Dreams

Chapter 22: When She Realised it

"Len... you liar..."

He saw the young model in a long glittering grey dress walking down the aisle with a smile. A smile that was very dull, fake, and not radiant as before. No matter how shiny her dress looked, it would never compensate her weary smile. Her eyes scanned the large noisy crowd and landed on him almost instantly. As she walked straight ahead, her sorrowful eyes did not leave him. They had never leave him since a long time ago, if only he noticed it.

"The Len that I knew..."

Looking down to avoid her stare, he tried to hold back his tears as he clenched his fists tightly. He had no right to look at her. He was childish and stupid. Why was he here to see her in the first place? It was not that he had missed her. It was just that...

He slowly took out a small pink cloth from his pocket and smiled bitterly. He wanted to apologise to her for being childish. Seeing her so happy made him happy too, but for someone like him, he had no right to do so.

"... wouldn't break his promise."

-:-:-:-

"It has been six weeks, if I'm not wrong, since I've last told you to re-do your assignment draft." The man pushed his spectacles upwards against the bridge of his nose and narrowed his eyes at the nervous brunette who was sitting at the opposite side of the table. "Where is it?"

"In my bag."

"Why didn't you hand it in to me?" he raised his voice a little louder, causing her to gulp in fear. "Miss Sakine."

Who knew Kiyoteru could be intimidating? Meiko fumbled with the zip of her little bag, slowly pulled out her printed assignment and placed it in front of her professor. He stared at the paper, then back at her with a straight face.

"You haven't answered me yet, Miss Sakine."

"I... I completed it... just last night," as she spoke, her voice went softer and softer, almost like squeaking. "I'm sorry."

"Six weeks, Miss Sakine, six weeks... and you've just finished it," he said with a hint of anger in his voice. "You're not serious in your work at all. Just because I'm kind enough to allow you to re-do your assignment and did not chase you for it, that doesn't mean that I'm kind enough to allow you to hand it in late. It's very late, Miss Sakine. It's going to be time for your main exams."

Meiko lowered her head and cried, "I'm sorry!"

"No, you're not."

Meiko balled her fists underneath the table. What did he mean by she was not sorry? Who did he think he was? She looked up and forced a smile.

"Hmm... maybe you're right," she spoke sarcastically. "So, Professor Hiyama, what should I do to show that I'm sorry? Kneel down and beg for forgiveness? Commit sappakku? Say sorry to you through the PA system?"

"You..." His mouth twitched. "Forget it. I won't mark your draft."

Meiko's eyes widened and she leaned forward angrily. "Hey, stupid man! I spent six weeks to do this and then you said that you won't be marking it! What's this?"

"Watch your mouth, Miss Meiko Sakine."

"Watch yours too, Professor Kiyoteru Hiyama!"

Kiyoteru adjusted his spectacles again and asked nonchalantly, "Why should I?"

"Meiko, you're taking so long!" a high shrilly voice interrupted the session between the two of them in the classroom. "I'm coming in... Oops!"

Miku stood at the entrance with her hands spread wide opened, looking stunned and embarrassed. A few heads popped up from behind her too. Well, this was even awkward in the midst of Meiko's lecture.

"We're sorry." Kaito gently pushed Miku away and lowered his head at the irritated professor. "We'll wait for her outside."

With that, the door was slammed closed, leaving Meiko in an even more awkward position. She was so sure that she would scream at them later for that. At this moment, she wished that she would just disintegrate into thin air.

"Yours friends... Well, species of the same kind... I mean, birds of a feather flock together," Kiyoteru commented harshly. "Honestly speaking, if you're here in university for the sake of having fun with your friends, then just give it up. You aren't going to progress any further based on your current results and attitude."

"You!" Meiko stood up and stared at him with fury eyes. "What do you mean by species of the same kind? I'm also studying hard like others but unlike them, I know how to relax."

"Do you still think you're in elementary school?"

"Why? Do you think relaxation is for kiddos?" Meiko challenged.

"Miss Meiko Sakine," he calmly said her name and stood up as well. "It's time for your next lecture. I'll talk to you the next time."

-:-:-:-

Meiko gulped down the sake and slammed the bottle on the table. Her eyes loomed around the bar and she suddenly let out a scream.

"That idiotic professor! What species of the same kind? What attitude? Calling me to give my studies up? No way in hell I would do that!"

"Meiko, chill!" Rin patted her friend's back comfortingly.

Meiko covered her ears and groaned, "I can't chill when his words are still ringing in my ears!"

"He just don't understand you, Meiko. Ignore him!" Miku tried to comfort her as well.

Laying her head on the table, Meiko groaned again and sighed. "No one will ever understand why I came here in the first place. No one..."

She accidentally looked at Kaito, who was staring back at her with a worried look, and immediately moved her eyes away.

"I'm so messed up," she muttered under her breath and slowly closed her eyes, unknowingly drifting into a sleep.

"She must have been drinking a lot." Miku put her blue jacket over Meiko's shoulder and gently stroked her short brown hair. "I guess we've to carry her home later."

"I can carry her home!" Rin said as she rolled up her sleeves and showed off her non-bulging muscles.

Gakupo gave her an amused look and teased, "If only she is light enough."

"Kamui!" Rin shouted and pouted.

"I will carry her home," Kaito volunteered and looked at Rin. "Leave her to me."

Rin stared at him for a brief moment before she nodded with a smile.

-:-:-:-

"It has been so long since I've stepped into her house. It hadn't changed much after all." Kaito scanned the interior after placing a blanket over Meiko. "I hope you're enjoying your stay here so far, Kagamine."

Rin saluted to him in a playful manner and replied, "Yup! It has been three weeks so there's no doubt that I'm getting used to staying with Meiko, especially with her sleeping habits."

He laughed. He knew that Meiko had some weird sleeping habits. She would fling her arms and legs about, hitting anything that was next to her, and even randomly hugged anything out of the blue. Sometimes, she would talk and laugh in her sleep!

"That's great to hear that. So... I'll be taking my leave now," Kaito said and walked to the foyer with Rin following behind. "Oh yes, before I forget, Gakupo told me that the results of the audition will be out by this week."

Rin's face brightened up upon hearing that and said excitedly, "Really? Wow! That's fast but... I don't think I can make it through. The audition itself was already quite bad."

Kaito furrowed his eyebrows together and shook his head in disagreement. "Please don't say that, Kagamine. You may not know, you might pass it."

"I hope so."

The two of them looked down, allowing the silence to engulf the foyer. Kaito felt uneasy, especially when facing the girl he liked directly, and worst of all, when he found nothing to talk about.

"Stupid Kaito!"

Both of them looked up and stared at each other in bewilderment. Did they just hear Meiko's voice? She must be sleeptalking again.

"Just... kidding..."

Meiko's voice softened down and soft mumbling sounds were heard coming from her bedroom. Kaito chuckled and adjusted his bag before walking towards the door.

"Thanks for carry Meiko home," Rin spoke in a soft voice. "Goodbye and have a goodnight."

Kaito blushed and looked away. Having Rin to say 'goodnight' to him was like a dream comes true. It sounded as if they were already more than just friends. He shook his head, mentally slapped himself for thinking of such things, and then cleared his throat to prevent Rin from noticing his weird behaviour.

"G... Good...night."

After saying that, he hurriedly walked out of the apartment and ran away. He felt weird all over him. At that moment, he wanted to touch her face and pull her into a hug. But if he were to do that, Rin might be scared of him. That was why he could not look into her ocean blue eyes and had to run away to avoid having her to see his blushing face. Why did Rin have to be so cute?

Hiding behind the wall, Meiko slowly slid her back down against it with her palm covering her own mouth. Though she was still slightly drunk, she could analysed the situation a little. For three weeks, she had been wondering about that and this had finally cleared some of her doubts.

"Kaito... he likes Rin, doesn't he?"

Hi! I would like to thank those who had reviewed Chapter 21. Thanks for all those encouragements. Hope to hear more from you again! :D

Here are the reviewers:

- B.L
- TheYokaiOtaku
- StarishShadow
- Silverpudding9
- YellowFluffiesForever22
- MizuneMinamiki
- justanothernaah
- seraphim.159
- SHUTUPANDDON'TCALLMESHORT

Lastly, I would also like to thank those who had story alerted and favourited this story.

Preview of the next chapter:

Chapter 23: Waiting

"I'm sorry..."

Rin turned to look at him as she furrowed her eyebrows.

"I'm sorry," he repeated his words solemnly, causing Rin to stare hard at him in a questionable way. "You've tried so hard, yet you couldn't make it through. I'm sorry."

Her gaze softened. Who knew that he would be concerned about her audition? When he had said this, her initial anger subsided and was replaced with a mix of happiness and sadness. He cared for her, had high expectations of her and fought for her dream, but she had wasted his efforts.

She smiled and spoke in a soft voice, "I'm supposed to be the one who should say sorry to you. After all you had helped me, I am still as useless as always. I'm thinking... I should return home and listen to my parents..."

"Miss..."

"I shouldn't burden you and Meiko," Rin continued in a quivering voice as she buried her face into her palms to hide the fact that she was about to cry. "I'm sorry."

"You... you were never a burden to me."

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