Slow Motion
"Satoshi-kun is interested in you."
"What?" The knife nearly slipped through Aoko's grip as she paused in her task of spreading her butter on toast. "Who?"
"Satoshi-kun. He's the son of the bakery store, where we always buy our loaf of bread from." Ginzo muttered and flipped to the next page of the newspaper. "He gave the loaf I brought home yesterday for free."
Aoko stared at the toast in her hand, almost guilty.
"He said he would like to have dinner with you." Her father continued.
"Dad," Aoko placed the toast back to her plate and looked past the top of his newspapers. "Did you seriously just exchange a loaf of bread for your daughter's future?"
"He's not bad, I mean... he will be inheriting the bakery store sooner or later." Ginzo lowered the paper to his chest and stared at his daughter before raising it to his face again. "You don't have to worry about bread and butter in the future."
"I can't-" Aoko groaned. "I'm dating Kaito."
Ginzo almost scrunched up his newspaper before watching Aoko during the next five seconds of silence. "You're lying because you didn't want to eat dinner with Satoshi-kun, isn't it?"
It would be faster and easier to turn the toast back to yeast before Aoko could convince her father otherwise.
"It's been a nice encounter, little detective." Kaitou Kid stood at the end of the roof, the back of his heels tipping down to the ground 30 floors below. "But today, I don't have time to play with you anymore."
"Why?" Conan sneered, his crosshair aiming at Kaitou Kid's neck, "can't wait to go back home for dinner?"
Kaitou Kid looked surprised. Or maybe he was feigning surprise. It was hard to tell. "That's correct, even if it was a guess. There's dinner waiting for me and I don't intend to skip it."
Conan narrowed his eyes. "What are you-"
"Farewell." Kid leaned back and his glider split open in the next millisecond before he flew into the night.
"My mom asked if I want to go to Las Vegas and stay with her after graduation."
"What did you say?"
Kaito looked down at his ice cream before eyeing at Aoko's cone. "Maybe I'll tell you if you let me take a bite out of yours."
"How do you know Hakuba Saguru?" Kazuha subtlety pointed at the blonde across the ballroom, who was talking to a group of high-ranking officials with his father.
"We were once from the same high school." Aoko replied after gulping down a piece of eclair from the food table.
For the girls to talk to someone who wasn't a detective geek in this police function was like finding a needle in a sack of hay, so to speak, but they were lucky to have met each other when their fathers were introducing them around. So instead of pretending to be interested about how high the crime rates had spiked recently, they stood comfortably by the ballroom window while chatting among themselves.
"You two seem close." Kazuha nodded her head, with some slight teasing rhythm to it. "Are you two a couple?"
"We're not like that." Aoko waved a hand. "But I can ask the same back to you about that dark-skinned detective you came here with."
The first three seconds of stuttering sort of seals the deal. Kazuha waved Aoko off too. "He's just a childhood friend who happens to be a detective freak."
"Your friend must be popular in school." Aoko nodded almost understandingly. "Hakuba-kun is quite popular himself, even after we graduated."
"I can't deny that fact." Kazuha sighed. "But he does look cool whenever he solves cases and such. That's one part of him I lik- I mean that's why so many girls like him."
Aoko smugly nodded.
"Aren't you jealous sometimes when Hakuba-kun gets popular among girls?" Kazuha couldn't help but ask.
"We're really just friends." Aoko urged again.
"Really?" Kazuha wasn't convinced. She thought Heiji was the coolest when he solved case, and Ran did agree to this part regarding Shinichi too. it was hard to believe that a girl wouldn't be easily infatuated with a guy like Hakuba Saguru.
"Yea. Besides..." Aoko's blue eyes softened, her lips turned upwards on its own. "I prefer magicians over detectives."
"Happy Valentines' Day!" A young girl holding a basket filled with roses exclaimed as she presented a stalk in between Aoko and Kaito, her smile beaming as wide as the bright moon hanging in the sky. "Why not buy a rose for your girlfriend?"
"She's not my girlfriend." Kaito stated before Aoko could speak.
"Really?" The girl gave an exaggerated gasp. You both look really good together! Maybe it's time!"
"We're rushing for time, sorry about that." Kaito waved her off before grabbing Aoko by the arm and walked down the streets.
"Technically you're not wrong; about how I'm not your girlfriend, but must you be so mean?" Aoko scoffed and glanced apathetically over her shoulder.
"I'm not buying a rose when I have one whole garden cultivated for that." Kaito blurted in a defensive mode. "It's like I'm betraying my own hard work."
Aoko could only shake her head.
The wedding was quiet, peaceful and nice, a contrast to what Kaito might have expected (for a crazy witch and a bumptious detective). As Kaito and Aoko walked through the little garden and to where the wedding ceremony was, the groom came to welcome them with a bright charming smile that hadn't changed since high school.
"You look amazing , Hakuba-kun!" Aoko shrilled and clapped her hands in glee.
"You look beautiful too, Aoko-kun." Hakuba flashed his commercial-like teeth and cast a look over to Kaito, who was watching the exchange with a sneer. "Thanks for coming." The blonde added behind.
"Well, that kind of girl is the best for you." Kaito smiled and stepped forward to give a pat on Hakuba's back, which seemed closer to comfort than congratulatory. "You need to struggle a bit in life to grow."
Aoko jabbed Kaito's stomach before Hakuba could give any retort to defend his wife-to-be. "I told you to shut up if you don't have any nice things to say." She glared, her eyes looking more intensified than her hisses.
"Excuse me?" Kaito growled and rubbed his abdomen, sulking. "Every word I said was very sincere and insightful."
Hakuba flicked his gaze away away from Kaito. "I'll remember your insightful words and give them back to your bride on your wedding day then."
Before either of them could say anything, one of the bridesmaids stomped over to Hakuba's side with her loud clacking high heels. "Sorry for the interruption but I need to borrow the groom for a minute."
After their quick and temporary goodbye, Hakuba stalked off with the bridesmaid towards the other direction, leaving Kaito and Aoko by themselves.
"So what are your plans for tonight?" Takamoto leaned against the office partitions and wiggled his eyebrows over at Aoko, who was in the midst of packing up her belongings.
She stopped for a moment, as if trying to process her thoughts before answering, almost to herself. "I need to hurry and get some butter before the supermarket closes."
"I have plenty." Takamoto winked, "We can have toast together tomorrow morning."
Out of nowehere, a folder smacked across Takamoto's head as the latter yelped out in surprise. "How dare you sexually harassed a police officer, in a room filled with police officers, and when you're a police officer yourself?" Rin snarled. She raised the folder in a threatened manner again and Takamoto ducked his head in reflex.
"That's not sexual harassment. We were conversing fine until you came in." He snapped back and turned to Aoko again. His face fell by a tiny bit when he realized all these while, her attention wasn't on him but on her phone
"Aoko already have a boyfriend so she's off limits." Rin remarked.
Takamoto blinked, his neck turned towards Rin so fast his head almost fell off. "Aoko... You got a boyfriend?"
Mindlessly, Aoko shook her head, both her thumbs tapping across her phone screen. "I don't have a boyfriend."
"Ha, you're wrong." Takamoto smirked triumphantly.
Rin, on the other hand, looked horrified. "But wasn't that guy that came by last week to fetch you from work your boyfriend or something? You two looked so close!"
With the thought that Kaito was part of the topic, Aoko finally raised her head. "You mean Kaito?" She glanced in between her two intrigued colleagues before giving a laugh. "He's not my boyfriend."
"See," Takamoto scoffed and cast a winning look to complement Rin's withering one. "You're overreacting for nothing."
The phone on Aoko's hand suddenly buzzed and she glanced down to look at the screen. After reading whatever that stole away her attention, she grabbed her bag from her desk and excused herself out before giving a quick goodbye to all her colleague and departing to the office lift.
"You've got the tickets to Kuroba Kaito's magic show?!"
Shinichi couldn't help but narrow his eyes at Ran's amazed tone. He was sure the tone didn't come about because he got the ticket but more because of the existence of the magician. "Yeah, I did." It would be easier to show the proof. He whipped out the two tickets he kept in his pocket and passed it to Ran.
"I can't believe you got it! I mean even Sonoko only managed to get just one, despite how resourceful her networking is." Ran beamed and squirmed uncontrollably on their TV couch.
The detective shrugged casually, a mere disguise to hide his overwhelming satisfaction of making Ran happy. "I happened to be working with him on a case and he gave me the tickets for free." The memory of the working process came flooding Shinichi's head and gradually, his faint smile turned into pursed lips. "Although he wasn't born with a good personality, at least he has the brains to cover that up."
"Is that so?" Ran began rummaging the magazines under their coffee table and pulled out the one she was finding for. She only flipped for the past few pages till she reached a double page interview of the very said magician Shinichi was trying not to think about.
"What are you reading that for?" Shinichi drawled, his tone tainted with minor annoyance.
Ran's lips tugged, not at the image of the handsome magician sitting on a high chair but the sound of her irritated and maybe slightly jealous husband. She liked to poked fun of him like that. "I just had the feel for it."
Shinchi leaned forward to take a look at the tiny print. "Only heir of the greatest magician Kuroba Toichi..." He read out loud before shrugging to himself and slumped back onto the couch to flip through the television instead.
"I think I should tell Sonoko about this." Ran placed the magazine next to Shinichi (not to intentionally irk him), and dashed for the house phone to make the call. Shinichi stared as Ran's back disappeared into the kitchen. He only made sure Ran couldn't see him when his eyes lowered back to the magazine beside him. He strained his neck and peered at a random chunk of sentences he picked form the page.
Interview: Do you have a girlfriend?
It was Nakamori Aoko, a member from the Fraud department that contacted Kuroba Kaito to help assist Shinichi in his troubling case. During the entire process, all Shinichi cared about was breaking the case. It was only after the case was over and when he could focus on less important things, for example, the relationship between Kuroba and Nakamori. He couldn't put the answer into words, but he knew it should be something more than simply friends. But still...
Kaito: No, I do not have a girlfriend. I'd wish, but I doubt my wife would like that. *laughs*
Shinichi's cheek twitched.
"I'm offended that I wasn't invited to your wedding."
"First thing first," Kaito sighed and stared at the phone screen to stare at the Unknown Caller before returning to the conversation. "How did you get my number?"
"I have my ways. So back to the topic about how you're an ungrateful friend."
"It's not exactly a wedding."
There was a pause on Akako's side of the phone, and for some reason, Kaito could feel a chill run down his spine.
"Did you invite Aoko?"
"...What."
"Akako and Hakuba called me last night and was wondering how I have been surviving all these time."
"Why are they always on your side. Have they not seen me suffered under your wrath before?"
Five years ago when Kaito proposed to Aoko, there was no ring, no wedding bells. They were only standing not-so-romantically under the rain in front of the clock tower, cursing each other out and wondering if everything had changed.
But maybe the lack of wedding ring and how everyone assumed they were always best friends forever was hard for anyone to see the difference between them getting married or not.
So after five whole years, they decided to try out the Gashapon machine outside the mall they always frequent. After figuring out the statistics and chances, they slotted their coins and got a pair of silver rings.
They had no idea what the future would bring, and how they would go through it together. But that was it; they would wait and see.
Hi thank you for reading and please leave a review if you enjoyed!
PS: just want to clarify that the reason why Kaito and Aoko denied being girlfriend and boyfriend is because they are in fact in a wife and husband relationship :)