''I'll be home late today...I have a project to work on. You'll be okay, right?''

''I'll be fine, Mikuo,'' Miku swallowed. ''Don't worry about me. I can make my own dinner.''

''Okay. If you say so. But if you're hungry I left some leeks in the fridge. Bye.''

And the line was cut. Miku sighed, holding out her phone and staring at the screen. So Mikuo would be coming home late tonight.

She had hoped that Mikuo's presence in the house might prevent Len from doing...anything. But without Mikuo, Miku felt...vulnerable. She was frightened to be in the same vicinity as Len, alone.

Who knows what else he might do?

Though she hoped he wouldn't be that cruel to her. He didn't apologise to her, but he had asked if he could talk to her, though she didn't reply to his messages - that probably meant something, right?

Or she was just hoping too much again, for something that was impossible. How could she still want Len, even after all that happened?

I'm a masochist.

She closed her book and set down her phone on the table. ''Business relationship. Teacher to student. Nothing more,'' she repeated to herself. ''Len's nothing but a classmate to me.''

Even though, after all that has happened, I can't forget or let go of the first time. It was perfect. Sweet. And Len...

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Len knocked on the door, hesitant. Would she open it for him, or would she change her mind about letting him into her house? He half expected the latter.

I'm not going to do anything sexually related. At all. Nothing.

The door opened, showing Miku, with her long teal hair draping over her porcelain shoulders, her forest-green eyes carefully neutral. ''Len.''

Her voice was even, neutral too, like the expression on her face. Len supposed that was the best he could hope for, given the circumstances. I can't believe she actually opened the door.

''Can I come in?'' he asked cautiously. She nodded, stepping aside, and he walked into the house, looking around.

It was spacious, like his house - well, that was expected. They were neighbours, after all. Though the house had vases full of flowers and other feminine decorations, the whole place seemed to have a decidedly masculine touch - Mikuo's influence, no doubt.

''You don't mind if we study in the living room, do you?'' Miku asked, closing the door behind him. ''I think that it would be better to study here than...in my room or anything...'' her voice trailed off as she averted her gaze, eyes fixed to the ground.

Len just stared at her as the awkward silence between them thickened. Finally, he nodded, not knowing what else to say. Miku sighed, and he cringed a little at the relief in her tone.

Did he really scar her so badly? The guilt intensified, gnawing at him, and he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ignore it. I know I'm wrong, and I'm trying to find a way to make it up to her. Stop making me feel bad.

First sign of madness, talking to yourself.

''Len? Are you okay? You look like you're in some kind of pain,'' Miku's voice penetrated his thoughts, and Len's eyes snapped open.

''I'm fine,'' he smiled at her, wincing. ''Anyway, it's not important. We should start work...'' his eyes settled upon her green bag. ''Let's take a look at your maths test paper, shall we?''

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''No, you forgot to subtract that equation,'' Len's voice was gentle, patient, even though she had made the same error three times before, previously. Miku flushed, furiously rubbing out her workings with her eraser.

Why is he being so nice? If I had done this last week, he would've been yelling his head off.

''So I lost this mark through yet another careless mistake,'' she mumbled, disgruntled. Ugh. There were so many careless mistakes scattered throughout the whole paper, it made her heart hurt.

''Don't be so hard on yourself,'' Len murmured, voice smooth and sensuous as usual. ''Just take it as a learning experience. Failure is the mother of success, and all that.''

''That's easy for you to say,'' Miku tried to focus on her paper, avoiding his stare. ''You've always scored well for everything. You've never scored less than full marks for anything in your whole life, haven't you?''

He laughed, a rich, vibrant, seductive sound. ''That's not true,'' he admitted freely. ''Back in middle school, I wasn't anywhere near as how hardworking I am now. I used to fail everything. Maths, even,'' he added at the look of disbelief on Miku's face. ''I was last in class, and my teacher had to call up my parents for...a little talk about my academic grades.''

''I never knew,'' Miku frowned. ''Why didn't any teacher ever comment on your failures?''

''Oh, they did. They were all threatening to prevent me from graduating,'' Len smirked, his full lips tilting upwards, ''but sadly for them, I decided to actually study for the finals during graduating year and topped the class. So I passed. And now, here I am.'' He tutted. ''I think that they were actually disappointed they didn't get to hold me back from graduation.''

''It's still really unbelievable,'' Miku giggled. To think that Len Kagamine, top honours student, in the best class of their year, was so against studying while in middle school.

''Well, it's true. You can ask Rin if you like - she'd give you a much more embarrassing version of what I just told you,'' Len rolled his cerulean blue eyes. ''Of course, she would.''

''But why did you suddenly decide to study for the finals? Because you wanted to graduate?''

''Frankly, no. I couldn't have cared less about that - it's just that, well, the teachers never expected me to pass the exams. So I decided to shock the whole lot of them. I enjoy giving people something unexpected, something they would never expect from me,'' his voice dropped to a low, suggestive whisper.

Miku blinked, wondering if she had imagined the sudden heat in those eyes, but before she could take a closer look the emotion had disappeared, his eyes once again becoming warm and friendly. Friends. That's all we are. That's right. Nothing more than that.

Len pushed his spectacles further up his nose, eyeing her test papers with suspicion. ''Please tell me there's nothing else.''

''Well...actually, there's this question too, and I don't think it's carelessness for once...''

Len let out an audible groan.