Chapter 5 - Opened Doors

"Hi Luka-chan!" Miku sang, skipping over to where Luka, Rin and Len were waiting. "Huh, where's Meiko? Is she late?"

"She must have stayed up drinking yesterday and slept in with a major hangover!" Rin giggled.

Luka kept quiet, knowing the true reason Meiko was late. She was heartbroken, after seeing Miku all over Kaito the day before. If it was anyone else she would have just brushed it off but Miku, her best friend, it kind of felt more depressing then if it were Rin or even Luka! But not Miku, Miku was different.
Luka quietly said she was sick. She hated lying, but for her friends she seems to not have a choice.

At lunch, Miku suggested going to see Meiko after school to bring her with them to the studio.

"I think Meiko would prefer if only one of us, preferably me, went to go see her." Luka replied bluntly, lying once more.

"Awww. Luka-Nee. Why can't we all go see her, I mean, no matter how sick she is we've seen her at worse times!" Rin mumbled, puffing her cheeks out childishly.

"Yeah! Like that time Meiko drank way too much at my karaoke party and threw up during a song!" Miku shouted, a bit too loudly.

Luka jumped up from her seat, shushing Miku with a deathly stare. Even if Meiko wasn't here, she had no right to blurt out their sworn secrets like that! Miku apologized and nearly choked on her rice when another idea popped into her mind.

"Hey, Hey! How about, instead of bringing her to the studio, we just all go to see if she's alright! That way, we won't be bugging her!"

Luka opened her mouth to protest but Rin cut her off. "Yeah! That's a great idea!"

"So it's settled! We go see Meiko after school!"

"H-Hey!" Luka exclaimed, hearing herself stutter for the first time in a long while. "Let's just go see her after Idoling, we might miss our lessons if we go before.." Luka sat back down on her chair, silently begging for them to agree.

"Alright! Sounds good!" Miku hollered, "That way we can show her all the cool songs we thought of!"

"And we can still have time to practice the song Boss made us!" Rin added on.

Luka sighed in relief, at least at practice she would be able to call Meiko and warn her that everyone was coming over later.

Suddenly, the bell rang and the girls scrambled to say goodbye and clean up their mess.

-After School At The Production Studio-

Everyone was jumping around and excited, way too busy singing random notes and wrestling over snacks to notice Luka stand up and walk outside the door to make a quick, private phone call.

Hello?

"Meiko-chan! It's me..."

Luka? Why are you calling me? If it's to ask why I haven't been coming to school-

"It's not about that. And I already know, thank you very much."

What? You know?! How-

"Please do not question my intelligence. Anyways, everyone was wondering why you weren't coming to school... so they-"

Oh no...You didn't tell them did you? Please Luka-chan! Please tell me you didn't tell them that I'm sad about the Kaito thing...

"I didn't. I told them you caught a cold. But now everyone wants to come visit you after Idoling. So, either clean up the house and prepare for a Miku and Rin, double glomp attack or put some clothes on and head over here."

...

"Meiko?"

Yes, I'm here.

"So, what's it going to be?"

*click*

Luka pulled the phone from her ear. How rude! Did she just hang up on her? After she was being such a nice friend. Whatever, Luka pushed the pink cellphone into her purse and opened the door back into the chaotic mess of screaming young idols.
Luka huffed out. She was the oldest and would have to act the part today too.

Luka clapped her hands loudly. "Okay, listen up. We're going to practice the song Boss gave us and work on some song lyrics too. Understood?" Luka's voice was loud and clear, something that made her think of becoming an idol, other then her love for singing for adoring fans.

Everyone scattered around until they had their own paper with the lyrics and were standing side by side, waiting for Luka's next command.

"Alright. Everyone ready?" Luka bent down and turned the music on. It blasted through the small stereo and everyone began singing their parts in perfect harmony.

"Okay, that's enough. Have a drink of water and get ready to brainstorm some lyrics!" Luka sat down with her own bottled water and took a long drink. Shouting wasn't her thing, she preferred reading in a quiet library.

"Oh- Oh! I wrote a song the other day at home! Sorry it's not very good." Miku took a crumpled piece of paper from her bag, smoothing it out as best to her ability before singing it to everyone.

Rainbow Beat

They rainbow in my heart
I see it reflected in your eyes.
Can I really separate reality from the crushing dreams?

I want to feel love even if it kills me,
I need to be with you and the letter never fades.

Let my heart always guide you,
I'll find my way now or then.
Even when I'm alone,
I know you'll wait on the outside for me.

Mistreating, my heart so,
You'll place a bandage on it.
I want you to only look at me when you're happy.

Miku bowed when she finished, the song was short but had a nice message.

"No! Len-kun and I thought of a song too!" Rin dragged Len up off the couch and nudged him to start singing.

Two of a Kind

Can I really wait for tomorrow?
Everything is moving too slow!
I just need to feel the wind in my heart and the morning glow!

If I can't wake up tomorrow,
Know deep in your heart!

That there's not only one of me and you should follow them too!

We're

Two of a kind! Not one but two!
Two times the AWESOME!
And it better then one.
If only you could see how happy their with me!
Maybe those negative feelings would be turned into love!

Len sang with his heart but Rin just wanted to dance around, screaming the English words she had been practicing all night. Luka clapped at their attempt to add some pizzazz to their song but Gumi quickly pushed them out of the way to sing her original piece.

Butterfly Kiss

Can I wait another day before I tell you how I really feel?
Or is that asking too much?
Is it wrong if I want to be the only one you love.
Tell me if I am being too selfish-
Because BABY, I...
I want to do it right...
I want to do it perfectly to I'll be the one you think about at night.

Its hard...
Trying to get you to look...
Look my way so I can finally stop worrying if you even know that I exist.

Come, my love
Let's do a dance.
As you cover my body in BUTTERFLY KISS!I cannot wait again
To see if my note reached your heart.
Don't you dare fall in love with me,
Because LOVE is scary when it's known as true.

Gumi held her paper tighter as everyone watched her speechless. Luka smiled a rare smile and asked if she could look over the paper, she wanted to see if she could use the song for the concert. As she folded the paper and tucked it into her bag the door opened, at first Luka thought it was Boss coming to check up on things but instead.

It was Meiko.

Meiko was crowded by people once again, all pulling at her and asking why she hadn't been at school and whatnot. Meiko looked past them at Luka and pushed through the crowd of little kids.

"I-I wrote a song!" She stuttered.

Quickly, everything went quiet. Gumi watched Meiko pull a paper from her red jacket and clear her throat as she started to sing.

Love is War

There is, simply no where I can run.
Love heat burning me, why cant you notice-

Me-!

That dark cloud, over there
Seems to be getting a bit too close now.
I can't remember the days, when you were happiest
With just me and-

Ahh, I wonder if you see, how much pain.
You've costed me.
Why can't you see. How badly I beckon for you-

I want you to notice, maybe Love me?

I was fool to believe in-

This thing that you call Love.
I shall win this war.
Nothing's right and nothing's wrong if I end this right.

I don't need a L-O-V-E
I think it needs me.
In order to survive this war that you have declared.

Meiko stopped herself, she was on the verge of tears. She wrote this song based on her feelings, not if anyone liked it or so.

Everyone cheered and clapped for Meiko, hugging her and asking how she wrote the song. Eventually, they voted to do all three songs- Boss', Gumi's and Meiko's.

"But we only have enough stage time for two.." Luka sighed.

She wanted to use all three also, but a sacrifice was going to have to be made.

"I'll cut out my song...It's cheesy anyways." Gumi suggested. "I want to hear Meiko's song again!"

Everyone huddled around Meiko once again, shouting "yeahs!" and "okay!" at her, grasping her paper, trying to read the lyrics. Meiko tucked it into her jacket pocket.

"I'll make a new one- this one is dirty." Meiko replied. She had cried many times while writing the song and it had wet tear marks all over it.

Luka crossed her arms and sighed, the songs were done they just needed to be practised and rehearsed- oh! And the photoshoot was coming up too! They really needed a manager, if they didn't get one soon, Luka was going to pull her hair out over stress.

As Meiko packed up her stuff and put on her shoes to go home, Miku came up behind her.

"Luka and Rin already left...wanna walk home together?" Miku cheered. Her smile was as bright as the sun. Who could say no to that?

"S-Sure!" Meiko tried to think of a reason to why not but honestly, Miku probably wouldn't care.

As they walked home in silence, Miku consistently tried to bring up a topic to talk about but Meiko kept pushing them off. Something kept urging her to hate Miku for stealing Kaito, but since when did Kaito belong to her?

When they arrived at the split, Miku asked to come to Meiko's house for a bit. Meiko once again couldn't think of a reason why not and lead her to her small house just off the coast. Meiko unlocked the door, ignoring the stack of mail in her mailbox and showed Miku in, closing the door behind her. Miku took off her shoes and started running around like a little child. Meiko didn't have the energy to yell at her and just proceeded to her room.
Miku followed quickly after, her stocking feet thumping against the hard wood of the stairs. Meiko kicked her door open and Miku zoomed in past her, making sure to feel the carpet between her toes and taking in the smell of Meiko's room.

"It hasn't changed a bit Meiko-chan!" Miku exclaimed, running her fingers through the silk red curtains.

Meiko blushed, she did have a girly side even if she didn't show it.

Miku jumped up and landed on Meiko's neat bed with a soft thunk, knocking some teddy bears over onto the ground.

"Ehh? What's this?" Miku pulled the blankets back to find a small teddy bear lying on its stomach. "Hey! Is this the teddy I gave you a few years ago? I can't believe you still have it! Look! It even still has its little necktie!" Miku beamed, reaching for the neglected toy.

Meiko's eyes went huge. "MIKU WAIT!" But it was too late.

Miku picked up the bear and stared at the grotesque image on the front. A picture of herself was tied to the bear, multiple cut wounds were placed in the torso and some on the face. The only sign that this was Miku was the long blue hair. But...why was it Miku?

"Miku, I can explain-"

"Don't..." Miku placed the bear back on the bed.

"Miku, you don't understand!" Meiko cried. She felt her eyes start to burn.

"I knew you were always kind of jealous but this? This is too much Meiko!" Miku had pure anger in her eyes.

"Jealous? I'm not jealous of YOU! I'm jealous of that fact you stole Kaito!" Meiko blurted out, the tears long forgotten.

"Stole? I've been holding myself back for you! Some friend you are!" Miku shouted, storming out the door and running down the stairs.

Meiko heard the front door open and slam loudly before everything was quiet.

What had she done? Miku was trying to be her friend? How? By taking Kaito from her? Meiko didn't need her to judge her. She was perfectly fine on her own. Kaito was all hers now. And more importantly, she had to practice her song. If Miku sang it with her or not.