Hey all! I hope you enjoy this chapter, sorry for the long wait. :)
Miku heard knocking in her subconscious.
"Miku? Miku?!" Yume was calling frantically. She sounded like she had been there a while.
Miku slowly sat up and wiped tears off of her face. She must have fallen asleep… Her crying hadn't stopped though, there were still big fat tears falling from her eyes.
"Miku, you locked the door, Why are you crying?! Please, please unlock the door!" Yume was still knocking and calling out to her. "If you don't respond I am going to go get someone who will be able to get the door open! Are you hurt? Please let me in!" Yume was speaking so fast Miku could almost not understand what she was saying.
Miku got to her knees and unlocked the door, then fell against the wall next to it; Her eyes still shiny with tears. Yume burst through the door. She spotted Miku, and fell to knees next to her.
"Miku! Oh, Miku, what on earth happened!" She was genuinely concerned and pulled Miku's hands from her face, causing her to look Yume in the eye.
Miku started crying all over again. Yume sat next to her and wrapped her arms around Miku. They sat that way for a while until Miku's crying had mostly stopped. She had very wet cheeks, and her eyes were still watery, but she could probably talk coherently now.
"Oh, Yume!" Miku said with a shuddery breath.
"What happened?" Yume said in a soft voice, not like her usual rambunctious self at all.
"Kaito, he-he has a girlfriend!" Miku cried out, almost bursting into tears yet again. "I thought he liked me, after taking me dancing, and all the times just the two of us hung out. I think he almost told me that night you were teasing me about coming to bed late. But I ran up here. I am such an idiot!" She took another shuddery breath and Yume patted her back. "He never even mentioned having a girlfriend. I should have known, a famous pop star like him would never be aloud to date someone like me." Miku stood up and plopped over onto her bed; face down on her pillow.
"Who is his girlfriend then? And did he say she was his girlfriend?" Yume asked sitting on the edge of Miku's bed.
Miku turned her head so it wasn't being smothered by her pillow. "IA. It was IA! And no he didn't say, but she walked right up and kissed his cheek and held his hand! And she acted like his girlfriend - an annoying girlfriend."
"Maybe you should ask him," Yume suggested carefully.
"NO!" Miku said sitting up on her bed, "I am NOT talking to him! After what he did! He was downright deceitful!" Miku had tears falling down her cheeks again. "He should have told me."
She fell back into her pillow and mumbled things Yume couldn't quite catch.
Miku spent the next week avoiding Kaito any way she could. Once or twice she saw him heading towards her in the hallways or outside, but she just turned around and walked quickly away. Her ballad for the competition was sounding better than ever though, she felt every pain and bit of despair the song talked about. She poured her whole soul into it. The more time she spent locked in a practice room, the smaller chance there was of seeing Kaito.
On the weekend, Miku, Yume, and Chiharo decided to check out the mall in town. They hadn't been yet, and they were all dying to go; They heard it was the best for young fashionistas.
All of them chatted endlessly as they were walking, they were all in amazingly cheerful moods.
They wandered around the mall, going in and out of clothes shops. One of Chiharo's favorites so far had been a shop called "Glitter-rama " an entire shop dedicated to glitter and rhinestone clothing.
After a while they spotted a huge hair salon, and Yume was sure she needed to go. It was the same salon several of the teen pop-idols visited to have their hair done.
They walked in and started looking at some style books.
"Oooh! Look!" Yume exclaimed, pointing to a list of styling treatments. "They can make my hair totally straight!" Yume showed them a before-after picture of someone with much curlier hair than she, and how straight it was after the treatment.
"Oh wow Yume. Are you sure? Your hair is so beautiful!" Miku asked her, with a worried expression on her face.
"Yes! I have an idea! Hold on a second." Yume ran over to a stylist. The stylist looked young, in her twenties, with lots of ear piercings and purple and green spiky hair.
"I hope Yume doesn't do that to her hair…" Chiharo mumbled to Miku.
Yume hopped back over to them. "Okay, you guys go somewhere for a couple of hours then come back, okay?" Yume seemed very chipper.
Miku and Chiharo weren't so chipper. "Are you sure about this?" Miku asked once more, hoping Yume would decide not to straighten her hair.
"Yuppers! Just go to that store over there, and someone will come and get you in a bit," Yume bounced over to a hair station, and Miku and Chiharo went to the store across the hall - the very large hall.
It was a manicurists, and massage place. They had time to kill, so Chiharo decided to get a sparkly manicure and pedicure; Miku decided to start out with a massage. It smelled like vanilla and peppermint, it was lovely. Miku didn't realize how tense her shoulders were until they were being rubbed into relaxation by her massage therapist; Miku and the therapist, whose name was Sinon, talked about all manner of interesting things. And Miku could hear Chiharo chattering on with her manicurist, something about Superman being really hunky or something.
Before they knew it the stylist Yume had been talking to came over and said Yume was about done.
Miku and Chiharo walked over to the salon, and Yume pounced on them, "HI! So? Do you like it?!" Yume exclaimed, finally standing back so they could see what she did to her hair.
They could not believe what they saw.
It was stick straight sure enough, but it was also black, and had bright purple highlights.
"Yume! What did you do?" Chiharo was flabbergasted.
"You don't like it," Yume was making a pouty face.
"Thats not it," Miku hurriedly explained, "It is just a bit - shocking is all." Miku flashed a smile.
"Aww! I knew my Miku-Miku-chan-chan would like it!" Yume tackle hugged Miku. "And it looks very pop-idol-ish, don't you think? Just in time for the competition!"
The girls were walking out of the mall, giggling and swinging the bags full of the things they found at the mall that they 'just had to have'.
Some mall employees were putting up new posters around the exits, and when she saw them Miku stopped dead in her tracks.
"Miku-chan, what's the matter?" Yume said turning towards her.
Miku couldn't speak. She was staring at the posters. They were posters advertising the start of a tour for a couple of young pop-idols. Kaito and IA. The posters were all cutesy and stuff, and IA was draping herself all over Kaito. Tears started to fall from Miku's eyes. She dropped her bags. And ran. Not to the dorms, but to the park; She wasn't watching where she was going, and somehow ended up in the gazebo where she and Kaito had heard the musicians playing.
It was quiet there, except for the sounds of her sobs. She collapsed onto a bench.
She had no idea how long she she had been lying there, only that her sobbing had mostly stopped and her breath was coming in shuddering gasps.
She felt someone sit down on the bench next to her and brush the hair from her face; She opened her eyes and looked up. It was Kaito.
Miku gasped and abruptly stood up and moved away.
"Miku I - " Kaito stood up and stepped toward MIku.
"No!" Miku stepped back, "Just - leave me alone!"
Kaito started toward her once more, "Miku, please, its not what you think! It's all just publicity! I-I didn't have a choice!"
Miku backed into the low wall of the gazebo, tears streaming down her face. "What? Going on tour? IA being all over you? How did you find me, anyway?! You still want to toy with my emotions?"
"I needed to see you, Yume told me you came this way;" He walked to her, "and, well, I just hoped I could find you." He was inches away from her now, she had to look up to speak to him. "Please Miku, I didn't want to do those photos. Please, " he took her hands in his, and spoke softly, "It doesn't change how I feel about you, how I felt about you since I first heard you sing." He smiled at her and she sniffled and had the ghost of a smile cross her lips. He leaned down and touched his forehead to hers, "Forgive me?"
Before Miku could respond, someone who had been standing unnoticed in the gazebo entrance interrupted. "KAITO! What are you doing?!" Miku and Kaito turned around, startled. It was IA. Again. She walked up to Kaito, "what are you doing out here with - her. You didn't mean all those things you just said, right?" IA was tearing up and glared at Miku.
"Yes, I did, IA, I am aloud to be with whomever I want - " Kaito started to say.
"But you want to be with me? Right?" She had an odd look in her eyes.
"I-" Kaito had barely started to speak when IA had closed the gap between them, put her arms around his neck and kissed him.
Please review and tell me what you think! All constructive criticism is welcome, but please don't be rude. :) Thank you to all of my readers for sticking with me, even though I have not been very good about updates. I really appreciate ALL of you! ^^