Koko has an Alice. His Alice is pretty normal-tier. He is surrounded by normal-tier Alices. But Mikan's Alice is a weird one, and his favorite one so far.
If Mikan wants to, she can block out his Alice altogether so that he can't read her mind, but it isn't automatic. A side effect of her Alice is that his Alice gets a little less bothersome when she's nearby. Koko gets to relax a little more when Mikan is near, so he likes her Alice. She is one of the few who does not forget sometimes that Koko is a mind reader.
In fact, she never remembers.
"Koko," she says now (and he knows what she'll say before she says it because it's written on her forehead, but she's uber serious), "remember when we were talking about mangoes the other day?"
Koko smiles and nods and anticipates.
"Do you know why mangoes are so addictive?"
Yes, Koko has known since the very first time he saw Mikan today. He briefly considers mouthing along the answer with her.
"Because mangoes don't want to let any man go!"
She crows. She cackles. She laughs. Koko smiles.
It isn't funny.
"Ohh, that was a good one," she says, and she is wiping a tear away from her eyes. Do people normally compliment themselves after making lame jokes? Koko isn't sure, but Koko also knows that Mikan is nothing near normal.
She is still having loud pictures of mangoes, except now they're clinging onto men. She chuckles to herself, and Koko does too. She doesn't notice that it should be weird for him to be laughing at something she is imagining.
"What's so funny?" Natsume asks from behind her. His piercing eyes are trained on the girl and he doesn't blink.
Mikan jumps, then glares. She is ranting in her mind, a whirl of words and letters speeding past her forehead, and Koko realizes that they must have fought. "Just an inside joke between good friends," she retorts. At Natsume's raised eyebrow, she fumes, "Is that so unbelievable? We've been friends since elementary school, you know!"
When Natsume turns his eyes on him, Koko does not need to be a mind reader to read the semi-murderous glint in his eye.
"Ahaha," Koko says.
"We're going, Polka," Natsume says, and Koko pretends not to see the f-bombs going off around in Natsume's head.
Mikan resists, saying something about how she would rather be with Koko than Natsume.
"Ahaha," Koko says. Koko fears for his life. He must take action.
He hears a loud "I want anpan" from the distance and recognizes the voice. "Ah, sorry Mikan-san. I have to speak to Sumire."
But the two classmates in front of him are now busy glowering at each other.
(If there is one thing Koko gets to know over everyone else as a mind reader, it is that Natsume is whipped through and through. Even now, Natsume's angry thoughts are now being interrupted by thoughts of how Mikan looks and what she has said before and how much he just wants to get over this and—yes, Koko could bet all the rabbits he has to Natsume giving in first.)
"Bye," Koko says. It is a needless farewell, but he says it for formalities' sake. Koko jogs in the direction of the anpan as loud thoughts pass by him.
By the time he reaches Sumire, he has learned that there is someone in the crowd who really hates chocolate and another who can't get a commercial song out of his mind. Sumire is still thinking about anpan.
"Koko," Sumire says, "I need to buy bread." She does not say hello. She does not even think anything is strange about how Koko has just beelined to her from fifty meters away. She is thinking solely of anpan.
"Anpan," Koko states with a smile.
"Yes." She finally looks at him. "I need anpan in my life."
"I know."
"Then what are you waiting for? Let's go."
Koko considers this. "Okay, but whoever reaches that tree first has to pay for both."
Sumire tosses her head. "C'mon, Koko, we're in high school now. You have to be more mature than that."
But Koko smiles, because Koko knows, and when Sumire suddenly tears away from him in a run, he's already laughing.
When Sumire reaches him at the tree, she's panting and sweating and can't speak but curses Koko in her head. By the way she's glaring at him, Koko is pretty sure she's using extra-bad swear words on purpose.
"This isn't fair," Sumire complains, and a picture of her kicking Koko flashes through her mind for an extra oomph.
"But you can be half-dog," Koko reminds her.
She glares, and her extra-bossy thoughts are loud. You're the dog, she thinks, and then she walks to the store without another word. Well, if "hmph" is considered a word, Koko supposes she did say a word.
"You don't even crave anpan," she says.
"How do you know?"
"Well, excuse me for not being a mind reader," she snaps. "I'm just all-knowing like that, alright?"
She is having loud pictures of strangling Koko, so Koko wisely decides to keep his mouth shut.
"Two anpan, please," she barks at the service lady. The service lady jumps. The lady had been busy calculating something in her head, and now she has lost it.
The lady smiles at them and says, "They're on your right, ma'am."
Koko smiles at her and says, "159,664 yen."
Her smile freezes, Sumire thinks "Showoff," and Koko repeats the number.
Sumire is back with the two anpan, and she drops them at the counter. "That's the number you forgot," she says, still a bit snappish. But then she sort of sighs. "When we came in, I mean."
The lady looks kinda scared. She's also thinking, 'this is kinda scary,' which really clues Koko in.
Scared or not, though, anpan is anpan, and Sumire pays for the anpan while thinking murderous thoughts of Koko. But then she glances up at the service lady robotically handing over the bag of anpan, and she briefly thinks, "Oops," and that thought is a soft one.
"She says sorry for being rude," Koko says immediately.
Sumire whirls around and stomps on Koko's foot.
It hurts like crazy.
She takes the anpan with another "Hmph!" and leaves the store. Koko hops on one foot, repeats the number one more time, then hops out. The lady is so confused that her "Huh?" resounds through him even as he leaves the shop.
Sumire is not waiting for him, so he needs to hop-run fast to catch up to her. "Ow," he says, and she smacks him.
"Here's your dirty anpan," she says, then waves him away. "Now go before I maim your other foot."
She has a very clear picture of how she will do about the maiming, and Koko is not confident he will be fast enough to move out of the way. Even if he knows exactly how she'll do it.
One must be very brave indeed to go against an angry Sumire, mind reader or not.
"Thanks for the anpan," he smiles, then he hop-runs out. Sumire's sharp thoughts yell at him from his back. The free anpan isn't really worth how much Sumire has cursed him out today, but oh well. Koko will not cry over spilled milk.
And on his way back to his dorm room, Koko decides he will eat his anpan with milk.