"So, how did your meeting go yesterday? I finished up the rest of your lunch when it looked like you weren't going to come back. Whatever you made, it was really good," Miku turned towards the voice and almost toppled out of her chair when she saw bright blond hair and inquisitive blue eyes.

Then she realised that it was just Rin and exhaled in relief. Rin looked so much like Len that she had to look twice to be certain it was the blonde and not her brother. "It went fine, I managed to find the person but it took so long that I couldn't come back to the cafeteria," she answered, leaning down towards her backpack and taking out her notebook and pencil case. Rin flopped into the chair next to hers, leaning back in her seat and folding her arms across her chest. Their next class was History.

Although Miku had only taken one History class with Rin before this, she was already aware of the blonde's feelings towards this particular subject. Rin thought that History was stupid, and all it did was remind her of just how ridiculous people could be. Miku thought that it showed the power of persuasion as well – entire empires from the past had fallen because the rulers had been swayed and convinced to do stupid things. People who could seduce and lie, people who could use their words to get others to do whatever they wanted, were dangerous. So Len was dangerous too.

"That's nice. Well, I hope our teacher forgets to collect our homework today," Rin shrugged, her fingers tapping against her arm. "I didn't do it and I don't want to do it, since it doesn't count towards our grade. I'm going to make Len do it if she insists on collecting my work, though. He's way better at all this memorisation crap than I am," she sniffed. "I mean, writing an essay about the effects of the Second World War and evaluating source material is pretty fun, but having to search up the dates and the hard facts…that's not my thing," Rin continued, but Miku was distracted the very moment she brought up her brother's name. She couldn't stop thinking about last night.

Rin appeared to notice that Miku wasn't paying attention when she simply kept nodding at whatever the blonde was saying, a vacant look on her face. "Hey Miku, are you all right? You look tired," she leant over in her seat and peered closely at her face. Miku shook herself, blinking rapidly as she pushed her long fringe out of her eyes. Her hair was whipped up into a simple ponytail today since she was too tired to try more elaborate hairstyles, and if someone paid attention to what she was wearing they might notice the mismatched socks, but they were all very small differences and Miku was a little surprised that Rin could actually tell she was unlike herself today. "What happened?" Rin added when Miku didn't say anything. Miku opened her mouth, and found herself starting to yawn.

"Nothing…I just had to visit my cousin last night. Kind of an urgent, uh…family matter, so I got back home kind of late and it's getting to me. Plus I still haven't gotten over my jetlag yet. Not entirely," she admitted. Rin didn't press for anything else, instead leaning back against her chair once more and giving her curious looks. Her friend drummed her fingers against the table and after a while it looked like the blonde actually wanted to say something to her, but before she could open her mouth their teacher swooped into the classroom and Rin retreated. Miku felt a little relieved.

It wasn't that she couldn't handle Rin's questions or chatter, but at the moment she was just so tired. She didn't stay up late a lot, not unless there were lots of projects due soon or it was the week before a major exam. Their teacher went straight into the lesson without bothering to greet them – or vice-versa – and she used the chance to hide behind her book and doze a little, thankful that she wasn't sitting right at the front. She had learnt all this at her old school anyway, the consequences which came with Japan colonising the Asian countries during the Second World War, so she would conserve her energy and pay attention to her other lessons later. Unknown to Miku, Rin kept glancing at her throughout the lesson, biting her lip with a look of concern etched onto her face.


"I think my brother's lost it," Rin suddenly confided to the three of them at break. Luka, Mizki and Miku stared back at the blonde with looks ranging from surprise to apathy. Rin sighed irritably and went on. "He's my twin, so I am mildly concerned about him even though I do think he's a complete douchebag at times. Anyway, he wouldn't come down for breakfast today and when I left the house, he was still in his room. If he skips any more classes, it's probably going to affect his participation grade. And okay, actually I think even if Len fails his participation portion he'll probably still get an A for everything, but it's not going to reflect well when he has to get his letters of recommendation for university application," Rin rolled her eyes. The other three just stared at the blonde for a while.

Mizki was the first one to break the silence. "And why are you telling us this?" the girl drawled, munching on an apple as she did so. Miku could hear the crunch of the fruit as Mizki bit into it, her green eyes narrowed at Rin. It didn't surprise her that Mizki seemed so apathetic towards the situation – it didn't seem like Mizki was too fond of the boy. The girls in school appeared to be split into two sides, one side which adored Len and the other side which detested him. And then there was Miku, who was stuck in between, still uncertain about which side she ought to go for. She neither liked nor hated Len; he wasn't all bad, but he wasn't the most fantastic person in the world either.

"I shouldn't have bothered with you," Rin grumbled at Mizki. "Anyway, I just wanted to ask Miku if she knew what was wrong with my brother," the blonde turned towards Miku. Miku choked on her fruit juice and Luka, who was sitting next to her, hastily thumped her on the back as she coughed and spluttered, tears squeezing past her eyelids. Rin and Mizki just regarded her calmly until she recovered from her coughing fit, and when she was done Miku looked at Rin, tears still running down her cheeks and a look on her face that must have plainly asked why her. "Well, actually Len told me that he ran into you last night and the experience wasn't…all that fantastic. I'm not mad or anything, serious! In fact, I'm really impressed by anyone who can piss my brother off, but what did you say to him, Miku?" Rin picked up the orange on her tray, peeling the fruit. "It's been a long time since I last saw him that moody," she added, "he usually deals pretty well with stress and stuff."

Miku was honestly startled. Was all this really the result of what she had said to Len last night? She didn't think her words would affect him so badly that he couldn't come to school. Surely Len was able to tolerate a few harsh words, she couldn't possibly have been the only one who ever said that what he was doing was wrong…she glanced at Mizki, who was still munching away uninterestedly on her apple, and decided that she definitely couldn't have been the only one. Rin was waiting for an answer, having almost finished peeling her orange. Miku fidgeted, unsure if she should say the truth. She couldn't tolerate Len's behaviour and she was sure Rin couldn't either, but Rin was still his twin.

"I told him off because…my cousin has a friend who got her heart broken by him and I didn't know how he could continue doing what he does, you know," she finally admitted, staring down at her lunchbox. She had prepared her lunch for the day after eating breakfast, since she didn't normally take well to cafeteria food and preferred eating her own cooking. "I mean, maybe he really didn't know what he's putting girls through and maybe I came across as a little harsh, but seriously!" Miku suddenly exclaimed, making Luka jump. "He's already eighteen years old, he can't keep…messing around with girls like that! Doesn't he know girls have feelings? If someone messed around with you or something I'm sure he'd be upset too, so why doesn't he just stop what he's doing?" she stressed.

The three girls gaped at her in silence for a while as Miku exhaled, trying to calm herself down. She was being too agitated about this issue, and she didn't want the others to wonder why she was so concerned about Len and his affairs although she barely knew him. The others didn't know that she recognised him from her childhood, and she was determined to keep things that way. The smaller the number of people who knew about her past, the better. Her childhood here was not something she herself was comfortable revisiting yet, and letting other people know about her past friends was something she felt strongly against. She reminded herself to pretend not to care at all in the future.

"Do you actually know Len?" Mizki was again the first one to speak as she placed her half-eaten apple onto her tray. "You sound like you know the kind of things he gets up to. The three of us…we tried not to talk about it in front of you," she exchanged a look with Rin, "since we didn't want you to know about Len so soon…how did you find out?" she asked, bright green eyes filled with curiosity.

Miku tried her best to look nonchalant. "My cousin told me," she spoke the truth – Mizki was just asking how she knew what Len was doing, not how she recognised the boy. "You know I used to live here, right? So my cousin and I were chatting about our past friends and then he told me someone I knew got her heart broken by Kagamine Len. Then he warned me to avoid Len and told me about Len's notoriety, and…well, that's how I found out," she shrugged, hoping that they wouldn't ask her anything else. Much to her relief, Mizki nodded and went back to eating her apple, returning to her apathetic self. Rin, however, was still frowning at her, looking like she was thinking about something.

"Len isn't that bad," Luka tried to soothe things over in her usual placid manner. "He does have his merits, though he can be a bit of a jerk…I have spoken to him before. Once he realised that I wasn't interested in him, he became…how do I put it?" Luka laughed. "Quite philosophical, actually. He might be a ladies man, but he's quite intelligent as well. I'd love to have him in the Student Council, but he's always busy running around doing God knows what," the beautiful pink haired girl shrugged gracefully, picking once more at her tuna salad. Miku turned towards Luka, blinking in surprise.

"Luka, are you the Student Council President?" she asked – somehow, it just didn't seem possible that Luka could be the President. She didn't seem authoritarian at all. Luka was like fresh sunshine and flowers and sweetness. Every school she had been to, the President of the Student Council, Union or Committee – whatever the student body called it – was always perfectionist, bossy and fond of picking at tiny details. Luka, with her measured words and her aura of calm, just didn't fit the stereotype Miku had in mind. Luka smiled at her and nodded, and Miku gaped, feeling somewhat shocked. Now that she looked closely at Luka's collar, she could see the badge of the Student Council pinned to the white fabric, and suddenly she felt a little dumb for not having noticed this earlier.

Rin snorted. "Megurine Luka has been the President for two years running. Someone needs to kick her off her spot on the Student Council. I swear, I am not voting for you during the next election," Rin waved her fork threateningly at Luka. Luka just smiled placidly again, scooping another forkful of tuna into her mouth. Miku wrinkled her nose as the smell of canned fish wafted over to her.

"That would hurt my feelings, but we're graduating at the end of this year," Luka pointed out. "I won't even be in the school anymore for the next election, and neither will you," she dabbed at her mouth with a piece of tissue. Rin just sighed and rolled her eyes, putting her fork back down on her tray. Miku thought this meant that she was safe from further questioning, but then Rin glanced up from her food and met her gaze and Miku felt a shiver run down her spine – Rin looked so much like her twin brother that when she looked at her this way, she felt like Len was the one staring at her instead. Rin looked like she wasn't done with her questioning, and Miku cringed at the thought.

"President, we have a situation!" they heard a voice yell out behind them, and suddenly Kagene Rei skidded over to their table, his black hair in complete disarray and carrying a clipboard in his arms. "Piko says that there aren't enough fairy lights for the play next week so he was asking if we can just use bare lightbulbs instead –" suddenly, he caught sight of Miku and faltered, gaping at her. "Hey, it's you again!" Rei exclaimed, grinning at her playfully. "I didn't know you dared to sit with President Megurine Luka. She's the strictest President we've ever had the misfortune to have, you know."

"Are you quite done, Rei?" Luka sighed, sounding irritated for the first time ever since Miku met her. She was kneading her forehead with her fingertips. "I swear, I don't know why every year I keep you in the Council," Luka grumbled to herself. "It's like dealing with a hyperactive child who overdosed on sugar," she added pointedly, ignoring Rei's sheepish smile. The boy ruffled his hair with his free hand, the other one still holding on to the clipboard – Miku could see what was clipped onto the board, and it looked like various seating charts and a few lists. "Are we completely out of lights?"

"Uh, well I know Shion Kaito has some fairy lights leftover from his Christmas-themed party. That's according to Piko at least. But I asked Kaito about them just now and he said he loaned them to Len, who apparently needed them for some fancy music performance or something. And I can't find Len," Rei shrugged. "Neither is he picking up his phone. I guess we can ask Gumo? The school technician said the fairy lights we have are the wrong colour too, so we might have even fewer than we first thought. We wanted the pink and white ones, but we mostly have…red and green. From Christmas."

Luka muttered something inaudible. "Wasn't Piko in charge of the play? Why is he only telling us this now when we have just one week left to the performance?" she sounded a little annoyed, but since it was Luka her voice was still smooth and her face seemed completely calm. Still, Miku guessed that she was boiling inside. She had assumed that the pink haired girl was peaceful and fair, but given what she was observing now, it seemed more likely that Luka was one of those terrifying people who bottled up all their emotions and exploded when everything became too overwhelming.

She made a mental note to stay on Luka's good side. Rei shrugged again, this time looking sheepish. "He didn't tell me. But at least he let us know a week ahead, rather than three days before like last time!" he chirped. Luka actually rolled her eyes at this and got up from the table. Miku cringed back a little as the pink haired President strode off, probably searching for the aforementioned Piko. "I guess I should follow her and stop her from terrorising Piko, he'll get nightmares for a month," Rei looked heavenwards for a few seconds, before his gaze dropped to her and he shot her a warm smile. "See you around some time, Miku! Maybe we'll share a class or something," he winked. She felt her heart skip a beat, and then Rei turned and hurried away after the angry Council President.

"Uh, hold on. Miku, since when did you know Kagene Rei?" Mizki dropped her apple in excitement, slamming her hands down on the table. Miku blinked at her innocently, wondering what had gotten the girl so worked up. Mizki looked like she was having trouble breathing. Rin simply rolled her eyes.

"Ignore her, Miku. It's her shipper mind working again. She sees you have the potential to be Rei's future love interest," Rin said dryly. Mizki shot her a look of annoyance as Rin sighed in the most exaggerated way – it seemed like this wasn't the first time this shipping thing had happened. Should she be concerned? She vaguely understood what shipping meant and she definitely didn't want to be paired up with Rei. They were sort of friends, that's all! There was nothing going on between them both, and Miku didn't want anything to happen. She just wanted to complete her academic life and graduate without any distractions whatsoever. Dating and falling in love could always wait.

"Miku knows like, the only guy in school besides your good-for-nothing twin brother who can make girls swoon when he smiles at them. And Rei actually seems like he kind of has a thing for her! Like he completely ignored the both of us today?" Mizki gestured at herself and Rin aggressively, much to Miku's bemusement. "Do not tell me you can't see them together. I think they'd be so cute. Mr Vice President with the new kid – wouldn't it be so romantic?" Mizki sighed, clasping her hands together.

"He's the Vice President?" Miku spluttered, stunned by this sudden piece of information. Mizki and Rin barely even acknowledged her, but she saw the blonde nod quickly at her question. Miku couldn't believe it. She thought that Rei had just been a regular member of the Student Council. He was just so casual and friendly, and she figured that his basketball training might be enough of a commitment for him. How was he balancing the two? Len had not told her that Rei was the Vice President. She didn't know how she felt about knowing this now. Rei seemed so perfect and she was willing to bet her life's savings that he was one of the most popular students in school. And meanwhile here she was, a stranger to her hometown and hardly with more than five friends at any given time.

"Mizki, you're jumping way too quickly into things," Rin was now saying, her bright blue eyes looking towards the ceiling in exasperation. "You tried to pair up Nakajima Gumo with Akita Neru like, last month. And that was so damn stupid, they hate each other. What makes you think that Miku is even interested in Rei? I'll bet you anything she just wants to complete her year here and graduate."

Miku nodded quickly in affirmation when Mizki turned to glare at her, seeking her answer. Mizki made a soft growling noise, sounding remarkably like an angry cat. "Neru and Gumo just have unresolved sexual tension, and you all are blind not to see it," she declared in a huff. "And how can anyone not be interested in Rei? I saw Miku being all stumped when Rei winked at her! Come on, Rei winked at Miku! He has to be interested to some degree. Plus, have I mentioned that it's Rei?" she went on aggressively, ignoring Rin's attempts at cutting into the conversation. "Rei was sent from Heaven so he can populate the planet with little Rei angel babies. He is one gorgeous specimen of the male species. The only guy more attractive than Rei, even just a little, is your goddamn brother!"

Miku butted in then. "Mizki, I thought you don't particularly like Len," she pointed out, wondering why Mizki kept using Len as an example of masculine beauty. She was pretty sure that Mizki didn't exactly like the boy, at least from what she observed of her behaviour. Mizki grinned at that.

"Excellent observation! I hate his guts. He slept with my friend's sister and she broke up with her boyfriend because of him," Mizki bared her teeth in annoyance. "But I'm not going to let that sully my perception of his appearance. The guy doesn't dare to make a move on me since I'm Rin's friend, and hey, you can't deny that he's really good looking!" unfortunately, Miku had to agree with that.

Rin threw up her hands. "Okay, let's stop discussing Len as though he didn't share a womb with me," she deadpanned. "It's seriously gross to hear girls drooling over my little brother. Like on one hand, I feel like I ought to be somewhat flattered because, you know, we're twins and if he's hot, then I'm hot too right? But no, it doesn't work that way. You won't catch people falling at my feet any time soon. Not that I need that," she paused and thought for a while, "I already have Kaito. But yeah, I've made my point clear, let's agree to stop talking about how handsome Len is. It makes me heave."

"Yeah, let's get back to you," Mizki agreed, her head whipping around so that she could pin Miku with an intense stare. Miku swallowed. "So tell me, how do you know the angel we all know as Kagene Rei?" she sighed dramatically, pretending to swoon. Miku giggled as Rin smacked Mizki on the shoulder, still wearing that same flat expression as she did when she asked them not to talk about Len's sex appeal. "You are so lucky. Rei is practically oblivious to the opposite sex, you know. I'm eighty percent certain that he has his eye on you!" Mizki declared, still looking dreamy.

"Uh…he's a childhood friend, sort of," she explained lamely. "He sat next to me in school and he always lent me stationery and stuff when I forgot to bring my things. I was a bit of a problem child," she smiled wryly. "He used to cover my butt all the time when I came late or skipped school or climbed over the gate during recess or something. Even then he was pretty much a model student, he was a prefect and on the school basketball team and everyone knew who he was. I guess he's still the same now, isn't he?" she poked at her almost empty lunchbox. This cold pasta was decent.

"So it's a childhood romance!" Mizki leant towards her, intrigued. Miku could see Rin struggling not to roll her eyes and shake some sense into the pink haired girl. She decided that Mizki was probably too far gone into her shipper fantasies. "You know, I really think you and Rei could have a thing," she said after a pause. "I mean, he's like the perfect height for you, and he's so nice and friendly while you're so socially awkward – he would balance you out wonderfully!" Mizki beamed. Miku just sort of smiled back hesitantly, wondering about what Mizki had said. Was she really socially awkward?

She felt her phone buzz in her pocket, and used that as an excuse to avoid Mizki's excited gaze, leaving her to dwell in the makings of her own imagination. She had received a text from…Rin, who was sitting quietly next to Mizki and looking intently at her. She swallowed as she read the short four word message, probably sent because Mizki didn't seem like she would quieten any time soon.

Call me after school. Somehow, Miku already knew it was going to be about Len. Rin still looked…she would say Rin looked uneasy. Not really worried, just uneasy. She sighed and made the smallest of nods, and both of them returned their attention to Mizki, who was still gushing about how hot Rei was and how absolutely adorable he and Miku would look as a couple. Though Mizki's fantasies got a little outlandish sometimes, it helped to distract her from thinking about after school.

Miku most certainly wasn't looking forward to talking about Len with his concerned older sister, but she comforted herself by remembering that she had done far scarier things than this. At least she was going to talk to Rin and not to Len himself.


Len wasn't sure if his nasty headache was genuine or if it was all just in his head. He had failed to get any proper sleep the whole night and now he felt even crappier than he normally did. He actually had a nightmare where Miku was dropping him into a pit of molten magma and trapping him in Hell.

He was letting her get into his head. Why was he so affected by her words? She was just some new girl…a condescending, critical girl who probably didn't understand the definition of fun. But he couldn't bring himself to think of any more sour thoughts about her, since secretly he knew that she was right, everything she said about him last night was true. And Len didn't want to lie to himself.

All this time he managed to convince himself that he wasn't leaving any lasting damage. He hoped that the girl Miku was talking about, whoever she was, would feel better today after she got drunk last night. He still had absolutely no idea who it could be, and he had given up trying to remember, deciding that some things were better left forgotten. Wincing, he placed a hand against his head, feeling his temples throb against his knuckles. He hadn't gotten such a bad headache in ages, and again he wondered whether he had induced this stupid headache himself by simply overthinking.

He knew he couldn't go to school today, but at least he had a legit excuse this time. When Rin yanked open his door and yelled at him to get his lazy butt off the bed, he just hid himself under his pillow and wormed his way deeper into the blanket. When she finally accepted that he wasn't in the mood to go to school, she had asked him about the cause of his shitty behaviour and, in a fit of pique he told her about his encounter with Miku last night and how whatever transpired between them was depressing him. In hindsight, this probably wasn't such a good idea, since Rin was at heart still an older sister who cared about her younger brother and this would likely end up in some sort of confrontation. But he couldn't help but gloat over how Miku would have to face his twin now.

She deserved it…sort of. Len rolled over in bed, groaning to himself. He had taken some aspirin earlier but it wasn't helping, and the dull ache was so bad that he couldn't get himself back to sleep. Sitting up, he forced himself to get off the bed and walk out of the room, having to cling on to the door frame as he swayed where he stood, his head spinning. He still had to send that stupid music score to Miku. Despite his semi-antagonistic feelings towards the teal haired girl and the nasty pain in his head, he would still do what he promised to do. Len, contrary to popular opinion, did care about his work and commitments. In fact, he cared too much about his commitments, which was one reason why he refused to commit romantically to any single person. It would suffocate him.

The scanner and family desktop computer were in the study room, which was on the same floor as his parent's bedroom. He made the torturous climb up to the next floor, remembering just in time to duck back into his room and retrieve his music folder. Stumbling over to the study room, he yanked the door open and was greeted by a blast of freezing cold air. Grumbling, he made his way to the scanner, switching the computer on while he did so. As he logged in to his account and waited for the system to boot up, he glanced through the folder once more and wondered why Miku kept talking about his exceptional talent as a composer. The pieces here weren't his greatest works, actually. He had better pieces. But the ones he kept in this folder were just the ones he liked best.

She hadn't seen him at his full creative potential yet, but she already talked as if he had amazing talent and potential. He snorted, wincing when the action made his head throb, and set the folder down next to the scanner. He thought about Hatsune Miku and why she just couldn't seem to get out of his head, with that fiery determination and the self-righteous conviction he had seen in her green eyes. Why was he so affected by the opinion of a girl he barely knew? Rin's friend, Yamaha Mizki, couldn't stand him and she made that clear – yet, when she told him that he was a worthless scumbag, he was barely even affected by the venom in her words. He had been called all sorts of names in all sorts of tones, and even the bitterest insults just rolled off him. He was used to them.

But the words of a girl who had no venom in her words, who only spoke to him in a fit of anger and out of a misplaced sense of justice, made him think more about her than anyone else ever did. Was it just because she was also one of the few girls who didn't want him? And that she was the only girl who outright rejected him, who showed absolutely zero interest in him from the very beginning? Even girls in school who didn't like him had wanted him, had acknowledged that he was handsome and that they used to want him too. He could tell because he had watched those girls' expressions turn slowly from interest to apathy. But Miku's eyes, from the very start, had shown nothing.

It was just so strange to not be wanted. And that, coupled with how detailed her description was of the heartbroken girl he cut off two weeks ago, was affecting him too much for his liking. Len was not a very aggressive person – he could be vicious if pushed, but generally he didn't seek a fight – but for the first time in a long while, he felt the need to get a final say in this matter. He couldn't just let Miku walk away as though nothing had happened, as though her voice hadn't wormed its way into his head and her words hadn't gouged out parts of the armour which shielded him from the world, allowing bits of his conscience to crawl back into him from some godforsaken place. He wanted to make her hurt the same way he was hurt by her accusations, but how could he do that? He wasn't sure.

Maybe he would just seduce her and sleep with her, as per his original plan. It seemed like poetic justice to do the exact thing she had accused him of with her – then even she, who thought that her words were justified and that her experiences were helping him, couldn't resist the allure of sleeping with someone who wanted nothing out of the relationship. But that was morally screwed up too – he slept around just for himself, he didn't do it out of revenge or anything else – and he sighed, knowing that even if he wanted to seduce Miku, it wasn't going to be easy. After all, he had decided he wanted to do so since the day before but despite meeting her a few times and having some decent opportunities to flirt with her, he had yet to make his move. Plus now, she didn't like him.

The computer was up and running now, a low hum filling the room. Len methodically placed the score onto the scanner and opened up the relevant programme, copying the score into a document. Quickly, he saved the document and took out his phone to find her email address so he could send it to her as soon as possible and return to his room after that. He paused when he saw he had eight unread messages and two missed calls, and curious he opened them to see what he was missing.

Three of the messages were from girls asking if he was free to spend time with them. He ignored those three, focusing instead on the other messages. There was one from Kaito and Piko each, both asking him where the hell he was and did he think he was being funny, skipping school again? He just grinned and shook his head at that, wincing slightly when his head throbbed in protest. He replied both with a "not feeling well" and went on to check the other messages. The remaining three were all from the same person, and it was a number he didn't recognise. Curious, he opened the texts and saw that they were all from Kagene Rei, who for some reason was asking him if he had fairy lights.

His two missed calls were from Rei too. He wondered how the dark boy had obtained his number, but decided not to think too much about it – Rei knew almost everyone in school, so he had quite a number of connections and this wasn't anything too surprising. He bet Rei got his number from Piko, since Piko was a member of the Student Council as well…albeit one of the more laidback ones. Len sometimes wondered why Piko was even in the Council since he never seemed to take any of his responsibilities seriously, but on the few occasions he talked to Luka and actually brought this question up, the President just shrugged and said Piko did actually do work when it was required of him.

He debated whether he ought to reply Rei – he knew the fairy lights Rei was talking about, he had them in a box placed inside the piano room – but before he could come to a decision, he felt a sharp pain shoot through his head and he groaned, slumping down onto the computer chair. He let his phone slip out of his grip onto the table. The sudden pain was probably from standing too long; he was starting to feel a little lightheaded, and he had an overwhelming urge to just close his eyes. Forcing himself to stay awake, he checked through his contact details and found Miku's email.

Desperately, he opened up a new draft and attached the document, not bothering to put any subject heading or content. He was sure she would know who he was, since his email address was just his name followed by the domain he used. It was pretty much impossible to confuse him with anyone else. After the email was sent, he tapped out a very quick text to tell her that he had sent her the document, and also asked her to inform him when she was done with editing the score. Throughout all this, he told himself that right after this message was sent he would finally be able to take a nap.

He sent out the text, hoping that both it and the email went through – he wouldn't know, because immediately after he pressed 'send', he turned away from his phone and closed his eyes. He was asleep almost the very moment his head hit the table.