It was Monday now.

And Retsuko wasn't at work. 
I mean, Resasuke and Tsunoda weren't either, but more on that later.

The office had a...an eerily quiet tone to it almost. After the first hour when Retsuko still hadn't shown up, people started to get suspicious. Only a select few didn't seem to care, such as Ton or Kabae, and those from other departments. 

No one broke the silence until lunch.

"Alright. Who contacted Retsuko over the weekend?" Fenneko started, setting down her sandwich and looking around her, only a few eyes daring to make contact with hers. "I tried calling her on Saturday, but she didn't answer me." Haida shrugged, looking away from Fenneko and taking another sip from his drink. Fenneko turned to Anai. "What about you?" 

"...I haven't contacted her at all, this weekend." Anai kept his gaze on Fenneko, not moving an inch. Fenneko, though, didn't move at all either, just keeping her eyes locked on Anai. "You hesitated." Fenneko spoke, her voice stern. Anai still didn't blink. "And what does that matter? People can hesitate can't they?" 
Everyone was watching now, but the two didn't seem to notice.

"Usually when people hesitate they're hiding something. " Fenneko retorted, Anai not missing a beat right after. "Are you accusing me of hiding something?" 
"Only if you are hiding something."
"Usually people accuse others when they themselves are hiding something."
"So your turning it on me now?"
"Do onto others what they do to you."
"Touche, you withered mongoose."
"For your information I am a-"

"Oh be quiet you two! We don't want to start an office fight here! Seriously..." Haida interrupted their dispute with a loud snap, causing both to blink in some surprise. "Everyone is watching you guys right now. Anai can hesitate perfectly fine Fenneko. What's got you so worked up anyway?" Haida sighed, shaking his head and taking another sip of his drink before setting it on the table before them. "Nothing. I guess I'm just worried about Retsuko since the uh...Tadano incident happened. Yeah, that." Fenneko looked towards Haida now, letting more expression leak into her voice to sound more realistic. 

"Well I think we're all a little worried about Retsuko right now after that. But that doesn't mean we should just automatically point fingers at people." Haida glanced back at Fenneko for a minute before shutting his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I get that...." Fenneko turned to Anai again, somehow holding in her spite as she spoke again. "Sorry Anai. I'm just...stressed." Fenneko flinched a bit at those words, not liking the taste they gave her mouth. 

"That's...okay, Fenneko. I've been stressed lately too." Anai didn't look at Fenneko when he spoke, instead focusing on the wall behind her. "Well then, I'll be going now." Fenneko quickly stood, almost jogging out of the room before Haida halted her. "Where? Lunch isn't over yet. And your not the...extra work type, no offence. You okay Fenneko?" Haida walked closer to Fenneko, but she only kept walking, looking back once just to say, "Yes." Before trotting out the door. 

~- - - - -~

"Do you feel guilty, Fenneko? Did you enjoy killing me, Fenneko? Are you a murderer, Fenneko??"

"Oh shut up will you?" Fenneko was currently in one of the storage rooms, sitting in a corner. It was dark in there, the only light emitting from Fenneko's phone. Only Saturday had she killed Tsunoda, only Saturday had all this guilt started. And ever since, anytime she remotely glanced at a picture of Tsunoda, she saw it talk.

The photo that was up right now was one of Tsunoda and Retsuko, a selfie they had taken a long while back. "Well you sure shut me up, huh?" The digitized Tsunoda shook her head, frowning. "I can't believe you. I thought we were friends Fenneko." Fenneko looked away from Tsunoda, instead targeting her eyes on the digital Retsuko beside her. Unlike Tsunoda, Retsuko never moved. 

"If we were friends, why did you blackmail me?" Fenneko hissed, hearing a 'Tsk tsk..' Before Tsunoda replied. "Well people do crazy things for love you know. But even I wasn't crazy enough to KILL somebody." Fenneko had no retort to that. She killed Tsunoda because she loved Retsuko. Tsunoda loved Retsuko too, but she never tried to kill anyone. And even if Tsunoda would have killed someone, it probably would have been more planned out then Fenneko's idea. After all, she just acted on a whim, not even thinking about the emotional and mental consequences of this. 

"See? Now you feel bad, don't ya? Killing off one friend just for who again?" The virtual Tsunoda turned around, looking at Retsuko. "Her. And what would she say if she heard about this?" Tsunoda glanced back at Fenneko, spite in her eyes. "I said shut up!!" Fenneko snapped, looking back to Tsunoda only to find the photo to look as it had before. Motionless. 

"Dammit.." Fenneko shut her eyes, rubbing her forehead. She didn't know what to feel anymore. She kept seeing Tsunoda every time she looked at her phone now, the guilt getting to her. She loved Retsuko more than anything, yes, but....enough to murder somebody? And the way she accused Anai today too... "What is wrong with me?" Fenneko opened her eyes slightly, glancing over the photo at Tsunoda. It looked like she was judging her. And in retrospect, she had every right to judge.

Fenneko shut off her phone and lightly threw it at the floor. She was too tired for this. Too stressed for any of this. After a moment of silence she begrudgingly checked her phone time, slowly standing up. Lunch only had a few more minutes left. She had to go. But not before Haida did.

Shutting the door quietly and walking just as quietly away, Haida sighed. 'Who the hell was she talking to?? Who blackmailed her? Geez...Is Anai blackmailing her? They did have that standoff today...' Haida ran a hand trough his hair, sighing. He kept walking, despite being confused. 'Also...where's Tsunoda?'

~- - - - -~

Anai was less than calm. No one would know that unless they looked at his left leg, though. The rest of him was stone faced, but his left leg was bouncing up and down faster than 50 kids in a bouncy house. He was very nervous. Retsuko wasn't here today, and he sent a letter yesterday.

What did she think of it? Did she keep it? Trash it? Not even see it? No, she had to of seen it, that's probably why she wasn't here today. 'I messed it up. I messed it all up.She probably hated it, she must be disgusted. No, no stop. Retsuko is kind and sweet and beautiful, she can't hate anyone. Yeah...yeah she...' Anai crossed his legs to help stop the bouncing.

'She must be so in love with the letter that she couldn't get herself the courage to confess to me today. Yeah....yeah...' Anai took a few deep breaths, shutting his eyes a moment 'That has to be it. Retsuko can't...' Anai bit his lip, bowing his head over the table. 'Retsuko can't hate me, can she?'

No, no. Retsuko can't hate you. But somebody else can.

~- - - - -~

Tadano sat in his limo after a meeting, smiling. It was not because the meeting had gone well, though. It wasn't because of the free time on his schedule tomorrow either. It was because of two things. Retsuko, and the absence of a rival. 

"Eni-o?" Tadano questioned, covering his eyes with an arm draped over his face. "Yes, Tadano?" The Ai system answered, being as monotone as always. "Did you finish that scan about people named Unai?" Tadano's tail was flipping from side to side. It was hard to tell if it was from eagerness, excitement, or just being flat out sadistically happy. "Yes. There is only one person named Unai around here, near the edges of town. They are currently 80 years old, and are very prominent on social media about their children and grand children and-" "No no no no. That's not right." Tadano cut in, his smile now turning into a nervous one. "He can't be that old."

"Well, that's the only Unai around this area and it's a very uncommon name, did you, perhaps, spell it wrong?" Eni-o inquired, Tadano suddenly stopping all movement at that. "Spell it....wrong?" He spoke to himself, but that didn't stop Eni-o from answering. "Yes, sir. I did a search on more common names like that, and I found quite a few Anai's..."Tadano's tail started moving again at that. "Anai, huh? And where...where are these Anai's? Perferably the ones that work or live by Aggretsuko." Tadano clarified, knowing full well that the Ai would list off the entire population if he didn't.

After a second of processing, Eni-o spoke. "There's one that works with Miss Aggretsuko in her department, named Anai. He's relatively new to the department, coming in right from-" "That's enough Eni'o." Tadano interrupted, holding a hand up to emphasize the point. "I have free time tomorrow right?" Tadano peeked one eye out from under his arm, looking at the Ai device. "Yes-" "Good. search for that Anai guys house, the one who works with Retsuko. We're going to pay him a little visit tomorrow." Tadano's smile now went back to being sadistic, his eye shown having a very dilated pupil. 

If only Tadano had advanced that Ai sooner, it would of been able to recognize a sociopath in the making. But, unfortunately for a lot of people, it could not do that, and may never be able to either. Why? Well, because his creator now had more important things to do than program Eni-o for safety features. He wouldn't be needing any safety features anytime soon anyway.

~- - - - -~

Now, compared to everyone else today, Retsuko felt great. She had paid almost no mind to Anai's letter today, and instead just focused on having more fun with her mother. It had been so long since she got to spend quality time with her mom, and it felt pretty good. 

All day so far they had done things together. Make breakfast and lunch, plan going out for dinner, watching rip-off movies together, everything. If there was any criticism thrown between the two, it was either forgotten, or laughed at. The mood was wonderful right now. 

Currently, the two were finishing a trashy romance movie about a girl who fell in love with a guy in three days, and they already were getting married even though one was out of a job because a boss couldn't appreciate an artist and blah blah blah. Point is, they were happy. And author had no real point to this than beside to show that they were happy. 

That would be something very hard to obtain pretty soon for this poor family. Let's hope they enjoy it while they still can.

(This took so long because I had to go to camp sorry, but it's here now! Enjoy!)