☆ opposites attract | saiouma fic ☆

thirty | bestfriends

☆

After that, Shuichi gathered his things and left the room. Class was almost over anyways, so he didn't care enough to wait for the bell. As he walked the halls, his vision got blurrier and blurrier, clouded by tears. His throat hurt, like something imaginary was wrapping around his neck and squeezing it. The more he thought about what just happened, the more he had to resist the urge to break down.

He eventually made his way to the boys bathroom. Luckily, nobody was in it, so he could take some time to calm down. He leaned against the wall and took a few deep breaths, gently wiping his eyes. This went on for a few minutes before he could eventually hear some voices outside of the door.

"Is he in here? I can't tell where he went..." It was Kaede.

"I think so? Let's just go in! Hurry up!" Kokichi was there with her, of course.

Shuichi didn't want either of them to see him like this. But, unfortunately for him, it was too late. They barged in anyways, and they both let out loud sighs of relief once they saw him.

"Shuichi! Are you okay? I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with her." Kaede muttered, immediately pulling him in for a hug.

"Ah... um... I'm okay, Kaede. Thank you." He smiled a little, gently hugging her back. "Are you sure you should be in here? What if you get a detention again?"

"I don't care. You're way more important than some stupid detention." She insisted.

"My turn!" Kokichi declared, shoving Kaede out of the way so that he could hug Shuichi instead. "Don't cry anymore, okay? She isn't worth it."

"Hey! That was rude..." Kaede grumbled, but she didn't really push Kokichi back or anything. Shuichi was getting interaction with his crush, so she absolutely did not want to interfere or get in the way of that at all. "But yeah! I agree with what Kokichi said. You shouldn't cry over her."

Shuichi laughed softly, hugging Kokichi back and giving him a gentle squeeze. He started to play with his hair. "Thank you, guys... I'm happy that you're here for me. Seriously."

"No prob!" Kokichi said, leaning into Shuichi's hand. "Let's just start walking home already. It's, like... very chaotic in the classroom now. You don't wanna go back in there."

"Why? What's happening?"

Kaede sighed. "So... half of the room is scolding Maki, Angie's praying over your friendship with her, Miu's yelling at her to shut up, and art supplies are flying everywhere as a result. Yeah."

Shuichi let out an even louder sigh in response. "Yeah, that sounds stressful. Let's go home." He said, letting go of Kokichi, which Kokichi looked visibly disappointed about.

"Oh, yeah! Before we do that," Kaede perked up, suddenly reaching into her bag. She pulled out two tickets and handed them to the boys. "These are the tickets to the concert Monday. I managed to get some free ones for you, front row seats right next to each other!"

"Really? Thank you." Shuichi smiled.

Kokichi raised an eyebrow, examining his ticket. "It looks like a shit ton of people are gonna be there. Are you performing with some famous person or something?"

Kaede began to excitedly sway back and forth. "It's a secret, 'kay?"

"Interesting. I'm looking forward to it, then!"

Kaede nodded. "Okay, now we can go home. C'mon!" She said, leading the way and walking out of the bathroom.

Kokichi gripped Shuichi's hand and followed Kaede out, dragging him along. He wouldn't say it out loud, obviously, but Shuichi was more than happy to hold Kokichi's hand. He'd let him hold his hand for as long as he wanted to.

In fact, that's literally what they did. They held hands the entire walk home.

It made Shuichi a nervous wreck, though. Were his hands too sweaty? Too cold? The right temperature? Did the size difference with their hands make it uncomfortable or more comfortable? He wanted everything to be perfect for this boy. It was stressful.