If Jealousy Could Kill

Chapter 9: Strange Behavior

Mami followed behind the worried brunette, her hands shoved into her jean pockets. Rina was worrying for no reason really. Mami had told her Haruna was at her house last night, but Rina didn’t believe her. The blonde couldn’t say she blamed her. Rina had a habit of over-worrying. It was like a second nature for Rina to over-worry about things and assume the worst, especially when it came to Haruna. But that was perfectly well-deserved; Haruna had gotten herself in enough sticky situations to force Rina to worry about her when she didn’t return home for the night. Mami really wasn’t much better; those two were more alike than they’d like to admit. The two of them had a habit of causing trouble when they went out alone, so the idea of Haruna and Mami being out all night alone was only making Rina worry more.

“You know she’ll tell you the same thing I did,” Mami said. The brunette waved her hand at her absentmindedly, refusing to answer. The two girls were headed towards Haruna’s work where Rina intended to fully question the brunette as to why she didn’t come home last night. All Mami had told her was that she needed Haruna’s help last night, she’d made sure to leave out the details about kidnapping Tomomi and Haruna. She thought it would be best if Haruna told the young girl about the matchmaking Mami had done, she’d probably take it better if Haruna told her.

Tomomi and Haruna may be oblivious people, but Mami wasn’t. She could see the way Rina looked at Haruna; she could see that Rina liked her. But at the same time, it looked like nothing more than a simple and small crush born out of Rina’s admiration for the older girl. Nothing serious and something she’d get over eventually. Everyone got those crushes and everyone got over them at some point. She’d found out about the feelings ages ago, but she’d never seen Rina even try to make a move on Haruna. So she just figured it wasn’t a very serious feeling if she wasn’t going to make a move after all this time.

Mami did feel slightly bad the next morning for what she had done when she remembered about Rina, she’d completely forgotten about that at the time. She hadn’t really thought about how Rina would feel. She was so concerned with Tomomi’s well-being that she didn’t think of how the new relationship would affect the youngest of the group. Sometimes Mami’s hotheaded ideas got her into trouble, and this might be one of those times.

There was a possibility Rina would be upset when she found out, but Mami already had a plan prepared for her if she was upset. She’d been planning this for a while, and what better time to do it than now? Everyone always said not to play matchmaker with your friends, but Mami never did learn to listen to people. Besides, it was working out well so far. When the time came, Mami would be at Rina’s aid just as she’d been at Tomomi and Haruna’s aid. It would be a bit more difficult to work her magic on Rina, but she knew she could help the young girl when the time came for it.

The girls finally made it to the familiar little café, pushing open the glass doors and walking over to the service area. Finishing cleaning one of the tables, Haruna looked over in the direction that the tiny bell above the door had rung in, a small smile coming to her face when she saw Mami and Rina. She was in too much of a good mood to be mad at them for harassing her at work again. She picked up the cleaning bucket she’d thrown the dishes into, making her way quickly over to one of her co-workers.

“Can you take these back for me? I’ll handle them,” Haruna asked, motioning her head towards the front of the restaurant. All of her co-workers knew Rina and Mami, they’d come in enough times when she was working that they were recognized regular customers. Her co-worker agreed grabbing the bucket from her before Haruna walked briskly over to the front of the café.

“Good morning, Haru,” Mami greeted, waving to her. Haruna ignored her, turning her full attention to Rina. The blonde couldn’t help but laugh at Haruna’s antics. Although the night had ended well for her, Haruna still wasn’t happy about being locked in the room the entire night. In addition to Haruna refusing to acknowledge Mami for the time being, the blonde also now had a bruise on her shoulder. When Mami had let Tomomi and Haruna out, the eldest girl had punched Mami in the shoulder, leaving her a nice sized bruise as payback for the kidnapping. Who knew the tiny girl could hit so hard?