Three reasons
Summary: Why thank you, Miki, you really know how to delightfully entertain my friends in ways I can't even comprehend.
This could've been uploaded sooner, but my beta-reader didn't beta it till...a couple of hours ago (I was using my tablet though, so I completely forgot she sent it to me.) Anyway, just one or two chapters more and this is DONE! Finally, a completed fanfiction! It's quite an amazing thing to me, to be honest.
Anyway, enjoy the chapter!
There are three reasons why...
Why I'm an idiot.
Why she's an idiot.
Why we're both idiots.
I'm not kidding.
After school was the day of the baseball game and Miki sternly reminded me of that in the middle of the night yesterday. I was sleeping soundly, having finished half of my Composition homework without motivation, and dreaming about being in an ice cream buffet. Then thunder cackled above me and I fell into a midnight black abyss of my cell phone ringing. When I woke up from my pleasant dream turned unpleasant, I rubbed my eyes and sluggishly reached for my phone that fell to the floor. Irritated, I picked it up and forced a hoarse greeting to the other line, hoping for an explanation.
"Upperclassman Shion, apologies for waking you up without warning –" Ah so it was Miki. I could tell that it was her with the way she spoke, the fact that she's calling me Upperclassman Shion, and also that her number didn't look familiar at all. "–I just wanted to remind you about tomorrow. Be prepared." She sounded so serious, almost as if it this was a life or death situation – which it wasn't, I might add hastily. I yawned, pulling the phone away from me and returned it back to my ear.
"…Yeah…" I droned tiredly, hoping that I don't fall back asleep on her. How in the world did I manage to utter a word or comprehend what she said? "…How did you get my number?" I questioned, blinking away the sleep and seething darkness of my bedroom. She stayed silent on the other line while I tried to dissect my question as carefully as I could through my drowsiness.
"Your friend told me. I'll be leaving you to sleep, good night." She hung up and I did too, tossing my phone to wherever it may land and fell back on pillow. I lied there, my eyes shut to blissful rest and then a thought popped into my head with Miki's words echoing inside of them.
When did Gakupo or Meiko tell her my number anyway? There was no way she was able to get it out of either of them because we all promised not to give away the others' number without their permission. It was due to an incident about three years ago where Meiko gave away Gakupo's number to this girl and the girl ended up stalking our poor friend. She stopped when she faced Meiko's fury though, jealousy turned into quite the bloody beast that day three years ago. It was definitely a story-telling experience that we kept written somewhere and it was the base of one of our rules within the trio.
Oh wait…I do have other friends, but I don't think any of them would give my number away all willy-nilly like. I gave up on contemplating it any longer and fell back asleep in my ice cream dream, grinning goofily to myself as I dived into a batch of cookies and cream goodness. I'd love to tell you what else happened, but all I could remember were mountains of different flavored ice creams and ski resorts taking place in it. Whatever did happen in there made me really hungry in the morning because I ate more breakfast than usual.
Class was the same as always; our teacher cut herself off from the lesson in mid-sentence and started complaining about how rough it is to be an employed woman with a boyfriend that has a superiority complex. This was a normal thing and we were at the short of the stick when it came to her personal problems; it pained us to an endless amount of agony. The teacher was like the typical, stereotypical teenage girl in the body of a woman with a certified teaching degree.
"Psst." I whipped my head to the left and saw Lily sitting beside me with her head turned forward, listening to the teacher rant. It didn't look like she was the one who called me so I went back to my routine of trying not to doze off during our teacher's infamous love life. "Shion, Miki wants to meet you after class." Again, I whipped my head to the blonde gangster and saw that she was finally looking at me with an amused expression. Her eyes had that light of bemusement dancing in them and I raised a brow, wondering why she found this information humorous.
"Where?" I whispered back and she shrugged. My brows furrowed; this somehow sounded like something she'd do. My best bet is that she'll approach me before I'm given the chance to approach her. She did it yesterday, so maybe she'll do it again today.
"Who knows what that girl thinks of," Lily replied and I gave a nod, knowing exactly what she meant.
Class ended and I got up from my seat tiredly. Gakupo pulled me back down, though, and gave an arrogant expression. His eyes flashed a victorious glare with his lips stretched across his face in the form of a smirk. That sort of expression meant that he was either ready to get me pulled into more of his tomfooleries or that he was going to tell me a secret that he shouldn't tell anyone. It's not like we keep secrets or anything, but that was the type of face he made when my mom planned a surprise party for me years before and he, Gakupo, was the one who tipped me off. Mom was not very happy about that.
"What's up?"
"Oh just some news about the Panda Hero," he informed with a cocky smirk. I sighed in annoyance. This was a competition, right? So, by telling me that he has news about the Panda Hero pretty much kills the purpose of the said event that was practically forced down our throats by the out of this world first year. Really, Gakupo, you should really chew on that thought for a while or at least toss it around for a few moments until it hits you on the head and gives you sudden realization; the realization that you shouldn't give information to your enemy, of course, that's pretty much a set back if you aim to win. There's really a need for me to intervene, but I won't, for the sake of being a good friend.
"...Out with it," I allowed without any fight in my voice. I was already tired, and having Gakupo spill his usual blurbs of nonsense early would at least give me peace of mind later.
"Yeah so the Panda Hero is really a-"
"Shut up, idiot!" Meiko's oh-so-lovely voice screeched and her foot crashed right into the side of Gakupo's head. I watched the scene in slow motion as our friend was sprung from his seat due to the great impact that our dear, Meiko inflicted. Honestly, I didn't think anything in this class would wake me up, but as always, my friends would prove me wrong. Especially these two. These two just always know how to wake a guy up when he's about to fall asleep while standing up, or stop him when he has to meet up with a high school student with a business complex.
I unwrapped a grin just for our temperamental pal of ours as she scoffed at the landing Gakupo had down when he crashed into another desk. The poor idiot, he didn't stand a chance against Meiko's powerful kick. Well, it's not like I could, but at least I was able to avoid it without trouble; of course, it's because between the two of us, I thoughtfully selected my words. …At least within the radius that Meiko was in because she has this inane ability to hear the sound of a pin drop in a noisy room almost perfectly. Okay, so maybe I was exaggerating, but she never really explains how she's able to hear what people can say in a whisper.
Her only plausible explanation was that girl's, somehow, have this insane ability to find out almost anything. We didn't bother to press the question further due to not understanding what the heck that even meant to a guy. All I could gather from the blunt answer was that it meant guys were screwed if they tried keeping secrets from the opposite sex. To be frank, it was a known fact from the start; nothing new, old news, nothing worthy to be retold. Unless you were Gakupo of course; he just didn't keep that thought in mind when it really mattered.
She brushed her long fingers through her short brown hair that framed her mature looking face. Her unusually deep red-dark brown eyes narrowed angrily and tiredly at the purple-hair mess as he flinched and winced on the ground. He looked so…wrecked, almost as if he was in need of an actual doctor. She sighed, a breath escaping her usually full and red lips and I waited patiently for her to digest everything in until she could calmly speak. The seconds ticked away…and away…finally she gave me her undivided attention and the grin was still on my lips, stretched on my face.
"No hard feelings Kaito, but this is a competition and I don't want my idiotic partner to leak any information we stocked up on yesterday." Meiko gave me her usual apologetic grin and I nodded, accepting the half-way apology. She raked her fingers through her thick hair and I decided that it was about time that I got out of the way to meet up with my own partner. Miki was probably counting down the seconds I was late and would be ready with that stone-hard stare of hers. I shouldn't really talk as if I knew her for years because I've only encountered her about three times…that is if you consider me gawking at her like every other student an encounter. If not, then I've encountered twice and spoke to her both times.
"Nah, it's cool," I assured. "I gotta go meet up with my partner for some reason."
"Ah, the underclassman that pushed us together, right?" I nodded, confirming that her guess was right on the mark. "Cool kid; tell her I said hey, will ya?"
"Yeah sure, I will." She gave me an approving look before going over to the other member of our little trio while I rounded my desk and left the room. I swept my eyes among the bodies of students roaming through the halls, all of them socializing during the lunch break. During my search, I found Lily talking to her other gang members, although her eyes were mainly trained elsewhere. It wasn't my business, so I didn't follow her line of vision like most people would and turned to different direction. My goal was to find a short, long haired girl wearing one of the baggiest uniforms I've ever seen made for this school.
She'd be easier to find if she rode her bicycle through the halls since it's impossibly hard not to notice. Also, a bike in the halls would look like something she'd do for some reason, no idea why, but with her attitude and personality… It just looks like it'd fit, okay? I walked around a bit, keeping my mind set on finding my partner. Miki was the one who initiated that I'd meet with her after class, right? So…shouldn't she be somewhere where I could spot her without problem? …Too many rhetorical questions at the moment and I was dead tired as it was.
Asking would probably be the easiest thing to do right now, but I highly doubt that was gonna do me any good. It was either that feeling or because I was too lazy to ask anyone to help in my little conquest in the search of the red-haired girl. My best bet was that it was solely based on the latter. However, in hopes of making this sloppy decision making sound more fulfilling, I guess it's that I want the satisfaction of finding Miki on my own. Or I'm just being selfish because I really do like the girl after all. Call it what you want, I have developed feelings for a strange girl, but I'm not letting it grow out of proportion.
It might freak her out if I suddenly blurted out that I liked her, right?
Of course it would!
"Upperclassman Shion?" a quiet voice questioned and I spun around, not recognizing who this person was. Even when I got a good look at them, I still couldn't put a name to the face. Although, I could tell that this student was affiliated with Miki due to the…out of the ordinary accessories they wore. Really, I was wondering what was up with the underclassmen nowadays, my class never went overboard with customizing our uniforms.
"Yes?" I answered after hesitating for a bit. I shouldn't be so unconfident, but the girl in front of me sported a total Hello Kitty look while wearing the school uniform. Also, I noticed that the girl's uniform was rather large too; the sleeves were long and engulfed her hands. Actually, it was only the blazer that was large and out of proportion when compared to the skirt. Upon further inspection, there were pins of the mascot cat's head were clipped on her blazer and a headband that donned the cat's ears were placed neatly on the top of her head. Her socks were decorated with the character and even the lunch box she was carrying had the designs sketched on the sides.
This was really against the dress code, but I don't think the school was that strict against it seeing as how it's been broken a couple of times.
"A-Ah…" Oh, she's shy. "F-Furukawa i-isn't able to make it s-so…" She looked like she was struggling and I sighed. Did she really have to send in an unrelated third party just to deliver me news?
"That's fine," I assured with a hearty smile. She was surprised by my sudden action and I stifled a laugh. Not my fault that she looked utterly astonished at such a simple gesture. She played with a few strands of her pink hair – which sort of reminded me of Miki's – and avoided eye contact.
"A-Also…u-um…she said that she was s-sorry about the c-call." Oh was she?
"Really now?" I stated with evidence in my voice that urged this Hello Kitty fan to elaborate further.
She nodded and gulped loudly. Wow, she was really nervous. I'm starting to wonder if she was coerced into doing this or because she merely felt threatened by Miki's unusual "get-to-the-point" atmosphere. "Y-Yes…sh-she said that she got your number b-by asking U-Upperclassman L-Lily."
So it was the gangster herself that thought it was okay to give my number away on a simple whim? Thanks a lot, Lily; I can totally trust you to keep my contact information private.
"I'll be sure to talk to Lily about that then," I informed, ready to return back to class. There was no point in sticking around here any longer if Miki wasn't going to meet up with me. The girl stopped me however with her mouth slightly agape and an unbelievably visible blush was on her face.
"U-Um…I-I forgot to introduce myself… M-My name is I…Iroha Nekomura a-and I'd l-like to say…" Iroha gulped again, seemingly grasping for the strength not to stutter and blubber nonsense in the next string of words. I waited patiently, trying not to doze off while standing, especially since it looked like Iroha was having a hard enough time as it was. Seeing as how shy she is – although, I feel like that isn't the case since she decked out her uniform in what could be considered stylish Hello Kitty attire – I had to be nice since I was her upperclassman and all.
"It's okay, Nekomura, I won't bite," I said as easy-going as I could. The cat fanatic looked like she was having a heat stroke as she mentally juggled with her words.
"…T-To please t-take care of F-Furukawa." She started to play with her pins and her interest fell from me to the pair of shoes she was wearing. "B-Because…um…F-Furukawa i-isn't that good with people a-and w-we're sort of f-friends and…"
I grinned, even if she couldn't see it, and nodded. "I'll take care of her, don't worry." Despite the fact that Miki didn't look like she needed to be taken care of; she looks like she can take care of her own well-being.
She swung her head up and had a dazzling sparkle in her eyes. "Th-Thank you, U-Upperclassman Shion!" Before I could give her a proper response back, she spun around and sped off with her arms tightly embracing the Hello Kitty decorated lunch box. As I watched her fleeting figure run down the halls, I was flabbergasted to find that a tail was wagging behind her. …The underclassmen today are more fashion savvy than us upperclassmen, or more daring – whichever works.
I decided to go over and snatch Lily for some answers as to why she'd give away my phone number. By the way, the reason she had it in the first place is because we worked together on a report and made sure to keep contact with the other. It was a fair deal since Lily had helped by gathering a good amount of research while I organized everything that would go on the report. Our teacher was very impressed with our work and we received a generous grade. Since then, the gangster and I stayed in contact and her being Meiko's friend was also on our good terms list.
When I did snatch Lily, I found that she was eying this other guy who wore glasses and looked ready for college. He was probably a third year that never caught my eye due to the fact that I've never seen him before and also with how college ready he was. I never thought that a girl like Lily would be openly gazing longingly for a guy who has the businessman atmosphere. …Maybe he and Miki knew each other? Y'know, it was just a musing thought that would kill time while I snapped her out of her trance.
"Mind telling me why you gave Miki my number without permission?" I questioned with a scowl.
Lily shrugged ever-so-casually. "She wanted it," she answered, already bored with our Q&A session.
"So you just gave it?"
"Well…no." No? …I gave her a look that meant that she had to elaborate, raising an eyebrow up and never allowing my gaze to waver at her. "She was sorta threatening me for it."
"…How?" This started to interest me. A third year – a gang member no less! – Lily was threatened and defeated by a first year? It was an entertaining thought to linger on, but I decided to leave it alone for the real story.
"Do we really have to –" I answered her with a solid gaze. She sighed in defeat. I didn't think she was this easy to break down to be honest. "Pfft. Fine. Look it's because she knows someone and stuff like that, y'know?" No I didn't. "Anyway, she also begged and persisted after a while until it finally got on my nerves so I gave it to her."
"And you didn't tell me because…?"
"She wanted it to be a surprise." She finished with a shrug and then left our session whereas I stood there, dumbfounded. A surprise? "Oh, by the way," Lily called out and I spun on my heel, stopping and looking towards her. She was tossing her long, blond locks behind her bony shoulders. Her eyes gaze deeply into mine, almost as if she was reading the contents of my soul, turning each page with waning interest.
"Yeah?" I uttered, not liking the sudden silence and suspense.
"Miki isn't good with people." So I've heard by a very feline fanatic. "And she's kind of an idiot when it comes to feelings and whatnot, so take care of her, alright?" she stated with a knowing smirk that made me feel somewhat flustered at what she said. Why would Miki be interested in someone like me? We've barely spoken to one another and I didn't really believe that anything would happen so soon after we've gotten into a decent conversation. Well as decent as they come with people like us partaking in such conversations in high school.
"Uh…yeah, Lily, don't have such high hopes."
She laughed in amusement. "I don't, but I know for a fact that you and Miki do." Again, I was embarrassed. How in the world did she pick up on that anyway? I barely even said a word to Meiko or Gakupo about my sudden realization. …It was just yesterday too! "Remember that the baseball game is after school, Miki won't forgive you if you forget!" With those final words, she ran off. I could imagine a grin on her face while she was jogging back to class.
I returned to class, ready to leech off of Gakupo's usually large lunch alongside Meiko. When I plopped down on my seat, the two immediately went into hush mode about whatever they were talking about. I rolled my eyes, not caring about the Panda Hero due to me being tired of having to talk and move without needing to. Well I sat on my chair – lazily as can be – I tried to lean over and snatch a few cookies that were cornered in Gakupo's box. I eyed the shape of them due to their form of being eggplants, but didn't bother and munched away.
While I was doing this, the two stayed quiet as I stole a triangular sandwich and melted into its flavor. Whoever made Gakupo's lunches should definitely get paid for it because of how good they tasted. Really, I wished my mom made good food because if she did then I would bring boxed lunch everyday instead of mooching off of my friend's. That would leave Meiko to do it for me though. As I ate, my phone went off and I took it out to check who it was. My eyes spotted an unknown number and saw that it was…Miki's I believe.
…Wonder why I didn't save it on my phone. Oh that's right, I was dead tired.
"Panda Hero info.
Meet me at the photography clubroom.
Remember the baseball game after school.
Miki Furukawa."
I was about to type back a reply, but instead, received another text from Miki. I went back to my inbox and clicked on her newest message. What was this girl up to?
"Also, sorry about the surprise call last night
I didn't know when to talk to you"
Eh? She could've done it straight after I left school or something. Three or whatever in the morning is no way to talk to someone during a school night. She should know that, or it should've at least been mentioned to her. Oh well, I decided to reply—oh never mind, I got another text from the busybody herself.
"And don't listen to what Iroha and Lily
They're just jumping to conclusions
You better not!"
…Okay then… I better respond fast before she gets ahead of herself and— she sent me another text message. Can this girl text or what? What is she saying now?
"I hope you're not mad…
I'm not too good with guys"
That's an out of character thing to say. It was sort of adorable too; however, I don't think I could really picture her saying (or text messaging) this kind of stuff. Her eyes gave that feeling of seriousness, strictly business sort of thing. Her lips would be in a straight line, not quivering or stuttering on what she wants to say or how she says it. Eh…I haven't seen her, but I'll be seeing her after school so…
"Don't be such an idiot. It's fine."
I text messaged her playfully and chuckled while flipping my phone shut. A thought occurred in my head: Yeah so what if she had the leadership trait, one that takes command without a second thought, she was still a – what, fifteen-year-old? – young girl at heart.
Meiko started talking again, this time about the baseball game. Huh? I thought they'd keep mum about anything that related to the competition since I was an adversary of theirs. She brushed her short hair, the tips of the strands flirted against her bare shoulders – her sleeves were rolled up – and tapped her fingertips against her chin. "You know…the baseball team here sucks," she noted and the two of us – Gakupo and I – sighed in unison.
She was never one to openly give compliments, but she was quick to jump the gun when it comes to saying someone's faults. My guess is that she got used to it when pointing out the faults when Gakupo's scheming days developed and became a constant in all of our lives. Sometimes they worked out, but usually they failed and Meiko was the one who saved us; rarely, very rarely, did I save the day. To be completely honest, I actually like Gakupo's plans, they really do bring excitement in our boring school days.
One time, we—
"That's probably because—" Gakupo and my thoughts were cut off by my phone going off. We all stared at the device in my hand and I mumbled in annoyance. I didn't think they'd both be interested in my texting lifestyle or whatever. "Ah, who ya texting, Kaito?" he interrogated with a widening smirk. "Could it be a girl?"
"Nah, I'm here," Meiko joked and the two laughed. I rolled my eyes at their childish. Their laughs were heavy, amused and in perfect sync. If I joined in, then it would remind me of our childhood days when we would do nothing but laugh and run around. Also, homework with difficult equations and nonsensical passages we had to analyze and then translate into English. High school is a real letdown and then we're gonna be graduating soon. Oh man…we're getting old.
Another thing, they don't think that I'm good enough to talk to other girls since I never gave anyone in my fan base the time of day. It's not that I'm a jerk, or uninterested in girls…it's because they pretty much spout the same thing whenever I was pulled in private for a confession. Of course, I was still friendly to them afterwards since it'd be a jerk move to brag about rejecting girl after girl. Other guys could do that and disgrace our own sex, but me? Yeah, I don't think so.
"Nice one, Meiko."
"Yeah, thanks Mei, glad to know you care," I mumbled, rolling my eyes and flipped my cell phone open.
"Oh Kai," she purred with amusement frolicking in those dark, mature eyes of hers. Then she reached her slender fingers into my hair and ruffled it, lightly scratching my skull in the process. I scowled and jerked my head away from her touch. My eyes caught Gakupo's subtle jealous gesture, his hands instinctively grasping the back of his chair. If you like her, then tell her! I'm not gonna get in your way, man. Meiko would murder me before accepting going on a date with me. "You know I'm playing." She put her hand in front of her mouth, barely hiding her huge smile.
"Yeah I know."
"Anyway, go read your text from your girlfriend."
"What makes you think I have one?"
Gakupo chuckled. "Well we thought it was obvious since Furukawa initiated the first move by choosing you as a partner first." Then he crossed his arms abruptly and tossed on a pissed off look. "And we all know that you and I are the school's duo!"
"Nah, I'm pretty sure that's the Kagamine twins," Meiko corrected and I cocked a grin. Ha. Poor Gakupo. He looked deflated and annoyed at her correcting him so casually.
"Way to go, Mei, killing Gaku's manly pride like that." I grinned, and gave her a look. She got it and approved my silent message with a nod.
"Pfft. Sorry, I didn't think you had any."
"She just called you out!" I joked and Gakupo fumed with such irritation that the two of us laughed.
During that time while he was flailing around at our other companion, I decided to check my phone. A grin was on my face before I read it and soon I scowled and chuckled darkly at what my partner wrote to me. So much for a young girl at heart, she was like Meiko, but not as physically scary or monstrously strong. My two friends joined me by smashing themselves at both of my sides, reading her text with intent as they both read it under their shallow breaths. I counted in my head to the moment the two were going to burst out in laughter and probably going to fall to the floor. Afterwards, they'd possibly mock me after their claims of Miki being my girlfriend.
"Who are you calling an idiot?
How about being nice and saying that it'll be okay?
Sheesh, I picked such a jerk of a partner!
Do you like picking on a girl?
Pffft. Whatever. I'm just gonna go.
Enjoy your class and remember to come to the meeting place.
If you're late…
Forget it!"
"Kaito's whipped!" they chorused and laughed. I shut my phone and buried my face in my hands. Why thank you, Miki, you really know how to delightfully entertain my friends in ways I can't even comprehend. Someone needs to school her in picking up a playful tone through text. …Eh…I guess I should blame myself too since we barely spoke with one another, but it's still her fault too. Besides, these two fools wouldn't let me live it down now.
The reason she's an idiot is because she's much too serious.
I'll try to teach her how to take a joke…hopefully sometime soon.
I read a fanfiction in which Iroha was tsundere, and another in I My Me Mine's fanfiction that she was serious (...er...I think), and then there was another in which she was pretty hyper. I had some fun with writing her, and decided that she'd be shy for some reason. Kinda like Haku shy.
Lily was difficult, I didn't have a set personality for her, so I just went with an awkwardly, friendly, yet somewhat nerved gang member. ...If that's how I wrote her. It's past five in the morning and I don't remember how I wanted to pose her while writing this.
Miki was pretty difficult too...I gave her a business-like atmosphere then it went tsundere on me. The characters are really controlling the author (unfortunately) so they're now shedding their own personality traits on me while I was typing this.
Gakupo and Meiko were incredibly easy. I had their personalities set and how their relationship with Kaito and with each other were. They're very fun to write since I like writing friendly banter.
Kaito...eh...I hope he's the same?
Oh yeah, I notice that I usually put in Miku or the Kagamines in my fics (if you've seen my un-uploaded Vocaloid fics and scrapped ideas, you'll see that about ninety percent of them are revolved around either all three of them or one of them), so I'm trying to avoid that. However, when I made Gakupo say he and Kaito were a duo, I had to use the twins. I just had to for some strange reason. I could've put in Leon or Lola, but it didn't click.
Overall...this chapter was quite boring in my opinion. I wanted to toss Miki in, but eh, I think it went better with the texts.
That's it from me.
~Ventus