SATURDAY EVENING/NIGHT OF THE PARTY

After spending a night texting Luka and Aito about the shitstorm that was their class's project and making as many memes as they could about it, Rin spent the rest of her night silently scrolling through her phone, refreshing all her social media feeds for any new content. Len hadn't posted or liked anything the entire night and even as she began to get ready the next day, nothing new appeared on his profile.

She tugged on her blue and white striped thigh highs, glancing at her open phone. She was sure maybe he'd tweet something about his failed conquest. Maybe call her out or something. Not that it was typical of his character to do a thing like that, but…

Rin huffed and stood up. Whatever. If Len wanted to move past the whole ordeal, she would too. Heck, might as well unfollow him to get the process speeded up.

Just as her hands picked up the phone, her feed auto-refreshed and Len's latest tweet popped up.

"Getting ready for a wild night. I'm feline down to party."

Included was a photo of Len in his all black cat costume, shining a smirk at the camera while Kaito adjusted his costume in the background. A wide smirk with soft, pink lips-

Rin slammed her phone down face down, her entire body suddenly warm again as she recalled the memories of yesterday.

Len Kagamine. Inches away from her face. Len Kagamine. Pressed up against her body. Len Kagamine-

"Hiiiiiii, Rin!" Luka yelled out as she burst through her friend's room. Rin screamed from the surprise and tossed her phone even farther away.

"I wasn't doing anything!" she yelped and stood up, causing Luka to pause and laugh.

"I guess I should have knocked," she said, "Although I didn't expect to catch you looking at something inappropriate like you were a teenage boy."

Rin sighed and walked over to her phone, picking it up and giving her a half-hearted wave. Luka took this as enough of a welcome and walked over to Rin's full-length mirror perched on the side, checking her dress again and fixing up her bangs. Rin breathed a sigh of relief that nothing was broken and turned her eyes to Luka. She wore a dark red Renaissance dress that hugged her curves perfectly. The long, open capelet sleeves allowed for more movement throughout the night and the neckline was fairly low too. Rin's eyes grazed down to the diamond peephole that revealed quite a bit of cleavage.

"You look really good, Luka," Rin said, looking down at her own Alice in Wonderland costume and suddenly beginning to feel childish. Was she the age to start wearing sexy costumes?

Luka smiled, giving herself one last look in the mirror and not noticing how Rin stared at her own flat chest for a little too long. "Thanks, Rin! You look super adorable too!"

Rin smiled at the compliment, only slightly wincing at the use of "adorable." She knew Luka didn't mean anything by it, but it still stung.

"Do you think Kaito will notice?"

Rin looked up to meet Luka's worried eyes. Right. She actually had someone she was trying to impress. She, on the other hand, was merely tagging along with her friend group and hoping to have some kind of fun by the end of the night. So, Rin didn't necessarily need to dress up for anyone's attention.

She gave her friend a reassuring smile. "He'd be stupid not to notice you tonight."

At this, Luka beamed.

"Alright, let's finish you up, then! I'm so excited to meet everybody there soon.

Luka helped Rin finish getting ready, helping her with the finishing touches of makeup since Rin didn't feel as confident with anything more complicated than foundation, mascara, and blush. By the end, Rin looked at herself in the mirror, feeling a bit better about the person who looked back at her.

"And lastly," Luka began, reaching in her makeup bag and pulling out a soft pink lipstick. She held her breath as she ran the wand against Rin's lips, pulling back so Rin could inspect.

Instead of looking at the mirror, Rin pursed her lips, remembering the almost kiss again. She wanted to tell someone about it. She hadn't brought it up over text the day before because she was still embarrassed. And this was news that needed to be shared face to face.

"Luka-"

"Hold up, I know that seemed like a lot of makeup, but let me show you the payoff," Luka said and gently directed Rin's face to the mirror with her hands.

Rin let out a soft gasp.

Luka let go and watched her friend lean into the mirror, taking in the new view. This was one of the first times Rin actually let her do a full face of makeup on her. Every other time, she lost patience trying to complete it herself and would insist she was fine going barefaced instead.

Looking at her reflection, it wasn't like Rin saw someone completely different. It was still her, which was really what shocked her. She had always pined for the attractive, sultry look that it seemed like everyone else but her could accomplish. She always felt too young, too baby faced, just not enough-but she could look this way too?

"Luka, you're a miracle worker."

"I only enhanced the beauty already there," Luka said, patting her friend's back. Just then, Rin's bedroom door opened up unannounced, but this time her mother's head peeked out.

"Girls, Aito just got here. He's waiting downstairs."

Her mother flashed her a quick smile, giving her a compliment on the makeup and outfit and then exchanging the same with Luka. Rin smiled and turned around as the two spoke with each other. She collected the things she would need for the party, trying to cool down the blush on her face before she would turn around to face the two.

As the three walked down the stairs, the blush she had hoped would die down intensified as soon as she caught eyes with the cause of it.

"Rin, wow," Aito said and her heart surged with joy. Her hand absentmindedly came up to fix her bangs and she smiled his way.

"I know, I normally don't look like this, but it's a special occasion today, huh?"

Aito was about to respond when he glanced over at Luka who was now just realizing the time and in a panic about being late. Even in this state, yelling at him and running down the steps, Rin saw the difference in the look Aito gave her and the look he held for Luka now. He laughed at Luka's response, even when she softly bonked his head with her purse for laughing at her.

His gaze had softened. His eyes had combed over her entire body, as if he couldn't peel his eyes off of her. Aito held up one hand to defend his head, the other conveniently placed in his pocket as he shifted his stance.

Rin turned her head from the two as they continued to tease each other. She was used to this routine. Of course it wouldn't be any different.

Waving goodbye to her parents and promising to be back not any later than midnight, the trio walked on outside to the evening. Sprinklers were timed to go off, so Luka lifted up her dress as they walked up to the sidewalk. Aito pulled up the address on his phone, signaling them to head left first.

Rin was snapped out of her thoughts seeing Len hop into a car parked on his side of the street. Kaito rounded the back and opened up the driver's seat to give in.

Luka inwardly gasped as she spotted the two, grabbing Rin's hand and resisting the urge to point.

"Len lives in your neighborhood and I never knew?" she whispered, as if this was information Rin should have provided her with years ago.

"I didn't know myself until the other day," Rin said. The car lights turned on and the boys drove away.

Luka dropped the whisper and stood there, shocked. "Wow. This is just like a contemporary romance novel. Actually speeds up quite a few steps knowing he lives that close-"

"This is not one of your cheesy books, Luka," Rin groaned, starting to walk where Aito had pointed them the direction just a moment ago.

"But it has all the right ingredients for one!" Aito chimed in.

"Don't encourage her, Aito!"

And so, the three best friends walked onto Gumi and Sonika's Halloween party. Although the night would be one to remember, they wouldn't remember any of the silly conversations they'd make on the way. How Luka went over every possible outcome of the night with her and Kaito. How Aito had begged Mrs. Megurine for extra credit assignments after anticipating that the two of them would sink the project grade. And Rin, what it was like working with their highschool's most known player. And later, yes, the moves he tried to place on her and how he was swiftly rejected. Turns out sharing a laugh with your friends and making jokes about the situation helped.

So when they arrived at Gumi and Sonika's doors, Rin was ready to face the rest of the night and party with her friends. She would avoid speaking to Len and Len would avoid her and they would pretend they never spoke to each other. This past week, the project, the connection they had, that all had never happened. She'd have a good time tonight.

Len Kagamine was the last person on her mind.

Funny how the opposite was on Len's mind.

It's summer break for me, so I managed to squeeze in the time to complete this short chapter. The original goes over what happened with everyone else's projects, so if you'd like to read those you can read the next chapter.

The next chapter was originally around 6,000 words, so I had probably spent six hours one day just writing the entirety of that. Too bad I don't have that kind of attention span anymore, so it will definitely take me time to rewrite that chapter.

Thanks again for reading, and I hope to see you all again in the next chapter!