"Mahiru... there's something weird in your locker."

The boy looked at the black cat sitting on his shoulder. "Weird?" he asked. "What are you talking abou- oh."

Kuro was right. There certainly was something that Mahiru didn't remember placing in his locker - namely, a small, light pink envelope.

"What's that?" he wondered. "I'm sure this wasn't here the last time I looked."

"It's obviously a love letter." Kuro's voice sounded slightly amused.

Mahiru felt his face heating up. "Like hell it is!" he protested. "When will you finally stop teasing me about stuff like that? What are you, five?"

Kuro decided to ignore the last question. "Why don't you just open and read it?"

That made sense. Carefully, Mahiru picked up the envelope and opened it. Inside was a letter, written in a small, distinctly feminine handwriting. The paper was the same color as the envelope.

Dear Shirota-kun, it read. If it's not too much trouble, please meet me on the roof after school today. I have something important to tell you.

Mahiru just stared at the paper for a few seconds. Simple as they were, the words didn't make sense to him. For some reason or other, he found himself freaking out a little. Maybe that was a normal reaction? He had never received a letter like that before, after all.

"Pink paper? Girly handwriting? Asking you to meet her on the roof? This happens in every shoujo manga in the world," Kuro said. "That's obviously a love letter."

Mahiru sighed. "You're probably right."

"So? Are you going to meet her?"

"...Shut up."

Mahiru chose to meet her. It just wasn't like him to reject someone like that, even though he dreaded the meeting. Part of him was just wondering how to reject the girl without hurting her feelings, but the other part was suspicious of the letter. Knowing his luck, it was just as possible that he'd find yet another vampire on the roof.

His suspicions disappeared as soon as he reached the place and saw a familiar figure standing a few feet away. "Suzuhara!" he blurted out, both surprised and relieved.

His classmate blushed. "Shirota-kun," she stammered. "S-so you read my letter..."

"Um... yeah."

There was an awkward silence. Suzuhara suddenly seemed very interested in the tips of her shoes, and Mahiru wondered if he should speak up, but he couldn't really think of anything.

After a long moment that felt like forever, he cleared his throat. "So, uh... you said that you had something... to tell me?"

Suzuhara blushed an even brighter red. "Yeah, actually... Shirota-kun, I... you know, I've always looked up to you. You're always so honest and practical... When you like something, you compliment it... and when you don't like something, you don't beat around the bush... and you're so great at sports... and back when I suddenly collapsed, you helped me. I thought that was really cool! But now I'm talking too much, right? So... Shirota-kun... What I'd like to tell you is..." She took a deep breath. "Shirota-kun, I like you! Please go out with me!"

"See? Told ya so," Kuro mumbled close to Mahiru's ear. The boy glared at him before turning back to Suzuhara.

This was bad. Really bad.

He had taken forever to think of the right words for this scenario. Words that wouldn't hurt Suzuhara. Words that rejected her as gently as possible. He thought he had finally found the perfect ones. But now that the whole situation was real, the entire script seemed to have vanished from his head. His mind was completely blank.

"I'm sorry," he finally said. "I can't."

Mahiru took one look at Suzuhara's face and knew then and there that he had made a mistake. Her eyes widened. Her lips trembled. She looked like she was about to cry.

"I can't go out with someone whose feelings I don't return," he said softly, trying not to panic. "That just seems unfair to me, you know?"

Aside from the tiny fact that he really didn't want to drag anyone into his chaotic, vampire-filled life, of course. Especially not this girl. She had almost been killed before, thank you very much.

Suzuhara, however, didn't feel like giving up. "Can't you at least try?" she pleaded. "I could be your girlfriend for a week, and even if you still don't return my feelings afterwards, I think I could at least get over you... How does that sound?"

"Like a shoujo manga," Kuro remarked quietly.

Mahiru was really starting to panic. He needed to come up with a good excuse now. Telling her the real reason why he didn't want to date her was obviously not an option.

So he just blurted out the first reason that came to mind. "I'd like to do that, but... sorry, I'm taken already."

"Oh."

"Really?" Kuro asked quietly. Mahiru ignored him.

"So... I'm sorry, but I can't cheat on my significant other, you know."

Suzuhara still didn't look entirely convinced. Did the girl have an amazing intuition, or was it just the power of desperation? Mahiru wasn't so sure anymore.

"I understand," she admitted. "But... could I meet your lover sometime? Then I could move on, you know... if it's not too much trouble?"

Not good.

What was Mahiru supposed to do? Coming up with another excuse would just make him sound even more suspicious. Rejecting her? Telling her the truth? Definitely not an option. The only thing that was left was...

"Okay," he said. "I'll tell you when and where."

This was trouble.

"So?" Kuro asked Mahiru. "What're you gonna do about the whole "introducing her to your lover" thing?"

"I'll have to ask someone to pretend to be my date for the day," Mahiru said matter-of-factly.

"But you don't have any female friends you could ask."

Mahiru looked at the vampire for a very long time. Inside his head, a plan started to form.