Salty Petals (Kokichi Oma x Shuichi Saihara)

Chapter 3

Out of breath, Kokichi stood in the center of hundreds of flowers taller than he was.

He plucked the head of a sunflower off of the stem and held it in his hands. He stared at the flower, feeling tears well up in his eyes.

He shoved his face into the flower and wailed. He didn’t hold in his tears any longer. Nobody was around to see him cry.

I can’t believe I did that, he scolded himself. That was so stupid. It was fine that I told him it wasn’t him, even if that was a lie. But I shouldn’t have shouted. Or told him to shut up. That was so stupid. I’m stupid. I never should’ve done that.

He tore a petal off of the flower and wiped his running nose from the tears. He looked up to make sure he didn’t see anyone around.

Of course, knowing his luck, he did see someone.

But, fortunately, it wasn’t anyone he knew.

“Is someone there?” the unknown person’s voice shouted. “I swear I heard crying.”

Kokichi ducked down into the flowers and hid from sight. He ripped a leaf off of a sunflower and wiped his eyes.

“Guess I was just hearing things,” the person said.

Kokichi poked his red, tear-stained face through the flowers and watched the person walk away.

Right as he saw them close the door to their supposed house, he started to cry again.

He wasn’t crying just because he shouted at Shuichi or that he told him to shut up, he was crying because he knew it would never work out.

People like Shuichi don’t love people like me, Kokichi complained in his head. Besides, he already loves Kaede. Why can’t I be Kaede? Why can’t I be that kind of person that Shuichi would like? Because life is unfair, thats why. He’ll never love me, no matter what. That’s just how things are gonna be. Maybe...just maybe if I keep trying, he may love me, but that’s a long shot. If by any chance my luck goes right.

Kokichi stood up and wiped his face with another leaf. “I’ve gotta stop crying,” he told himself. “What if I just confessed? Nah, that’d be stupid.What do I do then?

“First,” he began again, sniffling, “I’m gonna head home and cool off. And hopefully not start crying again. Then I’m gonna apologize to Shuichi...tomorrow in school.”

Kokichi trudged out of the sunflower field, brushing any petals off of his clothes, and walked back to his house.

He opened his front door and looked at the clock on the wall.

3:58.

He was in that field for fifteen minutes crying.

He checked his phone and saw he got texts from Kaede.

Kokichi sat on his couch and gulped, worried that she might’ve discovered what was going on.

“Hey, it’s Shuichi again.”

“I’m leaving Kaede’s so I’ll text you from my phone after it’s done charging.”

“I’m not mad about your outburst. Happens to everyone.”

“But please explain what was going on with that, will you?”

Those texts were sent eleven minutes ago. After Kokichi had left and ran to the sunflower field.

Shuichi should be back in his own home by now.

Kokichi turned off his phone again and walked into his bathroom. He looked into the mirror and and his reflection stared back. It looked sad. It had red, puffy eyes. Its hair was a little messed up.