Dreams

Chapter 33: Sewing Machine

It was awkward when you had said something which you should not tell anybody about. Worst of all, it was about a guy whom you like having feelings for a close friend of yours. Though it was meant to be a secret between Meiko and herself, she was not sure if it was true. There she was trying to help Miku with her love life by ignoring her own feelings and here she was having a second thought about supporting Kaito's love interest instead of Miku's. In spite of these selfless thought, the second thought pained her and was tempting her to be a little selfish in regards to her own feelings.

It was strange. Miku liked him and as a friend, she supported her. On the other hand, he liked her best girl-friend Rin but she was hesitating as to whether or not should she helped him to get her. After all, it did seem that Rin was interested in Len, or so the other way round. Meiko had ever wondered if she was actually preventing Kaito from getting hurt by his probable one-sided love or she was just jealous about that he liked Rin whom he just met a few months ago instead of her whom he had grown up with since childhood. Maybe both were the reasons why she behaved like that.

After composing herself, Meiko cleared her throat and said to Gakupo, "Could you pretend that you'd never heard a thing about it?"

"Huh?"

"I'm just making an assumption. Kaito may or may not like her in that way. I don't know anything. Do you get it?"

"Frankly, I don't think Kaito has feelings for Kagamine," Gakupo stated. "He's always with Hatsune and both of us know that Hatsune likes him."

"So, does that mean he has reciprocated her feelings?"

"Hmm... nope?"

Meiko groaned and started walking again.

"Okay, okay, fine!" Gakupo ran and caught up with her. "I won't tell anyone about it. There's no proof either so I won't be bothered by it."

Meiko chuckled softly and asked him curiously, "Why would you be bothered if Kaito really likes Rin?"

"Well, isn't it so obvious?" He paused for while, causing her to stop walking and stare silently at him. "If Kaito likes Kagamine, who would you support? I guess I would have difficulty deciding it because Hatsune, Kaito and Kagamine are my friends."

Just then, Meiko's heart nearly stopped as she felt a pang of guilt in her chest.

-:-:-:-

Len placed a piece of paper and a few rolls of cloths on the counter and stared at the old tailor intently. The tailor dug his right ear rudely and picked up the paper using the same hand. Looking at the design on the paper, the tailor gave him a toothy grin, although he had his front tooth missing, and put the paper back on the counter.

"Please give me two weeks, my son," the old tailor said. "I've lots of drama costumes to make."

"But I need this costume by this Friday."

"Sorry, son. It's a first come first serve basis."

"Please!"

"I would like to help you because your design is very interesting and detailed but it would be very unfair to the earlier customers."

Len looked at his own design and thought hard, trying to find whatever means to make the tailor accept his deal. An idea struck in his mind and he could not believe that he would behave like...

"Would you accept my request if I'm willing to pay you twenty percent more than the original price?"

... Yes, like that blonde look-a-like of his.

The old tailor narrowed his eyes at him, then to the design and smirked. He shook his head and carried on with his business with his pinky finger digging his left ear. Len scowled at his response and without saying any word, Len stomped out of the shop with the paper and the cloths in his hands. So, this was how Rin felt when her request was rejected by him, he finally understood.

Before he returned home, the first place he went to was a shop where second-hand goods were sold. He remembered seeing an old electronic sewing machine near the entrance when he had last visited the shop to buy a radio for his mother a few months ago. If that sewing machine was still there, he really considered himself lucky. Of course, the machine was there sitting on the display shelf near the entrance! The only difference was that the price had seemed to have lowered a little. Feeling extremely lucky and blessed, he waved to the salesman and pointed at the machine.

"Four days left, Len. You're going to make the outfit no matter what," he muttered to himself with determination.

-:-:-:-

Len's mother was a little surprised to see Len bringing an electronic sewing machine home. She quietly stood aside without questioning the obvious as her eyes followed him to the room. She heard a soft thud, followed by a short sigh of relief coming from his room. Smiling to herself, she walked away and entered the kitchen to prepare something for her son to last through the night. She took a sachet of instant coffee powder from the drawer and tore it open.

"Mum... oh..."

She looked up and saw her son walking into the kitchen with a warm smile.

"Coffee is no good for your heart, Mum," Len said as he stood next to her. "Let me have it instead."

"It's for you, son." She let the powder fall slowly into a green mug and looked at her son again. "Would you like some muffins?"

"Muffins? You baked muffins?"

"No, I didn't," she replied softly and returned her gaze to the mug. "A friend gave me."

"Mmm..."

Len nodded slightly in response. He started unbuttoning his shirt and walked out of the kitchen silently. His mother poured hot water into the mug and stirred the beverage as her mind began to drift away.

"Mummy, I want to be an artist."

"What about your dream to be a doctor?"

"I changed it. My friend said that she liked the alien suit I drew for my art."

"Being a doctor is not bad, you know."

"I think being an artist is not bad either. You can be famous... like Picasso."

"And Leonardo da Vinci."

"But I want to be the one who draws alien suits."

"A fashion designer then?"

"No, an alien suit designer."

"Huh? I'm sure your dad won't approve of it, my boy."

"Why not? Designing is fun, isn't it? Just imagine if I make an alien suit for her, she will like it even more. Maybe she will wear it on stage in the future!"

"Who's she?"

"Mummy, it's her! You know who she is! The short-haired girl whom I always talk about..."

"Ah, I see... She's your friend... so she's the one who inspires you to be an alien suit designer, huh?"

"Mum... Mum?"

Startled, she dropped the teaspoon she was holding and looked up. She saw Len standing next to her again with a worried look. His hair was dripping wet and he was topless with beads of water slowly trickling down his bare chest.

Sensing her puzzled gaze on him, he spoke, "I took a shower."

"That was fast," she murmured and walked towards the refrigerator. "Go and dry yourself before you catch a cold."

"The coffee has cooled..."

"Go and dry yourself."

"Alright, I will," he muttered a reply and took a sip of his coffee. "Thanks for the coffee, Mum. I'm going to work on the outfit tonight."

She took out a plate of five brown muffins and placed it on table. The muffins were obviously cold but the sight of them made Len hungry again although he had dinner a few hours ago. He bit the edge of his mug and sucked on it. Eating a few wouldn't hurt, would it?

"Try not to over-exert yourself. I don't want you to put your passengers' lives at stake."

Placing the mug back on the table, Len stifled a laugh and hugged his mother from behind. "I'm thinking to be on leave this Friday."

"For Rin Kagamine, I guess." She smirked.

Len fell silent for a moment and laughed again. He tightened around his mother's waist and rested his chin on her shoulder.

He corrected, "For you, Mum. I recall there's a medical check-up this Friday."

"Oh, that," she muttered softly and cleared her throat. "I can go there myself."

"I want to know your condition."

"I'll tell you when the report is out so you don't have to go," she said as she brought her hand upwards and gently patted his head. "I'll be fine, Len. Just concentrate on your work and the outfit."

Len let go of his mother and said, "I bought a sewing machine."

"I know, I saw."

"Can you promise me one thing?"

"What?"

"Don't tell Miss Kagamine about this." Len gave his puzzled mother an innocent yet slightly mischievous look and he whispered into her ear, "I want to surprise her on Friday night."

"Wha... huh?"

Grinning like a little boy, he picked up his mug again, stole two muffins from the plate and hurriedly walked back into his room.

-:-:-:-

Gakupo slotted a coin into the vending machine and pressed one of the buttons. A bottle of chilled plain water fell and made a loud thud. He picked it up and handed a bottle of plain water to Meiko who was sitting next to the vending machine with her hands hugging her abdomen in discomfort. Then, he sat next to her and looked at his other two friends playing table tennis inside the visitors' lounge.

He wanted to join them but if he did, Meiko would be sitting alone out in the dark. Anyway, the barbecued food seemed to have a little war inside his stomach. Meiko felt the same way but was much worse than him. Those chicken meats which Kaito brought seemed to have gone stale after spending a long time trying to start the fire, and worse of all, she ate a lot because the honey sauce was very good. Upon looking at Kaito and Miku, she wondered if they even had those chicken meats for dinner.

"Why don't you go inside? It's chilly here," Meiko said weakly and drank the water with a scowl. "Hey, the water is chilled."

Gakupo turned to look at her and protested, "What do you expect? Do you want hot coffee instead? The vending machine only provides this and you said that you didn't want coffee."

"Obviously. Who wants coffee when their stomachs are upset? And on a chilly night... who drinks chilled water? My stomach will get worse than this."

"Then don't drink, Miss Sakine."

"If only there's vodka here..." she groaned and rubbed her abdomen, trying to soothe it.

Gakupo snorted. "I swear that drinking vodka is going make your gastric worse than drinking chilled coffee."

Meiko shifted her position slightly and groaned even louder. It was no doubt that she really needed a toilet. She quickly stood up and started running towards the chalet while Gakupo stood up as well and looked at her figure worriedly from behind.

"Where are you going? Do you need me to accompany you?" he shouted to her.

"To the restroom! And no thanks!"

-:-:-:-

Meiko rubbed her tummy after her relief in the restroom. She felt tired and wanted to return to her room to take a rest. Her handphone was charging in her room so she wondered if Rin had missed her and spammed her inbox with text messages.

"Thanks for everything. I enjoyed myself today."

"Are you sure you don't want to stay here for the night? It's already late."

Meiko's ears twitched. The voice of the second person talking sounded annoyingly familiar.

"I'd like to stay here with you but I've to leave tonight. Something crop up at my workplace. Sorry, Kiyoteru."

Meiko stopped walking and looked around her. The voices sounded so close, yet she did not see anyone along the hallway. Furthermore, that annoying voice really sounded like her professor, Kiyoteru. What a coincidence that the man was also named Kiyoteru! The other voice belonged to a female and Meiko had to admit that the voice was beautiful, a hundred times better than her professor's voice.

"What a pity. I was even planning to take you around Jeju island tomorrow..."

There was pause but this time, Meiko felt two presences behind her. She turned her head around and immediately regretted doing so. Standing behind her were a woman with a pair of huge sunglasses and a person whom she absolutely did not want to see here out of all places. Not to mention Tokyo University as well.

"Miss Sakine?"

"Oh my goodness," Meiko demused as she shook her head slowly in bewilderment. "It's that idiotic devil... Professor Hiyama."

Hi guys, thanks for reading up to Chapter 33.

Next, I would like to thank those who had reviewed Chapter 32. Thanks for all those encouragements. Hope to hear more from you again! :D

Here are the reviewers:

- mirrors02
- xxPockyStraw21xx
- Ama Zon
- YuiHeartsOreos
- Mimi02
- Sychronicity girl

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

Preview of the next chapter:

Chapter 34: Distorted Perception

Just right after she walked into the elevator, her handphone played a melodious ringtone with Len's name blinking on the screen. Staring at the screen in surprise, she pressed her trembling thumb against the 'reject' button and held her breath. As strange as it might sound, she was waiting for him... to call her again.

She knew she was crazy. She was angry with him and had even rejected his call yet she wanted him to call her again. She wanted him to apologise sincerely for being such a jerk yet she wished he had a very good reason for being like that. Gosh, Miku's blabbers on shoujo related books and shows were starting to distort her perception of reality.

After a few seconds, her handphone rang again. Without further ado, she picked up the call and waited for his voice that she had missed to sound through the speaker.

"Rin..."

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