Chapter Text
Ring!! Dozens of students poured out of the classrooms lining the hallway, all chattering and laughing as they walked. Luka went with the crowd, not wanting to be tardy for anything or pushed aside by someone. Briskly walking to her locker, she quickly grabbed the supplies she needed and headed to her next class, trying to ignore the water spill next to her locker that was there for some reason. As Luka forged her way through the crowd, something red caught her eye, its color similar to a rose. It was a rather pleasing color on the eyes, not bright enough to be an eyesore, but still had enough vibrancy to catch the attention of anyone passing by.
When Luka got closer to take a better look, she saw that the person wearing the color was none other than Meiko - also who Luka called "Cherry". She had the nickname because Luka really needed a way to discuss her crush without embarrassing herself in front of her friends. Luka quickly turned away, hoping her face didn't look like a tomato. Luckily, her next class was nearby, and it only took her a few seconds to get there. She entered the classroom, greeted her teacher and tried her best to replace thoughts of a rose sweaters and hearts in favor for more productive things.
As the bell rang again, signaling the start of the next class period, Luka settled into her seat and opened up her notebook. Though she didn't exactly want to be called a teacher's pet or a nerd, not trying her best in class was something Luka avoided at all costs. After all, it even if both the terms suck-up and under achiever were negative terms, one of them actually meant that she would go somewhere later in life.
But Luka was not exactly the most concentrated today. Seeing her crush any day would be a reason for her mind to wander away from the course material, but Meiko's outfit today was particularly gorgeous - at least, that's what Luka thought. Thinking about Meiko made butterflies suddenly appear in her stomach flutter around and heart beat faster. Not really focused on the lesson now, Luka started doodling some desserts and octopi on the margins of her paper.
"Alright, who can give me the answer to this question?" After asking this, Ms. Hanasato turned around expectantly, looking for a student to call on. "Ah, how about you, Ms. Megurine?" Startled, Luka looked around, as if expecting some other Megurine to somehow magically appear. "Uhm, the answer? In this equation, x would be either 2 or 3." she said, stuttering through her answer. Hearing a few snickers, her face burned. Hunching her shoulders, she stared down at her notebook, a few cake slices still unfinished.
"That's correct!" Ms. Hanasato praised. "Now, how about this next question…" Still embarrassed, Luka tried to pay attention to the lesson instead of what her classmates were gossiping about. But she still couldn't help but overhear what two of her classmates sitting nearby were saying.
"Hey, have you decided what gift people on Valentines Day?"
"Hm… I'm just going to buy some chocolates or sweets from the mall and call it a day."
"Yeah, that's fair. It would be pretty nice to get gifts like that. I'm going to go make some little scented candles."
"Ooh, that's really cool! I've seen some really cool ones at the store with all the flowers and colors."
"Mm hm, I learned how to do them just for Valentines day, because I wanted to get something nice."
Valentines day, huh? Luka hadn't really given it too much thought… she would definitely want to give her friends and family something nice, like some desserts or flowers from some shops in the mall, but maybe this was her chance to confess give something to Meiko?… Yeah, that would be pretty on theme for the holiday. Plus, she did want to confess to her at some point, she couldn't just put it off forever, right? But the issue of what to give her… what to do?
Finally, the dismissal bell rang, telling all the weary students that school was finally over. Walking out of the school gate, Luka saw her friends sitting at a table at a park. Spotting her, they excitedly waved her over, eager to discuss the days events.
"So, how was your day?" Luka said, sliding over and sitting next to Kaito, a blue-haired guy from class 2-B.
"It was alright. I kind of lost my supplies half way through the day though…"
"Sigh… Isn't this the 3rd time this month?" Kaito sheepishly laughed, rubbing his head. Shaking her head, Luka took out the back up supply bag she had started keeping around when Kaito started consistently losing his supplies. "Are you sure someone isn't stealing them?" Luka said, mildly concerned.
"Well, I don't think someone is stealing my supplies…" Kaito replied, still trying to stay positive about it.
"Okay, turning to another topic, let's talk about what we're giving on Valentine's day!" Rin said, clearly excited about the topic. "I'm kind of having trouble with what to gift people, so I was hoping to get some ideas."
Luka turned her attention to Rin, secretly glad that she was the one that had brought up the topic of Valentine gift's instead of her.
"I'm planning on getting Gumi some things from that macaroon shop nearby, and some carrot flavored sweets that are trending right now." said Teto. "But I'm sure that Miku would like anything you give her, so you can just buy some leeks or whatever."
"Hey! Don't treat this so flippantly. Some of us actually want to put some more effort into our gifts." Rin said, miffed at her response.
"You could always just bake some cookies or sew them something…" Yi Xi said. "But I did hear Miku talking about how she wanted something from this new store in Harajuku. It's called 'Shibuyagawa Yogashi' if I remember correctly."
"Eeee! Thank you! See, this is how you be helpful, Teto." Rin said, before throwing the side comment at Teto. Settling back down, she turned to the other pair.
"So, again what are you guys planning?" said Rin, hands clasped together.
"Well, I'll probably just do what Teto said and buy something from the shops." Luka sheepishly replied. "But I should probably do something else instead…"
"… Is this because you want to get 'Cherry' something nice?" Kaito teasingly said."
Face suddenly turning bright red and ears burning, Luka spluttered "Uhh, no of course not!" in a very unconvincing manner. Oh gosh, they could all definitely tell! The others laughed at her plight, but she could tell that they didn't mean any harm. "Well… maybe?"
"Haha, good luck on that!" Kaito said with a big smile.
"Yeah, that would make you the first to actually be the one to confess to their crush instead of waiting for them to do so (cough cough, KAITO, cough, cough) or have their crush confess first. (AHEM, RIN AND TETO)."
"Geez, Yi Xi, no need to be so passive aggressive. But yeah, you should put in effort if you want to confess. Basic confession etiquette, y'know?"
"I don't think that's a thing…" Kaito muttered. "How about giving her something homemade? That almost always shows more effort and love than store bought."
"Hm.. Yeah, I probably should give her something like that. Thanks for helping, guys." Luka said, cheered up and going through gift ideas through her head. "But I gotta go now, I have a bunch of homework I need to get through today.
"Ooh, that's rough… see you tomorrow!"
"Bye bye!"
"Bye Luka!"
Waving goodbye to everyone, Luka turned and started heading home.
"Ugh! Why does this have to be so hard?!" Luka stared down at the baking book, glaring at it as if it had done something atrocious to her. "I followed the directions exactly, but they still turn out looking like this." Pointing down at the baking tray, which was filled with the offending deserts. The cookie's appearance seemed more like lumps of coal than cookies. Putting her hands on her hips and pouting, she grumbled to herself. "I just wanted to make some treats for her, is that really so much to ask?! I guess it is because this is just a mess."
Why was Luka in a kitchen if she was so horrible at cooking? Well, it ultimately came down to a game of elimination. She knew practically nothing about arts and crafts, and wasn't very good at art or any of that kind of activity. Luka already ruled out buying something from the store, and she was too stubborn to ask any of her friends to help. Maybe she should've called them, but she really didn't want to embarrass herself. So, Luka obviously thought it would be best to drag out her mom's old baking recipe's and get to work making the perfect gifts for Meiko!
But, as Luka could clearly see, that plan didn't turn out as well as she hoped. Now back to square one, she sighed and put her face in her hands. "What do I do? I can't give Meiko trash for Valentine's day!" Pacing around the kitchen, she thought about her options. "I could just give in and buy something from a fancy store, but that would kinda defeat the whole 'I want to make something special for my crush!' thing, so yeah that's not happening. I could also try my hand at making something that's not sweets. I've actually heard that candle making isn't very difficult, so maybe that's an option?"
Putting candles on her mental list of possible gifts, Luka went back to thinking. "I could like do something for her… I've seen videos online of people confessing through song or a play or other artistic projects. But the people in the videos are made fun of a lot, so that's not really an option either…" Sighing again, she sat down, and whipped out her phone. Searching up "Possible gift options" After scrolling through Reddit for a few minutes, she came across an option that could actually work.
Looking for a perfect gift? Well, here's the solution!
We present to you, the marvelous gift of… Poems! They're a great way to help express your affection to someone, and they don't require much effort.
We have tutorials and guides down below to help aid you in your journey!
Scrolling down, Luka saw a whole slew of videos. Clicking on one of them, it promptly showed her how to phrase certain words and the use of punctuation in poetry. As she went through more of them, her excitement about this grew. "This would be perfect! It's like drawing something but with something I'm actually half-decent with!" Rushing upstairs, she found her laptop and quickly opened a word document and started writing.
Typing and deleting, trying something else, deciding it wasn't good enough… Luka did this over and over again. Maybe this poetry thing was harder than she first assumed. Furrowing her brow in frustration, she tried again. After all, 99% of people quit before they hit big, so she would just have to stick it out and get to be in the 1%. Okay, yes that's a gambling saying but she figured it should apply to everything else in life.
Stepping away from the computer, Luka smiled. Finally, she had written something she was at least half proud of. Now that that arduous task was out of the way, she wanted to be anywhere else but that chair and desk.
Stepping out of her house, Luka made her way to the park hoping to see one of her friends. Later, she would've said she should've told her friends before just deciding to go but hey, hindsight is always 20-20.
Walking past the various shops that lined the street, she spotted someone she was at once incredibly excited to see and also terrified to see. After all, meeting the person you had spent the entire morning obsessing over was always heart-racing. Quickly ducking and hoping that Meiko hadn't seen her (which was honestly quite likely, it wasn't as if Luka was particularly eye-catching), she basically ran the rest of the way to the park.
Thankfully, once she got there, she just so happened to see Rin and Teto sitting together at one of the benches. Panting, she sat down. Her two friends stared at her with a bit of shock and concern.
"Uhm, Luka you good?" Teto said.
"Yeah, yeah I'm okay. I was just uh… running."
"Hm… yeah I don't believe that come up with something more convincing." Teto scoffed, dodging the swat she received from Rin.
"Did you see something?" Rin said, concerned.
"Uhh, yeah.. I guess you can say that?" Luka responded, not really sure what to say.
"… You're absolutely hopeless. Does seeing your crush really scare you that much?!" Teto groaned. "How can you be in love with someone who scares you?"
Luka chuckled, biting her lip. "Maaybe?"
"Oh my gosh… LUKA!" Rin shouted at her. "Here I was thinking that something bad happened and you're just freaking out about your crush!"
Scoffing, she responded, "Stop acting like you weren't acting this way back when you still weren't sure that Miku liked you back."
Rin stammered, trying to find a retort to that, while Teto was laughing her head off.
"Well, have you at least figured out a gift for her yet?" Rin said, trying to pivot the conversation to something else.
"Yeah, I actually did make something for her." Luka replied quite smugly. "I wrote her a poem."
Looking at her friends faces, she started wondering whether or not telling them was a good idea…
"Ay! That's great!" Teto said with a smile. "That's pretty on point for you, with all your elegance and what not."
"O-Oh, thank you…" Now slightly embarrassed, she looked down. Luka thought they would be more teasing about the gift, they weren't exactly the poetry type.
"Yeah, Teto's right. I'm sure Meiko would love a poem." Rin chirped, happy that Luka had managed to find a solution to her problem.
Happy with her friends responses, she stood up and headed back to her house, waving goodbye to her friends.
Back at school again, Luka headed to Meiko's locker (don't ask how she knew that). She looked around, which only made her look even more suspicious. After making sure that no one was looking, she slipped the poem and note into Meiko's locker. Now that her mission was accomplished, she hurried back to class.
Once again, the hours passed in a blur, everything falling in and out of focus. Walking to her locker after the day ended, she noticed a little note at the bottom of it. Confused, Luka took the note out and opened it. Reading the note her heart skipped a beat, and then again. On the note it read:
"Hey, thanks for the note and poem! If you want, can you meet me after school at the cafe that's going pretty viral recently? -Meiko"
Mouth wide open now, Luka stared at the note in shock. Meiko, wants to go meet with me!?! Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh…
Quickly getting all her stuff together, she hurried over to the cafe that Meiko mentioned. She scanned the street around her, looking for the shop called carina/carino. It was supposed to have a light blue aesthetic… oh there it is! Pushing the door open, she spotted the brunette fairly easily and sat down across from her.
"Thanks for meeting me here!" Meiko said with a smile, while Luka's brain was still short-circuiting from the fact that Meiko wanted to meet with her. Did it mean she liked her back? Honestly, Luka couldn't tell, but this was a good sigh. After all, if Meiko wanted to reject her, she would've just done it in the note.
"Oh, it was no problem." She stammered out, grateful that it sounded more calm than how she was really feeling. "Sorry if the poem was a bit much or bad…"
"I thought it was beautiful poem. I could clearly feel how you were feeling, which I thing is the main purpose of a poem." Hearing this, Luka blushed harder, unsure how to take the compliments so she just floundered there. "Uh, thank you… I wasn't sure if you would like it so I'm happy that you thought it was good." Ducking her head, she was sure that her face was bright red by now. Oh, what if Meiko thought she was some kind of idiot or something!?! The chances that she was thinking that was pretty low though, so maybe she shouldn't worry so much…
"Hehe, it's very fun talking to you. Well once again, thank you for the thoughtful gift, but I need to go now." Meiko said apologetically. Luka was split, sad that she had to leave so early, but also terrified cause what if that was a sign that she didn't like her??? Ugh… she was running circles in her head again.
"Okay… see you later?" Luka tried with a small smile. Hopefully that would stand true.
"Oh, definitely!" she said. After thinking for a while, she appeared to come up with an idea. "How about we exchange numbers? That would make it easier to talk to each other and meet up again."
What. The. Heck. Meiko wanted her number!?! This was genuinely a dream. "D-Definitely! Here…" Writing down her number on a scrap of paper and giving it to Meiko, she did the same to her. Smiling, she waved goodbye to Meiko.
After sitting there for a while and just… thinking about the meeting, she stood up and headed back home. Once there, she immediately texted her friends.
Luka: GUYS GUYS GUYS I JUST GOT MEIKO'S NUMBER OH MYGOSH OH MYGOSH AHHHHHHHH
Kaito: oh yay! congrats
Teto: yoo, you finally confessed!
Luka: thx guys AAAAAAAAAAH