(Complete) Taking Her Place (Saiouma/Oumasai)

Being Together Helps With Moving On

Chapter 18: Being together helps with moving on

Kokichi's POV

Eventually, I felt a little bad about this, but Shuichi and I ditched Chiaki. We managed to find a restaurant that was close the water but also away from everyone else such as Ibuki, Chiaki, Kyoko, and or Makoto. Shuichi and I sat down at a table and just talked for a while. My phone unfortunately rang, interrupting our conversation. It was Miu again. I decided to ignore it to continue our conversation.

"Who was that?" He asked curiously.
"It was Miu, probably wasn't important." I shrugged it off. Shuichi's phone went off soon after.
"It's Miu." He said as he looked at the incoming call.
"She'll be fine. Can't be that important."
"I wanna answer." Shuichi said as he moved the phone up to his ear.

Shuichi moved the phone a little farther away from his ear, making it look like Miu was being far too loud. "She wants to talk to you." Shuichi reluctantly handed me the phone.
"Hello." I tried to greet her cheerfully.
"You ignore all of my phone calls and texts and then say hello as if you haven't done anything wrong?! Oooo you're gonna get it when I see you next."
"Hey, don't be rude." I was finding this kind of funny.
"Oh I'm the rude one?! You've been ignoring me when I have important news for you!"

I had to move the phone farther from my face as well. I put the phone to my chest and looked to Shuichi and smiled, "give me one moment please." He laughed and excused me, I went outside to talk to her again.
"Are you ignoring me again?! I had to call Shuichi to get you to answer! SHUICHI! And now you're ignoring me again!"
"Sorry! You were yelling and I'm in some fancy restaurant right now."
"Awe were you on a dateeee- nows not the time! I have news! Good for me, not so good for you."

"Great, what happened?"
"Kiibo and I are dating now!"
"That's good! Why is that bad for me?"
"Well because... he lives pretty far away... and... we were talking and we decided that I'm going to be moving in with him so we can be closer together."
"Oh. So... you're..."
"I'm leaving..."

I took a moment and just thought about what was happening. I was going to be living alone for the first time in my life. Miu was leaving me... for a robot. What does he have that I don't?! Who's going to pull me out of bed in the morning? Who's going to make me breakfast? Who's going to be there for me when I'm sad and need attention?!

"I'm sorry Kokichi..." she apologized.
"It's ok, I'm glad you're happy." The urge to hang up on her started to approach me.
"I am! Ahhh I like him so much! I'm glad you're taking this is so well!"
"Yeah..." I responded blankly.
"Well I'll let you get back to your fancy restaurant! Byeeee!"

I hung up and felt kind of empty. Miu and I have lived together for like, ever, and now she's leaving me. I walked back to our table and handed Shuichi his phone.
"You look drained, how'd it go?" He asked,
"I'm fine. Just wasn't expecting it, it'll take a bit of time for me to get over, you know."
"That doesn't sound like you're fine."
"We can talk about it later." I put my elbows on the table and rested my chin in my hands, "we're on a date, can't let this ruin it." I forced a smile on my face.

We continued the date and, other than Miu, it went pretty well. We ended up heading back to the ship soon after. It wasn't quite time to head back but we had done a decent amount of stuff on the island and had no reason to stay.

Shuichi sat down on our bed and held his arms out as though he was asking for a hug. I guess he didn't let go of the fact that I didn't look super happy after the phone call.
"Are you-" I started to question.
"Come hug me."
"Yeah ok." I wanted a hug... don't judge me.

I walked over to Shuichi and gave him a hug. He pulled me down to him and just held me on his lap.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked.
"I don't want to be alone." I could feel my eyes start to water slightly as I thought about having to be alone. God I'm pathetic, it's just Miu, she's happy, shouldn't I be?! Plus, I didn't even know how Shuichi expected to make this work, I had to travel by plane to get here for the wedding from my house, we lives thousands of miles away from each other.

"You're not alone." He commented.
"But... Miu's leaving me."
"Define leaving."
"She's moving in with Kiibo and leaving me all by myself, alone." I said as I snuggled my head onto his chest.
"Is that what the call was about?"
"Yeah... I don't like being alone. Apparently she's dating Kiibo now. And then I'm stuck, all alone."
"I'm here for you."
"But you live several hours away from my house."

"That's ok, I'm obviously not going back to live where I am right now. Plus if we go traveling we would be together anyways."
"You really want to do that?" I looked up to him with puppy dog eyes.
"Of course I want to, silly! I like spending time with you! Plus, I mean, we are kinda dating now."
"Keep me company Shu!" I somewhat yelled.
"Ok." He laughed.

For a while we just sat together, I almost fell asleep. I think he thought I was asleep because he seemed to start humming to himself.
"I love you Kokichi." He said quietly in between hums.
"I love you too Shuichi." I looked up and kissed his cheek. He looked surprised. I know it's early but I couldn't leave him hanging like that, even if that's what he was half expecting.

He hugged me tighter until I had to tell him to stop.
"You're very physical." I commented after he let me loose.
"Sorry." He apologized.
"No I like it!" I smiled and kissed his cheek again.

As the light from outside slowly started to fade so did I, I fell asleep sitting on Shuichi's lap. He rested his head on mine and I could tell he also fell asleep. We stayed like this until morning pretty much.

The boat was making another stop today. This time the stop was more of a "do something you haven't done before" kinda stop. There were thing like snorkeling, swimming with dolphins, you could go in one of those cages which would go down into sharky waters, and small boats you could rent out for a certain amount of time. All of those things intrigued me quite a lot so I was excited.

I woke up and stretched myself out onto the bed. I woke Shuichi up and jumped out of bed. The excitement of doing things I haven't before made me oddly energetic for a morning, especially after the news I heard yesterday... I ran into the bathroom and changed quickly. I was ready before Kyoko even barged into our room to wake us up. I had to pull Shuichi out of bed to get him up. Eventually however, both of us were ready to go before the boat had even reached its destination.

Kyoko walked in and was surprised to see us both dressed. I still don't know how she gets in, the door is always locked. Kyoko looked tired, like she hadn't slept much last night.
"You two are never ready? What's going on?" She asked.
"I was excited." I looked at her innocently.
"I don't get him either." Shuichi yawned.
I lightly hit Shuichi on the top of the head and said, "I'm not that hard to figure out!"
"Sometimes you are." He looked down to me. I grumbled in return and the three of us left the room.