The Mastermind's Lies | Mastermind Shuichi AU

Chapter 20 - Mistake

A/N: Another song Shuichi plays later... I hope y'all know this one, it's pretty popular actually. Anyways, enjoy and have a nice day.

[...]

I sighed, finally sending in the report. I also sent a message to my uncle saying I would be coming to the office on Sunday morning to get more cases to work on and bringing back all the completed file folders.

I looked at the hour. 8:56 PM. It was still a little early to go to sleep.

I was aching to play the piano again. It was so relaxing, and it was just what I needed now. But I knew it was risky to go down an play it when everyone's home.

Yet I still found myself standing up and heading out of my room towards the living room.

I heard voices and splashes coming from outside the house, so I assumed they were all either swimming or playing tennis outside, as usual. This was perfect; luck was on my side today it seems.

I entered the living room and sat down at the piano.

My fingers ran over the cover and lifted it up, revealing the pearly white notes and the contrasting black keys.

I scanned through Kaede's sheets, looking for something I could play, careful not to mess up anything. Eventually, I came across two pieces by Einaudi, Nuvole Bianche and Experience. Both were truly wonderful pieces; I'd learned them a few years back, helped by my aunt and uncle.

I settled on Nuvole Bianche and started playing.

The sweet melody coming from the piano danced through the air, flowing through my brain and putting me on the same cloud I was on last week. It was almost addictive, like a drug, a harmless one though. Back when I was living with my uncle, I would play the piano, but it was more of a hobby. With my current situation, it definitely changed from just being a hobby. It became some kind of... escape.

I found myself closing my eyes, letting my fingers fly on the keyboard according to my memory. My fingers finally pressed the final key, the melody slowly dying, allowing the room's silence to take over.

I scanned the room around me to make sure no one was seeing me, before returning back to the piano. I changed the sheet, replacing it with Experience, putting back Nuvole Bianche in the exact same spot I'd taken it.

And then I started playing again.

The melody of this piece was extremely touching. Everytime I played it, I would always imagine myself stories and scenarios that went along with the dramatic tone, each of them telling a deep story. It was also some sort of escape from reality, which felt amazing.

My fingers danced across the keyboard, my hands not moving much since the piece was mostly played at the center of the keyboard.

When I was finally done with this song, I let out a deep sigh, almost feeling a huge weight lifting off my shoulders.

"Shuichi."

A voice startled me, making me jump in my seat. 'Someone saw me again, oh no...' I gulped and turned around. It was Kaede, but she was alone this time.

She was looking at the floor, a sad expression on her face. Her mouth formed a line, her lips almost trembling. She also fiddled with her fingers.

"Shuichi... can we please talk...?"

I felt my heart skip a beat. I couldn't even move, I just sat there, staring at her, not even knowing what to say.

"I... I- I want to be your friend again, Shuichi. I truly believe you're a good person and I'm willing to do anything for you to talk to us again."

Her voice had slowly started shaking as she finished her sentence. By the end, tears were pouring out of her eyes and she was slowly sobbing, eyes closed and mouth trembling.

I felt my heart shatter in little pieces as I watched her slowly lift her head to look at me. I couldn't even think about keeping up my little act, so I just stayed there, mouth wide open with shock.

Kaede, of all people, wanted to be friends with me again? After what I'd done to her?

...

I felt the tears prickling the corners of my eyes.

I was so done. So done with all of this bullshit. This little act had gone on long enough. Just as I was about to blurt out everything, I heard and saw something move from the corner of my eyes.

The small camera stared right at me, almost menacingly.

Everything suddenly came back to me, all the threats I'd gotten from the man and the lies I had to stand behind.

I stood up and bolted towards the door. I went down the hallway, up the stairs and finally, into my room and closed the door behind me, locking it.

I took a deep shaky breath. I let the tears slide down my face as I put a hand over my mouth to muffle the sobs that were coming out of my mouth.

Horrible. Painful. All of this. I just stood there, back against my door, letting out muffled cries constantly, tears flowing down my cheeks and onto my hands and shirt.

I'm so sick of crying all the time. I'm so sick of all of this.

...

After a few minutes, I slowly gathered to strenght to walk and then slowly slid myself down on my desk chair and opened my laptop, hoping to take my mind off of things, as I slowly started calming down. I was ready to enter my password, but instead, my screen glitched and a sentence appeared on it.

'Outside the house, at 11 tonight. We have to talk about your behavior.'

My stomach did a flip and my blood ran cold.

This could only be one person. It was Kokichi's dad. This meant that he saw my piano prestations, how I gave them the medicine and how I reacted to Kaede's proposition, as I expected.

I didn't realize my hands started trembling as I stood there, frozen. I began panicking, fearing something would happen to my uncle and aunt.

What if he hurts them? What if he even also hurts my parents? It's not like I care about them though... no I definitely still care about them a little.

Even if they abandonned me?

I shook my head as my body became limp and my breathing became difficult. My vision was spotty and my lungs were strained as silent tears slid down my cheeks. Tears mixed with anger, sadness and...

Despair.

All I could feel was utter despair.