[Old] Never let go, Never Runaway (Oumasai)

Comedy

I started walking towards the school alone again. Like usual.

What I wasn't expecting though was two taps on my shoulder.

I looked behind me quickly. I have quick reflexes from being in that bad neighborhood with my parents.

To my surprise it was Shuichi.

"Oh hey, Saihara." I greeted.

He smiled. "Hey Kichi!" he replied.

I scratched the back of my head. "Kichi?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's your nickname. I came up with it last night!" Shuichi said.

"Oh." I nodded. I had a light blush on my face from the cute nickname.

There was now an awkward silence.

We began walking, our arms occasionally brushing against each other.

"Kokichi." Shuichi began. 

I spun around. "Yeah?" I asked.

He cleared his throat. "Are you ok?" He asked.

Huh? What.. "What yeah I'm fine... Why?" I asked. I didn't get why he would just out of the blue ask me if I was ok..?

"Were you even reading the chats last night? Miu was kinda bullying you."

... Oh. That made sense. I opened my phone to view the chats. If I'm being honest I wasn't that surprised. I scrolled to a random time.

Unknown number: Shuichi why would you even invite him? 11:32 pm

Shuichi: Why not? 11:32 pm

Unknown number: Miu does it even make a difference to you if he even comes? Whenever we all hang out you only really talk to kaede. 😐 11:33 pm

Unknown number: Yeah! He just ticks me off. 11:33 pm

I closed the phone. I wasn't gonna let her affect me. I wasn't gonna cry.

I felt it. There was a huge lump in the back of my throat. NO. I'm not going to cry in front of Shuichi. Especially since we're almost to school.

Tears began streaming down my face.

"Crap." I thought to myself.

I couldn't control it anymore. Warm tears fell from my eyes. 

I was crying.

"Kokichi!" Shuichi said. 

We both stopped.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

I wanted to speak but I couldn't. I didn't want to seem like a baby, but at the same time, I couldn't be rude.

"Wha-what do you think...?" I asked weakly. " I won't co-come to the mov-vies if it bothers her that much."

Shuichi looked surprised. "What no. Your coming. Miu just has a few screws loose or something. She hates everyone except Kaede. She did the same thing to Maki."

"Oh really?" I asked.

Shuichi smiled and nodded.

"Hey, Shuichi?" I asked.

"Hm?" He asked.

"Can I hug you?" 

Shuichi looked surprised but didn't look mad. "Oh uh yeah!"

I pulled him tight. It had been years since I had a genuine hug. It felt nice to be held.

After a minute he loosened his grip. He looked down at me and I looked up.

He took his thumb and wiped the last of my tears away.

"Here. It'll be ok." he smiled.

We both completely loosened our grip on each other.

"Here we better get to school," Shuichi announced.

I nodded.

We began walking together again.

**

We walked into first hour together. We were almost the last ones to arrive. The only ones not here were Tenko and Himiko.

Since Kaede and Kaito were here I wasn't expecting Shuichi to talk to me.

We sat down at our desks. I pulled out my sketchbook. It had been a couple of days since I posted on my Instagram so I decided to create something for my followers.

I started sketching characters from a popular anime.

"Whatchya drawing Kichi?" Asked Shuichi.

"Huh?" I questioned. Oh shit. Shuichi, Kaede, and Katio were all looking at me.

"Oh uh, nothing." I lied. "It's pretty bad."

"Oh come on, Ouma. I'm sure your drawing isn't bad!" Kaede reassured. 

"Can we see?" Kaito asked.

"Whatever... Fine." I said while flipping back to the page I was on.

I showed them the drawing.

They all looked amazed. I don't know if it was genuine or they were just being nice or they were pretending but either way, it felt nice. My parents never praised my work growing up.

"Guys Were here!" Called out a panting Tenko from the other side of the room. She was practically dragging Himiko into the doorway.

"Hello Himiko and Tenko!" Welcomed Angie. "Himiko, you look tired! What happened?" 

"I overslept but then Tenko came into my house and woke me up. Nya." Said a drowsy Himiko.

"Uh.. Anyways. Kokichi, you're really good at art!" Said Kaede.

"Yeah!" Shuichi added.

I chuckled a bit. "Yeah.. I guess."

**

A/N: OMG sorry this chapter took so long I got my stuff taken away bc I'm a homosexual but ye. /hj

Song recommendation: Comedy by Bo Burnham