Heart Of Thirst [Oumasai]

Prologue

Kokichi was bored in Monokuma's class, twisting his mechanical pencil around in his fingers. His eyes happened to catch Shuichi scribbling something on his notebook two desk rows in front of him. 'His doodles definitely have nothing to do with class,' Kokichi thought as he looked at his own notes and then over to the detective.

He had such a strained expression on his face, staring at a random part of the room every few seconds as if he was thinking hard. For sitting in the front row, Shuichi was pretty brave not to pay attention.

Again, he scribbled something on the loose leaf paper, and then immediately crossed it out. Then he ruffled his hair. Kind of cute.

'Huh? Cute? He's just writing down some bullshit,' Kokichi contradicted his own thoughts, propping his chin on his hand.

Shuichi looked over to Kaito with a begging expression on his face, who only winked back at him encouragingly before being called by Monokuma to read the next few sentences from the textbook.

The two had probably discussed something. Maybe it also had to do with the scribbles. Kokichi turned his gaze out of the window, his thoughts slowly pacing away.

It had been a few weeks since Shuichi, Kokichi, and everyone else had come to the Ultimate Academy of Gifted Juveniles. At first, Shuichi had been more than shy, but somehow had grown sweeter every day. 'Well, cute... He's cool too, especially without the stupid hat,' Kokichi thought. The Ultimate Supreme Leader had somehow taken a liking to the Ultimate Detective. He didn't know why, but he enjoyed watching Shuichi and teasing him occasionally.

At some point, the bell rang, and Himiko and Tenko simultaneously sighed in relief.

"You guys shouldn't be so relaxed, everything from today will be part of the midterm exams, Puhuhu," Monokuma chuckled before disappearing into thin air with a twist.

As soon as that stuffed bear robot disappeared, loud conversations filled the classroom while everyone packed up their belongings and disappeared into the hallway in small groups.

Only Shuichi did not move an inch. He continued to crouch over his piece of paper before he ruffled his hair in annoyance and crumpled it up.

When he stood up, Kokichi quickly put his head on the table and pretended to be asleep. Shuichi walked past his table and bumped his foot against Kokichi's chair. "Hey, Ouma. We have midterms next week, you might want to pay attention," Shuichi said.

Kokichi just chuckled and turned his face to his classmate. "I know all the material already, so I don't have to pay attention. Besides, Monokuma is a bad teacher." As Kokichi grinned at Shuichi, the detective quickly averted his eyes and went to the back of the classroom where each student had a locker.

He opened his locker and carelessly stuffed the note inside before slamming the door shut and quickly exiting the classroom.

Unsure, Kokichi stared at the locker, and as the hallways slowly emptied, he finally took the chance to walk over to the locker that had 'Shuichi Saihara' written on it in large letters.

He nervously pulled open the door and discovered the crumpled piece of paper down in the corner. Kneeling down and gently uncrumpling the note, he spotted Shuichi's neatly written letters. He wasn't sure what he expected to read on the note. Maybe a love letter, or a shopping list, or whatever.

But judging by Shuichi's facial expression, it had caused him quite a headache.

Gently, he unfolded the note and began to read what Shuichi had written on it.

The ideal boyfriend for me:
- Willing to help -> not only me
- Always does his best
- Sometimes sweet, sometimes dominant (idek why I'm into that...)
- Self-confident
- Clever
- Never lies
- Height does not matter
Or maybe someone completely different. I'm not even sure if I'm really gay...*sigh* Kaito help me

Kokichi had not expected that at all. Shuichi was gay? Why had he written down all these criteria? Was he perhaps in love with someone?

Just looking at the crumpled note, Kokichi's mood darkened. "Never lies, huh..." he muttered to himself.

Even though he had only been interested in the black-haired detective so far, such clear claims were like a slap in the face to him. But despite all that, when he thought of Shuichi, he couldn't imagine seeing him with any of the idiots from his class, let alone someone from a higher grade. So, alone in the classroom that afternoon, Kokichi decided that he would try his luck with the Ultimate Detective.