"Oh my god, he's toootally in love with you, Rin. I mean, just look at him, he's definitely sneaking a peek at you from behind you, look, Rin, look~!"

Miku gushed onwards about that weird blond boy who sat in the back, nudging and winking at her conspiratorially all the while, her voice loud enough, Rin was sure, to reach the boy in question. Though thoroughly mortified by her friend's actions (as she had many times before, but she still loved Miku as Miku for that anyway), she simply sighed and ducked her head back down to her book, searching for her pencil.

Miku Hatsune, a teal haired twin tails, wiggled her eyebrows in a way that Rin felt quite sure wasn't humanly possible, turning her head so slowly, so painfully slowly, to face her new victim, Len Kagamine, and then back, and winked at Rin's apathetic, somewhat exasperated face. Winked.

"Rin, just look at him. Ponytail. Sharp features. And those eyes. They speak of a beast yet to be unleashed. Look for yourself."

Rin, despite herself, shot a glance at the dubbed ponytail boy behind her. He caught her gaze behind a book he seemed barely interested in, their eyes locking for just a moment. His eyes widened like a deer caught in headlights, quickly replaced by a small yellow ponytail, the boy's tips of ears painted cherry red, hidden behind the book he seemed to be reading.

"..." Rin squinted at him, raising her eyebrows slightly at Miku, who had seen their 'lovers' passionate gaze.' Miku laughed nervously, scratching her cheek with her right finger, offering Rin a desperate smile.

"Um, well, maybe it's a different kind of beast. Like a gazelle, or maybe a deer?" Rin let out a tired sigh, returning to rifling through her bag. Miku sweat, waving around her hands as if they would help convince her.

"B-but! What about his...er...incredibly feminine face! You can't find that in a whole lot of guys, can you? I mean, look at that slim figure. Doesn't it just want to make you want to protect his sweet, innocent existence?" Rin stopped rifling through her bag, raising her eyes to see Miku's sparkling ones, the tealette's hands clasped together in desperate hope.

"..."

"R-right?"

"..."

She simply shook her head and ducked back down to her bag, earning a defeated sigh from Miku, suppressing a small smile at Miku's childishness. Honestly, she really never did change. It truly was a mystery why Miku had started this hopeless game of friendship with someone like Rin, and the far more hopeless game of pairing her with every boy in their grade with her, finding the craziest things to persuade her to fall in love with, whether it be their tendency to sleep everywhere ("Isn't that kind of cute? Like a bear? No, like a cat! You like cats right? Eh? What do you mean you don't like cats anymore?") or their tendency to beat up someone at every insult ("They can protect you when you're in danger! Like a super cute over-protective jealousy type! Did they just beat up a cat- no, wait, that's ok, you don't like cats, right? Rin? Rin, wait, the police are going to arrest you RIN-") or even their prision record ("Isn't that kinda romantic? Like, you and them can be the yakuza leaders of Japan! Eh? You don't want a prison record? But isn't that also really cool?! I think it's cool you went to jail for saving a cat, though. Ah. We weren't supposed to talk about that...?").

For whatever reason, Miku was staying on this one for a particularly long time, probably because, as Miku said, "He actually likes you, so I can work with this!" which left Rin with a creeping suspicion on why every boy who Miku convinced was in love with Rin ended up avoiding her like the plague.

Well, it was fine. Rin let out a soft sigh, finding a lone orange print, sadly dull pencil at the bottom of her bag, as if it were crying with her. 'Are you tired too?' she thought, positioning it neatly next to her book, dulling out Miku's desperate pleas about Len and how wonderful he was. Sometimes she seemed more likely to be the one in love with them with how desperately she tried to convince Rin of their compatibility with her.

"Rin!" Rin looked up from staring at her books, a blue-haired boy flashing her a smile, waving at her from the front of her desk, on his way to Len's. The dark ocean blue of his eye smiled down at Rin, Rin's own heart skipping a beat from the sight of him.

"Morning." Rin nodded shyly back, training her eyes back on her desk, the orange pencil suddenly very interesting. Miku was strangely silent, and she could feel the tenseness in Miku's body without even looking at her. 'I wonder why that is...' Rin mused, waiting for Kaito's footsteps to fade away into the chatter of the classroom. She lifted her head, surprised to see Miku's head strangely down, her twin tails hanging on the floor, face indecipherable.

"Miku...?" Miku flinched, the blankness in her eyes returning to their former sparkle.

"Sorry, I lost focus for a moment there~ so, what was I saying about Len, now...?"

Rin watched Miku carefully out of the edge of her eye. It was strange- Kaito was the only boy Miku had completely refused to- rather, ignored, as a possible relationship candidate for her. Though Rin felt somewhat grateful for that, as he was one of the few people of the male gender who didn't run away screaming when she skipped class at third period. A light flush tinted her cheeks once more at the thought of his smile this morning, furiously training her eyes on the front cover of her book. She could feel Miku's gaze on her, and Rin covered her face with her hands, as she often did when she was embarrassed, expecting her to say something cheeky. Rather, she was once again silent for once, and Rin snuck a confused glance at her.

She was staring at something with an expression Rin had never seen before on her face, tears glimmering at the edges of her eyes. Rin glanced over to where she was looking, but before she could track exactly what it was, the teacher smacked his desk loudly, and Rin's thoughts were immediately occupied with the fat pile of packets lying ominously on his desk.

That morning, Rin had heard some other screams, new ones, screaming internally in her head.

It was 3rd period.

A/N: For whatever reason, I thought it would be OK to write this entire chapter at 10 in the evening on a tablet that constantly auto-corrects 'Rin' into 'sdadfgjgh' somehow and now I wonder why I didn't do this on a keyboard with a computer that is currently on next to me. Life is a true mystery, as is Miku, who I decided to add to this story with a suspiciously similar best friend status to Len's and Kaito's (though Rin doesn't coincidentally fall on the floor straddling Miku). I'm kind of tired after the past few weeks so I'll randomly update a few chapters at once or one or two every few ye- weeks. Why am I still typing I need a keyboard right now like so badly I'm crying, for real ok bye I don't want to use punctuation anymore sorry