Disclaimer: I do not own the Detective Conan series.

CHAPTER 2

The coach blew his whistle, signalling the practice-game was over.

"Good job everybody! Thank you for your hard work," the coach said in a loud voice to all the soccer team members.

After the practice was over, Shinichi cleaned up in the locker room. After he was done, he said his farewells to his team members and made his way towards home.

Usually, he would walk home together with Ran. He really enjoys spending his time with Ran. Ran was one of the people who had stayed on his side since he was little. He remembers them spending some of his favourite moments. He remembers when Ran first told him that she was training for martial arts. She asked him to join her, but he declined. He used his passion for soccer, as an excuse.

Sometimes, Sonoko would join them on their way home. He never really gets the girl. There were times when she would be sweet as an angel, and there were times that she can be like a witch. Not the evil kind though. Just the one that is really loud and annoying.

"I'm home!" Shinichi announced his return to anyone particular.

When he walked through the front door however, he saw another pair of shoes at the front of the house. Moreover, it looked like it belonged to a girl.

"That's weird. Ran didn't say she was coming over," he thought. "Then again, those aren't the type of shoes that Ran usually wears."

He eventually decided that it was probably a guest who came to visit either his mother or his father. The probability of the former was higher.

"I doubt dad would invite any teen girls as his guest. I don't think he even knows any teen girls except Ran. Probably mom's guest," he thought as he walked into the living room.

When he was inside the living room, he saw that his mother's eyes landed on him.

"Welcome home, Shin. You should hurry up and change, there's a guest for you," Yukiko said.

"A guest here to see me?" Shinichi asked surprised that the guest was actually here to see him.

Then, the person who was sitting on the couch, who was looking at the other direction, stood up and turned around to see him.

"Evening, Shinichi!" Sonoko said in a cheerful voice after turning around to face him.

"YOU?! What are you doing here?" Shinichi said in a loud voice, while pointing at Sonoko.

"Shin, don't be rude to our guest," Yukiko said, smacking Shinichi's hand that he used to point at Sonoko.

"But mom-"

"No 'buts', Shin. Now, go to your room, get changed and come down here again in fifteen minutes!" Yukiko commanded him.

"Fine, mom," Shinichi replied, before walking up the stairs, towards his room.

"See you later, Shinichi," Sonoko said, in the same tone before, only this time, she had a huge grin on her face.

Shinichi replied her farewell with an annoyed look plastered on his face.

Once he was inside his room, he placed his bag on his desk. He released a small sigh that he held since the moment he saw Sonoko.

"What is she doing here, anyway? It's really unusual for her to visit me without Ran. Wait, I don't think she had ever visited even with Ran before. How did she found my house then?"

He released another sigh.

"I'm thinking too much. Curse me for me and my detective mind. Better get change and find out why Sonoko's here," he said before going for a shower that his mom commanded him to take.

XXXXX

"What took you so long, Shin?" Yukiko said as Shinichi sat on the couch besides her.

Shinichi just decided to just shut up and not answer the question that was asked by his mother.

"It's unusual you know, to have a girl, apart from Ran to visit you," Yukiko said. "Come to think of it, I think Ran is the only person who have ever visited you before."

"Is that true? You should invite me more often Shinichi," Sonoko said, yet with another smile on her face, directed at him.

"I'll... think about it," he said, changing his answer at the last second when he noticed the look that his mother gave him.

"Don't worry, Sonoko. You should just come here anytime you want. If you're waiting an invite from him, I don't think I'd ever meet you again," Yukiko said, slightly happy with the answer that Shinichi gave.

"I'll take that into mind, Mrs. Kudo," Sonoko replied.

"Ah, you don't have to be formal to me, Sonoko. Just call me Yukiko. You're Shinichi's friend, so it's okay."

"Alright, Mrs. Yukiko," Sonoko replied.

They both shared a small laugh with each other. Shinichi being the only non-female in the room did not understand the reason for the laugh.

After they were done with that shared-laugh, Shinichi finally decided to speak up.

"So, what brings you here today, Sonoko?" Shinichi asked.

"Ah, I almost forgot that I had a reason for coming here. Well, you see Shinichi, I came here to discuss about what should we wear to that party?"

Shinichi, who was sipping tea at the moment, suddenly spat it out again. Luckily, he managed to turn his head to the side to avoid spitting at Sonoko.

"PARTY? What party are you talking about?" Shinichi asked, confused with what she was talking about.

"Eh... You don't remember about it? We talked about it earlier at school," she replied.

"But I never even-"

"I was thinking if we should wear matching white. I saw this beautiful white dress the other day," Sonoko cut him off, knowing he would deny agreeing to go to the party.

"But I-"

"Or should we wear matching black? But most of the will probably wear black though," again he cut him off.

"Sonoko, I never even-"

"Or one of us should wear white, and the other black. That's cool too. But, I definitely want to try the white dress on, though," once again, Shinichi was cut off.

"Listen Sonoko, I said I didn't-"

"You two are going to a party? Which party is it?" This time, Yukiko was the one who interjected him.

Shinichi just placed his palm on his face, knowing that there was no turning back now that his mother had found out about it. Even if he tries to deny that he never agreed to attend the party, he would still have to attend it now. All because of his mother had found out about it.

"It's the opening ceremony for the soon to be opened Sakibura corporation. My dad was invited to the party and that's how I got an invitation to attend it as well."

"Sakibura corporation? Isn't that the same company who had one of its investor who killed himself?" Yukiko asked.

"Yes. It was supposed to be opened two weeks ago, but because of that incident, the opening was postponed."

"An investor killed himself?" Shinichi asked, suddenly interested in the topic that the two were discussing.

Sonoko nodded her head as an answer.

"When the inspection team was doing their daily inspection on the building's rooms, they found a worker who had hung himself in the meeting room. They said it was because the building was built on top of an old cemetery ground which held bodies of the fallen ancient swordsmen. Rumour has it that the spirits were angry about the building built there so the spirits possessed the investor and then hang himself to death," Sonoko said, telling them about the rumours that she heard.

"Was it confirmed as suicide? Did the autopsy team confirm it?" Shinichi asked, suspecting something else might have happened.

Sonoko shook her head.

"From what I heard, the family members of the investor didn't want an autopsy to be held on the body. They said that they'd rather have the body in one piece," Sonoko replied.

"They should've agreed to it. Who knows, something else might've happened," Shinichi voiced out his opinion.

"Well, tell that to the family then," Sonoko said.

"Enough about that topic, you two should continue discussing about what you two will be wearing to the party," Yukiko finally said aloud, to get their attention.

"Just decide on what you want to wear Shinichi and tell me later. I'll text you tonight about it. I need to make a reservation for my dress as soon as possible. But, I need to go home now, or my parents would be worried about me. I'll see you again, Shinichi, Mrs. Yukiko," Sonoko said, as she stood up, and walked to the front door, and had Yukiko to accompany her.

Before leaving the living room however, she turned around to see that Shinichi looked like he was thinking about something, and he was thinking hard.

"Shinichi, don't forget to choose on an attire, okay?"

"Alright," Shinichi said, without hesitation.

After Sonoko left the living room, the thought finally registered on his mind.

"DID I JUST AGREE TO ATTEND THIS PARTY?!"

Sonoko, who was outside of the house, heard his outburst and let out a small giggle.

"Believe me, Shinichi. You won't regret attending this party," she said with a smile and started to walk home.

XXXXX

A/N:

Well, why I haven't I updated my stories since March? I can give you reasons, but I don't think you'd care about it. Still, I'll tell you about it.
First, my laptop had problems. It was keyboard malfunction, saying that I was pressing the CTRL button, even when I'm not. I suffered playing Katawa Shoujo because of that!
Second, I thought formatting my laptop would fix the problem. So I did it... without making any back-up on my files. I know, stupid right.
Third, I bought a new laptop, without having any drafts of how I was going to make the new chapter for this story and also my Baka and Test FF. So, I had to work from scratch on all of it.
Fourth, I started college like two weeks ago. Enough said.

For any of you who is a reader for my Baka and Test FF, I'll post an update in early June... maybe.

Signing off for now.

-JMe SeKaiiCHi