"A Love Story" Kaede and Shuichi

Chapter 21

Shuichi's POV

"That was a good training session, Shuichi!" Kaito cheered with his thumbs up.

"Yeah it was, Kaito," Shuichi agreed.

"Well, I'm gonna go get cleaned up. Cya later," he started to turn around but then turned back to me in a flash, making me jump slightly. "Make sure to talk to her!" Then Kaito winked and strutted away. "Well.. I know he is right. I've never been in a situation like this before.." Kaede appeared in my mind, making me blush. I made my way quickly to my room, ducking under my hat.

After my shower I sighed, sitting on my bed. "The day goes by so much slower when Kaede isn't by my side." My boredom drew me out of bed and I started to walk around campus, studying my surroundings. The overgrown walkways were filled with all types of flowers and weeds. Odd scratches and chips covering the walls. I made my way outdoors and decided to check on the writing Gonta found.

I bent down to see just a few letters scribbled onto the rock, still not really hinting at any words. I studied the rock and zoned out in thought.

"Hey, Shuichi!"

"Ah!" I gasped and fell backwards, hitting the grass. I tried to hide my embarrassment as I heard his childish, bratty laugh.

"Nee hee hee, did I scare you?" Kokichi teased. "Whatcha doing? You the one that wrote this?"

"N-No, just walking around campus and thought to look at it again, see if anything changed. Are you the one who wrote it?" I got up, brushing off my clothes. He looked up at me, a permanent smile on his face.

"Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not." He brought his finger to his lips with an evil grin. I sighed.

"Okay." "Kokichi, you are the hardest person to talk to."

"Have you found anything interesting on your walk?" I shook my head.

"No." Kokichi pouted like a child.

"Booooring. I wish there was something interesting here. Hey we should hang out, we can play an interesting game!"

"Uh oh, what game, Kokichi. This better not be something dangerous," I quickly recoiled. He chuckled.

"Nooo, it's not dangerous at all! Only our lives are at stake. C'mon, Shuichi!" Kokichi grabbed me by the arm and sprinted towards the building.

"Ah, w-wait!" I sprinted beside him and my heart started racing. "He better be lying!"

Kaede's POV

"Thank you for being with me. I just don't know what to do and I feel so.. weird. Like I have two minds right now. Two different beliefs but I know only one is truth. The other is a lie. Have you ever felt like that?" I turn to look at Maki after thinking aloud. Her eyes widened at the thank you, but she was starting to open up to me more and more each day. We really connected like close friends.

"More than I could count," She said after a pause. "Being an assassin and the orphan girl who is a caregiver feels like two minds. There is part of me who loves and cares about everyone and another part of me that is trained to kill."

"Wow.. yeah, I can't imagine. In a different way, that's how I feel about Shuichi and I's relationship. There is part of me who wants to be with him and just go cry in his arms about everything and another part of me that wants to keep my distance so he or I don't get emotionally hurt or trauma from losing one another. We've already lost our family.. I don't want to fall in love and lose someone again." I admitted and sighed afterwards, looking down.