After being seated at the Rokuten's outdoor dining area, Rei and Minako began to flip through their menus.
"Man, I almost forgot about this place. We only came here one time, right?" Rei pondered while looking over her menu.
"Speak for yourself." Mina replied, having already closed her menu and set it to the side. Before long the duo had ordered and Mayako, the co-owner of the restaurant, brought the food out to them herself.
"Enjoy you two!" She said with a warm smile.
The two began digging in, but Minako was soon met with a bit of introspection from her raven-haired companion.
"Who would've thought that Ami of all people would have found someone before you or I did?"
"Well it wasn't like she did it on her own. The two of us did a pretty good job playing cupid if I do say so myself." The blonde responded before taking a proud sip of her drink.
"Heh, I guess you've got a point there."
"I get what you mean though. We definitely have more attempts under our belts than Ami on that front." Minako said before taking another bite.
"Well, failed attempts."
"Hey, they weren't all failures. What about Yuichiro?"
"You mean the guy who I never officially dated and hasn't shown his face for nearly a year?" Rei shot back with a raised eyebrow.
"Well when you put it like that…"
"Yeah, I just don't know what it is. There was him, Mamoru… others…" Rei said, biting her lip and turning away with a light blush.
"Would 'others' happen to include a certain bunhead we know?" The Guardian of Beauty said with a devilish smirk, prompting Rei to snap her head back in her direction with wide eyes.
"What… how…"
"You guys should know by now that you can't hide this stuff from me." Minako said, leaning back in her chair.
The raven haired girl let out a large sigh, "Alright, alright, I admit it. I did have a… brief, small crush on Usagi."
"Wow, take out the words 'brief' and 'small' and that's actually a true sentence." Mina teased.
"Okay, fine! I was kind of super in love with her for, like, a year and a half! Happy?"
If Minako were to be honest, happy wasn't the word she would use to describe her feelings about Rei telling her she had been in love with someone else, but she was glad that her friend was opening up to her.
"See? That wasn't so hard." The blonde shot back.
"But I really am over her. It took a while but ultimately I just had to accept that she and Mamoru are happy together."
"Well, sure but… what about your happiness?" Minako questioned.
"If she's happy, I'm happy." Rei said sincerely, "And besides, there's plenty of fish in the sea. I just… y'know… apparently am not the best fisherman." She finished with a chuckle.
"Well, maybe the right fish is… closer than you think?" Minako said nervously, hoping she wasn't being too obvious.
"Heh, maybe. But hey, why are we only focusing on my love life? It's not like everything's been peachy for you either!"
"What do you mean? I'm doing fine!" Minako exclaimed.
"Oh let's see, should we start with when you dated two supervillains in one day? Or how about the time a guy broke your heart so bad you faked your own death? Or how about the time your old volleyball friend asked you out even though he already had a girlfriend (I still think you should've let me beat him up for that)." Rei finished before taking a sip of her drink.
Normally Mina would be upset about someone reminding her of all her past failures in the field of romance, but she would be lying if she said that Rei wanting to commit violence on her behalf didn't make her a little happy.
"Is that bad? That's probably bad… oh well" She thought to herself.
"Okay… so maybe I have had some… missteps, in this department. BUT, I will have you know that I have put all of that behind me." The blonde said, crossing her arms proudly.
"Oh, did you find someone new to obsess over?" Rei asked with a smirk, prompting Minako's eyes to shoot wide open, "Heh, figured, so do I know him?"
"Oh, um, well…" Minako stuttered, her eyes darting around the outdoor dining area, "P-p-probably not."
"Are you okay?" Rei questioned, clearly picking up on Minako's nervous energy.
"I'M FINE!" Minako all but shouted, earning her some confused looks from the other restaurant patrons.
"Oh, wait, I get it." Rei said, causing Minako's heart to skip a beat.
"You do?" Minako asked, nervously.
"It's a girl, isn't it? Mina, you know you don't have to be embarrassed about that, I think it's pretty apparent by now that, like, none of our friend group is straight."
Mina was somewhat baffled that Rei could come so close to hitting the mark, yet still not quite get there, "Uh… well… I will neither confirm nor deny." Minako said defiantly, shoving a large bite of food into her mouth.
"Uh huh. Well, whoever she is, she'd better be good enough for you." Rei said before returning to her own meal.
"Good enough for me?" Minako thought, sneaking a look back up at her raven-haired friend, "She's perfect."
(And that is where we will leave chapter 3. Sorry for the shorter chapter, but next time we get to see Mrs. Mizuno's reaction to her daughter's relationship! Will she approve? Guess you'll have to keep reading to find out!)
(Also, for those who don't remember, the Rokuten Restaurant is from the SuperS episode "Mansion of Secrets! The Menu of Love to You". Figured it would be more fun to have them go there then just have them sit at Crown for the millionth time.)
(Please let me know what you guys think! Comments are much encouraged and greatly appreciated!)
(And come back next time for chapter 4: Coming Out)