Two girls were sitting across from each other at the food court in the mall. They were both Vocaloids, and occasionally were the subjects of curious stares because of their unusual appearances. At the moment, one of them was rather annoyed.

IA set her drink down on the table. A crumpling sound came from the paper cup, which she was gripping a little too tightly. She glared at her friend Yukari Yuzuki, who was quietly sipping her own drink.

"How can you be so calm?" IA demanded. "We've been waiting for fifteen minutes now!" She and Yukari were supposed to buying new clothes at the mall with SF-A2 Miki, who was currently absent. The absent-minded Miki had told them to meet her at the food court, but had never shown up. IA and Yukari had ended up eating lunch by themselves.

"Calm down," Yukari told IA. "This isn't the first time Miki's done this. She'll turn up eventually." It was true. As good-hearted as she was, Miki was notoriously flighty. When she went out shopping, she would find herself going into stores that had nothing to do with what her shopping list. The other Vocaloids had learned to put up with this, but it was harder for those like Yukari and IA, who lived with her and had to deal with Miki coming home with boxes of Pocky and animal magnets when she was supposed to be buying eggs.

After several more minutes of IA grumpily chomping on her straw and Yukari slurping from the drops at the bottom of her cup, Miki still hadn't shown up. Even Yukari was getting restless now.

"I'm going to call her," Yukari finally announced. She dialed Miki's number. IA sighed as she faintly heard Miki's voicemail. Of course she had her phone turned off. Yukari left a message. When she put her phone away, IA could practically feel the annoyance radiating off her.

Eventually, the girls decided that they had to go search for her. They started looking in the clothing stores, thinking that Miki might have gotten distracted by some sale or a cute outfit.

"Have you seen Miki?" IA asked one of the salespeople. Two of the good things about being a Vocaloid were that people usually didn't forget you, and they normally knew your name.

"Miki? Oh, the Vocaloid with the long red hair?" The girl shook her head. "But my friend might have. He said something about a redheaded girl who was kind of different." She took IA and Yukari to the doorway of the store and pointed. "He works over in there, in the shoe store. By the way, can I have your autographs?" The Vocaloids thanked her, signed her arm, and hurried over to the shoe store. It made sense. Miki liked clothes and shoes. IA asked around and found the boy who had seen her.

"Who?" the boy answered. Yukari explained to him who Miki was. "Oh," he shrugged. "Sorry, I'm not really into that stuff. There was a girl with red hair. She was wearing a weird outfit and got some black shoes from here. I think she went upstairs." He shrugged again.

As IA and Yukari rode up the escalator, IA was bothered by something the boy had said. "Hey, Yukari," she said to her friend. "That guy said that the girl he saw bought black shoes."

"So?" Yukari said. "What's weird about that?"

"Miki hates black," IA reminded Yukari. "She always wears white or blue. Maybe it's not actually her."

Yukari got off the escalator behind IA. "She might be changing her style? I don't know, but even if it isn't her, we might still run into her by accident." She smiled. "There can't be that many redheads running around here in weird outfits, right?"

"Yeah," IA was still worried. "But if we don't find her soon, we won't have time to get new clothes before we have to go home to get ready for the party." She had turned her head to look at Yukari. Suddenly, she glimpsed a wisp of red behind the other girl. "Yukari! Look, I think I see her!" Yukari spun around, surprised.

"What? Where?" Yukari saw a head with long red hair maneuvering through a crowd of teenagers. "Oh! I see her too!" Both girls took off running towards the redheaded figure.

Note: It's someone else who has long red hair...