If Jealousy Could Kill

“Why are you doing this to me, Mami?” Rina choked out. Her words were said shakily and her entire body wasn’t doing much better. The shaking tore through her, her head moving itself back and forth in a disbelieving manner. What was Mami saying? She loved her? Mami was lying. She had to be lying… But why? Mami was supposed to be helping her; Rina didn’t understand this.

“Rina, please listen to me. I know it seems strange and I know this isn’t really an appropriate time to be doing this but I think you need to hear this. I do love you, Rina. I’ve loved you for a long time but I’ve been scared. I know I can’t hold it back any longer. You need to hear this from someone; you deserve to hear it from someone.” Mami’s heart was beating a mile a minute but she had to keep going. She was scared and nervous about how Rina would receive this but she couldn’t stop now. This was her last option, her last resort, in order to get through to Rina.

“You’re lying…” Rina’s hands clawed at the sweatpants she was wearing, her breathing beginning to become labored. Mami was only saying this to make her feel better; the blonde didn’t mean any of it. Every word was a lie, Rina knew that.

“I swear on my life that I am not lying. I would never lie to you about this.” Mami didn’t know how to get Rina to believe her. She thought the sincerity and seriousness of her voice and body would tell Rina that she was being honest. Mami was almost never serious; everyone who knew her knew that she was being honest if she got serious like this. If this didn’t make it clear to Rina though, Mami had no idea how to do that.

“Stop it…”

“Rina, please listen--”

“I said stop it!” Rina yelled. Her hands flew up to cover her ears, a tear slipping down her cheek. Was it not bad enough that she was locked in this place, but now Mami had to go and lie to her like this? Rina didn’t see what Mami hoped to accomplish by doing this, she should have known Rina wouldn’t believe such nonsense. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not lying. Why won’t you believe me? I want to help you. You need to let her go so please try. Forget Haruna and start over with me. I can help you if you’d just let me.” Mami was getting more scared as the time went on. Rina wasn’t receiving this as well as Mami had hoped she would, but the blonde couldn’t say she was surprised that the unstable girl would receive this in such a negative manner.

“Sasazaki, I think it’s time to wrap this up. You cannot be upsetting Suzuki like this.” Mami looked over at the security guard and felt her heart sinking. What did she do? She wanted to get Rina to believe her before visiting hours were over today and if he made her leave; she wouldn’t be able to do that.

“Just a little more time.” The security guard sighed softly but shook his head.

“For your own protection, you need to leave. You’ve made her too upset.”

“I won’t hurt her,” Rina mumbled softly. She had her head cast downward again, her watery eyes staring down at the messy clothing she wore. They were actually implying that she would hurt Mami, how could they say such a thing? Rina would never… Or maybe she would. She had hurt two of her friends already.

“Suzuki, you need to understand that you aren’t in control of yourself. You’re dangerous.”

“Don’t talk to her like that,” Mami said sternly. The guard looked over at her, raising an eyebrow at the curious way Mami was staring at him angrily. This woman clearly understood nothing about what was going on. “Rina isn’t dangerous, she just needs help.”

“And she’ll get that help but for tonight, this meeting is over. This is not optional, Sasazaki. You will be leaving; you may come back tomorrow if Rina is calm enough to handle it.” Mami sighed in defeat but nodded her head nonetheless. She wasn’t going to be getting anywhere with these people.

“Fine, you win,” she mumbled and turned back to Rina. “We’ll see each other tomorrow, yeah?”

“Of course,” Rina said and raised her head. Mami felt terrible when she saw the tears in Rina’s eyes. She didn’t know if they were from her confession or from the guard’s harsh words but it struck a chord in Mami all the same. She wanted so badly to reach over and give Rina a hug. She wanted to hold the broken girl close and cuddle her tightly as she cried. But she wasn’t allowed to do any of that for Rina.

She couldn’t do anything for the broken girl.

“Goodbye, Rina.” The broken brunette murmured her own goodbye to Mami just before the blonde was led out of the room and passed off to a nurse, leaving the brunette alone with the guard to be escorted back.

Mami went through the usual routine she still hadn’t gotten used to. She collected herself and put back on all the items the hospital had confiscated. She rubbed the back of her neck as she left the hospital, the cold air of Tokyo hitting her full force when she did so.

Her feelings were now out in the open and Rina thought she was lying.... So what did she do now?

***

"Thank you for allowing us to speak with you." Tomomi looked up at the officer sitting across from her on the couch. The brunette nodded her head, going back to looking down at her legs while her hands picked at the teal material of the chair she sat on. Tomomi didn't want to be at home right now, she even less wanted to be at home with the police. She'd rather be at the hospital with Haruna still. But she couldn’t be. Just before Mami had left to go see Rina, she had talked in secret to Miyuki. The older woman later forced Tomomi to leave the hospital to get some rest and the brunette knew that was Mami’s doing.

"It's my pleasure, officer," Tomomi said. She bowed halfway to the officer before pushing herself back up and moving some hair from her face. "What did you want to ask?" Tomomi watched the lead officer pull out a pen and paper, his partner sitting still beside him, avoiding looking at Tomomi.

"We wish to talk to you more about the incident with Rina Suzuki. Will you be okay with speaking to us about that?"

"Of course." There was part of Tomomi that wanted to tell them no but she didn't feel like she had a choice. These were officers, she didn't particularly fancy the idea of telling them no. And she wanted to know what was happening with Rina; she wanted to know why such a sweet girl could end up being a possible murderer.

"Tell us what happened. How did you end up coming to Suzuki's house that night?"

“I got a text message from Haruna. The message asked me if I could come over to her house because she had something to talk to me about. When I got there, Rina told me that Haruna was asleep and that I could wait for her to get up.”

“What was Suzuki doing at the house?”

“She lives there; she’s Haruna’s roommate.” The officer nodded, scribbling something down onto the paper before coughing lightly and asking his next round of questions.

“If Haruna asked you to come over, why was she asleep? That doesn’t add up.” Tomomi pursed her lips together, her eyes widening slightly. The officer’s words had struck something in Tomomi; she hadn’t considered that before. Tomomi hadn’t thought anything of Haruna supposedly being asleep that day. “Is it possible that Suzuki sent the message?”

“What do you mean?” Tomomi asked suddenly after his question.

“In my years of working with this force, I’ve seen similar things to this. Do you think it was at all possible that Suzuki took Ono’s phone and sent you that message to lure you to the house?” Tomomi gulped lowly, a bit of color draining from her body. She had never thought about this before.

“I-I guess it would be possible…” Tomomi murmured softly. The brunette let a hand come up to her forehead, her eyes fluttering open and shut. The partner noticed this, speaking up for what felt like the first time since the two had appeared at her doorstep.

“Are you okay, Ogawa? Is the wound hurting? We can take you back to the hospital if need be,” the officer mentioned. Tomomi shook her head at the suggestion. The wound didn’t hurt; it was everything else that hurt.

“I’m fine; this is just a lot to take in.” Both of the officers nodded to her statement in understanding.

“If you want, we can come back another day. We don’t want to overwhelm you, although we do want to get this done with as soon as possible so we can move onto the next step of the investigation,” the main officer told her.

“I understand, I don’t mind continuing.”

“Very well. Did you notice anything strange about Suzuki in the few days leading up to the attack?” Tomomi diverted her eyes to the ground, her mind wracking itself for an answer to a question like that.

“I didn’t notice anything. The only thing I noticed was that Mami had been getting closer to Rina recently but I never thought anything of it.”

“Who is this Mami person you’ve mentioned?”

“Mami Sasazaki, she’s our friends. She’s one of the two who found us and helped us. She tells me that she’s always been close to Rina but they’ve spent more time together recently. She might know of any strange things from Rina.”

“Thank you, Ogawa. Who was the second person to find you?”

“Miyuki…um…” Tomomi paused her words, her eyes widening again. It just occurred to the brunette that she had absolutely no idea what Miyuki’s last name was. The subject had never come up and Tomomi had never bothered to ask. It never seemed important… Until right now. “I’m sorry; I don’t know her last name.”

“Do you know her relation to Suzuki?”

“Miyuki is Rina’s girlfriend.”

“Thank you, that’s all we’ll need to know in order to find her identity. I’m sure Sasazaki will probably know her.” Tomomi nodded her head in response to his inquisition. “Are you positive that nothing strange happened between you and Suzuki before the attack?” It didn’t make sense to the officer for there to be no hints to Rina’s actions. Everyone gave off a hint, even if it was small and barely seeable at the time.

“There was one thing…”

“Please tell us.” Tomomi took in a sharp breath, her hands gripping at her jeans.

“Yesterday when she attacked me, Rina was the one to answer the door. After I was let in, Rina went to get something from the kitchen. She was taking a while so I went to go check on her and when I did… Rina acted as if she couldn’t remember having ever let me in. It was strange to me, how could she have forgotten so easily?”

“That is something we will be able to discuss with Suzuki and her doctors, but I’m afraid we won’t be able to relay that information back to you. Confidentiality and all of that; you would need to find it out from Suzuki herself.”

“I understand.” Tomomi hung her head in defeat. As much as what the answer was scared Tomomi, she still wanted to know. She wanted answers as to why Rina had attacked the two of them like that. She didn’t want to be left in the dark. She may not want to speak to Rina or go anywhere near her but if it meant getting answers for this…

“That is all the questions we have for now. If we find anything else that we need to request from you, we will request another meeting with you. For now, try to get some rest and we’ll continue the investigation from here,” the officer told her. Tomomi nodded, pushing herself out of the chair and watching as the officers stood as well.

“Thank you for speaking with me,” Tomomi said with a bow. The officers nodded, thanking her again before Tomomi led them to the door.

Murmuring a soft goodbye, Tomomi shut the front door, taking her weary body back into her living room. Her legs gave out, her body collapsing onto the couch with a sigh. Her head laid down onto the back of the couch, lolling to the side and her eyes staring emptily at the wall.

The normal happy air Tomomi usually gave off was gone. She couldn’t find it in herself to be happy. How could she be? She didn’t understand how anyone could be happy when they were put into a spot like this. The only thing Tomomi could feel was fear and worry; there weren’t any other emotions to be found in her today.

The brunette didn’t understand what she was supposed to do; she didn’t understand what people expected her to do. They wanted her to get some rest but how could she when her girlfriend was practically dying? She didn’t see how anyone could rest with that hanging over their heads. Even when Miyuki and Mami forced her to leave Haruna’s room last night, the brunette had gotten barely any sleep. Most of the night she laid awake, constantly being badgered by the nurses to go to sleep. At one point, they offered to give her some sleeping medication to help but Tomomi had promptly declined it. She was interested in no such thing.

With a whine, Tomomi let her body fall over, the brunette now laying down on the couch. She huffed softly, staring at the ceiling.

It had only been a day and it was already unbearable.