Meiko: YES! I get to start this one!

Kaito: This is gonna be a tough one. Think you'll be up for it?

Meiko: Kaito, I narrated the "Flashback" episode; I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do this one.

Kaito: If you say so… Elise-sensei does not own Vocaloid; she just writes stories about us.

Meiko/Kaito: Enjoy!

The morning light coming in my room caused me to stir, and I felt surprisingly relaxed. Not quite ready to get up yet, I snuggled up to the nearest source of warmth… and that was when I realized two things: one, someone's arm was around my bare waist, and two… wait, my bare waist?! Glancing back as best I could, I saw the sleeping face of my shirtless childhood friend, Kiyoteru!

Suddenly, last night came back to me: I had run into Kiyoteru, who I hadn't seen in about five years or so, and we went out for some drinks to catch up. Then we came back to my room, and we started kissing and one thing led to another and… well, you can probably guess.

I didn't mention it the night before, but this was kind of a dream come true for me. You see, I had been crushing on Kiyoteru since we were kids, but for some reason I never actually told him my feelings. Maybe I was too caught up in my ambition to be a singer, I don't know, but when I lost his number shortly after I became famous, I was heartbroken by the possibility of never seeing him again. Perhaps he felt the same way; I was fairly certain that he had confessed to me just before we… Well I can't go into details due to the "T" rating, but I'm sure you get the idea. Why isn't there an "OT" rating on this site, Elise?!

EliseArainai: I dunno, but try not to push your luck. I don't wanna have to bump up the rating.

Right, I'll try. Now where was I? Oh yeah…

Okay Meiko, what to do now? I thought, tapping my chin. Should you wake him up? No, he looks too cute when he's asleep… Wait, what am I saying?! He needs to know what happened! Well, actually that part's kind of obvious… "Rrrgh, it's way too early to think this hard!"

"Nnn… huh?"

Oh whoops, did I say that last part out loud? I thought sheepishly as I carefully turned over to face Kiyoteru, who was just waking up.

His eyes still closed, he removed his arm from my waist and started feeling around. "…Eh? Where are my glasses?"

"Oh, they're on your right," I answered instinctively, pointing to the right of the futon and giving directions for his hand. "A little further out… more to the right… the other right… a bit more… got 'em!"

"Thanks," he mumbled, having finally located his glasses. Slipping them on, Kiyoteru's eyes opened and only then did he seem to realize where he was. "What the? Meiko?!" he exclaimed, his face as red as a tomato.

It was then that I realized where he was looking and I quickly pulled up the blanket to cover up my chest. "Heh heh… morning, Kiyo."

For a few seconds he looked at me all confused, but then he apparently recalled last night. "So… last night wasn't a dream, then?"

"Nope," I answered simply before flashing a teasing grin. "Why, were you hoping it was?"

"Meiko, will you please be serious for once?" Kiyoteru asked, giving me a concerned look. "Are you on birth control? Please tell me you are."

Rolling my eyes, I replied, "Yes Kiyo, I'm on it. Now will you stop worrying?"

"Stop worrying?!" he replied, placing his hands on my shoulders. "I just slept with my childhood friend, Meiko!"

"A childhood friend you confessed to," I reminded him. "And the feeling is mutual. So what's the problem?"

"The problem is – wait… what'd you just say?" Kiyoteru asked, his voice becoming quieter from surprise.

Smiling at him, I gave him a quick kiss on the lips before replying. "I love you too, Kiyo. If I didn't, I never would've done something like this with you."

Finally relaxing, the spectacled man let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank god…" Reaching out to stroke my cheek, Kiyoteru leaned in to kiss me, whispering "I love you" just before our lips touched.

Sighing happily into the kiss, I wrapped my arms around this wonderful man and silently wished that this moment wouldn't end.

…

A little while later, we were sitting across from each other at a coffee shop. Leave it to Kiyoteru to bring up a certain question. "So, where do we go from here?"

"Well I think it's obvious," I replied matter-of-factly. "I love you, you love me… we oughta start dating, dontcha think?"

"Heh, you make it sound so easy," the man said with a shake of his head. "What about your career? Would we even be able to see each other?"

I couldn't help reaching over and messing up his hair again. "Stop being so negative! Of course we will!" Sitting back down, I gave him my cell phone number. "Here, we'll text each other every day. That should help on days we can't be together."

Kiyoteru looked at the number and entered it into his phone with a smile. "If you think this'll work out… then I'm willing to give it a shot."

"Oh don't you worry, it'll work out," I reassured him as I entered his number into my phone. "What could go wrong?"

…

Ever hear of Murphy's Law? Anything that can go wrong will go wrong? Sometimes I wish Meiko wasn't so blissfully optimistic.

You ask me what I'm talking about? Well, it had been a few days since I returned from the beach and Meiko and I had been texting each other every day since then. You could say things were going well, but then a new semester began at Hikari Gakuen.

Having just managed to catch my train to work, I couldn't help noticing that a few people were giving me odd glances. A couple of schoolgirls were whispering to each other, one of them pointing at me before they started giggling. I shook my head, trying to convince myself that it was nothing and that they must have been pointing to the guy next to me. Or the other guy... or the other… Did I mention how crowded the morning trains usually are?

Anyway, once I was off the train I continued my walk to the school, still aware of the occasional odd glances I was getting. What is going on? I wondered. Why do people keep staring at me? Glancing at my reflection in a store window, I didn't see anything unusual about me; I was wearing my usual suit, my hair was combed and nothing weird was stuck to my clothes. Shrugging, I went on my way. Maybe I'm getting paranoid, I thought to myself. I've only been dating Meiko less than a week, and already I'm jumpy…

When I finally reached Hikari Gakuen, I headed to the teachers' office for the morning briefing. But before I got there, I saw third-year student Lily dash past me while holding a magazine. I was about to get her attention when I saw who she was running toward: Miku Hatsune and Luka Megurine. "Miku-chan! Luka-chan! You're not gonna believe this!"

"Morning, Lily-sempai!" Miku greeted. "Got some good gossip this time?"

"Don't encourage her, Miku-san," Luka muttered as she rubbed her temple, and who could blame her? Lily is pretty much the gossip queen of the school, though most of the rumors she caught wind of were pretty harmless.

Then Lily held up the magazine she had. "Check this out: Hiyama-sensei is on the cover!"

I blanked out for a second, but I was fairly certain that she had just said I was on the cover of a celebrity gossip magazine.

"EEHHH?!" both Miku and Luka exclaimed.

"Yeah, look!" the blonde girl continued, opening the magazine to a certain page. "It looks like he went on a date with Meiko-sama. He even walked her back to her room and went inside!"

Wha-! How could they possibly know that?! I mentally panicked. Of course; Meiko's a major celebrity, so she's bound to have paparazzi following her everywhere. Aw man, if the head teacher finds out about this-!

"Well now, that's very interesting, isn't it Hiyama-sensei?" a voice said from behind me.

Speak of the devil, I thought as I turned and came face-to-face with the last person I wanted to see: head teacher Higuchi. "Morning, kocho," I greeted, trying to keep a straight face.

"Well, it sounds like someone had fun during summer break," the other man continued, folding his arms with a smirk. "Going on a date with Meiko Sakine? I must say, I'm jealous."

"The magazine's exaggerating, sir," I tried to explain as we walked to the faculty room. "Meiko's an old friend of mine, and we just ran into each other at the beach last week."

"Really? That's news to me," Higuchi said. "You two were close, I'm guessing? I mean, you went back to her room and all."

Don't tell me he already knew about this before I got here, I silently groaned. The head teacher and I have never really gotten along, and it's mainly due to my ideals of following one's dreams. Knowing him, he was just looking for an excuse to get me fired. "She had too much to drink, I was just walking her back to her room."

"Ah, that old story," Higuchi chuckled.

"Sir, you're not taking that magazine seriously, are you?" I asked in disbelief. "It's a tabloid, most of that stuff isn't even true."

Placing a hand on my shoulder, the man answered with feigned sincerity, "Oh don't worry, I believe you Hiyama-sensei. And I understand, you're young and want to live a little, but you seem to have forgotten that there are in fact people who believe in gossip more than the truth. You've gotten yourself into quite a difficult position, and the school as well. How would you think the students' parents would react if they heard that one of our teachers was fooling around in such a manner?"

This actually irritated me, and I instinctively snapped, "Kocho, I can assure you that I was not 'fooling around'! And quite frankly, I don't see how it's any of your business!"

Smirking once again, Higuchi responded, "It's a bit late to use that line now, isn't it? Like it or not, you're a big celebrity now. And quite frankly, I'm interested in seeing how this plays out." And with that, he began walking faster. "I would suggest picking up the pace; we don't want to miss the briefing."

As the man walked ahead of me, I clenched my fists. As much as I hated to admit it, he was right; by simply being with Meiko, I had put myself and quite possibly my job in a compromising position. Now all I could do is wait and see what happened… and maybe not bring the matter up with Meiko.

…

Okay, I can handle the paparazzi following me around; that I'm used to by now. But I should've known that they would be dumb enough to spy on me and Kiyoteru and blow our reunion completely out of proportion! There's a reason I don't usually read stuff about myself: different magazines had different speculations about what happened that night, one of them even suggested that it was a one-night stand, and another claimed I was cheating on Kaito!

While I won't deny that the two of us moved kinda fast that night, I actually felt relaxed for the first time in a long time. I didn't want that feeling to go away, but at this rate who knew how Kiyoteru was handling all this attention?

"…ello? Earth to Meiko. Come in, Meiko!"

Snapping out of my thoughts, I turned to face Kaito who had just let himself in and brought me a bottle of sake. "Oh, sorry. I didn't hear you come in," I apologized sheepishly, having forgotten that Kaito had a spare key to my apartment.

"Lost in thought?" the blue-haired man asked as he poured me a glass.

Sighing, I replied, "It's Kiyoteru. I'm happy about last week, but the media has gone nuts over it! Not gonna lie, it's actually making me concerned about him."

"Understandable," Kaito said as I proceeded to take the bottle instead of the glass and drink from that. "Unlike you, Kiyoteru's not used to having the paparazzi around. And hey, don't drink so fast!"

"What? Without Kiyoteru, it's the only way I can relax," I pouted, now missing my new boyfriend even more. "Maybe I should check up on him, see how he's doing."

The blunette next to me smiled. "That's a good start, I think he'd like that."

Taking one more swig of the bottle, I set it down for the time being and got my cell phone out. Then I looked at Kaito and said, "Oh, would you mind, uh…?"

"Ah yes, I believe I hear the freezer calling," Kaito said, taking the hint and heading for the kitchen so I could talk on the phone alone.

Flopping back onto the couch, I waited until Kiyoteru answered, "Hello?"

"Hey Kiyo, how's it goin'?" I asked.

"Uh… it's pretty good, I guess," he replied, although I had a feeling something was wrong.

"C'mon, it sounds like something's bothering you," I commented. "What happened?"

After letting out a sigh, my new boyfriend explained, "It's the tabloids; it seems like everywhere I go, people stare at me or try to ask questions about 'what really happened that night'. Even at work, I can't get away from it; head teacher Higuchi is mocking me every chance he gets, and once again tells me I could possibly lose my job over this."

Wow, doesn't sound like he's taking it well at all, I thought, at the same time trying to think of a way to cheer him up. "I'm sorry to hear that."

There was another sigh before Kiyoteru spoke again. "It's not your fault; with your status, it's pretty much impossible for the media to leave you alone. But honestly, how can you stand it all the time?"

"You just kinda learn to tune it out after a while, I guess," I said with a shrug, even though he couldn't see it. "But let me ask you something; do you regret what happened that night?"

"What? Of course not!" he answered almost immediately. "I love you Meiko, I really do. I'm just… *sigh* I just don't know what to do about my job. What if parents start to make a fuss about it? It could affect the school's reputation."

"Then they're idiots," I said simply. "We went out for a drink, you walked me back, we spent the night together… that's what couples do." Falling onto my back, I continued, "And also, when I was with you… that whole time, I was able to actually relax and stress-free for once, and I liked that. I didn't realize just how much I needed the relief until… I realized I needed you. I just… wanted you to know that."

There was a pause, then Kiyoteru said, "You know, when you put it that way… I was the same way. All the stress from my job seemed to just vanish with you around. For the first time in a long time, I felt truly happy… and I have you to thank for it, Meiko."

Grinning, I couldn't help joking, "Hey now, easy on the smooth-talk, mister!"

"Ah yes, we don't wanna over-inflate your ego," he replied to the tease, causing me to chuckle.

Then I got an idea, which hopefully would take care of his problems at work. "And don't worry, you let me worry about head teacher Harumi."

"Higuchi."

"Right, him."

"And wait, what do you mean by that?" he asked with a confused tone.

"I said don't worry about it! I'll figure it out, trust me" was all I said in reply. "Anyway, try to get some sleep tonight, okay? I love you!"

"…Okay. I love you too," Kiyoteru said before we hung up.

I probably had a goofy smile on my face, but I just couldn't help it! What I had in mind was crazy… but just crazy enough to work. Going to my contacts list, I chose another number. "Hey Kaiko-chan, it's me. Listen, I need a favor…"

…

Don't worry about it, she says, I thought as I entered the school the next day. I was not looking forward to facing Higuchi again, especially since the gossip surrounding me and Meiko hadn't died down at all. Granted, she seemed to have a plan, but whether or not it would work was up for debate.

As the morning briefing went on, I barely listened; despite Meiko's reassurances, I didn't get much sleep the night before and kept spacing out.

"…sensei? Hiyama-sensei, are you paying attention?" The head teacher's voice caught my attention and I immediately turned to him.

"Uh, sorry sir, I guess I'm a little sleep-deprived," I said sheepishly.

Giving me a smirk, Higuchi commented, "Understandable, I'm sure. Care to share what's on your mind?"

Aw dammit, I was wide open there! I mentally cursed, realizing exactly what Higuchi was implying. And now he had me trapped; every other teacher was looking at me, waiting for a response.

But then as if on cue, there was a knock on the faculty door. "? Now who could that be?" the head teacher muttered as he stood up and walked to the door. "Yes, who is it?"

"Um, excuse me sir," a feminine voice spoke up. "I'm looking for Higuchi-sensei."

"That would be me," he replied. "I'm in the middle of a meeting, but perhaps we can meet during lunch?"

"Well, I-I'd prefer meeting with you as soon as possible," the voice answered. "Could we maybe go somewhere private?" I couldn't help but think that she sounded familiar. Peeking past the head teacher, I caught a glimpse of who he was talking to: a girl with brown hair pulled into low twin tails, glasses, and rather large…

Hey, wait a minute! That's no student, that's Meiko! I realized, my eyes widening in surprise. But what's she doing here? And in a school uniform, no less?!

Getting a tad flushed in the cheeks due to the "student's" charming shyness, Higuchi eventually said, "Er… well, I suppose it couldn't hurt." Turning back to me and the other teachers, he quickly said "Meeting adjourned" before going out the door with Meiko.

After breathing a sigh of relief, I slipped out of the faculty room and quietly followed them. Meiko, what in the world are you up to? I wondered as they walked into an empty classroom. And also, where did she get that uniform? It looks a little small, but it's actually kinda cute… grrr, c'mon mind, out of the gutter!

Meiko closed the door behind them, but I snuck up to it in order to listen in.

…

Wow, this guy really is a creep, I thought as I closed the door to the classroom. I can't believe this is working!

Higuchi spoke up first. "Now, how can I help you, miss…?"

"Oh, that's right. I didn't introduce myself," I said, dropping the shy act I had been using a few minutes ago. Whirling around to face him, I pulled the hair ties out of my hair before removing the glasses. "I'm Meiko Sakine. Surprise!"

This was certainly a shock for the older man. "What the?! Sakine-sama, what are you doing here?"

Folding my arms, I replied, "Oh, I wasn't obvious enough? I really was looking for you. See, I need a favor: do you think it would be possible for you to, oh I dunno – get off Kiyoteru Hiyama's back?"

"Sakine-sama, you of all people should know how word gets around, regardless of whether it's true or not," Higuchi said, apparently having gotten a second wind. "The school does have a reputation to keep, and Hiyama-sensei's recent actions – "

"Are completely normal!" I cut him off, practically channeling my angry Meiko act from my childhood. "I mean, what couple hasn't gone out for a drink together or walked each other home? What couple hasn't occasionally spent the night with each other? That's what normal people do, and you're trying to punish Kiyo for that?!"

Not gonna lie, I was tempted to grin when Higuchi started getting nervous. "W-Well, you're not exactly a normal person, you know. Not to mention, the media is talking about you two night and day!"

"I realize that, but I want you to know something…" Walking right up to him, I glared right into the head teacher's eyes. "I don't give a crap what the media says, but I won't let anyone torment my boyfriend over something that's out of his control, and that goes double for anyone at this school! You got that?!"

"W-What a temper…" I heard him mutter before finally giving in. "V-Very well, I won't say anything more on the subject."

Upon hearing this, I gave a huge grin. "Good, glad we could talk this out!" I said in an overly-cheerful tone. "As you were."

But just before Higuchi left, he looked back at me. "But just so I'm clear… you said your boyfriend. Did you mean that?"

"Yes," I answered sincerely. "Kiyoteru Hiyama is my boyfriend."

"…I see," he said quietly. "You might want to leave soon, lest another teacher tries to chase you out." And with that, he left the room.

"Hee hee, girl's still got it," I said with a snicker. I couldn't help smiling at myself; it really felt good to stand up for someone I loved. "Well, guess I better get going," I told myself as I was about to leave.

But when I opened the door, I nearly ended up running into Kiyoteru. We stared at each other for a few seconds before I cracked, "Uh-oh, am I in trouble, sensei?"

"Pfft, a schoolgirl disguise? Really?" Kiyoteru asked with an amused smile.

"Oh yeah, I borrowed the uniform from Kaiko-chan; it was so much easier to sneak onto the grounds this way," I explained before twirling around. "You like it?"

My boyfriend's blushing cheeks were proof enough of his answer. Straightening out his glasses, he stammered, "W-Well, I probably would've suggested a bigger size… Anyway, I just wanted to thank you before you left." He gave a few quick glances to make sure no one was looking (and also that the blinds in the room were closed) before giving me a quick kiss on the lips.

"Least I could do," I told him once we parted lips. "It was kinda my fault you got into that mess, anyway. And besides…" I paused as I wrapped my arms around his waist. "I really need your love, Kiyo."

Hugging me back, he whispered into my ear, "Well if you're not busy tonight, I think I can give you plenty of love."

Just hearing that made me shudder with delight, and I pulled away just a little. "Ooh, exactly what happened to that serious boy I knew five years ago?"

"He found a crazy new girlfriend," Kiyoteru replied before kissing me once more.

Next time…

Miku: Now that we're a couple, we should be spending more time together, right?

Kaito: You'd think so, wouldn't you? Oh well…

Miku: Well, sooner or later we will get some alone time!

Kaito: I don't care where, but I just want to be with you…

Next time: Track 23 – Let's kiss, hiding in a car