Many thanks for the feedback! Some said that this story looks like other works/series plotwise, which is 100% accidental, sorry. It is not the plot but the idea that inspired this story...this might be explained next chapter.
Once again, I thank Jak656 for the amazing beta reading!
Next and last chapter next Friday!
The following morning did not include any unexpected visitors, unexpected gaps in memory, or awkward introductions, much to Miku's relief. Unfortunately, she still couldn't remember her Friday. Still unhappy about her amnesia, but happy to see that it didn't seem to be a reoccurring curse, she calmly did her homework most of the morning before she tried composing a bit. But all the while, the whiteboard stared at her.
There were still too many questions, she thought. They hadn't found enough to even clear a bit of the fog. And there were no leads left.
Distract herself as she might, Miku could not focus on what she wanted to do. What else am I supposed to do, actually, she asked herself? Just wait till a lead falls from the sky? till some incidental scribble unlocks the code? No, she wanted to be proactive and find her leads before they found her. She remembered how direct Luka had been, the moment she said she'd help. Straight to the point. Asking questions, finding answers, agitate! Find a lead and follow it!
But where could she find one? Miku wondered if going for a walk could be helpful, but decided that the odds of crossing people who knew something were too little. She needed people who were at school with her, people she was friends with, people who would have noticed something...
Miku groaned and slapped herself. How could she have forgotten that her own friends were an option? Of course, she'd considered them the previous day, and had decided not to ask them. But after scanning page after page in her geography book, was there any option left, other than giving Rin and Gumi a call?
She briefly wondered if any other potential lead had slipped her mind before inviting them over with a quick text. And then yes, she remembered that she had forgotten something quite important, something she had wanted to tell Luka before Kaito had come in. Unfortunately, she didn't have her senior's number...she wondered if Luka had hers', or if they would talk at all on Monday. Would it be appropriate to approach her first? Considering their places in the unwritten school hierarchy, it would be 'uncool' to talk to her. She scoffed; it was stupid really. If she wanted to talk to Luka on Monday, she'd talk to her. And if Luka wanted to listen, she'd listen. She didn't have the patience to wear masks for the sake of people she didn't care for.
Rin and Gumi almost simultaneously replied that they'd be there as soon as possible. Gumi would have to leave soon after arriving, though, to help prepare for a larger dinner that evening. Miku guessed that they would arrive around the same time; both took the same bus to get to her house, and only a single bus came around every twenty minutes. Chances were fair that they'd step on the same one in an attempt to get there quickly, five stops apart or not.
At that moment, Miku remembered the large, purple hickey she had. It was stubborn, too, and hadn't faded in the slightest. She got changed into something that would hide any 'evidence', before patiently waiting for her friends' arrival.
As she waited for her friends to get to her home, she wondered, briefly, what they would do with the answers once they were found. Would the discovery of the source of one-day amnesia have scientific weight? Would it be credible?
The question of her credibility hit her hard. She remembered Kaito's and Meiko's disbelief at the shared amnesia. But because she had Luka to be a second victim to stand by her, a support to her claim, the two adults had been very willing to help surprisingly quickly. Credibility was even the reason she hadn't called her friends the previous day: they'd probably just laugh at her! What would her close friends say when she told them that she'd forgotten her Friday? Rin, especially, would probably think it all a very big joke.
So she wondered if having Luka over again would help with the credibility. Sadly, she had no way of contacting her, so that option was, no matter what, impossible. She wondered if mentioning the pinkette's name would help, and immediately decided that it would do exactly the contrary; what did The Luka Megurine have to do with...Miku? Even Gumi would laugh at that idea. So, unfortunately, she had to hope that her friends would take her word for it.
Miku smiled fondly. To think that she was actually...ʽgetting closer?' to Luka was heartwarming. She had never thought that she would ever even have a conversation with the girl. She'd always seen her in the halls, walking around with her friends... But she'd never seen her so up close. She had always seemed so calm, collected, and Miku ended up learning that she was much lighter and more jovial than she could imagine. She was a smiling realist, certain of what she knows and wants...
Yes, she'd gotten to know her surprisingly well in only a day. She wondered what Luka thought of her, but decided not to dwell on that.
"We're home!" called Rin as she opened the door.
"Yo," Gumi greeted as she flopped down on the couch next to Miku.
The tealette greeted them, checked if the door was shut, and sat between them.
"Such an unexpected call. What's this about?" asked Rin, sitting to her right side.
Miku hesitated, shy all of a sudden at the sight of her friends. They looked like they expected something about the music club or a surprise outing. Little did they know that she planned to interrogate them...or be their laughingstock.
"I have some questions for you..." she started, her eyes nervously darting around the room. She was already curled up in a ball, ready for the worst case scenario.
"Whoa, what's that?" Rin jumped at and looked at the whiteboard. "I didn't know you had a whiteboard! Come on, let's play a thousand games of tic-tac-toe!"
"Wait!" Miku stopped her before Rin could erase the time line. "That's...that's important..."
"This?" Rin looked at the line with a quizzical pout. "This for history or something?"
"It's got 'Friday' written in the middle..." observed Gumi. "Related to the questions you wanted to ask?"
Miku nodded.
"See...I'm trusting you two to know that I'm telling you the truth," Miku explained slowly. Rin, surprised by her quiet tone, sat back down. "This is serious and honestly, a little scary. I've been dealing with it all day yesterday."
"Geez, what happened?" asked Gumi, concerned.
"You need to promise me that you'll take this seriously," warned Miku, holding her knees tighter. "Because if you two think I'm lying then I'll push you onto the next bus home."
"Yeah, yeah, OK, I won't laugh or anything!" assured Rin. Miku could feel her getting anxious.
Gumi nodded, a slight crease in her brow.
"I don't remember a single thing from Friday," the tealette declared. "Not a second."
She let it sink in.
"You forgot Friday?" Rin asked.
"Freaky..." mumbled Gumi. "That's what the board's for, right?"
"Yes...I've been trying to piece together what happened."
"It's just a Friday, Miku," Rin sighed, leaning back. "It's not like anything important happened on Friday..."
"It's more than the events of Friday..." she tried to explain. "These things don't simply happen, Rin. People don't forget whole days. I want to know why it happened."
"Eesh, that's gonna be tough..." Gumi sighed. "You already made some progress, though. Kudos."
"It's only the evening, though. I know what I did then, but I don't know why I forgot it all."
Rin gasped.
"Did you remember all the extra homework we had?!" she asked.
"Yes, Rin, I wrote it all down in my agenda. But...see, that's the other problem," Miku turned more towards her. "I can't remember what I did. I can't remember if I hurt someone, if I owe someone money, if I made some other promise, if I arranged an outing or agreed to go someplace. It's...bigger than just Friday."
"Ouch yeah, that's a big deal," agreed Gumi. "And what if it happens again?"
"Exactly!" Miku exclaimed as she turned towards her.
"Alright, so...what do you want to know?" Rin asked.
"What happened on Friday?"
A heavy pause.
"Well...it was a typical Friday, actually," stated Rin, not knowing what else to say.
"Oh?"
"You arrived at school...we went to class. Math. Two hours..." listed Gumi. "Ten o'clock. English. Then history. Lunch. Two hours of Geography topped by an hour chemistry. End of class. Done."
"Is that really all?" asked Miku, who had gotten more and more desperate as the list went on. "Nothing weird or unusual or out of the ordinary?"
Both girls thought for a long while. With each passing second, Miku grew more and more nervous: what if there was nothing at all? The idea jarred her. What if there was no reason, no why? What if it all just happened senselessly? She couldn't bear the thought. She couldn't bear the wait.
"All I know is that at one point, we were walking together, and then you just...disappeared," said Rin all of a sudden. "You still arrived in class on time, though."
"Really? When was it?" asked Miku, surprisingly calm for the magnitude of her relief. There was something, after all!
"Probably after lunch. You both have Geography. I got Physics, so I wasn't there," Gumi reasoned. "Where'd she run off too?"
"I'm not sure. She just darted down the hall and disappeared around the corner. I couldn't ask after class, then I guess I just forgot about it."
"Alright..." Miku got up and put a dot on noon. She captioned it 'Disappearance: ran someplace. Why?', before circling the question.
Rin raised a brow.
"'Shopping together'? Together with who?"
Miku froze but managed to force a shrug.
"I got the witness from Kaito. It's a long story, and since I don't plan to write it all down, it won't make much sense."
There was no need to explain who Kaito was; they'd both been to the store he works at, and knew who he was. That also made the 'shopping' comprehensible.
"So explain to us," deadpanned Gumi, still stuck on the 'together'.
Miku hesitated.
To tell or not to tell? She wondered, once again, if mentioning Luka would be a good decision or not. Would it work in her favor in any way? On the contrary, how much could it work against her?
"Very well...you two believe in my amnesia, and for that, I am eternally grateful. But I'm wondering if you can believe this..." she said, mentally preparing herself.
She didn't turn away from the board, she didn't let go of the marker. She could feel the stares on her back.
"Try us!" Rin roared. "I'll bet you can throw anything at us and we'll still believe you till the end of time!"
Miku exhaled shakily one last time.
"Very well...I was shopping with…Luka."
Another heavy pause.
Then laughter. Miku deflated. Even Gumi was having trouble keeping her laughs quiet.
"Luka? Luka Megurine?" Rin asked between chuckles. "That one's for the books!"
Miku hung her head, quiet.
"Do you even know who she is, Miku? She'd never hang out with you! 'Cause you're one of us!" Rin exclaimed. "And we're all at the bottom of the barrel! Why would she, of all people, be scraping down with us? With you?"
Miku shrugged. Why indeed?
She shouldn't have expected her friends to believe so much. Believing sudden amnesia was tough enough, and she was thankful that they'd made so much effort to remember for her. But how could she expect that they'd believe that Luka would be with her that day? It was too much to ask for, she admitted to herself.
A sudden loneliness filled her. Even as her friends helped her with retracing her steps, if even a little, she was the only one blindfolded, in the dark, with no straws left to grab onto. It hurt, and she started missing so many little things so deeply and painfully that she couldn't find out what she suddenly wanted.
She stood in front of the board, feeling her resolve and her heart break. She had no other paths to run down, her friends were laughing right at her, and Luka was somehow very far away. Once again, the quest felt hopeless. She wanted...she needed a hand, a smile, a bit of effort, a word, all so precisely placed that she'd know where she was going again, she'd know what she wanted again. But she was cold, alone, center stage in a comedy club.
She felt like crying. Somehow, the most pain was caused by Luka simply not being there. So what if her friends didn't believe her, she didn't need them anyways! So what if they laughed at her, they didn't know that they were wrong, after all! They didn't need to believe that she had been with Luka, she especially didn't need to know that she'd gone so far as sleeping with her! So what about Rin and Gumi?! She needed...
"Hey..."
She jumped at the sudden voice; it was so close to her. She looked up, and saw Gumi just a step away, looking hurt.
"Sorry..." her friend mumbled. "I...it must be really hard on you, all this."
Miku nodded, sniffing. She was crying, she realized. She didn't like her friends seeing her cry.
"Luka, though!" howled Rin. "She's royalty compared to us! She must have hit her head or something, thinking that Luka would spend a second looking in her direction! That would explain the amnesia, too!"
"Oh, can it!" snapped Gumi. "Just shut up for a second, will you? Luka or not, Miku's hurtin', dammit! And you're not helpin'!"
Rin quickly grew quiet but continued giggling quietly every now and then. Miku felt thankful for her quiet friend but wasn't feeling much better.
"It's gotta be pretty rough, forgettin' a whole day. Can't even imagine the feeling," Gumi said after a while when Rin's laughs had mostly died down.
Miku felt that her friend was trying to lure her back to the couch, but she didn't feel comfortable crying in front of them. She hadn't ever before, she realized. She never had a reason to cry, either.
She sat on the couch regardless and noticed that Rin was still smiling. A bitterness filled her, and she hated herself for it.
"What can we do to help?" asked Gumi, sitting next to the tealette, who had once again rolled herself into a ball.
"I don't get math much..." she mumbled. "But it's alright."
"I'll get you back up to speed, then. We can work on that during lunch!" offered the blonde.
"And...do you know of any promises I could have made?" asked the tealette, still mumbling.
Rin quickly answered, "Nah. Besides homework, which you wrote down, there's nothing, trust me. We'd know if you had agreed to anything important. Like a date, or something. ...with Luka of all people!"
Miku scowled, but they couldn't see. Rin had, of course, burst back into full laughter, and Gumi reached across the couch, over the tealette, just to slap her.
Of course, she was just a little bit relieved that apparently, she wasn't forgetting anything major as far as her friends were concerned.
Luka of all people. Why Luka?
Miku sighed: something in her hurt.
"Want anything?" asked Gumi, who had finished dealing with the blonde. "A mug-cake?"
"I had one yesterday," answered Miku.
Gumi nodded, understanding that day one post-amnesia would indeed be the best day for a mug-cake.
"Maybe some leeks?" asked Rin, finally calm and serious.
"I ran out."
"Yeesh..." sighed Gumi.
The trio sat in silence for a short while. Rin and Gumi were suddenly feeling silly and worthless, for what could they do without leeks or excessive chocolate to cheer their friend up? And what power did they have against amnesia? What knowledge did they possess in curing it, solving the mystery, or generally helping their friend through it?
Miku was simply thankful that they were sharing the silence with her. With the laughing gone and the mockery in the past, she finally started feeling slightly less lonely, more comfortable with simply crying or a little while.
"If...if you really were with Luka on Friday...how did that happen?" asked Rin suddenly, very careful about sounding sincere in her question, with absolutely no intention of making fun of her friend again.
"I don't know," deadpanned Miku. "I forgot."
"Ah...right."
"You know..." started Gumi, hesitating. "I might remember somethin' else..."
"Oh?" Miku perked up the slightest bit, peeking over her knees.
"Yeah. You got a letter on Friday morning. I forgot because...well, you didn't bring it up. It was pretty long, too. The ink had seeped through the paper. The envelope had nothin' written on it, though. Apparently, it was really well written because you just got happier and happier the more you read it."
"Happy how? Miku gets happy in so many different ways!"
"'Lookin' forward to something' kind of happy, I guess... But you didn't talk about it."
"Huh..."
Miku got up and put a dot on the time line. She usually gets to her locker before class, partly to check if she had forgotten anything, partly to drop off stuff she only needed later that day. So she put the dot slightly before eight: when the bell rang. She labeled it 'Letter'.
"Really nothing happened besides that?" she asked, feeling her heart accelerate.
This was the beginning of something, she thought. This letter, it could be behind everything! It happened at the beginning of her day, and almost nothing else could have influenced her before that point. That letter...yes, that was the start of it all. It all started at eight that morning.
"Most I can say is that maybe...you were antsy? Just a bit?" Gumi stated, unsure. "But you didn't say a word so I thought nothin' of it. If it had been important, you would've brought it up."
"You did hurry up a bit after class to leave, maybe," added Rin. "You kinda...just left. Real quick."
"That too, yeah."
Miku added the final dot, then eyed the board. Letter. Disappearance. Left quickly. Shopping. Encounter. Five dots, five clues...they'd doubled their hints, yet Miku still felt so lost. The ache hadn't quite left.
"Thanks," she said, her voice suddenly clear. "This helps."
"Really? Just looks like a mess to me!" exclaimed Rin as she made a face. "It looks like none of those even have a slight thing to do with each other!"
"And who would write you a letter?" asked Gumi. "Why?"
"Where did you go around noon? Why run off so quickly?" Rin pondered.
Gumi snapped her fingers.
"Luka!" she exclaimed.
Rin was about to burst into laughter again, but Gumi continued.
"Don't you see? That's the only thing that makes sense!" she started. "The situation is strange and all, and you being with Luka is just somethin' that, no offense, would never happen. But if you put the two together, it makes sense! She writes you a letter, you go to see her that afternoon, and...go shoppin' with her?"
Two pairs of eyes looked at her.
"Plausible..." mumbled Miku.
"Please!" Rin rolled her eyes. "There are a lot of little flaws in your theory!"
She got up from the couch and pointed to the board.
"First, where the hell did she go around noon, huh? Luka doesn't answer that at all! Second, why would Luka go shopping with her? I don't care what was in that letter, but it sure as hell didn't say 'May I please join you in your food shopping? I am most curious about your calorie intake!'!" she paused. "I don't know what the hell 'Encounter' means, but there is one more significant plot hole! How did Luka get that letter there before the bell rang? Did she plant it the day before?"
The 'why' came back once again. Gumi and Miku stared at their friend, then the tealette sighed. It would seem the letter needed a reason, too. It wasn't the start of it all, but it was how it all began for her. But...what was behind the letter?
"She's right. There are still too many questions and not enough answers. Not enough is stringing this together."
Gumi deflated slightly.
"Well, at least the ball is rolling. We're talking, brainstorming..."
"I forgot...there is one more major flaw in the plan!" yelled Rin. "What is Luka doing with Miku in the first place?!"
"Rin, I swear to God-"
"Admit it. The whole 'Luka' thing makes it all fall apart," concluded Rin as she returned to her spot on the couch.
Miku stared at the board, trying to grow a thick skin. After all, the repetition was making the words sound stale, and they didn't sting as they had moments prior.
Gumi's theory did sound plausible, but Rin's serious points did have their strength, too. No, she could not draw any conclusions at that time. There simply wasn't enough, even with five dots on the board.
"I need to leave..." mumbled Gumi, snapping Miku out of her thoughts.
"Ah yes, you said that in your message," answered the tealette, putting the marker down.
"Miku and I can go bake a cake! Take our minds off of things!" cheered Rin. "Double Orange Cheesecake!"
A polite knock was heard at the door. Rin froze, her hands still in the air. Gumi frowned.
"You...expecting someone?" she asked, standing.
Miku shook her head.
"I'm not," she answered.
"Or maybe you are, and you forgot!" exclaimed Rin with horror.
"Welcome to my life..." sighed Miku as she went to the door.
She opened the door, and was surprised to once again find, of all people, Luka. She stood there with a smile, as if she'd been looking forward to seeing the tealette all day. Miku froze for half a second.
Dozens of things ran through her head/ It was like seeing Luka had been the gunshot that had started the race of a thousand warnings. Rin and Gumi were there. They didn't know that Luka also had amnesia, they didn't know that Luka was helping, they didn't know they had become close, they didn't know that they'd slept together. All they knew was that, according to Kaito, they had shopped together. There was no way she could reasonably explain the pinkette's presence there without having to explain that they'd woken up in the same room. After all, how would they have known of their shared amnesia in any other way? If they hadn't met in Miku's bedroom, they would have gone about solving the mystery their own separate ways, probably blissfully unaware of the others' identical plight.
And even as those thoughts ran around in circles in her mind, something else came up like some backdrop: it wasn't the main focus, yes it had ultimate influence on her mood, her happiness.
She was surprised that the pinkette had decided to drop by, and hadn't at all expected to find her at her door once again. Had they previously agreed that she'd return? No, they'd left without promises or commitment. Her return felt, despite that, natural somehow. She felt foolish thinking that the older teen would have let the issue die. Of course she'd come back, and Miku, in her panic, found strange happiness at the return.
The mixture of happiness and danger threw her off, and all Miku could think of doing was exit her own apartment and close the door behind her.
"Oh, well hello," whispered Luka, surprised that Miku hadn't let her in, and had instead gone out.
Miku found she was at a loss for words. She didn't know where to start. She didn't want to shoo her away, but she didn't want to have to explain to her friends why she'd left the room. She didn't know how to juggle the elements forced upon her.
Suddenly, Luka's expression shifted.
"Have you been crying?" she asked, her question carried by the echo.
Despite the whisper, Miku recognized the tone in Luka's voice; it was similar to the one she'd used when they'd first met. She'd forgotten it, but it's strangely cold ring sent unpleasant shivers down her back.
"Ah..."
Miku realized that her eyes were probably still red and puffy. Yes, she'd been crying...and Luka had seen right through her.
"Uhm..."
"Are you alright?" the pinkette asked, her voice taking on another edge.
"Yes...!" the tealette managed, her voice quiet. "I'm...I'm alright."
"What happened?"
"Nothing, really. I just got a little bit upset with my friends."
Luka's brow furrowed.
"Are you trying to find out more about what happened on Friday with their help?" she asked.
"Yes. But they...they made it difficult, at a moment."
"Is that so..." Luka looked at her for another second before looking around the empty halls. "Can we go in?"
"Ah..."
Miku didn't move. She needed to explain how difficult it was to justify her presence. Did she have to leave? Did she have to shoo out Rin with Gumi?
"They..." she started abruptly, her voice suddenly very loud. "...they don't know much."
Luka's brow raised, and Miku smiled through her nerves.
"They only know we shopped together. They don't know...literally anything else about...us."
She saw how the problem made its way to Luka's mind. She stayed resolute, somehow, and Miku latched onto the present determination to try to anchor herself in her sea of disarray.
"They don't have to know," concluded Luka. "And we don't have to answer if they ask."
Miku's heart skipped a beat at the cold tone and the cold stand Luka was apparently prepared to take. Would she truly shake off any questions asked? She sounded so sure of herself though that Miku couldn't help but agree with that plan of action. After all, what else could she do?
"Alright," answered the tealette.
She opened the door and let the taller girl in, and noticed that her senior's posture had changed to something taller, colder, more unwelcoming. She didn't know how to feel about it and didn't know how to feel about this version of Luka being presented to her two closest friends. Would they ever meet the person she'd gotten to know the previous day? Would she get to see that person again?
Somehow, she was certain that the facade would melt away when the danger left. She was certain that the Luka she had come to know would return to her.
"So who was it?" asked Rin from the couch. Gumi had also taken her seat, so both effectively had their backs turned towards the duo.
A strange, smug happiness added itself to the fears that filled the tealette. She could show them, prove to them that she was right, that she wasn't delusional, that she had indeed been with Luka of all people!
And suddenly, she deflated, and the fear froze her over once again. It was pointless to feel smug about something she hadn't initiated and she couldn't control. Of course, she was glad that the mockery she had suffered would be redeemed, but no, she couldn't flaunt Luka's presence. After all, the pinkette was more than something to show off! Not to mention, there was no guarantee that Luka would stay. Miku couldn't demonstrate any solid friendship, and so as far as Rin and Gumi were concerned, they could only see that Luka was also in the quest for the truth, regardless of Miku and who she was. As far as they were concerned, this was an episode, a phase, that would end the moment the answer would be found.
Luka advanced towards the whiteboard. Seeing the pinkette and her friends all together in the same room filled Miku with a strange feeling that for better or worse, the change had been permanent. She felt that there was no going back to the previous status quo, despite having no proof for it. She remembered the comfort her senior had provided, how they'd talked, how they'd worked together and she felt that there was more behind Luka's actions than mere curiosity. It was just a feeling, she thought, and hoped it was enough.
And so it was with a content happiness and a solid peace of mind that Miku walked before her friends with Luka at her side. At the sight of her friends' expressions, an unstoppable pride filled her as well. Yes, no matter what, no matter the deal, she was happy to be standing next to Luka.
She introduced her friends to the pinkette, who bowed politely, greeting them. Rin was too wide-eyed to respond, while Gumi managed to return the greeting with only a stutter.
Luka then turned her attention to the whiteboard as she sat down on the couch, at the opposite end from where Gumi was sitting. Rin scooted closer to her friend, discreetly, still staring.
"Anything new?" asked the pinkette, making herself comfortable once again, ignoring the attention.
Miku jumped next to the board, a smile plastered on her face.
"Actually, yes!" exclaimed Miku, excited for various reasons. Surprisingly, proving to her friends that she was friends with the Luka had become the lesser force behind her smile. Her greatest joy was surprising the pinkette with the new, mysterious information. "Three things: first of all, I get a letter in my locker at eight in the morning. Then, sometime around noon, while I was walking to class with Rin, I suddenly ran off someplace. I did make it to class on time, though. Finally, at four, I left the school in a noticeable hurry."
She stood there, smiling. Gumi and Luka had paid attention to the update, but Rin never stopped staring. Luka seemed to think for a while, until suddenly Rin yelled the question both friends had been wondering since the pinkette had walked in:
"So how did Luka come into this, huh?!"
Miku froze, but Luka didn't visibly react. Gumi looked from the tealette to their senior, then back, waiting for an answer.
"Long story short," started Luka. "I also forgot Friday. We discovered that it's something we share, and decided to work together to find out what happened, and why."
Miku could see that the 'how' was on the tip of Gumi's tongue, but she remained silent. Miku was grateful for her friend's quiet tendencies but feared that she'd find the true answer through observational skills alone. Rin, however, seemed semi-satisfied with the answer.
"Huh!" she blurted, still staring.
"Yes, it's funny how strange occurrences don't happen alone," said Luka in a finishing tone; there was no more talking about that topic, whether they liked it or not.
Miku shivered at her unchanging icy voice.
"So, it could have all started with the letter," she started. "Any idea who it could have come from?"
Miku shook her head with an apologetic smile.
"Not really."
"Hey, can't you just find it again?" spewed Rin, her eyes finally away from Luka.
Gumi also turned towards the tealette; two pairs of expectant eyes stared.
"I don't have it anymore," Miku stated.
"How can you be so sure?" pressed Rin urgently.
"Because we spent most of the day yesterday searching for clues in our things," defended Luka, her tone taking yet another edge. "She would have found it then."
"Oh..." Rin shrank away slightly.
Miku could see that Gumi was on the verge of exploding with questions, yet she still remained silent.
"One hypothesis was that you sent me the letter," said Miku.
"Too many flaws, though!" added Rin.
Luka turned towards the blonde, wordlessly asking for her to elaborate.
"Well, it's just infinitely more likely that it's some dumb confession letter. Plus, it doesn't answer anything else that happens... Like, how did it get it there so early? If you'd dropped it off on Thursday, you would have remembered, since hey, you also have the amnesia, so someone else must have after we left class. Also, why did Miku run away around noon? Why'd she leave in a rush? And..."
Miku could feel that she was going to add her ultimate argument: why would you write to Miku anyways? She didn't even need to glare at her for her to go silent, though, for Luka's even stare had managed to limit her list to the strict necessary.
Luka thought for a second.
"I disagree. I think the letter was from me."
"Oh?" asked Miku.
"If we use the principle of Ockham's Razor, then it wasn't a confession letter."
"Who's Ockham?" asked Rin.
"The principle says that to solve a very, very difficult problem, one must use the most obvious and most simple solution. In our very difficult situation, instead of adding more elements, let's simply suppose that it's linked to the elements we already have," she paused. "So, instead of this letter being from an admirer of sorts, it should, most likely, be from me."
Luka stood and pointed at the first dot.
"It's not entirely senseless, either. I get to school thirty minutes early most days. You couldn't have known this, but this makes it all the more likely that I had indeed dropped it there before school started," she paused. "If we try to find out why I wrote to you, then my first guess would be that I wanted to speak to you after class. Why? See here"-she pointed at the mark around noon-"you left. It's entirely plausible that you had seen me, and wanted to communicate to me that you end class an entire hour later than I did.
"Of course! Miku had forgotten about that and felt silly.
"This would also justify why you would leave so quickly; you knew that I had been waiting for you for quite a bit of time."
"But...but why would you want to speak to Miku?" asked Rin.
Luka stood before the whiteboard, staring at the dots.
"I don't know," she answered.
Miku felt herself freeze over a bit. The constant reminder that they had nothing to do together continued to pain her.
"But..." continued the pinkette. "I'm willing to find out."
Miku nodded, unsure how to interpret that phrase.
"Don't either of you know anything about the letter at all?" Luka asked, not moving.
"There's no way to know," mumbled Gumi. "I couldn't read it. You forgot about it"-she gestured to the duo-"And for some reason, it's lost."
"What effect did it have on Miku?" pressed Luka. Her tone still hadn't softened and carried its icy ring.
Gumi thought for a while.
"I might be wrong, because I didn't really pay attention to it at all. So, general impressions, here... She might've been surprised, at first. Then, as she read, she understood more and more. The sender, or rather, you, Luka, must've been really good at explaining the various motives behind the letter. Then it could've ended with an agreement or an offer to meet, as you suggested. Miku then put the letter back in the envelope, but I don't know much more about it than that, or where she put it."
Luka sighed, and Miku couldn't help but feel equally defeated. Somehow they'd managed to find the source of literally everything that had happened the previous two days, and it was gone. All the answers it carried were gone. One step forward, two steps back.
There was the comfort that they had retraced their steps quite precisely, and she found pride in their apparent capability for finding out so much. Yet, in the grand scheme of it all, those little things meant nothing. Both she and Luka knew where it all lead, but both needed to know why it all happened.
Luka seated herself on the couch, her eyes remaining on the board. She was visibly in deep thought, but Miku couldn't guess what occupied her. She was probably wondering why she had contacted her in the first place. Miku didn't want to wonder why. She didn't want to question why it had all happened...for some reason, being reminded of how different they were made their current...friendship? seem all the more fragile. She was happy, she realized, that it had happened. The regrets were mostly gone.
But the questions remained. And of course, Miku wanted to have them answered, and not to question why Luka would want to talk to her, but to find out why she'd forgotten. Yes, that was what she wanted to have answered. The amnesia was all that troubled her, and it was all she wanted to unravel.
She seated herself between Luka and Rin, who was still scooted all the way against Gumi. The green haired girl seemed a bit anxious about leaving but quietly stared at the duo nonetheless.
"I can't believe that Luka had nothing better to do all Friday afternoon than wait for Miku..." mumbled Rin loud enough for them all to hear. "I mean, waiting an hour is waiting a long time! I don't see why she'd wait so long for someone she doesn't even know!" she paused, then added, sheepishly, "No offense."
Miku couldn't help but feel dejected at that. Luka herself had said exactly the same thing only a day prior.
"I think I can see why," answered Luka. The ice from her voice had melted away, all of a sudden.
Miku couldn't fight the smile that came to her no matter how hard she tried.
"Oh," Miku said, somewhat caught off guard. "...that's nice..."
Gumi stared at them for another second, before standing up.
"So...no more ideas, Rin?" asked Gumi, nudging the blonde with her foot.
"Ideas? Me?" asked the twin.
"Anythin' weird on Friday," reminded Gumi with endless patience.
"Ah...no...?"
"Alright then..." Gumi trailed off. Then suddenly, she turned towards the tealette. "Sorry Miku, but I gotta go."
"It's alright, you already explained-"
"Rin's gotta go, too!" exclaimed Gumi out of the blue, grabbing the blonde by the arm. "Remember, you have a thing with a guy at a place. Let's go."
"Oh yeah...I got a thing..." mumbled Rin. "What thing?"
Then the door slammed shut.
"Miku, for some reason people are very swift when it comes to leaving your apartment."
"...I noticed."
The tealette was honestly perplexed by Gumi's very obviously odd behavior. Normally she was very soft-spoken and reserved, more observation and less action. For her to storm out in such a way was...unusual.
Luka stood, and the sudden cold made Miku realize that they'd been seated quite close to one another. The pinkette studied the board for a minute or two.
"So...at eight, you got a letter," she started. "Most likely from me. I probably dropped it off there earlier that day. What it said is a mystery. Why I wrote it is also lost. Then..."-her finger slid down the time line, to stop at the mark at noon-"you run off someplace, most likely to warn me about the fact that your class ends later..." she trailed off, then kept going down the line. "Then you leave class in a hurry. Again, possibly to me, because I was waiting for you. Next thing we know, we're shopping together, only to end up at your place, little more than an hour after."
She sighed, hands behind her back. There was so much guesswork. Miku could only watch and agree, her mind swarming with questions.
Why, why, why? That one, in particular, burned a hole in her mind.
Somehow, the burn was soothed by the sight of Luka standing there, unwavering, in front of the whiteboard. Her attention was entirely put into deciphering the code of their mystery. Seeing this determination filled Miku with the calming hope she'd needed more than once.
Yet, the realist inside her knew that, while they were making strides of progress at a time, it was entirely possible that they might never find an answer. Would she be able to live with the fact that she forgot a day, one in her whole life, and never know why? She shivered.
"We've been working ourselves silly for two days," stated Luka.
"It's only...twenty to one," said Miku after looking at her phone. "We still have an entire afternoon and evening to find things."
Luka laughed.
"I'm saying that it's just past noon and you've already done enough to double all we could do yesterday, and that you deserve a break."
"A break?"
"Yes. If it's going to kill me, I'm getting you out of this apartment and I'm going to get you to have some fun on this beautiful Sunday afternoon." Noticing Miku's apprehensive expression, Luka laughed and quickly added, "And no worries, it'll all be rated E!"
The tealette, apprehensive, curious and suddenly very excited to spend time with Luka in a different context, smiled and nodded. With a grin, Luka held out her hands, helping Miku stand from the couch. A useless, friendly gesture that had Miku stand with a bounce, close to Luka and her smile.
"Let's go, then!" cheered the pinkette. "Bring your coat: we'll be out for a little while!"
Miku did just that before locking the door behind her.
When they both stood in the hall, Luka put a finger to her lips, playfully shushing them both. Miku giggled in response, only to stop herself from making such noise in the halls. They hurried out the door before bursting into laughter.
"Now come on!" called Luka grabbing Miku by the elbow.
"Where to?" asked the tealette, dragged into a run.
The pinkette merely grinned at her, running as fast as she could, before calling out, "To the bus stop! Our bus comes around in a minute!"
Miku sat on the bus, head leaning against the window. She was sure she was falling asleep only a minute or two away from her stop, yet felt she couldn't care less. She watched the lights go by, the lights that came from the inside of other people's houses, the lights that lit up the street, the lights from other cars, the ones that were reflected in the glass.
She chuckled once, softly, to herself, and let her eyelids drop shut. She felt all that surrounded her: the noise of the engine, the soft chatter of that single conversation in the back of the bus. The smell of cigarette, some disgusting car oil, and salt filled her nose. She felt cradled by the comfortable seat, the gentle rocking of the vehicle around her, the glass against her head, and Luka's presence at her side.
The pinkette had somehow managed to funnel the entire day into one second, and she had no idea how she'd done it. Miku smiled at the recent memories, wondering if somehow Luka had known that she was a big fan of karaoke. Either way, she knew it now if Miku's enthusiastic participation was any indication; the moment the tealette had understood that Luka had dragged her to her favorite karaoke place, she felt she was in for an adventure. It was also a bar, so there were a handful of other people there to sing or listen away their Sunday afternoon. Luka had introduced her to the owner of the place, a tall man named Gakupo (who incidentally knew nothing of what they'd done on Friday) before showing her how to take a spot in the queue and chose a song. Miku was more accustomed to the private booths for groups, so didn't know how an open-house place like that worked. She remembered standing at the computer, finger hovering over the screen, wondering how it all worked, as Luka stood just behind her, hand on her shoulder, patiently describing it all. How she could search by genre, artist, or...just a feeling.
As time ticked on, Luka and Miku sang songs and listened to others. Every now and then one of them stood up, song in mind, because of a sudden urge to sing it. Miku had been shy at first; she hadn't sung in front of strangers before. But before the sun set, she could easily reserve her song and sing it in front of the growing crowd. It was fun and only got more fun as the evening approached.
When the sun set, Luka took one alcoholic drink 'to celebrate'; the first all day, and the last. Before, Miku had amused herself with selecting most everything from the menu, taking one at a time, at the rate she finished her drinks. Luka had taken her favorite beverage (simple sparkling water) again and again, breaking the chain with her one glass of wine. She'd ordered it with a reassuring smile and a promise there would be no complications because of it. Miku, who had been at ease, believed her within a heartbeat and didn't think much about it at all. She'd almost forgotten about it, till Luka had said that she thought that it would worry her more. The younger girl merely smiled and said that she trusted her, right before heading back onstage to sing a very old favorite of hers'.
As the sky got darker the place got more and more crowded, and Miku could understand what Luka had meant when she had said that Meiko's store had looked...magical. The tealette wasn't used to open karaokes, but the ambiance, the people, and the lights made it seem so spectacular, theatrical. Luka said that she came there so often that it was practically part of her everyday life, but her eyes said that she understood what Miku had meant.
Of course, getting a turn to sing meant waiting twenty minutes in line. The screens displayed the names, making organization the least of their worries. The real problem was remembering that a turn was coming up; conversation between Luka, Miku and Gakupo was vibrant, and when it was just the two girls, it became entrapping. More than once did the whole house have to call the name for either girl to realize that their turn was there. Gakupo laughed at them frequently between mixing drinks and became less and less involved in their conversations as time went by and the house filled up.
Half past five, already quite dark, was when Luka realized that they had to leave. Miku remembered that she'd left around the same time just the previous day. Despite the fact that the night was still young, she had to acknowledge that it was Sunday, and that they had school the next day. A little let down but still shining, she agreed to go home.
She'd thought that maybe they would say goodbye outside, but Luka didn't say a word and walked with her to the bus stop. When the bus did arrive, Miku said that she thought that Luka lived even more westward, to which the pinkette replied that she did, but she wanted to walk the tealette home.
The moment they'd gotten seated, Miku entered a dreamlike state. She stared out the window, and threatened to fall asleep.
Her head nodded, falling down against the glass slowly but surely. Before she fully slipped into the land of dreams, Luka took her hand. Miku mumbled her way back to consciousness, suddenly fully aware of Luka sitting right next to her, of her hand in hers'.
"Next stop," whispered her senior, standing and pulling Miku to her feet.
"Alright, I'm awake," said Miku, only half-convincingly, as she stood next to the taller girl by the door.
Despite her declaration of being totally conscious, Luka didn't let her go.
They stepped outside into a bitterly cold wind. Miku burrowed into her vest, feeling just a tad under dressed; the cold tickled at her ankles and neck, and her hands weren't safe from the bite, either. Luka didn't fare much better, but had no trouble keeping Miku right next to her.
The tealette was, by then, totally accustomed to having her hand being held. At first, it was such an alien feeling; she wasn't one for those little touches. But Luka pushed past her comfort zone and established a new one where she stood again and again, and Miku could only blush slightly, not shy or embarrassed, but flattered and touched.
The echoing halls became a haven from the weather, and the two silently made their way to Miku's door. Luka let go of her the moment they'd escaped the wind.
"Thanks for walking me home," thanked the tealette as she fished her keys out of her pockets.
"It's no trouble at all," whispered back her senior, both hands in her own pockets. "I hope you had fun."
"I did," responded Miku, stifling a yawn, as she opened her door.
The moment it opened, Miku remembered the important question she'd wanted to ask more than a day prior. It was now or never, she felt. It had to be asked right then and there; one more day would be one too many.
"Do you want to come in for a few minutes?" she asked, voice still hushed. "I...I just had a few questions..."
Luka merely smiled and nodded, looking delighted by the invitation.
The door was silently shut behind them, and the lights were turned on. Miku headed for the kitchen, and made herself a glass of water. Luka refused an offer for a glass and merely stood at the other end of the counter as Miku wondered how to formulate her question.
Miku stared into the water, unsure of how to start. Her question was late and she knew it. They'd just had a lot of fun, so returning to such serious thoughts so suddenly also felt strange. Not to mention, Luka had gone out of her way to make her forget the whole thing for just a while, to wash the worries away, making Miku feel counter-productive by bringing them back up.
But she wanted to ask because Luka had done so for her. She wanted to show she cared, too. The more time she spent with the pinkette, the more Miku wanted to show that she cared, that Luka mattered, that her worries were, by an automatic extension, worries for her.
But how to start? The tealette drummed her fingernails against the glass she held, and Luka waited ever so patiently, half leaning against the counter.
She started with her name, to get the ball rolling. The ball rolled a bit, then stopped, and Miku hesitated again.
"...I remember when we both sat on that couch for the first time. We were both...startled, a bit afraid, suddenly in the middle of something we didn't know how to identify. And the first thing you do is apologize for hurting me."
She breathed deeply. No matter how much the idea sank in, it was still difficult to bring up. The feeling of being robbed had gone, but the nature of the subject made it difficult for her to talk about casually.
"You couldn't remember a thing. It's not your fault, I said. But you still apologized."
She wondered if Luka understood what she was talking about despite being so vague, but didn't exactly dare meeting her eyes.
"And now...I'm wondering...if I have to apologize, too," she finished, looking up, holding on to her glass as if it were a lifeline.
And Luka knew what she was talking about; slight surprise covered her features, before melting into some form of melancholy with a sad smile. She sighed once, taking one step closer, steadily returning the gaze.
"Yeah. I guess if I had to, then you do too," but she only smiled. "But as you said, we couldn't remember a thing; it's not your fault."
Miku was suddenly torn from the present and brought back through time and space to where Luka had sat on her couch, just a day prior, that Saturday morning, and realized that she felt immensely guilty and sorry. And there was the one she'd hurt, right across from her, telling her that she shouldn't apologize, all the while looking pained.
And yet, a certain peace came to mind at hearing the answer; the pain of having her innocence taken and the guilt of having taken the others' were once again shared between them, and were roles they both had. They no longer had set, opposite positions and instead they stood on equal ground. Whatever happened on Friday was a first for both, they were equally guilty, equally sorry, and equally hurt.
However, Miku had gotten over it, her heart and mind appeased because Luka had shown she was a wonderful person, and she realized that maybe, she wouldn't have picked anybody else. The only bitterness that remained was the amnesia itself, the milestones forgotten for possibly forever. The tealette wondered if that was also something they shared, if they were both at the same speed.
Either way, she walked up to the bouquet that Luka had given her upon her first return to her home, and picked out the prettiest rose she could find, and turned to give it to the pinkette. She'd wanted to go out and buy something to say sorry, but for lack of time, went for next best. Maybe she felt a bit foolish for returning a single flower to the person who had given it to her. She went for it nonetheless.
Luka laughed kindly at Miku's gesture.
"Thank you, Miku," she said. But she did not take the rose. "It's alright, really. Plus, I don't think I'll manage to take that rose home with me without it dying on the way."
Miku pouted, putting the rose back.
"But thank you anyways, Miku," reassured the pinkette.
Miku didn't know what to answer and instead turned towards her, still with a pout. Luka chuckled.
"Truly, it's the intention that matters," she stated, taking another step towards her junior. "So no worries, it's all forgiven."
And then she kissed Miku's forehead.
The tealette blushed, but before she could wrap her head around it, Luka was once again a pace away. She decided that she was definitely forgiven, and if she hadn't already forgiven Luka by then, she would have right then.
She finished her water hastily, uneasily unsure of what to say. Luka seemed to be at ease, and Miku wondered how she managed to keep things non-awkward by simply being not awkward.
"How are you feeling?" asked the pinkette as she ran a hand through her hair.
Miku half exhaled, half laughed.
"I...I'm not sure. There's so much."
Luka nodded, leaning against the counter.
"There is."
Miku put her glass away, unable to judge the silence.
"Will...will I talk to you again tomorrow?" she asked.
"Of course," answered Luka with a warm smile. "If I find anything from my friends or teachers I'll find you."
Miku smiled back, shyly.
"Why were you crying earlier today, Miku?" asked the pinkette abruptly, her voice once again a little heavier than what Miku was accustomed to.
"Oh..." Miku waved dismissively with her hand. "I'd asked Rin and Gumi for help, and I was really happy they had believed me when I had told them that I'd forgotten Friday. Because...well, whenever we approached someone with that problem, there were two of us. I was afraid that the claim sounded...silly on my own. But they believed me, and they helped, and I was happy for a while"-she shrugged-"I was looking forward to telling you all the progress I'd made. Rin started asking questions of her own, though... She asked who I was shopping with, at Kaito's. And they didn't...they didn't believe me when I said that I was with you."
She inhaled deeply, not meeting Luka's eyes again. She stared, instead, at the drop of water in the sink, and saw how it reflected the lights of her kitchen as it slowly but surely trickled down towards the drain.
"I think...it hurt, to think that having such sudden, specific amnesia was more credible than being with you. It hurt thinking that we...we weren't meant to meet at all, talk at all. It hurt to think that of all things I could have said to them, you and me spending time together was literally the most laughable thing I could have come up with."
"They laughed at you...?" Luka asked incredulously.
"Yes."
Miku saw the drop disappear forever. She didn't move, frozen, staring at the blackness of the drain, remembering how much it had hurt, how she had felt something crackle and break inside her. She felt so weak and frail so suddenly.
"They believe you now, at least," Luka tried to offer.
"They do," answered Miku, her voice almost a broken whisper.
"Hey..."
Miku looked up, and realized once again that her vision was blurry. Luka smiled warmly and took her hands in hers'.
"How about tomorrow, we eat lunch together?" she offered. "You'll meet my friends. We'll find out more things about Friday. How does that sound?"
Miku tried to smile, but she only managed to make her lips quiver.
"Then what?" she asked, just above a whisper.
Somehow, Luka had managed to understand her.
"Then what?" she repeated, not understanding.
"After we find out about Friday...then what?"
The question hurt so terribly, and she feared the answer so much, that the tears started rolling down her cheeks. With every passing second, she felt them grow thicker, and felt them roll down her cheek, catch on her lip, and fall to the floor. She imagined them shattering like glass upon impact.
The only reason why she didn't collapse on the spot was how somehow, Luka's smile still managed to save her.
"I'm sorry," she blurted before Luka could answer, pulling her hands from Luka's. "I'm...I'm being so childish..."
"Hardly...!" Luka said, almost as if she was scolding her.
Miku only shook her head, taking a step back, holding her hands before her face. She wanted to roll up into a ball again.
Crying so openly, so obviously begging for Luka to stay with her...! She suddenly felt creepy, pathetic and weak for being so needy, and straightforwardly so! But after all...why would Luka want to stay with her?
Suddenly, two hands made their way through her frail defense and rested on her cheeks. She felt their warmth, mixed with the tears, spread over her skin. It was as if she'd been fished back out of her thoughts and brought back to reality. She was in her kitchen, and Luka was right there, a mere breath away from her.
"It's alright."
Miku sniffed, unsure of what to do with her hands, how to behave, what to say.
"It's scary. This all is."
The tealette nodded, putting her hands on Luka's. The thumbs which were almost too close to her eyes wiped her fresh tears away, and somehow she could only feel safe again.
"We'll manage, alright?"
She nodded again, with a hum this time. She struggled, pushing the sound past the lump in her throat.
"And don't worry. We'll stick together, got it?"
And a breath escaped Miku as relief filled her. Luka chuckled.
"I'm not going anywhere, I promise."
Miku nodded fervently, gripping onto Luka's hands as if her life depended on it.
Why would Luka stay with her? But who cared why?! She only needed Luka's word! That was all that mattered.
Deeply reassured, crying only happy tears, Miku practically dissolved into Luka's arms as they wrapped around her.
Time ticked on. Miku eventually stopped crying, and eventually the two simply stood there, holding each other. Miku, already tired, felt she might fall asleep, standing right there in her kitchen. While on one hand, it was a comfort, because she'd never fallen asleep in a dream before, assuring her that everything that had happened was very real; on the other hand, she had to worry for Luka, since the pinkette had, apparently, very strict hours.
She realized that it was probably far past her curfew, and jumped out of her stupor.
"What time is it?" she asked, suddenly. She turned towards her oven clock only to realize that it was six forty; they'd left the karaoke over an hour prior.
"Way too late to start bothering with trying to be on time," mumbled Luka, hands on Miku's shoulders, because she knew that the girl would start busying herself with her curfew. And she was right. "Trust me Miku, I'd much rather be here and suffer the wrath later."
Miku pouted. She felt the salt drying on her cheeks.
"It's my fault you stayed behind," she insisted, her voice sounding stuffy.
"It's your fault for inviting me, it's mine for staying. Now stop this useless tallying, seeing who can be most responsible for stuff. I'm not taking part in this contest," ordered the taller girl as she headed for the door, deliberately slowly.
The tealette could only sigh and follow. She felt cold, but wasn't about to admit that out loud. Just like with Kaito, Meiko, Rin and Gumi, she felt that Luka's departure was abrupt. Yet they took a full minute to get to the door.
"Thank you for...everything," she said as Luka stepped outside.
Luka paused, standing in the echoing halls, and turned back towards her with the warmest smile Miku had seen yet. Then she looked up at the massive, deep-set door frame, and across the hall, at Meiko's door. Then she looked back at Miku, still with her smile.
"And thank you, Miku, for sharing it all with me," she whispered.
The tealette smiled, tears once again threatening to blur her vision. Luka somehow noticed it, and chuckled.
She gave her junior one more hug, which she returned gladly.
"Good night, Miku," whispered Luka as she pulled back.
"Good night," was whispered in return.
She still didn't have Luka's number, Miku realized as she crawled into bed. And Luka didn't have hers'. That, paired with Monday coming up, made her feel like a whole new chapter was about to start, some tipping point, and that after the school week officially began, so would something else.
This led to an amazing pressure of finding out what had happened on Friday. If she didn't figure it out that weekend, they'd never know! It was futile, she knew; it was getting late, and with every second she spent worrying about it, it kept getting later, and she grew more and more tired. At one point she even felt compelled to do something about it and find the damned answer, but there was nothing that could be done, she knew it. Who could she interview near ten in the evening? What could she find in the literal dark? What could she achieve in this quest without Luka by her side?
She knew her thoughts were actually foolish. She'd achieved much before meeting the pinkette, and had managed to find quite a few clues without her help. Yet...thinking that somehow, on Monday, something could change scared her, and the small potential that Luka might leave her chilled her. It was as if her senior had become a sudden need and she didn't know how to feel about it. On one hand, she disliked this sudden anchor to her thoughts and feelings; it was as if her mind was the sink, and all thoughts, all drops, went straight to Luka, no matter how hard she tried. The incessant pulling was distracting, unproductive...yet, she remembered so much with such joy that it was also a blessing. That other hand held the smiles, the comfort, the fun the thought of Luka kept bringing back to her. There wasn't anything negative left attached to Miku's impression of the pinkette...it was only the image of a dream.
Miku didn't quite know how to interpret the constant, wonderful distraction that Luka had become to her. She feared, suddenly, that something greater than what she could imagine was happening around and between them, and wondered how worried she truly had to become. She felt that once again, she was at the start of something totally new, but wondered if she dared look down the path it would lead her.
So Miku was tossing and turning close to midnight, filled to the brim with mixed feelings for Monday. She couldn't decide what to feel, what to think about, so she forced herself to clear her mind, and turned back to the mystery at hand. Forgetting Friday... Why? Why did they get together? Why did they forget? Why Luka? Why...?
Ah, there she was again. Miku rolled her eyes at herself, and forced her mind elsewhere.
She wondered about Meiko's words. She had said that the universe might have set it all up. She entertained that idea for quite a while. After all, what if the design of their question was made in such a way that they'd never find it, because she would always end up being distracted by the pinkette? For even as she tried her hardest to not think of her senior, she found her thoughts were bound to head straight back to Luka. And just like that, it happened again.
She sighed, and resigned, and allowed her mind to drift where it wanted to go. With that, and with a smile, Miku managed to fall asleep.
Any constructive criticism is still and always welcome!