199 Vol. 4 pt. 2 Patch 1.0: Settling In (1/2)

Ryouta has returned to the autovan outside to use the card lent to him and Alice by her father to pay for its service and send it back to its dispatch center.

He gets to take a breather now that the autovan is gone and all of his girlfriends are still inside their new home.

The cityscape of New Charleston is still visible in the distance, but it looks small now whereas before Ryouta felt like an insignificant speck of dust when inside of it.

While he wouldn't say that he's experiencing culture shock, given that this is an improved situation over his own, he would say that it's going to take some getting used to living in an upper-class suburban neighborhood. Rather than tall towers lining the streets, there are rows of houses with curious, middle-aged mothers peeking out through the windows at the new arrivals.

Actually, when he thinks about it, there is definitely some culture shock. He's used to living in cities where he just blends in with the crowd and nobody really cares about who anybody else is. Here? He already has more presence here than he's ever had throughout his life in the city.

”I'm starting to have regrets,” he tells himself when he looks across the street and sees one woman blatantly watching him through her window. ”I guess we should have moved to some rural place in the middle of nowhere after all. Maybe I was being too generic with this place,” he says and sighs.

While the suburb may look like they represent the last century's traditional American dream, to Ryouta, it was just the most basic and safe option.

At least the house is new.

It may not have a white picket fence, but it does have a yard planted full of modified grass to keep its fresh and green look no matter how much the sun and hot temperatures try to scorch it, two stories with a cellar, a shaded porch, and a fenced-in backyard with a couple of trees in it and a mostly-overgrown, abandoned garden.

”Gonna have to invite Spencer over sometime to help with the garden. He loves his plants,” Ryouta tells himself while walking back to the house.

The best part about the house?

Three and a half bathrooms.

Three. And. A. Half.

All Ryouta needs is one half, and as long as no more girls move into the house, they'll all have their own bathrooms to do their own things in. He'll just need to use one of theirs whenever he needs to shower.

They also made sure to get plenty of closet space. His short time with them in his apartment was enough to learn just how important closet space is for women.

Serra requires the least closet space as her wardrobe is fairly similar to Ryouta's own. They both like to wear graphic t-shirts and jeans. Sometimes she wears shorts and even sweaters for him, but she isn't nearly as into fashion as the others are. Cassandra requires a pretty sizable amount of closet space. Between shirts, sweaters, skirts, shorts, pants, and a bunch of different shoes for different occasions, Cassandra requires nearly three times the space that Ryouta and Serra need.

Then there is Alice.

Alice, by far, requires a truly horrifying amount of closet space. Ryouta thought the amount of luggage she brought with her from overseas was intimidating at first, but after deciding to buy a house together, she had the rest of her belongings brought over.

So. Many. Clothes.

She has everything that Cassandra has multiplied by three, and she has different costumes for dressing up, dozens of wigs that all require their own head-shaped stands, dozens of different perfumes and other beauty products, and so many purses. Alice alone has more purses and bags that Cassandra and Serra have ever had combined, multiplied a few times, and then add one or two on top of that.

Serra and Ryouta are able to share a closet. Cassandra has one closet to herself.

Alice has all of her belongings spread out through five closets in different rooms, two closets of which are walk-in closets.

Ryouta had no idea just how terrifying a woman could be when it comes to the amount of clothes she owns. Alice could probably wear different clothes every single day for two years before having to rewear anything, and he's sure that she'd probably double her collection by then so that she never needs to wear the same thing twice.

Between buying a house like it's nothing and then having such a truly absurd amount of clothes… Ryouta realizes that rich people are really something else.

He now understands the concept of having too much money.

Then there's the fact that her father has several golf courses andvarious yachts.

Apparently, after royalty was no longer officially a thing across the ocean, their whole family decided to get into investing and business. They discovered that wise investments are much more profitable than being entitled to taxpayer money.

Now, all of their money is being funneled into Alice.

She was actually surprised that nobody else had as many clothes as her.

”You're something else, Alice,” Ryouta says, sitting on the front porch's glider. ”I feel like an old man doing this. All I need are some kids playing catch in the yard and a pipe.”