Tick-tock, sounded the clock hanging on the mail room wall.

From behind a desk at the far end of the room, Megurine Luka was watching that clock with a much-practiced patience. It was nearing half-past four, which meant that it wouldn't be too long until her shift here was over and she could get some more time in at a practice room. She had a concert coming up soon, and she was still singing more than a few notes in her aria with what she felt wasn't quite the right intonation.

Her job in the mail room was an inconvenience to her studies, but it gave her a steady source of income, and it certainly didn't count as heavy labor. All that was required of her on a daily basis was to sort any incoming mail into its respective mailbox and to give any students with a package slip their delivery from behind her counter. It was tedious work, but at least it was simple – that was why the pay was so low, of course, but Luka had nonetheless always thought that the rate was more than fair, especially given the relatively few hours she had to put in every week.

Luka wasn't in desperate need of the money – she had gotten into The Crypton Conservatory for the Musical Arts on a very generous scholarship, and the college fund her parents had saved up was more than enough to cover for the room and board – but she still preferred to have a bit of security should she ever find something worth buying, which admittedly didn't happen all that often. At least, not to the degree at which her friends spent their earnings: Lily seemed to have an endless supply of cash to provide for her equally infinite dates, and Meiko's room was apparently never without space for another internet-ordered curiosity. Luka never understood how either one of them managed to stay out of debt, considering that their incomes were just as meager as her own, but given the frugality of her own lifestyle she figured that she didn't have all that much reason to learn of their secret anyway.

The clock on the wall kept up its work, the bigger hand slowly nearing the bottom of its descent. Tick-tock, it continued to call in its mechanical voice.

Though Luka was looking forward to the end of her shift, it wasn't the main event she was anticipating at the moment. She had already distributed all the letters for today into their corresponding mailboxes, and the packages for the other students to claim (including yet another one addressed to Meiko) were all lying in order, ready to be given out once requested. All her work being finished, Luka could just ride out the rest of her shift by sitting behind her desk doing absolutely nothing, which she couldn't say she minded, since she had grown so accustomed to it after all the months she had spent practicing the routine. She wasn't reserving her excitement for the point where she could leave the silence and the tedium of the mail room; no, right now she was waiting for something far more interesting to happen, just as she had waited for it yesterday and would doubtlessly wait for it tomorrow.

Tick-tock, the clock on the wall said as its bigger hand finally swung down to the lowest point on its face. Expectantly, Luka turned her attention to the wooden, windowed doors at the other end of the mail room.

Mere moments later, a girl with long, twin-tailed teal hair pushed open the doors and meandered over to the towering rows of mailboxes a few yards away from the entrance. She stood on her tip-toes and stretched her arm far up, reaching for one of the upper mailboxes and, with a practiced precision, quickly rotated its dial about until the steel door clicked open. Standing as tall as she possibly could, the girl peeked into the metal interior, and, upon finding it empty, promptly slammed the door shut. Hastily, she shuffled towards the exit, then stopped at the doors, where she looked back at Luka with a curiously hesitant glance. Luka shot the girl a small wave and smile, both of which she nervously returned before quickly departing, leaving the mail room once again silent and empty.

Luka gave another few small waves as the girl left, then folded her arms back on the desk. This exact routine had been played out every day for the entire past semester, perhaps only a day or two after Luka had first started taking this shift. At first, she didn't even notice the pattern – the mysterious girl had been another student checking her mail, just like anybody else. But gradually, Luka began to realize that this same girl always came in at the same exact time every single day, and for all her dedication never left with a single piece of postage. No letters, no magazines, not even a postcard; without fail, she always went away empty handed.

All Luka knew about the girl was her name and mailbox number: Hatsune Miku and 3724, respectively. She had figured out the latter after watching the girl enough times to discern which mailbox she always opened, and the former by taking that mailbox number and checking it against the mail room records. Meiko had told Luka just how creepy she thought that was, but Luka had staunchly protested: first of all, she didn't look up any of the girl's personal information, and second, she would've made the connection anyway if the girl ever had to tell Luka her mailbox number (though admittedly, given the fact that she would only do that if she had forgotten her combination, the chances of that happening were pretty slim).

But somehow, it bothered Luka that she knew so little about the teal-haired girl. She seemed so shy and timid every time Luka saw her, always checking for her mail as quickly as possible - it was like she was spending a minimal amount of time in the mail room, as if simply being there made her nervous. Lily had mentioned that she sometimes saw her hanging around a couple of blonde-haired twins, which comforted Luka considerably: the girl seemed pleasant enough, and Luka didn't like the thought of her not having any friends (a fear she had begun to form after letting her observations of the girl's shy demeanor run a little wild). But Luka still saw something so heart-wrenchingly lonely about the girl's situation, an almost poetic tragedy. She was just like Hachiko waiting for his master at the train station, ever-loyal in following through with her self-appointed duty. Granted, it was probably in the best interests of every student to check their mailbox daily, but it was Miku's sheer, unerring devotion to the simple hope of mail that struck Luka as strangely romantic.

The wooden doors opened again, this time ushering in a woman with short, brown hair and a gleam in her eyes. It was Meiko, once again checking her mail while Luka was still on her shift.

"Yo, Luka!" she called, shooting the other woman a quick wave and grin. "Did my package come yet?"

"Why don't you just check for a slip in your mailbox like everybody else?" Luka asked. She never understood why Meiko seemed to think of her as her personal mail carrier. Even though she was her friend, she still had to uphold regulations.

"Fine, geez," Meiko grumbled. "I suppose you want me to fill it out, too?"

"That's what I make everyone else do."

Meiko groaned. "You know, it really wouldn't hurt to make this a bit easier for me, just once. I'd do the same for you if I worked a shift here."

"Sure, but then you wouldn't be working that shift very long," Luka replied. "I'm sorry, but I can't cut anyone that kind of favor; with no record that the package was received, it could just as easily have been lost in the mail, and that makes things harder for the people in charge. It's not like filling out the package claim is that much work, anyway."

The brunette plodded over to her mail box and opened it. "Well, it just gets tedious after you've done it so many times. Oh, it did come!" With a new-found giddiness, she pulled out a small blue slip of paper from her mailbox, then hopped over to Luka's desk after slamming the mailbox door back shut.

"You seem especially excited about this one," Luka remarked.

"Of course I am!" Meiko exclaimed as she began filling out the paper as quickly as she could. "You won't believe what I found this time - you know that painting with all the melting clocks, right?"

"Sure, Dalí."

Meiko's grin seemed to stretch past her cheeks. "Well, I found this clock online that's just like that! Like, it looks like it's melting or something, and you have to hang it off a shelf or a table because it's all bent in the middle - seriously, it's just so cool. You don't know how hard it was to wait the couple of days it took to get here."

"No, I really don't," Luka said dryly.

"Okay, fine, so I'm exaggerating a bit," Meiko said, sliding the completed slip over to Luka. "It's just so exciting to get a delivery, you know?"

"Sure," Luka replied. She took the slip and went off behind her desk in search of the package. Quickly finding it, she carried the small cardboard box over to the counter.

"Here you go," Luka said as she set the package in front of Meiko.

"Thanks," Meiko said. "So, how's your shift been? Nothing troublesome happened, I hope?"

"Not really," Luka replied. "Somebody got a huge shipment of books in, which was a huge pain to sort away, it was so heavy. I just hope whoever ordered them picks them up before my shift – I'd really prefer to not lug that box over to the counter."

"Did your mystery girl show up again?"

"Four-thirty, like always. And she still didn't get anything, either."

Meiko shook her head. "I really don't get why that bothers you so much. It's not like anybody uses the mail for anything other than bills and packages anymore, and neither of those are hard to get if you really want them."

"I don't know," Luka said. "It's like what you said, there's just something really special about getting that physical delivery. Actually opening up and reading a letter you're holding in your hands is worlds different from clicking open an email."

"But it's not very convenient to send them anymore, is the thing," Meiko said. "I don't know how you find the time to hand-write all those letters to your parents you keep making. You'd get more studying in if you'd just use email."

"True," Luka conceded, "but I still think it's worth it."

She knew hand-writing her correspondence with her parents took longer than some might prefer, the speed at which she wrote and edited on paper paling in comparison to that which she was capable of with a text box and keyboard, but the simple charm of sealing up the message in an envelope and dropping it off in a mailbox more than made up for it. The antiquity of the act held a special, almost incommunicable meaning for her: it was somehow more personal and heartfelt to speak through pen and paper instead of through electronic signals and a series of punched buttons. But maybe even more precious was the joy of getting that physical, material response, of peaking inside her own mailbox to discover a message sent back for her to read. Actually being able to see that envelope when she checked her mail made the reply more real, somehow, the surprise of finding it more concrete than that of an alert on an email client. The rarity of the responses made them even more meaningful, since it always meant that finding one was the slightest bit unexpected, like getting a new present a couple of days after your birthday. It was that exact feeling that Luka wished the teal-haired girl could have, even once, and she pitied her deeply for how repeatedly it was denied to her.

"Well, whatever," Meiko said. "It's still no reason to worry about that girl so much."

"But every time she walks in here, she just looks so lonely," Luka said. "Not to mention a bit anxious. It makes me wonder about her, what she's thinking about."

"I'm sure she has friends, if that's what's bothering you," Meiko said. "And you're starting to sound like a stalker again."

"I am not!" Luka protested. "It's not stalking to feel sorry for someone you don't know."

"Maybe, but I still say using the mail roster to find out her name crosses some kind of line."

"I told you already, that was just to give her some identity, nothing else. I thought it was a bit degrading to know her as just 'The Four-Thirty Mail Girl.'"

"I'm just saying, if you want to know more about her, you could try actually talking to her."

"But she seems so shy – I'm a little worried if I just spoke to her out of the blue she'd be frightened off."

Meiko sighed. "Well, at least I know you value your job enough not to read her mail or anything. I mean, if she ever got any." She gathered up the cardboard box and made for the door. "I'll see you later, then."

"See you," Luka replied as Meiko left the room. She refolded her arms over the counter and looked back up at the clock on the wall, wondering if it would be much longer before her shift ended.

Tick-tock, the clock said, eager to resume its long monologue now that some empty space had been presented to it. Patiently, Luka granted it the opportunity.

"I'm still not getting it quite right," Luka sighed as she leaned back against the nearby wall. "All those minor sixths in the melody keep tripping me up. Honestly, I feel like I'm a first year again."

"C'mon Luka, you'll get it down," Lily said, giving the pink-haired woman a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "I mean, you still have a week before you perform, right?"

"Three days," Luka said.

"Well, that's still plenty of time. Don't stress yourself out about this." Lily brushed a strand of her golden hair out of her face and stood up, grabbing another can of beer from the nearby mini-fridge. The appliance, despite its minuteness, managed to take up a lot of space in the small dorm room, but Luka didn't mind letting Lily keep it there. Even though it was mostly full of alcohol, Lily was plenty willing to share the space inside with Luka, who was thrilled to be able to have a cold soda in the evenings. Every time Luka tried to thank Lily for that, she always dismissed it – she would just say that it was only fair, considering it was Luka's room too.

"One more for me, too?" Meiko called from her own seat on the floor.

Lily nodded and tossed her a can, then held up another in Luka's direction, giving it an encouraging shake. "You want one, Luka? It'd help you calm down about this, I guarantee it."

"I'd rather start when I really need it, thanks," Luka replied.

The blonde shrugged. "Suit yourself," she said as she closed the fridge door and sat back down. "But you don't know what you're missing."

"I've seen you in the morning enough times to know exactly what I'm missing."

"Ah, Lily's just irresponsible with her liquor is all," Meiko said. "If you drink more carefully like me, you'll be fine."

Luka chuckled quietly. "Right. Sure." It was a pretty big stretch to call Meiko's drinking "careful."

"Hey, if she doesn't want any booze, that's fine. Leaves more for me, you know?" Lily cracked open her can with a loud, satisfying snap and took a long swig. "Although, it really would be good if you found some better way to unwind, Luka. I can't stand seeing you stretched so thin all the time."

"You don't have to worry about me," Luka said dismissively. "I'm not as busy as either of you, and you're both doing fine."

"Well, I've got a job and classes, sure," Meiko said, "but honestly Luka, how can you say that? I mean, how many clubs did you join this semester?"

"Four," Luka said. "But, I mean, I'm planning on dropping out of one or two."

"But that's on top of classes and private lessons," Lily pointed out.

"Didn't you say your workload for those was getting pretty heavy?" Meiko asked.

"I guess I did," Luka admitted. It was true that now she was expected to devote more and more time to her studies and practicing, if only to meet the growing expectations of her professors, and she couldn't really dismiss the weight all that was piling up on her shoulders. She had ways of making things easier, though; for example, right now she was trying her best not to think about the fact that her choir had a concert coming up in a week, which was making her considerably more comfortable with the fact that she had a music history paper due in two days. Of course, her upcoming music theory test wouldn't leave her head, and she couldn't say she was looking forward to reviewing the rather haphazard notes she'd been taking lately.

She finally sighed in defeat. "All right. So maybe I'm a little stressed. But it's not like I'm overwhelmed or anything."

Lily suddenly snapped her fingers. "I got it!" she cried. "I should set you up with someone! That ought to take your mind off things for a while."

"Really?" Luka asked, unamused.

"C'mon, Lily, that's your answer for everything," Meiko said. "Remember when I found out my dog back home died? You said I should just get a one-night stand and I'd feel better."

"Well, what can I say, it works for me," Lily replied, shrugging. "Oh, and by the way, Luka, would you mind making yourself scarce around midnight tonight? I'm seeing that girl from yesterday again, and I've got a feeling things are gonna go pretty well tonight, know what I mean?"

Luka groaned. "Fine. I needed to spend some time in the library anyway." She knew she should be used to these little surprises from Lily by now, but she still couldn't help but get frustrated by the sheer number of times that it came up.

"Thanks, Luka, you're the best!" Lily said, grinning. "I'll ask her if she has a friend, all right?"

"I really don't see how a relationship would make me less stressed, Lily. I'm busy enough without a significant other to look after."

Lily gave a loud laugh. "You make it sound like a chore! Trust me, the benefits outweigh the costs by a long shot."

"Funny, I always thought those benefits came with age," Meiko said dryly.

"Hey, a girl's allowed to shop around, isn't she? Besides, ''tis better to have loved and lost', right?"

"Well, in any case, a blind date doesn't really seem right for Luka." Meiko took a sip of her beer, when suddenly her face lit up with inspiration. "Wait! Why don't you hook up with that Four-Thirty Mail Girl you keep going on about?"

"Wha –?" Luka gasped out in shock.

"Whoa, that's actually a really good idea!" Lily said. "I mean, you do keep talking about how you want to know more about her."

"But date her?"

"It'd kill two birds with one stone."

"I told you, I'm not looking for a relationship," Luka asserted. She paused, briefly contemplating her friends' rapid assumptions. "But, you do have a point. I would like to get to know her. To be honest, I think it'd be nice just to meet new people."

"So just talk to her the next time she comes to the mail room," Meiko said. "Take her to dinner or something, it'll be great!"

"But, that's so unprofessional," Luka said. "I can't just ask people to hang out while I'm at work, especially people I don't know."

"Sorry Meiko, but she's right," Lily said. "Once, when I was working as a waitress a few years ago, I tried flirting with a customer after bringing her the check. Not only did I get turned down, I almost lost my job." She shook her head and took another swig of beer. "Mistake I learned from fast."

"Well then, what's Luka supposed to do?" Meiko said, a bit frustrated. "Just hope to run into her out on the campus somewhere?"

"It's a lot safer than the other options, trust me."

"Wait," Luka said, a thought suddenly ringing inside her. "Why don't I just write her a letter?"

Lily and Meiko both stared blankly at her a long moment.

"Really?" Meiko finally said. "You're going to use your job to try to meet her?"

"Well, why not?" Luka asked.

Meiko groaned angrily. "The only reason you even know her name is because you looked her up on the mailing records, and now you want to use that personal information to contact her? Honestly, tell me how that's not stalking."

"It's not like I'm going to harass her or anything," Luka protested. "I just happen to know her mailbox number, that's all. What's wrong with using it?"

"Would you call her if you just 'happened' to have her phone number?"

Luka sighed. "It's not just for me, you know. I mean, if I wrote her, she'd finally have something in her mailbox the next time she checks it. I think I'm more interested in seeing that happen than in anything else, really."

"I should've known you'd have noble intentions like that," Lily said, grinning. "You're always so chivalrous, Luka. It's a great way to pick up girls, you should keep at it."

"It still sounds a bit shady to me," Meiko mumbled.

"So then," Lily said, "why don't you write this letter tonight and send it off tomorrow morning? Since it's just campus mail, it'd probably be in her mailbox the next time she checks it. Then, bam! You can talk to her for real!"

Luka was about to agree, but stopped herself as a new realization suddenly hit her. "Wait a second," she said. "I can't do that."

"Why not?" Lily asked, puzzled.

"She can't know I mailed her a letter!" Luka said. "I mean, she already knows that I see her check her mail everyday. If she finds out I'm the sender, she'll think I just sent it out of pity."

"Or that you're stalking her," Meiko said. "But really, isn't it just out of pity?"

"Well... partly, yes," Luka admitted. "But she can't know that. It'd be like getting a consolation prize after losing a game a hundred times, you know? There wouldn't be anything special about it anymore."

"But it's not like she knows your name or address," Lily pointed out.

"She'll figure it out if we meet, though," Luka said. "Or if she goes to one of my concerts or something."

Lily murmured agreement and took another few sips of her beer, thinking. "Well, why don't you use a fake name, then?" she suggested. "You can just keep yourselves anonymous for this. I mean, people do anonymous email exchanges."

"That's even creepier than before," Meiko said.

"Sorry Lily, but Meiko's right," Luka said. "This girl seems really timid, and if she thinks a stranger got ahold of her mailbox number she'll be especially terrified. What I really need is some excuse to contact her that I can still hide behind, something more... official, I guess."

There was a brief silence, then Lily suddenly snapped her fingers.

"That's it!" she cried. "You need to make an organization!"

"I... need to found a company?" Luka asked, completely perplexed.

"No, Luka, I mean a student organization, a club. You'd just make an unofficial club that writes people letters!"

Luka continued to stare at the blonde in confusion. "A… letter-writing club? One that sends letters to random people?"

"No, just people on their mailing list," Lily said knowingly. "And your Four-Thirty Mail Girl's mailbox number somehow managed to get on that list," she added with a wink.

"So, let me get this straight," Meiko said. "You're going to make up a whole club – one that supposedly got this girl's mailing address, purely on accident – just to send one letter anonymously? That's not just creepy, that's ridiculous."

"But, it could work, couldn't it?" Luka said. "She'd probably wonder why she'd never heard of this group or why no one else she knows got any letters from them, but couldn't we explain that by saying it's a new club?"

"I'd buy it," Lily said.

"It just sounds like a difficult facade to keep up," Meiko said. "Sooner or later, she'll find out there is no 'letter-writing club.' That's just how lies are – they all get found out eventually."

"I won't send her letters every day or anything," Luka countered. "It'll just be this once, and then, who knows, maybe I'll be able to talk to her somewhere else. But all I'd really like is to see her get one letter, to not walk out of that mail room empty-handed for once."

Meiko sighed. "Well, when you put it like that, it's hard to say you're actually being some kind of creep. Just, don't ask her anything weird in your letter, okay?"

"Why don't I help with writing that?" Lily offered. "A bit of my expertise wouldn't hurt, after all."

"That'd definitely let something weird get in," Meiko muttered.

"Sounds great," Luka said, smiling.

"And that settles it!" Lily said merrily before taking a celebratory swig of her beer. "C'mon Meiko, you too."

The brunette sighed. "Fine," she said, then took a long gulp of her drink. "I still can't say I'm totally behind this, though. Really, the only reason I'm even comfortable with it is that I know you won't do anything questionable."

"Thanks, Meiko," Luka said. "I think." She didn't really understand her friend's suspicion, since she truly didn't hold any impure intentions. All she wanted was to make that poor girl's waiting worthwhile, even for just one day, to let her open her mailbox and discover the gift of an envelope. But, if Luka managed to learn a bit more about the mysterious girl in the process, that would be okay, too.

"It'll go fine, Meiko, I'll make sure of that," Lily said, setting her now-empty can of beer aside. "The hardest part for Luka now is how she's going to set up a fake club in a day."

"Actually," Luka said contemplatively, "I have an idea about that..."

A/N: So, this was just a random plot that popped into my head one day after a random visit to my own mail room. I promise I won't abandon my other story, of course, but I hope this proves to be something a bit more fun!