The day of the school festival had arrived within the blink of an eye. Everyone at school was busy with the customers who stopped by their stalls, while visitors and guests were excited to explore each event the school offered. Classrooms were decorated and turned into booths; haunted houses, maid cafes, art exhibitions, science demonstrations, mini musical concerts, literature workshops– name them all. Every corner of the school was so crowded and lively. Finally, it was after lunch hour that the drama performance by Kobayashi-sensei's class started. The gym was full of audience who were interested seeing the play directed by the sensei herself.
It went very smooth at first, with each dialogue expressed skillfully by the students, that the audience was so immersed into the scenes, forgetting they were all watching a school play. Of course it was because the students had been practicing their roles very hard these past few weeks, especially Conan who got the role of the prince. Yes, he had been practicing harder than he intended to, for every time he did the last, heart-pounding scene, he always got cut by Kobayashi-sensei because many many times had he heedlessly stared at the witch instead of the sleeping princess. Everyone laughed it off at first, seeing the all-popular-smart high school detective had done something thoughtless for once, yet the interruptions became worse after his confession to Haibara few days before the performance day.
Fool, Haibara thought, though her lips formed a small smile.
Fortunately the blood of the great legendary actress Yukiko Kudo ran in his body, so with all his might and will, he successfully finished the scene and received a great round of applause on the last day of practice. Then this afternoon, he had to act it out in front of the real audience. Conan kneeled beside the black-gold painted cardboard coffin where the princess was laid. As he gazed at the beauty, he lowered his back and pretended to kiss her. The curse that was cast to the princess was broken and she woke up from her deep slumber. The scene was ended with the narrator's speech, then the curtain called, and the whole gym was filled with cheers coming from the audience.
The performance ended very well– at least that was what the audience saw. Indeed, anyone from a far would've not realized this, however every students who stood on the stage saw it very clearly that before the prince lowered his back to give the princess a kiss, he stole a quick mesmerizing glance at the eyes of the witch, again. Even Ayumi who was pretending to sleep could see it from the corner of her eyes when she slightly opened her eyes to take a peek at what was going on, but Conan realized it too late. Though he was able to deceive the audience, in the end he failed to trick his classmates and above all, the detective boys. Genta whose mind was usually too busy thinking his eel rice, was able to catch it this time too. It would be a matter of time for the plump boy and Mitsuhiko to tease him on this every time they went together to and from school.
"Damn," he said to himself. Love could suddenly turn someone into a fool, huh?
The quiet days in the school were gone almost immediately, for the following week after the festival, a rumour was spread through out the whole school ground. Not even a single student was left unheard of the hot talk about the prince of the school who fell for the school witch. It was first started from the small talks between their classmates who were suspicious of what they witnessed on stage. The talk was spread to another first year students at different classes, then not long after, the gossip reached the ears of the upperclassmen and the club members, even the teachers. Thus, the whole school knew it.
"This is the first time I would blame popularity." Conan said to no one in particular, sitting on a chair while putting his head on top of the small meeting table.
He was taking a rest inside their club room after the school ended, together with the other tired four detective boys members. Ever since middle school, their detective group were officially registered as one of the school clubs, with official club activities too, although they didn't recruit any new members. So as an official club, they were given their own room and of course, Kobayashi-sensei was acting as the club supervisor.
"It was all your fault for being too obvious in public." Genta said to the bespectacled boy as he walked toward a chair after locking the door to the club room.
"Not to mention those many cuts during the practices," Mitsuhiko said, "They all clicked together."
After the rumour started to spread, the detective boys were asked everyday by almost everyone at school about the truth, since they were too afraid to ask the main persons themselves. Nonetheless, they answered nothing until the end of the day for they knew it very well that they must protect their precious best friends' privacy. It was out of their business to meddle with the affair, anyway. There was also a time when some students tried to corner them at some part of the school in hope to get the beans out, but to no avail.
"But this is so screwed up," Mitsuhiko spoke up again, "I never knew that you two are so much popular than I thought."
"True," said Ayumi agreeing, "I knew that Conan-kun has a lot of fangirls, but I'm surprise Ai-chan has the same amount of fanboys too."
"Those crazy fans, they are all so scary." The three members said at the same time in low voices, while hugging themselves as they felt goosebumps all over their bodies. They felt those cold shivers more often now since they couldn't get those thirsty stares for the truth that the fans had out of their mind.
The two exhausted shrunken adults chuckled at their friends' comments. They were right. Both of them had never expected to have this many crazy fans, although Conan didn't really mind it because he had already used to have numerous of them when he was living his old life, but Haibara did. She never really had the enjoyment for public exposure. The fact that her cool, quiet, and mature demeanor was the reason many boys at the school adored her was already dumb enough to her standpoint. And now, she had gotten into the silly mess because the silly prince couldn't contain his own feeling through his act.
Teenagers these days, both of them thought, speechless.
"So, what are you two gonna do now?" Ayumi asked, concern was reflected in her eyes.
"You can't just let this go on forever, can't you?" Genta continued the discussion.
"You have to do something, especially about those fans of yours." Mitsuhiko added.
"Hmmm," the three exhaled together while doing their thinking pose.
Conan straightened his posture then brought his index finger and thumb under his chin. He tried to think for the best way to tidy up the mess he made. As he thought so hard, he took a glance at Haibara who sat in front of him, with the hope she would come up with some ideas already. But she didn't. Instead, all he could get was a teasing in return.
"Would you get the answer by staring at my face, Tantei-san?" Haibara joked when she realized his stare.
"Wha-?" He blushed.
The other three members in the room looked at them and laughed at his annoyed blushing face, breaking the serious atmosphere.
"W-Well," Conan coughed, trying to compose himself, "We should keep low for awhile, I think. The rumour shouldn't be last for too long."
Everyone nodded in agreement to what Conan said. They also thought it was the best they could do for now, until they find a better solution to this problem. After the small meeting ended, they all started to pack up their things, prepared to go home. As the detective boys opened the door and readied to step outside, they heard Haibara said something to them. They all turned their head toward the owner of the voice, a bit stunned.
"Thank you so much, you all," she said from the bottom of her heart and smiled– the most sincere smile that she had ever shared to anyone. To them. The detective boys were surprised at what they saw, silence overwhelmed the room. Ayumi was the first one to break it.
"Just leave it to us, Ai-chan!" Ayumi said with a very big grin on her mouth, a bit of tears could be seen on the edge of her eyes. She was touched by the strawberry blonde's smile.
"Yeah," Genta said excitedly, bringing his clenched fist up so everyone could see his untrained muscles, "I will use all my strength to protect my precious friends."
"We'll do anything for our best friends," Mitsuhiko nodded his head.
They were all looking at each other, laughing while Conan enjoyed watching the moment from aside.
She had changed, he thought.
The witch who had left the deep forest finally met with a lot of people. Despite of the discontentment many people showed in their eyes whenever they saw her, she learned that there were some who would truly accept her for who she was. The chain that sealed her heart was slowly untied, and unwittingly the witch had charmed them with her smile– and the prince too.
A month had passed since the rumour was spread, yet it didn't show any signs of subsiding. As a matter of fact, it grew more frantically between the two fans groups; the rumour had drifted into a quarrel. The girls still couldn't believe it was the witch whom the prince chose, while the boys couldn't take the new label the girls gave to their idol queen. Hence, Haibara had officially earned herself another new nickname.
Isn't Ice Queen, in the first place, a witch too? She chuckled to herself at what a difference could her new nickname make to her previous one, while sipping her last drop of apple juice.
It was the end of the school and she was sitting on one of the beds in the infirmary, waiting for everyone to go home so she could avoid being tangled up in the crowd. Besides, the nurse was out on an after school meeting, so she was asked to take care of the infirmary while she was there.
She looked out to the opened window near the bed, feeling bored as she felt the wind swept the end of her hair swiftly. She put one of her arms on the windowsill while the other one was used to prop her head up, enjoying the view of the school backyard in peace. The darkened trees bark with falling leaves and the weather that was getting colder marked the forthcoming winter. Then suddenly, she heard some voices around a meter away from the window. When she followed where they were coming from with her eyes, there she saw it, the famous cowlick that she knew very well who it belonged to. Haibara widened her eyes in surprise, wondering why he would be here at the backyard. But before she could make any sound, she saw another figure standing in front of him. He was talking with someone. She held her breath so she won't be caught eavesdropping. Not long after, she heard a girl's voice. It sounded weak and quavered as if the girl was crying.
A confession? Haibara concluded. And by the look of it, it seemed like the girl got rejected by the boy.
"So, is the rumour true?" The girl finally asked in between her cry, a bit hesitating, "Is it true that you are in love with the witch?"
There was a minute of pause. The infirmary was filled with the ticking sound of the wall clock in the room and Haibara's heartbeat, while the grass outside made a whooshing noise. They were loud enough to form a harmony. Everyone was waiting for him to answer the question.
"No, I'm not just in love with the witch," he said, "But I think my heart has been bewitched by her too."
Haibara could feel herself blush when the boy finished the sentence. She lowered her head a bit so her mouth was covered by the palm of her hand under her chin. She tried to hide whatever emotions she had on her face right now. Then she heard the girl cried even more as she saw her figure walked away from the place, leaving the boy by himself. The boy could only looked at the back of the girl, feeling sorry for her. What could he do though? He was just telling the truth.
"Bewitched, huh?" Haibara broke the silence after she calmed herself.
"H-Haibara?" Conan turned his way facing the girl by the window, surprised with her sudden appearance behind him, "Since when have you been there?"
"Since way before you were being confessed." Haibara scoffed, emphasized on the adverb while trying to maintain her poker face.
"So you heard it all." Conan sighed, scratching the back of his head with one hand, while the other one was still in his pocket as he walked nearer to the windowsill.
"Yeah," Haibara shifted a bit from her position, giving a bit of space for him, "You and your flowery words."
Conan put an annoyed face, but Haibara could clearly see he was blushing. She chuckled at his reaction. It was always so fun to tease him.
"What should I do then?" He asked, "Rather than giving her some futile hopes, isn't it better to tell her the truth?"
"Mhmm," Haibara hummed, smirking.
The journey with the prince had opened up another world for the witch, a world where she could be honest with herself without being afraid of those judgmental minds. A place where she could express her true feelings. As the witch started to smile more, the prince who slowly learned the witch's true self, inadvertently, fell for her. Since they lived in reality, so the fact that a prince didn't always end up with a princess was inevitable. The prince also knew that even before he met the witch, yet he didn't imagine his heart too would one day be held captive by her.
Conan opened his mouth, about to speak something. But before he had the opportunity to continue the conversation, he suddenly saw Haibara's face was so close to his. And then he felt it. Her lips touched his for a brief moment before she pulled back. For a minute his mind couldn't register on what had happened, then he realized that the witch had given him, the prince, a peck on the lips.
"Hey, what was that?!" Said Conan startled, while covering his mouth with the back of his hand, blushing madly.
Haibara could only give a small laugh at the detective's reaction, her most genuine one at that. She found it hilarious remembering how audacious he was when confessing to her few weeks ago.
"I'm casting a spell on the prince." She put her index finger in front of her smile, and said teasingly.
If the world they lived in was really a fairy tale, he'd wish that the witch's spell on him would never be lifted. And if the spell would ever be wore off, he'd be more than pleased to let her bewitched him, over and over again. As his blush wasn't coming off anytime soon, the prince could only look at the witch affectionately and wished for her laugh to never ever leave her mouth again. He hoped for the rumour would die down soon, so he could enjoy his beloved witch's smile anytime of the day at school.
Author's note: Another chapter was done! I really couldn't stop writing these two. I know the end of this chapter was a bit hanging because there was still no solution to the spreading rumour, but wouldn't it be gone by itself as the time goes? Well, I'd think it out later for the next chapter.
Do not forget to give your comments and reviews. They really give me a lot of support to keep the story going on.
Disclaimer: All characters of Detective Conan are belong to Aoyama Gosho. I don't own any single of them.