Salty Petals (Kokichi Oma x Shuichi Saihara)

Chapter 4

Kokichi woke up at 6:23 the next morning on his couch in a salty puddle. So… Kokichi muttered in his head, I cried myself to sleep.

Kokichi looked at his phone beside him and saw he got a ton of texts while he was asleep. He got some texts from Shuichi, Gonta, Kaito, and Kirumi.

He checked Shuichi first.

“Are you okay, Kokichi?”

“I know you’re sad.”

“Don’t lie to me. I know the person you like is me. I’m not mad, nor will I judge you.”

“Don’t cry.”

How did Shuichi know Kokichi was crying?

“No, I’m not okay, Shuichi,” Kokichi texted back. “Fine, you caught me, it is you. Come at me. So what? It’s not like you’ll love me anyway. And yeah, I cried. I cried myself to sleep in fact.”

“Don’t cry because of me, Kokichi,”  Shuichi replied.

“But I really like you Shuichi. To be turned down by you, it really hurts.”

“I love Kaede and I’m with her right now.”

“Yeah, I know. Stop rubbing it in my face that the person you love loves you back and the person I love doesn’t give a damn.”

“I do, Kokichi. I may not love you that way, but I care about you a lot. And if things don’t work out with me and Kaede, maybe you and I could give it a go.”

“You’re just saying that.”

“No, I mean it.”

Kokichi didn’t believe Shuichi. He wanted to believe him, but he didn’t.

He decided not to respond to Shuichi and checked Kirumi Tojo’s message instead.

“Shuichi told me you were upset.”

Kokichi gulped in fear. “Did he tell you why I’m upset?” he asked.

“No, he just said you’re upset. Is it true?”

“Yeah it’s true. I’m in a lot of pain right now.”

“I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do for you, Kokichi?”

“No, nothing at all.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. 100%.”

“I still want to help you, Kokichi. Don’t just sit around sad. I’ll do something to cheer you up.”

“Like what?”

Kirumi didn’t respond right away. She was obviously thinking about how to cheer up Kokichi.

He grew impatient waiting, so he checked Gonta’s text.

“Shuichi told Gonta you sad.”

Kokichi sighed. Did he tell everybody? he complained silently.

“Yeah, I’m upset.”

“Do you want a hug Kokichi?”

“It’s 6:28 in the morning Gonta. I’m at my own house and you’re probably at yours. You can’t hug me right now.”

“Then Gonta hug you at school!”

“No no, it’s fine Gonta, you don’t have to.”