The next day, I (Jina) went to the drama club to ask the members about the missing costume.

As I carefully opened the door to the club room and stepped inside, I noticed Mai standing near the door, seemingly waiting for me.

"Oh, hi..." she greeted me with a soft voice.

"Hi..." I said just as quietly.

"Thanks for coming..."

"...Why are we talking so quietly?"

"Well, you see, they're having a little argument..."

She turned her attention to the back of the room, and I followed her gaze, looking in the same direction.

The room was large, almost the size of a classroom. There were many different things in this room, props, tables, chairs, some boxes, as well as a green screen, lights, and a camera stand.

At the far end of the room were three students.

One of them was a girl with long black hair pulled up in high pigtails. She was sitting on a chair with her legs crossed, away from the other two, staring at her phone, a slight look of annoyance on her face.

A girl with short black hair stood a little further away from her. And next to her was a guy with glasses and a serious expression on his face, his attention focused on the tablet in his hands.

They didn't seem to notice me.

Only now, as I watched them, did I notice that they were silent, and the air in the room felt tense. It seemed that they had been arguing about something just before I entered the room. I wondered what it was.

While I was thinking about it, the short-haired girl turned to the girl with the pigtails.

"Rina..." she called to her.

In response, Rina raised her gaze leisurely, her eyes that had just read irritation softening.

Then, reluctantly, she rose from her chair and walked over to the other two, arms crossed.

"I understand that you two don't like working together..." the girl with the short hair began, "but..."

Without letting her finish her sentence, Rina interrupted her, "That's not the point at all. You already know that I can work even with him when it comes to acting."

Although she was obviously talking about the guy standing next to them, she didn't even look at him.

He ignored the two girls as well, continuing to read something on his tablet as if they didn't exist.

In a low voice, I asked Mai, "Those two... This guy and the girl named Rina... they don't get along?"

"Yeah... they don't really like each other," Mai replied.

Any conflict between club members was interesting to me because it could be a motive for stealing the costume.

"Hmm... Do you know why they don't get along?"

"To be honest, they've never been close and prefer to keep their distance. They only interact when they have to discuss matters related to the club."

"I see... so you don't know the reason?"

"No... and honestly, I don't really want to ask..."

"...And who's the girl with the short hair?"

"She's a first year, the one in charge of the storage room, her name is Miyu."

"And the guy's name?"

"His name is Ken. He's a second year."

"Wait, shouldn't there be another member?" I lowered my voice even more, "The one you said was suspicious?"

"He's absent today... But he should be here tomorrow..." she replied just as quietly.

"I see..."

I looked at the three of them again and thought that maybe this wasn't the best time to question them... I didn't know how to approach them and Mai wasn't in a hurry to introduce us either.

While I was pondering about it, Rina and Miyu continued their conversation.

"Then why are you refusing to rehearse? You're good at romantic scenes! Tell me what we're doing wrong!" Miyu said, looking at Rina.

"We were supposed to shoot a scene today, not rehearse."

"But we can't shoot without the costume anyway."

"You answered your own question, if we can't find the costume, there's no need to rehearse. And I'm not in the mood to rehearse anyway."

"But that doesn't make sense. If we can't find the costume yet, we should use the time we have to perfect this scene."

"There's no need to perfect anything."

"Come on, big sis! Please!" Miyu begged.

Big sis? Miyu called Rina Big Sis? So they're sisters? That explains why they look a bit alike...

"You've rehearsed this scene a million times."

"Like I said, I need to perfect it."

"Still, you don't even need me, you two can rehearse together, my character isn't even in the scene."

"But I've already told you that I want you to watch and tell me what we're doing wrong. You're good at romantic scenes. And... I also want you two to start getting along."

Their conversation seemed to be going around in circles.

Taking advantage of the moment, I turned to Mai.

"Rina and Miyu don't get along?" I asked.

"No, they have a pretty good relationship. It's just that Rina is very stubborn and it's hard to convince her of anything, especially when it comes to Ken. That's why they argue sometimes."

"I see..."

I turned my attention back to them to see how their conversation would end.

But it seemed that Rina had already grown tired of the pointless argument and moved away from them.

"It's not about him, Miyu. I just don't want to waste time with useless rehearsals until we find the costume."

Miyu was silent, looking a little disappointed.

Rina turned away and tried not to look at Miyu, her face a little tense as if she felt guilty.

Ken, on the other hand, who had been silent the whole time, finally took his attention away from the tablet he was holding and put it on the table not far from him.

Then, without saying a word to anyone, he started walking towards where Mai and I were.

His gaze was down, though, as if he was deliberately avoiding looking at us.

As if noticing him leaving, Rina looked in his direction for the first time.

"Huh? Running away? Wasn't that your scene?" she said sarcastically.

Paying no attention to me or Mai, she was only looking at Ken's back, who immediately stopped upon hearing her words.

"Like you said, we can't shoot anything without the costume anyway, so who cares?" he replied without turning to her.

He stood silently for a moment, but after getting no response from Rina, he simply headed for the door, giving me a quick glance before walking out.

Since he didn't take any of his belongings with him, I figured he went to get some air or maybe to the bathroom.

Rina, who was still standing with her arms crossed and staring at the empty space where Ken had just been, finally turned to me and gave me a strange look as well. But her gaze didn't stay on me for long, she immediately turned back to Miyu.

"I'm sorry..." came Mai's quiet voice from next to me.

"It's not a big deal. Don't worry about it..." I replied.

She probably felt responsible for the not-so-friendly aura around us, being the president of the club and my friend. But honestly, it didn't bother me at all... I just found it all terribly interesting.

But before I could express my thoughts to Mai, Rina spoke again.

"And you like people like him? I really don't understand you."

"Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?" Miyu asked.

"Because that's the only reason why you want to rehearse with him all the time and not because you want to improve the scene."

"Ugh... ok ok, you got me. What's the big deal?"

"I just don't understand why you're trying to drag me into your rehearsals."

"Ken said he didn't want to just rehearse without making any improvements, so I suggested you watch and tell us what we need to fix since we can't figure out what the problem is ourselves."

"Really? He said that?" Rina asked with a little surprise in her voice.

"Yeah... you know... maybe he wants to improve his relationship with you! Why do you hate him so much, sis? You could help me out. You know I want to get closer to him!"

"...We should talk about this later..." Rina replied.

But before Miyu could respond, Rina turned back to me and Mai.

Miyu noticed this and looked in our direction as well. There wasn't much surprise in her eyes, which meant that she had already noticed me. If that was the case, I was a little surprised that they were talking so openly about such personal things, knowing that I was here. Or maybe they were too engrossed in their conversation to care?

"And who are you?" Rina asked, looking at me. "A new member of the club?"

"Rina... I told you about her, remember?" Mai said.

"So... Is this the girl you were talking about?"

"Yes. That's her."

To avoid further awkwardness, I decided that now would be a good time to question her.