Mami stretched out on the bed, her hands propped up behind her head as she stared at Yukako. The slightly older brunette took a seat at her desk before turning to face Mami. The two girls were holed up in Yukako’s room now, both of them preparing to discuss how exactly they were going to accomplish Haruna’s task she had for them.
"So how do you want to do this?" Yukako asked her straight away. They both knew it was better to get the planning done soon so they could relax. There was no use in stalling. The quicker they got this done, the quicker they could report back to Haruna. Even if Haruna had told them they could take their time, they knew they had to get it done by next week. If they didn’t have an answer for Haruna when she checked back, both of them were going to be in trouble for it.
"I'm not sure. Tomomi is planning to see us tomorrow, isn't she?" Mami pointed out.
"That is true but she's not supposed to meet us until late afternoon so there's a chance she could pull something in the morning," Yukako added in. Mami hummed softly, nodding her head. They were going to see Tomomi as they did every weekend, which meant they would need to find a way to get to her before or after she met up with them.
"Let's head to her house in the morning, I know her parents leave around 9 am. We could wait for her to leave the house and then follow her. We’ll just see what she does and where she goes, it might lead us somewhere," Mami suggested. Yukako raised an eyebrow at Mami's suggestion.
"Just how do you know when Tomomi's parents leave?" Yukako asked her. Mami scoffed and rolled her eyes while Yukako smirked at her. She knew it. She could see how attached Mami was becoming. "Did you go harass Tomo at home?"
"Shut up, Yukako," Mami huffed out. The older brunette giggled at her huff. She was making this far too obvious. Yukako and Mami had grown close since they first met last year; Yukako had learned lots of valuable knowledge about how Mami acted. She could see things others couldn't.
"So is that our plan then?" Yukako asked to redirect the conversation back to the original topic. She could harass Mami more about this later. For now, they needed to keep planning so they could pull this off without Tomomi ever finding out about it.
Mami was going to respond but she was cut off when her phone rang loudly. She groaned softly, it was probably her mother bugging her about why she wasn't home yet. She had yet to tell her mother that she wasn’t coming home tonight; she didn’t really feel like it was important. After all, her mother often disappeared for nights without telling her so this was only fair. With a huff, Mami shoved herself up into a sitting position and grabbed her phone off of Yukako's end table.
She looked at the name flashing on the called I.D and she was shocked to see it was Haruna who was calling instead.
"What's up?" Mami asked when she answered the phone.
"Mami, I don't have much time to talk. Do you know anyone who can let Rina stay with them?" It was only a few seconds into the call but Mami was already beginning to worry from the rushed and worried tone of Haruna’s voice.
"Is something wrong?"
"My parents came home and they brought... It's not important, I just need a place to take Rina and I need one now." Mami could feel a sense of dread creep up on her. It must be something bad if even Haruna didn't want to say it aloud.
"I'm not sure whose parents are out; let me ask Yukako if she knows." Mami could hear a soft 'okay' come from Haruna before she lowered the phone and turned to the brunette in the room. The shorter girl raised an eyebrow at Mami, only having picked up bits and pieces from what she could hear Mami saying.
"What is it?" Yukako asked.
"Haruna says that Rina needs some place to go. Do you know if any of the girls can let her stay for a while?"
"Awhile? No, but she can come over here for tonight. We'll tell my parents what we told them with you. We'll just tell them that she's helping us with our school project."
Mami nodded in agreement, it would be a good excuse even if Rina was a grade below them. Mami had planned to stay over at Yukako's tonight and they had simply told her parents that they needed to catch up on a school project, her parents bought it easily. It was just lucky for them that it was a weekend, which made it easier to convince them.
"Hey, Haru, we've got somewhere for her to stay for tonight. Bring her to Yukako's," Mami spoke into the receiver again.
"Are her parents at home?" Mami could tell by the tone of Haruna's voice that she didn't like the idea of bringing Rina over to Yukako's if her parents were home but Mami also knew that Haruna was desperate. If this was her only option, Haruna probably wouldn’t reject the idea.
"Well yes they are but hear us out. We told her parents that I'm staying the night to work on a school project; we can tell them the same thing for Rina. It'll work out; I promise that we’ll take good care of her.”
"Are you sure about that?"
"I'm positive about it. Everything will be fine, just trust me on this, okay?" Mami was met with silence after she had spoken. She could hear a soft sigh before Haruna spoke again.
"All right, we'll head over there. We'll be there soon," Haruna agreed. The two girls exchanged their quick goodbyes before hanging up, Mami tossing the phone back onto the end table.
Instantly, Mami's mind began running. Haruna's tone sounded so desperate, she didn't understand why if it was just her parents. Haruna had snuck Rina past them multiple times with no problem and she had never sounded this desperate when they popped back home unexpectedly. It didn't make sense for her to suddenly be scared of them, there had to be something more.
"What are we going to do about tomorrow's plan now?" Yukako asked, bringing Mami's attention back to her. Mami flopped herself back down into the bed, resuming her previous position. The plan wouldn’t change; they would just have to pass Rina off to someone else before the left to go keep an eye on Tomomi.
"We'll drop Rina off at someone else's house tomorrow morning and say Haruna gave us a task, she'll understand. We just have to be vague when explaining it to her if she asks; Haruna will let her know what she asked of us if she wants Rina to know. If we leave early enough, we can get this done."
"Of course we can get it done... But that requires you waking up earl on a Saturday," Yukako said with amusement in her tone. Mami rolled her eyes at Yukako's teasing, turning her body away from the slightly older girl.
For this, Mami would have no problem waking up early.
***
"So why did Haruna need you to leave?" Yukako asked the young girl who had taken a seat on the foot of the bed. Mami was still laying down but she now was curled up on her side, giving Rina enough room on the bottom.
Rina shrugged her shoulders, her hands beginning to pick at her skirt. She had only been here for a few minutes but she already wanted to leave. It was nothing against Mami or Yukako; she simply didn't want to leave Haruna alone. She wanted to stay by Haruna's side but the older girl had insisted she leave. When Haruna insisted something, it was hard to change her mind and Rina didn’t particularly want to fight her about it.
"Her parents came home," Rina spoke finally. Both Mami and Yukako could hear the tone of her voice; they both knew there was something else that Rina wasn't telling them.
"Is that all?" Yukako asked. Rina glanced up at her through her brown locks before slowly nodding her head. She wanted to tell them both about that woman but she found two problems with that. For one, she didn't even know who the woman was and for two, she didn't know if Haruna would like her telling Mami and Yukako about it or not.
"That was it. Haru just didn't want me getting in trouble so she had me leave," Rina explained. Yukako and Mami exchanged glances that said the same thing, neither one believed Rina's words.
They didn't want to push it though; they knew that Rina probably didn't want to talk about what had actually happened. It made Mami worry more though. Things were so fragile for Haruna and she was so keen on hiding her problems that Mami worried when things happened.
"Well don't worry, Rina. You're good to stay here tonight. We'll figure out something more permanent tomorrow when we meet with the others," Yukako told her.
"Thanks... I'm sorry for being such a burden..."
"You're not a burden," Mami defended instantly. She hated it when Rina spoke about herself like that. She didn't give herself enough credit and Mami hated the insults she often had to say about herself.
"Definitely not! We don't mind helping you out. After all, what are friends for?" Yukako gave Rina a big smile to which the young brunette nodded her head with a small smile. She didn't know what she would do if she didn't have friends like these girls.
"Thank you," Rina murmured with a smile.
"Tomorrow morning, we need to get up early. We'll take you over to one of the other girls' houses," Mami began to explain.
"Why do you need to do that?" Rina cut her off before her explanation could get much farther. Mami looked at Yukako, the younger brunette nodding in a way that told Mami this as all on her to explain. Mami shot her a glare for passing off the responsibility before she turned her attention back to Rina.
"Yukako and I have a project to do for Haruna." Rina furrowed her eyebrows at Mami's statement, clearly not impressed with it. Rina's mind thought back to the time from earlier and the worry she had felt back then came back to her. This 'project' must be related to that talk they had.
"What project is this?" Rina wasn't expecting an answer but she thought she'd give it a shot anyway.
"It's nothing big, just some small task from her. You know how she gets," Mami responded with a shrug. Rina pouted at the answer, she knew it wasn't something small like Mami implied but she knew Mami wouldn't say any more. She wasn’t in the mood to argue with anyone or try to pry an answer out of Mami. It was best just to drop it.
Rina turned away from Mami, her eyes diverting to the ground as she let out a soft sigh. Her mind was trailing back to Haruna again. She wondered if Haruna made it home safely. If she did, did she run into that woman again? That woman gave Rina a bad feeling, she really didn't like her. It gave her chills just thinking about the feeling that woman had given Rina during their run-in in the kitchen.
"Why don't we do something?" Yukako suggested. "We can't just sit here bored all night."
"What do you suggest we do?" Mami asked. Yukako stayed silent for a bit, her head tilted to the side as she thought of what the girls could do.
"Why don't we play some video games?" She suggested. Mami got a grin in her face but Rina only groaned.
"But Mami always wins!" Rina complained. She could hear Mami laugh and say something from behind her. Rina resisted the urge to glare at her.
"Come on, Rina. Maybe you'll get lucky this time," Mami commented. Rina huffed at her sarcastic comment, how typical of her.
"Let's team up, Rina! Mami can't beat the two of us together," Yukako said. Rina grinned at her plan, nodding her head.
"Hey! That's unfair," Mami complained now. Rina only giggled before hopping off the bed and bounding over to Yukako.
Mami smiled at the way the two cheerful girls conversed. She was happy to be spending tonight with them because she didn't know what she would see tomorrow.
***
"This is your plan?" Yukako asked as the two girls peered around the corner. She looked up at Mami, the much taller girl towering above her. The two girls were crouched near a building, peering around and staring at Tomomi. They had been following her for an hour now and so far, she hadn't done anything noteworthy.
"Unless you've got another plan?" Mami challenged her. Yukako huffed, turning her head so her attention was back on Tomomi. She really didn’t have a better plan on how to do this; this was about as good as it was going to get for them.
Yukako could suggest something more but deep down, she knew Mami didn’t want to be here, spying on Tomomi like this. Yukako didn’t want to do make this any harder than it had to be for the blonde girl. Regardless of how Mami felt about the task though, she and Yukako both knew that Mami would do it anyway. Her loyalty to Haruna ran that deeply in her.
The brunette they observed was seated on a bench, a pair of headphones in her ears while her head looked up towards the sky. Her hands were crossed over her stomach and if her eyes weren't wide open, the two girls might swear she was asleep in public.
The minutes ticked by and Tomomi didn't move hardly an inch. It was odd to both Yukako and Mami, they weren't aware anyone could sit as still as Tomomi was right now. It seemed inhuman. Mami sighed softly, hanging her head. She was considering telling Yukako to go home and giving up on this whole thing. Tomomi wasn't doing anything; there weren't any hints or anything about what she could be up to. Something was obviously wrong with her but her sitting there wasn’t going to give them any answers. They were wasting their time.
Just when Mami was about to voice her thoughts, she felt Yukako hit her arm roughly. Her head snapped down, a glare on her face. Yukako pointed straight ahead and when Mami looked up, her eyes widened. Walking straight towards Tomomi was none other than Hana. Mami also couldn't miss the short haired teenager who was with the group.
Mami couldn't miss Tomomi's best friend alongside Hana.
Mami had to resist the urge to rush to Tomomi's side and protect her from the dangerous group of girls approaching the meek brunette. As much as she wanted to, she had to remember Haruna's orders. She couldn't intervene; she had to let this run its course so they could see what was going on. No matter what, she wouldn't go against Haruna’s orders.
The two girls stayed put, watching closely. When the group got near Tomomi, the two girls could see Mao say something to Hana before they stopped. Mao ran over to Tomomi, tapping her on the leg. They could see Tomomi tear her gaze away from the sky, smiling when she saw Mao in front of her.
Mao waved brightly to Tomomi and the brunette waved back before she let herself look behind Mao, her eyes widening and her once happy expression disappearing. Even from this far, Mami could see the sheer terror in Tomomi's eyes while she scanned the group of teenagers behind Mao. Of course Hana was the issue; why was Mami not surprised? Hana was always the issue with anyone associated to Haruna.
Mami's hands gripping the building corner tightened their grip, her nails beginning to hurt from how hard she was digging her nails into the bricks. The pain didn’t matter to her though. It was taking every single drop of self-control in Mami's body not to rush over to Tomomi and defend her from Hana. She was trying to remind herself of what Haruna’s orders were but the more Hana stayed near Tomomi, the more she wanted to go against those orders.
"Do you think we could get close without being seen? I want to hear this," Yukako said. Mami looked down at the small brunette, her mind pondering the suggestion. Mami wanted to hear their exchange as well but they were already close enough. If they got any closer, they risked being found. She didn't need to explain this to Tomomi, the naive girl would never understand.
"I think we'd get caught," Mami said truthfully. She could hear Yukako sigh but she knew the shorter girl took her word for it. For right now, they would have to settle with observing rather than listening.
Mami went back to watching and noticed that Hana had come to stand next to Mao. Tomomi had begun to play with the edges of her skirt, one of her nervous habits. She could also see Tomomi routinely biting down on her lip, further proving how nervous the brunette was. There was a part of Mami – the distrusting part of her – that wanted to accuse Tomomi of being friends with Hana, but she didn’t feel that would be right. The look on Tomomi’s face and her actions were telling her that Tomomi and Hana were the farthest thing from friends.
The two girls watched the group converse with Tomomi, a range of emotions coming to the face of the squeaky voiced brunette. None of them were positive emotions. Even when Tomomi smiled, the two watching girls knew it was faked. They could still see the fear in Tomomi through her smiles.
The group continued talked to Tomomi for a while longer before Hana wrapped an arm around Mao’s shoulder and said something to her. After whatever she had said, the girls waved goodbye to Tomomi before making their way to leave. As the last person walked past Tomomi, the two spying girls could see her nudge Tomomi roughly. Mami instantly noticed the girl; there was no mistaking her identity with her obvious bright orange hair.
Mami growled lowly, glaring daggers at the group who walked away. Her eyes snapped back over to Tomomi to see that the brunette had pushed herself off the bench. She wiped her eyes before pulling her purse onto her shoulder and wrapping her arms around her waist. She kept her head down as she walked quickly down the hallway and away from the spying girls.
Once she was gone, Mami sighed softly and pushed herself away from the wall and Yukako. She leaned back against the building, her head crashing onto the bricks. What were they going to do? If Tomomi was working for Hana….. Mami wasn’t even going to humor those thoughts. She wasn’t going to let them into her mind; she couldn’t accept Tomomi betraying them. The only other option though was that Hana was threatening Tomomi.
She didn’t know if that was a better or worse option. If Hana was threatening Tomomi, there wasn’t much to be done. Mami and Haruna still had Hana’s threats against Rina hovering over their heads; they still had yet to figure out how to get Hana to back down from that threat. Neither girl knew if the senior girl was serious but there was no way they’d risk Rina. This would be no different. If it was a choice between protecting Rina and helping Tomomi, the blonde knew that the boss would choose Rina in a heartbeat, and Mami would follow the boss’ choice in a heartbeat as well.
She just hoped that the group could find a way to do both; she didn’t want to give up either one.
“Should we keep following Tomomi?” Yukako asked, bringing Mami’s attention back to her. The blonde looked down at her small friend before shaking her head. She didn’t really want to keep this up anymore and she also didn’t think Hana would have a second run-in with Tomomi before she came to see them.
“It would be of no use. I think we’ve found out what’s gotten into Tomomi lately, it’s Hana. What she’s doing with Hana, I don’t know. What I do know is that we probably won’t be able to figure much else out so we should just go inform Haruna of this,” Mami responded.
“Are you sure, Mami? We can keep following her if you want to…” Yukako knew how much Mami probably wanted to check if Tomomi was okay but she also knew how deep her loyalty to Haruna ran, she didn’t know which one Mami would pick at this point.
“No, we should just head back.” Yukako could hear the sad tone on Mami’s voice; she had to make a tough decision. The slightly older brunette nodded anyway though. She was going to let Mami make the choices on where they went from here; she figured it would be best.
“Let’s go grab something to eat, we can call Haruna and ask her to meet us somewhere. I figured it would be best to let her know this before we meet the others so she’s got time to think of something, wouldn’t you say?”
Mami nodded in agreement. As much as she hated the thought of leaving Tomomi alone after what happened, she knew this was best. If she was with Tomomi and they encountered Hana then Mami might not be able to control herself. She wanted to protect Tomomi but she couldn’t risk doing something rash to Hana and risking Rina. It was better just to report back to Haruna and let her decide.
Yukako linked her arm with Mami, giving her a small smile before the two girls set off, hoping for the best.
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Word count: 3,718
This was kind of anti-climatic after the last chapter, wasn't it? owo Don't worry, the story will pick up again soon.... Soon as in the next chapter. x) There are certain low key chapters that do need to be placed into the story to further push along plot development or character development. ^^"
Also, for those wondering (since I've mentioned her height multiple times), Yukako's height is 151 cm. Which, I think, translates into 4"9' (or perhaps 4"11'? I suck at math). She is smaller than Haruna who stands at 153 cm (5"0'). So there ya go, Yukako is a small person just like Haru. ovo
I hope you liked the chapter, everyone~~
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