The idea of getting a total makeover made Alan nervous, but he slowly got over it as he distracted himself with the documents Daniel gave him access to. There were so many to read and immerse himself with. But there was one thing that he kept noticing the further along he shifted through documents. A particular image, along with different variations of a statement all appeared in multiple documents.

"Daniel... I have a question." Alan asked, his eyes quickly scanning the documents as he spoke.

"Sure, what's up?" Daniel replied, peeking his head out from his closet.

"Why do... I keep seeing the image of a butterfly and the same quote over and over again?" Alan stated, continuing to sort through documents on the screen.

"What's the quote?" Daniel asked, intrigued.

"The remedy you seek to the curse on your head will appear when you no longer yearn to create in your own image." Alan recited, a puzzled look on his face.

"Ah, that quote... apparently the woman who placed the curse on my family spoke this to my distant male relative. He wrote it down immediately and it's been archived in my family history since." Daniel replied, carrying several items out of the closet.

"A woman placed this curse on your family? Like, a witch or something?" Alan asked. "I'm guessing that's what this butterfly symbol relates to..."

"Good guess. Butterfly is húdié in Mandarin. So, if you see this in Pinyin, that's what it means..." Daniel then proceeded to grab a notebook as well as a pen and wrote the characters for "butterfly" in pinyin for Alan (蝴蝶).

"I'm SO not gonna remember that." Alan teased, only to hear Daniel laugh. "I can barely speak English."

"Yeah... I had to take Saturday classes growing up to learn Mandarin, so it's pretty much embedded in me." Daniel spoke, before returning to the closet.

"So, what was this lady's deal, anyway? Why'd she curse you guys?" Alan asked, curious.

"Well... apparently, she was a rather famous Guzheng player and often played for wealthy and royal members of society during that time period. I'm still a bit rusty on my Chinese history... But apparently, one of my distant male relatives caught her attention. He wasn't anything incredibly special, just a scholar, honestly. But I guess he was very polite and charming."

"So, she had a crush on him, basically." Alan stated with a smirk, only to hear Daniel laugh.

"Yeah, pretty much. However, he was into someone else; a local weaver that created robes for the imperial family, I think. That's what I was told. The Guzheng player was not very happy about that and tried to have the weaver murdered. He apparently found out and scrutinized her to the public. She was outcast by society and stripped of her status. But I guess no one knew she was also a witch of some kind and before she was exiled, she placed a curse on the scholar in front of everyone. The scholar, rather surprised, wrote down that exact quote that you told me. For weeks, nothing happened. When he and the weaver married, they spent time alone after their ceremony and then out of nowhere, he changed into a frog."

"That must've sucked for him on their honeymoon night." Alan chuckled.

"Right! Of course, after a while, he changed back, with no help from his new wife. She almost killed him with a large vase, apparently. He wrote this all down in a journal afterwards." Daniel mentioned with a laugh. "So, we have records dating back years from males in my family who have experienced the curse."

"Man, was she bitter." Alan stated. "No one knows what her name was?"

"Not from what I can recall." Daniel stated. "For some reason, there is no record of her name in any of our documents. Just the butterfly symbol."

"Weird... this is so fascinating. I'm really trying to figure out what this quote means..." Alan spoke, twirling the chair around with his foot as he pondered over it.

"Well, you can do that and also try on these clothes I picked out." Daniel stated as he finished placing 5 outfits on hangers for Alan to change into on a clothing rack he pulled from his closet.

Having stopped spinning in the chair to take a look at the clothes, Alan eyed the outfits closely, his eyes glancing over each piece quickly. He got to his feet and walked over, his hands in his pockets as he was afraid to touch anything. "These... look expensive." Alan spoke, looking over at Daniel in shock.

"Not really... I mean, that Ralph Lauren pullover is 2 years old." Daniel replied, pointing at a high quality, black pull-over sweater next to a pair of Levi's slim fitting jeans. "They didn't cost a lot."

"I'm not going to ask you what you think 'a lot' is..." Alan spoke back, side-eyeing Daniel slightly.

"Don't worry about it. Just try them on." Daniel stated with a smile, grabbing an outfit and handing it to Alan. "You can change in the bathroom. I'll wait for you to get out."

"I feel like I'm on that What Not to Wear show or something..." Alan muttered as he took the clothes carefully, making his way to the bathroom.

-

"I feel... so awkward..." Alan grumbled out, lightly tugging at the clothes as he walked out of the bathroom.

"Why? You look great!" Daniel proclaimed with a bright smile. He calmly looked over the curated outfit he put together for Alan; a white button down, long sleeved shirt with a dark blue cardigan and slim fitting dark grey khakis.

"I feel like I'm in boarding school..." Alan spoke with a frown, only to hear Daniel laugh.

"Well, you fit the image pretty nicely. Nothing wrong with adding a bit of a preppy image to your nerdiness, Moogle. I just need you to take off the glasses." Daniel stated, carefully removing them from Alan's face.

Immediately, Alan squinted to attempt to correct his vision. "Let me put my contacts in first..." Alan replied, pulling the case out of his pocket.

"I should probably do something with your hair too..." Daniel stated, putting his glasses down onto the coffee table nearby.

"My hair too?" Alan asked, surprised as he placed a contact into his left eye carefully.

"That won't be hard. I'll just put some gel in it or something." Daniel replied as he walked into the bathroom.

"This is so much effort..." Alan grumbled, finally putting his right contact into his eye. "I've made a horrible mistake."

Daniel laughed as he returned from the bathroom, a jar of pomade in his hand. "I won't put too much in your hair. You don't need a lot anyway... just need a small change..." he added as he removed the lid from the jar, took a small amount into the palm of his hands and rubbed them together, before gently running his hands through Alan's hair.

Would be nice if he was running his hands through my hair and making out with me... he's close enough to me to do that now... Alan thought to himself, a rather bashful look on his face as he kept his eyes averted downward.

"There! All done." Daniel stated, taking a step back to look at Alan fully, a really warm smile on his face. "You... look like a totally different person."

Alan looked up at Daniel slowly, his face slowly turning red, before he turned around to face a full body mirror. He actually gasped at the image that he saw.

"Shit..." was all he could force out as he stared at himself in the mirror. A slight shiver ran through his body at the sight. His dirty blonde hair was styled in a slightly messy side part. With no glasses to hide behind, his green eyes were fully exposed, the blue in the cardigan drawing out the color in a contrasting fashion. The clothes framed his physique in a more flattering fashion and even he was surprised to see that he actually had some muscle, figuring the years of volleyball were still evident in his arms. "This... is what I look like?"

"I told you Alan. You're fucking hot."

-

As promised, here is 1 of 3 chapters! I plan to upload the next one tomorrow. I wanted to give you guys some time to digest the chapters in pieces instead of all at once.

Also, I apologize if my Mandarin isn't great. I'm really, really rusty with it, so if it isn't correct, please let me know!

Sorry for the slowness in updating as well. January was a very interesting month for me and I had a lot of unexpected things happen and my time was taken elsewhere. I believe after this weekend, I'll be back on a regular posting pattern. I will not be updating this upcoming Saturday/Sunday, as I will be enjoying the holiday. However, next weekend will put me back on a regular schedule!

Regardless, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Look out for the next one tomorrow :)

- Blu