Reader's P.O.V.

I woke up from a weird dream where I was running from the headless horseman. I wondered what the hell brought that up, but dream discussions usually made me hungry. I hobbled out of my bed and into the bathroom where I washed my face and finished my routine. I went down to the kitchen and made myself a quick and mess-free breakfast. The house was unusually silent, but nothing was really amiss. My aunt probably wanted to go somewhere and so she dragged my uncle out (or vice versa) and Yuuma was probably out on the town with Shion or whatever. Having the house to myself was a rare treat so I snatched up the time to fill the void with a movie, caught up on some weekend homework, and had a small snack.

I was back up in my room where I was texting Kagamine. Just the other day, he promised he'd come pick me up in a few minutes to show me more of his territories and the rest of the base grounds. Most of the forest had other secret areas they used and a few of the members wanted to hang out with me. We'd swapped contacts and I had them under nicknames, even my teachers! It felt a little weird at first, but I was getting situated. Even though I could have had a conversation with the majority of them, I didn't want to bother anyone. If they messaged first, however, then I'd respond.

At least I had a few classes with the gang members (whether they be my teachers or classmates). And since Kagamine turned his act around, he's been nicer to me in class. He's helped out with schoolwork and pulled a couple strings here and there to raise my rare 72 to an 89 on the last test. Gotta give him some props there...

For now, Kagamine and I texted about dumb stuff, sending memes here and there. I laughed silently at Kagamine's message. It was a gif of an animated penguin eating ice-cream with the caption "keep cool, omw".

I sent a simple text back: I'll be waiting at my house

Without so much as a knock, Yuuma walked in and snatched my phone.

"Is it true?" he snarled, scrolling through my messages. I was obviously baffled, crossing my arms in a huff.

"What are you talking about? What are you even doing?"

Yuuma paid me no mind as he kept scrolling. "Little informant sent word that you suddenly seemed closer to Len these past few weeks. This is his number, how the hell are you messaging him? There's no way he'd look your way, so what's going on?"

"Are you saying that I can't make friends? Is it such an absurd thought that people can change? Look at you, Yuuma. You certainly changed albeit not for the best reasons."

"Oh, shut up, [_____]." he growled with such emotion, I was taken aback, "You shouldn't be allowed to talk to people like him."

"What are you talking about? "People like him." Isn't that a little rude?" I had to pretend to not know anything. I knew Kagamine had a gang, but I wasn't sure if Yuuma had any knowledge about that, "He's a pretty okay guy and he's my friend."

He snarled and continued, "You're not his friend, [_____]. Get it through your head that you don't have friends! Especially not anyone like him. He's so much more than what you think he is and calling himself your "friend" is below him; pathetic."

Yuuma clicked the Sleep Mode button and pocketed my phone. I glared at him as I rose from my bed.

"What do you think you're doing?! Hand it back, Yuuma!"

I lurched forward for my phone but he sidestepped out of my way and taunted me by tapping his pocket.

"No way, loser. Mom and Dad aren't going to be home for at least another two hours. I'm taking this for now and making sure you two never have contact again." Yuuma ran out my room, locking the door from the outside. My room was originally not a bedroom; just a storage room where my uncle accidentally installed the lock and handle the other way around and never bothered to fix it.

"Yuuma! This isn't funny! Get me out of here and hand it back!" I pounded on the door. I jimmied the handle, shaking it so hard the whole door rattled, but nothing else could be done. For once, having the lock on the other side terrified me. I was locked in my own room...

Knowing him, Yuuma had already left the house.

Len's P.O.V.

I walked down the block to Yuuma's house when I got a message. I pulled it out from my pocket to see it was from from [_____].

[_____]:

You know what, we can't hang. I have too much on my mind and I've been thinking that it's best if we're not friends anymore.

I examined the message, confused that our teen speech wasn't there. To begin with, her typing style changed. We'd only been texting for a while, but I could tell this wasn't her. Capitalization and punctuation was there when we didn't use it... it was our aesthetic. Someone was using her phone, and that was that.

I ran as fast as I could to [_____]'s house. If she was even there... I hoped nothing bad happened to her because I couldn't begin to imagine any other possibility. Who would even target her? Nobody really knew that we were hanging out outside of my gang... something was off.

When I made it to [_____]'s, I knocked loudly on the front door. Not in a menacing way, I just wanted it to be heard in case anyone was in there. I waited for a couple minutes, tried the doorbell a few times, yet there wasn't an answer. I snuck around the house through the side gate and saw someone peeking through the back window. It had to have been [_____]; unmistakably. She was striking to look at.

I searched the ground for a pebble to throw at her window. Once I tossed it, it somehow cracked the window a little. She looked over in my direction, momentarily startled. With a tree beside her window, I motioned to her that I'd climb it. She lifted the window with a small smile that made my heart kinda flip, but her smile suddenly fell.

"Dude, do I have tea to spill. My damn cousin, Yuuma, took my phone. Not only that, but he locked me in my own room!"

I winced, sympathizing with her as I climbed, "Oof. That's rough. Wait, why does it lock from-"

"The outside? My uncle installed it wrong years before I moved in, but it's whatever by this point. Help me get out of here?"

I nodded and steadied myself against the branch. It wasn't the thickest tree, nor was it super close to her window, but I could make do. I'm Len Kagamine.

"You at least got a key for your house?" I asked her. She nodded and pat her pocket.

"All right. I'm going to help you escape through the window. Hold on tight." I warned her as she hung onto my neck. Somehow or other, as I shut the window, my foot slipped and I practically dropped her. She hung onto my neck for a split second before sliding against the tree and inevitably falling.

"Holy shit, are you okay?! Oh God-I'm so sorry [_____]!"

The many attempts to sit up on her own were painful to watch. I closed her window and jumped off from the tree to help her out.

"We're never doing that again." she muttered under her breath. I nodded profusely.

"I'm sorry. Are you okay?"

I checked her to see if she bruised or got cut or scraped, but everything seemed fine from the outer view. [_____] waved her hand about vaguely, "I'm good."

"That's a relief to hear. I'm so sorry, though. I thought I had a better grip on you, the tree, I thought my foot was steady!"

[_____] held her hands up, hovering over my lips. For a fraction of a second, it seemed like she would have touched me to shut me up, but she didn't. As if she were contemplating, hesitating. She merely crossed her arms and turned her back to me, shrugging her shoulder once to motion me to follow.

"Stop fussing, dude. I'm fine. Let's head on out."

B O N U S:

"Dude..."

"What?"

"I could have given you my key to the house so you could open it from inside the house."

"..."

"We're fucking stupid."

"Press F to pay respects to our final brain cells as they are laid to rest."

"F. Press A to pray."

"A. This was still fun though, right?"

"Len, you fucking dropped me."

"Oh right!"