Makoto nodded with a fond smile. "Ahem, who is she?" He stood next to Mika and grasped her hand in a silent but powerful gesture.
The girl's dark, sharp eyes flicked from Mika to his hand on hers. Her predatory smile widened, showing white teeth. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I interrupting something?" she purred, her voice dripping with sweet sarcasm.
Mika's hand in his was ice-cold. She gave him a small squeeze. "No," Mika said in a calm, even, and chilling monotone. "You're not interrupting anything, Emi!"
Her smile was back in place, a perfect and completely fake mask. "This is my boyfriend. And they are his sisters." She gestured vaguely at Yuna and Ayane.
Yuna and Ayane exchanged a look. They could both feel the sudden drop in temperature.
"A boyfriend?" Emi repeated, eyebrows raised in mock surprise. "That's a new one. I thought you weren't interested in relationships." She took a step closer, her gaze sweeping over Makoto with a dismissive, contemptuous look. "He's cute. In a pathetic, overweight sort of way."
She looked back at Mika, her smile turning impossibly sweet. "But I'm surprised you'd stoop so low. Even for you."
"Emi was the captain of the track team," Mika explained softly, though there was steel beneath her voice. "We were rivals."
"Rivals?" Emi laughed, a short, sharp, ugly sound. "Don't flatter yourself. You were just Mika the runner-up. The girl who was always just a little too slow. You're in second place, Mika-chan. Always have been, and always will be."
Makoto frowned, he was planning to pull away and ignore Emi, but then Yuna's voice rang out before he had the chance.
"Tchh... Second place?" Yuna's voice was a dangerous growl. It cut through the tense silence like glass. She pushed the cart forward with an aggressive screech of metal on linoleum.
She stopped right beside him and Mika, her small frame radiating pure fury. Then she looked Emi up and down with withering contempt. "That's a funny thing to say," Yuna snarled viciously. "Coming from a girl who's so irrelevant, she has to insult people in the frozen food aisle to feel important."
Emi's smile faltered. Surprise flashed in her eyes, quickly followed by anger. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me," Yuna said, stepping forward. She was a good foot shorter than Emi, but right now she looked like a giant. "You look like some washed-up high school athlete who peaked at eighteen. And you're trying to take your sad, pathetic life out on her."
She jabbed a finger at Mika. "She's got a boyfriend who cares for her. And a family," she said, her voice shaky but full of fierce protective pride. "So what do you have? A superiority complex and a shopping cart full of low-fat yogurt?"
Ayane, who had been watching with bemused interest, sighed. She pulled out her phone. "This is getting good," she muttered. "I should probably record this."
Makoto chuckled. "I'm not sure why the captain must act so hostile towards her member. Did you steal her boyfriend or something, Mika?"
Mika looked up at him with her wide, perfectly innocent eyes. "Her boyfriend?" she repeated softly. She put a hand to her chest in mock shock. "Oh no. I would never do something like that."
She looked at Emi with a sad, pitying expression. "Kenichi-kun was just a friend. He was very kind to me when I was having a hard time with my training."
Emi's cool confidence shattered. "Just a friend?!" she hissed venomously. "You were all over him! You cried on his shoulder after every single race you lost! And you knew I liked him!"
A triumphant grin spread across Yuna's face. "Oh," she purred dangerously. "So that's what this is about." She leaned against the shopping cart casually. "So you're not mad because she was in second place. You're mad because some guy thought the runner-up was cuter than the captain." She let out a sharp, ugly laugh. "How pathetic!"
Ayane, quietly filming everything, zoomed in on Emi's furious face. "Ooh, a love triangle backstory," she muttered appreciatively. "The plot thickens."
Makoto shrugged casually and leaned in to kiss Mika. "Well, knowing my Mika, I can guess that might have happened. Not many can resist her charm."
Mika melted into the kiss with a contented sigh. When he pulled away, she looked up at him with pure adoration. It was a masterful performance.
He looked at Emi with a mischievous glint. "But at least she's owned now, so there will be no future victims, maybe?"
"Owned?" Emi snarled dangerously. She stepped forward, fists clenched at her sides. "You think you own her?" She looked him up and down, lip curled in a sneer. "You're just a temporary distraction. A fat, pathetic little toy she's playing with to make herself feel better."
She looked back at Mika, eyes blazing with desperate intensity. "She doesn't love you. She doesn't know how to love anyone. She just knows how to take, how to win."
She pointed a trembling finger at Mika. "She'll get bored with you. Then she'll throw you away, just like she did with Kenichi. Just like she does with everyone." She let out a bitter laugh. "You think you're special? You're just the next victim in a long, long line."
Makoto chuckled and turned to Mika. "Hmm, is that true, Mika?" His eyes sparkled wickedly. "You would lose your second wife position if you did that."
Mika looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes. She clung to his arm like a wronged victim. "Of course not, darling," she whispered, voice breaking. "She's just saying that to be cruel." A single fake tear traced down her cheek. "And I would never do that. I love you, Makoto."
Yuna had had enough. "Okay, then we're done here," she announced with a growl. She grabbed the shopping cart sharply. "Let's go. I'm bored with this washed-up high school drama queen."
Ayane sighed and finally lowered her phone. "Aww, but it was just getting to the good part," she muttered. "I was hoping she would throw a punch."
As they turned to leave, Emi called out venomously, "Just you wait, Mika. I'm not done with you yet."
Mika didn't even look back. But under the bright supermarket lights, he saw a small smile touch her lips.