~Rin's POV~
Len and I were waiting outside Don's office with Sakine. She was very worried about Meiko, who was inside, probably getting lectured. I wanted to comfort her, but Len seemed pretty depressed himself so he wouldn't be able to help me. I'm not very good at comforting people.
She finally exited the office, and the three of us stood up. "Well? He's not kicking you out of the game, is he?" Sakine asked.
Meiko shook her head. "No, but they're cutting a lot of my songs... including my duet with Kaito..."
I gasped. "They can't do that! It's not fair!"
"They can do whatever Miku tells them they can do," she smiled weakly.
Next to me, Len sighed. "I can't believe I was so stupid. I should have never given in to her briberies."
"Don't worry, Len," Sakine put her hand on his shoulder and smiled. "I'm sure someday you'll find someone who really loves you for you."
Len looked up at her. "You really think so?"
"You don't need Miku anyways. She's a jerk," I added.
Meiko nodded. "I went through some pretty jerky guys before I met Kaito, so don't give up!"
By the time we got back to the studio, Luka had finished filming her song and everyone was wrapping it up for the day. Len saw Miku talking to Kaito and sighed. "Still not over it?" I asked.
"No," he admitted. "Even if she was lying to me, I still had some genuinely good times with her. I'm kind of sad it's over."
"You wouldn't want to stay with her even if you knew she was lying!"
He shrugged. "Maybe I would. It's not like I have any better."
"Len, no," I turned to him. "You don't need her. You never did. You have plenty of people who actually love you. Like me."
He looked at me. "But you always listened to her too."
"Because she always threatened my career and I didn't want to leave you here all alone with her."
"Rin..." his eyes widened. "I had no idea."
I hugged him. "Of course you didn't. You're such an idiot."
"Let's go home," he chuckled.
Miku limped over to us. "Len! Oh my gosh, I've been looking all over for you!" She leaned against his shoulder. "Where have you been? I need you to carry me to the car~"
"We were with Sakine, waiting for Meiko," the way he looked at her was different than usual. His eyes weren't yearning to please her.
"Well, I can't walk. So you have to carry me to the car." She pressed up against him, smirking.
I stepped forward. "He doesn't have to do anything."
"And you don't get to speak for him," she glared at me before wrapping her arms around his neck, her face close. "You love me, don't you?"
Len gently pried her arms off of him. "Sorry, Miku, but I've learned from my mistakes. Come on, Rin."
I felt like a million bucks when I grabbed his hand and we walked away from Miku, who was gaping in surprise. I don't think I'll ever forget it.
~Haku's POV~
"Hey, did you see what happened yesterday?" Neru shoved her phone in my face and I played the video. In it, Miku was talking to Len, and then Rin said something and then twins completely ditched her. I gasped. "I know, right? I can't believe the other Cryptonloids don't like her."
"She's so nice! Maybe they've all ganged up against her?" I theorized.
"But Luka hangs out with us," Neru scrunched her eyebrows together. "I know she doesn't like Miku, but she's nice to us."
I pressed the button for the elevator. "Then maybe the rumors are true. Maybe Miku really is mean."
It seemed that by now, pretty much everyone had experienced Miku's selfishness except us. It was hard for us to believe, Neru and I had looked up to her forever. Maybe it wasn't that there wasn't evidence, but rather that we were unwilling to see her that way.
We went up to the studio and over to our usual spot by the wall. Luka was already there, and she smiled. "Morning."
Neru and I exchanged a glance, not sure if we should respond. Was she nice? Was she not?
Miku walked over. "Luka, get changed. We're filming our song with Kaito now, but don't think that means I'll let you have him."
"Uh, he's still married," Luka reminded her.
Miku scoffed. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." Then she turned to us, smiling widely. "I don't think I've been properly introduced to you two!"
"O-Oh!" I blushed nervously from the sudden attention. "Well, I'm H-Haku, and this is Neru!"
"It's nice to meet you," she beamed, shaking both our hands before walking away.
Neru gasped. "I'm never washing this hand again!"
Luka's look was not exactly friendly just then, perhaps because she didn't like Miku! But the teal-haired girl had been perfectly nice to us, so maybe she wasn't the one at fault here? I was getting a headache trying to figure it all out.
"Good morning, everyone!" Teto smiled at us as she walked over. "What's going on?"
"Miku... she talked to us!" Neru squealed.
Teto and Luka shared a glance. Was everyone against her?
Miku, Luka and Kaito got ready to perform a song, but all three of them looked like there was somewhere else they would rather be. When they started dancing around the stage, we discovered the song was about a love triangle, Kaito liking both of the girls. "That's not really fair," Rin commented. "You should be singing with Kaito."
Teto nodded in agreement. "Miku shouldn't have faked hurting her knee to get you in trouble, Meiko."
Faked? Miku? I glanced at her, and she was twirling around the stage effortlessly, not limping at all.
But... Meiko had tripped her! Miku had said so herself!
A bit later, Rin was getting ready to film a song. "Oh, Sakine, I grabbed the wrong headband! Could you please go to the dressing room and get the right one for me?"
"I'll get it!" I spoke up. "And Neru will come with me too." I grabbed Rin's headband and we scrambled.
As I fished around for Rin's bow, Neru sighed. "I'm so confused. I can't figure out who's at fault."
"Me either!" I agreed, swapping the headbands. "I can't decide if Miku is really that bad or if everyone else just doesn't like her."
"I really don't know why nobody likes me." We turned and there she was, standing in the door. "I mean, what did I ever do to them? Meiko kicked me, Len broke up with me, and Luka is just rude."
"Yeah, I don't really understand that either," I went along, temporarily forgetting how Miku had that outburst a few days back.
She took a step closer to us. "But... you guys like me, don't you?"
Neru nodded. "We're your biggest fans!"
She put her arms around us. "Then you guys can be my friends. Well, if you want... but I understand if you wanna be like everyone else."
I waved my hands. "No, no, that sounds great! We would love to be your friends!"
"Good!" She smiled. "Then why don't we play a prank on Rin? We can put glue on her headband, so when she tries to take it off it'll be stuck to her hair!"
I fidgeted around nervously. "Uh... but that may cause trouble for everyone."
"Come on, you're my friends, aren't you? It won't hurt anybody," she got up and walked to the door. "I expect that Rin's headband will stay on her head when she tries to take it off."
As soon as Miku left, Neru turned to me. "I don't think we should-"
"Me either," I said. We had been best friends for so long, it's like we could hear each other's thoughts. "Nobody else has been particularly mean to us, even if they have been to Miku."
"And we can't afford to get into any trouble. Unlike Meiko, we aren't an essential part of the game, and they could just kick us out." Neru added.
So we brought Rin's headband to her, she recorded her song, and then when she finished she walked over to me and Neru. "Thank you both so much for getting my bow for me!" She slipped off effortlessly, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Miku glare.
"Uhhh, no problem!" I laughed awkwardly.
Miku ran over. "Oh, Neru! Haku! There you are. Want to come eat lunch in my dressing room with me?"
Rin looked up at her. "Why would you want to eat lunch with them?"
"Because they're my friends, silly!" She turned to us. "Come on!"
As soon as we were in her dressing room (which was way fancier than ours, by the way), she glared at us. "Why didn't you do it?"
"W-We thought it was kind of mean," I mumbled. "Rin has always been nice to us."
"I don't have to be your friend, you know," she towered over us. "Any girl would love to hang out with me. You two fakeloids are highly replaceable."
Neither of us dared to speak.
"I'm going to give you one more chance," she said, crossing her arms. "And if you mess this up, it's over."
I'm kinda wanting to ship Len and Sakine now-
This is the 20th chapter and we're at 30,000 omg that's so many x.x there's no way I could have done it without your support! We're almost at 800 reads that's crazy!! The big finale is coming up, so stay tuned~