Chapter 04: A Date with a Third Wheel Attached
�I just like working, that�s all.� Reina shrugged, opening the door to her small, off-white locker and extracting her school shirt. She and Miuna were in the back room of Jellybean, a tiny, depressing room when compared to the storefront area. The back room of Jellybean was used as a break room for the employees, but nobody was insane enough to believe that a room the size of your typical public restroom could be a pleasant place to take a break. Especially if the room in question is painted a dirty off-white color and is naught but concrete.
In this depressing break room, there was a bank of small, off-white lockers, each labeled with the name of an employee. Reina�s was placed next to Miuna�s on the left and a certain Asuka�s on the right. The lockers were so small that any item larger than a schoolbag would be unable to fit inside without a large amount of jamming and pushing. Reina managed to pull out her schoolbag�her own schoolbag, which she purchased with her own money�and noticed the unfamiliar name on the neighboring locker.
�Who�s Asuka?� Reina blurted out.
�Asuka is everyone and she is no one.� Miuna grinned. �Joking. She�s just the supervisor.� Miuna shrugged as she pulled off her work shirt and quickly put her school shirt back on. �She doesn�t come in too often, though, so you probably won�t see her. If you do, just be polite and she�ll like you.�
�Sounds easy enough.� Reina changed shirts and looped the canvas handle of her schoolbag onto her shoulder. �Are you going to go wait for the bus, too?�
�Yeah.� Miuna checked her bag to make sure she had 100 yen, which she did.
�Red line?� Reina asked.
�Yeah.� Miuna nodded.
�Then we live in about the same area. Cool.� Reina smiled.
�Don�t you live in that same place as Tajima-kun?� Miuna asked, jabbing her finger in the air for effect.
�I do.� Reina nodded.
�Are you guys friends or something?� Miuna asked.
�You can say that. We generally walk to school together in the mornings and walk back home in the afternoons if I don�t have work.�
�When don�t you have work?� Miuna joked, raising her eyebrows. �Just kidding.� Reina laughed nervously.
�What do you think of him?� Reina asked, running her hand across a row of chimes hanging outside a store, hearing them sing their songs.
�Tajima-kun?�
�Yeah.�
�He�s�friendly, no matter what. Ask him to do anything and he�ll gladly oblige. I know that from being around him since we were in first grade together.�
�First grade? You guys go back that far?� Reina stifled a giggle.
�We do. We had kindergarten at the same school, too, but I was in Rabbit class and he was in Flower class, so we only saw each other at recess. When first grade came around, I was often paired with him for group work. He�s a hard worker. I was dead nervous on the first day of school, too, and he gave me some sort of snack food to help calm me down with. I don�t know why I still remember that.� Miuna held the door open for Reina.
�Because you might have a thing for him?� Reina suggested to herself.
�We�ve been in the same class ever since.� Miuna smiled as she took out her coin and moved towards the bus stop marked with a red stripe.
�That was a cute story, especially the part about the snack food. You remember that, over ten years later?� Reina asked.
�Yeah, I know. It�s silly of me, but that was a really kind thing.� Miuna stared directly at her feet, her hair obscuring her face, but Reina was sure that Miuna was blushing.
�He let me have 100 yen when I didn�t have the money for the bus,� Reina offered.
�See? He�s nice to everyone,� Miuna joked, smiling. The bus puttered up to the stop, threw its doors open, and the two girls got on. They chose seats right next to each other and set off towards home.
�I have an idea!� Reina shouted after she saw an ad for Kanpeki Superpark. �We should go to Superpark sometime!�
�Totally! The weather�s getting hotter, so we can take advantage of the water park stuff there. Here, why not call me sometime so we can work this plan out?� Miuna suggested, but Reina froze. �What�s wrong?�
�I don�t have a phone,� Reina sheepishly explained.
�That�s okay, you can use a pay phone.� Miuna took out a pink gel pen. �Give me your hand.� Reina obliged. �You�re so pale, Reina. It�s pretty.�
�Thank you.� Reina watched as numbers appeared in hot pink on her skin, amazed at how fast the ink dried and how the numbers seemed to pop against her complexion.
�There. Give me a call sometime, why don�t you?� Miuna asked, laughing heartily before looking out the window and realizing that her stop was imminent. She tugged on the cord above her seat, which caused a sign labeled �Stop Requested� to light up. �I gotta go. See you!� She stood up as the bus came to a stop and the doors opened, waving to Reina while stepping off.
��Bye!� Reina called after her, looking at the hand with Miuna�s number scrawled on it.
Because Reina knew she was putting a huge event, possibly a relationship, into motion just by being close to Miuna, she skipped all the way back to Sunshine Tower. She got to the 8th floor, to 802, and opened the front door with her key, skipping inside to find Rika cursing at her sewing machine.
�Ah, Rika, you shouldn�t curse out loud,� Reina said playfully.
�And why the hell not?� Rika asked.
�Kotodama,� Reina replied. �Curse words are kotodama with particularly bad effects, you know.�
�You believe in kotodama?� Rika asked, stifling a laugh. �You are so na�ve.�
�Is Toshiro here?�
�He�s up at the pool.� Rika pointed up at the ceiling.
�OK.� Reina scanned the room. �Do you have some paper I can write on?�
�Over by the phone, sure.� Rika pointed to the phone. Reina went over and saw a pad of paper, on which was a fascinating smorgasbord of numbers and names. A pen lay nearby, so Reina took it up and wrote down the number on her hand, writing out that it belonged to Miuna and circling the number three times so it wouldn�t be forgotten. Then, with the prospect of swimming on the horizon, Reina dug out her school suit.
�Ahhh! That stupid school suit!� Rika exclaimed.
�It�s all I have,� Reina said with a shrug.
�How much money have you made from work so far?�
�About 35,000 yen. And it�s all under your bed, of course.�
�Who needs bank accounts when you have Rika�s bed? We need to get on that shopping spree train sometime! I love that you can give my old clothes new life, but I�m sure you want some of your own.�
�There�s something I want more.�
�What�s that? Please don�t say a car.�
�No, no, I have no interest in them. I want an ear piercing kit.�
�If you buy it, I�ll pierce you. I had mine done by my friend Chitose when I was fifteen. Good times!� Rika grinned. �I know you�re usually busy at Jellybean, but look around the rest of the center sometime. There are some adorable clothing stores. I�ll help you figure out all your sizes ahead of time so we can just go in and search for what�s cute, not try to find your sizes.�
�Rika, you�re so generous.�
�Aren�t I, though?� Rika grinned again. �Now change into that heinous thing and go upstairs! I have to work on my kotodama skills.� Reina went into the bathroom, dangling her bathing suit in front of Rika as she walked, and shut the door. She took off her school shirt and tossed it onto the floor, shimmied out of her skirt, shed her underwear, and just stood there for a moment, looking at herself in the mirror. Miuna had commented on her complexion. Of course, that was out of her control, but Reina thought that her skin tone was nice. She had a bust that was just the right size�not too tiny, but not too huge�and almost no errant fat sat on her waist.
As she put on her suit, though, Reina wasn�t concerned about her physical appearance. She was concerned about a crazy little thing called love, something that she wasn�t even supposed to feel. Sure, her assignment, her raison d��tre, was to cause people to fall in love. However, this emotion was off-limits to girls like her. She was allowed to pretend, to put on a mask and act like she liked someone in order to get him to like someone else, but the actual emotion of love was supposedly not even programmed into her being. This made her insanely jealous of human girls.
This issue weighed on Reina during the elevator ride up to the roof�which was labeled �Pool level� on the elevator�but as soon as the doors swooped open and she got a glimpse of the pool, her sadness disappeared. The pool was rectangle-shaped, had a shallow and deep end, and even had a small waterslide primarily for children, though it wasn�t off-limits to adults. The sun was setting, so the lights inside the pool were on, giving the water a light green glow. Reina noted the presence of chairs and tables on all four sides of the pool deck, plus a small building off to the side that didn�t contain the elevator. She then surveyed the pool to see who was in it and only saw one person. A smile crept up on her lips and she decided to show off for Toshiro a bit.
She walked past a clump of chaise lounges and reached the deep end, where a diving board was provided. She hoisted herself up the stout ladder and tested the board�s flexibility, adjusting it a small bit so it would launch her as high as it could possibly go. After the adjustment, she walked, slowly but surely, to the edge of the board, stretched her arms over her head so that her hands were touching, and crouched down as far as she could.
�Ready, go!� she whispered as she jumped, making a graceful arc in the air and landing a near-perfect pencil dive into the deep end. Of course, this dive was marked by a large splashing noise, which distracted Toshiro from his swimming and made him look over to see who dove so well. When Reina broke the surface, gasping for air, he clapped his hands.
�Reina, that was awesome!� he shouted, swimming over to her, but when he came over to where he thought Reina was, she was gone. He proceeded to feel embarrassed, even though there was nobody else around, until he felt slippery hands on his shoulders and turned around to see Reina floating there, smiling.
�I know,� she declared. �So I talked with Miuna today because we rode the same bus home.�
�Did you, now?� Toshiro suggested.
�Mmhmm,� Reina said with a nod. �Say, do you happen to remember an instance where you gave her some sort of snack food to calm her down?�
�Yeah, I do,� Toshiro replied, chuckling. �Like it was yesterday. It was my box of Pocky that I gave to her. I just can�t stand to hear a woman crying. Even today.� He shrugged. �It just makes me ask myself what I can do to help her out. At the time, the only thing I had was that box of Pocky.�
�I can�t believe you still remember what kind of snack it was!� Reina exclaimed. �That�s so cute, you know?� She started swimming off towards the shallow end and Toshiro gave chase.
�Is it?�
�Definitely. I had another thing to ask you, too. What would you think about�and this is all hypothetical�a sort of, say, get-together with Miuna at a place like Superpark?� Reina had no idea why she had such trouble saying what she said. She was used to being so much more direct about plans like these, but for some reason it didn�t come out correctly when she asked Toshiro. She wrote this off as just a minor issue that didn�t need immediate resolution.
�You mean, like, a date?� Toshiro looked confused.
�Yeah, except that I want to go, too. Is that, you know, okay?� Reina queried. �Of course it�s okay, you fool, you�re supposed to go and help facilitate conversation! What�s wrong with you, Reina? Is it the water?�
�Oh, of course!� Toshiro smiled.
Reina felt a sense of both relief and confusion, which she quickly attempted to alleviate by going underwater for nearly a minute, but she still felt the same and wasn�t quite sure what could be done.
CONTINUE to Chapter 05: Pain and Pleasure
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