Amidst The Dissonance

Invitations and New Faces II

Though Kaede had taken initiative to bring Shuichi to the nurse, she admittedly had no idea as to what she'd do afterwards. Her goal in mind was to get Shuichi some help for his plausible injury, but she wasn't actually sure as to what to do to get him that help. Throughout her journey to the second floor, she had ignored Shuichi's complaints, even going as far as to use his last name to shut him up. Afterwards, though? She wished she had listened. She had been confident that he would've done nothing had she not taken action, though deep down she knew that conclusion was idiotic. In truth, she had pondered her overwhelming concern, but quickly dismissed it as typical worry for a friend. After all, she'd do the same thing for Mahiru, Himiko, Tenko, even Miu.

As for Kaito and Kokichi...she'd think about that when she wasn't walking. Why? Because while she was thinking about it deeply, she nearly slipped and fell backwards onto the poor detective. He hissed at her to be more careful, mostly because that had been her second slip-up, but she just ignored him and continued upwards. She was surprised that he hadn't wrenched his arm out of her grip yet. Why was he still being so compliant? Did he secretly believe that she had the right idea? Was he too nervous to tell her to let go? Was he too intimidated? Perhaps embarrassed? Maybe her decision was correct in helping him out after all. For a second, she felt proud of herself. She was a good friend.

Once she arrived at the nurse's office, however, that pride immediately shattered. The way everyone in the waiting chairs snapped their heads up filled her with sudden dread.

Ironically, she wasn't the biggest fan of having everyone watch her so closely. When she was younger, this was her biggest fear when attending recitals; the way the crowd watched her closely, the quiet whispers that filled the air as her fingers trembled over the white and black keys...she remembered crying about it to her mother and her piano instructor both before and after each recital. Though she had gotten much better at handling the attention, it still bothered her at times to the point where she could hardly breathe.

Defeated, she looked down. Kaede refused to admit it to herself, but it would've been best if she had just let Shuichi do what he wanted. Now that her confidence and determination had vanished into thin air, she looked like an unpaid intern that had burst into some professional CEO meeting. She refused to look behind her at Shuichi; the last thing she needed was to feel more embarrassed than she already did.

She swallowed heavily, her eyes darting from the white walls to the large desk sitting in front of her. There was currently no one at the desk; the only people in the room were the two people in the waiting chairs who kept stealing glances at her. One appeared to be a boy with platinum blonde hair and dark green eyes. His hair was a curly mess, flowing down halfway to his neck and spreading out unevenly. His hands repeatedly ran over the folds of his grey hoodie, occasionally tugging on the white string that hung loosely from the neck. As she focused, taking in all her observations, her eyes widened as she realized something awful. He was...cute.

She pursed her lips angrily, trying to find something else to focus on. Great, now she had two things that she was trying to not admit to herself. The first being that she was too pushy with Shuichi, and now that the boy sitting in the waiting chair was cute. There was nothing specifically wrong with finding someone cute, but she just found it embarrassing to admit it to herself. When she first started talking to Shuichi about a week and a half ago, she found him adorable, but it took her over three days of angry self depreciation and mental distractions to admit that to herself. Even after admitting it, she still felt embarrassed thinking it sometimes. She felt like a creep.

A light tap on the back of her shoulders brought Kaede back to reality. She jumped lightly and whirled around, already forgetting what she promised not to do. Shuichi stared back at her nervously as he held one of his arms close to his chest. He smiled back at her softly, almost sympathetically, as if he already predicted that Kaede was going to feel this way.