Solving Cases is My Daily Life Now: Volume 3

Chapter 15

Rina managed to get a decent amount of sleep, if only because she forced herself to. It did nothing to ease her mind however, if anything it succeeded in making her mind more clear to what was upsetting her. Her best friend had betrayed her! Or maybe it was more accurate to say that she betrayed her best friend. Whichever it was, Rina found herself dwelling on it as she walked to school the morning after. She was further troubled when she saw Suzu looking guilty as she approached her.

"H-hey." She said with a meek wave, "Are y-you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm all right." Rina lied, like she almost always did, "How about you?"

"I'm a l-little worried." Suzu said, being honest like she always was, "I'm s-s-sorry I yelled at you yesterday."

"It's ok, Suzu." Rina replied, "I'm sorry for having an argument in your home like that. We ruined what was supposed to be a fun time."

"I underst-st-stand how you both feel. I've seen myself the r-relationship you've built with Masaru. He's p-p-precious to you, like he is to me." Suzu said, "But it must hurt Y-Yua to see you spend so much time with someone else, and n-n-not as much with her."

"Yeah..." Rina agreed quietly.

"I'm n-not an expert on friends. You and Masaru were my f-first. But I bet it's hard for her. S-s-so you need to make up soon!" Suzu said with a smile.

Rina gave Suzu a smile back, one that definitely wasn't genuine. She briefly considered telling Suzu about what Masaru had learned, but decided against it. She didn't want to tarnish Suzu's opinion of Yua, it wasn't her place to. They walked in silence after that, until they met up with Katsuo.

"So yesterday became pretty awkward." He said, tilting his head back when he looked at Rina.

"Sorry about that." Rina said, walking past him, "What happened after I left?"

"Nothing really." Katsuo said as he folllwed them, "Yua left, and I didn't stick around much longer after that."

"So Yua went home, too..." Rina said, looking down at the ground.

"Yeah. It sounds like you two have a lot of issues to work out." Katsuo grunted.

"We do." Rina agreed, only partially meaning the ones he was thinking of.

"Well, I hope everything works out for you." He said, putting his hands behind his head, "Maybe we can have a more peaceful study session, next time."

"H-hopefully." Suzu said, holding her bag in front of her, "Th-thank you for yesterday, by the way."

"What happened yesterday?" Rina asked, looking back at them.

Both of them looked in opposite directions.

"Nothing happened." Katsuo said simply.

Rina narrowed her eyes at Suzu, knowing her to be the weaker link.

"Suzu..." She said in a knowing tone.

Suzu's cheeks slowly puffed out as it became more and more difficult for her to keep it in.

"H-he just stayed for tea and h-h-helped me calm down!" She said, her face beet red by the time she spoke.

"Why does that have to be such a secret?" Rina asked.

"It's just easy for someone to get the wrong idea..." Katsuo said, looking back at Rina.

"Do you think, after all the situations I've been in with Masaru, I would judge a situation simply based on how it appears?" Rina asked, raising an eyebrow.