Rin bursts out coughing into her elbow as she fans her other hand in the odorous air. She hopes the foul smell would wear off soon, despite how she was expecting this to happen. It was times like these when she wished she wasn't able to predict the future; whenever Rin accepted Len's offer of showing her an experiment, she knew something would turn bad. Bad smell, weird color, something that instantly made her react on instinct... Even if it was supposed to happen, she still expected it from the very beginning.
"So now that you've got that down..." Len leans in close to the beaker, "you just add the chlorine."
He picks up a container with a light yellow liquid. He brings it above the beaker and tips the glass; the yellow fluid mixes together with the rest of the solution. A small purple puff is released from the mixture and dissipates.
"See? A plain and simple experiment. How'd you like it?" Len places his hand to his hip.
"It was okay—" she coughs, "but did it have to smell that bad?"
"One of the many things chemists have to deal with. And the smell wasn't the worst part. Be glad you and I are wearing goggles; the chemicals could've gotten into our eyes. They're extremely dangerous."
"Pfft," a tealette snickers behind them. "Ahh, yes, Len, and yet you had her suffer through all that just to see a purple cloud from your beaker. Priceless."
She resumes scrawling on her notebook while shaking her head in disapproval. She has long pigtails tied from her teal hair and crystal blue eyes that are staring down at her paper and pencil.
"Oh, give Len a break, Miku. You can't blame him for getting excited over his little nerd experiment," a blue-haired boy speaks up.
Miku sighs, "Kaito..."
"You know how Len can get over-excited about science."
"I know, I know. It was just a joke." She shrugs without removing her gaze from her notebook.
The four leisurely spent their time in the school's biology classroom. It was conference night so each of them was dragged along into coming. They didn't see how this couldn't have been an excuse to hang out after classes. Science equipment was everywhere to be seen in the classroom that Len had immediately laid a handful of test tubes, beakers, and chemicals out on the rows of black tables.
Meanwhile, Miku stuck to her usual habit of whipping out her handy notebook and writing utensil, Kaito was the last to arrive in their small group—staring out of the freshly cleaned windows while he daydreamed—and Rin on the other hand was practically pestered into watching Len's experiment that she had no time to react.
"Well, honestly Kaito's not wrong here," Len reveals a friendly smile then embarrassingly averts his gaze. "I do get a tad hyper when I'm putting up with something science related."
"Thank you, Len." Kaito crosses his arms and gives Miku a prideful glare.
She happily rolls her eyes in response.
Rin dismisses their conversation and blows a strand of blond hair away from her face. She removes her goggles and situates them next to the beakers.
"Whatcha got here? Finishing up the book or what?" Rin pulls up a chair next to Miku.
The tealette looks at her, smiling back. "Nah, just finishing up the twelfth chapter—six more to go."
"Yay." Rin shakes her hands in the air, which causes her plastic bracelets to jingle. She drops her arms to the table, grinning. "And how long you've been at it? Four months?"
"Three and a half." Miku's fist, clenched with her pencil, is placed under her cheek. To which she turns her attention to Rin and smirks. "Nonstop."
"Whew." Rin kicks her legs onto the table and tosses her head back in her chair. "Last week of high school and you're still pulling through."
"Can't stop till I drop."
"Going out on a limb here and assuming that when you drop is never."
"Not until I finish this book, yeah, I'll stop."
Rin bounces up from the back of her chair and eyes the girl. "Typical."
There wasn't a day when Rin couldn't recall Miku sitting there with a pencil to her notebook. "Never gonna give up on her dream, huh?" Those words would cross her mind whenever she saw her. A glimpse of teal hair and she'd already be thinking about Miku's dream. She'd said it a thousand times before and was planning to say it a thousand times again if she had to.
"When high school's over, I'm going to be an author."
Just like that Rin wondered how many notebooks Miku had filled with stories; she still questions even to this day.
Miku lets out a giggle at Rin's comment and proceeds writing the remainder of the chapter... until she pauses midway after hearing a fizzing sound. She lifts her head to see Len, who was starting a new experiment and this time with even more chemicals than before. But Miku doesn't have time to say a word because when she opens her mouth, Kaito has already got the problem taken care of.
"Len, are you—"
"Conducting a new experiment that will one hundred percent blow you guys away literally and in amazement?" Len finishes Kaito's question with what he assumes to be the rest of his sentence. "Yes, yes I am."
"No. I was going to say that before you do anything rash—"
He's once again greeted with another interruption, but this time from someone who isn't in their group of four. It's a knock coming from the door as a woman pokes her head into the room.
"Len, conference is over, time to leave." She lets herself in and pushes the door more than halfway.
Len glances over at his mother, then back to his set of chemicals. "Coming, mom." He gingerly puts down the test tubes in their allotted places and takes out the goggles from his eyes. Just when he's about to bolt straight for the door, he looks at his trio of friends who are waiting for his next response. "See ya guys tomorrow." He raises a hand in the air for a wave and takes off.
"Wait, Len—!" Miku hollers. But the door slams between them in a matter of seconds. "You left your experiment out..."
"Great, now we have to clean up for him!" Rin mutters sarcastically.
She stuffs her hands in her face, breathes out a sigh, and rubs her eyes before standing up. She never liked how Len expected them to do all the dirty work when he started an experiment in the first place. It's happened once or twice in the past, but Rin was always perturbed whenever everything went bonkers. Science: there's the reason it was her least favorite subject.
Len left nearly four beakers full of different colored liquids, a single row of rainbow test tubes, and one graduated cylinder with the concoction of various chemicals. By the time Rin gets to the highly disorganized table, Kaito grabs a beaker and spins it in little circles. The red fluid swirls, creating little whirlpools as it did.
"Let's just get cleaning so we can get back to whatever." Miku taps her nails on the tabletop.
"What if we, like, spill or drop something? Shouldn't we have a teacher or an adult supervise us here?" Rin waves a hand by her face as if saying an obvious "hello."
"Ha!" Miku snorts. "Len should have had an adult watch over his two recent experiments! And he didn't. Besides, I'm sure the janitor's still around sweeping the halls or cleaning up. Plus the teachers are in the other classrooms. I think we're pretty covered if there's an accident."
"All right, if you say so." Rin shrugs.
She perks up, recalling something before she continues, and walks over to the cabinet of goggles.
Kaito takes two of the containers and holds them by their necks, then drags them to the sink. He picks up one of them and inspects it closely. He's staring at the contents of the glass—a bluish liquid, as if a single look is able to tell him what it is.
He feels a tap on his shoulder and Rin's extending a pair of goggles to him while wearing her own.
"Thanks," he utters as she goes over to the tealette to do the same. "Hey, Miku, is this chemical disposable?"
"What color is it?" she asks back while strapping on her goggles.
"Blue," Kaito replies.
"Is it fizzing?"
He squints at the glass. "Not that I think."
"Yeah, pour it in the sink but make sure some water gets down the drain as well."
"Got it."
Kaito tilts the beaker and dumps out the blue chemicals, then turns on the faucet just as Miku instructed. The water splashes inside the beaker and cleans out the edges to ensure all of it is gone. Finally twisting the knob to the faucet, he pours the water down the drain.
"Hey, Rin," Kaito speaks up as he washes his hands.
Rin looks at him, and then turns back around, "Yeah?"
"I just started another song yesterday and it includes one of your violin tracks as the music."
"Sweet. What's it called?"
"Cantarella."
"Which composition from the CD did you use?"
"Hm... track eight, I believe."
"Ahh, 'Fortitude and Love.' Nice choice."
"Aww, that's so sweet of Kaito to use a composition of yours!" Miku clasps her hands to her cheek.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever..." Rin mumbles and tries hiding her blush.
Months ago, she'd given each of the three CDs consisting of twelve different violin tracks she composed. Hoping it would help them relax and gain some recognition for her music, Rin was elated to hear that Miku and Kaito had been listening to it when they could. Miku claimed the mellow tones of Rin's violin had kept her focused on writing and helped Kaito find something new to sing to.
As for Len... she could say otherwise. He admitted to liking her music, however, he avowed—and she quotes—"science and violin just don't mix well together... exactly like bleach and vinegar."
Rin gets on the tips of her toes for the cabinet containing the glassware. She clutches the empty beaker in one of her hands, brushing her fingers against the handle of the cabinet with her other. Fortunately to her dismay, it swings open and she leans closer to the cabinet, heaving her leg onto the counter to put the beaker side by side with the other containers.
"Rin, speaking of music," Miku begins.
"Yeah?" Rin emphasizes the word as she hops down to the floor.
"Why didn't you bring your violin? Since you knew we were going to be staying over..."
"Y'know, I would've, but it's getting repaired right now so unfortunately I couldn't." Before Miku could ask why, the blond sighs and explains, "I was playing yesterday and the D string popped off. We had to get a new one and the guy at the shop is replacing it right now. It's my first time losing a string from my violin, so..." she laughs awkwardly.
Rin leans her back against the counter and turns to Kaito arranging the test tubes. She hears him hum to himself softly. Although the melody is low, she can clearly make out the song he's humming. It's quite familiar considering she composed it herself.
"Kaito," he lifts a finger from the stoppers on the test tubes, "do you mind singing a bit of that song? 'Cantarella,' was it?"
He smiles and swings an elbow onto the counter. "What part of it would you like to hear?"
"Chorus!" Miku calls out from the opposing side of the room, a hand cupped to the side of her mouth.
Kaito glances to Rin for her approval and she cocks her head Miku's direction, a side smile on her lips, and lifts an eyebrow. He pushes himself off of the counter and walks over to the center table of the biology room. He puts a hand on his chest and closes his eyes. As he starts singing a couple lyrics, Rin feels obligated to close her eyes as well.
"Fall into my hands, you'll meet every demand and then, you'll capture this heart again..."
She listens to his voice, mellifluous while she can imagine her own violin in sync with his a capella. The music and his voice are both compatible together. Lyrical melodies behind the lyrics matching the rising and falling of his singing… one after another.
"Everything behind a truth I had confined, inside, with no place to hide."
He lowers his hand and gradually opens his eyes. Out of nowhere he hears a roar of applause from behind him and a silly little whistle from Miku as an encore. She and Rin are alongside each other clapping for Kaito. Despite him singing four verses from the entire song, his voice had made it seem like more.
He laughs and rolls his eyes, waving his hand in small circles as he bows down with a "thank you, thank you."
Buzz!
Miku's phone vibrates in her pants pocket. She whips it out and perks up upon seeing the screen. Rin attempts to peek over the tealette's shoulder to what she was looking at, but Miku lowers her phone and says aloud to the two:
"My parents are waiting for me downstairs, so I better get going." She removes her pair of goggles and leaves them on the counter. She taps her nails beside them. "Rin, can you put these away for me?"
"Yeah."
"Thanks."
Miku walks over to her previous table and snatches up her notebook and pencil. She exits through the door as if she was heading down the hallway out of Rin and Kaito's view. Leaving on a sudden notice without a single goodbye to her two friends made them glance at each other confusingly. But after a couple seconds, she peeks her head back in and smiles.
"Bye, guys." She turns back to the hallway, but catches herself before she leaves, and points a finger to Rin. "Oh, Rin, I'm probably going to text you later tonight about the novel, so watch your phone." Rin silently nods and resumes putting the goggles in the cabinet. "'Kay, see ya."
Miku walks off into the hall, having left the door wide open on its hinges; the two didn't mind, however, after all there was nothing to talk in private about.
Rin stands in front of the cabinet of goggles with a hand to the handle. Last week, huh? she ponders. Four more days and our last year of high school together will be over.
She feels a shoulder graze her arm as Kaito's seen putting away his goggles right next to her. She's snapped out of her thoughts, simply staring at him and analyzing what he's doing because her thoughts, jumbled with what she's seeing, prevents her from thinking straight. Kaito doesn't realize her gaze is fixated on him. He pauses what he's doing, sighs, and smiles with his eyes to the floor.
"Hey, uh, Rin? You don't mind me using your compositions for songs, do you?"
She blinks a few and slowly shakes her head. "No, not one bit. I'm actually really... really happy you're using it."
"I couldn't resist; your music's inspiring. I swear they fit right in as nice songs!"
Rin relaxes her shoulders and stifles a chuckle, smiling.
"Thanks, Kaito."
"No problem."
Rin plucks the strings of her violin that sits upright in her lap. She has a tuner in one of her hands, clipped onto the bridge near the bottom of her instrument. She plucks the G string again and leans closer to hear the string resonate a deep but smooth-sounding sound.
The man who had replaced her D string managed to perfectly fit it in along with the rest of the strings, except all but the D were out of tune when she decided to play. She'd gotten in position—sitting up straight, violin up, her bow to the strings and parallel with the bridge—nevertheless a cacophony awaited her in less than a second of playing a row of eighth and sixteenth notes.
She slowly turns one of the pegs back, stops to pluck the string it belonged to, then turns the peg her direction to tighten it.
Buzz!
Buzz!
Rin looks over her shoulder to the cell phone sunken in the bed sheets. She gingerly drops her violin beside her and leans on her bed to grab the phone. She taps her fingers on the screen until she fully sees the message she received from Miku.
'I finally finished writing the novel and reading it over a gazillion times. Time to sleep !1!'Miku had inserted a sleepy emoji afterwards.
Rin slides her fingers across the keyboard. 'You mean time to celebrate.'
'Nope. Who's got time for that? I spent months working on eighteen chapters of 5K+ words each. I need a break... not really. I actually need the email of that author you told me about. Stat.'
Thankfully, Rin's uncle had written a best-selling novel that made his name known worldwide. Even though Miku hasn't read the book yet or knows the name of the author, just hearing that he wrote a work that was blown off the charts made her want to crash all of Rin's family reunions to pull up a chair right next to him. And no matter how much Rin intervened so she wouldn't do so, the least Miku could do was email him and let him critique her manuscript.
Rin replies back with his email and a fancy, smiling emoticon next to it.
'Thanks, I owe you,'Miku responds. 'Now, time to write a formal email...'
'I can't help you but good luck with that. Right now, my violin needs me.'
'Play something good! I'll try my best with the email.'
Rin puts her phone down and picks up her violin. She inspects the fine wood of the instrument, polished and cherry red. Basswood, was it? She remembers the day she first played a violin: eleven years ago when she complained about her violin unable to produce a sound when she bowed.
Not enough rosin, Rin thinks and stifles a laugh.
She was too young. Seeing those four metal strings for the first time, and the bow hair she found was soft to touch until she was scolded for doing so. Even her terrible playing posture still deserves a hysterical laugh today; she finds herself giggling every time she thinks of it.
And here she's come so far. Fast forward years after: a new violin, a better bow grip, improved posture, a confident vibrato, and her love for triple stops and slurs.
She props the edge of her violin onto her left shoulder, presses her chin to the chin rest, and clears her throat. Rin starts tapping her foot to keep tempo, going over and over a music piece in her mind with one note and its dynamic. One note and its dynamic. One note and its dynamic.
Rin pushes her fingers against a string and positions her bow on it near the bridge.
With a breath, she glides the bow down.
"When I grow up, I'll be a music teacher."
Rin adjusts her backpack strap on her shoulder, carrying her violin case with her other hand. She pushes open the door to her homeroom class and as she approaches her desk, she eyes Kaito in the seat in front of hers, feet kicked to his desk, hands on his stomach, and his attention focused on the pencil he's balancing above his lip.
She smiles and sets her violin case on the floor beside her chair. Rin lowers herself into her seat and leans forward to tap Kaito on the shoulder. Startled, the pencil drops into his hands. Kaito sets it onto the desk and turns around to see her.
He grins. "Hey."
"Hey."
"So..." Kaito brings his right leg over his left and intertwines his fingers under the knee. "Three more days of high school left, you got anything planned?"
"Aside from hanging out with you guys and violin, I've nothing... Except cleaning up Sunday's graduation stuff, yeah, nothing special."
"Oh, yes, violin. How's the new D string by the way? Did you try playing?"
"A lot of tuning for replacing one string. The D string was in tune, but not the G, A, or E string."
"And you fixed it up?"
"Yup."
Kaito joins his hands together and leans closer to Rin on her desk. Confused, she maintains a suspicious smile and leans back in her chair with arms crossed over her chest.
"What?" She shrugs. Her eyes flit across the room like she's checking to see if the rest of the class notices his suspicious movements.
"Can you play something?" Kaito smiles and bites the bottom of his lip. Rin glances at the door behind them and he adds in, "You'll be fine. It's just..." He unrolls his sleeve, revealing a watch around his wrist, "8:24. The teacher won't be here in six more minutes. Even if she did, she wouldn't make a big deal out of it."
She returns to him and nods. "Yeah, okay. Do you mind if I just pizzicato?" Rin leans to the side of her chair to grab her violin case. "This piece isn't meant for violin, so I wouldn't want to make a big deal about it."
She takes out the violin and cautiously fixes the shoulder rest on the bottom of its body.
"Go ahead."
Rin positions the violin in her lap like it's a ukulele she's getting ready to play. Holding the neck, she closes the case that sits atop her desk so Kaito can properly watch her, and looks down to the strings. She presses a couple fingers against a string on the neck and plucks it with her other hand near the bridge.
She continues switching fingerings for each designated note and pausing for however long whenever she had a rest. Since she wasn't bowing the piece, the music had come out slightly choppy than one or two fluid measures. But that didn't bother Kaito. He could still hear the music and as long as he could make it out and identify the notes, he had no qualms about it.
Altogether, he could tell she had the right idea in mind creating this piece. As he listened, he had already been plotting out a few lyrics. Once he's able to ask what instruments the song was intended for, he would know how to execute the lyrics in with the melody.
She finishes, blinking as she gives a long stare at the violin.
Kaito softly applauds. "It's good, I like it. What instruments are you composing this for?"
"Drums and guitar," she smiles. "... I'm assuming you already got some lyrics?"
"On point. I'm thinking about calling the song 'Crescent Moon.'" Kaito lifts his hand in the air and motions it to the side.
"Well, that's—"
Rin hears the door creak open and heels clicking their way up to the front of the classroom. The teacher walks in, to which she notices Rin, and turns to her while politely phrasing:
"Rin, could you please put that violin away so I can start class?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Guys!"
The cafeteria sounds with a familiar voice lunging towards the trio sitting in their usual lunch table. Miku, who's holding her fork in the air mid-sentence while talking to Rin, notices Len sprinting towards their table she fears he'd crash into it with a blow to the stomach.
He reaches the edge of the table and slams his hands against the surface that each of their trays and utensils clang with his force.
"I just got accepted!"
"Accepted into what? Life?" Rin teases with a giggle at the end.
"No. Rin, get real," Len says with a pause, "that's never going to happen." He attempts to keep a serious face, but laughs afterwards that it leans into his following sentence, "No, I—" he ceases for a giggle and shakes his head, "I got accepted." He stretches out the corners of a paper with his two hands for the trio to see.
Instead of having them lean forward to squint at the small font, he puts the paper to the table and spins it to Miku.
The tealette skims the paper, Rin leans over on the opposing end of the table (with her best intents of reading it upside down), and Kaito quietly awaits his turn to the left of Rin.
"No way, seriously!?" Miku widens her eyes at Len.
"Lemme see!" Rin snags the paper and almost spits out her chocolate milk as she reaches two specific words among the paragraphs. "That university!?"
"What?" Kaito curiously shrugs.
Len snatches the paper from the girls' hands and holds it by the corners.
"I got accepted into Future Media."
"And that's...?"
"Wait, are you serious?" Miku bemusedly goggles Kaito. "You don't know what Future Media is?"
"No..." he emphasizes. "Am I supposed to?"
Len slams his hands to the table and nearly shouts his response. "Future Media is only the best college in the country! If not, the entire continent."
"It's amazing Len got in." Miku looks over her shoulder to the blond. "I thought they weren't accepting applications this early."
"Pffft..." Len waves a hand before her face. "Future Media is always accepting; they're keeping an eye out for the best of the best!"
Rin stops toying with the fork in her salad and thinks. She's here listening to Len babbling about going on his merry way to an expensive and high-ranked college, and lately she herself hasn't even thought about college the past week. It wasn't like she didn't want to go, but—
"In deep thought there, huh?" Kaito laughs as he eyes Rin staring blankly at the table. She perks up and blinks. She starts to wonder why Kaito had strayed from Len's topic, however she instantly notices that Len had taken a seat next to Miku, probably carrying on the conversation. "Second time I caught you getting lost in your thoughts."
"It's nothing, just..." she awkwardly rubs the back of her neck, "college."
"Len's rambling really gets you thinking, doesn't it? Yeah, don't worry, college was also on my mind," Kaito sighs. "Still gotta apply and all and, uggghh—" he drops his head to the table lightly "—too much to do and I don't even know what college I'm going for."
Rin attempts a smile. Kaito lifts his head and Rin starts, "Try finding one with a good program for the arts. Music or voice I'm assuming with you. Whatever college it is, make sure you work hard, all right? No all-nighters." She laughs a little and a bright expression covers her face.
She extends an arm and holds out her pinky. "Promise me."
"No guarantees because I'll probably stay up till midnight... but all right." Kaito wraps his pinky around hers.
"Promise."
"When I grow up, I'll be a singer."
"Oh my gooosh..." Miku groans and flops herself onto the couch. "I can't believe that took me four hours." She takes a pillow and shoves it into her face, muffling even more of her excessive groans. "I'm so glad it's over though."
She throws the pillow aside. Sitting up with an exhausted sigh, Miku takes her cell phone and calls one on her list of contacts.
The ringing repeats and she finally hears a "hello?" from the other line.
"Hey, Len, are you busy?"
There's a pause and soon he replies, "Unless you count going downstairs for a banana 'busy,' then no."
"Good. Hey, um... I know it's kinda late, but do you mind meeting me by the pier?"
"Um..." She hears a shuffling of footsteps and the sound of curtains being pulled open. He sighs. "All right. The pier near the school?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, I'll be there in twenty."
"Thanks."
She has her hands folded over the railing of the pier as she stares into the dark ocean, beautifully illuminated by the crescent moon. Miku closes her eyes for the soft sound of waves crashing against the rocks near the beach. Going forth, pulling back... going forth, pulling back... There's the crackling sound of seafoam falling down to the waters and being pulled back into the tides with it.
"Sounds nice, doesn't it?"
She looks over and Len has his arms folded over the railing, eyeing the waves crashing the rocks.
Miku nods silently. "Yeah..." Even after her response, he's still locked onto the shore. To this she takes a breath and starts to speak up. "Hey, I'm sorry I called you here so late at night. I just... needed a friend."
Len stuffs a hand in his pocket and smiles at her. "Speak up, I'm here."
"Well... after four restless hours, I finally finished and sent my query letter. I just hope they think my novel's good enough." Miku lets out a small, awkward laugh, considering he hadn't butted into the conversation to cheer her up like she anticipated. "Honestly you're the first person I'm telling this to, so..."
He's silent. "... Really?"
"Yeah. I mean, you are the first one I met in the group. Of course, I'd tell you first."
'I think... it was in tenth grade. You opened the door to the classroom holding an envelope in hand, until you claimed you were in the wrong class and apologized. As you exited, something dropped from that unsealed envelope. I picked it up and insisted I head out to return it.'
"I'm sorry, I think you may have dropped this."
"Oh, um, thanks."
"What's it for?"
"I'm just running and errand for my teacher. I'm supposed to give this to Mrs. Masuda."
"All right." The tealette slowly smiles. "I'll see you around then." She turns for the door and wraps a hand around the handle.
"Hey," he catches her attention and she turns his direction, "do you... maybe, wanna sit at lunch with me and my friend?"
"Yeah... gladly."
Right now Len has his elbows propped onto the railing, fingers interlocked, and hands to his upper lip. He watches the ripples in the blue ocean ahead. Squinting, although a vague expression that hints her into thinking he's pondering something.
"... Miku, to be frank, I constantly feel I'm the lesser of the group. You, Kaito, and Rin, you all get along so well. Then I just feel like I'm a burden or that I'm someone you guys can live without."
"That's not true," Miku disagrees. She shakes her head. "Sure, we tease you; sure, we poke most of our little jokes at you, but that's only because we get along so well. You're brave, you're strong, and that's why we know you can handle them. You still pull through when we tease you—you smile. After all, you are the smartest and wittiest of us four."
By now, she's taken him by his hands and pressed her fingertips to his palms.
"No one in our group is any less than our best friend."
"When I grow up, I'll be an author."
"Okay, class, today with your lab partner, you'll use the tools you have on the table to dissect a frog."
The teacher goes over the instructions as Rin silently listens in. Midway into the directions, she perks up and realizes something: her lab partner isn't here today. Considering everyone's partner was the one person they sat next to in their table, she was the only one in hers. Rin raises a hand in the air just as the teacher finishes speaking.
"Yes, Rin?"
"Gumi isn't here today, so I don't have a lab partner to do the experiment with," she replies.
He takes a quick scan of the classroom and to his luck, there's an empty seat next to someone in the back of the room. He smiles and points to that empty seat.
"You can take a seat next to Len. You'll both be lab partners just for today."
Rin nods and walks her way to the back of the class.
Surely the boy who's sitting there isn't a stranger to her. She's had him in one or two classes—frankly she never paid attention to how many though—and during biology he was always alone in the back since there were an odd number of students. Any labs they were permitted to do with a partner he did by himself. He didn't look to have any qualms about it, so she kept to herself. All she's doing right now is praying that he's cooperative; she hates disobliging teammates.
"Hey," she greets him warmly.
He hadn't been expressive to the mention of someone sitting with him, so she assumes it's a good sign. He was attentively listening to the teacher, but hearing her, he gives her a glance, a quick "hey" back, then returns to listening.
She grins and takes the seat next to him.
Rin pokes the dead amphibian with her scalpel, letting out pieces of a broken laugh as she's disgusted with the frog. They're both gathered around the table in their goggles and gloves, examining the frog in the tray. She pokes it again and it jiggles.
"Eww... my gosh, that's gross," she laughs.
"It's not that bad." Len takes the small pair of scissors from the row of tools and slowly and cautiously cuts open the middle portion of its underbelly.
"Ah, gross. I don't want to look."
"Come on," Len says sarcastically and shrugs. "For science." Before she could reply, he's already pinned the exterior he'd cut and is staring at the internal organs of the frog. "Woah, Rin, look at its organs!"
Rin leans forward to the table and seeing its interior, she puts a hand to her mouth, and laughs. "I think I'm gonna hurl."
Len takes a curved needle and lifts up an organ. "No, Rin, look. It's got three livers!"
"No way, dude. I'm not going near that thing." She defensively lifts her hands up, shakes her head, and backs away from the table.
"No, no. No, no, come on." He gestures her to move closer. And to his surprise, she does. Slowly. Once she's gotten close enough to see the frog's internal structure, she makes an uneasy expression. Len uses the needle to lift up one of the livers. He points to a different organ. "See, here's its stomach."
"Yeah, no thanks."
He pulls her back to the table before she's given the chance to walk away. "Ah, ah, ah, not yet."
She sighs annoyingly.
Len sets down the tools he has and puts one hand to the table and the other to his hip. "Since you're being difficult, fun fact: did you know that a frog's eyes help push food down its throat?"
"What? No way," Rin sniggers.
"Way."
Rin, oddly intrigued, looks over her shoulder back at Len and averts her eyes elsewhere. She curiously asks, "... Do you know a lot about frogs?"
"Amphibians, reptiles, mammals, biology, chemistry, psychology, botany, just a lot of science in general."
"You really like science, don't you?"
"Ever since I was born."
"... By any chance, do you want to sit at lunch with me?"
Len laughs, "Sure, why not."
"Hm?"
There are footsteps coming from the right of Rin. Len's walking up to her on the jogging trail as she folds her hands over the wooden railing above the rocks that overlook the sea. He approaches her and shimmies his feet onto the rocks like she had been doing, and watches the orange sky with her.
"Yo," says Len casually.
She faintly smiles back a "yo." Rin slips her hands away from the railing and turns her back to it instead. She puts her elbows atop it. She faces Len. "One more day, huh? After today, it's all tears and departures."
"Yeah... you got any plans for today or tomorrow? College and whatnot? I heard Miku's already sent the query letter for her novel yesterday, so that wait ought to be fun."
Rin smiles. Thinking about how far she's come with her own interest and is waiting for the cue to live out her dream, she's happy for Miku.
"Hey, Rin!" Len chimes as he takes a seat across from her at their lunch table.
"Hey..." Her gaze leans from him to a tealette standing beside him holding a notebook and pencil. "And you are...?"
"Rin, this is—"
"I'm Miku. Pleasure to meet you." Miku extends a hand to Rin.
She shakes it and smiles back. "Pleasure's mine. Oh, and... uh, don't you mean 'Pleasure to Mi-ku?'" Miku tilts her head bemusedly. "I-It's a pun. 'Miku' and 'meet you.' Yeah, get it?"
"Don't... don't do that ever again." Len shakes his head.
"Don't," Miku joins in.
Rin whips her head to the right and stills. Len's here, and still she hasn't told Miku or Kaito, but clearly since she and Len were on the topic now... it would be the perfect time to tell him.
She inhales a deep breath. "Len?"
"Mhm?"
"I know you, Miku, and Kaito are already plotting out the future past today. College, of course..." Rin pauses and a frown settles, "but I won't be joining you guys."
"What? What do you mean?"
"My parents can't afford to pay the college tuition and my school grades aren't good enough to get me into a good college. So... I'm not going to college. I know we were all planning to keep in touch any time we weren't busy with assignments, but... I'm so sorry, Len."
A tear forms in the corner of her eye and soon enough, she begins bawling her eyes out.
"Rin, come here." Len extends his arms out. Rin, needing a shoulder to cry on, softly cries into his shirt as he embraces her in a hug.
He feels as if she's small in his arms—a delicate flower he doesn't want to harm, therefore he isn't holding her too tightly. She's wrapped in his emotions—comfort, sadness, sympathy—all in one as her tears begin to wear out. And now she isn't crying as much as before but a sniffle and wiping away the remnants of her tears.
She pulls away from Len while she's still clutching onto his arms.
Rin sniffs. "I'm sorry... I just knew how all of us were planning to achieve our dreams sometime around or during college and even if we're not going to the same one, know that we were gonna pursue our education in college. Sorry I let you down."
"It's all right. I understand your situation. I do hope that wherever you go after high school, you'll continue to make your dream a reality... and hopefully not let those high school years go to waste."
"I won't." She smiles.
Len continues clutching Rin, faces the setting sun as it disappears from the horizon, and sighs.
"Rin," Len says out of the blue. She turns her attention to him. "I... it's... it's been almost four years now and I never had time to tell you much... or a lot directly to you without Miku and Kaito around. But since it's almost the end of high school and since we're still young, 'hip,' hormone-raging high schoolers... Rin... I like you. Like, like, likeyou. It took me forever to realize, but I love you just the same way I love science."
"Len..." Her eyes widen and she instantly averts her gaze. Her expression isn't as enthusiastic as he once imagined. Len's heart drops.
A couple minutes elapse until she takes a deep breath to regain her composure. Unable to reply with as much confidence as he previously had, she's only capable of letting out her response in a tiny utterance.
"Len... I'm sorry. I thought the relationship between you and I over the years had been... mutual. But, how about one year from now, come back here and tell me that again." She pauses to reflect on her offer. "... Next year, I'll still be here and you'll still be you, just... different. Anything can change. Confess to me again and I'll give you an answer. I won't be going to college and I won't be leaving, so... you know where to find me."
The waves are calm this time; the ocean seems to be at rest. A small ripple first drops to the water and disperses among the surface. Len is near hesitant to say something aloud, but going through the context of this situation once more, he gradually nods his head.
"... Okay..."
"When I grow up, I'll be a scientist."
"Damnit."
Rin mumbles as she fumbles all over her desk wiping papers and writing utensils to the floor. The bell rings resounding everyone's free ticket to the next class... except Rin. And unexpectedly, Kaito.
"Damnit, I'm going to be late to my next class if I don't freaking find this soon!" Rin panics; she's now patting her desk down and looking high and low over the next couple rows of desks.
"Rin, what are you looking for?" Kaito intervenes.
"I can't find my sheet music! It was just here—under my book—a second ago! It's the last day of high school; I can't afford to lose—"
"Is this it?" He pulls out a piece of paper hidden under his assignments.
Rin narrows her eyes, examining the paper in his hand and at the same time, eyes him as her blood boils. "Yes. It. Is," she enunciates. She snatches the sheet music away from him, gives it a glance, and stuffs it into her bag. "Kaito, why did you have it?"
"Sorry, I just saw the title of the sheet music under your book and realized it was the same one I picked up from the first time we met."
"Wait..." She rummages through her bag and pulls out the paper again. "Oh, yeah... we did meet like that, didn't we?"
"Yeah..." After replying to the girl's "thank you," Kaito, still leaning over in an arch-like position in his chair to help pick up her papers, stops to study the papers that'd slipped from her grasp. "Hey... these are sheet music... Did you compose these yourself?"
"Yeah," she nods.
"So I'm assuming you're a musician?"
"Yup, I'm a violinist," she smiles at him, continuing to scrawl answers onto her assignment.
Since he does happen to be the new student, this could be his chance to make a friend. They share a common interest, after all. At least, for music.
"Cool. I'd like to hear you play sometime."
She giggles, "That wasn't a pickup line, right?"
"No, no, 'course not." He waves his hands to dismiss the topic. "Y'know, if you play well, maybe I could sing for one of your pieces someday."
"Oh, you sing?"
"Yeah, want me to demonstrate?"
She realizes the class is almost silent but a few chatters here and there. They were supposed to be working on an assignment and him singing would definitely draw attention if he doesn't manage his voice at a lower volume...
"Nah, I don't want you to draw attention. I'll take your word for it though." He nods and hands her back the papers. She thanks him once more and places it under the books she's using as paperweights. "Hey, what class do you have next?"
"Mathematics."
"You could walk with me to class and sing a little if that's fine."
"Sure." Kaito is about to turn back to his desk, but stops midway, and turns back around to face her again. "I'm Kaito by the way."
The girl shakes his hand. "Rin."
"So the new kid's joining us?"Miku pops her silver spoon out of her mouth.
"It's Kaito, actually," he shyly laughs.
Rin drops herself down onto a seat and pats the empty spot at the edge of the lunch table, insisting Kaito sits. He does so and Miku puts the spoon in her tray.
The tealette lifts her elbows to the table and intertwines her fingers. "Well, Kaito, before you get yourself settled with our group, tell us: what'll you be when you grow up?"
"What to be when I grow up? When I grow up, I want to—"
"'I want?'" Miku questions with an eyebrow raised.
Kaito looks at the group in confusion.
Rin resumes, "Now that you're joining our group of friends, at this table, whenever we talk about our future, we never say 'I want.'"
"We say 'I will,'" Len chimes. "It's been our group motto since we formed. We all deeply want to be something when we grow up. Like here, Rin wants to be a music teacher, Miku wants to be an author, and I want to be a scientist. But because those are occupations for hobbies we're passionate about, we change 'want' to 'will.' To say 'I want to be' is like a cuss word. So, Kaito—restart—what'll you be when you grow up?"
Kaito smiles pridefully and crosses his arms to the table. "When I grow up," he pauses to take in the information he's received from his newfound friends and put it to good use, "I'll be a singer."
Miku looks to Len and nods. He does the same back as if to approve her silent question. She looks to Rin and Rin nods as well. Len extends a hand to the middle of the table between them. Miku realizes what he's doing and puts her hand on top of his, and likewise to Rin who then directs her attention to Kaito. She nudges him to copy the three's gestures.
Kaito puts his hand atop theirs.
"On the count of three, we say 'I will,'" proclaims Miku. "One."
"Two," says Rin.
"Three!" Len and Kaito shout at once.
"I will!"
"No, look, okay, maybe not as great as then, but probably better than when I chugged ten cups of fruit punch nonstop." Kaito leans his back against the lockers and looks at Rin with a side smile.
"Hey, whatcha guys talkin' about?" Miku inquires as she and Len approach the two from a nearby classroom.
"We're ranking our favorite high school moments," Rin informs them.
Kaito continues, "Sunday when Rin and Len swapped places at graduation was probably better than when I chugged those ten cups of fruit punch at prom."
"Wait, Rin and Len did that!?" Miku gasps, mouth agape as she proclaims.
"Yeah, I looked like Rin to take her degree, she looked like me to take mine," Len clarifies.
"No way! You made such a great Rin, I was convinced!" She lightly punches his arm.
"Yeah, well before the ceremony, she did my makeup and I had to tie her hair in a ponytail."
As Miku starts to bubble over the revelation, Kaito tries to get them back to his statement so he can make his initial point.
"Okay, okay, back to what I was saying, that was better than me chugging fruit punch, butduring prom when I dared Rin to kiss Miku without her knowing has got to be better than that."
"Definitely," Rin agrees. "Miku's reaction was priceless." She switches her gaze to Miku. "I like how you didn't pull back when I kissed you."
"Well I didn't absolutely hate it."
"... Was there a bit of tongue in there?"
"See, now you're hallucinating. You just want more of this." Miku exaggerates as she motions her hand in the air up and down her body. She giggles, and then returns to all seriousness. "Okay, but really, guys, last day of high school and..." she looks around at the small circle of friends. Biting her lip and makes an expression as if she was about to cry, "and..." Miku throws her arms around Len, "I'm going to miss you guys."
Len pats her shoulder silently for comfort; he gestures Rin and Kaito to join them in their embrace. Without hesitation, they come forth and all find themselves wrapped in a warm group hug for one last recollective moment.
Once they pull apart, Miku reveals a toothy grin. "It's dismissal, let's walk out together?"
The three nod and follow her lead out the high school doors along with the rest of the school. It would be the last time they walked down those hallways, passed those glass entrance doors, and seen this school together as four.
They wouldn't forget a single moment.
As the group steps off the stairs and proceeds walking to the crosswalk just ahead, all but one is found walking alongside them. Rin, Kaito, and Len stop in their tracks and look over their shoulders. Miku had stopped after the steps when the three continued walking, having her arm outstretched ahead of her, pigtails swaying with the breeze, and bright daylight casting the shadow of a tree overhead.
They walk back to Miku and gathered in a small square. She, still with her arm out, nods to instruct them to follow her motion. They comply.
"Before we all leave for college or..." Miku directs herself to Rin, "start reaching high for our dreams, I'd like to say that wherever we are or whatever college we go to, we'll always keep in touch and keep each other posted daily. Whether we make new friends in the future or not, the four of us will always be the best of friends and whenever we're needed, we'll always be with one another." She concludes her short speech with a smile to each, then happily declares, "So the next time you'll see me will be at a book signing for my best-selling novel! And y'all better come and I'll be sure to give you each a free copy with my autograph."
Len adds to his part, "The next time you'll hear of me will be all over the internet. A world renowned scientist cracking all the mysteries anyone could ever think up."
Kaito shrugs. "Whether this'll come true or not, only the future can tell, but I'll become a singer that everyone would admire and look up to—an idol venerated among many."
They focus themselves to the last person, Rin.
"Unlike you three, I'm not planning to go big. I'll stay where I am in this little city and become a music teacher. So if you ever need to find me, I'll be right back where we started."
Exchanging smiles and a mental countdown from three to one, Kaito nods. With a last breath of high school year, the four throw their hands up in the air—
"I will!"
—and start their own travel down a separate path.
A/N:
"Letting go is the easy part; forgetting the memories is what's hard."
This fanfic was originally posted on my Wattpad account of the same user. It was published on there a while back (the last day of 2016, I believe?), and I had a rule for myself with posting between Wattpad and FFnet, but have realized that as long as the fic I was posting was something I'm proud of and was fine with publishing on here, I could break that rule as much as I want.
Critique on any of my fanficitons (and future fanfictions) is highly accepted and very much appreciated!