more stuff happens in this chapter haha. this takes place a week-ish after the first one. i enjoyed writing this so i hope that you enjoy reading it.
enjoy :).
L
Len sipped his coffee, fighting the urge to wince as it stinged his tongue, and smiled as Rin subtly grazed her bare arm against his. He adjusted his backpack strap when they arrived at their Spanish class, the back of the room filled with students with their near-to-breaking backpacks and scuffed sneakers despite them being fifteen minutes early-an impressive feat for them thanks to Rin's turtle-like speed. They seated themselves in the corner, like they always did, and Len traced a circle on the now-familiar wooden floor, occasionally stealing glances at Rinm who sat next to him. He heard a thud on the desk behind him and turned around to see Kaito, the frat boy with parents richer than the president that Len had the honor to attend high school with, smirking and easing the wrinkles out of his expensive-looking jeans.
"Len. Mi amigo. ¿Que pasa?"
Len, as usual, tried to ignore him. He had no interest in befriending Kaito (who, not to mention, was one of his high school tormentors), so why should he?
It wouldn't hurt to make a few new friends, though.
He heard Rin giggle as their professor, a stout and wrinkly woman with the confidence of a supermodel, strut into the classroom. While he always held a high respect for his professors, Rin didn't hesitant to hold back on her opinions.
Another reason why they weren't compatible.
"Len. Be my partner for today."
He usually partnered with Rin for class and opened his mouth to disagree when he caught a glimpse of Rin chuckling along to one of the other frat boys, Fuckface (Fukase? Fuckface seemed more fitting at the moment).
"I...fine. Okay."
Kaito's smirked again.
"Good."
…
Len left for the dining hall without waiting for Rin when class ended. She'd probably be better off with Fuckface, anyways.
R
Rin didn't realize how isolated she'd been making herself until Len ditched her in the Spanish classroom and she found herself all alone.
Ha. Some friend he was. She'd seen him walk away with that stupid fuckboy Kaito, hands gesturing as he spoke, backpack over one shoulder. Stupid hands. Stupid backpack. Stupid Len.
Could she seriously have believed that he genuinely liked her? That he wanted to be friends, no strings attached? Maybe she was the stupid one. She'd tried so hard to be nice, to be outgoing and fun and everything she wished she was, everything Rinnyrainbows was to her subscribers-everything Rin wasn't in real life.
Swallowing the bitter taste in her mouth, Rin shoved her books into her backpack, pulling the straps over both shoulders. Len hadn't pushed in his chair, a fact that somehow annoyed her beyond measure, and she kicked it into place, trying to ignore the pain that shot up her foot at the force of the action. Stupid chair. Stupid Len.
She made her way towards the cafeteria, sweeping her long blond hair into a high knot on the top of her head, adding an extra two or three inches to her five-foot-two frame. Staring at her reflection in the tall glass windows as she waited in line for food, Rin wondered if maybe she should've toned down her outfit a little, ditched the dramatic bright colors and short-shorts for something more subdued. Something more professional, more collegiate, more serious and adult and not so rainbow. Unconsciously her gaze fell on Len, a few tables away, head thrown back as he laughed at something Kaito was saying, cutting his pizza into little pieces with a knife. Rin scowled as he dabbed his mouth with the corner of his napkin, spreading it meticulously across his lap to cover his perfectly smooth slacks.
Was he—slacks-wearing, polished, mature Len—embarrassed of her? Did he still think of her as the little girl she'd once been, the little girl whom he'd helped up that one time after the older kids shoved her into the mud on the first day of school for being in the wrong lunch line? Suddenly she felt sick, her stomach knotting, and she slipped wordlessly out of the cafeteria and slumped onto a bench outside the library.
Truth was, she'd pretended not to know Len, but it had all been a carefully-crafted lie. Perhaps just a way for her to start fresh, without her past in the way of who she was now. She hadn't been counting on him recognizing her, and when he had, she'd feigned ignorance. Like all he was to her was just another old classmate. An acquaintance. Maybe even a stranger.
He didn't know that she remembered. Didn't know that she'd had a crush on him for all of fourth grade after he, that new kid with the big glasses and messy hair, stepped past the "segregation line" dividing the boys' side of the playground and the girls' side to ask her if she was okay. She still remembered.
He didn't, though.
And maybe that was for the best.
"Hey, you okay?" A voice tore through her bitter thoughts.
"What? Oh, yeah. Fine. Sorry," she said, feigning a smile as she looked up.
A girl stood before her, long aqua-colored hair tugged into pigtails, grinning. Upon second glance she was pretty, eyes the same color as her hair that lilted and sparkled when she smiled. "I'm Miku. You're new, right? Well, I know the answer to that, 'cause I know everyone, and I don't know you, so you've gotta be new."
Her dimples flashed as she plopped down on the bench beside Rin, who whisked her backpack onto the ground just in time before Miku took its spot.
"I'm Rin," she replied, hoping her voice sounded genuinely friendly.
"Wait." Miku's eyes widened. "Rin, like as in Rinnyrainbows? Omigod, I love your vlogs!" Not giving Rin a moment to speak, Miku launched into a speech about how she'd started watching Rin's videos in fifth grade, and how Rin was going to love college here, and how they were going to be great friends.
Rin didn't interrupt, just let Miku guide her around campus as she gave her commentary on anything and anyone they saw. Turns out she couldn't have picked a better person to run into, considering Miku knew gossip about just about everyone, including their fat Spanish teacher.
"Anyway, you have to come meet some of my friends. Who're you rooming with?"
Rin laughed. "You're not gonna believe this—they put me with a boy."
"Omigod, you're so lucky. I wish I was rooming with Kaito. Then they wouldn't need to give us double beds, if you know what I mean," she added, winking.
So Miku was friends with Fuckboy Kaito. Rin chose her words carefully after that. "I'm with that Len kid. Len Kagamine?"
"Len Kagamine? God, I'm so jealous. He's so hot."
Hot?
Rin snorted. It wasn't exactly the word she would've chosen to describe him, even though now that Miku had said it she couldn't stop thinking about how, beneath those pressed button-down shirts his arms looked like he worked out, or the way the skin of his back had seemed so temptingly smooth when he'd bent down to pick up her tampons... She bit down hard on the inside of her cheek, trying to dislodge the not-so-friendly thoughts.
"Ugh. Can we trade dorms? Oh, speaking of dorms, you have to come to the party this Friday. Kaito's friend's house. Maybe then you can share a room with Len again, if you know what I mean." Miku winked again, and Rin's stomach churned.
But a party sounded good. Perfect for forgetting everything for a few hours, just dancing and drinking and having fun until the early house of dawn. And like Miku had said, it would be good for her to meet some new people. "Okay. To the party. Not to the Len part."
Miku laughed. "We'll see about that. I like you, Rinnyrainbows."
And then she flounced off, leaving Rin standing with a slightly dazed expression and too many thoughts to sort out.
L
"But I don't want to go."
He didn't want to go to the party, not at all, really, but he still felt a little guilty for ditching Rin a few days before (even if she was making him the slightest bit jealous) and felt like he had to make it up to her, somehow.
"But you do."
No.
He pretended to ponder over the subject before huffing.
"Fine. I'll go."
"Yes!" Rin did a little dance that made Len's heart clench. He loosened his belt as he fingered through his clothes.
"What's the, uh, dress code?"
Rin started to laugh.
"I don't know if you own anything party-worthy."
Len was confused.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Just-" She was next to him in a second, and he could smell her fruity perfume (and he couldn't get enough of it). She pulled out a pair of his rarely-worn jeans with an Aha! Len squirmed a little, careful not to let Rin notice. He felt like a dad trying to be "hip" whenever he wore street clothes.
"These. Anything besides-" She gestured to his outfit.
Anything besides my dorky college-professor apparel? She wasn't wrong.
"Not that there's anything wrong with that! I dig your hot teacher look."
He let the second part go past his head. Despite her casual flirtiness (which, really, was just Rin being Rin), a person like her surely wouldn't think of Len in that way. Kaito, maybe, but Rin?
He wasn't so sure.
"Relax." He hadn't realized how stiff his posture was until Rin had slapped his arm. "You can still wear one of your fancy and mature button-ups and dress shoes if that's what you really want. Just wear the jeans with them and it'll all be fine."
Len flushed.
"O-okay."
…
The party was good. Len liked it, even though the music didn't quite fit his tastes and made his eardrums want to burst, even though Rin had left yet again to talk to some other people that weren't him, even though his punch tasted a little funny and made him feel woozy.
He looked down at his solo cup, nearly empty. Was it really just punch, though? Probably not. He shrugged to himself and took another sip, nearly choking when Fukase (not Fuckface anymore-he was pretty cool now that Len had gotten to know him better) yanked him back into the herd of his friends, including Kaito, who was busy handing out "beer popsicles". Len grinned, neck feeling sticky with sweat.
"How's it? The party?"
Len took another swig out of his cup, draining it. "Great."
"That's good, dude." Fukase pounded him on the back, and Len found himself pedalling back to the punch bowl, admiring the house's intricate designs.
Stupid rich kids.
He was making his way back to the group, his drink starting to fall dangerously slowly out of its cup and onto the white carpet below him, when he was yanked back again.
"Fukase-"
"No, not Fukase. It's Luka."
He turned around, his eyes falling on a girl with heels tall enough to make her taller than him, long hair falling past her shoulders and her eyes heavily caked with eyeshadow.
"Luka." He tested her name as she stepped closer to him, leaning close enough that Len could smell her cheap beer-scented breath, and he was leaning in, too.
That is, until someone butted his shoulder with their own.
"Luke. He's taken."
"Wha?" His head spun, and Rin looked him in the eyes, squished his cheeks in her hands, and pressed her lips to his firmly.
Len pulled away several long moments later, looked her in the eyes, and went back for more, and it happened again and again and again all the way until they found themselves in one of the bedrooms in the house where it happened again and again and again as well…
R
Was it possible to still be cute hungover?
Yes, Rin decided, because Len definitely made it work. Somehow. Still in the jeans and shirt from the night before, Len was slumped on his bed, face buried in his pillow with his eyes squeezed shut. Rin snorted to herself, gathering her hair into its usual messy bun. She could still smell the alcohol on him, and the scent of her perfume cloaking the harsh odors of sweat and girl and party.
The realization came like a slap in the face. Len smelled like her perfume. Like tangerine and coconut and starlight and drawn curtains and bedsheets. Like the door to Kaito's friend's guest room slamming shut, like two silhouettes pressed against the wall and rolling onto the bed, intertwined and knotted and woven together such that it couldn't be said where Len ended and Rin began.
Unconsciously she brought her hand to her lips—still numb—remembering how she'd stormed over, grabbed Len out of Luka's arms. How her gaze had caught his, wild and desperate and so totally clueless, and she'd rescued him. Rin smiled. She liked that, rescuing him, and it was her turn to save him anyway.
He was sleeping now, still fitfully, occasionally thrashing or rolling around, his hands grasping for something that wasn't there as he muttered under his breath. Rin smirked sympathetically, remembering the first time she'd gotten so hopelessly drunk that she couldn't remember who she was, let alone who she'd spent the night with. Her head had ached for days, and her heart for even longer.
Unconsciously she stretched out a hand to smooth back his hair, letting herself run her hands through his blond mess of tangled strands, still black at the roots. And then she pulled her fingers back just as abruptly, when she recalled the feeling of his hair brushing her cheek, his lips against hers, reeking of cheap beer.
Some hero she'd been, saving him from Luka and then doing the same thing Luka had been planning to do. She'd lost control last night, and she wasn't planning on doing it ever again. Not to Len.
He deserved better than that.
Besides, she wasn't that type of person, ruled by her emotions and acting without thought for the consequences.
Right?
At least, she wasn't anymore.
Rin turned away from Len, blinking hasty tears out of her eyes as she pressed her knuckles to her mouth to muffle the sobs that threatened to wake him up. Just PMS, she told herself. Len's just another stupid guy. Just another number in your body count, right? You stopped caring a long time ago.
She stared in the mirror, swiped a coat of foundation over her face, smeared on a liberal amount of concealer and pasted on a smile. She hadn't vlogged in a few days, and maybe that would get her mind off the guy slumped on the bed across the room, long hair covering his eyes and mouth forming incoherent words that she'd convinced herself were her name.
But as Rin picked up her camera, hands still shaking as her whole being ached for him, she finally let the tears fall and slumped onto her bed instead. Once again she'd ruined everything, and relationships weren't as easy to glue together as broken hearts.
L
Len felt like horse manure. Literally. His head ached to the point where it felt as if it were throbbing, his speech came out slurred, and all he could think about was Rin, Rin, Rin.
She sat on her bed, her eyes on him while her laptop rested on her thighs, and widened her eyes when they met gazes.
"I'm sorry."
Len rubbed at his eyes.
"Wh…" He coughed. "What?" His voice came out raspy.
Rin bit her lip, and his eyes went to them. They wouldn't look away, either, and then Len remembered.
He remembered.
"You know what? Nevermind."
"It's...fine?"
Rin looked away.
"No. I've literally ruined our relationship. If you wanna switch rooms, go ahead-go ahead."
He was quiet.
"It's fine, really. If you wanna."
Len pushed the blankets off of his legs, but it didn't help in cooling down his body temperature.
"Why would I wanna do that?"
"Because. I took, like, advantage of you, I dunno."
"No."
He flushed.
"It wasn't bad. I mean-Iwoulddoitagain."
Rin chuckled.
"You serious?"
"Yes." Len looked down and squinted his eyes as they caught a flash of sunlight. "The lights…"
Rin rammed the curtains into each other at that, and they sat in silence for a moment.
"Would you really do it again?"
Len put a hand to his forehead and clenched his eyes shut. This was why he had refrained from parties. "Why wouldn't I?"
Rin was in front of him now.
"Good question."
…
Len turned the cool doorknob of the dorm, still sluggish but a little less so thanks to Rin and his new friends. His shirt, now buttoned only to the third button instead of all the way up like it had during the beginning of the school year, seemed too thick for the heat despite it being thinner than paper. As the door cracked open, he could hear Rin's voice from inside the room, but he could tell that it wasn't coming from her MacBook's speakers and instead from her own mouth.
He'd done a few things to that mouth as of late…
Len pinched himself.
"Stop it," he mumbled. He angled his head to get a better hearing from the dorm.
"Anon, you're being irrational. You said so yourself that there could be with whoever we pleased. This was never a-a-"
She sighed.
"I really don't care. It's not even as if you're my girlfriend or anything! We never dated!"
Girlfriend?
Rin was starting to seem annoyed, huffing as she listened to the other end of the call. Len wished she had put it on speaker.
"No. Goodbye, Anon."
Len found it a suitable time for him to enter. He gave Rin a lazy smile as he stepped through the doorway.
You're bi, he wanted to say. To ask. To confirm. He was a little ticked, truth be told. Was she using him? Playing with him?
"I heard some of your phone call," he found himself saying. He let his backpack fall to the floor.
Rin rolled her eyes.
"Don't worry about it. That was-we went to high school, and it was an all-girls so obviously we were all a little desperate, y'know? For some reason, she thought that it would be a good idea to ask me to come back home for Thanksgiving even though we barely talked? Actually? You probably don't care. Sorry. But it's nothing to worry about. We just fucked around. That's it."
Len didn't want to believe her, but found himself nodding along and flopping onto his bed, not bothering to change out of his clothes, and closing his eyes.
"Okay."
But was it really, though?
.
there'll be more in-depth stuff about gumi in the next chapter. im not sure what else to say here except for
thanks for reading.
