Title: Broken-Hearted Valentine
Author: Ran-dezvous
Genre: Friendship, Hurt/Comfort
Fandom: Detective Conan
Claim: General Series – Kisaki Eri and Fujimine Yukiko (yes, they're both single here), with mentions of Mouri Kogoro
Table/Theme: Table 1, Theme 20 – Box of crackerjacks (caveat)
Rating: G
Word Count: 700 (all in five sentences, no kidding)
Warnings: An author's note that's longer than the actual fic, as well as blatant abuse of dashes and semicolons. Thank you, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, for using them (the dashes, anyway) so much in your Sherlock Holmes novels and stories. (I have no idea about his other works as I've never read them.) Who knew this style can actually be grammatically correct?
Original Publish Date: March 27, 2011
Disclaimer: I don't—and never will—own Detective Conan, no matter how many characters from the series I claim in various blogcrews. Aoyama Gosho is the lucky dude who does.
Notes: Set during Eri, Yukiko, and Kogoro's high-school days, sometime after the Miss Teitan High Competition. Not immediately after the said event, of course. Oh, and unlike my first ficlet for this series, there's actually a story here, yay! (UPDATE [March 29, 2011]: Fixed some minor punctuation errors, so that this fic can truly live up to its five-sentence glory! Thanks for catching those errors, vampslyr of LiveJournal! UPDATE 2 [April 29, 2011]: Substituted biscuits for cookies upon realizing that I misremembered that tiny detail in the White Day of Betrayal case. Yes, I'm that anal.)
Summary: There was something not right about Eri sitting by herself, stuffing her face with biscuits.
"Eri-chan! What are you doing here by yourself? Where's Kogoro-kun? Don't you two always eat lunch together?" asked Fujimine Yukiko upon noticing that her friend-slash-rival (though the rivalry thing happened a long time ago, during the Miss Teitan High Competition—not that people stopped considering the two of them as such), Kisaki Eri, was sitting all by herself on a patch of grass, underneath the giant tree in the school yard; she could see the bespectacled teen stuffing a bunch of bite-sized biscuits to her face—definitely unusual for the normally refined and punctilious Queen of Wisdom.
"Beats me"—Eri barely looked up at Yukiko, and nonchalantly took a bite of anothe biscuit—"Why should I care about that jerk? The nerve of that guy, saying the chocolate I made him for Valentine's tasted horrible! He should be grateful I even made him one!" grumbled Eri, whilst staring at and tightly squeezing the bag of cookies she held in her left hand, "He's so insensitive"—Yukiko could hear her sniffle; was she crying?—"After all that effort I put into making that chocolate"—another sniffle—"He could've at least pretended it tasted good; what's worse, he even had the nerve to tell me that I should've gotten him a store-bought one like I do every year"—Eri formed her right hand into the shape of a fist—"That jerk!"—tears began to flow down the bespectacled teen's face; her voice was starting to quiver—"Doesn't he understand why I got him honmei choco (1) this time around?"
"Well," Yukiko chimed in, right index finger on her chin, and sat herself to the left of her woeful friend, who had just pushed her glasses atop her head, and was wiping her tears with a plain, white handkerchief she had been carrying in her skirt pocket, "I think it was pretty brave"—Eri raised an eyebrow at the very idea—"of him to actually eat that chocolate, considering your, um, lack of cook—"—in spite of her tear-stained eyes, Eri glared at her companion (which looked even scarier than her usual death glare, considering her eyes were still red from all that crying), a cue for the latter to change her topic: "I-I mean, at least, he gave you a White Day present, right? Those heart-"—she made sure to emphasize the word heart, as if to tease the girl next to her—"shaped biscuits?"—Yukiko pointed at the bag Eri was holding—"They sure look like they came from a pretty expensive pastry shop, too; definitely worth way more than the expected sanbai gaeshi (2)," ended Yukiko with a sheepish laugh; she so wasn't good at comforting people.
"Of course he gave me a White Day present, Yuki-chan! We're childhood friends; he always does that every year! But," Eri trailed off, "it's the first time he ever gave me something this expensive and fancy"—she shook her head vigorously—"There's no way . . . no way . . . He probably just bought them because he felt bad about not liking my chocolate. . . ."—tears started flowing down her face once more—"Honestly, what was I thinking? He's Teitan High's biggest flirt, for crying out loud! There must be tons of girls he'd rather go out with; he certainly ogles at and flirts with a lot of them: those prettier, cuter, sexier, less temperamental girls . . . girls that can actually cook . . . girls that don't constantly nag him as if she were his mother. . . . There's no way . . . no way he'd be interested in me that way."
"There's only one way to find that out for sure, Eri-chan,"—with a smile and a wink, Yukiko took her friend by the hand, which elicited a "Huh?" from her—"Tell you what, I'll help you fix yourself up—look at you, all wet and teary eyed—after all, you want to look your best when you"—Eri had a bad feeling about what her friend was going to say next; she could feel herself blushing a bright red at the thought—"ask him how he really feels about you, right?"
Notes:
(1) Honmei Choco (本命チョコ; literally, "true-feeling chocolate" or "chocolate of love"): Usually handmade (because it's a sign for the receiver that he's the girl's "only one"), it's the higher quality and more expensive chocolate given by girls to their boyfriends, husbands, or in Eri's case, male love interests on White Day. (I'm gonna emphasize male, as I have no idea what same-sex couples in Japan do on White Day. I won't be surprised if it's not openly celebrated in such circles, but what do I know?) This is different from giri choco (義理チョコ; literally, "obligation chocolate" or "courtesy chocolate"), which is the relatively cheap kind of chocolate given by girls to guys they're not romantically interested in. (Oh, the Japanese and their social obligations. . . .)
(2) Sanbai Gaeshi(三倍返し; literally, "triple the return"): The generally accepted rule that the White Day gift should be two to three times more expensive than the Valentine's gift. (Those must be some really expensive biscuits, Kogoro; maybe I should've just stuck to Eri's favourite Zigoba chocolates from Movie 2. . . . Then again, in the current timeline, Kogoro does give cookies to Eri for her White Day present . . . not to mention that scene in Episode 541, "The Day Mouri Kogoro Discontinues His Detective Business (Part Two)," where Eri devours animal cookies (biscuits) like whoa because of jealousy. If you're a Kogoro fan like me, you'd surely wish these series of episodes were canon! /end of plug)
Wow, I actually am pleased with how this fic turned out. And yes, Kogoro does sound like a jerk here, but it had to be done, otherwise, there'd be no Eri and Yukiko hurt/comfort (my first attempt at both counts, though I must admit that during the first draft, Yukiko just pops up at the end asking, "Then why are you still eating those biscuits? They're from Kogoro-kun, right?")! The idea of Kogoro saying something incredibly cheesy/romantic to redeem himself in the end actually came to me, but I had to stop myself as the whole point of this fic is Eri and Yukiko interaction, which there are even less of in the fandom than Kogoro/Eri fics. (I've read only one, and they weren't exactly friends.) Either way, the fic would've still ended with a cliffhanger. Eh, but what can I do? This is a five-sentence ficlet challenge, after all.
Oh, and speaking of cliffhangers, I swear, this fic was supposed to be an omake for a Kogoro/Eri Valentine's Day fic idea I only remembered (because I first thought of it back in 2008 or 2009, but school pawned me) a couple of days before White Day! But now, it seems like I have to come up with a sequel and a prequel . . . or maybe an incredibly expanded version of this fic. Considering how I've been terrible at updating during the last few years . . . oh boy. Not to mention my various unfinished fic projects. /is mildly regretting signing up for all her theme comms
If I do continue writing this, though, should I stick to this style or return to the more conventional way of writing? I rather like writing like this, but I'm not sure people would appreciate it. That said, this challenge is so much harder than it looks! I joined the comm on a whim, thinking, "This can't be that hard." Well, guess what, it is. I must say, though, that I like how I'm forced to experiment with my style to meet with the five-sentence requirement. It's also a source of frustration since I frequently end up having to junk my ideas because they insist on expanding—nooo!
I sort of wonder if Eri's completely in character, though, with her crying so much. Then again, she's already cried once in the series; I won't say why, though, to avoid spoilers, but, no, it had nothing to do with Kogoro. Then again, even though Kogoro has done and said many stupid things to her, I don't think any of them are as hurtful as saying that Eri's honmei choco tastes horrible, which really isn't too farfetched given Kogoro's character, and how we fans like to poke fun at Eri's inability to cook, even though it's not technically canon (or maybe it already is, since Kogoro has already insulted her cooking, as part of his plan of pretending to be cold toward her). And Eri has been described by a minor character in the manga (which I will emphasize, because the animé episode left out the sensitive part—rawr!) as "smart and sensitive," so maybe her characterization isn't that off the mark . . . I think. /sweatdrops
As for Yukiko the matchmaker . . . It's possible, isn't it? Considering how Kogoro and Eri are too stubborn to tell each other how they really feel . . . Though I think that in the manga, Aoyama-sensei may be subtly hinting at Conan or Shinichi playing a role in their eventual reconciliation. . . . Or I may just be a biased fangirl—hah! I wonder if Yukiko may have been too serious—not that she doesn't have a serious side—in this fic, though.
To those who celebrate it (I don't, but whatever), a belated Happy White Day! (And wow, I posted this just about a week after the airing of Part Two of the "White Day of Betrayal" case in Japan—woot!) And speaking of Japan, please support the LiveJournal Help Japan community! Speaking for myself, I'm offering fic requests! Any fandom (I'm willing to do research), even original. Of course, I'm most at home with Detective Conan. If you have a LiveJournal, Facebook, Twitter, or OpenID account, feel free to bid! The link to my thread is on my profile.
Oh my goodness, this was a long author's note. (Even longer than the actual fic? /is shot) I swear they're not usually this long, but my predilection for character analysis—gah! Until next time!
