One Last Visit, One Last Word
Chapter 2:A Medicine for Melancholy
Tarino: As of this story, my chapters are rather short. But I'll take care not to let my story drop off the first page until it's completed, of course! I wonder if anyone takes a look at this, though. Maybe this is not a good story after all.
She waited anxiously for the phone to ring. For her to pick up, and to hear his voice on the other end of the phone, his warm smile leaking in through the wiring, tickling her sense of emotions lightly.
But, as of the past month, it did not. Today would not be any different.
She sighed, as she turned off the lights, and went up to bed, a heavy heart dragging between her feet.
She still didn't feel better the next morning. And again, he didn't call. "He could've at least told me what's going on," she thought, worry clouding her mind up like a dense fog that sticks around even after everything has gone. "He's probably just ignoring me or something. Or something..." Her wandering mind sketched up a picture of "Or something..." and held it up to her eyes: shinichi with another person. Probably blonde, something like that.
She dusted that thought away. "He wouldn't do anything like that! He's a good guy! Good guys aren't lechers!" she reasoned aloud to herself, catching the attention of a passer-by.
"What's wrong, Ran-neechan?" His cute face popped into her room, a look of concern etched upon it.
"N...Nothing's the matter, Conan-kun," she muttered, still mulling over her thoughts. It was probably true that Shinichi would not go after another woman, but then he had so many fangirls he could have easily gottn off with any of them. Maybe even more than one! Her eyebrows furrowed together as she thought of that, and her fists clenched hard.
"Is it about Shinichi-niichan?"
Ran looked up and stared at Conan weirdly. "How'd you know? It's not like I said anything." The kid always seemed to be able to read her mind, especially on the subject of her childhood friend. It was almost as if he was Shinichi himself, talking to her through a ventriloquist's puppet, getting inside knowledge of her life..."No, that can't be." She pulled herself away from that path, remembering how many times she had tried to make him admit, or at least prove that he was spying on her, or that he was really that kid standing before her right now. But then again, it was almost as likely as when your friend disappears without a trace and only appears for a couple of hours each time, not frequent. Phone calls were okay, except sometimes she wondered if it was really Shinichi on the line, the Shinichi she knew and had feelings for, and not some cold automated machine with the intelligence of a human that tried to imitate the real thing.
"Ran-neechan?"
"Go away, Conan-kun. I just want to be alone for now," she mumbled, turning herself away from the door so she did not have to see his face, and thus preventing herself from another impulse to squeeze the 'truth' out of him. Her head was dipped, so the glass beads that fell from her eyes dropped downwards without any obstruction.
Conan stopped for a moment, then slowly strode over to the bed. He romped up onto it, pressing the sheets wrinkly with his limbs, and curled up in her lap, catching her tears with a quick flick of his pink tongue. He snuggled closer to her, and she hugged him back like a warm pillow on a cold and dreary night. Then, she let the tide that welled up in her go, let it wash her eyes out, accompanied by a few sobs. He lay there on her lap, still trying to catch every tear that fell, and surprisingly, not one managed to drop past him. She uncorked her melancholy, wailing uncontrollably on Conan's shoulder.
It was a long while before she stopped. But until then, he continued to sit there, a little bit of comfort in the fog of despair. But at least she felt better affterwards.
"Thanks, Conan-kun," she mumbled through gasps of air, using the back of her hand to rub away the stray tears on her face. Looking at Conan's sunny smile, she felt warmer and cozier inside, radiating from the centre outwards. She got up, gently nudging him off her lap, and returned his help with a rainbow of a smile.
His medicine worked, she was sure of that.