After a minute, the door opened again and Miyu appeared.

"Hi..." she said, walking over to me.

Giving me a friendly smile, she looked at me with curiosity in her eyes.

"Hi..." I replied.

"My name is Miyu... what's yours?" she asked.

"My name is Jina... nice to meet you," I replied.

"You and Mai are friends as far as I know?"

"Yes, childhood friends. And you're Rina's little sister?"

"Yep. We're sisters!"

Even though she was smiling, her gaze seemed a little distant.

"Did I come at a bad time?" I asked.

"Ah, no, no! Not at all!" she replied, waving her hands. "Honestly, finding the costume is the most important thing right now. So thank you for coming."

What should I ask her?

Should I ask her the same questions I asked Rina?

I didn't really know...

Although I knew I had to find the culprit, I didn't understand the situation enough to make any assumptions. And this lack of understanding prevented me from formulating the question I wanted to ask Miyu.

I still didn't understand the gist of what I wanted to find out, so all I had to do was ask the questions that came to mind and seemed logical.

All I had to do was keep playing this game where I pretended to be a detective trying to help my precious childhood friend, Mai, but was completely inept at it.

"Can I be direct with you? Can I be open with questions?" I asked.

"Of course!"

"For starters..." I put my finger to my chin. "Let's start with the day before the costume went missing... Can you tell me what you were doing that day?"

She looked up thoughtfully.

"Hmmm... It was two days ago... That day, we were filming the scene with the princess. The princess is played by me, by the way... After the shooting, I took the costumes to the storage room as usual, hung them up, left the room, locked the door... and went straight home... That was it."

"Did you go home alone? What about the others? Did all the other members go home right away?"

She paused for a moment and then continued, "That day, Rina had to meet her friends, so she didn't come home with me. Me, her and Mai made it to the school gate before we split up. Rina went to meet her friends and Mai went home, which is in the opposite direction from the station. Akito, another member of the club, who is absent today by the way, I think he has a cold or something, usually walks me to the station on days when Rina is busy, but that day he said he had an unexpected soccer game with his friends, so he stayed late at school. And Ken, according to Rina, left school early as usual. Basically, nothing unusual..."

"I see..."

That was a lot of information to digest, so I paused for a moment before asking, "And then the next day you found the costume missing, right?"

"Yes, the next day, after classes were over, Mai and I went to the storage room to get the costumes, and that's when we discovered that the costume was missing."

"And the door was locked?"

"Yes... I opened it with the key."

"Did you immediately go looking for the costume after that?"

"Of course! We immediately started searching for it in the storage room and the club room, but we couldn't find it anywhere," she replied. "And the day after that, Mai suggested that someone had stolen it... She was very stressed and Rina and I were trying to calm her down. Then she told us that she wanted to ask someone for help, and I guess she meant you."

Talking to Miyu was different from talking to her sister. She seemed to take me more seriously...

Noticing my silence, Miyu awkwardly asked, "Ah, I'm sorry... Was that too much unnecessary information?"

"No, no," I shook my head. "The information was useful. I was just wondering..."

"Wondering?"

"I'm interested in your opinion... Mai and I think the costume was stolen. But what do you think?"

"Well... I think it was stolen, too," she replied confidently. "I distinctly remember taking the costume back and locking the door, and the next day when Mai and I went to the storage room together, the door was definitely still locked. So how could it have just disappeared? It was definitely stolen."

"Then I have another question, Mai said that only you have the key? Are you sure that no one else has a copy?"

Miyu thought for a moment, "I can't say for sure, I'm a fairly new member compared to the others, I don't know who had it before, maybe someone made a copy at some point, I can't say. But Mai clearly said it was the only key."

Mai became a member of the drama club as soon as we enrolled in this school. But she only became the president of the club after the previous president graduated.

She definitely knew more about the club than me and Miyu. So if she says that this is the only key the members have, then I have to trust her... Although I can't completely rule out the possibility that there is a copy of the key that she doesn't know about.

"Of course, the teachers or the guard probably have a duplicate, but I don't think the other students have a copy..." Miyu added.

"What about the rest of the club?" I asked. "Do you think they might have made a duplicate at some point?"

"I don't think so... I mean... Of course, I've given the key to every club member at least once when they've asked for it, but it's unlikely that they would have secretly made a duplicate key and planned this theft so far in advance?" she said, grinning jokingly.

"Yes, you're right... this idea seems a bit far-fetched... But did you have the key with you the whole time, from the moment you locked the door until you discovered the costume was missing?"

"Yes, I had it with me the whole time... It's always in the inside pocket of my bag. No one could have taken the key without my knowledge and put it back without me noticing in such a short time..."

"Then... Do you know if any of the members have had any fights with anyone lately? Do you know anyone who might hold a grudge against you?"

"I don't think so... Everything has been peaceful. Why, do you think it was someone with a grudge against the club?" she asked.

"I thought the motive was to sabotage the drama club," I said. "After all, the costume went missing at the worst possible time. What if they'd been planning to steal it for a long time?"

"No, I don't think so," she said in a confident voice.

"Really? Then... Do you have any idea who the culprit might have been?" I asked.

"Well..."

She scratched her cheek a little nervously, lowered her eyes and bit her lip.

Hmm? What kind of reaction is that? Does she have some kind of clue? Does she know something?

"Do you have any idea who the culprit might be?" I asked. "Maybe a member of the club?"

She was silent.

"Uh... no... not a club member..." she said uncertainly after a pause. "I don't think a student was behind it..."

"So you think it was a teacher?" I asked a little excitedly, seeing that she seemed to know something. "Or a security guard?"

"No, no..." she answered quickly. "Um... I don't know if I should tell you..."

Her voice sounded uncertain, but I decided to get an answer out of her if she really knew something.

"Look... You don't have to worry about anything. Everything you tell me will stay between us... And your information can really help. You should tell me if it's important..."

"I know..." she replied.

She paused and then added, "Okay... I do have an idea who it might be."

"You do?"

"Yeah..."

"And... who is it?" I asked.

"But you have to promise you won't tell anyone," she said, looking at me.

"Don't worry, like I said, I won't tell anyone."

"You may think I'm crazy. But be patient and listen to me, okay?"

What's with her? Was this information that crazy?

I was getting more and more curious...

"You really have nothing to worry about. I'll take your words seriously."

"Okay..." she paused. "Well... I think the costume was stolen by a ghost..."

Huh?

What?

I stood there for a moment, stunned, trying to figure out if I'd heard her right or not.

Is she playing with me? Maybe she's just messing with me?

"A ghost?" I interjected.

"I know how that sounds," she said. "But I assure you, it really was a ghost!"

The realization hit me in that second.

She... wasn't joking?

I stared at her completely serious face staring back at me, waiting for my answer.

Seconds passed and I realized that I couldn't just stand there in silence. If she was really serious, I had to answer her, so I wouldn't push her away, so she wouldn't think I didn't take her seriously...

I calmed down and decided to just accept her seemingly crazy idea for a second.

"And... how did you come to that conclusion?" I asked. "I mean, why do you think it was actually a ghost?"

Realizing that I wasn't going to laugh at her, she smiled.

"You see, in the story we're filming, the princess dies and then her ghost haunts the knight who killed her lover until he finally goes mad..."

That's not the only reason she thinks the ghost stole the costume, is it? There must be something else...

"Oh... and what is the plot of the story?" I asked.

"Hmm... would you like to hear the short version?"

"If possible..."

"Well, it's a story about two knights, childhood friends, who are trying to win the heart of the princess they rescued from her father. And while she's friendly to both of them, she doesn't respond directly to their advances, telling them to wait..." she paused. "But then, at one of the balls, one of the knights heard a strange rumor that he didn't immediately believe. He dismissed the rumor as mere nonsense, but it stuck in his head and kept him awake at night. The rumor was that his friend, the second knight, had been secretly dating the princess for some time. Unable to bear it, he decides to check the truth of the rumor... But he doesn't ask them directly, he decides to follow them secretly, and then catches them kissing in their secret place where they have been meeting for some time. Unable to control his emotions, angry at his friend's betrayal, he kills them without asking why they didn't tell him the truth..."

Wow.

The twist is certainly dramatic.

"So... it's a love story?" I asked.

"Yes!" she replied excitedly. "Afterwards, the ghost of the princess haunts this knight who killed her and her lover!"

It's quite an exciting story. But it's just a story. Was it really enough for her to decide that it was the ghost who stole the costume? Does she believe in the paranormal that much?

As if sensing my doubt, she said, "But that's not all! As you know, I almost always open and close the storage room myself. And one day I noticed something strange! I noticed that sometimes things in the room, like chairs, change their position. It's like someone is moving them on purpose when no one is looking. And it happens right next to where the princess costume used to be! It's definitely not an accident!"

"Are you sure things are moving? Maybe you imagined it?" I asked.

"Of course I'm sure! Look, I even took pictures!"

She pulled her phone out of the pocket of her school jacket and started looking through it. Then, finding what she was looking for, she showed me the screen of the phone.

There was a photo on the screen, apparently taken in the storage room, showing a rack with costumes hanging on it, some chairs and some boxes.

Miyu swiped the screen and showed me the next photo, which was almost identical to the previous one, except that the two chairs that were closer to the rack were now slightly moved from their original position.

"See? At first I thought I was imagining things, too, but then one day I started taking pictures to test my theory. And then I realized I was right. I'm telling you, I'm not crazy. I can't believe I noticed it."

"Hmm... You usually open the storage room after class, right? Just before the club starts? Are you really sure no one else has the key? Are you sure nobody else went in there without you seeing them?"

"Like I said, I don't think anyone else has a key. And I'm usually the only one who locks the room and the first one to open it. And most importantly, it hasn't happened just once. I've noticed chairs changing places several times, on different days. Who would go there multiple times just to move chairs around? Unless it's some kind of weird prank."

"Then... I need to be sure of something. The storage room isn't used by anyone other than your club?"

"No... This room was specially assigned for our club. Only our stuff is in there..."

"It's conceivable that a guard or teachers could have gone in there, but if things are moved around regularly and the room belongs only to the drama club, then that theory is out... Teachers and guards have no reason to go in there just to move things around."

"At first, I really thought it was probably someone's stupid prank, but just like you, I can't imagine who would go in there and move things around for no reason. So there's only one explanation, and that's that it's the work of a ghost."

"On the day you took the photo, did you notice anything else suspicious? Maybe things were missing?"

"No, except for things moving around, there was nothing suspicious. And I didn't notice anything missing..."

"Got it..."

I was silent for a second, digesting all the information.

"Okay... Thank you. Your information was very useful..." I added.

"Uh... That's all?"

I thought I heard a hint of surprise in her voice.

"Yeah... I think I got everything I needed... why? Was there something else you wanted to tell me?"

"Ah... no, no," she said a little awkwardly. "I just thought you might have some more questions..."

Was she hoping I'd ask her more about the ghost?

"Hmm... Wait, though," I said. "I'd like to check out the storage room after this... Would you mind lending me the key?"

"Oh... lend you the key?" she asked, a little uncertain.

"Yes. Don't worry, I'll give it back to you right away, it won't take long, about 15 minutes. Or do you not really trust me?"

"Ah... no, Mai trusts you, so I don't mind giving you the key if you promise to return it quickly."

"I promise... How long will you be at school? When does the club end?"

"Well, we'll be here for a while for sure," she said.

"Then I'll come back and return the key right after I check the storage room."

"You'll wait for Ken to come back first?"

"Uh-huh... He should be back, right?"

"Yeah... He should be back soon. He probably went to get some snacks from the vending machine again."

"Got it..." I said.

Miyu took the key out of her pocket and handed it to me. A slight hesitation could be felt in her actions...

"Don't worry..." I said taking the key from her hands. "I promise to return it quickly..."

"Okay... I trust you," she replied with a slight smile. "Will you wait for Ken here?"

"Yeah..."

"Okay... So I can go then?"

"Yes... and thanks again for the information."

She turned towards the door of the club room, but then stopped as if she remembered something.

"By the way, I forgot to tell you. Don't tell Ken that I like him, okay? He doesn't know that yet. And don't tell anyone about the ghost either, okay? They'll definitely think I'm crazy."

"Don't worry, this conversation is just between us."

"Thanks," she said, turning away from me and walking into the room.