Work Text:
Kashiwagi Yuuko
18 • female • ¥¥¥
Hiiiii! i’m yuuko ✨ thanks for checking me out~ my full price list can be seen by clicking on the yen signs below my name. please make you can afford my services before ordering 💞 gifts appreciated!!
Muu stares down at her phone.
There’s no way. There’s just no way, right? There’s no way this is Yuno, because good things simply don’t happen to people like Kusunoki Muu.
All the similarities are just surface-level, they must be – there are just a lot of them. From what little Muu can see of Kashiwagi Yuuko in her profile picture, consisting of the left half of her face and not much else – there’s that familiar mole, and the same sharp bangs, and the same familiar purple…
Well, but there’s just no way.
This website is one of the first to have popped up when she searched compensated dating, and she wouldn't have gotten that lucky. None of the other sites really had any options that intrigued her, that seemed to be her type, but this one–
Well, maybe Yuuko isn’t her type. Maybe she just reminds her of Yuno – but, to be fair, Muu’s not really sure what the difference would be between those two statements. Yuno is her type. So, then, anyone similar to Yuno...
She doesn’t really know why she’s looking for this at all, really. She’s just lonely. God, she’s lonely – if she were to be wiped off the face of the Earth right now, she’s certain no-one would even notice besides maybe her parents. Her death would only bring goodness to others.
That's nothing short of depressing – it's just so depressing, right? Of course, to make matters worse, Valentine’s day is right around the corner. Muu doesn’t want to be alone then, of all days. She might seriously do something drastic.
If only she wasn’t so pathetic, she’d actually be able to ask someone in person. As it is, however, she’s only just brave enough to sit in her room, tapping the button to message Kashiwagi Yuuko and getting increasingly frustrated every time the stupid website prompts her to create an account beforehand.
Damnit. She’ll just do it later.
On Muu’s next lonely outing, as she skillfully avoids all the girls wandering the mall like hungry wolves by sticking close to the fire exits, she slips inside a plushie store.
It’s embarrassing; she ducks her head as she enters, avoiding eye contact with all the children running around – because it is, after all, a store for children. She only gains the courage to lift her head once she reaches the back wall, because then the only people who'd spot her would be people also in the store, and at that point what are they doing at the devil's sacrament, huh?
One thing catches her eye the moment she raises her gaze; a yellow-pink cat plushie, so ugly and garish and disjointed it kind of makes it cute again, in some weird reverse-psychology kind of way.
It’s something she thinks Yuno would like. Yuuko isn’t her, but, nonetheless…
Muu grabs it off the shelf, hurrying to take a picture before she has to do the walk of shame up to the front desk.
So what if she’s projecting? A gift is a gift.
Kashiki Miu
18 • female • client
No bio yet
Muu looks down blankly at the profile she'd just created.
It's fine. It looks fine. She's just overthinking things, she's sure; she’s certain that plenty of others use fake names, and plenty of others don’t use the biography function, and plenty of others use poorly cropped pictures of their forehead as a profile icon.
Kashiki. It’s a nice surname; really, it is. Its correlation to her ex-inmate has nothing to do with it.
The save button is grey, but she tries to press it, anyway. Please select at least one interest, the website says, in a bright red popup. Interest box cannot be blank.
Muu doesn’t care about anything. Muu isn’t interested in anything. The interest box has to stay empty, because anything else would be a lie; because Muu just doesn’t care.
All she has felt in a long time is empty. She has no interests – certainly not anymore, anyway. Bad things have been happening to her lately. She’s trained herself very well, because anything else would have meant death.
She just wants someone to talk to. Even if that means spending all of her allowance for the month on a fake, temporary girlfriend who looks startlingly similar to the girl who fed her while she was tied up unforgivably in a prison for murder, then – so be it.
She presses the greyed out button to save her profile again. Interest box cannot be blank, the stupid website reminds her, in that stupid red box. Please select at least one interest.
Muu, begrudgingly, presses the Music option. The save button finally goes green.
YUUKO: Heyy! thnx for considering me ✨ let me know what you're interested in, and we can see if we're compatible <3
(This is an automated message.)
YUUKO: You can find my prices in my bio~ tips aren't necessary, but gifts are very welcome! 👀
(This is an automated message.)
Muu’s hands shake. Nausea settles in her gut. It’s a familiar feeling, nerves, something she’s felt almost everyday for the last few months – but that doesn’t make it feel any more pleasant.
She carefully presses a finger against her phone screen.
MIU: h
Damnit! She’s already messed up!
MIU: aahhhsorry i sent that too early i;mmsorry
YUUKO: Hiiii~! miu-chan, right? can i call you that?
Muu nearly throws herself out of her chair.
She hadn’t expected Yuuko to reply so quickly – quite frankly, she hadn’t expected for her to be online. According to her profile, she hasn’t been on the website for a week, at least, and–
Oh, nevermind. At some point between Muu opening up a request and sending that first terrible mistake of a message, a blinking green circle had appeared next to her profile picture.
It’s so much worse performing to an audience. She stares, solemnly, into the framed icon of the left side of Yuuko’s eerily familiar face. The profile picture stares right back.
Muu places her fingers back onto the keyboard before she can think twice.
MIU: miuchan is fine
YUUKO: Cool cool cool! and no worries about the typo~ take your time 💫
MIU: sosorry
YUUKO: I already told you, no worries ✨
YUUKO: This is your first time here, right? ^^ says so on your profile.. let me know if you need extra helpp
MIU: yes sorry
YUUKO: Don't worryyyyyy!
A few moments of radio silence. Muu stares down at her phone screen; and she is, rather suddenly, hit with an overwhelming feeling of anxiety. She feels like she’s going to throw up all over her freshly-cleaned bedsheets.
She curls up a little tighter. Against her better judgement, she types out another response.
MIU: thathank you
Wordlessly, Yuuko hearts her message.
Really, Muu should stop while she’s ahead. She should stop while she can – because, eventually, she’ll be regretting this whole thing, and yet she’d have already paid the fees and handed over the plush toy and wasted all her time on some Yuno-lookalike, just because – what? She misses her ex-inmate? Get real.
Her fingers hover over the big red X in the corner of the screen. It's as if Yuuko reads her mind, though, because not even a second later –
YUUKO: Don't get shy on me now~~~
Muu freezes up. She doesn't want to disappoint Yuuko, but...
Well, she hadn’t expected this to be a two-way conversation. She hasn’t prepared for this to be a two-way conversation. In her mind’s eye, in an ideal world, she would have sent an offer, gotten denied ten days later, and then have still felt lonely but also slightly satisfied with the fact that at least she had tried.
That isn’t how things are looking at all. She has to type out her offer while Yuuko is right there on the other side of the screen; and, surely, she’ll still get rejected, but without any chance of the ten days of preparation leading up to it.
She can’t do this. It’s all horrible.
… Muu’s a sucker, though.
MIU: sorrry (˃̣̣̥ᯅ˂̣̣̥)
Her message stays unread. The green circle of doom next to Kashiwagi’s icon flickers off. Huh. Maybe this Yuuko really is a mind-reader, after all.
Muu grits her teeth together and pushes on.
MIU: mu is new to all this she doesn’r really know how it works bbut you seemed nice and you had good reviews so she thoughtmaybe she’d ask if you wanted to go on a date with her . she can pay ., its’ valentines day soon ? she’;s bought a gift
MIU: **miu
MIU: sorrysorry typo
The blinking green light is back. Muu retreats to the safety of her bedcovers and watches, quietly, sweat trickling down her neck, as Yuuko’s typing bubble appears on the screen; and then it disappears, and then it reappears again, and then she flickers offline before returning just as quickly, and then –
Nearly five minutes have passed by the time Muu finally gets a response.
YUUKO: Sounds goooooodd~~
That’s it?! Muu had busted her ass trying to work through her shame enough to type that, and all she gets back is a sounds good?!
YUUKO: A gift? 👀
How insincere!!
For God’s sake – she should have known. Of course a girl who sells her own company would only be interested in the things she can receive in return. Yuuko doesn’t give a damn about her; she only cares about her bank account.
Muu, begrudgingly, scrolls through her camera roll; her eyes land on the picture of the cat plushie she had taken when she had first bought it. She uploads it into the chat.
Yuuko leaves her on seen.
What is it? What is she doing wrong?! Muu’s trying her hardest here – really, she is! Is it too much to not want to be alone for Valentine’s day? Because, God, she’s so lonely –
YUUKO: Cuteeee ✨
Ah. Okay.
Good.
YUUKO: I had a little peek at your profile~~ you look cute! u dont have anyone for valentine’s? :((
Muu stares at the screen. She’s not even going to grace that message with a response. Shouldn't that be obvious?
Yuuko’s clearly expecting to get a message back, tapping her feet impatiently as she waits for a reply that will never come, but it’s on her for asking such stupid questions.
Of course Muu doesn’t have anyone. She’s pathetic. She’s useless. Everyone hates her. She wouldn’t be ordering a date online from some familiar stranger if they didn’t, now, would she?
Yuuko’s green circle disappears. She’s offline for a minute, and then two, and then three – Muu’s starting to overthink things by the time she flickers back online again.
She shouldn’t be punishing the other girl for her own incapabilities. She shouldn’t be pushing her own flaws onto others. It’s not Yuuko’s fault that she’s talking to a loser.
The typing bubble appears at the side of her screen. Muu holds her breath.
YUUKO: Well don’t worry ^^ i’ll keep u company! 💝
She lets out a sigh of what she thinks is relief.
YUUKO: I see ur into music? me too 💫 lets go to karaoke together okkk? unless u have other ideas!!
YUUKO: Please keep in mind i usually charge an extra few yen for special occasions.. like valentines day <3
MIU: how muhc
Yuuko goes quiet again. Muu chews on her lip. Blood trickles out of a chapped piece of her skin and leaks onto her tongue.
No response. She presses her fingers to her keyboard again.
MIU: percentage wise ?
YUUKO: 25%?
MIU: thatsrs fine .
YUUKO: Kk ✨
YUUKO: Sooo a karaoke bar.. lets share locations and see what's close to the both of us!!?
YUUKO: Wanna move to LINE?
Is that even allowed?!
Muu has barely touched her social media since the bullying started. She’s sure she’s been added to countless mocking groupchats; she’s sure, if she checked, there’d be a mass of unread messages, poking fun at her and mocking her for her uselessness.
The thought of all the videos her ex-friends have of her makes her feel sick. She doesn’t want to. She’d turned off notifications over there for a reason.
YUUKO: Don’t go quiett…….. we don’t have to :((
… Yuuko’s making her feel bad. Muu bites her lip.
MIU: onone sec
She swipes away from the chat the moment she sees the seen mark appear next to her message – and, hands trembling, she presses her fingers against the LINE app on her phone’s hotbar.
As expected, the moment she opens it, her screen is flooded with a swarm of unread chats. She tries her hardest to ignore them all, immediately shooting towards the settings button – but something makes her hesitate. An unfamiliar chat with a few unread messages. Rei.
Her heart leaps to her throat. She can feel it beat against her neck. Swallowing suddenly becomes very difficult.
Ik you aren’t reading these, says her last message, sent just three days ago. but the girls were talking about cornering you in the gym again, so…
Her message cuts off before Muu can read the end of it. She stares, wide-eyed, at the text preview nonetheless.
It’s true. Two days ago, after school, she’d been locked in the gym after being lured out of the showers. She'd been cold and trembling in a towel for hours until a janitor had found her and let her out without a word.
Her head swirls with unrecognisable feelings. She ignores them. Muu, instead, copies her LINE ID.
It doesn’t matter, she lies to herself. Yuuko is waiting for me. She's far more important. I have to send her my account details before she loses interest.
The bricks of the karaoke bar wall dig into her back. Her phone lays almost dead in her pocket. In front of her, a flyer attached to a telephone pole flaps in the wind.
MISSING, it announces, in garish red text and an ugly-looking font. A blonde woman beams at her from a grainy, poorly-printed photograph. Shiina Mahiru. Last seen 16th December.
That was nearly two months ago. Muu tries very hard not to cry.
Waiting has never felt more horrible. She’s not even entirely sure Yuuko will actually show up – the conversation had fallen dead shortly after they had organised when and where they were to meet, and she hadn’t bothered opening LINE since. She’s only checked the dating site once afterwards, too, just to pay the fees in preparation the day before, ignoring the ten unread messages from Yuuko's account as she did so.
Muu fiddles with her phone in her pocket.
She probably looks like an idiot; just standing around, waiting, as the evening sets in and the sun starts to sink beneath all the apartment blocks on the horizon. It’ll be dark soon. She doesn’t know what she’ll do if Yuuko doesn’t show. Damnit, she should have just replied to the messages.
Her eyes flick up to the flyer again. Mahiru’s face bore holes into her memory. Something about her expression makes her look unhappy, despite the smile on her face; maybe it’s the distant look in her strangely cold, empty eyes. If she’s missing, and she’s dead, then what about–?
Muu doesn’t even want to think about it. She glares at the ten thousand yen reward printed on the bottom of the poster. Surely Mahiru is worth a little more than that.
“Shii-na,” comes a familiar voice just over her shoulder, saying the name so stiffly and disjointedly it’s like she’s never even heard the words before. “Ma-hi-ru.”
Yuuko is here.
Muu spins around so quickly she nearly topples over onto the street. The other girl catches her, neatly, by her wrist.
“Careful,” she giggles, tugging her back up onto her two feet. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost~!”
Muu stares back at her. Everything about her is so similar it makes her heart nearly burst out of its ribcage. Very suddenly, she struggles to breathe. She looks just like Yuno.
Sure, there are some minor differences – Yuuko’s eyes have a bit more life in them, for one, and she’s wearing these flowery earrings that are if anything more reminiscent of Mahiru than they are of Yuno. Her hair is tied up oddly, too, making it look like she has something of a bob, and her makeup is a little darker, a little moodier, than anything her ex-inmate would put on willingly. Even her clothing style is a bit more mature than she would expect –
But, despite all of these differences, it really does feel like Muu is staring at her ex-inmate. Her heart aches. Damnit. This was such a bad idea.
“Yuuko-san.” Muu greets, as if testing the name out on her tongue like she hadn't repeated it for hours in front of a mirror beforehand. She flushes a deep shade of red; her voice wobbles at the edges. “Sorry.”
Yuuko smiles. Her eyes crinkle. “Don’t worry about it,” she replies, brushing her apology off with ease. She points a manicured finger towards the missing poster. “You know her?”
Muu doesn’t know what to say. How the Hell is she meant to explain magical murder prison to some familiar outsider she’s paying to hang out with? It’s complicated?
Yuuko seems to take her blank stare as confirmation enough. She giggles, nervously, and pats her on the shoulder. “I’m sure she’s okay,” she says, as if she’s at all aware of the situation Muu is dealing with. “People never go missing for long.”
She clearly doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Two months is a very long time to go missing. Two months missing is dead.
Muu doesn’t want to think about it. She squints her eyes shut and, hurriedly, shakes her head clear of the thought. Yuuko clearly picks up on her distress; she grimaces a little, and, carefully, lifts up a hand to twirl her hair around her finger.
“If this is a bad time,” she says. “We can do this another day. Wanna reschedule?”
Muu’s hand shoots out to catch her arm before she can even think about backing up. “No,” she replies, hurriedly, stuttering out the words like they’re a struggle to get through her teeth. “No, it’s okay. Today is fine.”
A beat. Yuuko shifts her arm in her grip. Neither tears their gaze from the other.
“You can let go,” she says, eventually. “I'm not going to leave.”
Muu yelps. “Ah!”
She jolts as if she’d been shocked – as if she'd forgotten that she was holding onto her at all – and, somewhat begrudgingly, she lets her arm go. Yuuko's arm falls to her side. “Ah, sorry. Miu’s really sorry.”
“It’s okay!” Yuuko chirps; she swings her arms to and fro, rocking on her heels, though her growing smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “C’mon, Miu-chan, don’t look so nervous! I don’t bite!”
Muu gnaws on her bottom lip. Yuuko meets her apprehensive expression; and she grins, a little, a playful spark jumping across her face.
“If you wanted me to,” she says, flashing her a wink. “You’d have to pay me extra~!”
Muu flusters. Steam practically comes out of her ears. “No,” she stutters out, shaking her head so fast she gets a little dizzy. “No, it’s okay. Miu doesn’t want that.”
Yuuko giggles. She takes her by the hand; Muu’s palm feels red hot where their skin touches. “Not yet, you don’t,” she corrects, swinging their hands together side to side. “Wanna go in?”
Muu just stares. The feeling of her hand in hers has made her lose all train of thought. Yuuko rolls her eyes before tugging on her arm, perhaps a little too roughly, as she all but drags her inside the building. “Let’s go! That karaoke won’t sing itself, you know!"
“You aren’t really eighteen, are you?” Yuuko asks, the moment the door to the cubicle is shut tight. “You’re younger than that, right, Miu-chan?”
Muu freezes up. Her heart starts to hammer away in her chest; a thin trail of sweat runs down her back. Yuuko brushes past her to sit down, daintily, on the couch.
“Ah,” she grits out, eventually. “Ah, um.”
Yuuko’s pleasant expression doesn’t vanish even as Muu wriggles and writhes on her feet. In fact, it seems to only grow in its genuineness; like something about Muu standing and struggling is funny.
So rude!
“I’m not mad,” she hums. “I just wanna know! Tell me, tell me!”
“Sorry,” Muu says, hurrying through her sentences. “Sorry, Yuuko-san, I didn’t mean to lie. The website just wouldn’t let me put anything younger.”
Yuuko hums in thought; she presses her finger up to her bottom lip and taps once, twice, before finally resting her chin in her palms.
She looks up at her and bats her eyelashes, smiling, widely. “So, how old are you, really?”
Muu squirms, flushing. She doesn’t like this at all. “Sixteen, Yuuko-san.”
She half expects Yuuko to call it off; she’s got the payment already, after all, and now she even has the karaoke booth that Muu has paid for all to herself, too. The girl is about to stand up in horror, she’s sure of it, and shout at her to get out, because who would ever want to talk to a liar –
“Huh,” Yuuko hums, instead. “Yeah, I thought so.”
Muu’s chest floods in what she thinks is relief, but could just as easily be dread. “Oh,” she says, dumbly. “You did?”
Yuuko shrugs. She beams, a little. “I’m a clever girl, Miu-chan! What can I say?”
Muu chews on the nail of her thumb. Her words go right over her head. “And it’s okay?”
Yuuko rolls her eyes. “What, that you’re sixteen?” She scoffs, brushing off her concerns with a playful wave of her hand. “It’s fine. If anything, it’s great to finally go out with someone younger than me for once! How exciting~!”
The reminder that this is just a job for her is like a stab in the gut – not that Muu would know what that feels like.
She wrings her hands together. “Um,” she says, nervously. “Okay.”
A beat. Muu must stare at Yuuko for a bit too long; because, a few awkward seconds of silence later, she clears her throat and points to the karaoke machine. “Are you gonna go first?”
Muu startles. She stands up a little straighter. “Ah, actually,” she stutters out. “I was hoping to order some food before singing."
Yuuko beams, at that, patting next to her on the couch. She uses her spare hand to tap on the tablet beside her. “Okie-dokie! Come sit, come sit! What d’you want?!”
Muu, stiffly, takes a seat next to her. She feels awkward, and she’s pretty sure Yuuko can tell. “Um,” she says. “Anything is fine. You choose.”
The shift in the other’s body language is immediate. Yuuko purses her lips; she raises her eyebrows at her and doesn’t reply verbally. She just stares, somewhat disdainfully, and hums.
Muu nearly flinches. She inwardly prays for the ground to swallow her up whole. “I – I mean, fries are okay.”
Yuuko beams; she nods her agreement, leaning forward to type in their order, and Muu’s shoulders relax a little. “Fries sound good~! I’ll order some water for us both, too, ‘kay?”
Muu nods, stiffly. “Okay.”
“Don’t wanna get too dehydrated,” Yuuko adds, absentmindedly, as if to fill the silence. Muu hums in agreement.
In her pocket, her phone buzzes – and then buzzes, and buzzes, and buzzes, as if someone is messaging her over and over again to get her attention. Yuuko pulls it out to check it; Muu opts to stare straight ahead, anxiously bouncing her leg, as the other girl starts to type.
This sucks, she thinks to herself, bitterly. This was a terrible idea. She doesn’t want to be here.
“If you don’t want to do this,” Muu mutters, biting her nail as she turns to face her. “You don’t have to. We can–”
She cuts herself off with a yelp when she comes face-to-face with Yuuko’s phone camera. Muu ducks her head, hurriedly covering her eyes with her hands, just as the shutter goes off.
Muu peeks through the gaps in her fingers to stare, wide-eyed, at Yuuko. Her heart slams against her ribcage like it’s trying to break through her chest and flee. Yuuko stares right back at her, grimacing, awkwardly, as she fidgets with her phone. The photo of Muu covering her face is still on the screen.
“Sorry,” she says, brows furrowing. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Muu makes a few noncommittal sounds of varying distress. Yuuko bites her lip, and it’s not quite clear whether it’s because she feels deeply ashamed or because she’s trying to hold back a laugh.
“Wha,” Muu gets out, eventually, after a few failed attempts at saying words. Tears spring to her eyes. “Why are you taking pictures of Muu? You’re just going to make fun of her, right?!”
Yuuko quickly grows alarmed – she shakes her head with a strange urgency. “That’s not it,” she replies, hurriedly, as Muu only grows more panicked. “It’’s just – I thought I recognised you, so I was sending a picture to my friends to check, but – !”
Muu cuts her off with a whine. “You’re sending pictures to all of Muu’s bullies, right?!”
“No!” Yuuko yelps. “No, I’m–!”
She cuts herself off; Yuuko narrows her eyes, lips twitching up into what looks like her best approximation of a cunning smile, as the other wails loudly on the couch next to her.
"You said Muu.”
“Of course she did,” Muu grits out in reply, sniffling through her sobs. “That’s her na… Ah!”
She realises her mistake way too late – Muu leaps up onto her feet, turning to stare at Yuuko with big, wide eyes as she hurries to correct herself. “Miu! She meant Miu!”
Yuuko’s grin grows wider. She leans further in towards her; in response, Muu stumbles backwards. “You totally said Muu, though.”
Muu shakes her head. “She didn’t mean to,” she cries. “It was a slip of the tongue!”
Yuuko grabs her by the shoulders and starts shaking; Muu squeezes her eyes shut and wails as she’s throttled back and forth. “Muu,” she yells, over her wailing. “It’s Yu–!!”
The door opens. They both shut their mouths. A shaken-up waitress stares from the doorway.
Clearly, she had heard everything. "I'll come back later," she says, awkwardly, before backing out the way she had come.
The moment the door shuts, Yuuko starts to throttle her again. "Stop freaking out," she says, with a cadence that suggests she believes Muu is an absolute idiot. "I'm Yuno! Don't you recognise me?!"
Muu gasps; her eyes widen, and she stares, aghast, at Yuuko. At Yuno.
“Oh,” she mumbles, suddenly feeling very stupid. “Oh. Muu did think you looked familiar.”
“Oh, really?!” Yuno throws her head back and barks out a laugh so loud Muu's ears hurt. “Your fake surname also seemed pretty familiar, you know!”
Muu’s bottom lip wobbles. Kashiki. “Don’t make fun of Muu!” She wails, burying her face in her knees. “Oh, God, this is so embarrassing!”
Yuno giggles to herself as Muu curls up on the couch to hide her reddening face. “Don’t be like that,” she coos, patting her back. “If it helps, you aren’t the first person to have found me like this, you know!"
A moment of silence; Muu shyly peeks out from between her legs to meet Yuno’s smug gaze. “Huh?" She says, verbosely. "Through…?”
“Through my job,” Yuno says, by way of explanation, and Muu abruptly sits bolt upright. Her eyes are blown wide open; she tugs, pathetically, at Yuno's sleeve.
“Who? Who, Yuno-chan?”
Yuno grins. She places the back of her hand against her mouth as if to mimic a whisper, and – “Fuuta,” she mouths.
Muu’s hands fly up to her face. She gasps, but before she can properly vocalise her surprise, Yuno holds up a finger to silence her.
“And,” she continues, and Muu is suddenly on the edge of her seat. Yuno pauses for dramatic effect, and the seconds drag on infinitely until she finally opens her mouth again to say–
“...Kotoko.”
Muu cries out in delight, practically leaping to her feet, her crying all but forgotten for the sake of some cheap gossip. “No way! Kotoko?!”
“I know, right?!”
Muu giggles, somewhat drunk on excitement – she hops up and down from her spot on the floor, jumping in place like a little rabbit. Yuno snorts at the sight.
“I’ve never seen you this ecstatic,” she says. “Haven’t you met anyone else from MILGRAM, yet?”
Muu shakes her head; Yuno tugs her by the arm onto the couch, and she flops, uselessly, back onto the red leather. “You’re Muu’s first!”
Yuno just grins wider. “Don’t worry, then,” she says. “I know enough for the both of us.”
Hope flickers in her chest. Muu sits up to stare at her, wide-eyed; Yuno grimaces, a little, and tugs at her shirt.
“Sorry,” she says. “Not Haruka. But I know Mahiru’s okay?”
Muu stares at her, blankly. “There’s a missing poster of her just outside, Yuno-chan.”
Yuno rolls her eyes. “She’s missing to her family,” she replies, helpfully. “Not to me. I know exactly where she is.” At Muu’s unimpressed look, she continues, albeit a little begrudgingly: “if Mahiru’s okay, I’m sure Haruka is, too. Just because they, y’know…”
She trails off. Muu, hesitantly, nods. “Okay,” she agrees, softly. “Yeah, you’re right. He’s… He's probably fine.”
A few beats of silence. Eventually, Yuno shrugs, like she can shake the awkwardness out of the air with her shoulders alone.
“Anyway,” she says. “Enough about that. Shall we actually do some karaoke?”
Muu nods, enthusiastically, immediately hurrying to the machine to pick a song. "Muu wishes we hadn’t scared the waitress away,” she says, absentmindedly, as she scrolls through the list.
Yuno snorts. “We can just order more food,” she points out, helpfully, and then – “Oh!”
Her yelping startles Muu so much she nearly leaps out of her skin, throwing herself away from the machine. Yuno just points at the screen. “Vampire! Sing that one!”
Muu narrows her eyes. “Why can’t you do it?” She grumbles – but, despite her protests, she cycles through to Yuno's song of choice anyway. She grins at her from the couch as she picks up the microphone.
When she once again hears the shuttering of Yuno’s phone camera, she finds that, this time, she doesn’t really mind.
YUNO: Found heeerrr ✨
YUNO: image4152.png + 2 others
MAHIRU: AWWW 💞💞💞!!!!!!!! CUTIES 💖
MAHIRU: Make sure to add her to the group!!!!!!
YUNO: What if i want to keep her to myself 👀
MAHIRU: 😳
FUUTA: lol gaayyyyyyyy
KOTOKO: gay as hell.