There was little fanfare in the time after. Luka went to the library, returned her book, and started the leisurely walk home. On the way back, she stopped by a coffeeshop and bought herself a cup of coffee.
"Anything interesting happen today?" asked the barista and Luka's roommate, Lily.
Now, by this time, the complete mundanity of life had essentially erased Miku from Luka's memory, so she only absentmindedly said, "No, not really. Just returned a book to the library for HIST250."
"Ugh," Lily slapped a hand over her face, "tell me about it. That class is awful."
Luka looked at her askance. "You don't even take that class."
'Hey, I'm the barista," said Lily. "People tell me everything, and at college, their problems boil down to classes, relationships, and-slash-or money."
That word, 'relationships', tinged something in Luka's memory, and at once Miku flashed in her mind. For a moment, Luka considered telling Lily about it, but after a second, she decided not to. It was probably nothing, just a girl who wanted Luka's help with a sociology project. Definitely not anything near any sort of relationship outside of 'casual acquaintances'.
In fact, Luka mused as she walked out of the coffeeshop, latte in hand, it would be a stretch to even call them 'casual acquaintances'. Luka didn't know anything about Miku other than the fact that she was a student from Doriko Academy. She checked her watch. It was nearing five. She took a sip of her latte and ran over her schedule in her head. It was near the start of the semester, so the workload, other than the odd paper, was light. She would have enough time to help a high schooler with her sociology project.
Though she herself did not realize it, Luka was in a state of high anticipation, sort of like how one would feel if one had an appointment for getting one's wisdom teeth pulled, but had no idea when the appointment was until their orthodontist called them. In her dull college life, sad as it may be, getting accosted by a random high schooler had been one of the most exciting events for her thus far. She returned to her room and fixed herself some stir-fried beef with green peppers.
As she did so, Lily poked her head out of her room. "Are you cooking?"
"No," said Luka, "of course not, what could have possibly made you think that?"
"Cool," said Lily, and she plopped herself down on the couch. "Can I have some?"
"I said," said Luka as she cooked, "I'm not cooking."
"Is there rice?"
"Yeah. We still have some left over," Luka said as she glanced over at her phone, which sat on the counter. It had been two hours since she met Miku, and no call.
"Sweet," Lily leaned back against the couch and suddenly snapped her fingers. "Oh, right! Gumi and Cul and the others want to come over later to play King's Cup. Are you down?"
"I don't know, I have a lot of homework," Luka lied.
"Who cares?" said Lily, passionately. "It's a Friday night! Come on."
Luka hesitated and doled out the food onto a plate in lieu of an answer.
"So you agree?" said Lily.
-xxx-
The next thing Luka knew, the room was full of people, there was a big red cup on the table, and she was drinking something that seemed to be comprised of one part orange juice and two parts vodka. She struggled to force it down. Her nostrils burned each time she exhaled.
"I can't remember the rules," Gumi groaned, leaning back against the couch. "This is awful."
"Your face is awful," said Cul, and for some reason she found this so incredibly funny she repeated it again until Lily told her to shut up.
Luka ducked her head and rubbed at her eyes. She was not the type of person who was energetic under the influence. More often than not, she was lethargic and quiet. She checked her phone for the hundredth time. It was nearing midnight. Miku probably wouldn't call; Doriko Academy kid, she probably slept early and woke up early like a good girl.
Of course, it would be right as Luka was thinking that when Miku called. Luka's ringtone blared throughout the room and everyone stopped talking and stared at her.
Gumi spoke first. "Who's that?"
Luka stared numbly down at the phone. She did not recognize the number. "I don't know."
"Answer it!" Cul shouted.
Luka did so and tried to sound as sober as possible. "Hello?"
"Is this Luka?" said Miku.
"Who is it?" Lily asked.
"Oh no," said Luka, realizing how inebriated she was.
"Excuse me?" said Miku, sounding prim and proper, every inch a refined Doriko girl.
"I have to go," said Luka, stepping over Gumi's legs.
"You have to go?" said Gumi. "Wait! Where're you going?"
"Is this a bad time?" Miku asked.
"No, no, it's not a bad time at all!" Luka stumbled and caught herself before she fell.
"Oh," said Gumi, drawing out the 'Oh'. "Is it...possibly...a lover?"
"What?" Lily's eyes practically bugged out. "What the hell! You didn't tell me about that! Who is it?"
"I'm just helping someone out with their sociology project!" Luka protested.
"Um, right, sociology..." said Miku, slowly.
Luka gave up on communicating with her drunken friends and fled to her room, whereupon she shut the door. Her balance wobbly, she made her way to the chair and sat down on it. Her mind was undulating in smooth waves as dread stirred in her gut. She needed to sober up. Luka took a deep breath, waited for her mind to calm, and then spoke.
"I'm sorry about all that," said Luka, as articulately as possible. "So what do you need help on?"
"Are you sure this is a good time?" asked Miku.
"Yes," said Luka. "I would be happy to, um, help you."
"Okay," said Miku. She paused. "Well, for my sociology project, how about we meet up tomorrow? It's a Saturday."
"Meet up?" said Luka.
"Yeah," said Miku. "The project requires some more personal communication. It's not really something that can be done over the phone, so I wanted to schedule a time that was convenient for you."
In her tipsy state, Luka was easily impressed, and Miku sounded so calm and proper that she was awed. Naturally, she bought fully into Miku's sociology story. If Miku was a fisherman and Luka a fish, Luka would have been cut, skinned, and dried by now. "I'm free all day tomorrow, actually."
"Ah, good," said Miku. "How about noon? We can get lunch and talk over it."
That request sounded perfectly reasonable to Luka. "Sure. Where?" Inwardly she braced herself for a blow to her wallet.
"Anywhere is fine. We can just get something cheap," said Miku. Unbeknownst to Luka, Miku was currently on her computer and looking up places that were both cheap enough for a college student's budget and had horrendously slow service so as to prolong their lunch time together. "How about Chinese? You like mapo tofu?"
Luka gave the affirmative.
"Okay," Miku sounded pleased."We can meet up where we met. How about in front of the coffeeshop at noon, then?"
Luka agreed. It was only after she hung up when she remembered that Lily worked at the coffeeshop.
-xxx-
Now let us zoom out, so to speak, and focus on Miku.
At school, Miku was popular and well-known among her classmates. Her personality and mood was capricious; sweet and innocent one moment, mischievous and cunning the next. In different social groups, she was a whole range of Mikus, without any of them being close to her true personality. Sweet and dark, soft and light, vivid and solid...not even Miku knew who she was exactly. This was not a fact that concerned her overmuch. From all appearances outside, Miku was a sealed, bulletproof vessel.
She was a sealed, bulletproof vessel now, standing in front of the coffeeshop. She came five minutes early, as was her wont. Being fashionably late was a convenient excuse for people who couldn't be assed to know the time.
Luka came promptly at noon, and at the sight of her, Miku felt her lips pull up into a smile. The woman looked vaguely anxious for some reason, her head darting to and fro as though she was a thief about to steal a jewel. When she sighted Miku, she jogged forward.
Miku smiled at her. "Hello."
"Hey," said Luka. She looked ill-at-ease, constantly glancing inside the coffeeshop. Miku looked. There was a blonde-haired woman inside, the barista, who was looking inquisitively at the two of them. Miku frowned inwardly. That woman could be anything from a current girlfriend to a casual acquaintance. Best to get that out of the way now.
"Do you know her?" Miku asked, keeping her voice light.
Luka gave a guilty start. "Oh...she's my roommate," she said with a small laugh.
"Oh," said Miku. Even that was vague. Best to get straight to the heart of it. "So, she's your girlfriend?"
"What?" Luka stared at Miku before hurriedly shaking her head. "No! Of course not...we're friends. We live on campus, she's...roommates are randomly assigned."
"Ah. Sorry, it was just the way you looked so nervous," said Miku, grinning. "It's a sociology project, not a date." She watched Luka's face carefully for any change in expression. Save for embarrassment, there was nothing, but that was okay. The idea of 'date' has been planted already, even though Miku hadn't actually overtly said anything yet. According to her psych class, just saying a word could cause someone to form connections with it to the person who said it. Small steps. Miku was patient. "Anyways, would you like to go now? The tofu place is close."
"Sure," said Luka, and the two of them started walking. "So...when is this project due?"
"It won't be due for a while," said Miku. "It's one of those big, long projects, you know."
"Oh," said Luka. "So what do you have to do with this project?"
Miku shrugged. "It's really vague. I don't think our teacher even knows that much about sociology, honestly. It's more of a psych project than a soc one I think. I'm just taking it as an elective. I think I just have to ask you questions about your life and things."
Luka laughed. "My life isn't very interesting."
Miku grinned. "It can't be less interesting than mine. You're in college."
"The life of a college student is tremendously overrated. Anyways, you go to Doriko Academy, so I'm sure your life is fascinating."
Miku's grin widened. One could almost call it predatory, if it wasn't for the fact that Miku was, of course, a demure and respectable girl. "Hardly. In fact-"
Miku would have continued on, if it wasn't for the fact that she spotted one of her classmates walking down the street. Normally, this wouldn't be much of a problem. In school, Miku took pains to ensure that she would be, for lack of a better term, the school idol. Her grades were top-notch, her behavior impeccable. So, if it had been any other student, Miku would have greeted them charmingly.
Unfortunately, this particular student was Kagamine Rin, delinquent extraordinaire, with a Casanova of a brother and a penchant for road-rollers. In elementary school, Rin had terrorized the playground. Now that she was a teenager in high school, she had blossomed into a rebellious conniver. Her parents had sent her to Doriko in hopes of mellowing her, to little avail. When Rin first met Miku, she had her pegged as a little more than a good girl who was probably terrified of bugs or something stupid like that.
Miku had proved her very, very wrong, and in doing so, won Rin's respect. It was a nice thing to have, really, since by doing so Miku could avoid the trouble of constantly dealing with Rin's clique. But at the current moment, when Miku was trying hard to sell the image of a perfect Doriko Academy student to her crush, running into Rin, someone who knew how duplicitous Miku could be, was something that could very quickly throw her plan off rails.
"Is she a friend of yours?" Luka asked, oblivious to complex high school social dynamics.
"Um," said Miku.
"Ah, Miku," Rin drawled. "Is this your newest squeeze?"
Miku decided to go for her studious class president persona. "Oh. Kagamine. Pleasure to see you today."
Rin laughed. "Come off it, Miku, remember who you're talking to?"
Miku groaned, grabbed Rin by the arm, and took her a ways off from the thoroughly confused Luka. "Rin, I know this is hard for you, but play along with me, okay?"
"Miku," said Rin, glancing over at Luka, "she looks like she's in college. If this gets out, you'll be in deep trouble. Isn't dating against the rules, Class President?"
"Since when did I care about the rules?"
"Touche."
"Anyways, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be spraying graffiti on something?"
"I'm visiting my cousin. She works at the coffeeshop."
Miku's eyes widened. "Your cousin is Luka's roommate?"
Rin stared at Miku. "You're trying to date someone who's four years older than you?...well, she is pretty good-looking, I guess, but I didn't even know you were into girls."
"I'm not! I'm just into her."
"Same thing. Anyways, you should probably go back to her, she looks confused." Rin patted Miku on the back. Miku nodded and the two of them walked back to Luka.
"Luka," said Miku, "this is my classmate, Kagamine Rin. Rin, this is my-um, this is Megurine Luka."
Rin smiled at Luka. "Nice to meet you."
"Oh," Luka said. "You're my roommate's cousin, right? She brought you up sometimes. Nice to finally meet you."
"Yeah, I guess," Rin said. Her eyes drifted over towards the coffee shop. "Anyways, I'm going to get going. You two have fun now."
Miku laughed nervously. "Y-yeah, definitely. See you Monday."
Luka followed Rin with her eyes, and Miku quickly grabbed hold of Luka's arm, forcing the older woman to look down at her in surprise.
"So," said Miku, smiling guilelessly, "tofu?"
