From way long before, children were taught that a coin would always had two sides, called the opposites. Thus they learned the opposite of tall would always be short. Yes would be with no. Right with wrong. And the two would always be paired up, just like black and white. A boy and a girl. A prince and a princess. Or so, Ayumi learned that since she was a child. Never did she thought that in fact, reality offered her more than that.
As she grew up, she still held her naive belief. Until she saw it with herself, during the drama performance, when she was pretending to sleep. How the prince looked at the witch affectionately. Even though it was just a quick gesture, yet it fitted the last piece of the puzzle she had in mind for all these years, that those two definitely shared a special bond. It wasn't that she was jealous of them, but considered the roles they were playing, she unexpectedly found it funny.
Doesn't a prince suppose to end up with a princess? She taught.
And Haibara was far from being a princess. She was more like a queen, an Ice Queen at that, or at least that was her famous nickname among the boys at school. However, Haibara was never a princess type of a person. Neither did she though, but she knew someone who befitted the title well. It was the long dark-haired nee-san who was now an aspiring lawyer, and also soon to be married to the school doctor. For years of being an acquaintance with her, Ayumi knew her as someone kind-hearted, strong, and friendly. A role model whom she knew, Conan had his eyes on years ago. She was the perfect image of a princess who suited so well with a prince. Or did she thought wrong?
Little did Ayumi realized that something grew inside her heart. An unknown feeling that would make her heart quiver.
"Weren't you in love with him once?"
Ayumi seemed to be surprised by the sudden question from her senior who was walking beside her. It was lunch hour and Ayumi was going to the school canteen to buy some drinks when the two met on the hallway. Since they were going to the same direction, so they decided to walk together and chatted. Then out of the blue, her senior blurted that unmentionable question to her.
She was stunned for about a minute after hearing it, and when she finally grasped it, she felt her face turned hot from feeling embarrassed. Even though Ayumi never told anyone about her long-time crush on the dense detective, but it just happened the senior also attended the same elementary school as her. So it was unsurprising that she knew about the detective boys and their very well-known smart leader; and Ayumi's feeling for him too, though it was through years of observation for the latter part.
"Well, it's not surprising if many girls fall for that detective," the senior chuckled when she saw Ayumi's reaction to her question, "He has the brain, the look, good at sport too, and he is charming when solving a case, just like a prince."
The senior pointed out the good ends of the said prince with each finger she had.
"Ah, so you already heard the rumour too," Ayumi replied with a small sigh, her blush was still slightly visible. She could feel her energy was drained just by hearing the last word. It happened every now and then when someone brought up the topic about the prince and the witch to her. Her senior seemed to understand why she responded so. As one of the closest friends to the main persons in the talk, Ayumi was interrogated by many students especially the fans, as soon as the gossip broke out. And it was undeniably mentally tiring.
"Well, basically no one at school hasn't heard of the gossip," the senior answered, a note of pity was heard in her voice, "But the thing is, how are you really feeling?"
"Huh?"
"You know," the senior continued, "With you having a crush on the prince years ago, then it turns out he ended up with one of your best friends. Isn't it somehow bothersome?"
Ayumi was dumbfounded. This was the first time that someone asked her feeling regarding the gossip. She had never really thought about it before, so she could only tell the senior with a polite smile that she had let go of the prince and was actually feeling fine even though she was a bit exhausted, physically. Their conversation was soon ended there as they parted ways. However, the question her senior asked still lingered in Ayumi's mind. How did she really feel?
She was indeed so sure that upset wasn't the right word to describe it. Displeased or disappointed didn't sound proper to her either. As she had said, she gave up her crush toward the prince years ago because after years of friendship, he had never once responded to her feeling. Then slowly, she noticed he treated her only as a sister and a childhood best friend. Well, she felt content even if it was just by that, so why would she feel envious? For her who grew up believing in fairy tales; her who held the faith that a prince would always find his way to his princess. Right, disapproving might be the perfect word to what Ayumi felt right now.
Perhaps, a story of a prince falling for a witch was something she never heard in her fifteen years of life. If ever the prince ended up with someone other than the princess, that person must at least be someone who was close to the image of a princess; like someone who held a noble title or so. Most importantly, would two people from two different worlds be fine together? From disapproving, her mind was now filled with concern of her two best friends. She, who wasn't directly related to the rumour had been feeling exhausted due to the talk, hence she couldn't imagine how her best friends handled their mental state these past few days. Further more, the public judgement formed within the rumour that was spread in the school was intimidating enough to crush anything, including their so-called happiness. Maybe.
Ding-dong
The school bell that marked the end of the school brought Ayumi back to reality. She had spent the rest of the afternoon class in a deep thought, unable to concentrate on the lessons ever since she got that question from her senior during lunch break. Her thought had branched out from one point to another point, making her lost in the obscurities of her own mind. As the school bell went off, she was reminded that she had to go to attend the detective boys club.
Ayumi was still packing up her things when Mitsuhiko and Genta approached her desk so they could go to the club together. The other two smart members were actually in the same class as the three of them too, but Haibara was stuck with the after school class cleaning duty that day, while Conan was asked by the teacher from their last lesson to help him return the teaching props to their respective room. Ayumi could only stare at the two of them, while the two boys bid their good byes and told them they'd wait at the club room.
The three of them walked while exchanging dialogues about how worn out they were, being questioned by a lot of people regarding the current school gossip. Ayumi was more quiet than usual though, and it made the two boys worried. She brushed them off by giving the same excuse as when she was asked by her senior this afternoon. However her mind was clearly distracted by her unsettling feeling, again. Moreover, the two who gave her that feeling were in front of her very eyes right now, sitting across from each other thinking and discussing with the rest of the detective boys on how to resolve the ongoing fuss. And again, she hadn't talked much during the discussion when she realized it was over. As she and the other were ready to walk out of the room, she suddenly heard Haibara said something to them.
"Thank you so much, you all," she said.
Ayumi turned her head then she saw her smiling to them. The most sincere smile she had ever seen on the lips of the witch. Perhaps, Haibara knew just from her look during classes and over the discussion that Ayumi had been stressed out by so many jumbled up thoughts and worries about her and the detective, so she tried to ease her mind by saying she was grateful for the concern through her smile. Ayumi felt warmth penetrated her heart. Without any words of explanations, she knew very much that the reason her best friend could show that kind of smile was all because of the prince who was always there, by the witch's side. And she could never feel such a bliss more than this moment.
At this instance, she casted her flurry thoughts aside, and very much convinced that her worry all through the afternoon school hours was so stupid. Haibara might not be the perfect image of a princess, nor did she fitted to be the damsel in distress like those noble ladies in fairy tales. She might be the Ice Queen who lived in the lands of permafrost, or the witch who was supposed to be left alone in the cold dark forest. But, Ayumi realized despite of all the odds, Haibara was her best friend in the first place, and if the prince was the one who could melt the ice in her heart, then shouldn't she be praying for their happiness instead? Even though they were from two different worlds, maybe if it was these two, they would make it somehow.
At that, Ayumi gripped both of her hands into fists as a sign of her determination to protect her precious friends and support them. A few more weeks of torture from both of the fans club would be alright for her. It was the least she could do to keep the smile of the witch from disappearing. As she felt a bit of tears on the edge of her eyes ready to fall anytime, and her mouth formed a very big grin, she replied the strawberry blonde to leave everything to her and the detective boys.
If between black and white there would be grey, if between yes and no there would be maybe, then one day instead of a prince, maybe a knight in shining armor would come to save the princess. It was true that a coin would always had two sides, but it could also stand in between on its edges. And so, Ayumi slowly learned that reality didn't always go by with the opposites, because as she stepped out from her small world, she would surely see bit by bit that there was more to it than what she saw right now.
Author's note: Somehow I wanted to write how Ayumi felt when she knew her long one-sided crush fell for Haibara, who was her best friend. Moreover Haibara once said to her that she had no interest with the boy. Even though after years, she had moved on from her crush, but there must be an indescribable feeling in her heart when she saw her ex-crush and her girl best friend together, right? Well, I just wanted to say that Ayumi chose her precious friendships over her own love.
I also tried to portray her as a pure hearted teenager because it was the image I got from her when reading the manga. Then I recalled when she tried to take a photo of her, sitting on a staircase on the position of the empress doll while Conan sat on the emperor's (it was in manga chapter 386). It was when I was convinced that she was surely the type of a girl who believe in fairy tales. And her, believing that the world went by only between black and white was to add up her naivety (this part was inspired by another manga titled "Watashi no Shounen" though, if I didn't remember wrong). So that was how I got the idea for this chapter!
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Disclaimer: All characters of Detective Conan are belong to Aoyama Gosho. I don't own any single of them.