Chapter 5: Coincidence

"Eh?"

It was an odd coincidence to have met these three people here. Two of whom I had been previously acquainted with, even if one of them was only for a brief moment. I was stunned to find them at such a popular place, yet unsurprised, as the young man I was acquainted with was quite the chatty type. We held our stares for some time until Miku managed to regain her composure quicker than the rest, lightly coughing into her fist amid a sharp of the hip. With a gentle, welcoming smile, she had softly greeted the men, causing the one stranger, who was completely unknown at least in my case, to blush a sweet shade of pink. The contrast of his dark blue hair with his cherry complexion was immense, and the man's hand moved to cover a large area of his face, in addition to the insipid cobalt muffler that obscured the lower half of his flustered expression. His accomplices snickered and smirked at the sturdy blue male until Miku pursed her lips and stared at the two men with eyes as hard as steel. I've never seen Miku like this before, and as terrifying as it is, I was quite excited to see such a different, intense side of her. I felt as if I could take her a bit more seriously.

"Well, Rin. I see it's getting a bit late, don't you think? Maybe you can stay at my house for tonight. It's not far from here." Miku offered, completely and utterly ignoring the others.

The man in blue frowned, hesitating for a moment, his furrowed eyebrows the only visible facial feature. His perplexed face could possibly have meant that he was pondering whether it was all right for his self-importance to be hurt for the mere accusation of eavesdropping in two women's conversation. Over a short interval of deep thought, he must've decided to throw away his masculine pride for a minute, speaking in a clear, slightly wavering voice, "Erm, Hatsune-san…Isn't Megurine-san occupying your couch already?"

Before I could intervene and fulfill his tactless nightmare by destroying his pride, the quick jolt of Miku's head caused me to jerk towards her with an alarmed face. Relieved to see her unharmed or unhurt, I swallowed down a lump of worry, taken aback at her mystified face. Miku's small fist was clenched tightly at her lips, which was a thin line forming a tightened pout. It resembled the face of anxiety the blue clothed man had previously. "You're right…" She said dejectedly. "I must apologize, Rin. I guess I can't take you to my apartment. I'm sorry."

I raised an amused brow when Miku had bowed, taking a swift moment to reassure her that my situation was secured with plans for me to just walk back to my own apartment room before turning back towards the three men, strictly looking at the taller men, and trying to ignore the shorter male. The tallest of the three, who was known as the stunning purple samurai I had seen earlier today, smirked, his eyes glinting sharply as he placed a large hand onto the others' shoulder. "Hey now, let's not be rude to the ladies." He said, his deep voice reverberating loudly. "I'm Kamui Gakupo. It's an honor to meet the infamous model, Hatsune Miku and her companion, Kagamine Rin, is it?" Gakupo moved towards me, his taller, muscular body towering over my own smaller figure. His chin jutted out in a confident manner, yet seemed a bit intimidating seeing the massive difference in our builds.

I tensed at the sound of my full name and ignored the somewhat daunting body language, however not as astounded as I should've been. There is no surprise when I expected him to know my name at the least. I tried to avoid eye contact with the other young man, but I couldn't help but glance at him when Gakupo had spoken my name. His eyes stared back, the clear cerulean orbs swirling with a mix of emotions. After a moment of eye contact, I turned back towards the newly acquainted Gakupo and nodded, speaking with a soft voice, "Yes, you're correct. Nice to meet you."

The blue-haired male who was supposedly familiar with Miku began to converse after his cohort began, introducing himself as Shion Kaito. He nodded towards the shorter blond beside him and flashed a bold smile, "He has said a lot of good things about you, and I think I can agree with him." I could feel Miku's stare of expectance burning into the side of my head while I processed his sentence.

I disregarded Kaito's flirtatious attempts and Miku's anticipating look while sending another sharp glimpse towards the last fidgeting male who Kaito had mentioned. However, despite my harsh glance I was quietly happy about how he would mention me in conversations with his friends and an added bonus when most of them are possibly compliments. I then bowed to Kaito after mumbling a, "Please take care of me," And continued to wait for the last introduction to conclude.

"Erm, should I even…?" The boy mumbled his feet shifting against the stone. I stared at him in wonder, as this behavior was, in this case, rare. I remembered the days where there was no shyness in his gaze, only a fiery sting as he mercilessly attacked with his charisma. There was no menace in Miku's or my own composed presence, and the two other men seemed too polite to be intimidating. I presented him with a look of confusion with a simple twitch of a few facial muscles and gave his violet-haired companion a face filled with uncertainty and silently begged for any hidden explanation.

Gakupo responded with an amused smirk, placing a large hand on the blond-haired boy's crown and ruffling the messy strands. "Now go on, it's respectful." The sight seemed to resemble a fatherly figure coaxing a naughty son to apologize. His head lowered in embarrassment while Gakupo stared him down with merciless eyes, practically forcing him to speak with a mere gaze.

"Fine." He sighed, submitting to Gakupo's insensitive look. With a small jerk of his hands, the male posed in a confident matter, displaying and confirming that the spunk he had in the past had never disappeared. "As you girls know, my name is Kagamine Len! Once again, nice to meet you!" He said dragging out the 'you' for a tad too long.

Nevertheless, I grinned, proud that he managed to keep his uncontrollable liveliness over the years. The bold image in my head, however, crumbled when Len began sheepishly rubbing his nape. His discomfited eyes began to wander over the scenery, skimming over my stature and moving to an inanimate object in the background. "Erm, Rin-chan…" Len murmured. "You…you live over there, right?" His thin arm reached out south, pointing in the direction where my previous house was located and gawked at my face in bewilderment when he caught me chuckle.

I understood that he was trying to offer to bring me to my home as close as it was, however since I had moved away from our past playground, I lived further from the Shibuya area despite still being in Tokyo. "Since high school ended, I moved away and towards the southeast. Did you know that, Len-kun?" I spoke, a slight challenge hidden beneath the soft tenor.

Unexpectedly so, Len flinched, mumbling faltering stutters as his hand moved towards the back of his skull and began messing with his stubby ponytail. "Well," He stopped, dropping his hand with a dull thud. Len's wild grin was absolute. "That's perfect! I live close by, so why don't I drive you over there? It'll be fun—just like old times, right?"

A small pocket of air made its way down my esophagus as a rigid gulp when hearing his words. The roles swapped, him being the uneasy one now the challenger. In this unfortunate case, I was the troubled. "Now don't get ahead of yourself Len," At my ankles was the soft tap of Miku's violet flat, prodding me to discontinue. "I'm a fully developed woman; I should be able to walk home alone during the evening times."

Len snickered, "Ha. I can tell you're developed." I stood in vexation as he teased me, not doubting that my face had reddened a bit. "But that's not the point—better safe than sorry, yes? Then I'd rather you be with me than getting kidnapped in the streets." Before I was able to interject, he persisted, "Still, why are you even arguing? Is it not enough to talk to your childhood friend—heck, two of them?"

I bit my lip at that point. My mind rejected the fact that it was better to be cautious and go with Len, and due to my secured distance between men, it was more of my feminine pride just forcing me to speak. "However—"

"Well Rin," Kaito interrupted hooking an arm around Len's shoulders as he humorously smirked with mischievous eyes. "If you didn't know Len—"

"Jesus you're gonna tell her that? But it's just—" Kaito's pale sleeve muffled Len's panicked wail, and despite his attempts to prevent acuity, Miku and I were able to distinguish the stifled words.

"Something Len doesn't like to talk about much. Rin, be warned, Len is one who steals young women's purity!" Kaito exclaimed, drastically stretching out his free hand to emphasize his statement.

My bothered expression returned with more feelings of anxiousness, and if close to me, one could probably notice the tense feeling in the surrounding air. I sent a glare towards the struggling Len, besieged in not only Kaito's grip, but my harsh stare as well. "Len is this…is this true?" I whispered, slightly pained regardless of my lighthearted yet hurt demeanor.

Pulling himself out of Kaito's grip, Len waved his arms around in reassurance as he stammered nonsense that I recognized was a mess of unperceivable and fumbled words. He managed to restrain his momentum with deep breaths after quietly moving away from the group with his palm to his forehead. Even in the faint lighting, anyone could tell that Len was blushing, and it made me more irritated to see him flustered rather than his normal cheeky self during his previous challenges. After a grunt of unhappiness, he turned back, now facing only the displeasure filled face of Miku, and the extremely annoyed me. However, just staring at Len made me realize that not only was he a different man, but he had grown during his high school years to an extent where he began to pay heed towards other people's reactions and emotions.

Len lifted his head revealing his reddened face. "Uh, well, it's not like it's like that. Erm, stealing purity, in this case, is equal to theft of first kisses…"

Hearing those words lifted a weight off my shoulders and I was quite happy to be reassured that Len wasn't doing that, and after standing in the packed streets for a few moments, I decided that it was alright for Len to take me home despite having an unknown personality or, if I may say, motive. Prior to a couple of chuckles, I replied with a pleased voice, "That's alright. I'll go with you."

Len froze, every muscle in his body freezing excluding his facial features, which shifted into a cheerful face with a smile so bright one can consider it already daytime when first laying eyes on it. "Really? Sweet, I'll go get the car."

As Len ran off to retrieve his vehicle, the rest of the group began in idle chat, conversing about the latest trends and popular social media. It didn't take long until Len returned with his car parked, a short distance away the current location, and both of us left with brief farewells. The time spent walking to his car was rather awkward, and even more so on the road. Before long, Len and I arrived at my apartment without a peep and I proceeded to walk away, silent.

A sudden tug at my sleeve caused me to stop, and looking back, I saw Len with a hesitant face, his arm behind his back holding something vivid that kept popped in and out of my view. With a twisted grin, I asked, "Yes?"

Len released what I heard was a mortified grunt as he fully revealed the item in his hidden arm. Hanging limp in his palm was a large silk cloth; its pure white color appeared bright in the faint-lighted dusk. I stared at the square of fabric, confused by this gesture of generosity since I didn't need a cloth. Before I had the need to ask, Len began to explain to me his reasoning after clearing his throat. "Miku and I planned to give you things before middle school ended so you can remember us, but I never really got to giving this to you…Uh, did Miku give you your handkerchief to go with the ribbon?" Taking a quick second to see my head nod in agreement, Len continued, "Well did she explain to you why we gave you white things—oh wait, never mind. I see by your expression that you don't know. Figures, Miku was never a very good explainer anyways—um, to cut a long story short, we thought of you as—well—innocent, pure, clean and any other synonyms like that. So white was a great color to represent you even though your favorite color is orange and…ah…"

He trailed off after a ramble of explanations that, honestly, made me a bit more confused than before. Regardless of my puzzlement, I gave him a jovial smile and accepted the ribbon, taking a moment to dig into my purse for the matching handkerchief and thanked Len for the ride.

After a few nods of satisfaction, Len waved a sweet goodbye and slowly rode his car out of the driveway. My hand swayed as a small parting sign and quickly hopped up the stairs while replaying the whole day in my mind. It wasn't as boring as I planned it to be, and my schedule for the day was to stay home and do nothing. I met new people, which is always good especially for the slightly antisocial me, and reminisced a bit with some friends. It was an interesting day, if not unusual.

During the time I ate a small portion of the hotpot leftovers, realization hit me like a speeding truck causing the stock of the sukiyaki to spill on my monochrome tights. Roughly patting a napkin over the stain, I grew aware of the significant detail I missed before. The apartment building was only about twenty minutes, give or take, from Shibuya walking. If I could walk from here to the crossroads in only twenty minutes, then if Len was telling the truth about his house's location being near mine, he wouldn't need a car since it'd take about the same time. Then why?

"Agh! You know I can't get here fast enough!"

By now, I ignored my half-filled bowl of dinner. Len was too kind. Is too kind. I can't repay him when he did the deed as a lie; I wasn't even supposed to figure this out. So how am I going to…?

"I'm home." I called out to the house, smirking sadly after hearing my voice echo through the empty halls.

I scratched at my ruffled blond lump of locks and forcefully yanked my small ponytail out of my hair, making my way through the Japanese-styled house whose blueprints still baffled me. The only way I actually memorized was the path to my room, which wasn't much but a small bed in the heart of wide space. The cushioned blanket softened the harsh contact with the floor as I lay on my stomach, checking my unread messages while unexpectedly being dragged into sleep and waking up all the same. With a surprised raise of an eyebrow, I read the most recent text with interest.

"Dude, you didn't have to do that." Said a disregarded text Kaito sent before, given that he sent it to me during the ride with Rin.

I smirked drowsily as my mind slipped, again, into slumber until I stopped myself, as I haven't finished my nighttime routine. I slowly sent a memo saying, "Eh. I'm fine. Tired, but I'll live I guess. I mean, so what if Rin lives an hour away from my house? I'll do it again anytime."

Giving the text a few minutes to send and Kaito less time to reply the ring of the phone was enough to rattle me awake.

As the words flashed on the screen, I could almost feel the worry in Kaito's words. "But Len, seriously you need rest. You remember the last time you didn't sleep?"

"Oh don't even remind me, for me too, you know—but fine, fine Mom I'll sleep. Night." I replied with a snort filled with laugher.

I forced myself to finish my evening customs successfully and after finishing, I practically fell into my bed with a loud and painful thump. With the image of Rin's cheerful smile of acceptance, I fell into a deep sleep.

A/N If you didn't realize it, the last section was Len's point of view, and I think I might just stick with only that one as Len's since this is supposed to be just Rin's POV. Again, thanks for the support and please do continue reading in the future!