The Strange Life Of Mikoto Ishida (Yutaro Kindaichi)

Confession

"Wonder who it could be?" I hummed to myself. On the outside, I was still acting like the same old Miko, but on the inside, I was slightly panicking. I'm a girl and I'm not into girls at all, but I couldn't exactly date a gay guy because if I got too close, my cover would be blown. In the end, I have no choice but to stay single.

"You're unusually calm about this," Kindaichi pointed out. For a second, I thought I detected a note of jealousy in his voice.

I laughed a little, waving the letter around. "Don't tell me you're actually jealous?" I teased, taking the letter out and reading through it.

The letter wasn't anything special. Just full of sappy writing. Definitely from a girl. No guy, no matter how they were, would ever write something so sickly sweet, especially if it was for another guy. Handing it over to Kindaichi, I let him read it.

"So she wants you to meet her tomorrow during lunch?" he said, his feelings about it clear on his face.

A smirk was the only thing on my face. "You should make that face more often," I teased him. "It's kinda cute. Might help you get the girl's attention." It was obvious that that last bit was only to pick on him, but I was serious when I'd said his pouting face was cute. Though Kindaichi didn't know that I was being serious about that.

"So what are you going to tell her?" Kindaichi asked. He was used to my teasing by now and knew that I was merely poking a little fun at him and meant no harm, so he didn't bother to get annoyed or even acknowledge it. Well, that's the way it was when it was someone I actually liked. When it was Oikawa, however, that was another story entirely.

In truth, I had no idea what I was going to say. She didn't leave her name, so it's not like I could just leave her a letter with my answer and be done with it. I looked up at Kindaichi, who was waiting to see what I'd say. That gave me an idea.

"Maybe I'll just skip tomorrow," I smirked. "If I do, I could count on an awesome pal like you to meet up with her for me and tell her I'm not that interested, right Spiky?"

He gave me one of those looks that I'd seen Iwaizumi give Oikawa whenever the captain made some stupid comment about the vice-captain acting or sounding motherly. It was quite comical, seeing such a face on Kindaichi. "Isn't that kinda cruel to do to a girl?" he says, partly scolding me for even thinking such a thing. Of course, he knew I wasn't being serious. Or I hoped he knew.

"I know, I know," I sighed in mock defeat. "Can't blame a guy for not knowing how to turn a girl down gently though. I don't exactly have any real experience with girls."

Kindaichi gave me a light punch in the shoulder. "Just make sure you're here tomorrow. If you're not, I'll make sure everyone starts calling you Miko-chan."

"Where were you this morning?" my teammate asked the second I'd sat down in my seat.

I simply flashed him my usual grin. "Sorry, I overslept this morning." Last night I'd been up a little too late, planning out how to turn down the mystery girl without looking like an ass. Thanks to that, I'd slept through about half of our morning practice. I could have made it there in time to practice a bit, but I didn't want to. I mean, I didn't even want to join the club in the first place, so why would I care about missing one practice?

"Overslept or skipped?"

"Both," I laughed and Kindaichi joined in. This was the kind of friendship we had. Like Oikawa and Iwaizumi, one of us looked after the other, making sure they didn't do anything stupid. In fact, the more I got to know everyone, I began to see what Kindaichi had meant that first day when he'd said that I was like a second Oikawa.

In a way, my personality was a lot like Oikawa's, though I was more on the playful and nice side and I didn't have a darker attitude when I played volleyball. Though I guess when I thought about it that way, it wasn't all that surprising that I'd caught some girl's attention.