Fear Garden
Chapter One
'I Like I Love You'
"How do I look?"
Rin glanced up from her magazine. Normally, one would expect a teenage girl to be allergic to all forms of reading material, save glossy, colorful articles about clothes and hot boys- and, if that's what you assumed, shame on you for putting your faith in stenotypes. The magazine, clutched ever-so-firmly in Rin's banana-yellow-nailed grasp was, in fact, about motorbikes.
Hatsune Miku, turquoise-headed and rather quite pretty (much to the delight of all the boys, and the jealousy of all the girls), was staring at her reflection in the restroom mirror. She was tugging at the hem of her school skirt nervously, eyes flittering erratically across her face, clothes, hair- everything.
"I don't look bad, do I?" Miku asked worriedly, applying the eleventh (Rin counted) coat of lip-gloss to her already sparkling lips.
"Keep caking make-up on like that and you'll like a clown," Rin teased.
Miku's face – despite the foundation – went deathly pale, like chalk. "W-what? Y-you mean… I'm ugly?"
"Did I say you looked ugly?"
"N-no…"
"No, see? Exactly! I only said you'd look great as Ronald McDonald's little sister…"
"H-hey!" Miku cried, tugging at the end of one twin tail in distress, "t-that's mean!"
Rin crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue.
"Stop it!"
"Mi~ku~chaan, don't get so worried," Rin giggled, thwapping her upside the head with her rolled-up magazine. "Calm down, okay? You look fine. Well, apart from that whole 'oh my God I'm going to hyperventilate!' look you have going on there, which isn't attractive so much as it frightening, but yeahhh. You can work on that, right?"
Miku, meanwhile, had clutched her chest as though she were about to have a heart attack. Her eyes were wide, pupils small, lips parted into an 'o' as she struggled to breathe.
If she wasn't so worried, it would've been funny…
No, wait, scratch that.
The fact that she was worried made it even more funny- especially as she was worked up over something so stupid and trivial.
Rin bit her lip, trying to stifle her laughter. Every now and then, a traitorous snort would escape.
"B-but Rin-san… You said I looked bad?" Miku stressed. "W-what if he sees me and laughs? W-what if- Hey! Now you're laughing, too! P-please stop it!"
Rin clutched her stomach, leant against the grimy wall for support (she tried not to think too hard about who had leant there last). She sniggered.
"Rin! This is serious!"
"No… It's so funny, that you're getting so worked up over a loser like Kaito."
Miku flushed. "K-kaito is not a loser! He's really sweet, and kind-hearted-"
"-with a brain the size of a peanut! I mean, seriously, Miku, he's nice and all- but not exactly prime boyfriend material, you know? He lets his little sister paint his nails. He entered the school talent show doing that stupid Idolmaster dance. Not exactly manly, you know? I mean, geez, the amount of time he spends with Len-Len, I begin to wonder- maybe he's just not that into girls, huh?"
Miku blinked slowly. If it were a panel in a manga, a little speech bubble would be hovering above her head saying '…'
She tilted her head. "I… I don't get it?"
Rin sighed. Straightening up, she began to adjust her giant, over-sized hair ribbon. It had slipped forwards during her laughing fit. "Come on, Miku-chan, don't be dense." Or maybe 'overly innocent' would be a better word. Uh, two words. "You only have to look at Kaito to know he's about as straight as a not-very-straight thing. Like…" Rin drew a circle in mid-air.
Miku gasped, and then placed her hands in front of her mouth in surprise. "Y-you don't think…?"
Rin looked smug. "I'm almost positive."
Miku looked down at her feet. Then, seeming to reconsider, she glanced back up at her reflection again. Smoothed down her skirt. Adjusted her tie. A look of steely determination flashed across her face. "W-well, it can't hurt to try! I absolutely have to tell him, or I feel I could die…" She heaved a huge, heavy sigh. "He needs to know."
"Okay, Miku-chan…" But Rin looked doubtful. She frowned, suddenly serious. "I just hope you don't get hurt."
"People get hurt all the time. I'll be fine." Miku tried to sound confident, but her voice faltered slightly. "D-do I look oka-"
"For the one millionth time, YES."
Miku shifted nervously, hands behind her back, fingers interlocked. Her face was flushed red.
"Yes, Miku-chan?" asked Kaito, smiling. The pair had been friends for a long time, and Kaito always addressed Miku in this informal manner. Yet, for some reason the blue-haired boy could not fathom, this cheery greeting made Miku blush harder, until her face looked more like a tomato with eyes and a nose, than a human head. Kaito wondered if he'd done something wrong, and began to panic. "U-um… You don't feel sick, do you? You don't look too good…" He pressed his palm against her forehead, checking for a temperature.
Miku squeaked in alarm, and drew back so quickly she almost tripped over her feet.
From the doorway of the otherwise empty classroom, Rin grinned. Kaito was so oblivious, it was kind of painful.
Of course, Miku had told Rin not to eavesdrop on her confession of 'tru wub', because it would make her even more nervous (which didn't actually seem possible)- but, somehow, Teto, Neru, Miki and Gumi 'just happened' to be passing by that exact classroom at that exact moment, and if they were allowed to stand and gawp like voyeurs, Rin saw no reason why she couldn't, either.
"Ow, Teto, you're standing on my foot," hissed Neru through gritted teeth.
"Ahaha, sorr~eee, Neru-chan!"
Gumi made frantic slashing motions across her neck. "Cut it out- not so loud!"
Teto giggled, tipping her head to one sound. Her drills bounced cutely. "Tehee~ Sorry, Gumi-chan!"
Miki, meanwhile, was too busy eating cherries to really offer much input to the conversation.
"M-miku-chan?!" Kaito's nervous voice caught Rin's attention. "I haven't hurt you, have I?"
"N-n-no…"
"You're not sick, are you?" Cogs began to turn in Kaito's head, offering a million and one terrible situations and circumstances. He gasped. "Y-you're not… You're not dying of some horrible disease, are you? Miku-chan, you don't have leprosy, do you???"
At this, Miku seemed too shocked to be shy anymore. "W-what? What gave you that idea?"
Kaito scratched the back of his head "U-um… A TV drama…"
Gumi frowned. "Oh dear. He's not very good at this, is he?"
"Isn't leprosy that horrible disease that makes your skin go all… ew?" asked Miki.
"Um, yeah," nodded Rin. "Wow. Way, to go, Kaito. Even your concern sounds mildly insulting."
"K-Kaito-kun..." Miku said nervously, her voice trailing away into a big, empty, blank void of silence. From the threshold, the assembled group of five could hear her nervous breathing; could almost hear the frantic beats of her heart.
Silence.
Miku opened her mouth, but- more silence.
No words came out.
The twin-tailed girl squeezed her eyes shut. Maybe Kaito had been right to worry about her health, after all, because her skin had gone green, and it looked like she was going to be sick.
"Ireallylikeyouokay!"
a.n: oh em gee it's so KAWAII desu XD umm, yea. i need this chapter to set the plot rolling C: fr srs.
