Out in the moonlight, the balcony was just bright enough for him to keep studying that disc. If he were to go inside and study it, Kaito or Meiko might question him or Gumi might realize that he stole it from her bag. So he had to keep it hidden until nighttime.

Although, honestly, he didn't know why he was studying it right now. It wasn't like looking at the disc would reveal more than he already knew from the title scrawled on its surface. At the same time, simply looking at it gave him a weird feeling. He wasn't able to determine why, so he continued to look at the disc.

Red Demon... Just thinking that made him feel cross-eyed. He stuck the disc on his index finger and then stared out at the street, suddenly feeling tired.

The quickest way to learn what this disc was about would be to stick it in his headphones. If it was a new song, he would learn of it from that. On the other hand, if it was something else, like a backup disk, then wouldn't he be wasting it? And that was disregarding the weird way that the title of the disc made him feel. He just wanted to go back to sleep, but he couldn't sleep.

"Gackpo?" He jerked suddenly when he heard his name; it was Meiko. "What are you doing up? Did you get more weed at McDonalds?"

"No..."

He tried to hide the disc under his arm, but she was already standing next to him and spotted it before he had a chance. "Oh! You still have that…" That frown on her face from before was back.

He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to steal."

"You still have it with you, though."

He shifted in place, "Yes... Well, it has my name on it." He held the disc out as though for her to look, even though it would be hard to see the lettering in the dark. Still, she came closer and squinted. "I don't know what that is, but whether it has your name on it or not it still belongs to the uploader. Stealing is a bad habit, you know?"

Hearing how serious she was, Gackpo shook his head. "Yes, I know. I know it's a bad habit. It's not even my habit... I just stole this one thing. I feel like... it's important to me somehow."

The next thing he felt was her hand smacking the back of his head, and he let out a yelp like a dog. "!"

"If it doesn't belong to you, you should return it you idiot. You're going to get Gumi in trouble this way, if she goes back to our producer with one of his songs missing," Meiko snapped, sitting down next to him.

He grunted and rubbed his head, gritting his teeth. "I'm... Sorry. I wasn't thinking of that." Actually, he just hadn't cared. But then, he realized that thieving was a very bad habit. He wasn't a thief. He would try to give it back to her before she left. "Don't worry. I'll make it right."

"As long as you do. I have to say, I've started getting a little worried about you." As she said that, Gackpo looked over at her in the moonlight and felt his heart skip a beat. Worried about him? Why? She kept talking then, "I want so much for you to like it here and get along. Are you doing okay?"

Was he doing okay? Was he getting along? Gackpo didn't know the answer to those questions. So far he's been frustrated again and again, but he thought that he just hadn't been here long enough to start enjoying himself. "It's not that I don't like it here," he started. He kind of wished that somebody could push Kaito into a river, but he didn't mind where he was staying. "I just feel like I'm out of place."

"You shouldn't feel that way." Meiko smiled, and she put her hand on his hand while he leaned back. "We both want to be friends with you. And Gumi too."

Hearing that, he glanced at her face just once before he quickly turned his head away. Thump. Thump. "Maybe I just haven't been here long enough. I can't even remember the place that I was before this."

Meiko waved a hand, "Yeah but I think that's normal; I don't have a whole lot of memories of my time either, at least nothing after leaving the factory. Was just being a Meiko unit somewhere," she laughed. "I do know that there were cherry blossoms involved, though."

"There are cherry blossoms in a lot of places," Gackpo remarked as he leaned back, staring at the moon above them. Whenever he tried to think of any images from his past, he went cross-eyed yet again. "Why do they do that? Make us so that we can't remember anything?"

"Oh," Meiko gave a nervous laugh and edged closer to him. "Well... Don't take it that way. It's usually by request. Kaito remembers where he used to be after leaving the factory."

Now Gackpo looked at her in shock. "Why did you ask for your memories to be erased?"

"Why did you ask for yours?"

"... I can't tell you that. I don't remember."

"Exactly, you idiot!" She laughed as she punched him in the arm. Gackpo almost dropped the disc in his hand, and had to take a minute to reaffirm his hold, as her laughter gradually faded. "Look, don't worry about it? Okay? You're a really great singer and we're happy to have you. And that includes Kaito too. And Gumi. You knowww, I think that she's already really smitten with you~."

With all the dirty looks that Kaito gave him out of the corner of his eye, Gackpo somehow doubted that he was happy to have him here. But Meiko and Gumi were both friendly-Gumi especially, come to think of it. And Meiko-was that all that she cared about? Did she see Gumi hanging off of Gackpo's arm and feel no sense of jealousy?

There were things that he wanted to say to Meiko; in his mind, he still saw her the way she was back then, when she was dressed up as the white ogress. That was at least a month ago, and he still hadn't managed to say anything to her. Gackpo looked at his hands and the disc held inside them. "I'll try not to worry about it from now on."

"Good!" She smiled and hit him upside the head again, causing a "!?" from him. But then Meiko stood up and went to the doorway of the balcony. "Now if you're going to try to be a little less gloomy, did you want to come to bed or was there something else you were going to do?"

"Uh," he did have something that he wanted to do right now. "I'll come inside in a minute."

"Remember to put the disc back."

"I will, I will," he muttered.

But he didn't put it back. Long after Meiko had already fallen asleep, he put it in his coat. Then he took out of it two small joints, lit one up, and smoked it in the open air of the balcony.

"I think that she's already really smitten with you~."

No, he didn't want to think about that, Meiko's casual dismissal of having any feelings towards him. La la la, not listening~

La la la, not listening~

La la la, not listening~

I should really just give up.

And he was gradually becoming relaxed. Finally, he went to bed.