Liar, Liar, the Mage's Desire Vol. 1 (A New Oumeno)

A Blossoming Romance (Pregame AU)

    It was an ordinary day for an ordinary school filled with ordinary kids and their ordinary problems. One of those ordinary kids happened to be a 16-year-old boy named Kokichi Ouma. Kokichi was smart, though he didn't fully realize it, and he lacked confidence in himself, thus making him a straight C student who was always silent and reserved. The time on the clock was 2:45, which meant that class would end in 15 minutes. Kokichi was in History class, but history wasn't being taught at the moment. The lesson was over, so Kokichi's teacher spent the remaining minutes discussing the matter of who would like to be class president for the rest of the year.  Some of the students raised their hands, and though Kokichi would have liked to raise his, he merely sighed and kept both his hands firmly on his desk.

   "Okay, so I see that Junichiro, Hoshiko, Kenji, and Megumi all want to run for class president," the teacher said. Kokichi silently stuck his tongue out in disgust. One of the students, Junichiro Takahashi, tended to get on his nerves, albeit inadvertently. Junichiro was an optimist, and tried to encourage his peers to do his best, especially Kokichi, who would rather stay in his comfort zone than to challenge himself. Kokichi knew that Junichiro meant well, but he wished that he was brazen enough to tell him to back off, and that his blind optimism was really annoying. Much to Kokichi's relief from hearing Junichiro and the other students  blather away about why they want to become class president, the final bell rang, signaling the end of school. Kokichi sighed, and walked out of the classroom along with the other students. As he reached the front doors of the school, Kokichi heard someone call his name.

   "Hey, Kokichi!" Kokichi groaned and turned around to see Junichiro catching up to him with a large grin on his face. "Hey, Kokichi, I'm running for class president!"

   "Yeah...I know," Kokichi said. "I was there when you said it."

    "You should think of running, too!" Junichiro said. "You got potential!" Kokichi raised a skeptical brow at him.

   "How?" he asked.

   "Well, you're pretty smart," Junichiro said. Kokichi sighed and rolled his eyes in annoyance.

    "Junichiro, I have all Cs," Kokichi said. "How is that 'pretty smart?'"

    "The quiet kids are always smart," Junichiro replied promptly. "Plus, anything is possible! You just gotta believe that you're smart! Then, you can do the impossible!"

   "Yeah...I guess," Kokichi mumbled. "Well...anyways, I'm gonna go home, now. Got a lot of video games and anime to catch up on."

   "Ha! No wonder your grades are the way they are!" Junichiro said. "You should focus more on your schoolwork. As a matter of fact, one thing I'd like to do as class president is extend school hours! That way, everyone can learn as much as they can, and they won't have to worry about being stupid when they leave high school!" 

   "Um...yeaahh...you do that," Kokichi muttered, and walked through the doors of the school. The truth was that Kokichi, indeed, wanted to become class president because he thought he had some interesting ideas, unlike Junichiro, who wanted to unintentionally torture everyone by keeping them at school until who knows how long. The fact of the matter was that Kokichi lacked the self-confidence to run. He sighed heavily as he trudged past the other buildings until he heard an odd sound, like someone crying. He turned to see a red-haired girl in her school uniform hugging her knees and sobbing by herself in a dark alleyway.