of pink, purple, and blue. || [saimatsumota]

one || i can't handle change.

Group projects. Shuichi hated them.

Sure, maybe they were necessary for building "communication skills" and whatnot, but all Shuichi learning from having to participate in them all throughout his high school career was that people were incompetent. So, naturally, when his teacher announced that his class would be doing a group project, Shuichi couldn't help but internally groan.

"Your task is to create your own country," the teacher had explained. "You and your team will come up with the basic information, such as the name, and where it'll be located. Then, you'll create three visuals to go along with your country. They could be graphs, flags, newspaper articles, whatever. You'll be presenting all of this to the class for a grade."

The boy sitting to Shuichi's left leaned over, his unruly purple hair whipping Shuichi in the face. A grin stretched across his face, and he whispered, "We're gonna be working together, right, Shumai?"

Shuichi nodded. Honestly, Kokichi wouldn't be his first choice, group project-wise. But, the two were friends, and therefore, always paired up by default. However, it would seem it wouldn't be the case this time, because when Kokichi leaned back into his desk, the teacher spoke again.

"You'll be split into four groups of three." The teacher clicked her tongue as she glanced around the classroom. "And one group of four. And, no, you cannot pick your partners. I will be choosing them for you."

From behind him, Shuichi could hear the groans and complaints of his classmates. Not that he could blame them.

"Okay... Group one will be Rantaro, Kirumi, and Ryoma. Group two is Korekiyo, Angie, and Gonta. Group three will be Maki, Tenko, and Himiko. Group four is Kaede, Kaito, and Shuichi, and Miu, Kiibo, Kokichi, and Tsumugi will make up group five."

Shuichi perked up slightly. So Kaede and Kaito would be his partners for the project, huh?"

He hadn't really interacted with either of them all that much, outside of the occasional greetings, they were both fairly nice—perhaps a bit overbearing in some aspects. That didn't say much about their work ethic, though.

Shuichi looked over at Kokichi again, who was staring back at him expectantly.

"What?"

"So, you're working with Kaede and Kaito, huh?" Kokichi waggled his eyebrows, a teasing edge to his voice.

"Yeah?" Shuichi replied, more confused than anything else now. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"No reason~"

Shuichi's brows furrowed, and he began to open his mouth to question his friend again, but was interrupted by someone slamming their hands down on his desk. He nearly jumped out of his skin, looking up to see a grinning Kaito standing in front of him. Kaede also stood beside him, flashing Shuichi a similar smile.

"Yo, Shuichi!" Kaito greeted, clapping his shoulder. "What's up, man? Didn't mean to scare ya. Excited about this project?"

"Oh, uh..." Well, it wasn't exactly like he could say the truth. "I guess?"

Kaito chuckled. "Well, don't worry about it! We'll make the best damn project our teacher's ever seen!"

Kaito was determined, at least.

Kokichi snickered. "With you on their team? Yeah, I highly doubt that."

Kaito glared at him. "What, and your team is gonna do better?"

"I will."

"Oh, yeah? Wanna bet on it?"

"Whoa." Kaede stepped in between the arguing pair, stretching her arms way out. "I just want to do this project and be done with it, so can we please not make any bets, dares, or whatever?"

A beat.

"Fine." Kaito crossed his arms and turned away from Kokichi.

"Fine." Kokichi huffed, hopping up from his seat to go find his assigned team.

"Good." Kaede put her arms down, adjusting the straps of her backpack before directing her attention to Kaito and Shuichi. "Okay. I think we should start working on the project as soon as possible, so we'll have more time to tweak and adjust things before we have to present."

"Huh. That's smart," Kaito commented. "Good plan, Kaede."

"Ah, how soon?" Shuichi asked.

Kaede crossed her arms in thought. "Hmm... Are you guys free tomorrow afternoon?"

"Saturday?" Shuichi said. "Yeah, I'll be free."

"I don't have anything planned," Kaito added. "We could even meet up at my house, actually."

"Then we'll do that." Kaede grinned at the two boys. "Oh! We should probably get each other's numbers, just in case. Here, I'll make a groupchat."

Kaede pulled out her phone; Shuichi and Kaito followed suit. Once phone numbers had been exchanged, and the groupchat created, Kaede looked up as she tucked her phone back into her backpack.

"I think it'll be fun, working with you two."

"Same here," Kaito chuckled.

Shuichi nodded, adding in his agreement.

All things considered, he hadn't found a reason to say this arrangement totally sucked—maybe even something good would come out of it. Shuichi internally snorted. Yeah, right; that was just wishful thinking.

-

Author's Note: New story! Is this a bad idea, considering I already have fifty other stories to update? Absolutely. But the world needs more of this ot3 and I managed to bang out this chapter while I was at school, so here I am! Thoughts? Opinions? Let me know; I wanna converse with people who like this ship :)

All in all, I hope you enjoyed, and I also hope to see you next time.