A Vocaloid Fanfiction: Golden Heart - Neru - P4

Neru awoke and for a moment everything felt normal and fine. But then she sat up and the feelings of dread and worry washed over her and settled in her stomach like a heavy stone. The sheer weight of it made it hard for Neru to move. She slowly got out of bed, seeing that Haku was absent.

Her eyes widened and she suddenly rushed out of her bedroom.

She couldn't have left already…could've she?

She ran into the main room and saw Haku in the middle of a large pile of bags and assorted mess. The silver-haired woman turned to see her friend in the doorway, looking frightened and shaken.

"Neru?"

Neru relaxed and leant on the side of the door, a hand to her forehead to push her bangs back.

"Neru, could you help me? I'm not sure how much I can carry on my way without having to make another trip…"

Neru nodded and with a heavy heart she helped Haku with deciding on what she should carry and what she could come back for. In the middle of this, their phone rang and Kaito was on the line, saying he was ready to go. The arrangement was that Kaito would bring his van around to load Haku's stuff back and forth to Dell's apartment where he and his strong Shion brothers would be a free moving team and help Haku get her stuff out and into Dell's place. Haku gave the information on which floor and door they were on and they said they'd be right up.

"Neru, Kaito and his brothers are here. You ready to go?"

Neru slung some bags over her shoulder with a huff,

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?"

Haku giggled and copied her with more of her stuff.

There was a knock at the door and three colourful men stood at the entrance.

"Oh, hey there! Taito, Nigaito and Kikaito! Just take whatever you see from this pile of
chaos, alright?"

The three Shion brothers nodded and made their way into the apartment and each grabbed their share of Haku's things.

Neru shuffled her feet, awkwardly as she watched the memories of Haku leave out the front door. As the Shion men followed Haku out the door, Neru gained the courage and tapped Taito on the shoulder.

He turned, holding a very large box of Haku's shoes and stared curiously at Neru who had her eyes to the floor.

"Is something wrong, Neru?" the calm male asked.

"Well, uh…where is Kaito?"

"Outside, keeping the van warm," he replied matter-of-factly, " Weather's getting colder now and Kaito doesn't want to leave the van alone by itself on this sort of street, no offence,"

Taito didn't wish to insult her but looking at her it seemed she had barely heard him.

"And…what about…uhm…" Neru wet her lips, nervous to ask, "…Akaito?"

Taito raised an eyebrow, caught off-guard by Neru's random asking of his delinquent brother.

"Well…he's kept in touch now, but he's been pretty aloof this past month. Kaito's party probably affected him after we took him outside or something. At least he's talking to us now, rare as it is. Kaito called him earlier seeing if he would help but he said he was busy. It would've been awkward I suppose, considering the circumstances…"

Neru gasped. Did Taito know about….?

"What?! I mean…what do you mean?"

Taito raised his eyebrow again, wondering why Neru was so strung up.

"You know…with Haku being his ex and all. Even if they're both over each other."

"Oh…" Neru relaxed, her secret still kept a secret, "Right."

"Why'd you want to know?" Taito had noticed Neru's strange behaviour.

"Oh! No reason! Just making sure is all. Being Haku's best friend and stuff…"

Taito nodded, waving away curious thoughts as to why Neru was so jumpy.

"We'd better head down; the others are probably coming up again for the second load,"
Taito said, heading towards the doorway. Neru followed with her head down.

"Right…thanks, Taito,"

He merely nodded as the two made their way to the elevator. He would not mention their weird conversation to anyone, for Neru's sake. But he was still human and he couldn't help wondering what was exactly going on inside Neru's head that made her act so awkward. Whatever it was, he wasn't to pry into people's personal feelings and dropped it.

---

"Well! That's the last of it! I dropped Nigaito, Kikaito and Taito over at Haku's new apartment, helping her settle in. We just need to drop off the last of her stuff and we're good to go!"

Kaito opened the passenger door for Neru and she nodded in his direction, still remaining quiet. Kaito chewed at his lip, wondering what was wrong with his blonde friend. He figured it was because of Haku's departure as he slipped into his driver's seat and started the engine.

"You buckled up?" Kaito asked, jokingly, trying to clear the air. Neru looked up briefly and strapped herself in before returning her gaze to her knees. Kaito's smile dropped and the two began to drive away from Haku's previous home.

Neru fiddled with her skirt, lost in her own thoughts. Kaito drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. He hated seeing one of his dear friends so unhappy but he wasn't sure on how to approach the matter. After all, everyone knew that Neru was a very secluded person. If she didn't want to open up, she wouldn't. But Kaito wasn't the type of guy who could his mouth shut for very long.

"So, uh…have you seen the new place?" Kaito asked, trying to bring up some form of conversation.

"No," Neru said in a monotone. Kaito's shoulders slumped. He was almost reduced to start talking about the weather if this silence kept up.

"It...it must be pretty hard on you…considering how long you two lived together. You must have a lot of good memories together…" Kaito tried to choose his words carefully but he didn't think he was doing a good job.

Neru hunched over and brought her knees but to her chin and hugged her legs.

"…I guess," Neru said flatly.

"Right…" Kaito sighed and dropped the conversation and for the next few blocks no words were spoken until they arrived at their destination.

Kaito and Neru went upstairs into the apartment block and found Haku's new room easily.
Inside, they met Haku and the other Shion brothers had finished loading and now a big pile was in the middle of the carpet. They were sitting at the kitchen table with a glass beverage each and a plate of snacks in the middle of the table. Kaito dumped his share of Haku's stuff and went to go join them while Neru had barely walked through the door.
She was speechless. For she was standing inside a grand, classy apartment room with an shiny, white inbuilt kitchen to one side while a lush living room was further near the balcony, complete with a plasma TV and white leather couches. The floor was a mix of red, fluffy carpet and smooth, white marble tiles. Impressive looking artworks hung on every inch of wall and she noticed the door leading to the other part of the apartment was open and Neru could just make out a rather large bedroom.

She had almost forgotten that Dell was pretty well loaded. From the time she had known him before; he rarely ever talked about himself and his past and often changed the subject if asked about it. That was something they had in common.

Still in a daze, Neru replaced Haku's things onto the pile and made her way over to the kitchen table, holding her head. Everything was pin-neat and sparkling from every corner. Dell was obviously a perfectionist or a clean a-holic. Either way, he would get the shock of his life when he found out how messy of a liver Haku was.

She took a seat next to Nigaito and got passed some sort of fizzy, energy drink. Trying to snap out of it she sipped at her glass and attempted to join the conversation without much luck.

All too soon, however, it seemed it was time for them to leave. Kaito needed to get back to work and the other Shion brothers had arrangements as well. Neru knew this was her cue to leave as well. She had offered to help unpack her stuff but she could not form the words. The only place that Neru could possibly unpack Haku's things would be at their home. She knew when she would return, her apartment would seem half empty without any sign of Haku entities anywhere.

The two friends shared a brief goodbye and too-short hug with Haku explaining that they'd see each other heaps and Neru left; left to go home to live by herself, without her roommate, her friend, her Haku.

She arrived home and as soon as she stepped through the door she became engorged in grief and sadness and she let her legs give way as she slumped to the floor, the front door supporting her back. Neru hugged her knees close to her chest and fought the urge not to cry.

Suddenly, her emotional breakdown was halted when a loud knock at the door rang through her ears. Stumbling to her feet, she flew open the door, a smile spreading to her ears and hope rising in her heart.

"Haku, I―!"

But that smile fled and her hopes crashed to the ground when she saw Akaito standing with his hands behind his back with a surprisingly concerned look on his face.

"Hey, Neru I wanted to see how you were going because I heard Haku was moving out and I―"

SLAM!

Neru pressed her face against the shut door, blotting out pictures of the red-haired man and burnings tears running down her face. She gritted her teeth in anguish.

"Neru, why'd you―?" Akaito's voice could still be heard through the other side of the door.

"Go away," Neru hissed, her whole body now trembling as more tears dropped from her shut eyes like rain.

"What? What are you saying, Ne―"

"I SAID, GO AWAY!" she shrieked and as soon as the horrible words left her mouth she slid down the door again, her face still pressed against it. She sat on the apartment floor, sobbing.

"Neru…" Akaito's voice had now become soft and gentle but Neru wouldn't listen.

"GO!" her tone was now reaching fever pitch and her voice cracked.

"Okay. Sorry, Neru," Akaito whispered, his voice barely audible. There was a pause and then Neru could hear his footsteps getting further and further away and she began to
relax.

Shakily, she got to her feet and pulled open the door once more, checking to see if he really had gone by scanning the corridor. There was no sign of him and Neru absent-mindedly looked to the floor and she gasped.

A bouquet of sunflowers was sitting right outside her door.  Slowly, Neru picked up the arrangement of flora and touched one of the soft petals, to check if it was real. While doing this, the overwhelming smell hit her and Neru closed the door, carrying the flowers inside. She placed them on the kitchen bench and went to find a vase. When she came back, she began to undo the plastic wrapping when she spotted a note attached to the ribbon. She held the note up to her face and read the four words written on it.

Sorry, I love you.