Love Is Yellow

chapter three - Nero

I walked the empty halls, the bell had rung two minutes ago and I was lost.

Turning the corner, I saw Neru. Happy to see a familiar face, I rushed to her, completely forgetting about this morning's episode.

"Neru!"

She looked up, slightly shocked, her eye rims were red, and she had a trail of tears down her cheeks. I had never seen her cry before, I was worried about what had happened... Maybe the realization that she was all alone finally hit her.

"What do you want?" She sounded faintly hoarse.

"Uh... I'm lost. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Where are you headed?"

"The choir room, are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine, gosh! The choir room is just down that hall, it's the door that says 'Choir' you can't miss it."

"Okay... Thanks... Why aren't you in class?"

"I just didn't feel like going okay? Now stop pestering me!"

"You need to get to class Neru, where is your class?"

"If you must know, I'm in choir, same as you. The stupid teacher screwed up and put me in the freshman class."

"Cool, let's go."

"I don't feel like it."

"Too bad, you need to go to class."

"Ugh, whatever. Let's go, the choir teacher doesn't like it when you're tardy."

I nodded, and followed her to the choir room, she opened the door and walked right in. I went in after her, a little less sure of myself.

"Neru? You're late."

"Yep."

Everyone in the room was staring at us.

"Would you mind telling me why?"

"Would you mind telling me why I'm in a class full of freshman?"

"I think that we should talk about that later, why don't you take your usual seat?"

She walked over to the side with the teacher's desk, and sat on the first row, last seat.

"And who are you?" The teacher asked, turning to me for the first time.

"Akita Nero," Neru answered for me, "he's my younger brother. He got lost in the halls - that's why he's late."

"Well Nero, just make sure it doesn't happen again, okay?"

"Okay."

"There's a seat in between Clear and Len, why don't you sit there?"

I nodded, and sat in the second row, next in between Clear and Len.

"Hey bud," Clear said.

"Hi, it's been awhile Clear, how are things going with Wotamin?"

"Great, they're great."

"Cool!"

"Okay class, since it's the first day, let's sing some karaoke! What song should we sing?"

"Bad Apple," Neru said before anyone else could suggest a song.

"Bad Apple it is then!" The teacher pulled up a karaoke version of Bad Apple, and everyone began to sing.

A few voices stuck out: Miku's, trying to be the loudest; Zatsune's, trying to drown out Miku's; and Neru's, singing her heart out. Sure, everyone else sounded good, but no one took the song to heart like Neru did. Her voice soared, high and low, guiding those who didn't know the song as well. It always surprised me when I heard her sing, her voice ranged from high to low, she mainly preferred low though. She came alive when she sang, and that's what really shocked me - she never so much as looked like she cared about anything in front of me before (unless she was obviously angry...) and here she was showing everyone in this room her true self. It was something that was so rare, I didn't know whether to sing along or to just listen to her. Blocking out everyone was easy now, as much as it sounded great, the real singer of this song was my sister, no one else could compare. Not Miku, not Zatsune, Rin, Luka, or Gumi - Neru was in a class of all her own.

As the song came to a close, I had to wonder, 'why have I never seen her this way before? Why does she close herself to me, her brother!'

The teacher smiled at her and then spoke to the class, "Well now that I know what you guys are capable of, I'm going to go through some songs I have and pick some out for the concert in a few months. If you guys have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them, but other then that, you have the rest of the period to talk amongst yourselves."

Clear walked over to Wotamin, and they started talking happily. I tried to ignore the pang in my chest as I remembered that the two of them were dating - I had a crush on Wotamin, but Clear was my best friend, one I've had since childhood, so I wouldn't dare try to take Wotamin away from him.

"Hey," a voice said, pulling me out of my miserable thoughts.

I turned to see who had said it, it was Kagamine Len, the guy that Neru clearly had a crush on.

"Hi?"

"You're Akita Nero, right?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Your sister is Akita Neru?"

"Last time I checked."

"Is this her phone? Someone told me it belonged to Akita Neru, she must have dropped it."

He pulled out a yellow clamshell phone, one that was identical to my sister's.

"It looks like hers, but she wouldn't lose her phone like that, it means everything to her."

"She kind of left in a hurry, maybe she didn't realize."

"Maybe, I could return it to her if you want."

"It's okay, I can do it myself... She has a nice voice, does she always sound like that?"

"I don't hear her sing much, so I don't know."

"Oh... Well, she sounds really nice."

"Yeah, I guess."

"You guess? She was amazing with Bad Apple! I'm sure that her and Rin would make a great duet."

"She doesn't sing duets a lot... only with Haku, and on the rare occasion, Zatsune."

"I was told that she was part of that group..."

"Yeah, well, they aren't really close to her, she was only there cause of Haku."

"I didn't know that..."

"Yup, she would have followed Haku anywhere, she was her only friend. But Haku graduated last year, so now she's all alone, except for Zatsune and her crowd."

"So you don't think she'll leave?"

"Not unless someone gives her a reason to."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"What do you think it's supposed to mean?"

"I don't know... But I'm going to go give her her phone!"

He got up, and walked over to her.

***

Hey guys, Kenshi here! One quick note on the song: ik that Neru's voice was originally a high Miku, but personally I see her more as a low Miku (somewhere in between Miku and Haku). How do you guys like Neru's voice? High? Low? Miku? Rin? Comment! :)