It had been a few days since Juliet CV02 – no, Rin – had blown up on Miku. She hadn't seen the smaller girl since. It was with a heavy heart Miku accepted that what Rin had said was right. Life as a Juliet wasn't simply unfair. Life as a Juliet was miserable, and only because those around the Juliets made sure those girls always felt that way.

What particularly stung was Rin telling Miku how she was no different, and if she was being honest with herself, Miku had no choice but to agree with Rin.

Head resting against the window, Miku heard nothing Kaito was telling her as they rode his carriage to town. Instead she stared aimlessly at the passing scenery. She didn't see the colors.

"Miku?"

"Hmmm?" Now Miku looked at Kaito. "I'm sorry, I wasn't really paying attention. What were you saying?"

Kaito smiled, an almost sympathetic look. "Nothing important, really. Is everything okay?"

"Not really. I'm . . . still shaken up is all."

"Don't worry," Kaito told her, "we will find the would be assassin. Mother and my cousins are safe. We are heavily guarded. There's nothing to worry about."

Miku didn't have it in her to tell Kaito that she had almost forgotten about the attempt on his life and what that meant for his district. In a lot of ways, she couldn't believe she had discarded the event so easily. So instead she offered a small smile and hoped Kaito wouldn't push her further. He didn't. It was disappointing to Miku when she realized that deep down, she wished Kaito was someone she could really talk to about what was on her mind.

Rin didn't eat. She drank little of the water Cul and Ia took turns bringing her. All she really did was cry and sleep. Sleep and cry. There were occasional trips to the bathroom, but that was it.

For days she lied with her face buried in Gumi's mattress. The smell of Gumi had long since faded, or Rin had long since grown too used to the scent to detect it. Either way, this bed no longer felt to be Gumi's. This room was no longer Gumi's. Soon enough, another Juliet would take Gumi's place just as Rin took the place of a deceased Juliet she never once bothered to learn anything about.

"How long has it been?" Rin muttered, her throat sticky, when Cul walked in to drop off a tray of bread and water.

Cul didn't need to ask what Rin meant. "Five days."

"Why haven't they come for me?"

"From my understanding, Ms. Hatsune talked with Master Tonio about allowing you mourning time as an opportunity for her to see if she needs you to follow her around anymore."

Somehow, even though Rin believed what Cul said was true, the words still stung. "Were you or the others allowed mourning time?"

"Head Juliet did give us each a couple consecutive days off since the execution," Cul whispered. "It's not much, but I'll take whatever I can get."

"Gumi wasn't afraid to die," Rin muttered, not knowing why she did. "She believed the world was on the brink of changing and that she wouldn't have survived it anyway. She said she was glad to die for love instead."

Sighing loud enough for Rin to hear, Cul replied, "I don't know what made her think the world is changing. Things are never, ever going to change. She died for nothing, just as you and I will one day die for nothing. We live to serve, and we die like we never mattered. That's just the way of the world, Rin. Gumi might have had dreams, but in the end, the world isn't going to change for us."

When Rin didn't respond, Cul told her, "I'll be back in an hour to check on you. Please at least eat the bread. We're worried about you, Rin. Please don't make us lose another friend so soon."

After Cul left, Rin thought deeply about what she had said. "The world isn't going to change for us." She was right, but she also said that Gumi had dreams. This she was wrong about. Gumi wasn't the dreamer. Rin was, or so Gumi insisted till her dying day. It was people like Rin who Gumi insisted would change the world.

If Gumi could see Rin now, she would be so disappointed.

While things kept going the way they always did, Rin lied in Gumi's old bed and spent her days doing nothing. The world kept marching forward, and Rin was too depressed to do anything save let it pass by. Even if Rin was the dreamer Gumi believed her to be, Rin didn't do anything with those dreams.

This realization lead Rin to cry again, but this time in bitterness rather than sadness. Gumi believed Rin would help change the world for Juliets like her, those who died meaningless deaths. If only she had known Rin was helping to put an end to a rebellion before it could even begin. Rin was helping a society that hated her, that killed Juliets as if they were nothing more than flies simply for wanting to live their own lives. By doing this, she too was giving Gumi's life and death no meaning behind any of it.

Pushing herself upright and wiping away the tears, Rin grabbed the bread and took a massive bite out of it. The taste was stale, but Rin ate all the same. When she finished, she drank the water. She didn't wait for Cul to return before she went to the bathing room to wash off. After she cleaned, she put a simple Juliet uniform on for the first time in months.

Rin stalked back into the room to find Cul looking for her. "Gumi didn't die for nothing," she told the red head.

"What?" Cul looked Rin up and down, taken aback by the sudden shift in attitude.

"Gumi didn't die for nothing," Rin repeated, "and I'm going to make sure the whole world knows it."

After the Alices had left, Miku sat in front of her mirror and brushed out her hair. Her movements were lethargic. If asked about her date with Kaito that morning, Miku wouldn't have been able to recall much about it. They went into town, went someplace where Miku barely ate any of her food, and walked around a park or something of the sort. What they talked about and other such details escaped her. She knew he was aware something was off, but he neither asked what was wrong nor encouraged her to talk to him about what was weighing so heavily on her mind.

At first Miku binged to help cope with her emotions. However, the more she ate, the sicker she felt. The eating disorder was quickly replaced by another when Miku began to hardly eat at all, and she had eaten little for the past couple days. For the first time in her life, she didn't have an appetite. If this wasn't a sign that something was wrong with her, she didn't know what was.

Miku didn't hear Rin enter and didn't know the blonde was there until she looked at her reflection and saw Rin's looking back at her.

"Juliet!" Miku exclaimed in a gasp, spinning around. Seeing Rin's pained expression, Miku corrected herself. "I'm sorry. That was a mistake. I now know your name is Rin."

"I'm not offended," Rin said, standing on the other side of the room. Her arms hung lifeless at her sides, but she held her chin high. This wasn't the posture of someone timid or meek. "Besides, it is I who should apologize to you. I said a lot of awful things that day, most of which I didn't mean. I was hurting, but that's no excuse. You aren't like the other Cinderellas, and I'm grateful that of all the girls I could have been assigned to, it was you. How I reacted says nothing about my feelings towards you. I'm sorry and hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."

"Of course I forgive you," Miku replied, slowly standing. "Besides, you weren't completely wrong. My behavior wasn't much better. I see that now. Although my beliefs have been changing, my attitude was not. You were right to call me out."

"Then let's not hold on to what was any longer." Rin marched forward, and Miku could see determination set in the Juliet's eyes. Stopping a couple feet away from Miku, Rin said, "I won't let them intimidate me anymore. I won't let the rules made to treat me as less than human control me anymore. I'm done being scared."

Curious, Miku tilted her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm not letting these tattoos determine who we are and what are meant to be. Forget what society says. Forget what they all say. We don't have to be Juliet and Cinderella. We should just be Rin and Miku. I care about you. Miku, I—"

Rin cut herself off. Now her stature wavered. Taking a shaky breath, Rin said, "I think we can be friends, if we truly wanted to. We don't have to let anyone stop us. We can be friends, can't we?"

Unsure what to make of what was happening, Miku crossed her arms and studied Rin.

"You're reacting to Gumi's execution," Miku said slowly. "This is your way of rebelling."

"I'm not reacting. I'm responding," Rin replied. "And yes, I am rebelling. So what? Gumi was executed to discourage the rest of us Juliets from living our lives. Well, I'm not falling for it. If I submit to Gumi's murderers, then Gumi died for nothing. What Gumi would have wanted was for us to take a stand and fight for our lives, and this is me honoring that wish."

Softer and slower, Rin added, "Unless you don't want to be friends."

"I do want us to be friends!" Miku argued. "However, I can't trust that you are thinking clearly. I don't want you to end up like her."

"I won't," Rin vowed.

"How can you promise that?"

"Gumi accepted her fate, but I won't go down without a fight." Shaking her head, Rin asked, "What about you? Are you going to give in and be what we're told to be? You said your beliefs were changing, but beliefs without actions are useless."

Miku chewed her lower lip, knowing Rin was right. "We'll get in trouble," she said.

"I'll get in trouble," Rin corrected, "but that's a risk I'm willing to take. No more being scared. No more shying away."

"I still can't trust that you aren't overreacting."

"That's all right. However, just for tonight . . ." Rin took a deep breath. "Can we be friends? Tonight, can we be equals?"

Exhaling slowly, Miku smiled and said, "If only for tonight, I think we can be as dear of friends as we like."

Moaning, Rin rolled over to turn away from the sunlight as it peaked through the window. Then she heard a gasp. She was wide awake in an instant.

Standing at the foot of the bed was the red headed Alice, Teto. Her eyes widened as she beheld the scene before her: Rin in Miku's bed, Miku asleep on the other side. Before Rin could open her mouth, the Alice fled the room.

Rin didn't think. She jumped out of bed and ran after the Alice. It must have still been too early for the Cinderellas to be awake, for hardly anyone was out in the halls.

When Rin came to a crossroads, she looked down both passageways she could take. One lead to Head Juliet's office, and the other to Mistress Prima's. She didn't know which way the Alice took, but Rin knew where she wanted to go.

Instead of knocking on the door and waiting to be called in, Rin barged into Head Juliet's office and made direct eye contact with her fellow Juliet. The woman looked at Rin, and Rin's words were caught in her throat at the sight of Head Juliet. The older woman appeared to have been crying. Empty bottles littered her desk.

The Alice was nowhere to be seen.

"Juliet CV02," Head Juliet began, her words slurred, "what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be with Ms. Hatsune?"

"That's why I'm here." Seeing the exhaustion in Head Juliet, Rin wondered why she ever feared the older woman. She cast the thought aside and said, "Somebody set us up. I know Ms. Hatsune's door was locked last night. I lock it every night before I retire. There's no way a simple Alice had a key. Not to mention Alices don't usually come into the rooms until after waking time."

"What are you talking about?" Head Juliet didn't sound angry. She rested her chin on her palm, eyelids drooping.

"Ms. Hatsune and I stayed up late into the night talking," Rin said. "I know, that's against the rules, and I know I made it worse by unknowingly falling asleep on her bed."

Now Head Juliet was wide awake. "You slept in a Cinderella's bed?!"

"Nothing happened," Rin insisted, "but I know the report that Alice is going to give will tell a very different story."

"And you believe this is a setup of some sorts? That somebody has been waiting for you to slip?"

"As crazy as it is, yes, I believe that." I should have suspected much sooner. I was warned, but I didn't listen.

Of all the things Head Juliet could have said, nothing would have surprised Rin more than, "I believe you."

"I'm sorry?" Rin furrowed her brows. "You believe me?"

"You're not the first Juliet to be set up, especially like this."

Before Rin could ask for an explanation, Head Juliet stood, unlocked a drawer in her desk, and retrieved a set of files. "These are the only copies left," she told Rin as she handed the young girl the documents.

Confused, Rin opened the files and began to read them. First was the birth certificate of a girl named Zerog Gumillia, mother Zerog Sonika and father unnamed. Next was the adoption papers, revealing that Gumillia was adopted by a woman named Fowler Miriam. Lastly was a certificate from the Sisters, telling how the stars proclaimed the light this Cinderella would shine on the world. At first Rin didn't understand what this had to do with anything, but as she looked through the rest of the documents, her heart sank lower and lower.

Another certificate for Gumillia, except this one proclaiming her a Juliet destined to cause heartbreak to everyone who would ever love her. More adoption papers. Finally, a receipt, the purchase of an eleven-year-old Juliet named Megpoid Gumi.

"I don't understand," Rin whispered, but she did. As much as she didn't want to understand, she did. Rin heard blood rushing in her ears.

"Due to the circumstances of Gumi's birth," Head Juliet began, "I adopted her as my own. Then that wicked witch, unhappy for the girl to be named a Cinderella, paid off the Sisters to rewrite her as a Juliet instead. I tried to save Gumi by giving her up for adoption to a family far from here, but she was found again and brought back. All meant to torment us."

"Gumi . . . was supposed to be a Cinderella?"

"Yes." Head Juliet extended her hand, and Rin closed the files to give them back. Putting the folder back in the drawer and locking it away, Head Juliet explained, "Mistress Prima has spent years trying to find a good reason to kill Gumi, and when she finally had it, she made sure all of us were there to watch."

"All of you?" Rin questioned. Her heart hammered in her chest, making it impossible to breathe. There was a lot more she didn't know. She wondered how much of this Gumi herself knew.

"Me, Pet Juliet, and . . . Master Tonio." Before Rin could ask questions, Head Juliet said, "Mistress Prima knows something about you she isn't supposed to know. I don't know the specifics, but I know she's after you now that Gumi is out of her way. If anyone gave that Alice a key and told her to check in Ms. Miku's rooms, it's her."

Rin felt as if the world was going to rip away from beneath her at any moment. Perhaps Miku was right. Maybe Rin really was overreacting and not ready for the consequences she was rebelliously setting up for herself.

"So now the question is this, Rin," Head Juliet said, again staring hard at her. "Are you going to wait for the guards to drag you to Mistress Prima, or would you like me to escort you there?"