Once I Finally See You

The Keychain

"Hurry up. Come on, we gotta go."

"I know, I'm coming," the navy haired boy called back to his friends. But he continued chasing after them hopelessly down the halls of the school, eventhough they were now almost empty. "Cut me some slack. You know I can't run as fast as you two."

"And who's fault is that," his other friend joked, continuing at their quick pace.

"You know what? You guys suc- ahh." Just at that moment, however, another student walked out of one of the classrooms and he ran right into them, throwing all their belongings to the floor as well.

"Oh, crap. You good, bro?" The taller of the two asked once they ran back to help him up.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Cool, let's go," they rushed him again.

"Hey, wait a sec-" he tried to call them back.

"You can get caught again if you want but we're leaving. Well meet you there if you make it out alive," They called back jokingly, both sped off again, leaving him behind with the other student.

He just let out a heavy sigh before looking down at them and offering a hand to help them up.

"Hey, are you alright?"

"Uh, mm-hmm," they nodded quietly, gathering their belongings again. "Thanks. Sorry about that."

"It's fine. It was my fault really," he laughed, grabbing what he'd dropped from the mess in the hall. "Oh, I'm Saihara, by the way. Are you new?"

"No, um, Ouma. It's nice to meet you, though," he spoke softly. "Probably just different classes. I've been going here for a while."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't notice. Well that sounds rude."

"No, it's fine. But, uh, shouldn't you catch back up with your friends?"

"Them? Nah, we were just skipping again to go hang out somewhere else. No big deal," he shrugged it off, putting the last of his belongings back in his bag.

"Skipping class? Isn't that bad? You get in trouble for stuff like that."

"Well, yeah. But it's worth it sometimes, you know?"

"I guess no-," he muttered.

"Seriously," he suddenly sighed in annoyance.

"W- what is it?"

"It's my Junko keychain. I must've chipped it when I fell," he sighed. "Well that's just great."

"Jun . . . ko?"

"It's a long story. And the teachers are gonna be looking for me soon, so I have to go."

"For what it's worth, I think it looks nice. I like it. Her hair's pretty."

Shuichi looked down at the item in his hand for a moment, then he held it out to the other male.

"Here, you can have it."

"I can . . ."

"I know it's not in great condition, I've had it for a while. But I can as always find a new one and you said you liked it, right? So, go ahead, its yours."

Then the other carefully took it from him and just looked at him, almost like he wasn't sure if he was joking or not.

"Thank yo-"

"Mr. Saihara," a staff member suddenly called from down the corridor, making both of them jump. "Is that you?"

"Oh, shit," he let out under his breath. "I'm screwed. Again. Well, I gotta go now, but hopefully I'll talk to you some other time. Take care of that. Then maybe I can tell you some more about it."

"Oka-"

"Bye," then he sprinted off down the hallway once more with his things before disappearing around a corner.

"Bye," Kokichi said quietly once he'd gone, though he knew he hadn't heard him. Then he looked down at the character on the keychain in his hand again. "Junko, huh?"

And with that he connected it to his bag and went off on his way once again.

. . .

"Mr. Saihara, this is the seventh time you've been caught trying to skip class this week," the principal lectured him in her office.

"Yeah, I know."

"It's Tuesday, Mr. Saihara."

"Yep, that it is, huh?" He said, mostly ignoring her and spinning around in his chair on the other side of her desk. "Today is Tuesday."

"Do you even care about what you're doing? How it's affecting your academics?"

"I can't really say I do. And last I checked I'm still passing all my classes, so I don't see the problem."

"The problem is that this behavior has to stop or else I'm going to have to-"

"Have to what," he asked, suddenly stopping his chair and looking at her. "Call my parents? They won't care, they never did. And my uncle won't pick up the phone either, because he's always working. He's just like them. None of them care. They're never around anyways."

"Your education is still important."

"To who? To you? So you can keep your perfect 4.0 GPA at your perfect school in this perfect fucki-"

"Language, Mr. Saihara."

"Fine," he agreed, slouching in his chair that he kept turning back and forth with his feet.

"The hat too."

"I've been wearing it the whole time."

"Take it off when you're in my office." He reluctantly did as she said and handed it to her like she always made him do. "Where do you keep getting these anyways? You're constantly wearing them, even after they're confiscated."

"I stocked up since I knew you'd keep taking them," he said, casually grabbing another from his bag and putting it on, looking her dead in the eyes as he did so.

"Get out," she demanded.

"Aw, we were having a good conversation. Don't you think? I mean, I thought it was going pretty wel-"

"Get out of my office. I'll see you again tomorrow."

"Sure thing," then he grabbed his bag and walked out of the room, heading back towards his next class, not wanting to meet up with the others anymore.

They'll be fine without me for today. They usually are. I don't really feel like talking with the principal again anyways.

And with that, he brushed his bangs out of his eyes and went on his way.