My Friend the Harem Protagonist

Chapter 43: A Meeting of Might and Minds

I'd probably consider Karin to be neutral. A few months ago she'd been an enemy, especially on the night Juri and I had fought against her and Ayami. The only connection I had to Karin was through Ayami, and Ayami was more of my supervisor than my friend. So I was really surprised when she invited me out to get a smoothie.

She didn't even have to order her smoothie. She walked right in and the guy behind the counter started throwing something together. By the time we'd reached the front of the line hers was ready to go. I felt a little awkward since she had to wait for him to make my blended iced coffee.

We sat down across from each other without much to say. Unlike Juri or Ayami, Karin seemed content to wait the silence out. My boss or my girlfriend would have immediately begun talking about a form I'd filled out wrong, or getting rid of something from her permanent record. I think I preferred that to the silence between me and Karin.

Finally I couldn't take it anymore. "So why'd you invite me out here?" I asked.

She finished her sip before answering. "I wanted to check on something," she said. Without saying what that something was she went for another long sip.

Was this her game plan? To throw me off balance with these mind games? Underestimating Karin would be a bad idea, especially since she could throw me through the window if she wanted. The caffeine might have been getting to me but the silence meant I had time to keep taking sips from my coffee.

"I got a text from Shin after I got out of the hospital, and I wanted to know if you gave him the idea?"

I thought about it for a second. Did I tell Shin to say something nice to Karin? I thought I told him to say something nice to Miyu. Sometimes when I give him advice I really don't think about all the consequences.

It was probably better to be ambiguous. "I might have, but I'm sure it wasn't a big deal."

"No, it meant a lot to me. If you'd do something like that for me, despite all the times we've fought then I'd have to really rethink our blood feud."

That sounded dangerously like something Masaki would say. It still scared me how psychotic all these girls were about Shin. I'd been dating someone for a few months, and she never checked if someone put me up to texting her.

"He didn't get Shin to send that, I did." We both looked up and saw Aya standing by our table. She pulled the hood of her sweatshirt down. Guess that was why we didn't notice her until now. Karin tensed up like a snake. Her face went pale and her hands clutched the edge of the table as though she were about to push off from it. "Relax, I'm not here to fight you." She sat down. "I wanted to check something I'd been worried about."

Like an idiot, I started talking. "I get that Shin's your boyfriend, but that doesn't mean you can-"

"Shush Haru. Karin inviting you out here shows a lot. That night when I punched Ayami you were all enemies, but now she'd consider that you'd do something as nice as get Shin to reach out to her."

"What's your point?" Karin asked.

"My point is that I liked it better when you were all at each other's throats. You kept each other busy and out of my way. So I'm offering an ultimatum: either you break up the truce or I break it up for you."

Karin and I glanced at each other. Aya had read the situation completely wrong. The idea that we were all on the same side against her was insane. The only reason the cease fire worked was because I'm so good at cooking.

"Well it might take awhile, there are a lot of us to convince."

"I've taken care of that already." Aya looked at Karin. "We already know you can't beat me, and I've shown Masaki that she's vulnerable. Convincing everyone should be easy. You have until the end of the week, otherwise I won't stop until you're all out of my way." She stood up and strode out the front door. Karin finally exhaled and stopped gripping the table.

"You alright?" I asked.

Karin scowled at me. "Shut up. What are we going to do about this?"

"I don't know, but we need to let everyone know. You can tell Ayami and I'll tell Juri. Then Juri can tell Masaki and Miyu."

"Why should I listen to you?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Do you want to tell Masaki and Miyu?" Karin looked like she was about to say something but stopped. Her posture shifted from tense to resigned. Something was bothering her, but not in an Aya-is-here-imminent-danger kind of way. "Do you want me to call Ayami over?" I asked.

She looked at me sideways. "What, why?"

"You'd probably rather talk to her than me, about..." I trailed off and let her fill in the blank. It probably wasn't a good idea to spitball how she was feeling.

"No, you don't need to do that. I'll talk to her later, she'll understand."

Something both of them understood? "So it's a Shin issue?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm just..." she wrestled with whether to tell me or not. "I'm sad he didn't actually want to reach out to me. It feels like he was faking it."

For a second I wanted to ask how that was any different from when she thought I told Shin to reach out to her. Maybe it had something to do with her rivalry with Aya, either way I didn't question it. We sat together in silence sipping our smoothies.

"Can I ask you something?" I said. I was really feeling the caffeine now and I wanted a question answered.

"I guess."

"I know Juri cheated a lot, but how was she at judo when she wasn't cheating?"

Karin barked out a laugh then cleared her throat. "Put it this way: she let a lot of talent go to waste. She could have been a much better judo student if she'd spent more time practicing than breaking the rules."

"Well there's no chance of that," I said.

Karin chuckled and finished her smoothie. "I'm glad she met you, it keeps her out of my hair." She stood up and headed out the front door. For a second I figured I was paying for both of us but then I looked down and saw she'd slipped a 500 yen note under my drink somehow. She really was a prince. It was a shame she was so obsessed with Shin, otherwise she could have had any girl in school.

Author's note: I can't decide whether to start uploading my next long project once this is done, or do a few short ones. I'll probably flip a coin.

-SleepEasy