Chapter Two

Rin stared blankly out at the scenery passing before her. Now that it was almost September, she was returning to school. This year she would be starting high school at the same school Miku had gone to a year ago before she developed her illness. Thinking about her friend caused a lump to grow in Rin's throat, but she tried to push it down the best she could to avoid crying on the bus in front of her peers. Lately, she'd been having a hard time controlling her emotions, which wasn't good now that summer vacation was over. She just hoped she didn't end up sobbing in the middle of class one day.

The bus pulled up to the school, and kids began pushing and shoving each other to get off first. Rin merely continued sitting in her seat, watching them laugh as they pushed one another. How annoying, Rin thought to herself with a scowl. Once practically everyone else had gotten off the bus, Rin stood up and walked out onto the school grounds. It looked like any typical high school, nothing particularly worth noting nor special about the tall building that stretched out before her. Rin hefted her bag higher onto her shoulder with a huff before reluctantly making her way inside. The schedule she had been sent in the mail was folded up in her pocket, but she didn't need it to find her homeroom. It was class 1-C, she remembered as she made her way through the halls.

All around her, students were laughing and talking with one another, and Rin couldn't help but be reminded of when she and Miku had done stuff like that. The memories made her feel sick to her stomach, and Rin forced herself to push those thoughts from her mind for the time being. She couldn't stand to think about Miku with how things were, but she could never forgive herself if she forgot about her either. Rin wondered if it was even possible to forget about Miku, seeing as how she'd known the girl for so long. Despite being two years younger than her, Rin had somehow managed to befriend the teal-haired girl when they were both still in pre-school. Ever since then, they'd been inseparable.

After wandering around for a little bit, Rin found the door marked "1-C" and went inside. There were already quite a few students seated at various places around the room, some conversing with each other while others readied themselves for their first class of the new school year. Rin opted for a desk in the back, and once she was seated she focused her attention on getting out her supplies. Though, this didn't take nearly as long as she had expected, and Rin soon found herself with extra time and nothing to do. With a sigh, she decided to observe her classmates for the time being.

At the front of the class, a group of around five students or so was chatting amongst themselves. They looked fairly well-dressed, especially compared to Rin's lazy outfit of a worn-out hoodie and jeans, and one girl in particular with curly red pigtails was doing an obnoxious, stuck-up sounding laugh. Rin could already tell those were going to be the "popular kids". Having no interest in them whatsoever, the blonde-haired girl turned her attention to a different group of people who were gathered in the middle of the classroom to the far right. They were having a small, idle conversation that seemed pleasant enough. All the students in that group looked fairly average, and Rin concluded they were going to be the kind of people that would ignore her and she would ignore them. After all, Rin was the kind of person who prefered to stand off to the side or blend into the background. She wasn't always like that, though; in fact, she used to be the exact opposite before Miku's hospitalization. The depression had just simply caused her to adopt a more anti-social lifestyle.

There was only one other person in the room who was secluded like Rin. A girl with long, pale pink hair that looked almost white was sitting at the desk by the window, which she was staring out silently. Her desk was two places away from Rin's, with the desk in between them currently empty. Normally, Rin would've been curious as to why this girl was sitting off by herself, but currently she could've care less. If she was fine with being alone, then naturally that girl could be too. Rin once again had nothing to do as she concluded her class observation, and she began to mindlessly doodle on a sheet of paper she had gotten out. Not too long afterwards, the bell signaling the beginning of the school day rang, and their teacher entered the room.

"Good morning, class. How are all of you today?" she greeted them with a friendly smile.

A chorus of "good"s came as the reply, and the teacher, a mature looking woman with long, pink hair, nodded.

"That's good. My name is Luka Megurine, and I'll be you're teacher this year. I hope we all can work together and have a very successful year," Luka said warmly.

The class once again gave a chorus of replies, then Luka continued.

"Alright then. I think a good place to start would be introductions, so who wants to go first?" she questioned while looking around the classroom.

The red-haired girl sitting in the front raised her hand, earning a smile from Luka.

"Go ahead," Luka gave her permission, and the girl stood up from her seat.

She turned around to face the class with a sickeningly sweet smile. "Hi, everyone! My name's Teto Kasane, it's nice to meet you!"

There were a few murmurs of "nice to meet you too", then the girl, Teto, sat back down. One by one, people began introducing themselves. Rin didn't pay attention to hardly any of the introductions, but she managed to catch a few names of the students who looked interesting. Miki was the girl with a strangely large red ahoge, Yukari wore a jacket with bunny ears, and Lapis had something about her that reminded Rin a little bit of Miku. Not much, though. Finally, it got to the point where the only people who hadn't introduced themselves were Rin and the loner girl by the window, who hadn't even moved since Rin last looked at her.

"Why don't you go next?" Luka suggested, looking at the girl.

The girl finally veered her gaze away from the window, revealing dark blue eyes that blinked up at the teacher as if in a daze. After a moment, the girl slowly got to her feet.

"My name is IA," she introduced herself plainly while looking straight ahead of her.

"Do you have a last name?" Luka asked.

IA shook her head before sitting back down. A few quiet murmurs started up between the students at the girl's strange behavior. The way she spoke, and even her expression, was so monotone it was almost lifeless. Rin couldn't help but wonder a bit about IA herself.

"What about you?" Luka directed her gaze at Rin now as she said this.

Rin sighed and stood up, choosing to look at the teacher instead of her classmates as she introduced herself. "I'm Rin Kagamine."

Having said that, she sat down quickly and returned to being silent.

"Well, it's nice to meet you all," Luka smiled at the class once again.

She didn't seem to be acknowledging Rin's or IA's strange behavior, and instead moved on with the rest of the class. The lesson was relatively simple, seeing as how it was the first day, and Rin found herself zoning out for the majority of it. Before she knew it, it was already time for lunch. Most of the students exited the classroom, opting to eat in the lunchroom instead, but there were a few like Rin who stayed at their desks. The few remainders all pulled neatly-made bentos out of their bags, but Rin didn't even budge. She hadn't packed a lunch like they had, but it didn't matter since she wasn't hungry.

"Ms. Kagamine? Aren't you going to eat?" Luka asked her young student confusedly.

"Not hungry," Rin replied bluntly.

Luka frowned at the blonde-haired girl. "You can't go the whole day without eating. It's not good for you."

"I do it all the time. So what?" Rin scoffed and sent her teacher a look as if to say "what are you going to do about it?"

Luka was a bit taken aback by this, but soon she regained her composure and put on a firm look. "Ms. Kagamine, I advise you to go to the cafeteria and get food right now. Unless you want to get into trouble on your first day."

Rin leaned her chin against her propped up hand with a bored expression. "Go ahead, I don't care. What are you going to punish me for? Not being hungry?"

Luka was silent for a moment, before she walked back over to her desk and sent a stern look toward Rin. "If you're going to act like this, then I can already tell we're going to be having quite a few problems."

A/N: Hi everyone! First of all, I just want to say thanks for all the support I received on the first chapter, it really means a lot to me :) Secondly, I've decided to alternate the points of view between Kaito and Rin, just to see different people's perspective on the same issues and to better illustrate their daily lives. I may write from the focus of other characters later on, but I haven't decided yet. Also, while searching around YouTube for some good Vocaloid songs to listen to while writing this, I came across a few that I felt really suit this story. I really suggest you listen to them w

The songs are:

Koe wo Kikasete (Let Me Hear Your Voice) (this song I feel would be sung from Miku to Kaito)

Memories (this one suits well with Rin and her perspective)

and

From a person who will die in 3 days (this one is very bittersweet, and really matches with how Miku feels in the story)

All of them are sung by Miku, and you can find English subbed versions of them on YouTube. Anyway, please continue telling me what you think! I can only approve from what I hear from you, and I love hearing what people have to say about my stories.

Have a nice day/night/whatever~!