"Don't you have work today?" asked Ritsu who was now keeping her pace with Mio. She only noticed how it was a Wednesday, and how people usually work on Wednesdays despite how fine and dandy the weather was. She leaped onto the sidewalk's flowerboxes and balanced herself as they walked on.

"I have the day off," Mio replied

"Really?" Ritsu turned to look at her. "Why did you take the day off? Wait! Don't tell me, you were supposed to do something today, weren't you? Oh man, I knew I was getting in the way," she slammed the palm of her hand onto her forehead. She missed a step and almost fell.

Mio was too focused on whatever it was infront of her to notice Ritsu's almost-accident. Ritsu hopped down from the flowerbox and brushed off the imaginary dirt from her tank top.

"I don't really have anything planned for today. I was just going to sleep the entire day off," Mio explained.

"So… you don't really have work on Wednesdays?"

"Not exactly."

"What? So, you took the day off because you wanted to sleep in? Why were you dressed up in office clothes this morning then?" Ritsu was quite perplexed. She knew that it wasn't Mio's habit to skip anything just to sleep in. The more Ritsu thought about it, the more it didn't make sense.

"Well," Mio let her voice trail off. "My boss, Mr. Yamada, he let me off today."

"He fired you?"

"No, you idiot," Mio snapped back. Her cheeks felt hot, lying just made her uncomfortable. "I was given the day off today because… I don't know."

Ritsu opened her mouth to say something, but then she decided that it wasn't a good idea. She bit her lower lip instead.

Mio sighed and said, "Where are you taking me anyway?"

"Huh?" the other girl was taken by surprise. "What are you talking about? I was following you."

"What. You were the one who said we were going somewhere after lunch."

"But, you were leading the way!" Ritsu whined.

"I wasn't leading the way!"

"You were ahead of me, so I assumed that there was somewhere you'd like to go," she reasoned.

Mio sighed, "Well, I'm not leading the way and I don't know where we're going."

They both stopped walking and looked at each other on the sidewalk. Ritsu pressed her finger on her forehead. "I didn't really have an idea of where we're going to chill out next but we're both going to have to go somewhere," she said with her smile. "Wanna go to the park?"

"I don't really have anything else in mind."

Mio felt the sweat trickle down her back. She took off her jacket and wrapped it around her waist. Ritsu wandered off ahead of her, she couldn't help but notice how the sweat on her skin glistened under the sun. "Don't you think it's too hot for the park right now, Ritsu?" she called out.

Ritsu ran her fingers through her hair and looked straight up into the sky. "Well it is hot," she noted. She spun towards Mio and looked into her blue-grey eyes. "But they do still have trees in the park, right? We can just stay under the shade and pass the time."

"I just don't see how going to the park now is a—Ritsu?"

Ritsu was already half-running to the other side of the road. From where she stood she could already see what caught her friend's attention, it was an old abandoned house. The Shibata house, if she could remember correctly, their old school-mate's pad. It was one of the biggest houses in the district. It even had a pool. Ritsu turned back to look at her and gestured to Mio to follow.

Mio made sure to look both ways before crossing the street. Ritsu was already peering through the rusty old gate. "They sure let the place go," she commented.

Mio approached her from behind and looked up at the dilapidated building. The roof was almost collapsing and almost all the windows have broken. There were patches of dead grass on their lawn but some areas were overgrown with thick bushes. They both remembered how much better it looked during their school days. "It looks… empty," was all Mio could say.

"You didn't want to go the park yet, right?" Ritsu felt the sinister smile forming on her lips.

"What are you implying?" Mio frowned. "Don't you even try, Ritsu. The gate's locked."

Ritsu pressed her weight onto the old gate. There was a snap and it slowly swung open. She looked at Mio with a bigger grin on her face. The expression on Mio's was unpleasant.

"There's no harm in going in now," said Ritsu.

"We're trespassing. You're trespassing," Mio said flatly.

"No one would really mind. It's clearly empty. It'd be like the good old days!" Ritsu held Mio's hand and brought it to her face. "Please?" she pleaded.

Mio looked at the building again she can only imagine the safety hazards it possessed—the broken glass, the weak floorboards, all that dust, snakes, rats… a serial killer. She felt a shiver run up her spine. The blood drained from her hands. She removed her hand from Ritsu's calloused palm.

"The good old days? I don't really remember any memory of us wandering into other people's houses," Mio said bitterly.

Ritsu frowned. She realized how the good old days were all at the expense of Mio's fears. She wiped the sweat off her brow with the back of her hand. "I really want to go look around," she coaxed. "No scare tactics, Mio, I promise. Besides, it doesn't really look that hot inside. And aren't you curious?"

They both recalled how the Shibatas didn't let any guests inside the house. The patriarch of the house was the one who earned for the entire family. He was rich but he was also insane and rather paranoid.

Ritsu looked at Mio expectantly. Mio took another look at the building that was on the verge of collapse. She didn't say anything. "I didn't think you'd still be such a scaredy-cat," Ritsu teased.

There was a flash of annoyance in Mio's eyes but a smile still formed on her lips. "You're provoking me aren't you?"

Ritsu shrugged and threw her head towards the house. "Well if that's what it takes to get you to come with me."

"It's not working."

Mio's fingers clamped tightly around Ritsu's arm while they walked down the weedy path. Ritsu had that smile on her face that made Mio want to punch her. "I can't believe that I let you talk me into this," she said with a scowl.

"It can't believe that it worked," replied Ritsu.

"What if someone sees us?"

"Geez, Mio. It's not going to be that big a deal. We'll just say we're prospectors looking for a place to set up our motel or something."

"You mean proprietors."

"Uh, yeah… proprietors. That's what I meant."

They walked on the cracked pavement where the grass and weeds poked from niches and holes. There were brambles, dried up twigs and leaves, and things that Mio could not even guess what they used to be. Something scampered in the bushes. She accidentally twisted Ritsu's arm in fright.

"Hey, ow!"

Mio apologized under her breath. Perhaps it served Ritsu right for brining her into this place.

Ritsu rubbed her arm to ease the slightly burning sensation. "Remember how nice this place used to be? I mean it had this really nice garden like one of those western houses and they had those five Rottweilers that barked at us whenever we passed by. I wonder where they went. I wonder how long they've been gone. You think Mr. Shibata finally snapped?"

Mio only nodded.

They stopped at the foyer and it was by this time that Mio firmly decided that there was no way on earth that they would step inside. The door was already open; there were odd nonsense graffiti on the walls, there was a layer of dust on the floor where the vandals didn't tread on. Maybe there were drug addicts still in there who were bored out of their minds and waiting for someone to come in so they can have some 'entertainment'. Mio, once again, could feel the palms of her hand grow cold and dampen with sweat.

"I'm not going in there," she said firmly.

"But we've already gone this far," replied Ritsu with a very obvious tone of disappointment. "Aren't you curious about what it looks from the inside?"

Mio imagined the room where they all hid the bodies of the victims in organized crimes. She remembered a show that she saw a week ago where there was this young lady who just died in their house and no one knew. She rotted in there alone until two kids found her while they were exploring the empty house. They could be the two kids to the corpse.

"I just can't," her voice wavered. She let go of Ritsu's arm. "I'm sorry, but I can't go through this."

"Oh come on, there's nothing to be scared off. There aren't any wild animals in there. There are no monsters, no murderers and no homeless people as I can tell," Ritsu reassured her.

"How can you be so sure? There are footprints all over the place there are scrawls and everything else on the walls!"

"Well, we'll ask the house. I'm going to yell in there and ask if there is anyone around, and if someone replies we'll leave."

Mio thought that this was the stupidest thing she has ever heard of.

Ritsu walked over to the open door and peered inside. She took in a deep breath and yelled, "Is anyone in here?" Mio was startled by the rustle of leaves from behind her. It was probably some hooligans running away. She held her breath and tried – but failed—to not think of frightening things. Ritsu turned to her with a triumphant smile. "See? There's no one in there," she assured her. "Unless of course there's a ghost…"

Mio scowled. "I'm not going in there."

"But there's no one inside!"

"That's not the point, Ritsu!" Mio yelled. Her hand balled up into a fist.

"I'll hold your hand. I won't let go and I won't say anything scary. I won't even talk at all," she pleaded.

"I don't get it. Why is this such a big deal to you for me to go in there? You can go in there, I'm not stopping you. I just can't—I just can't. I'll wait here for you," she told her friend with a soft smile on her face to hide the surfacing fear.

Ritsu resigned from her urging, "Ok, I'll go in there alone," she sighed. "I'm telling you, if I find gold I am not sharing." Ritsu stepped inside the abandoned house that was filled with nothing but dust, cobwebs and trash from kids who probably hang out there from time to time. Mio waited outside with her back turned towards the garden.

She could hear Ritsu's footsteps inside the house. She panicked a bit when she realized that something might jump at her from the garden. She turned towards the garden that was almost a jungle, but then the fear of Ritsu or someone else attacking her from the house made her spin around and eye the open door. She didn't want to be afraid anymore and wanted to leave the lot. It was frightening. She felt no solace or peace with where she was. Anything could attack her from any side. She sat down on the steps and covered her ears.

She began to feel how helpless she was and how she should have gone in with Ritsu. At least if she had gone in inside the house Ritsu will most definitely be there even if she was frightened out of her wits. Out here, she was alone and scared. She tried to rationalize it- how the chances of being killed in there were big. She didn't know the place inside well enough to plot an escape route. Out here, she'd just run for the street. She gulped. She'd been a horrible friend to have Ritsu go in such a dangerous place. Alone. She could die in there. Mio bit her lip. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if that happened even if it was Ritsu's fault to begin with.

There was a crash followed by a thud and a yell. Mio stood up immediately with her heart pounding in her throat. It was Ritsu's yell. Ritsu's hurt. Images of Ritsu dying and bleeding and assaulted racked her brain. Those vandals with knives, bats and other weapons. Angry at Ritsu for trespassing in their base. Beating Ritsu. Hurting her. The thought that she has fallen from the second floor came to mind. Ritsu with her limbs broken, and almost dying, and if she were to survive she would never be able play the drums again. Mio was scared. She was deathly worried. All these thoughts in her head made her weak.

"Ritsu?" she called out to the inside of the house. Her hands were shaking visibly. There was no answer "Ritsu?" she called out again. Louder this time.

"Mio?" a weak voice replied.

She ran into the house without a second thought. "Where are you?" she looked where she could. She walked around looking for Ritsu and unsettled most the dust along the way. She wandered into the corridors and slid open all the doors. She hated how much bigger the house was from the inside. "Ritsu?"

"I'm here," came the distant reply. "The stairs."

Mio sped up her pace. "Are you alone?" her voice shook.

"Yeah, pretty much."

She found her way to the back of the house and saw Ritsu sitting on the ground with her back towards her. Mio suddenly felt furious, "That's low of you, Ritsu. Yelling like that to get me in here," she yelled angrily. Ritsu didn't move. Mio raised her hand and wanted to strike her friend until she noticed the broken and splintered steps on the staircase.

"The termites ate through the wood," explained Ritsu without turning to her friend. "And I didn't really ask for you to come in here. No wait don't look—"

Mio walked around Ritsu and saw the copious amount of blood through the ripped jeans. No sound could escape her mouth. All the color drained from her face.

"It's just a cut, Mio. It's not really as bad as it looks," Ritsu explained quickly. She tried to cover the blood up with her hands. "Mio? Mio?"

Mio's knees gave under her weight. She can only remember Ritsu's panicked voice.

A/N: Sorry if it took so long, this was a lot harder to write for some reason and I had less time to do so. Classes are starting again tomorrow, I'll find time for this fic somehow. Also, on a completely unrelated note... watch Kanamemo. Yuuki and Yume are both completely worth it. They need more love.