Authors note: So I already broke my own rule of keeping this one in Shu's perspective. But I felt that it would be more enjoyable for readers as well as easier for me to describe things if I used a third person point of view for intense scenes. Thanks for understanding.
"Shu, where do you keep disappearing to everyday?" Reiji questioned the moment I walked up to the limousine after school that morning.
"None of your damn business," I muttered irritatedly. He scoffed and continued, "Perhaps someone will have teach you a lesson in proper etiquette."
I smirked and jabbed, "Certainly not you, then?"
He scowled before grunting out, "Attempting to talk to you is such a waste of time."
"Then don't," I said, getting in the final word in while the others scrambled into the vehicle.
I had just bent down to get in when all of a sudden, Laito jeered, "Oh, what's this?"
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye to see he had picked up an envelope off the ground with my name on it.
He opens it up before I have the chance to say anything and enthusiastically reads it out loud while blushing.
"Shu-san, please meet me in the music room tomorrow at lunch. -Jisatsu Shoujo."
"What could this possibly mean? A confession perhaps?" He inquires in his over the top typical flirty demeanor. I snatch the letter from him and he goes, "So you're going right?"
"No," I answered quickly. I don't know what that girl is thinking but I can't keep doing things at her pace. It's just too strange
"Awww but the young miss will be waiting for you. Should I go instead?" He asked with a smirk.
I glared at him, knowing this was his way of testing me. He grinned and looked at Ayato and asked, "What do you think, Ayato? Should we go visit this human girl and see what she's like? I wonder what flavor she'll be..."
Ayato chuckled and said, "Perhaps she might even put chichinashi to shame!"
"I wanna go too!" Kanato chimed in with a sinister menacing grin. With a heavy sigh I grunted lowly, "Don't."
Laito laughed cynically before commenting, "Shu doesn't normally care what we do. This one must be special~. Have you tasted her yet?"
"Shut up, you're so noisy," I mumbled before glancing out the window before saying very quietly, "I'll go deal with this myself."
Laito opened his mouth in fake awe before exchanging glances with Ayato and Kanato and winking.
"You're going to "deal with" her, huh?" he snickered while raising his eyebrows. I was already facepalming by this point in time but his voice was starting to give me a headache. I closed my eyes, signalling that I was already done with this conversation.
The triplets were easily distracted enough that they begun picking on Yui instead. I had already started playing my music, inwardly sulking because of that letter. That was a very foolish thing for her to do...
~~~
No one's perspective
---
Out of a quiet and unintentional sense of responsibility, Shu found himself shadowing the hallway surrounding the music room door. He sighed in exhaustion, wondering to himself what he was even doing.
He kept an eye out, ensuring that his brothers wouldn't do something extremely foolish which would draw unneccesary attention towards him. He moved across the hall and was about to open the door when he heard voices still inside. It was still early before the lunch bell, he thought to himself as he was about to turn and go wait somewhere else. He paused, however, when he heard a teacher raise their voice.
"This is what happens when you skip practice for a week, Shizumi-san. Your intonation is all over the place. It's like you're not even trying to sound good anymore. Your next performance is in two weeks and if you don't get your act together, everyone who has ever helped you will be disappointed. Are you even trying?"
The person being lectured didn't say anything, earning an enormous sigh from the teacher as they continued to say, "Hmph, well we are out of time now. Just keep practicing at home and during breaks. I don't want to see this kind of result again."
There was the the sound of things being jumbled around before the door started to slide open. Shu dodged being seen by hiding just around the corner. He peeked to see if the student being lectured was going to come out, but only the teacher disappeared out the door. Shu waited several minutes before approaching it, finally resolving that the student inside must have been the very girl he was with before.
As he approached the door, he could her voice softly singing quietly to herself. The melody was indeed, "Scarborough fair" but the voice singing it was undoubtedly familiar. He thought he had heard the teacher say the name "Shizumi-san" earlier. Then does that mean it was the same Ren Shizumi who was on all the top rankings in music?
Shu entered the room quietly, as to not interrupt her from her singing while her back was turned away from him. Her voice was so gentle, yet filled with melancholy while she gazed distantly out the window. Shu slinked onto the floor behind the piano, making a little bit of noise, causing the girl to turn around and face him.
She gave him an apathetic smile before muttering quietly, "Thanks for coming."
"Tch," Shu sucked in his teeth in response before smirking and saying, "That was a very sneaky of getting my attention, sneaking an envelope in my pocket like that. It almost drew the wrong kind of attention, or was that your end goal?"
She laughed sarcastically, "I guess I just thought maybe I should explain more of what I asked of you before."
Shu stayed silent as he stared at her with a vacant expression. She took it as a sign to continue and explained, "When I said I want you to hurt me, it probably sounded weird but the thing is, I don't really understand human connection. I'm not allowed to do anything except perform music. Friendships and dating, they're things I've only read about in books and from what I can see, they come with pain. Since I know better than to hope for things like love, I want to experience the pain that comes with it."
"I've been numb for so long. I never cared about meeting expectations or doing well. I just liked music. I stopped speaking selectively to a lot of people when my family started making a big deal out of my voice. They even encouraged me not to speak because it might damage my ability. Singing became the only way I could express my feelings and playing music was an escape."
Her facial expression was very serious as she picked up the violin from the corner and began tuning it, commenting, "You know, I don't just know how to sing and play piano. Those are the things I excelled most in which is why I win so many competitions. But I can actually play the violin a little as well."
Shu inhaled and murmured, "Why are you telling me all this? I didn't ask for your life story."
She laughed and replied genuinely, "Just wanted to add a little context. And why I'm telling you is precisely because I know you won't care. You won't feel attached to me when I die."
"So weird," Shu said while shaking his head.
"You stopped me from dying and it made me realize there are things I'd like to experience before I try a second time."
"So you still plan to kill yourself?"
"Yeah, I do. I'm not really the type to do things half heartedly. But when I go, I at least want to have some experiences. But I'm not naive enough to think those experiences will save me. I mean, as of now, I'm still a virg-" she was saying when suddenly a string snapped on the violin. Her face was shocked for a second before a thin red line formed across her left cheek.
"Ow," she laughed as she raised her hand to catch the blood that drizzled out. Shu eye's narrowed suspiciously as he smiled and cooed, "Well now, that's just shameless."
He sluggishly stood onto his feet and walked towards her, placing a hand beneath her chin and inspecting the wound up close. He inhaled the scent of blood before whispering, "You're a glutton for punishment, aren't you?"
Her eyes widened in surprise, but there wasn't any fear in her expresion as she quietly observed his actions. Breathing in the scent of blood, he brought her face towards his mouth and slowly ran his tongue along her wound. She gasped quietly, closing her eyes at the stinging sensation. He moaned subtly, taking in the quality and flavor her blood before pulling away in a huffy manner.
"More," he emphasized with a glazed expression before he grabbed her wrist and hissed, "You expect people to let you down and hurt you. That may be realistic but it's also quite boorish. Be more human and cry when you don't get things you want, "before biting into her wrist and drinking her blood in pleasurable gulps.
She gasped at the sudden pain and tried to pull her wrist away but Shu wouldn't let go just yet. When he was finally satisfied, he glanced up at her, silently hoping to see a fearful look on her face. But what he got instead made him tense up slightly.
Her face was weary from the sudden blood loss, but she wore a somewhat cynical smile as she murmured, "Are you going kill me, vampire-san?"
Shu didn't really know what to say to that response. Usually, girls scream or cry whenever he did this sort of thing. 'Was she a masochist or something?' he thought to himself. Shaking his head, he stated, "You must be some sort of perverted woman to enjoy this. Have I awakened something impure in you? This is the kind of thing that will happen if you offer yourself up to me. I won't come looking for you anymore."
He stood up and stared down at her hollowly before he shoved out of the room. Watching him leave, Ren reached out and grabbed her sweater and covered her wrist before whispering in a pleasantly dizzy state, "Wow..."