Sorry for the super late update. I had to juggle school, with internship, competitions, anemia and family. I know this is long over due and I really hope you still enjoy the entire story even after the long wait.

Chapter 9- The Unexpected Guest Part 2: Denial

(At Shinichi's house)

"A-Asami-senpai", Kudo uttered incredulously, his face suddenly losing color. Mouth half-opened but his vision as wide as his eyes could allow, he continued to stare at her, the woman sitting comfortably in his couch, in his living room, in his house –in his life.

Who is this woman who is lady enough to draw his outright attention? Shiho began to wonder as she suspiciously examined this strange element that suddenly presented herself, not knowing that Asami herself was observing her in return with same intensity of scrutiny.

She is pretty, beautiful even –undoubtedly despite her effortless fashion. Her long brown hair hanged just right below her shoulders, elegant and unscathed. Her porcelain skin, luminous even without light, heightened the darkness of her hazel eyes, and the redness of her lips (that of a rose!). Indeed, she was beautiful to Shiho and to everyone else including Shinichi.

"He must be seeing what I can't even look away from.", thought Shiho to herself.

"Hello Kudo-kun", her voice breaking the silence of his welcome, Asami approached the young detective slowly but in full steps, without hesitation. It has been a long time since Shinichi last saw Asami during the last soccer match of her final year in middle school. Asami, a year older than Shinichi, was the team manager of his soccer team then. "It's been a long time."

At this point, the young detective was still unable to fully process the vision in front of him. He continued to stare at her as if making sure she was not an illusion or hallucination, blinking hard several times. She didn't disappear.

"Oi Shinichi! Don't tell me you've forgotten about her already? How could you really? She's like the most popular girl in our class back in middle school! She was the president of the middle school student body when we were still in the seventh grade, terrorized by male students of all ages because of her intelligence and amiable personality but most of all, because of her looks that garnered her the title Miss Touto!", Sonoko raised to Kudo to no avail. He was still in the state of disbelief, standing and staring that is until Asami looked to face Shiho.

"Uchida Asami. Nice to meet you.", introduced Asami to the young chemist, her voice soft and warm, offering her hand to the new acquaintance. The outright politeness, even friendliness, of this stranger caught Miyano off guard and for a moment, she had forgotten what it was about Asami that made her wary in the first place. Accepting the shake, Miyano, regaining once more her old composure introduced herself. "Likewise. Miyano Shiho.", said Shiho, her voice flat, uninterested –and lying, trying to hide the intrigue desperate to slip out from her.

"Ah! Senpai,", Ran spoke to Asami. " She's the one we talked to you about a while ago to whom Shinichi was 'compensating' for. She's our chemistry teacher in class but outside school, she's Shiho-kun."

"I didn't know that teachers are your type, Kudo.", Asami teased the young detective although Sonoko and Ran could sense a bit of something else out of it but were even more curious of the young chemist's reaction –a touch of red rising to her cheeks despite her impassive face.

"Eh? Ah we're not- She's not- I wasn't—augh.", Shinichi began to deny but was defeated in his attempt. "So what can I do for you, senpai?", Kudo asked instead with improved hospitality towards his guest. However, instead of Asami, it was Ran who answered Shinichi in a disapproving tone.

"It's not what you can do Shinichi but what you forgot to do.", she told him scolding. "Didn't I remind you before to always check your mail box? Really, Shinichi, you can be so careless for a methodical detective you claim to be."

"Leave me alone", Shinichi hissed at her. "But mail? So then, did Asami-senpai send me a letter? What was it that I was meant to read?", he asked.

"In-vi-ta-tion.", said Sonoko and Ran in chorus.

"If you took the time to check your mails, Shinichi, you would have known Asami-senpai sent you an invitation almost a month ago."

"Invitation?", he asked them, still confused and annoyed by Ran and Sonoko, who had a raised eyebrow and a smug grin on their faces, obviously enjoying keeping Shinichi in the dark for as long as they could.

"Yeah. Asami-senpai celebrated her birthday last week and invited you to join the party her mystery club had for her.", Ran, after finally having her fun, informed Kudo to put him out of his misery.

"Oh? Sorry, sorry, senpai! Ahehe, I was still in London then. I haven't even seen the invitation. I guess I should have checked my mail sooner.", Shinichi explained to Asami, who merely nodded as a sign of understanding, then he chuckled at Ran to officially acknowledge his defeat for disregarding her advice.

"It's okay Kudo-kun. Ran-kun and Sonoko-kun offered to take your place instead and were very good companies. My friends were actually quite taken by them. I'm here for something else though.", Asami explained to Kudo. "It's about the Touto Mystery Club. You see, I'm a member of that club and the university is giving as a vacation break starting this coming Monday. When my clubmates found out I used to be your team manager and schoolmate, they begged me to make them acquainted to you. They're actually big fans of yours. So if it's not to much trouble, I would really like to introduce you to them.", she finished.

"I… I guess that would be okay but I don't think I'm much to look forward to during their summer.", answered Kudo, embarrassed by the request.

"Well then, will you be okay if you have dinner with us on Sunday? Of course, Ran-kun, Sonoko-kun, Miyano-san, and Agasa-hakase could come as well, in fact I would very much like it if you do.", suggested Asami and as soon as she finished extending her proposal to the others, Sonoko immediately accepted the invitation with an unusual eagerness at that, making Shinichi slightly suspicious that there might be more to this than Sonoko merely wanting to meet college boys.

"Speaking of dinners, that reminds me, it's almost time for supper.", reminded Ran to everyone. "Ah, Shinichi. Why don't we all have dinner here in your house? I can cook in your kitchen since I already brought with me ingredients. I was going to cook at Hakase's since I promised him a week ago I'll let him taste my curry."

(During dinner at Shinichi's)

"So Miyano-san, you're the teacher of 17-year olds. It must be hard. The boys, I could only imagine, must be gawking at you every second of your class.", Asami said to Shiho, who merely shrugged in return. But then after a few seconds, when Asami was finally sure all she was getting from the young chemist was a move of the shoulder, "I heard you were included in Mensa's list of most brilliant people in the world. That must be something you and Kudo-kun could talk about when you went out shopping.", Asami tried to converse again.

"Not really. All he did was complain and walk in an extremely slow pace.", Shiho answered her, her expression bored as if wanting to withdraw from the conversation.

"But still, Kudo-kun rarely ever, if not never, does that for anyone voluntarily.", said Asami to Shiho in a tone that it sounded almost a question to Shiho except she didn't know exactly what the question was. Or if she wanted to know the answer. All of a sudden, Shiho seemed less bored than just seconds ago.

The three, Ran, Sonoko and especially Shinichi, remained silent as the obvious tension between Shiho and Asami breathed around them. And for a while, they were all just sitting there, the spoon in their hands, and their thoughts to the question.

"Ale-ale, Shinichi. Did you know? We got so bored waiting for you a while ago to come home we opted to interrogate Asami-senpai about you.", said Sonoko to Shincihi, changing the subject to an even more interesting question, with a wide smug on her face as if she really did knew something Shinichi didn't. Something that helped the evil inside her gain leverage against the still clueless detective, who has been bullied by his two friends ever since they saw each other in the restaurant. "A little small talk here, a little small talk there, and then PIM-PONG! We hit gold! Really, Asami-senpai, you were a piece of cake. I think you should meet with my sensei who has been teaching me interrogation techniques. I think if you identify the techniques you'll know how to save yourself from them.", Sonoko continued, jumping from one topic to another.

"Interrogation techniques? What for?", asked Ran to Sonoko, whom she didn't new possessed such skill.

"She probably uses the techniques to take the secrets out of students to confirm school gossips. Poor students. For them to undergo torture ala-Sonoko is really just inhumane.", Shinichi taunted Sonoko in retaliation for his own wounds of mockery.

"So what if I do? As queen of gossips, I feel that it is my responsibility to investigate the credibility of rumors spreading about the school just as you investigate the suspects' testimonies in the crime scene.", defended Sonoko proudly. "But anyway, as I was saying, I found out something about you Shinichi! Hehehe! About your –first love!", she continued ever so dramatically, making sure that she concludes her act with the scene that screams suspense.

"EHH? What? What? Wha-what are you talking about?", Sonoko's performance certainly deserved an award for Shinichi was most definitely shocked by her words. Though he assumed that Sonoko were probably only bluffing or over interpreted something Asami had said.

"First. Love. Muwahahahaha. I didn't think you could love anyone else beside Holmes and every single bloodied crime scene there is in the world. But this girl—you are such a romantic after all, Shinichi.", said Sonoko as she twirled a dance around the room. "Yes –the love story that has yet to end as we speak where in you, Shinichi the mystery maniac, found your heroine, the only one who could save you from the morbid crime scenes that engulfs you almost completely. Oh! Our poor hero! He has been abandoned by the gods of love who imprisoned his heart to wait until his lady –his love! Until she returns from England, the land of ah…er… uhm the land of the English! You gotta love their accent!"

"HEHH?", Shinichi jumped from his seat in disbelief. "What the… how did… do you really—", so many questions came to his mind he didn't know what to ask first. "Does she really know?", asked the almost disoriented detective (he always was in control until) to Asami, sitting in front of him, her eyes on her plate and her cheeks flushed.

"No Shinichi. Muwahahahaha! This was just another one of my great demonstrations as Sonoko, the Interrogation Queen!", Sonoko revealed with a splash of hands. "All Asami-senpai said was that you two used to talk about soccer until she had to move to England. Of course! As the detective that you are would question, 'Until she had to move to England?'. 'What happened between you two before England?'. Muwahahahahaha. That was all it took for me, Sonoko, Queen of Gossip, to confirm what I was suspicious of all along. That is that you two had a thing going on and by your reaction when you saw Asami-senpai when you came home, I should say that it is safe to DEDUCE that you two still have a thing going on for each other. Oh love! She is timeless!", Sonoko boasted, filling the entire house with her voice, laughing, seemingly hysterical with her discovery.

Shinichi sat down back to his seat, without any argument for rebuttal; his face was in three shades of red it could have been bloody. While Shiho who was sitting quietly in the table, listening to every word said and unsaid, got up suddenly from her chair and turned to leave.

(end of chapter 9)

Again I apologize for the extremely late update. The next update might take a while as well. I really am awfully busy this semester because I am currently participating in a foreign exchange program –it just makes things far more complicated than it already was before. I hope you still continue to read my story.