Masako didn't hate Mai. She was jealous, bitter and upset, but she couldn't hate Mai. What she hated, was the way he looked at her. Masako knew his real identity and was holding him to her as best she could with her feeble lock and chain, but Mai didn't need any of that. Didn't need to try at all.
Masako was considered beautiful, she was very photogenic and fit a lot of the standards for the ideal beauty. She had sleek black hair cut into a fashionable bob that accentuated her jawline, huge dark blue eyes rimmed by thick dark lashes and a delicate stature. She held herself at all times with poise and grace. In every way, she was a porcelain doll. And like a doll, she was perfectly expressionless.
In every way you looked at her, Mai was an average high school student. At sixteen, she was in the awkward limbo stage between adolescence and adulthood, and it showed in the clumsy way she held herself, always crashing into things, people, or spilling tea onto people's laps. She was the girl with the butterscotch hair and the sunshine smile. She glowed and it was infectious. During tense moments between SPR members, all it took was her laugh to lighten the room. Masako had beauty, yes, but Mai's beauty showed through her expressive personality.
Masako had never been able to make Naru's lips turn up from the perpetual scowl he wore.
But Naru would show Mai that smirk nearly daily. It wasn't a full-on smile, but it was more than she could ever achieve from him. Yes, it did come at Mai's expense, because Naru was usually to be found smirking after winding the poor girl up to the point where her face was boiling, her fists were balled and steam was coming out of her ears.
Mai was so oblivious and it pissed Masako off.
Masako, unlike Mai, spent a lot of time being quiet. She may not say much, but she observed everything that went on around her. She paid special attention to Naru and the way he treated Mai. He might not ever realise it, and he'd certainly never admit it, but he cared about her. Whenever danger struck, his attention always pigeon-holed on Mai. Whenever there was danger, he'd take her by the wrist and pull her safely behind him.
She was so stupid to think that she could compare herself to the girl with the butterscotch hair, but at the same time, she couldn't give up on Naru. How does it feel to be adored by him?