Second Chances || Saiouma

Chapter 12

Shuichi paced around Kaede's room, not sure what else to do while he waited for her to come back. She had excused herself shortly after he confessed, saying she had to go get something. Giving Shuichi the perfect opportunity to pull himself together and stop crying.

He took a couple of deep breaths, feeling the tension leave his shoulders as he calmed himself down. Kaede's room was very cute and personalized, he couldn't help himself from picking up random nick-nacks and studying them.

Just as he was picking up a pretty crystal perfume bottle, Kaede entered back into her room, startling him.

"Sorry if I scared you," Kaede closed the door gently with one hand, her other hand holding a large white plate filled with cookies. "I brought you some cookies! I figured you might want to talk some more and sweets always make me feel better."

"Ah thank you, Kaede."

"Mhm, have some they're warm," Kaede held out the plate of cookies as she sat back down on her bed. If he was being honest he wasn't really in the mood for cookies, but how could he turn her down when she looked so happy.

Shuichi took a cookie off the plate and sat down at Kaede's desk, beginning to fiddle with a pen laying out. He took a bite of his cookie carefully, trying not to have any crumbs fall.

"Is it good?"

"Yeah, they're really good." If he had to eat a cookie at least it was a good one.

"Yay, Rantaro really likes when I make them for him. So I was hoping you would like them too."

Oh, that's right, he'd meaning to ask her about Rantaro. "You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but are you and Rantaro like a thing?"

Kaede blushed, setting her cookie down on top of the rest. "Well kind of," she held her hand up to her mouth, finishing chewing before continuing. "We've gone on a couple of dates and we hang out a lot, but nothing's official yet."

"Do you want it to be?"

"Yeah! I mean I really like Rantaro. Hopefully, he'll say something about it soon, chances are though I'm going to be the one to bring it up." Shuichi can see that, Kaede is not one to wait around for someone. If she wants something she'll tell you.

"Rantaro is an interesting guy." Shuichi's not sure how to feel about Rantaro, every time he's been around him he's high, which certainly didn't leave the best impression; and in the killing game, he barely talked to him. Rantaro must act differently around Kaede, kind of like how Kokichi acts around him.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh nothing bad, just he's very... aloof," he offered up, not sure if he was using the right word. He had said he wasn't in the mood for sweets, but as he finished his cookie he found himself reaching for another one.

"That's rich coming you," Kaede chuckled. "Don't act like your crush is all perfect, we've been watching the show, so now I know what happened when I left," she clicked her tongue, obviously teasing.

Shuichi hummed in the back of his throat. "Don't remind me, next week's episode is going to be really brutal for everyone. It makes me worried for Kokichi. He's changed you know, and he hasn't really shown it at the parties, mainly because he doesn't talk much, but even that says something. Well... he didn't really change, he just stopped acting."

"You don't have to defend him to me Shuichi, I understand. It was a killing game, everyone thought they were going to die, everyone has different ways of dealing with it."

"Exactly. I just hope people give him a chance to explain, or just try to understand. Even I didn't understand Kokichi at first, and I thought I never would, but once you get to know him, there's so much more to him. I can even tell when he's lying now."