A/N: Fixed.

Chapter 4

When they left the station, Luka noticed that Miku would avoid her ever so slightly. Every time Luka would as to make a slight movement to face her, she would just turn her head, or dart her eyes feverishly, as if avoiding her eye contact.

Sometimes, Miku would look up at the sun, pretend to be occupied by its warmth, or gaze at a few cherry blossoms and act cheery because of the arrival of Spring, all the while avoiding Luka's gaze.

Perhaps it was just her imagination, but a part of her mind told her that Miku was acting a bit . . . evasive. Now she wondered what she really had done back at the station that made Miku act like this.

"Uh . . . Luka..." Miku's tentative voice pulled Luka away from her thoughts. "We-we're already here at the music store . . ."

Miku's eyes were pointing directly at the two-story music store in front of them. Luka could see Stocks of CDs and magazines piling up behind the dusty windows while a figure, whom she had guessed to be the salesman, drifted around the dim-lit room.

"Th-They sell u-used stuff here, s-so it's really cheap," Miku mentioned nervously, still avoiding her gaze, as she opened the door for Luka.

As they entered the dim-lit shop, a soft tune welcomed them followed by a friendly greeting of one of the employees who was busy stocking up old DVDs in the corner.

"I-I'll be right back. I ju-just need to talk to the clerk and then . . . ye-yeah. . ."

With that, a sheepish Miku left by Luka's side and approached the man behind the counter, giving Luka an opportunity to explore the place.

The older woman shrugged and walked off to the videogame section. Maybe she could buy some CDs in this place; her music had gotten awfully repetitive lately, especially when playing it through her study-time. That also reminded her- she would need headphones, for her current ones are falling apart.

While overhearing Miku talking about a particular album to the bored salesman, she picked up a random videogame from the shelf.

Black Ops.

Oh, she knows this game!

Gakupo and Kaito would always play this game every time, in every single day. It's a bit annoying that they would never glue their eyes off the screen so Luka would always bombard them with scrupulous admonishments after always being ignored whenever she comes over.

Honestly, she doesn't even know what's so appealing about this game. Judging from the cover, she fails to see what's so exciting about playing this. Perhaps it was because the game was based more on the battlefield and Luka would rather see something far more appealing than that.

She sighed and returned the game back to its shelf.

Out of the pros and cons of Gakupo and Kaito's videogame addiction, there was only one that had a good point to it.

Her scoldings always fall on the deaf ears of mindless videogame-playing zombies so Luka always ends up hanging out and drinking with Meiko; that always left an opportunity to make new friends, or quite possibly- a boyfriend. Not that she wants any.

She always gets flattered whenever a guy flings at her, but Luka never had any interest in any of them. Nowadays, every time a man approaches her, he would always stare at her chest. But even if those types of men aren't Luka's liking, she would always give them her number, just for amusement.

The only thing she could regale in such superficial men was that she could play them as puppets- controlling and manipulating by just the power of her charm and beauty. Even though they never created a relationship, Luka would always reject them the next time they propose a meet-up. Seeing the crestfallen faces of disappointed sex-obsessed men always made her smile.

The only men that she could have fun with are Gakupo and Kaito, but as of now, they're seriously addicted so she didn't think it matters.

However, there are some drawbacks to her playful fiddling. Karma always gave her some sort of payback. Because Luka is so gorgeous, she constantly overshadows Meiko, even if it's not to her intent. Whenever that happened, Meiko would always take revenge on her by buying her lots of drinks and poisoning her from her sober state. Luka can be quite the idiot when she's drunk, so she sometimes strips in front of people whenever that happened.

At first, when Meiko had told her about such events, Luka turned skeptical that such crude and shameless actions could be incurred by her own self so she refused to believe her. But when Meiko showed her the humiliating video that was enough of a proof of how shameless she could be, Luka turned bright red in embarrassment. Meiko wasn't the type to blackmail nor sell it away so she deleted it in respect of her best-friend after many verbal angry inflicts from Luka.

It was bitchy of Meiko to do that but hangovers are also a bitch.

One morning, when Luka got the hangover, Meiko came over and beguiled her by telling her about the previous night and how she got so drunk she lost her virginity. (It was in retaliation of stealing all the available men)

It's true that Luka had stripped shamelessly drunk in front of greasy strangers, but Luka knows that she's not the type to go around and sleep with men so just told Meiko to piss off. Meiko just laughed thereafter and returned home so Luka didn't really see the point of her coming over.

"Uhm. . .Lu-Luka. . .?"

Noticing a quiet voice around her, the older woman turned around and saw a timid Miku with a plastic bag in her hands. Her eyes were still avoiding her, and it was planted on the stocking piles of CDs of the shop, as if she was occupied with those objects and not Luka.

"Um. . .I already bought the stuff I was looking for. . ." Miku said shyly. "Sorry for bringing you all the way here. I could have just gone by here by myself but I didn't how to get here, since we used a different station and yeah. . ."

"It's okay," Luka said, still worried about Miku's sudden change of behavior. "Uhm. . .Miku could I ask you something?" Luka paused for a bit and saw an instant worried look flash in Miku's eyes, as if she knows the question already. "Why won't you look me in the eyes?"

Miku's eyes snapped to attention and at that moment, she finally looked directly straight at her, face blushing with rosy colours. Awkwardness quickly crept in the room and Luka instantly regretted asking that question.

"Ne-never mind then," Luka said quickly and avoided Miku's gaze. "Forget what I said."

Luka chuckled nervously and scratched the back of her head in a sheepish manner.

"We-well we gotta head to my apartment," Luka stuttered. "I mean if you want to come with me...I mean that is- only if you want to."

Miku gave her a shy look, cheeks still blushing furiously, and just nodded her head in affirmation. Luka went ahead of her and then they left the shop.

Silence lingered in the air awkwardly as they walked the streets. This time, it was Luka's turn to avoid Miku's gaze, but that easy to do since Miku always strayed behind and walked ever so slowly.

". . .Luka. . ." Miku finally spoke up, her words leaving her mouth slowly and silently, as if careful of droning out the next words. "Can we stop for a bit . . .?"

Luka stopped in her trail at Miku's words. She didn't turn around nor look at Miku, but it didn't matter because Miku was also avoiding her gaze by keeping her eyes on the ground.

"Um. . ." Miku's throat went dry, making it impossible to gulp down the apprehensive thoughts.

She knows that if she doesn't do this now, then her chance of getting to know more about Luka will dwindle down. She knows. . .that if she just shrug of this matter, then Luka will probably stop talking to her the moment they arrive in her apartment.

". . .Luka . . .the reason why I kept avoiding . . ."

Miku pauses to recover from the sinking feeling worsening in her stomach.

Even if she's hiding herself from the curtain of her bangs, she could still feel Luka's presence, lingering and scaring her. But acknowledging it made her more nervous so she just pretended to ignore it instead. Maybe that way, she could voice out her thoughts.

After taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and blurted out, "Luka, the reason why I kept avoiding you was because...because you're so beautiful!"

Luka's eyebrows arched in surprise at the sudden statement.

"Miku. . .?"

Of course she knows she's beautiful, but out of all the men she'd met, not one had ever admitted the reason for their awkwardness. She would flirt with them, notice their nervousness amongst some men, but never admitted why. Although, it was obvious why because it seem weird to do so, but this made Miku more interesting in Luka's eyes.

Slowly, she turned around and faced Miku. Her posture was frail and almost felt like she could collapse on the floor any second. She walked to her, just in case she would fall and because she wants to feel more close to her, but the narrowing distance made Miku's eyes stay more firm on the ground.

"Miku . . ."

"I mean- you probably already knew that, but I get so nervous around you . . ." Miku stammered as her face turned gradually hot and pink.

Luka gave her a gentle smile.

"Was that all you were worried about?" Luka chuckled softly and gently grabbed Miku's shoulders, only to make the younger girl wince a bit. "Miku, listen to me . . . I know I'm beautiful and all, but that's no reason for you to be so nervous about. I want to be your friend, so I don't want you feeling uncomfortable around me."

Miku looked up at her, her face full of disbelief. "Re-really?"

Luka nodded with assurance. "Yes, really."

The younger girl sighed in relief as she felt her body releasing all the negative and skittish thoughts. The word 'friend' coming from Luka's mouth felt like she could die. She couldn't believe it that she actually has a chance of being her friend.

"Well, we should head for my apartment. If you want, you could stay there for awhile and give me some company."

Miku just nodded and she suddenly found herself smiling brightly.

"I'll take that as a 'yes,' then," Luka grinned. "It's not too far away from here, so let's go."

With that, they walked to their destination, side-by-side. They laughed, they smiled, and shared so many wonderful conversations together. Miku learned that she talks a lot and Luka's picture of Miku being a bright, cheery girl turned even more into a picture of a bright, cheery girl.

They continued talking, but just before taking a turn to another block, just after chuckling at a funny commercial they've seen, and during the time they were grinning endlessly, Miku sighed and said, "You know Luka, I also want to be your friend."

With a hint of surprise, Luka smiled softly and gave Miku a hug. There was no need to claim anything as a token of friendship because that hug is enough as it is.

~ 4 ~