Once I Finally See You

Introductions

A few hours later, Kokichi arrived home and carefully entered his house, quietly running upstairs to his room before his mom could see him. He dropped his stuff by the door and closed it, sitting on the edge of his bed before falling back and looking up blankly at the ceiling above him.

He started zoning out after a bit and was about to drift off when a notification from his phone sounded, making him sit back up and grab it to see what it was. He didn't expect much, so he was surprised to see that it was a text, opening it quickly.

Where were you?

He simply stared at the message for a while before finally replying.

I ran into someone and we talked for a while
I'm okay

Who?

Saihara

Who's that?

"He's . . ." He wanted to say that he was a friend, but he wasn't sure if he could say that truthfully after just meeting him earlier that day. Especially since they'd only spoken briefly.

I don't know yet

What the fuck does that mean?

He thought about it for a bit, but he wasn't quite sure himself. So he just waited for the other to say something else. And after a few minutes, he did. All the message read was:

Don't do it again.

Okay
I love you

He replied, and after that, neither one said anything else.

. . .

Kokichi looked forward to seeing Shuichi again at some point, but for the next few days he couldn't seem to find him. He saw the other two he'd been with when they'd met, but he was too nervous to actually go up and talk to them about it, so he kept his distance.

He almost gave up on hanging out with the other again when he was in class again at the end of the week, but then he glanced up at the door and saw a familiar figure pass by with three others.

He quietly got up and went over to the door at the back of the room and almost made it when the teacher spotted him.

"And where do you think you're going?"

"I- uh, bathroom," he faked quickly. "I didn't want to disrupt anyone taking the test, sorry."

"It's fine," he said, letting it slide. "But be quick so you don't miss too much time on it. And raise your hand next time."

"Okay." Then he quietly left and ran off in the direction he'd seen them heading. They'd gotten a ways away, but he'd caught up not long after. "Saihara?"

He turned around sharply, thinking it might be another teacher, but relaxed and waited for him to catch up when he saw who it was, but motioning for him to be quiet.

"Hey," he whispered happily as he approached.

"Hi, uh, wh- what are you doing?"

"I could ask you the same thing," he laughed, then the taller of his friends nudged him, silently urging him to hurry up. "Okay, okay. You should come with. They can't catch all five of us."

"Where are you going?"

"You'll see, come on." Then, before he could say anything else, he grabbed a hold of his arm and quickly lead him through the halls and left the school with the others.

They all ran for a while until they finally reached an abandoned bridge, not too far from the school, but still out of sight. Then Shuichi let go of the shorter's arm and climbed up on the ledge and jumped off. Kokichi freaked out for a moment, racing to the side and looking over, but the drop wasn't as far as he'd thought so he was fine.

Then his male friend jumped, followed by his shorter friend and the one he hadn't seen before, who were both caught by the first.

"Come on," Shuichi called up.

"I- I can't. It's too high."

"Its alright. Just don't think about it. It's not that bad once it's over."

"I can't do it."

"If you're friends just gonna be wuss leave him here," the newer one said, beginning to walk off.

"Shut up," he replied, glaring breifly then turning back. "It's okay. I'll catch you."

Kokichi looked down at him and the others, unsure, but remembering what the other had said about him he pushed himself up on the edge, closing his eyes tightly, and jumping off. And when he opened them again, true to his word, the other caught him.

"Hey, good job," he said, helping him to his feet and brushing off some dirt from their clothes. "See, that wasn't so bad."

"Saihara, are we going or not?" The third person asked.

"Alright, I'm coming." And with that they all walked off, down the dry riverbed until they reached a fallen tree and started walking on that to a place where the dry river would've met another that still flowed.

The tree stretched across the water to a large rock and they each walked across, stopping at different spots and sitting down on it, overlooking the clear water.

"Its so pretty," Kokichi said, sitting down next to Shuichi.

"Yeah, we come here a lot when we're able to sneak out of class and-"

"Hey, Saihara," one of his friends interrupted. "How long are you gonna keep being rude like that?"

"Like . . . Oh, sorry," he said, quickly realizing what the other was talking about. "This is Momota," he motioned to the one who'd spoken. "Akamatsu," the shorter of his friends, in between them. "And Harukawa," on the other side of the first one he'd introduced. "That's Momota's girlfriend," he whispered. "They won't say so in front of people, but everyone knows it."

"And," Kaito interrupted again.

"Oh, and this is Ouma."

They all greeted one another, for the most part, then went quiet for a bit, enjoying the water. But then Maki spoke up out of nowhere, sounding somewhat irritated, but mostly curious.

"So, are you two, like, fucking, or what's the deal?"

"What?" they both asked.