It had been done.
A sweet, familiar chime rang just as Rin swung open the door and slugged herself in, head hanging down. The door slowly came to a close before shutting itself and the hot air behind it. All outside noise began to blur as her ears picked up the soft background music playing in the cozy cafe.
Her stinging eyes ran along from the busy line up front to a nearby open seat. Taking an awkward seat on the upholstery, she looked to her left and out the window to the dark color scheme outside. A summer rainstorm was blowing in last second and the city was beginning to become grey and navy. The humid had been building up all day and now small droplets were painting the town.
Letting out a shaky breath, Rin drew her hands to her lap and looked down at herself. She was visibly shaking. Not from sickness, but over what had just occurred minutes ago.
He had sent a text an hour ago asking to meet up at the park. Everything after those 48 characters came too quickly. But she remembered all of it.
And she would continue to remember this moment, years and years from now. She'd look up at a grey sky and it would all come rushing back.
She was sure of it.
Knocking her elbow down to stop supporting her chin, Rin rested her forehead down onto her wrists and took in a deep breath. There was nothing more she wanted than to go back in time and feel it all one last time.
She wanted to take the long way home and found herself back here.
In a voice so fragile you could hear its obvious plea, she whispered: I still love you.
Present Time
Tuesday Evening, Lunch Time
"Stop whispering so low, idiot. I can barely hear you."
Harmon-e cleared his throat once more and shuffled around in his hiding spot. It wasn't one of the most comfortable places to be, but Karasu insisted that it was the best they could do for now.
"There, can you hear me now?" Harmon-e spoke again, tinting his voice with bitter annoyance. Not enough for Karasu to notice, but enough to inwardly whine about this little "operation" cutting into his time with Miku.
"Good enough," Karasu muttered. His eyes were focused on the blonde haired girl fidgeting with her coat zipper. Rin sighed and finally gave up with the broken zipper, leaving her pink jacket open. She pulled her phone out and looked at the time.
"Does Rin have a date or something?" Harmon-e asked. "Is that why we're stalking her?"
Karasu laughed under his breath. As if Rin could get a date. He had been surprised when he heard that Len had sunk down and decided to date the girl.
"We're just watching to see what she does. I heard her speaking in class earlier about how she was meeting up with Teto separate from her friends to talk about something. And if what I'm guessing is right, they're going to be talking about how they purposely sabotaged my date last Friday."
"Oooh-"
"Shush, someone's coming."
As Karasu and Harmon-e lowered their head, Piko made his way over to the same column Rin was waiting by. He noticed a figure standing behind it, but didn't realize it was Rin until he stopped and looked over at her.
"Rin?"
Rin looked up from her phone and gave a small smile to Piko.
"Hey! How have you been?"
Harmon-e uncomfortably sat down on the ground as the two began to share small talk. He looked over at Karasu who was listening intently. He wouldn't notice if he just slipped away for a couple minutes... right?
As Harmon-e began to crawl away, Rin decided to take a stab at a question that had been hanging in her mind.
"So... how is Len doing?" she asked, looking down at her feet.
Piko didn't notice her sudden shyness. "He's doing pretty well. Just normal Len as always."
Rin's eyes stayed down on her shoes. What was this weight in her stomach? Did she want Len to be feeling miserable?
"Ah. Well, that's good, I guess."
"Do you two still talk?" Piko asked, making Rin look up. "Like, text or something?"
She shook her head and bit down on her lip. "Not really. Maybe just a message or two, but just casual kind of stuff."
The last time she had sent a message was the day before school started. As usual, she had begun to feel anxious, not really like anything would happen, but just full of a restlessness that would keep her up until 3 AM. Her thumb lingered over the "Send" button before pressing it down and locking her phone to get up and walk around to get rid of her anxiousness.
What would his reply be?
Would it be immediate?
Did she sound desperate for a conversation?
Was she easy to read?
She kept glancing over at her phone until 11 minutes later, a reply came. Her heartbeat jumped up to her throat. It was obvious she wanted to know what he said, but she "tried" to keep her cool and slowly unlocked her phone.
His reply?
"I'm busy and can't talk much. Sorry that you're feeling bad though."
Embarrassment burned through her again. She couldn't believe how foolish she had been to think that she could depend on him like she used to. Obviously he had moved on. Now she needed to as well.
Piko looked over at Rin as she stared out into space, drawing out another sigh. Things still seemed weird between the two. But Len never really opened up to him about how he felt about Rin anymore. He just quickly answered and moved onto another topic. But he couldn't really tell Rin about that.
Karasu shifted in his spot, bored. Nothing from this awkward conversation was helping him with his plan. He rolled his eyes and slowly began to crawl away as Rin made an excuse and left her conversation with Piko.
Running her hands under warm water, Miki looked up at the mirror to examine her appearance. Over the day her small baby hairs would untangle themselves from the hairspray and begin to stick up. Taking a slightly damp hand, she smoothed the middle part and glanced over at the person who entered the restroom-Rin Kagamine. She was about to give a curt hello but saw the blonde texting away on her cellphone so she kept her mouth shut. She closed off the faucet and ran her hand under a motion-activated hand towel dispenser and briefly left the restroom as soon as Rin placed her phone to her ear to speak to someone.
"Hello, Teto? Yeah, where are you? I just had the most awkward time-"
I wonder if she's talking about me being in there or something else, Miki wondered, walking out to the hallway. She decided it was best to push it out of her mind.
Back in the cafeteria she spotted IA and Gumi sitting in their usual corner, cutting into their small pizzas purchased from the cafeteria's small inner shops. They weren't exactly the best, but they were nearby and they were all lazy and had no other plans. Karasu bumped into her just as she walked on over to her friends, pausing and looking at her as if expecting some kind of apology. When he only got a blank stare back, he placed his hands on their table and looked at IA.
"IA. I need to speak to you."
IA's hand immediately reached over to her cross necklace. It was a nervous habit. She was never the kind to like confrontation; she always thought she was in some kind of trouble.
"Y-Yes?" she asked, fiddling with the top of the cross as Miki slid on in to the booth seats and took her own pizza box.
"I heard that you were talking to Rin the other morning. Rin Kagamine. You know, blonde haired girl who's friends with Teto?"
A quick look of distaste passed IA's face. "Yes, I know her."
"Did she happen to say anything concerning my... incident Friday night?"
IA suddenly felt all eyes on her. Miki never really kept up with the drama going on in the school so she had no clue what he was talking about. Gumi, on the other hand, had just spent several minutes speaking to IA about it and also about Rin's relationship with Piko.
"Well, she did bring it up when I was speaking to Piko about it," she began, dropping her hand from her necklace. "She just interrupted our conversation, which was about your incident last week. But nothing bad about you, of course. But anyways, she interrupted and when I sympathized with you she said that you deserved what you got."
IA shifted in her seat. She didn't really like "tattle-telling" on people, but she never liked holding back the truth either.
"It seemed weird to me. She holds some kind of resentment towards you and got angry when I tried to defend you, then took Piko away from me and walked with him to class."
Karasu removed his hands from the table, crossing his arms and letting the information sink in.
"Say, where do Len and Piko usually meet up for lunch?"
Miki and Gumi gave him weird looks, but IA was quick to answer, since she herself had tried to ask Piko on lunch dates before.
"The hallway by the restrooms from the class we get out of before lunch. Usually by the water fountains."
"So, not outside?" he asked.
"No... they never really go out to eat."
Just then, Piko and Len walked into the cafeteria, busy in their own conversation.
"Sorry about being kinda late, I had to go do something before meeting you."
"It's understandable, dude," Len said, pushing his excuse aside. Their voices turned indistinguishable with everyone else's as they headed to one of the lunch lines.
If Len was waiting on Piko, then why was Piko waiting out to speak to Rin?
"It's kind of weird to see Len without Rin beside him," Gumi commented, looking at his back.
Miki shrugged and took a sip of her soda. "I guess that's what break ups do to people."
"I figured they'd stay friends or something."
Miki just shrugged again. It was none of her business. But Karasu wasn't so quick to shrug this new information off. Not when someone's best friend could be going after their ex-girlfriend. Not exactly an issue concerning Teto, but close enough for now.
