Beautiful Shenanigans - Pretty Boy Detective Club

Chapter 2 - Hangout

Mayumi barged into the club room huffing and puffing. Everyone looked at her without saying a word. By the look on their faces, they weren't very happy that she was so late.

"Nice of you to finally join us," Michiru said in a sarcastic voice. "Come on, we gave you a phone for a reason," he continued, sounding irritated.

Mayumi put her hands up and replied, "I'm sorry I was late, I just lost my phone-"

"Already?" He replied.

"I didn't do it on purpose," she shot back, sounding equally irritated, sitting down.

There was silence for a few seconds, then Manabu smiled and stood up.

"Well, now that Mayumi The Seer is here, we can resume our club meeting."

He looked at Nagahiro. "Well, Nagahiro, why don't you explain our newest mystery for Mayumi here?

Nagahiro smiled.

He put a hand on his chest and started:

"There has been a devastating event at our school, one that has affected the lives of many students here- it's all over the news. Plenty of them are now in the hospital. As I'm sure we all know, a few weeks ago, some of the food in our cafeteria has recently been poisoned. The cause seemed to be a strange sort of liquid that was purposely put there by someone, but sadly we don't know who that person is. And that is why we are here today; to find out who could have possibly done such a thing."

He sat down with his legs crossed, clearly pleased with himself.

"As Nagahiro already said, a lot of students are in the hospital because of what happened. So..." He paused for a dramatic effect, "What does everyone think? I'll give us all some time to think of a theory- no- a beautiful theory!"

Their homework for that day was, of course, to think up theories for what could have possibly happened. Her first priority was to find her phone, then she would start thinking about what happened with that spoiled food.

"Miss Doujima?"

She quickly turned around at the sound of the voice.

"Fudatsuki," she replied, not surprised to see him.

"Hello, Miss Doujima. I have come to return this to you," he replied, handing her the phone and some excess change. She flinched when his fingers touched hers and pulled away, cheeks red with embarrassment. "Are you ok?" Fudatsuki asked, sounding concerned.

"I-It's fine. Thanks for giving my phone back,"

"Hmm...  Thank you again for washing my shirt for me. It was a very kind gesture."

"Oh, it's no problem," Mayumi said to him. "Anyways, I need to get going now-"

"Wait!" 

She turned around to face him. "Huh?"

"There's something I wanted to ask you, Miss Doujima. I'd like this opportunity to ask you if you would like to accompany me to a restaurant?"

'Well that was unexpected,' she thought to herself. 'Where is he going with this?'

"Right now?"

He nodded.

"What restaurant?" She asked him.

He smiled. "Which one would you like to go to?"

Mayumi thought about it for a few seconds. Was it a good idea to go with this guy? He did seem oddly eager to go... he didn't do anything to her the last few times she met up with him, but again, he was kind of sketchy... but if he's offering, he must be paying right? Some free food wouldn't hurt, all she would need to do was to be alert.

"Ok... I could go for a boba tea, and the shop is not far away from the school."

He nodded. "Lead the way, Miss Doujima."

They didn't talk much on their way to the restaurant, with Fudatsuki glancing at her every so often, which gave her nervous butterflies. Why was he looking at her with such interest? She quickly shook the thought off as they both entered the restaurant.

"Order anything you want," Fudatsuki said as they neared the cashier. "It's all on me."

'I knew it!' She thought to herself. "I'd like to have a green milk tea boba," she said to the cashier.

"Hmm... is there a flavour you would suggest, Miss Doujima?"

"Uh..." she stared up at the menu then glanced at his hair.

"I think you should try the strawberry flavour," she said.

"Strawberry it is," he replied, and the cashier nodded as she put their order in.

"So, Mayumi," Fudatsuki said as they waited for their order. "How are you and your club doing?"

"I'm doing fine," Mayumi replied. "So, is there something you wanted to ask me?"

He shook his head. "No, I didn't have anything business-related or something like that. I just thought that it would be a good idea to spend some time with my favourite detective."

'"my favourite detective.'" Why'd he say that for?' Mayumi thought, bewildered.

She lowered her head, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink.

"Oh," she replied, collecting herself. "So you just wanted to hang out?"

"You could say that," he replied, smiling at her.

Feeling a bit nervous, she quickly turned her head away from him, feeling his gaze on her.

"2039?"

Mayumi breathed a sigh of relief, running to the cashier to grab their order.

"This boba tea tastes wonderful! Thank you for the recommendation, Miss Doujimai," he said while drinking his tea.

"You're welcome," she replied.

"I'm sorry about what happened to your cafeteria. It's quite a shame, really," he added.

"It's fine," she replied, loosening up a bit. "I pack my lunch at home, so I didn't eat that food."

"A similar incident happened at my school last year," Fudatsuki added. "I'm assuming that your club is trying to solve the mystery?"

Mayumi nodded.

"Well, in my case, it turned out that some kids were trying to play a prank on everyone- but it went wrong. You can guess what happened next."

"The school brags about its security all the time. I don't think that some kids would be able to get it that easily... but you've given me an idea."

"Hmm?"

"Maybe the food poisoning wasn't because of mold or something like that. Now I'm starting to think that someone must have done it on purpose. I don't know who could have done it, but now I have a lead of sorts."

She got up and dropped her empty cup into the trash can.

"Thanks for the drink, Fudatsuki, but I need to go think on my theory a bit more." She gave him a wave, which he returned right before she turned and left.