Notes: Hello everyone and welcome to chapter 2 of "Deduction Of Love" and the last(for now) flashback chapter of the series. This chapter has more fluff and awkwardness to it, but it's the last one covering the start of their relationship so I hope I did an adequate job at it.

I tried experimenting a bit with the characters in this chapter as this is how I imagined Shinichi and Sonoko would act at the start of their relationship. In the show, Sonoko always got really excited and embarrassed around Makoto, so I figured for Shinichi, who is now her childhood friend and boyfriend, that would be even stronger, atleast at the start. So I wrote her as a girl who is finally with her true love and how one might act at first. Again, she might seem a tad OOC, but that was just for this initial flashback. Shinichi I wrote as the confidant boyfriend who isn't afraid to be seen with his girlfriend, but still has some of his embarrassment moments as well.

Also the first 'case' of the story will be in this chapter, though it's nothing big and more of a practice case than anything. Still I hope you guys enjoyed and will continue to tune in for more! Also feel free to leave suggestions for any other couples you may want to see(I have some finalized, but I may be open to change if given a good argument why)

November 12, 2007

As soon as Sonoko finished explaining to Ran about how her and Shinichi got together, she was as red as a ruby, while Ran had her hands together as she listened in awe "How romantic! Expressing his love to you in a way that only the two of you would get!"

"A-Ah yeah…" Sonoko blushed even harder as she scratched the side of her face in embarrassment "Although...I kinda wish he just came out and told me, I mean after all If I didn't solve that stupid game of his, then we may have never gotten together."

"Hm, maybe...But it just makes it more romantic if you ask me!" Ran clasped her hands together and gave a smile as Sonoko again just nodded and looked away, hating how embarrassed she was right now.

The two continued walking for a few more moments until they came upon the cherry blossom tree they met under every morning on their walk to school, the two of them looked around confused for a moment before Ran spoke up.

"Hm, that's weird...Shinichi-kun is usually here by now…" Ran was referring to the fact that ever since the three of them were kids, they had met under the same tree every morning and walked to school together, with the only exceptions being when one of them were sick or away somewhere, weather it was Sonoko on her family vacations or Shinichi on his cases.

"Hm...Oh wait a minute…" Sonoko pulled out her phone and began scrolling throughout her emails until she saw it. "Ah here it is."

"Hm? What is it?"

"My messages with Shinichi." Ran walked over and began reading over the messages with Sonoko as she scrolled down,although she couldn't help but notice something…

"Even in your contacts eh? Hehe~" Ran gave a small laugh as she looked at Sonoko who gave a confused look back.

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"Hehe, what you have down as Shinichi-kun's name." Sonoko raised an eyebrow and looked down before her face reddened again as she noticed was Ran was talking about. She had his name in her contacts as Anata(Darling) and didn't even realize it thanks to how used she was to it.

"W-Well y-yeah…" Sonoko looked away in embarrassment once again as Ran gave a small laugh.

"Hehe, that reminds me of the day after."

"Day after what…?"

"The day after you two got together of course! You had told me the night before so I was already knew and was really happy for you two, but no one else knew though. I remember how flustered you were during the entire day."

"W-Well can you blame me?I was worried I would screw up just one day into our relationship...Though I guess it's good memory to look back on…"

Flashback-Teitan High School, Day after Suzuki House Party

The sun shown above the entire neighborhood as students talked and walked amongst each other, eager to begin another school day. To them it wasn't anything different than what they usually did.

But to Sonoko Suzuki, today was the most important day of her life. After her and Shinichi had confessed to each other the past night and became a couple, they had gone back to the party to avoid any suspicion, although by the looks their parents gave them afterwards, she had a feeling they knew.

She had stayed up all night reading book after book on how to be a girlfriend, and because of that she barely got any sleep. However she looked as energized as anyone else around, her nerves not allowing her to be tired as she walked to the local bus stop to meet with Ran.

As she walked, she kept replaying the scene from the night before in her mind over and over again, each time making the butterflies in her stomach multiply by the dozen as her face was as red as her nail polish, each step she took making her more and more nervous.

Sure she had told Ran the night before, but this was the first time she would see her best friend with a label...That label being Shinichi Kudo's girlfriend…

The butterflies multiplied by another dozen when she thought that.

She walked, step by step, until she finally arrived at the bus stop, and immediately she saw Ran leaning against the sign humming to herself. As Sonoko approached, Ran noticed her and grew a big smile as she ran over to her before placing her hands on her shoulders. "Sonoko! I'm so happy for you!"

"Y-Yeah u-uh…" Sonoko couldn't make out any words as her face grew even redder, before she looked away causing Ran to let out a awe.

"You're thinking of Shinichi-Kun aren't you!?"

"S-Stupid! How could I not right now?"

"Ah, it's just like a manga...Two childhood friends, destined to forever be together, finally tie the knot under the moonlight!"

"H-Hey it's not like we got married or anything! A-Also c-can you quiet down? I don't want everyone looking this way…"

"Hehe, fine fine, it's just that you tease me about getting a boyfriend all the time, so I thought I could have some fun since you finally got one!"

"Y-Yeah well…" Sonoko looked away emarisengily once again before she coughed in her hand and looked back "A-Anyway, we have a test today don't we?"

"Hm?...Oh yeah, we have one in english and math today I think...Did you study any last night?"

"E-Eh hehe well…"Sonoko gave a awkward laugh as Ran eyed her and went back to her teasing tone.

"Oh I see~ You were up all night thinking about Shinichi-kun and were hoping I'd help you get some quick study time in this morning right?"

"Eh well…" Sonoko gave another awkward laugh as Ran smiled and just nodded.

"Well for this one time I guess I can help out."

"Ah...Thanks…" Ran nodded as the bus pulled up and they gathered with the others on to it as they walked to back and sat down, the other passengers finding their own seats before the bus began to pull away. "Still, of all places to confess, I think it's pretty sweet that it was under the moonlight in your own garden."

"A-Ah yeah...Guess he's a bit more romantic than I thought…" Sonoko smiled as she looked down before she closed her eyes and sighed before clapping her hands together, surprising Ran.

"Huh? What is it Sonoko?"

"Ran…"

"E-Eh? Yeah?"

"..." Sonoko was silent for another moment before she looked Ran straight in the eyes "Do you think Shinichi reads romantic novels?"

"E-Eh?" Sonoko said it with a serious face as Ran gave her a confused look before replying "I mean...He never seemed like the guy to do something like that...Besides, when we go to the bookstore and such, he's always in the mystery section."

"Hm...But he's also a detective, so he may be secretly sneaking off and grabbing romance novel before taking the covers off and replacing them with one from the mystery section so we wouldn't notice when we paid for them...After all, how else could he have created such a romantic scene?"

"Well I doubt he would do something like that...Maybe he watched romance movies in his free time…" Ran began to think about such a possibility when another idea struck her "Maybe he just listened to you."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Like...Maybe whenever you would go off talking about guys, he would listen to you and see if you said anything about being confessed to, and went from there."

"Well I guess so...Though I doubt he would make it into a game…"

"Game?"

"Huh? You know, last ni-" Before Sonoko could finish, the bus suddenly came to a stop which jerked everyone on board "H-Huh whats going on?"

The two of them looked around outside, hoping to see what the problem was when they heard the bus driver up front start talking as the bus doors were opened "H-Hey kid, whats the big idea with waving your arms out in the street?"

"Hehe sorry about that, but I'm running late and need a ride!" The two of them heard a familiar voice, and when the person walked on board, they were shocked at who they saw.

"Kazumi?" Ran called out and the person, identified as Kazumi Tsukamoto,looked over and smiled.

"Ah! Ran, Suzuki-chan!" Kazumi waved over as she handed the bus fee to the driver, who accepted it though he gave a look towards her that screamed to never do a stunt like that again. Once she had paid, she walked over to the girls and sat down with them "I didn't know you rode the bus, I always thought you walked to school."

"Ah no, we ride about halfway and then we walk the rest."

"Ah I see...Hm? Is Kudoi-kun not with you?"Sonoko tensed up when she heard his name, but Ran just shook her head.

"Ah no, he meets us at a cherry blossom tree that's on the way and then we all three walk to school together."

"Ah I see…" Kazumi looked over at Sonoko and raised an eyebrow as she saw how nervous she seemed to be "Everything alright Suzuki-Chan?"

"E-Eh!?" Sonoko snapped out of her day dreaming and quickly nodded "Y-Yeah! Just a bit distracted, that's all, nothing to worry about Tsukamoto-Senpai, ehehe…"

"Huh….?"

Sonoko gave another nervous laugh but stopped when Ran gave her a teasing look "No matter what you say to Sonoko, I don't think she's going to really be listening today."

"Huh? Is she sick or something?"

"Well if you want to consider her love sick, then that would be an appropriate way of saying it!"

"Love...Sick?" Sonoko had sweat falling down her face as she quickly injected herself into the conversation to avoid any more embarrassment.

"H-Hey now Ran...Senpai here doesn't care about that stuff ehehe...Heh...Why am I acting this way? I read all those romance novels last night so I should have a pretty good grasp on how to act as a girlfriend around others…"

"Well whatever it is, I hope you get everything settled!"

"O-Oh yeah...Thanks…" Sonoko heard Ran conceal a laugh but she didn't try to continue that line of questioning as she saw Sonoko was still trying to adjust to her new situation.

"Anyway, you guys should be careful by the way, apparently a pervert has been spotted around the school lately."

"Eh? A pervert?" Kazumi nodded as she pulled out her phone and loaded up a picture.

"When I was checking around the school yesterday, I found that the girls restroom had been broken into and muddy footprints were leading from the window and to one of the stalls. When I opened the stall they were in, I found an entire bag full of panties inside!"

"W-What!? Why would a pervert bring panties to the girls bathroom?"

"I don't know exactly, but all of them were wrinkled like they had been used, which just pisses me off because I can't help but imagine some old guy stuffing his face in them!"

"Ew! That's terrible to think about…" As Kazumi and Ran talked about the sudden emergence of a pervert around the school, Sonoko had gone by to her dream world as she continued to think about the events of the previous night.

"I wonder how Shinichi will act when we meetup? Will he act like he always does by waving to us and then walking to school? I'll be a little disappointed if nothing changes...Oh I've never had a boyfriend before other than the ones papa would occasionally have me eat dinner with...Those novels I read always had the guy take the initiative but...What if Shinichi doesn't? Should I?...But what do couples do? I never see them holding hands or hugging in public, but I see them do it at parks and such...Is it okay if I hold his hand? Umu...This is so complicated…"

"What do you think Suzuki-Chan?"

"Whenever me and Shinichi watch American movies, the couples in those always seem very close and personal with each other...But whenever I watch movies from here, they're never seem that close until the very end of the movie, why is that? Whenever I tried to make Shinichi jealous by latching onto other guys, they always seemed uncomfortable...I wonder why that is…?"

"Hey...Sonoko!"

"Maybe I should ask first...Shinichi knows alot about America, so maybe he would know if hand holding and such is something they only do over there or if Japan does it as well but only in certain places? But even if I can't hold his hand I can still hug him right? I mean we hugged for like half an hour last night so I don't see a problem with that…"

"Sonoko!"

"E-Eh!?" Sonoko popped out of her day dream as she looked over at Ran and Kazumi who were giving her confused looks "Y-Yeah?"

"We were talking about the pervert that's been spotted around the school, we were talking that maybe Shinichi-kun could solve the case, what do you think?"

"O-Oh um...Yeah I would think so, seems pretty simple compared to what he usually does ehehe…" Sonoko gave a nervous laugh to the two of them which just confused Kazumi even more confused as Ran had to hide her smile.

"Well anyway...Just be careful you two, who knows what that pervert may try...Although as long as you're with Ran, you should be just fine Suzuki-Chan!" Sonoko just nodded as the bus continued down the road as the partially clouded sky shown over them,

Soon the bus came to a step and the three girls walked off with the other students who had boarded as the three of them began walking to school, the conversation about the pervert continuing as Kazumi and Ran tried to think who the pervert was, while Sonoko continued to ask the same questions over and over again in her mind as she tried to come up with an answer to each and every one of them.

As the three girls continued to walk, they got closer and closer to the cherry blossom tree that Ran and Sonoko met Shinichi at every morning, as more and more students conjoined around them as they came from different parts of the neighborhood.

Through all the talking and sound of footsteps, Sonoko was still in her own world until her wandering eyes landed on the tree in front them, and the sight made her snap back into reality as she saw Shinichi, leaning against three, reading over his notes like he did every morning.

She could feel her breath catch in her throat as she walked closer and closer to him, not making any sudden movements or any sounds, as if she was walking up to an wild animal. Her feet continued its rhythmical pattern until she saw Shinichi look up from his notes and look over towards them, causing her heart to speed up even more.

She saw him smile as his eyes landed on her as he closed his notebook and placed it inside of his jacket pocket before he stuffed his hands into his pockets and began walking over to the three of them.

Sonoko tried to speak but she didn't know what to say, each time her mouth tried to move it froze as if it was sewn together. A voice finally did ring out as she saw Ran wave towards him "Shinichi-kun!"

Shinichi waved back towards her as they all met about halfway as Sonoko felt the world around her was enclosing on herself. Shinichi kept his smile trained on them as he spoke up "Ran, Kazumi-Senpai, nice to see you two this morning."

"And it's nice to see that you still refer to people by their first name Kudo-kun." Kazumi gave a deadpanned reaction to Shinichi who just laughed and shrugged.

"What can I say, I'm used to dealing with suspects and therefore I use their full names." Kazumi just out a sigh at the response as Shinichi gave another small laugh. However, afterwards, he walked over to Sonoko, as she felt the world get even smaller with each step he took towards her until he was just inches away from her, as she felt like the two of them were trapped in a small cube together. "Good morning, Sonoko."

Unlike with the other two, Shinichi used a much softer and more caring voice towards Sonoko which caused her to blush even harder as she nodded towards him and tried to respond as Kazumi kept her same confused look from the bus while Ran had put her hands together and watched in awe. "G-Good…"

Sonoko tried to speak up but found that the words were still caught in her throat, her thoughts all were running together...These would be the first words she would speak to Shinichi in front of her friends since she became his girlfriend, she had to make sure it counted.

"G-Good morning...U-Um...A-Anata." As soon as the words left Sonoko's mouth,she wanted to curl up in a ball right then and there. She couldn't believe she just said that! Sure that was said in her novels, but that was always used in private and never in front of friends, let alone school friends!

Shinichi raised an eyebrow at the word, as even Ran seem suprised when she heard it. Kazumi on the other hand, didn't know what Sonoko meant until she thought for another moment. "Anata…? Why did you…?"

Kazumi tried to continue to think as Sonoko's embarrassment hit an all time high, as she wanted to run away and just hide from her friends, but a sense of dread also overtook her. On her very first full day as Shinichi's girlfriend, she had embarrassed the both of them. She was sure that she had already ruined it.

However despite the initial confusion, Shinichi just smiled at her again as he laid his hand on her shoulder as she looked up at him with a beet red face."Anata huh? Well then let me see...Did you sleep well last night, Hani(Honey)?"

Sonoko's face went from beet red to full on sunburnt red as she tried to speak but no words again came out as Ran's face went from one of confusion to awe again as Kazumi still tried to figure out what the two of them meant. "Why are you guys calling each other by weird names?"

Shinichi looked over at Kazumi with a confused expression before he spoke "Did they not tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Shinichi's smile returned as he looked down at Sonoko and winked as he walked beside her and placed his arm around her causing her to start stuttering.

"H-Hey! S-Stupid! What are you doing, we're in pu-"

"Me and Sonoko are together as a couple now." Sonoko's protesting stopped after Shinichi spoke as her mind began to wander through her thoughts again, as after the initial embarrassment she started to remember that this is what she wanted, but the suddenness of it all caught her off guard.

"Eh…?" Kazumi took a moment to process what he had said but her face turned to one of surprise and shock after she heard him speak. "Kudo-kun and Suzuiki-chan are dating!?"

Shinichi just nodded as he pulled her close to him causing her to shrink down some more from embarrassment as Ran could audibly be heard aweing at the entire scene.

"Well...I can't exactly approve of public affection, but I'm glad you two were able to find each other in such a way! Although I'm suprised Suzuki-chan or Ran didn't tell me on the ride over here...Though I guess we were talking about the perv-...The Pervert! Kudo-Kun, I need your help with something!"

"Hm? What is it?" Kazumi walked over to Shinichi and pulled out her phone as she opened up the image and showed him.

"Someone got into the girls restroom yesterday and left an entire bag of panties inside! I'm pretty sure it's some disgusting pervert, because all of them were crumpled up and just thrown inside." Kazumi showed the picture to Shinichi of the girls restroom where the window had been opened and muddy footprints could be seen on the ground leading into the stall.

"Hm...I only see footprints leading into the stall, was someone still in there when you looked around?"

"That's the strange thing, when I opened the stall, the only thing inside was the bag of panties...I checked all the other stalls but I didn't find anybody, and I didn't find any shoes either...I guess they could have wiped their shoes off, but why wouldn't they wipe off the footprints on the ground?" Shinichi kept looking over the picture until he commented again.

"Which restroom was this and where is the bag now?"

"It was the girls restroom on the ground floor...And I moved the bag to the martial arts room to keep anyone else from finding it and opening it."

"I see...Let me see the bag first, and then let's head over to the restroom."

"Eh? But it's the girls restroom Kudo-Kun!"

"No worries, school hasn't started yet, and you can check inside for me beforehand and then stand guard when I investigate, right?"

"I...Well yeah I guess I could.." Shinichi nodded as he moved his arm out from around Sonoko as she immediately felt the warmth he had provided vanish as he began running towards the school, and soon afterwards the three girls were following him.

After running past everyone and pushing them all out of the way, they eventually made it to the martial arts room, and after having Kazumi unlock the doors, the four of them made their way inside as a big black bag sat in the middle of the room.

"That's the bag with all the panties inside! Even just looking at it pisses me off." Shinichi nodded as he walked over and placed gloves on before he unzipped the bag and pulled it open, revealing all different kinds of panties inside. He reached and grabbed one as he unfolded it in front of his face which caused all the girls to awkwardly look at each other.

After looking it over, he placed it back in the bag and looked at another one...And then another one...And another one...After looking through five-six pairs, he pulled out his notebook and wrote something down before he looked back at the girls "All of the panties in this bag are about the size for children, none of them have tags so I had to go off of looking them over."

"Children?! That sick bastard must be a lolicon!" Kazumi pounded her fists together as her energy began to build up and even Ran looked ready to kick someone. However Shinichi didn't say anything as he zipped the bag back up and looked over the sides.

"Hm? What's this…" Shinichi turned the bag over and on the bottom was a taped piece of paper with words written on it.

"Oh yeah, I saw that yesterday...I couldn't read it though, so I thought it was some prank."

"You couldn't read it Kazumi?" Kazumi looked over and Ran and shook her head.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure I've seen that language before but I couldn't tell you off the top of my head."

"Oh...Well Shinichi-kun, do you know what language it is?" Shinichi nodded as he stood back up,and after reading over the message, he smiled as he placed the note into his pocket and turned around towards them.

"Yeah it's in english."

"English?"

"Yeah and after reading it, I think we can rule out a pervert as being the one who placed this in the girls restroom."

"Eh? Then who placed it there?"

"Well I think I know...But just to be sure, let me look over the girls restroom."

After making sure the restroom was empty and that it was safe for Shinichi to go in, Kazumi walked outside as she point at the ground where the muddy footprints were still visible."You can see them still, the footprints...It shows that the culprit didn't wipe them off, even when I left."

Shinichi walked into the restroom and bent down near the footprints and after looking them over, his smiled as he wrote some more notes down into his notebook before looked over at Kazumi. "When you found the bag, did you investigate inside of the stall?"

"Huh? I mean I checked everyone to see if the guy was still in here, but that was all…" Shinichi nodded as he walked over to the stall that the footprints lead into and looked around it before he jumped up onto the toilet seat and looked on top of the stalls "Hey you're going to fall!"

"...Kazumi, I figured out how the culprit was able to escape."

"Eh? How?" Shinichi ran his finger across the top of the stall before jumping back down as he held his finger up.

"See whats on my glove?" The girls looked at Shinichi's finger and all three immediately noticed what he was talking about as Kazumi spoke up.

"M-Mud!?"

"Yeah...After the culprit came into the restroom, they dropped the bag off in the stall and them climbed onto of the same stalls and balanced themselves as they hopped from one stall to another before jumping back onto the window and leaving."

"Wait, why would they have to do that? They already left footprints leading inside, why try to cover when you're leaving?"

"Think back, why did you check inside the girls restroom yesterday?"

"Huh? Why? Well I was doing my rounds through the school, and when I walked past the restroom I heard a sound and-Wait!"

"Exactly, you most likely heard the stall door closing behind the intruder when they came inside of the stall, and after placing the bag down, they heard you come in and panicked, so they leapt on top of the stall and quickly ran over to the window when you opened the stall."

"But wait a minute! The stall is only a few feet from the roof, even if someone did get up there, they wouldn't have made it to the window before I caught them! I even checked all the stalls right after so It's not like they hid in one of them!"

"The answer to that is fairly simple, they were only a few feet tall themselves...Or in other words...A child!"

"A-A child!?"

"Yeah, look at the footprints. They're pretty small aren't they? While you might have come to the conclusion that they were a small perverted old man, it's most likely a child. After all, an old man wouldn't have the athletic ability like a child would have to be able to scale across the stalls and get over to the window."

"But if they were that small, how could that have gotten up to the top of the stall? There wasn't any mud on the toilet seat or anything!"

"Thats simple, it's the bag."

"Huh? The bag?"

"Yeah...Though the bag is black and can be hard to see, when I was examining it over, I saw dried mud stains in the shape of a shoe barely along the top of it. Most likely after placing the bag inside of the stall, they heard you come in. Realizing they might be caught, they jumped up onto the bag and ran across the stalls to escape."

"But...Why would a child do all that?"

"Thats where the note on the bottom comes in, since you don't know english you obviousely wouldn't have been able to read it. But if you were able to read it, it might make a bit more sense."

"Well don't keep us waiting, read it!" Shinichi nodded as he reached inside of his jacket and pulled the note out and began reading.

"Now, it says…'I've outgrown these and no longer have any use for them. Mommy bought me a bunch of new pairs the other day, so I've decided to give them to the school. PS, Sorry for coming into the bathroom, I saw a scary woman walking around the school and got scared.'...That's what it says."

"Huh? That sounds like...It was a little girl?"

"Most likely, from how she describes out growing them and her mother buying her new ones. She didn't want to throw them away I would guess, so she decided to give them to the school...However she most likely got the schools mixed up."

"Huh? Mixed up?"

"The elementary school is right beside of the high school, and this girl most likely attends said school and was wanting to give them to her friends, but she didn't want them to know it was her. So after school had let out, she planned on sneaking in and putting this bag in her class or somewhere...However she got the schools mixed up and came to the high school, and that's when she saw Kazumi, and since she didn't know who you were, she got scared and went around and came into the restroom. She most likely added that little extra note when she found a window she could climb into and she saw it was the bathroom. It's been raining recently, so the ground is most likely still muddy, which is why her footprints could be tracked."

"I guess that makes sense...But why did she want to be unknown and why did she hide when I came in, I mean for all she knew it was one of her friends."

"Considering school had let out, she most likely knew the person who came into here was the same one she saw outside, so that spooked her. However I think the reason she wanted to remain unknown is because of a game."

"Game?" Shinichi nodded as he pointed at the signature on the note.

"It says, Secret Santa...That's a game in America where people give gifts to each other, without knowing who they're from...It's December now, so she most likely wanted to play this game so she had an excuse to give her panties away. Considering her age, she's most likely an American who can speak English and Japanese, but can only write English, which is why the note is in English. I'm sure if you head over to the Elementary school when the bell rings, you can ask if an American student goes there, and be able to find the culprit."

"Huh...Well...You better be right, because I don't want a pervert around here!"

And so, Kazumi took the bag and walked over to the Elementary school, and sure enough, the first teacher she asked was able to direct her to the student in question. After asking her if the bag belonged to her, she got a guilty expression on her face as she said that her mom wanted to throw away some of her clothes, but she didn't want them to go to waste so she wanted to give them to her friends.

Though a bit annoyed at first, Kazumi finally relented and just told the girl that they're are better ways to give stuff away, and that breaking in somewhere is never the answer. The girls mother was called and the bag was given back to her, and after initially scolding her daughter, she reassured her that she would donate the clothes so they wouldn't be wasted before apologizing to Kazumi for the inconvenience.

"Whew, today was something...From starting off with what we thought was a pervert, to just being a little kid, all the way to that test today…" Ran stretched her arms out as her, Sonoko and Shinichi walked to the bus stop together.

While Sonoko and Shinichi had talked throughout the school day, Sonoko had stayed quiet mostly since they left the school.

"Although I'm surprised Shinichi-kun, you seemed pretty confident that it was just a kid."

"Hehe, well that's because the handwriting was pretty sloppy and written in crayon, so I kinda figured it was a kid. The message itself just confirmed it."

"Ah...I see…" The three continued walking in silence until they made it to the crossroads where Shinichi would depart. The three of them stood in silence for a moment before Sonoko reached up and grabbed Shinichi's sleeve, surprising him, as she looked at Ran.

"H-Hey Ran...I'll meet you at the bus stop…" Ran looked at her for a moment before giving a somewhat motherly smile as she nodded and headed on, leaving the two of them alone. "U-uh...Sorry about earlier where I called you Anata...It kinda just came out…"

"Well...Same here, sorry for calling you Hani...I kinda got lost in the moment with you…" Shinichi scratched the back of his head while Sonoko looked around all over the place as the two of them tried to find the words to say. "A-Ah also...Sorry for putting my arm around you..I-I'm sure you didn't like that all that much…"

Sonoko felt her breath catch in her throat as she tried to reply, but again nothing came out...She didn't know what to say...Well no, that's not quite right...She knew what she wanted to say but she didn't know how to say it. After thinking for a moment, she swallowed as she leaned up against Shinichi and wrapped her arms around him surprising him.

"S-Sonoko?" She didn't reply for a moment before she looked up at him and smiled.

"I...Want to be like the couples we see in American movies...Where they're holding hands and hugging and everything...Otherwise...It won't feel special…" Shinichi was surprised for a moment and didn't say anything which caused Sonoko to continue. "i-If that's alright with you…"

Shinichi didn't answer for a few more moments, which worried Sonoko, but soon she felt his arms wrap around her as well as he gave her a smile. "If that's what you want, then fine by me...Only on condition though…"

"W-Whats that?"

Shinichi leaned in as he whispered "As long as I get to call you Hani…"

Sonoko felt her face heat up as she looked down for a moment, and after finding the words she spoke "S-Stupid...You only get to call me that if I get to call you Anato…"

She heard Shinichi laugh as he pulled her in closer and whispered again "Fine with me...Hani…"

"Hehe...I'm glad to hear...Anato…"