Eternal Starlight (Kaito x Maki)

Chapter 5: Time for a Group Project!

Maki rested her head on her desk as she wordlessly read her book. Her classmates were all stirring with life, but she was too absorbed in her story to bother joining them. That, and her mind had been all out of sorts since Saturday.

It was already Tuesday, and the past three days went by with little to note. Ever since she'd come to the shocking realization about her true feelings towards Kaito, she'd been weighed down even further by several powerful emotions. Some pleasant, and some less pleasant. It was all... so difficult to make sense of. So, for the time being, she tried to return her focus to her studies. The class had just gotten back from lunch around five minutes ago, meaning the lesson was due to start up again any moment now.

Maki's attention was snapped away from her book as Kizakura loudly cleared his throat. All eyes on him, he pulled out a sheet of paper and started to read off their next assignment.

"This project," he began, "Will be a group project. You'll all be split into pairs and on Friday you'll give a presentation to the class."

The class began to murmur softly, exchanging their thoughts and opinions on the announcement.

Gazing around at everyone's faces as Kizakura further explained the project, Maki noticed Kaito's strong attentiveness. She could see it in his eyes; he was definitely excited.

"Aw heck yeah!" Kaito thought to himself. This would be the perfect opportunity to get closer to Maki! He paused for a moment, thinking back to the events of last Saturday.

When he had given his jacket to Maki, he knew right then and there. That twinkle in her warm ruby eyes, the adorable pink blush on her face, her willingness to even accept the offer in the first place, all of it. Shuichi was right; he *was* in love. Though, he hadn't the first clue how to go about expressing it.

Maybe this would be the chance he needed.

"...And that's why for this project, you'll all be displaying a combination of talents between you and your partner." Kaito had missed the first part of Kizakura's announcement, but he brought his full attention back to his teacher in hopes not to miss any important info.

"Working together is essential in today's world, and I expect to see a good deal of creativity in your projects. Your grade will revolve mainly around your effort put forth and your ability to work as a team." he continued explaining while shifting his weight around, making it clear that he wasn't all that fond of giving drawn-out explanations such as this. Knowing what kind of person he was, it made perfect sense.

After answering a couple of questions from the students, Kizakura seemed almost relieved as he brought his explanation to a close, "I've written all of your names down on slips of paper, and the slips will be drawn at random." After taking a moment to write all the names down, he dropped sixteen paper slips into his hat.

Shortly after, as though on cue, a student from the 77th class walked into the room. Kaito recognized him as Nagito Komaeda, the 77th class's Ultimate Lucky Student. He strolled over to the head desk next to Kizakura and faced the class.

"Wow, just one look, and I can already tell this class is brimming with hope!" he mused in his typically bizarre tone of voice, "Ah, forgive me, I'm not here to admire you ultimates, I was called here by Mr. Kizakura."

The blonde teacher nodded, "Yeah, Nagito here is gonna be drawing the names for the projects," he informed with a yawn, "Since he's so lucky, we figured you would all wind up with successful partners if we did it this way."