chapter 1

Len was foreign to her, as foreign as a memory of a school trip. Rin could remember what happened in a school trip, but she can't tell anyone how many leaves are there on a tree, or what establishment did the students go to, or how many.

Rin noticed that Miku Hatsune walked a bit wobbly that morning, and she noticed that Haku Yowane was doing the same thing. But Rin was a quiet girl in the mornings, unless someone bothered to talk to her, in which her latest morning companion surprisingly wasn't her brother, Len, but an unlikely classmate by the name of Neru Akita. Neru jabbed at her phone, walking straight up to Rin without even looking at her, and managed to say an offhanded "Good morning" while she took off her shoes with her feet.

"Neru-chan, you really shouldn't play with your phone in school..." Rin hazarded.

"I'm not playing," Neru irritably said. "I'm doing something important."

There were so many rumors surrounding Neru. For one, Neru wasn't attracted to anything other than her phone. The second rumor was outstanding; Neru was a spy, or something of that order, and she's ordering lots of hits on targets through her phone. Which would, of course, explain all the murders that are appearing in the daily paper, Rin sarcastically thought, and that Neru should be locked up somewhere for her crimes. Neru, being sensible, didn't think much of anything else and focused on her unhealthy love affair with her phone, and that was the end of that.

"How important is important?" Rin tried, putting her shoes in her locker and taking her school slippers out. Neru looked over and gave Rin a mirthless smile, then looked back at her phone and shook her head.

"Rin-chan, you're too young to know the secrets of the wide world," Neru ominously said.

That helped.

But like some radar expert, Neru put away her phone in a flash and bowed to an incoming teacher, to which Rin looked up and saw that it was none other than Kaito Shion, the Japanese Literature teacher who also happened to be her informally-declared elder brother. Informally-declared, in Rin's definition, is where Kaito and Rin, one day, decided that since they got along so superbly well, they should be honorary brother and sister, always looking out for each other whenever things get too rough, and instead of bowing, Rin clung onto Kaito's arm and pointed a finger at the guilty Neru.

Neru waited to get ratted out, but Rin just stared at her until she found that she'll have to cough up.

"...Fine, here's the phone!" Neru groaned, handing it over to Kaito. Kaito laughed, took it, pocketed it and smiled.

"Thank you for being so honest, Akita-san," the blue-haired teacher laughed good-naturedly. "You can collect it from the staffroom after school."

"What's coming out for today's test, Kaito-nii?" Rin prodded, jumping up and down like the typical younger sister.

"Oh! Today's-"

Kaito...suddenly felt two pairs of eyes staring at him intently.

"What's coming out, Shion-sensei?" Neru grinned, gripping her teacher's shirt.

"Kaito-nii, if you don't tell us..." Rin smirked, giggling rather eerily.

What both Rin and Neru didn't know was that Kaito had frequented a few bookstores to buy books about self-control and how to be an assertive leader, and all sorts of motivational books that we all know that don't really work. In one of those books, a section said that if one were to keep his or her stand, he or she should straighten up physically, look the other way if one was anxious, and firmly say yes, or no.

And that's what Kaito did.

"No," he said stiffly. "Rin, Neru, I'm not telling."

Scandalized looks were painted on the blondes' faces. A few hours later, Rin Kagamine could've sworn that she failed that test.

"Rin," Kaito sighed, consoling his makeshift younger sister in the local sweet parlor that afternoon after school. "You didn't study, right?"

Rin, with all her glory, pouted her best pout as if it could change a grade, and she chomped angrily on a thin wafer as she refused to even look at the blue-haired teacher. Betrayal, betrayal, Rin swore! Kaito would usually tell her what's coming out, but this time...oh, those damn motivational books! She'll have to steal them and use them as reading material in the toilet or something.

But then, it'll make her as irritating as the books.

Kaito laughed and fed Rin a spoonful of his ice cream, in which she begrudgingly opened her mouth to welcome the cold confectionery. "There's something else, isn't there? Something wrong at home?"

"It's Len," Rin complained. "He's always treating me like a kid."

The blue-haired young man raised an eyebrow. "But you two are twins..."

"Exactly!" Rin exclaimed. "None of us are older! We're born at the same time! We're just a few seconds apart, I think!"

"What did he do this time?" Kaito smiled indulgently. Sibling fights. It's so common that Kaito served to be Rin's informal guidance counselor for almost her entire life. As he watched Rin finish her ice cream and order another one, she huffed and let off some steam by whining.

"Do you know what he said to me after I basically did every household chore a morning could take? 'Thanks, Rin.' A thanks. Like I'm his servant or something! I should just leave the house and let him rot in it! Yes, maybe I should!" Rin complained. "I'll lock him in the house!"

"R-Rin!"

"What?!"

She later found that she was standing on the chair, pointing her finger to the ceiling, with many others watching her.

And oh god, that was embarrassing.

Len didn't come home that night either.

Rin's usual nightly routine consisted of doing her homework, cooking dinner, watching stand-up comedy on television, then the news, then some anime, then she'd open her laptop and check her mail. Perfectly normal high-school girl things, and she got used to having Len away from the house. She didn't even bother where he goes anymore, more like, but it did seem lonely without anyone else in the house.

But she did have company.

Of course, how else would she survive each night without anyone around? She has so much company; actually, she has fans! Rin Kagamine, the great Rin Kagamine, has fans, but not from her singing! What could she possibly be good in other than singing?

Smut fanfiction.

Her reviewers are her fans.

Rin laughed to herself and opened up her laptop, checking the latest reviews. Of course, reviews are what fuel the ego of the writer, prompting them to eventually update chapters with more vigor and enthusiasm. No reviews, no motivation. It's sad but true. It's Rin's closet hobby; not even Kaito knew about it, nor Len, nor anyone else in the whole wide world.

But there was one particular reviewer whom she wanted to contact.

She (was the person a she? A he?) was her most faithful reviewer, who actually wanted to contact her through IMs and text messages, but the funniest thing was that the reviewer was horribly technologically impaired that it was hilarious. There was one time where she accidentally pressed caps lock and typed entirely in block letters, in where it made Rin ask whether she was angry, and it...brought about interesting results. Rin could hear her being flustered from wherever she was.

The interesting part was that her name was also Rin.

Funny, isn't it?

A/N: The original author would like to apologize for not updating sooner, but she managed to get me to post her chapters.

-Nairo