41- Vignette- Post-Game

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Music Goes On

Let me make it clear that I did not buy these headphones because of Neku.

...alright, fine, that's a lie. I did.

You can't blame me! He was the one who started the stupid argument. I only said that I thought earphones were better. It's just an opinion. I wasn't trying to make a jab at Neku's headphones.

Still, he got into this rant about why headphones were better. So I bought some headphones because if these things can make Neku talk that much, they must be something special.

I opened up the packaging and admired the pair of headphones; I picked out really cute ones! They were mainly white but had a retro green design on each side. Throwing away the instructions (who reads them, anyway?), I connected them to my mp3 and closed my eyes.

Woah...

This did have way better quality.

I couldn't here any outside sound; the bass and all the beats were all so clear and there were sounds that I didn't even notice were in this song.

Then the song stopped and I turned it off. Outside the building I lived in, there was construction work going on at the moment, yet I heard nothing. If I strained hard enough, I thought I heard perhaps a tiny bit of noise, but if I hadn't known it was there I wouldn't have noticed it.

Was...this how Neku heard the world before the game?

I reached up to touch one side.

Wouldn't this feel lonely?

Then I felt something cover my hand and I shrieked, completely freaked out.

I jumped and spun around, my headphones falling back to hang by my neck in the process.

"Hello to you, too."

"Neku! You should've knocked! You scared the living crap out of me!"

"I did knock. About twenty times, in fact." He nodded towards me, eyeing the headphones. "Guess you didn't hear me."

"Y-yeah," I admitted sheepishly, taking the headphones off of my neck and fiddling with them in my hands.

Neku held out his hand and I rolled my eyes, giving him the headphones for inspection.

"You got some really high quality ones, mine aren't even that good," he said sounding impressed.

I did? Geez, I could have saved money then...

"The music sounds better with these, doesn't it?" He looked unusually excited. "When you block out every other sound, you can focus on just the music. The notes that are meant to blend become flawless and the all the separated notes are sharper."

"Mmhmm." Aw, he really liked headphones a lot. It was cute to see him like this, since I was the one who usually talked a lot.

He probably noticed my attempt not to giggle because he quickly set them down near my desk, his poker face now back. "We should go. Beat and Rhyme are probably waiting for us."

"Okay then!"

We walked out of my building and I started humming the tune of a cheerful song.

"You're too carefree."

Hehe. He was still embarrassed! Poker face or not, his cheeks were pink.

"Jump in, Neku. How did the tune go next?"

"I'm not humming."

"Suit yourself." I went on, pretty sure I was hitting all the wrong notes.

After warning me not to tell anyone he was doing this, he started to hum along with me.


A/N: Tadaa! First person? How long was it since we did that? I wonder if my style is any different in first person and in third person. They kind of seem the same -squints-. Eh, well it's nice to change things up once in a while. If anyone can guess which anime inspired the title gets five stars (it's a real tricky one and only a few would know the answer owo). Thanks for reviewing the last chapter and thanks for reading this one!