Chapter 1

"Shouchiku Shizuka," the teacher called, and a girl with black neck-long hair raised her hand in response.

"Sumisaki Kei," the teacher called again. No response. "It's his off-day again, huh?"

In the first row near the window sat Shouko Kaminomiya, staring outside and wondering just what in the world the boy who confessed to her was up to whenever he didn't come to school.

As a matter of fact, the boy wasn't even in the same world at the time.

Sumisaki Kei's rather messy and ordinary room was completely transformed. With his gilded pen in hand, Sumisaki Kei weaved an unreal and futuristic city - the setting for his most recent ongoing sci-fi light novel series, The Evernight Masquerade - and stepped into this fantastical realm himself.

Then came the characters. One by one, with his own golden blood as the ink, Kei recreated each of the characters and placed them in the exact situation he left them - almost like saving the state of a video game when you log out.

With a stroke of his pen, the scene unfroze and started playing out by itself. Participating as different characters at different times, Kei swiftly and perfectly replicated the story in his mind. It's difficult to believe that such a scene was happening not just in this ever so ordinary world, but in what seemed to be a bedroom no vaster than twenty square metres.

Finally, he put his pen back in its cap - and with that, the story concluded.

"Huh? You're telling me you finished this book already?"

"Yes. Can you take the manuscript, Watanabe-san? It's heavy," Kei calmly said, a stack of paper in his hands.

"Uh… alright." Watanabe, Kei's editor, took his manuscript. "But you just gave me half of the book three days ago! You finished the rest in three days?"

"If it works, it works." Kei closed his eyes. "I can count on you to get it edited and published, right?"

"I've rarely had to edit anything you've written…" Watanabe sighed. "Alright, I'll work on it. Call you tonight."

"Thanks."

Sumisaki Kei was so eager to start work on his romance series that he tirelessly worked on The Evernight Masquerade for three days - with the only break being going to school to ask Kaminomiya Shouko out - and nearly got anemia from using blood to visualize the story. As he walked home, Kei tore open a ketchup packet and put it in his mouth.

No, he's not a vampire. He just likes ketchup.

"Ah." Kei came to an abrupt stop. "I was supposed to go to a party tonight, huh."

"Jeez, you're so late. What were you up to?" A tall figure slapped his hand on Kei's shoulder as he sat down around a table at his local takoyaki place.

"Not much. Writing again." Kei shrugged. "That aside, why was I invited to this… peculiar rendezvous, Oosaki-kun?"

"Come on, dude." Oosaki shook his head. "You asked us for love advice, and now you're asking why you're here?"

"Your advice didn't work." Kei closed his eyes.

"What? You already asked a girl out?" Another boy asked.

"Yeah, I did. She turned me down." Kei sighed.

"Now, now, who would turn our cute Kei-chan down? Maybe she still thought you were a girl?" Oosaki pinched his chin and laughed. "Come on, Sumisaki, tell us who you asked out!"

"I think her name was… Kaminomiya?"

"Kaminomiya… Shouko?" Oosaki's eyes widened.

"That would be her name, yeah." Kei nodded.

"Wha- are you out of your mind, dude?" The boy sitting next to Oosaki exclaimed.

"What now…?"

"We told you to ask someone out, but no sane person would ask out the princess of the school that casually! Of course she'd turn you down!" The boy shook his head. "Hell, she'd even turn me down."

"...in what way are you better than me, Aosaka?" Kei replied, unimpressed.

"Well, I actually properly groom myself, first of all." Aosaka flicked his hair. "It's the first step to being popular amongst girls."

"Speaking of which, let me dress you up, Sumisaki-kun!" The girl with the neck-long black hair offered.

"Yeah, Shizuka-chan is a real expert!" Oosaki nodded encouragingly. "Come on, Sumisaki! She'll make you look pretty in no time!"

"Ugh…" Kei tried to protest, but was overpowered by the insistent group.

"Woah…" After Kei's "grand transformation", the group stared in awe.

Kei's messy bed hair was cleaned up into gorgeous snowy streaks. Instead of looking like a good-for-nothing shut-in, he was now a pretty high school… girl?

"Sumisaki…" Aosaka broke the silence. "Say, if you can't get anyone, wanna try going out with me?"

"Die."

"Come on, it was a joke-"

"Die." Kei stood up and turned around.

"H-Hey, you're leaving already? You only ate two takoyakis!" Oosaki exclaimed.

"I'm just going to get some ketchup." Kei turned his head, his face still impassive as usual. "Also, thank you, Shizuka-san."

"Eh? Oh, it's no problem!"

"Do I really have to stay here for the night…" Kei sighed as he walked towards the kitchen. "Well, I've got nothing else to do."

Suddenly, his phone started ringing.

"Must be Watanabe-san," he murmured as he picked the phone up. "Hello?"

"Sumisaki-kun, I've checked over your manuscript," Watanabe said on the other side. "It's ready for publishing."

"Alright, thanks." Kei nodded. "Good night, Watanabe-san."

"Wait! Don't hang up yet!"

"Something else?"

"Y-Yeah," Watanabe took a deep breath. "Can you do an autograph session for your previous titles next week?"

"No thanks. Sweet dreams." Kei immediately declined.

"Please! Just this once!" Watanabe pleaded. "I'll get you a manga adaptation for The Evernight Masquerade as soon as possible!"

"Fine, I'll go." Kei sighed. "In for a penny…"

"Hey, don't say that! It's beneficial to you too!" Watanabe exclaimed. "Well, see you next week."

Hanging up his phone, Kei shook his head, and proceeded to the kitchen to ask for five ketchup packets.