It was a spring morning; Miku was waiting in the bus station as she would have done every morning… before school was over. Exactly it was the first day of school, Miku's second year of high school was about to start and her school days were becoming less and less as the time passed by. But that was how life was supposed to be. When something ends, absolutely always something new starts, even if we can't see what that is. Miku was a cheerful girl, a bit persistent, kind of bizarre… and the Shinju forest was the perfect place to reflect that because as you can probably see, the Shinju forest isn't a normal one for that matter neither the world where Miku lives is. It's not very certain whether she used to live in a normal world before she came to this one or if she just was born there, the case is that now Miku lived in an enchanted forest, an enchanted world. But she still remembers how her life used to be before she moved to the Shinju Forest. She moved there last year, she took the steam train and… hoop! She arrived to the forest, a place where nothing seemed normal and that's why she loved it. The sakura petals flew in the wind but the pollen was sure to cause many allergies. That's how things are, when something good happens then something bad is bound to happen as well… That's why there is nothing completely bad or completely good, it's just up to us to name it. Everything is subjective. That's how Miku saw it.
"But hey… isn't the bus going to come?" She suddenly thought and glanced at her phone to see the time. Ten minutes had already passed since she started making those thoughts! And the bus had yet to come! Maybe she had confused the time, no, no, that was probably not the case. Every time Miku starts complaining in her mind about the bus being late, it comes, and so did this time too, as if she could use telepathy to lure it. Before she even knew it, it was in front of her. The bus had a steampunk design as many other devices in that world. She always greeted the driver, a quiet man called Macareno.
"Good morning." She said a bit nervously. A long time had passed since she last saw him after all. Miku was one of the first people the bus took and when she got there it was always infested with gnomes. The gnomes would get down in one of the stations that was around twenty minutes away from her home. The school was one hour away. Anyway, today was a special day. She would be seeing Luka. Luka was an upperclassman but she wasn't Miku's friend or anything like that. She was just the person she had a crush on. Of course that was a secret. Well, some people knew it and maybe some others had found out as well… maybe even Luka knew it, but it was still a secret, because Miku had never confessed it. "That's it." She thought proudly.
Miku always loved watching the scenery through the window as she was in the bus. She always liked that slight adrenaline she felt when she was on it. The forest was dense but the run rays could still get inside and form beautiful shapes in the ground along with the tree leaves. There were also some buildings here and there inside the forest. They weren't really tall and they seemed kind of neglected or maybe just old, but Miku knew that people actually lived there, well maybe the creatures that lived there weren't people but still… someone lived there! The road was always that classy stone road and not an asphalt road. Well there wasn't any need for one as the bus flew a few centimeters above the ground. There were also swamps in their way to school, they always looked mysterious but Miku was never able to actually visit one.
She got down from the bus and… that was her school! Or rather academy as everyone called it in that world. The academy was a wooden building surrounded by large trees and mushrooms and moss. Well the moss wasn't that much, but Miku could still see it because she always focused on the details. Luka was nowhere to be seen. She came with another bus so there was no helping it. She was probably in the hallway, the one with the red mat, the other one was upstairs and it didn't have any mat.
"Miku, Miku, Miku!" Gumi greeted her.
"Hello." Miku smiled.
"Did you try the new forest noodles?" Gumi asked excited.
"There's a new version?!" Miku asked surprised.
"Yes! And they used fairy powder too! Can you believe it?" Gumi asserted cheerfully.
"I see… I'll have to try them someday!" Miku decided.
"Oh, did you see Luka-san anywhere?" Gumi asked as she looked around.
"What do you mean…? You didn't see her? She in the same bus as you, isn't she?" Miku asked afraid.
"No, I did see her, I'm just asking if you saw her?" Gumi explained calmly.
"Oh umm… no…" Miku said thoughtfully. "Gumi…" She suddenly called her.
"Hm?" Gumi looked back at her.
"Many people are breaking up lately… Two couples broke up and with Luka-san that makes three…" Miku said.
"Yes, there is this new fashion, of "I don't love you after all, it was a mistake" kind of thing." Gumi replied. "But wasn't Luka-san the one to start it?"
"Umm… I think so… but we shouldn't talk much about it, it seems like gossiping and I don't like it…" Miku said guiltily.
"You don't feel that way when we talk about it outside school though…" Gumi stated.
"That's because… We just talk about Luka-san and umm… not other people…" Miku tried to explain.
"So we are gossiping about Luka-san?" Gumi asked surprised. "You never even say anything bad about her." She smiled. Miku pouted and looked down.
"I don't have anything bad to say about her…" She affirmed
"Well you better be careful with her… it's said that she spends lots of time with werewolves…" Gumi warned her.
"I don't see what's so wrong with that…" Miku said puzzled.
"Well just be careful, okay?"
"Oh… that's Luka-san?" Miku suddenly said when she saw her some meters away. She was just passing by and was about to get in the building. Her pink hair waved in the wind. Her gaze was uncomfortably enchanting and her white tunic… "Why is she wearing a white tunic?" Miku thought confused.
Miku lived in the tall mountains, somewhere inside a castle and her parents weren't there. They still lived where she used to live before moving. The Shinju forest began in those tall mountains and spread through the land until her academy. It was a music academy that trained young people in the art of music which was Miku's big passion. This year was special; a new teaching method would be used. Third year students would pair up with a second years students on an expedition. Of course, Miku wanted to be paired up with Luka. She had some possibilities actually, because Luka didn't really know anyone of her class very well but she had instead talked with Miku a few times. "But still… I might just be making things up in my mind…" The girl sighed. The first period had finished. Luka was in the hallway as always, she wasn't wearing that tunic anymore. She was eating a tuna sandwich. Miku knew that Luka loved tuna even though she had never told her. "Ah, I wish I could be in her embrace…" Miku thought as she glanced at her.
"That's how it is. Please find your pairs during the next break." The teacher announced in class. It was about the new project. Miku wanted to ask Luka if she would like to pair up with her but she was very embarrassed. In any case, there wasn't anyone else she knew very well in the third grade rather than her, so it wouldn't be strange to ask her. But just imagining how she would start blushing she got too anxious to do anything. However when she went to order her food Luka approached her and sat next to her.
"Miku-san, right?" She asked.
"Umm… yes…" Miku replied embarrassed.
"Would you like to pair up with me in the project?" Luka asked bluntly.
Miku turned to look at Luka enthusiastically. "Yes, I would!" She answered cheerfully.
"Okay, it's settled then." Luka affirmed with a cold tone and left. Miku stared at her hands. It was not a dream, it was really not dream. She would pair up with Luka. That meant that she would get to stay in the same place as Luka too! And she would eat with Luka! Work with Luka! She was so excited that she wasn't able to get any proper sleep that night… because the next day….