She spent the next three days almost exclusively locked up in her room. It had been absolutely mortifying having others look on as she nearly burst into tears while the RA chewed her out for last night's noise violation. Rather than immediately get another complaint for getting into an argument with Ritsu, she ignored her friend and locked herself up in her room, staring determinedly at her pillow. About halfway through the second day, Ritsu gave up on getting Mio to respond, as she'd cover her ears and tune out all of the tomboy's door knocking. On day three, her anger had steadily begin to subside, until she could regain perfect control of her emotions. She was furious with Ritsu for pulling that trick; who was going to be calm in a crisis situation like that? It was absolutely uncalled for!

Of course, Ritsu was still her best friend and roommate, so they'd have to still live with each other. With a soft sigh, she stood up and opened her door to look into the living room. She wasn't out there, so Mio went up to her door and gently knocked on it. "Ritsu? Are you in there?" No response. She figured Ritsu must have gone out to eat or something, so she made to go back to her room. Upon turning around, she was met with a placidly-smiling and stock-still Ritsu staring right at her.

A scream threatened to erupt from her, but she desperately held back to avoid getting in trouble again, biting down on her lip so hard she drew blood. "D-dammit, Ritsu! I thought you left!"

"You startle so easily, Mio-chan," Ritsu teased playfully, giving Mio a gentle shove on the shoulder. "See, this is why I'm here to help. I'll cure you yet."

"I-I don't want to be 'cured'! Why do you always insist on doing stuff like this?"

"Because I care about you, and you can't spell 'scare' without 'care." Mio just stared at her disbelief while Ritsu laughed and grabbed her hand, dragging her to the couch despite the raven-haired girl's vehement protests. "Come on, Mio, we're going to watch something."

"Oh no, no way." Mio's eyes widened as she knew exactly what Ritsu meant. She would not be forced to watch another scary movie, no way no how. "I don't like scary movies, Ritsu!"

"Look, Mio, do you trust me?"

"Not in the slightest."

"Well, too bad!" Ritsu pushed Mio onto the couch with a flourish, getting a surprised gasp from the taller girl. The tomboy then grabbed a DVD off of the table and plopped down next to her friend, brandishing it with a knowing grin. "Ta-da!"

".. Ju-On?"

"Oh come on, this movie's gotta be a classic by now. Oh well, it's pristine horror. You'll love it."

"I doubt it." Mio sighed in defeat as Ritsu opened up the box and put the disc into the DVD player, sitting back down and starting it up with a wicked grin. It sent an involuntary shudder down the bassist's back; whatever this was, she wouldn't like it.

She didn't like it. The ugly specter of death started way too early, and it wasn't long before she was pressing her hands hard against her ears and hiding her face against Ritsu's shoulder. A wave of embarrassment washed over her due to her childish attempts at escaping something that was obviously fictional, but she couldn't help but scream every time her friend nudged her back up only to have her vision assaulted by a new horror. By the end of it, it was as if she had completely checked out, and it took a hard shaking of her shoulder by Ritsu to draw her back to reality. She realized that her heart was racing, and she couldn't recall any of the movie's ending; not like that was a bad thing. "Mio, you in there? Mio?"

"Th-that was terrible! Why would you show me that?!"

Ritsu rolled her eyes and patted Mio firmly on the shoulder. "Have you not been listening? Ahh well, I'll break through. It's gotten pretty late though. Gonna go get ready for bed or what?" Mio looked over to where the bathroom was hidden from view behind the hallway corner. It sure was dark over there. Involuntarily, she grabbed onto Ritsu's arm tightly, going red in the face when she finally noticed.

"I-I'm not tired," she muttered, only half-lying; she doubted she'd get much sleep after that anyway. When Ritsu chuckled in response, she pushed her friend in annoyance, though she didn't really feel up to getting up and going anywhere.

"Oh, you're not? That's great! We can watch the sequel then!" Mio immediately jumped to her feet, nearly sprinting for her room with a cacophony of Ritsu's laughter behind her.

Her nighttime routine was slower than usual, as she found herself looking over her shoulder every so often, watching for another of Ritsu's pranks more often than not. After all these years, she felt that maybe she should've become more immune to her best friend's tricks, but they never failed to scare her just as bad as they did when she was a kid. Maybe Ritsu is right. This shouldn't affect me as much as it does... Still, admitting to a problem wasn't going to fix it, but at the same time she certainly didn't want to go through these 'trials'. They might end up killing her before they were done. With a soft sigh, she reluctantly turned off the bathroom light and began taking the dark trek back to her room. It wasn't that far away, but it felt a lot longer after watching that stupid movie, and Mio found herself peeking behind the corner to make sure no one was there. Satisfied that there was no movement in the living room, she made her way over to her door, but was halted by a sound from behind her. The sound of knocking on the front door.

She froze up, staring at the door with wide eyes as a second series of knocks came forth. Plucking up as much courage as she could find within herself, she slowly stepped towards the door and looked out of the peephole. A wide eye stared right back at her. "A-ah!" Letting out a loud scream, she lost her balance and fell on her backside, trying to crawl away before a low moan echoed beyond the door: "Mio-channnn." Wait a minute... Pushing herself back to her feet, Mio unlocked the door and yanked it open, standing face to face with a certain ditzy brunette, a hand brushing her long bangs out of her eyes and flashing the taller girl a guilty smile. "Ehehe, hallo Mio-chan!"

"Yui..." Mio narrowed her eyes at her friend, gripping the doorframe tightly to calm her nerves. "It's really late, Yui. What are you doing here?"

"Oh! I really wanted some rice, but I ran out. Can I borrow some of yours?"

"Why didn't you just go to the store? They should still be open." Mio felt exasperated. She was sure Yui didn't mean to scare her, but it was way too late to go around knocking on doors.

"But that's so far, Mio-channnnn." Yui always had a very adorable pout, but Mio wasn't particularly in the mood to placate her. Still, she couldn't just send her away. Shaking her head and giving in like usual, she stepped back from the door and let a thankful Yui in. It was at that time that Ritsu appeared from her room, looking over in confusion as Yui headed for the kitchen.

"Yui, why are you here?"

"Rice," she replied simply, grabbing what they had from the pantry and setting it up on the counter.

"Geeze... Here, let me help before you burn down our dorm." Ritsu seemed to have things under control, so Mio headed to her room, where she would attempt to get some sleep. After all that, Yui had been somewhat of a welcome distraction, but when she finally laid down to sleep, the only thought in her mind was one where she unhappily agreed with Ritsu: she definitely had a problem.