Nagisa looks a bit annoyed by Kokoro's presence as her mom introduces her to the children.
"Yes, she's a very nice girl," her mom says, giving Nagisa a small smile.
Kokoro can't help but notice that there's something... off about Nagisa's look.
She looks.... bothered. Annoyed.
Kokoro's eyes narrow slightly, as she watches Nagisa closely.
The parents went into the backyard to talk away, leaving the three children alone... Nagisa frowns, crossing her arms as she glares at Kokoro, before smiling at Hajime.
"Tsuruya, let's go act out a play! C'mon, let's leave this pig alone!"
She says, smiling as she dragged him away, only for Hajime to escape her grasp on his hand.
"N--No, Nagisa, we gotta invite Kokoro! Besides, this is her home!"
He exclaimed, a bit scared.
"Invite her?! Don't be silly!"
Nagisa scoffs, giving Kokoro a side eye.
Kokoro watches as Nagisa tries to drag Hajime away, and Hajime does his best to stand up to her.
But... something about her tone bothers her. Why is Nagisa trying to leave? Why is she calling her a... a pig?
"What... what did I do?" Kokoro asks, her eyes narrowed slightly as she tries to understand Nagisa's actions.
She feels like... Nagisa... has a problem with her, for some reason. But why?
"Nagisa, if Kokoro can't come, then I'm not going either!"
Hajime says sternly, frowning slightly, his eyebrows furrowed.
"Wh--Whaaat?! Hajime, you can't just say no.. You really can't!"
Nagisa exclaims, shaking her head all frantic.
Kokoro can feel the tension building in the air.
She can hear the strain in Nagisa's voice as she tries to get Hajime to leave. She can see the irritation in Hajime's eyes as he stands up to her.
Why does Nagisa... dislike Kokoro so much?
"So..."
Kokoro says, her tone even and flat,
"We're all gonna hang out together."
Suddenly, her words cut through the air like a knife.
"Deal with it."
"A--Ah!"
Nagisa yelps, taken aback by Kokoro's words, she takes a few steps back, until she huffs, and nods.
"Well then, fine! ONLY if you perform to your very best, you snobby cow!"
She lets out a snort and laughs a bit.
Kokoro's jaw drops as she hears Nagisa's words.
"S... snobby cow."
For a moment, Kokoro is speechless.
She glances over at Hajime, who is just as surprised as she is.
"What... what did she just call me?"
She looks back over at Nagisa, her eyes narrowed.
"Alright then, let's go! Haha, hey, c'mon!"
Exclaims Nagisa, going upstairs in a blink of an eye, totally disregarding Kokoro's glare.
"Hey, wait! apoligize, Nagi...Sa.."
Before Hajime could call her out properly... Nagisa was already gone and upstairs.
"Ah.. She's fast.."
Said Hajime, a bit surprised, as he followed suit.
Kokoro stares at the disappearing form of Nagisa as she storms off.
Snobby cow?
Why did she say that?
Did she...
Does Nagisa... hate her?
She looks over at Hajime, as he rushes off after Nagisa.
She sighs, and follows them upstairs.
Nagisa is clearing her own backpack by the time Kokoro is in her own room... Nagisa.. She really brought a backpack full of scripts and cameras.. Just who was this pre-schooler?!
Kokoro's eyes widen at the sight of Nagisa's backpack, clearly filled with some kind of equipment.
What is she planning on do--
Wait a minute...
Is... Is she planning on filming them?
"Nagisa?"
Kokoro clears her throat and stares at Nagisa, waiting for her to notice.
"What do you want, trash?"
Nagisa snaps, her eyes piercing through Kokoro.
"Trash?"
Kokoro feels her face go red with irritation at Nagisa's words. She can't believe the other girl would call her that.
"Hey!"
Kokoro exclaims angrily..? Crossing over to Nagisa.
"Don't call me trash!"
Nagisa huffs and rolls her eyes, still putting away her equipment.
"Whatever, Kokoro. Maybe you're just jealous that I have a talent, unlike you."
Nagisa throws some papers into her backpack.
Nagisa gives papers to Kokoro and Hajime, while pouting.
"Now, listen here you two! We're auditioning for 2 roles for a movie! If we're lucky, we can make it! So you better be acting your VERY BEST!"
She shouted, a stern expression on her face...
"What- a movie..?"
Kokoro was stunned. A movie? And she was expected to act in it? She had never acted before in her entire life! Was this Nagisa crazy?
"Oh gosh..."
Kokoro muttered to herself, as she took the papers from Nagisa.
Hajime just smiled nervously. Nagisa was always the bossy one when it came to these types of things.
"O-okay... we'll do our best,"
Hajime replied, gulping.
Nagisa took a deep breath, before speaking.
"Okay, let's start by doing our lines.. Read them carefully, I HATE mistakes!"
She said sternly, crossing her arms.
Hajime and Kokoro quickly scanned through their papers. The role that Hajime had to play was a prince, which seemed pretty generic, but not too difficult.
Unfortunately, Kokoro had the role of 'The creepy ogre'. This wasn't fair, and she was about to voice her objection.
But she knew it was hopeless trying to argue with Nagisa.
"The creepy og--"
Kokoro stopped herself from finishing her sentence. After a moment, she sighed.
"Okay..."
Kokoro looked at her lines.
"The creepy ogre!"
Why was that her name?
What kind of story was Nagisa planning on making? What in the world?!
There was a part of Kokoro that wanted to protest. To ask Nagisa why she had to be a creepy ogre. But she didn't want to cause any trouble.
"I'll do my best to be a creepy ogre," Kokoro mumbled.
After a long while of rehearsing, Nagisa placed the camera, turned it on and then stood proudly in the middle of the two other kids as she spoke with pride.
"Hello, my name is Nagisa Ogawa, this is Kokoro Miura and this is Hajime Tsuruya! Us three are here to audition for the 2 open roles in your movie! Haha, three come in, two come out, I suppose!"
Kokoro couldn't help but notice that Nagisa was treating this like it was serious, like they were actually auditioning for a real movie. She was doing everything perfectly, the way she posed, the way she spoke, the way she moved her head to the side in just the right way to make it look like she was acting, as if this was how you should act on camera.
"H-hey, wait.."
Kokoro looked at Nagisa curiously, and it wasn't long until Hajime also spoke up.
"But Nagisa, what movie are we actually auditioning for?"
"The Grudge remake!"
Nagisa said, proudly, after she stopped the camera from recording.
Kokoro was stunned, as was Hajime who looked at Nagisa in disbelief.
"You can't be serious!"
Hajime said, "The Grudge? As in, the horror movie? This is just a joke, right?"
Kokoro just watched the whole exchange in shock and fascination. She had known Nagisa for some time now, and although she was a bit on the strange side, she hadn't expected that Nagisa would do something this outrageous!
"Nope, this is totally real!"
Nagisa giggled.
"I've seen the movie myself, it isn't that scary!"
"Wait, Nagisa has actually seen The Grudge?"
Kokoro wondered to herself,
"I thought it was too scary for her... but now she's saying it's not even scary?"
She was confused.
"What's going on?" Hajime asked Nagisa.
Kokoro couldn't help but feel like this was all some big joke. But... Nagisa seemed dead serious.
"We're auditioning for The Grudge, silly Hajimeee!~"
Nagisa blushing a bit as she looked at Hajime, before taking out more papers.
"Now, the prince and ogre stuff was just the beginning, you both have the same creepy kid scripts, and so do i!"
She said, giggling as she handed out the papers.
"Creepy kid scripts..?"
Kokoro looks at her paper and notices that she has been cast as the "Creepy kid" too. What was going on with these scripts?
"Why are there two roles for the 'Creepy Kid'?"
Hajime, confused, said.
Nagisa just giggled nervously and looked down for a moment.
"Oh.. it's supposed to be a surprise."
"What?"
Kokoro, confused, said.
"You heard me, pig-face...!"
Scoffed Nagisa, as she gave her a stink eye.
"Pig-face...?"
Kokoro's eyes go wide with surprise and indignation.
"What did you just call me, Nagisa?"
"You heard me, I called you a pig-face. Because you look like one, you fat sow."
Nagisa's tone is dripping with contempt, as she looks at Kokoro with a mixture of disdain and anger.
This was a side of Nagisa that Kokoro hadn't seen before. She felt her heart pounding as she looked at the other girl, unable to feel shocked and horrified.
Kokoro and Nagisa locked eyes, neither saying a word for a long moment.
Then, Nagisa smiled.
"I'm just joking," Nagisa said, her tone softer now. "You're not *that* ugly."
Kokoro was stunned, and she couldn't help but feel annoyed at Nagisa's behavior.