondering if this could be considered a date. After all, it was an outing between a boy and a girl. And he didn't dislike her at all.

Actually, thinking about, he really liked her adorableness.

But did that make it a date?

Luckily, Junpei's face was already blushing red from all his excitement over everything else that there was hardly any room for his face to get even redder from the thought of going on a date.....he'd better make sure to bring enough money to cover everything.

A date....a date that would end with Yue showing him her running practice. He was very much looking forward to tomorrow.

But for now, Yue and Junpei were going to set up a jar for their caterpillar-->swallowtail project. In his room. Junpei couldn't help but give a mental fist-pump for how lucky he was for having met this girl. He continued nodding as she listed off things they needed to take care of the caterpillar. "Hai... This is not hard, you can help me?" He chuckled at her enthusiasm, attempting to curb his own as well, but obviously failing what with the huge beaming grin plastered on his face. "Tanoshimi ni desu yo. I am looking forward to it." This was going to be so much fun! "Please, show me how to do." The caterpillar had moved up to his shoulder by this point. Even up close, it was cute. Just like the girl who made it. "We go to room and set up house for caterpillar now?" he asked, taking the worm from him shoulder and carrying it on his hand again.

[Yue Hirai]

Yue was a sucker for bubble tea - her brothers had introduced it to her many years back, and it had been love at first sip. She tried not to drink it all that often (empty calories and all), but this was a special occasion, and it called for special purchases. Yue just wanted Junpei to be happy and enjoy himself as he got used to living in Pilot Ridge.

Unfortunately, Yue's head wasn't even close to thinking about this as a date. She had quite a few male friends, more than she had girlfriends, actually, and so she was used to just being one of the guys. Junpei was quite cute, she wouldn't lie, but she doubted someone would consider a date with her so soon after meeting her, especially since she had never been on an actual date before. She wasn't against the idea... It had just never come up before. So, she was going to treat this as a casual outing until something told her otherwise.

Yue could be quite oblivious to these things, but she wasn't completely blind.

She was, however, looking forward to tomorrow much more than she was willing to admit. It had been a long time since she had just... Spent time with someone, just to hang out. Most of her time was spent training, studying, and looking up health and fitness routines these days, so it would be a nice breath of fresh air. Not to mention, she was totally going to show as much off as she could in front of Junpei, because it wasn't all that often people seemed that eager to see her train.

Yep, it was going to be great.

"It should be fine, as long as we can keep him or her well-fed and happy," she nodded, still grinning. His somewhat childish excitement was something she didn't come across very often, and she found herself enjoying it much more than she would have expected to. "Let's go!" She watched him pick up the caterpillar gently from his shoulder, before nodding towards the dorms. "We can run to my room really quickly to get a jar, then set it up in your room. Oh," she added, leaning down to pick up a couple sticks. "We should get some twigs to put in its jar, so it has something to crawl around on. I think there's a willow tree near the dorms too, so we can get some leaves from there!"

Once they had finished collecting, Yue led the way back to the dorms, taking the stairs up to the co-ed dorms and walking to her room. It was nothing fancy - mostly just a lot of open space, with posters of various athletes on the walls and a couple containers of protein powder amongst some weights and other athletic gear. It was clean, at least. Yue rummaged around before grabbing a good-sized plastic container, with holes already poked in the lid to allow the critter to breathe. "This should work!" she told Junpei, smiling and offering it to him. "We can put the sticks and leaves inside, and find a cool place in your room to keep it."

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Junpei was, unfortunately, the kind of boy who jumped the gun when it came to girls. He's a bit of a romantic, believing in things like "love at first sight" and "soul mates". While he hadn't found that soul mate yet, Junpei's tendency to develop crushes on girls was only spurned on by those dreams of romance.

Also, he was a 15 year old boy with raging hormones. Of course he "fell in love" too easily.

This tiny little girl with an confident attitude that didn't quite match her size was not Junpei's usual type, at least he didn't think so, but regardless, he was already starting to think that tomboys weren't nearly as bad as he once thought. Then again, Junpei had no idea that this girl was so oblivious to the implications of a boy and a girl spending the day together. It had to be a date, right?

Junpei gave a quick nod as he fell in step behind Yue, following her towards the dorms. It seemed like she had everything under control, there was very little for Junpei to do other than hold onto the caterpillar and move it back down to his hand once it had traversed his arm over and over again. The thing sure liked to move. Junpei wondered why it moved so much, couldn't it just stay still? Considering how much it liked to crawl around, would a small jar really be big enough for the little guy? "Yue-chan," he started, once they had finished collecting items and made their way to the dorms, "kono..." Words, what were they? "Caterpillar move very much. Is jar too small?"

Then came the room. Her room, to be precise. It was a lot different than his own mental image of what a girl's room should look like. However in truth, this was the first time he was in a girl's room that wasn't related to him. And that made him just a little more nervous than she probably realized. Just be cool, he told himself. Junpei nearly jumped when she shoved the jar at him, all ready and raring to go. He nodded again. Junpei had no idea what he was doing, so it was best just to leave it to her.

In his nervousness and smiling like a goofball, he almost forgot that he even had the caterpillar in his cupped hands.

[Yue Hirai]

Whatever each of their expectations were, it was sure to be interesting, and Yue was going to make a list tonight of all the hot spots they needed to hit on their date/outing/whatever it was. Confidence unwavering, she had no doubt that she would be a great guide around town, and hopefully Junpei would have a fun time.

She glanced at him as they made their way back, smiling as she watched him try to keep the energetic little creature on his hands. It was interesting how some of them were so active, and others just kind of liked to sit in her palm. "Oh," she hummed, pondering his question. "It's a pretty good-sized jar, and I think it's just being so active now because it's trying to find food. Once we stick it in the container with a bunch of leaves, he'll be happy and not move around as much!" Or so she expected; it had never really been a problem before. "Just make sure you never leave the lid open for too long, otherwise he might escape into your room." Yue chuckled.

It was funny that this was Jun's first experience inside a girl's room like this, considering Yue's could very much be mistaken for a guy's, if not for the occasional hint of femininity - a small collection of Japanese dramas tucked neatly on her dresser, several boxes of green tea perched next to a few white mugs, and - eep! - a sports bra that she had somehow misjudged when she threw it towards her hamper, lying forgotten in the corner on the floor. Ah well, it wasn't like it was a big deal, right?

She grinned at him as she offered the jar, taking a moment to open the lid and throw in the leaves and sticks that she had collected, motioning to Junpei to do the same with his collection. Soon, it looked very caterpillar-ready. "Want to put it inside?" she asked, holding the jar out to him again. "I think he'll be happier once he gets some food in his belly."

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Put leaves in. Give it some sticks. Don't leave the lid open. Ok, those were things Junpei could remember pretty easily, right? Shouldn't be too hard. While he had the instructions and while Junpei was pretty sure he could follow instructions pretty well, he was still nervous about actually being responsible for another life-form. Junpei would definitely have to have her come over to check on the caterpillar. To make sure he was doing everything right. Yes, that was a great plan!

A Yue was searching around the room for the jar, Junpei looked at the random items that were scattered about within the room. He did notice the japanese dramas, though he was sure he hadn't seen them before. He also noticed the bra...and he politely averted his eyes from them with a slight blush in his cheeks. Somehow, that kind of defenselessness just made her more cute.

Junpei followed her lead and placed his items in the jar, then carefully putting the caterpillar in upon a stick right after. And Yue was right, the little worm was a very hungry caterpillar as it immediately began to devour the leaves as if it hadn't had eaten anything it's whole life......then again, it didn't actually exist until Yue had manifested it from...her hair. Junpei wondered how that worked exactly.

Junpei allowed Yue to replace the lid on the jar then took it from her. He held it up to watch the caterpillar wiggle and munch the leaves inside. "Sugee... I really like caterpillar," he said, watching the worm in awe. He lowered it and turned his gaze down on this short, adorable, little caterpillar-girl who had so quickly become his friend and smiled. "Thank you, Yue-chan."

[Yue Hirai]

Yue would be happy to come check on the little critter whenever Jun wanted, and she wasn't busy. She had faith in him, though, that he would be able to keep it safe and healthy; it really wasn't that difficult, but it could be a little intimidating, especially if you had never had a pet before.

"See?" she chuckled as the caterpillar went to work chomping down on the leaves inside the jar. They always seemed to be hungry after Yue created them, which she herself was curious about, but there was no real way for her to know how or why they were like that. "I think he'll be quite happy to stay in there as long as you keep fresh leaves for him to eat." She held the jar up to her face to give the insect a quick air kiss before handing it back to Junpei.

"I'm glad," she beamed, sticking her hands in her pockets now that she was empty-handed. Yue met his gaze and dipped her head, feeling oddly shy for a moment. "You're welcome, Junpei. I'm glad you came to Hammel - it'll be nice to have a new friend." Most of the people she hung out with were sporty like her, but Jun's sweet, foreign nature was quite adorable to her, and she was looking forward to the next day, and whatever came after that.