Chapter 3

The Big Secret Revealed

The next day, Tamao couldn't understand why Nagisa was looking so down yesterday. What was so important that she had to do? Still, family is important, so she decides to let it go for now. But when she arrives at the school, she notices Nagisa having a sad expression again . . . looking like she's about to cry. Feeling bad for her, she quickly runs to her friend.

"Nagisa!" she says. "Are you okay?"

The red-haired girl turns to notice the blue haired girl walking towards her with a worried look on her face. She quickly wipes off a tear and tries to smile. "I'm fine, Tamao."

"No, you're not," Tamao says, not convinced. "I saw you were about to cry over there. Is something the matter? Did you get in trouble with your parents or something?"

Nagisa shakes her head at both of those questions and turns away. "Can we not talk about this, please? You'll only make things worse."

Tamao frowns at this. "Why? We just became friends yesterday."

"It's . . . none of your busiess." With that, Nagisa walks away without another word.

Tamao shakes her head as she stares at her friend. What's with her? Why doesn't she want me to know anything? To her, that sounded rude and secretive. But then again, if Tamao believes that Nagisa is having a horrible family life, then she would then understand why she wouldn't talk about it. But her curiosity is still crawling in her body. Before she can say anything, the bell rings and Tamao could do nothing but take her seat next to Nagisa, who is still feeling down.

Throughout the school day, Nagisa has been the same and nothing has changed. Tamao became even more concerned about her than this morning. She didn't even talk to her because she had nothing to say that could even change the mood. Now that she thinks about it, there may be something that Tamao would not even know about Nagisa. She decides to wait until school is over so that they can talk this over.

As soon as the school day ends, Tamao stands up from her seat and is about to talk to Nagisa when the red head quickly exits the classroom. Tamao gasps at this sudden action and runs after her.

"Nagisa!" She tries to call out. "Wait up!"

But Nagisa wouldn't listen and just kept on running. She doesn't even look where she's going when she bumps into someone familiar.

"Whoa there, girl," Shizuma says as she gently grabs her shoulders. "You'll get hurt if you run too fast."

"Sh-Shizuma-sama?" Nagisa gasps.

The silver haired girl giggles. "Nice to meet you, too, Nagisa."

Tamao stops immediately at the sight of Shizuma and Nagisa close to each other. It's her again, she thinks to herself.

"Now then, what's the hurry, hun?" Shizuma says. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Uh, y-yes," Nagisa replies softly.

"Oh, can I come with you? It probably will be interesting where you'll be going to, right?"

"Um, actually, it's not a good idea to do that."

Shizuma's smile fades. "Oh, and why not?"

Nagisa looks over to notice Tamao standing there, stunned at what's going on. Then, the red-haired girl hangs her head down so low that her long bangs cover her facial expression.

"It's none of your concern," she whispers as she shoves Shizuma out of the way and continues to run off until she exits the school.

Tamao comes over next to Shizuma and glances at her. "What . . . what's going on? I just don't understand."

Shizuma just closes her eyes. "I have no idea. But hey, if Nagisa wants to be alone, then let her be."

"But . . ."

"I mean it, hun." Shizuma says, leaning in close to Tamao's face. "After all, both of us probably have something in common, right?"

Tamao frowns. "What do you mean?"

The silver haired girl just winks. "You'll see." With that, she walks off.

Tamao grits her teeth while clenching her fists in anger. She can't take this anymore and has to find out what the heck is going on with Nagisa before Shizuma does. It seemed like Shizuma is planning to help out Nagisa on her own, but Tamao is worried about what might happen if she did. With no way to talk to her now, the blue haired girl decides to head to the store to buy some food for a bit before heading home. They are low on food since her parents are always busy with stuff and don't bother to go grocery shopping often. She exits the school and heads out to the grocery store a few blocks from there.

She picks up a few things, like eggs, bacon, and a few poultry meats for the week. When she gets to the check out aisle, she sees someone familiar working the cash register. She goes to the 8th aisle where the girl is and is the last person in line. When she comes closer, she can't believe her eyes. No. Don't tell me that's . . .

"Good evening," Nagisa says, nonchalantly. "Did you find everything okay?" She doesn't even bother looking at Tamao and just scans the items.

"N-Nagisa?" Tamao is speechless.

"Yes, I'm a cashier," the red haired girl says. "So what?"

"Why didn't you tell me? It's not that bad to have a part time job at this age."

"You still don't get it," Nagisa says softly as she scans the last item. "My life is much worse than that."

"What do you mean?"

Nagisa gasps as she looks down at the floor. "Perhaps I said too much." She quickly bags up the items and hands them to Tamao. "You better go. You're holding up the line."

Tamao continues to look at her friend with a concerned expression and then reluctantly takes the bags and heads out. Now she's majorly worried about her friend. What could Nagisa be hiding that Tamao does not want to know? She thinks about it the whole way to her house.

"I'm home!" Tamao calls as she enters the building.

"Oh, welcome back, Miss Suzumi," Takara says, coming from the kitchen. "You've been gone for a long time. Where were you?" She then notices the grocery bags Tamao is holding. "Oh, you decided to do a little shopping?"

"Yes," Tamao replies softly.

"Do you want me to put them away for you?"

"No, it's okay. I can do it myself." As she goes to the kitchen, Takara stops her.

"Is something the matter? You seem a little down today," the maid says.

Tamao gives her a sad smile. "Well, you see . . . I made this new friend yesterday and everything was going well until I saw her feeling sad. She said that she had something important to do and I just went with it for now. But today, she looked even worse, like she was about to cry or something. I tried asking her what's wrong, but she won't talk to me. And I really want to help her out. Is there anything that I can do?"

Takara rubs her chin for a moment. "Hmm . . . well, I'm afraid I can't be much help since your friend is unable to tell her problems to you. The only thing I can say is to try your best to help her out no matter what. You're probably a good friend to her anyway and you always need to show that."

Tamao nods. "You're right. Thanks, Miss Yoshimi."

"Anytime," Takara says with a smile. "Say, would you like anything for dinner before you head up?"

"Just some roast chicken with rice and gravy," Tamao replies. "With mixed vegetables."

"Sure thing."

After Tamao puts away the groceries, she heads up to her bedroom and plops down on her bed. She thinks about what her maid had said. She will help out Nagisa, even if it means trying to force herself to. Nagisa looked really stressed today, she thinks. Now, I may not know anything about her, but that doesn't mean that I should stop caring about her. She needs help and I know just what to do. With that in mind, she changes into her casual clothing and comes down to help out her maid. Whatever it takes, I'll keep on trying until Nagisa cheers up.

The next day during lunch, Tamao seeks to find Nagisa until she notices her alone in the hallway and is about to exit the doors until Shizuma appears from a corner, slightly surprised to see Nagisa out here.

"Oh, hello again," Shizuma says, smiling at her. "Do you want to eat lunch together?"

"No," Nagisa says, turning away. "I'm not in the mood."

Tamao approaches her and shoves her out of the way. "That's enough, Shizuma-sama! You're no help at all!"

"Oh, but I will be," Shizuma says she holds out her lunch. "I'm not going anywhere until you take me with you."

"And what if I say no?" Tamao says, now in Shizuma's face.

"Who knows? I may take your Nagisa away and keep her for myself," Shizuma replies, shrugging. "I may have other plans, though."

Tamao ponders at this as she is left with no other choice. "Fine. But you better not cause any trouble!"

"Don't worry, don't worry. I won't."

The three of them walk out of the building and sit down in the courtyard. As they sit down to eat, Shizuma opens her lunch, revealing a fancy lunchbox and fantastic looking food.

"So, Nagisa," Shizuma says. "What do you think?"

"It's looks . . . good," Nagisa says, focusing on her food. She doesn't even bother to even comment on the lunch box for some reason.

"Ah, I see that Tamao has a fancy looking lunch as well," Shizuma says. "Does your maid make you lunch for you?"

Tamao frowns. "Why do you want to know?"

"I'm just curious," The silver haired girl examines Tamao's lunch and takes notice of a bunch of cash sticking out of Tamao's wallet. "Oh? What do we have here?" She suddenly snatches the wallet out of the blue haired girl's pocket.

"Hey!" Tamao exclaims. "Give it back!"

"So . . . I knew this would come up soon," Shizuma says, waving the wallet at Nagisa.

"What do you mean?" Tamao has a sudden feeling of guilt and regret.

"Remember what I told you earlier? We might both have something in common and that could be why Nagisa is feeling so down." She hands Tamao her wallet, in which she snatches it away.

"What are you trying to get at!?" Tamao shouts, feeling so angry that she wants this girl out of her sight.

"We're both rich," Shizuma says.

Nagisa gasps at this and Tamao looks back at her friend, trembling.

"N-Nagisa, I-I can explain," the blue haired girl stutters.

"So now we all know each other's secrets," Shizuma says, crossing her arms. "You and I are rich while Nagisa is stinking poor."

Tamao gasps this time. She had no idea that Nagisa is in that kind of situation.

"How do I know this?" Shizuma says. "Well, for starters, Nagisa is so quick into coming home right away to help out her parents. Therefore, she needs some money to keep them going, so she got a part-time job at a grocery store. I know this because I happen to go to that store as well."

"Stop it," Tamao whispers.

"So, why so glum, Nagisa?" Shizuma says, tipping her chin to her level. "Why keep it a secret from the rest of us? I can help you." She kisses her forehead. "And I can promise you that."

"Just go," Tamao says, standing up.

Shizuma turns to the blue haired girl. "Why? I'm not finished."

"I don't care," Tamao points to her right. "Just get out. You're not any help at all, not even when your eating lunch with us. Can't you see Nagisa is getting really stressed?"

Shizuma sighs and stands up as well. "I'm only telling the truth. Besides, keeping secrets from each other isn't good for friends, right?"

"I know. But you're not helping the situation at all. I can take care of this for now."

"As you wish." Before she leaves, Shizuma comes close to Tamao's ear. "But know this: I shall have Nagisa no matter what. You have no chance since I have a more fancy home and family life than yours." She then walks off with a smile on her face.

Tamao turns to Nagisa, who has her head down so low that her long bangs cover her facial expression.

"Nagisa?" Tamao says as she tries to reach her hand towards her.

"Why?" Nagisa chokes a sob. "Why did it have to come to this?"

"I don't understand."

"Now you're gonna laugh at me because I'm poor!" Nagisa cries as she lifts her head up, revealing already falling tears from her eyes. "I never wanted this to happen, but now it did! I can never show myself ever again!"

Tamao tries to put her hand on her poor friend's shoulder when Nagisa suddenly stands up. "Go ahead. Laugh at my true family life. Laugh at the fact that I am a stupid cashier. Laugh at anything else you might know about me. Because I can't live with it anymore." She wipes her tears and turns away. "So . . . I hope you're happy." She then runs off with her food left behind, leaving Tamao standing there, feeling very sorry for the girl who's heart got struck by lightning. Shizuma's lightning bolt, to be exact.

"Nagisa . . ."

A/N: And so it begins with Tamao as "The Rich" and Nagisa as "The Poor". I figured you guys have already known that from the title. So . . . how will Tamao help out Nagisa? And will Tamao keep Shizuma out of their lives or let Shizuma ruin everything? Stay tuned to find out.

Feel free to give out any suggestions, questions or concerns and don't forget to review! ;)