Chapter Text
After actually meeting Kokichi and having a few of his questions answered, Shuichi figured - no, hoped - that maybe his seemingly unending curiosity about him would lessen, or at least become more bearable.
Oh how wrong he was.
Rather, his interest increased tenfold. Not only did their meeting give him more questions than answers, but it allowed him to really put a face to his thoughts. Sure, he had seen his face before their meeting, but he hadn’t really seen his expressions. He hadn’t seen the way his nose crinkled as he laughed at Shuichi’s awkwardness. He hadn’t seen the intense focus in his eyes as he stacked the ingredients of his ramen. He hadn’t seen the way he stuck his tongue out of the side of his mouth as he searched through Shuichi’s car, and he definitely hadn’t seen the way he blushed and tried to cover it up by making fun of his “boring car”. But seeing him in person completely changed all of that.
At least their frequent messaging and calling didn’t change. In fact, Kokichi asked to call him just hours after they had met.
They talked for a while about everything and nothing, and it was starting to really surprise Shuichi that they still hadn’t run out of conversation topics.
While Shuichi was in the middle of explaining his first “case” - which involved a missing alligator - Kokichi swiftly interrupted him.
“Ahem! Well, I have some very important business to get to, so I must say goodbye for now Shumai!! Till we meet again!”
What? “O-Oh! Okay, then, bye!” He stopped himself from asking any questions, not wanting to be nosy. But then he remembered who he was talking to, and allowed his curiosity to take over. “W-Wait, y-”
...Kokichi hung up.
Shuichi sighed. Of course he wouldn’t let him finish. It’s not like he would’ve answered anyway, even if he had listened to him.
...Knowing that didn’t stop him from thinking about it, however.
Did it have something to do with his talent..? He had made jokes about being in a secret organization...
No. That had to have been a lie. There was no way that had something to do with his talent.
But it wouldn’t hurt to try and look it up, right..?
So he did. He tried researching multiple talents that involved leading an organization. Ultimate Leader, Ultimate President, Ultimate Boss, Ultimate Commander, Ultimate Kingpin....
Nothing.
Shuichi supposed that it made sense, if the organization was really a secret. But even then it was suspicious - there had to have been at least the tiniest hint that it existed.
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Kokichi wasn’t even there , and he was still giving him a headache. He probably would’ve enjoyed knowing that.
...It was definitely best not to tell him.
______________
The next morning, he was met with the usual 20+ messages from Kokichi, and…
2 from Kaede..?
Kaede : heyyy!! good morning :)
Kaede : message me back when you can!!
Shuichi : Good morning! What’s up?
Kaede : i was wondering if i could come over to your place today? you dont have work, do you??
Shuichi : No, I don’t. You can :) Could I ask why, though?
Kaede : yay!! is around noon alright?
...She ignored the question.
Well, maybe she just wasn’t paying attention, or she didn’t have a reason. Regardless, Shuichi didn’t want to make it seem like he didn’t want to hang out.
Shuichi : Yeah, that works.
Kaede : cool. see you soon!! :D
Shuichi : See you!
Thanks to his recent ‘pacing-and-cleaning-while-waiting-for-Kokichi-to-respond’ sessions, his apartment was already clean and he didn’t need to do much preparation other than changing out of his pyjamas and showering.
As much as he was thankful for it, it reminded him of how much Kokichi consumed his thoughts despite the fact that they’d only met in person once. It was embarrassing.
...Speak of the devil , he thought as his phone buzzed with a notification from none other than Kokichi himself.
______________
A few hours later, Shuichi heard a knock on the front door to his apartment. He opened the door and was met with Kaede, grinning widely.
“Hey!” She greeted and pulled Shuichi into a tight hug, nearly picking him up off the ground.
“Ah, h-hi!” He gasped, trying to stop his legs from flailing and nearly kicking her.
“Oh, sorry!” She laughed and let him go, stepping back a bit. “...Can I come in..?”
“Y-yeah, of course!” Shuichi backed into his apartment, leaving space for her to walk through the door. He cursed himself internally for being so chronically awkward.
“Feels like it’s been forever since I came here,” She smiled as she walked inside. “But I guess it’s only been a couple months, huh.”
“Yeah,” He laughed under his breath. “Uhm… So why’d you want to come over..? N-Not that I’m complaining or anything, I just-”
“Oh, right!” She clapped her hands together. “Miu told me all about it! ...And Kaito too, but only a little- Aah! I’m so happy for you Shuichi!!”
“H-Huh…? What-”
“I’m so happy you have a boyfriend!”
“ ...What. ”
“Well, I accidentally read part of your conversation with Miu when I was taking her phone away from her, and I couldn’t stop wondering about it so I asked her! I meant to talk to you about it but I wanted to wait until we could meet in person-”
“...Kaede, I-”
“You’ve gotta tell me all about it! I’m assuming he’s who you were talking to when we went out to get dinner with Kaito and Maki- It had to be! I mean, I figured it was Kyoko at the time but now that I know about this there’s just no way it wasn’t him-”
“Kaede..!”
“What? Aw, there’s no need to be embarrassed, Shuichi! It’s really sweet!”
“N-No, that’s not it…”
“Then what is it..? A-Are you upset that I didn’t talk to you first? I swear, I really wanted to! But I didn’t wanna make it awkward in case I was wrong, I only asked Miu just to make sure but you know how she is so she kiiinda told me everything- And I didn’t even ask Kaito! He just told me he talked to him and that he wanted to talk to you about it but didn’t know how to bring it up, and then I decided that I had to talk to you in person about it as soon as possible so that’s when I messaged you!”
“ Kaede, we aren’t dating. ” He shook his head in exasperation.
“...Whaat?” She tilted her head. “C’mon Shuichi, I already told you there's nothing to be emba-”
“I’m serious.”
“B-But Miu said-”
“You know how Miu is…”
“And Kaito-!”
“...Actually, I’m not sure about Kaito…” He put a hand up to his chin. “...You said he… talked to him..?” But how..? Did… Oh god.
Did Kokichi and Kaito know each other? ...More importantly, would they even get along..?
“Well, this sure is confusing,” Kaede laughed quietly. “And I thought I had it all figured out…”
“I’m, uh, not sure I understand either… Do you want to sit down?” He gestured towards his bedroom.
“Oh, right! Thanks,” She walked in front of him and through the door, looking around the room. “It’s so… empty in here. I don’t get how you’re able to get anything done - and it wasn’t always this way. What changed?”
“I’m uh, not sure,” He shrugged. “Just… a change in taste, I guess.”
Kaede squinted her eyes at him for a moment, then shook her head and sighed in resignation before sitting on the corner of his bed. Shuichi followed after, sitting next to her.
“So… do you wanna explain everything now so I don’t have the wrong idea..?” She cocked her head to the side.
“Oh, uhm, sure. Th-There’s really not much to explain though,” As long as he didn’t mention how exactly they met , he thought. “We’re just friends who talk to each other- o-on the phone.” He stopped himself from adding sometimes - as much as he wanted to avoid the truth of their meeting, he didn’t want to outright lie about anything… and considering she potentially had an idea of how much they talked, she’d be able to see through that easily.
“Oookay… I think I figured out that much, but… who is he? And uh, why’d you message him when we were at that restaurant? -Not that I’m upset or anything, it's just… not like you, I guess.”
“Uhh…” Shuichi felt his face heat up as he scrambled to think of an explanation. ‘Oh, it’s no biggie, I’ve just been strangely obsessed with figuring him out because he’s really interesting and I can’t stop thinking about him to the point where it’s genuinely affecting my life!’ didn’t exactly seem like a good way to tell her. “I.. W-Well- Uhm-” What a great way to totally not seem suspicious or anything! “I was just… kind of worried about some stuff at work, and uh- I guess it was a good distraction at the time, since you guys were talking about your jobs…”
Kaede was quiet for a moment. She stared at him and blinked a few times, making Shuichi turn his head to look at the floor and avoid eye contact. She definitely saw through that lie…
“Oh, Shuichi,” She smiled at him sadly and brought a hand up to pat his shoulder. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know! If you were having a hard time you should’ve told us - I’m sure Kaito could’ve thought up a good story to distract you,” She chuckled at the thought.
“Thank you…” As much as he wanted to smile, he felt too guilty about lying to her. He didn’t want to make her feel bad for him. “I-It’s okay though, really, I’m over it now. It’s not like you could’ve known.”
“That’s exactly why you should’ve said something! I know you have a hard time talking about your problems but it’s important!” She poked his cheek.
“Okay, I will,” He thought that was it, but he looked up at her and she didn’t seem satisfied, so he kept going. “I’ll… try to be more open. About how I feel,” He forced a very obviously fake smile, and Kaede seemed to think it was good enough.
“Good! Now, wanna tell me anything else about him? I know you said you’re just friends, and I don’t wanna intrude or anything but… are you sure there’s not even a bit of something else in there..?”
He shook his head, trying not to think about all the times Kokichi called him ‘beloved’ . He was only joking, of course - right? - but it still stuck out to him. “N-No, we’re just friends.”
“Okay!” She grinned and gave him a thumbs up. “Oh, but, do you like… have anything you might need help with? I mean, I don’t wanna baby you or make you uncomfortable- I just know you, uh… sometimes have a hard time with social stuff, so if you need help with anything like that I’d be glad to…”
He thought about all of the times Kokichi told him he was boring to message with. “I don’t think so… I guess if I needed help with anything it’d be texting, but I doubt you could-“
“I’d love to help with that! Here,” She reached her hand out to take his phone from him, and he nervously grabbed it from his pocket, unlocked it and handed it over. He trusted her, but… hopefully she wouldn’t actually look through his messages. That’d be… difficult to explain. “I’m assuming you mean, like, the way you text and not anything to do with being confused about the app..?”
“Uh, yeah.” It was embarassing to admit, but he felt like he owed her one truthful statement at least.
“..Well, the only thing I can say that I’d change is that you kinda text like an old man,” She said, matter-of-factly.
“I’ve been told,” He sighed.
“But that’s easy! You didn’t used to type like that - actually, why do you do it now?” She tilted her head and squinted her eyes at him.
“W-Well, when I got my job at the detective agency, I had to message Kyoko a lot, and I was afraid that I’d forget to be… professional , so I just… kept my typing style like that, I guess. ...And I didn’t really have anyone else to talk to besides you and Maki and Kaito…”
“Hmm, yeah that makes sense!” Kaede nodded. “Buuuut… you can use your laptop to message her now, right..?” She turned her head towards the laptop sitting on his nightstand.
“Hm? Oh, yeah, that’s what I normally use now anyways.”
“Soooo you should start typing like- well- not an old man! I’m sure he’d like it, if at least a bit of what Miu said about him is true.”
“...What did Miu say about him…?” Did he even want to know?
“Weelll… some not-so-nice stuff that I’m pretty sure was an exaggeration, but she did say he was uh… fun-loving… ?”
... Probably something about him being a manwhore, if Shuichi’s ‘Miu language’ was correct.
“...Do you know who he is at all?”
“Oh, no, Miu kept calling him this nickname that I’d really rather not repeat - and Kaito didn’t tell me either. He just told me you had gone on a date with-” She added air quotes and an exaggerated deep voice, “- ‘an annoying guy’ and he didn’t know how to bring it up to you. ...What’s his real name?”
“Kokichi Ouma.” Shuichi watched as Kaede’s face lit up in recognition, only for her expression to change almost immediately to concern.
“Oh…”
“I-Is something wrong..?” He tried to calm himself down from his internal panic. What if Kokichi was actually a horrible person? What if his talent was something bad or dangerous? If the Ultimate Murderous Fiend could go to Hope’s Peak, who was stopping someone even worse from getting in? What if Shuichi had gotten attached to someone who- No . He wasn’t ‘attached’ . He just liked talking to him, that was all. And he could live without it. If Kokichi was a terrible person, then Shuichi would just cut off ties with him and move on. Easily. He was not attached to someone who he met because they tried to scam him.
“No! No, it’s just… I heard a few things about him. Some stuff he did at Hope’s Peak.”
“L-Like what..?” Wait - If Kaede knew about his life at Hope’s Peak, did she know his talent..?
“I just know he was a troublemaker - Nothing that actually hurt anyone, but he caused some disruptions nonetheless,” She shrugged nonchalantly. “He covered one of the classrooms with toilet paper I think? Oh, and I’m pretty sure he egged the headmaster’s car at one point. Or was it paintballs…?”
“...Do you know what his talent was?” As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized how ridiculous he was being and regretted it. Was he really that obsessed that he felt like he had to know?
“Hmm…” She brought a hand up to her chin and hummed. It was quiet for a moment, allowing Shuichi’s embarrassment to really sink in. “Sorry, I don’t know. Well, either that or I can’t remember. ..Wait, if you guys are friends, why don’t you ask him?”
“I tried that, and he wouldn’t tell me. Normally I wouldn’t want to pry, especially if he really didn’t want me to know, but he doesn’t seem against me finding out. He just didn’t want to tell me himself, I guess.”
Kaede shook her head and smiled at him fondly. “From everything I know about him, that makes sense. And from everything I know about you ,” She poked his nose, “It makes sense why you wanna find out.”
Shuichi blushed and looked at the floor. “I’m just curious about it…”
“Curious about his talent? Or about him in general…?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, considering you said he’s distracting - distracting enough to help you stop worrying, which is a pretty impressive feat - I’m assuming you’re not only interested in knowing his talent. Are you sure you guys aren’t dating? Or secretly in love? Or meant to be together? I mean c’mon, a troublemaker and a detective definitely falls into some common romance tropes,” She giggled. She was obviously joking, but it still flustered Shuichi.
“Wh-?! No!” He felt his face heat up for what must have been the hundredth time since Kaede had arrived. “I keep telling you, we just talk sometimes! I don’t even know if we could be considered friends!” He wasn’t sure if that was the truth or not. He had called Kokichi a friend before, but was it true? People called acquaintances friends sometimes.
“Wow, you are a really bad liar sometimes! But seriously, you refusing to admit you guys are close in any capacity is a liiittle suspicious…” She stroked her chin dramatically, like she was really thinking hard about it, then broke into laughter.
“I’m telling the truth…” He sighed and blinked exasperatedly as he watched her laugh harder.
...Again, were they friends? He hadn’t put much thought into it before. Whatever their relationship was, it just fit into place naturally. Like it didn’t matter what it was labeled as. Sure, they talked quite a bit, and Kokichi constantly plagued Shuichi’s mind, but was that considered friendship? Could someone like Shuichi even be friends with someone like Kokichi?
Even once Kaede and Shuichi’s conversation shifted, those questions stayed at the back of his mind.
______________
Later that night, when Kaede had gone back to her own home and Shuichi was alone again, he once again did what had become a routine for him ever since he met Kokichi.
“-I’m telling you, it was huge ! Like, five of me stacked on top of each other! It must’ve had something to do with the radioactive sewage. That’s what my friend Chihiro said, anyway. They’re like a tech nerd or whatever but they’re pretty smart so I think I’ll have to trust ‘em.”
“... Chihiro? You don’t mean the former Ultimate Programmer, do you…?” They had to be around a decade older than Kokichi was, considering they were in the same year as Kyoko. ..Wait a minute, how old was Kokichi? He was definitely around the same age as Shuichi, considering they were in the same year at Hope’s Peak, but he didn’t know the exact number.
“Hmmm, who knoooows? Maybe I do, maybe I don’t,” Shuichi could picture him shrugging on the other line.
“You’re lying, aren’t you?” He wanted to say ‘there’s no way that’s true’ , but it was definitely a possibility. A very slim one, sure, but Shuichi knew Kyoko.
“Yupperoni! Bingo! Yessir! You got it!” Kokichi cheered and clapped as if it was some shocking revelation, and Shuichi just rolled his eyes.
“What a surprise.” Kokichi only laughed at that, so he continued. “...Are we friends..? S-Sorry if that’s weird or I’m putting you on the spot or something! I know I’ve called you a friend before but I don’t know if that’s really true and if we’re just acquaintances-”
“ Pfft-! ” He was cut off by a snort. “Shuichi, I’m pretty sure that’s like, something that has to be agreed on by both parties? I mean, I would totally know, ‘cause I have like a million bajillion friends of course. But we talk, like, all the time? And you paid for my lunch and gave me a ride back to my apartment? I dunno, I think that’s friend stuff. Or, no- I totally know, because I have so many friends and I’ve gone through this so many times. We’re totally friends. Besties, if you will.”
“W-Well, I-! I just wanted to make sure…” He used his free hand that wasn’t holding his phone to bury his face into.
“Aww, how cute,” Kokichi hummed. “Widdwe Shumai’s never had a weal fwiend befowe? Mr. Ultimate Detective? Am I your first friend ever? Were those goons you went to dinner with really your subordinates?”
“No! Of course I’ve had friends before! I-I mean- I have friends now too!” Putting the ‘of course’ in felt strange, considering it really wouldn’t be surprising if he had never made a real friend before. At least that’s what he thought.
“Nishishi! I’m just teasing, no need to get so defensive!” He laughed.
Shuichi sighed. “I know…”
“...You really are cute though. I wasn’t joking about that.”
What .
...
What?
“Wh-?! What?!” Shuichi choked on nothing and went into a coughing fit. It probably wasn’t the reaction Kokichi was expecting (or the one he wanted ) , because he blurted out a few quick sentences before immediately hanging up.
“Hahaha juuust kidding! Can’t believe you’d fall for a lie like that Shuichi- Anywaaays I have to go to another meeting with my subordinates so I’ll talk to ya later bye-bye!!”
“W-Wait, don’t-!” He was cut off by the beep! that indicated the end of the call. He forced himself to calm down and stop coughing before standing up from his bed and walking to the kitchen to grab a glass of water.
Kokichi definitely said… something .
Shuichi would’ve assumed it was a joke if not for the serious (and very fond) tone that Kokichi used - and the way he hung up so suddenly.
Normally he was pretty good at lying and faking his tone, so why did he sound so panicked? Did he really mean that? More importantly, in what way did he mean it?
..He started thinking back to what he and Kaede had talked about earlier that day.
...
Shuichi definitely wasn’t sure what Kokichi meant or how he felt about it, but he was definitely sure that he’d have a hard time falling asleep that night.