Monday was always the hardest day of the week for Ai.
Why?
Because she had to go to school again, and stayed in class for the boring lessons without being found out that she was bored. She had been trying to hold back her yawn for the umpteenth time today and it became worst when the afternoon lessons begun.
There are still thirty minutes left. She said to herself.
Her gaze was shifted to the field outside the window. By the look of it, the class next door were having a soccer exercise for their P.E. lesson out on the field. Then her eyes caught on a certain boy who was skillfully juggling a soccer ball alone on the corner, surrounded by some girls.
Somehow he reminded her of him.
The detective who was good at soccer, although cheeky but popular with girls. He was so bright while she was… her.
Her thought was beginning to drift to somewhere else, without her realizing she had been staring at the boy for too long.
"Isn't that Yuuto-kun?" A girl in front of her seat suddenly said with quiet a loud voice, breaking Ai's thought.
"Eh? Where is he?" Another girl voiced out.
"See that? He's looking this way!" Another one went on.
"How can he be so cool?" And another one.
The girls in the class kept going on one by one, shouting excitedly for the boy. It turned out he was the captain of the school soccer club.
Ai gave a small dry laugh from the corner of her eyes as the teacher scolded them.
Ten years had past but still, such kind of teenage boy would always be popular with girls, huh?
She returned her gaze back to the field when she found this Yuuto boy stared back at her intently with a serious face and a tint on his cheeks. It was as if he was determined of doing something with or about her.
Hmm?
Just then, she heard the bell rang. It was finally the end of the school.
"Ai-chan~" Ayumi called Ai as she approached the strawberry blonde's desk, "Let's go home together today."
"Sorry Yoshida-san, but I have to do some errands today too." Ai replied.
"Ehh? Again?" Ayumi protested.
She felt something was off because her best friend had suddenly been declining her invitation ever since weeks ago. Of course she didn't know that Ai had something important to do.
She needed to pick her daughter up from the day care.
Ayumi could only nod when Ai apologized to her once again. She was having a concerning look as she saw the shrunken teenager walked away in a hurry.
Was this related to the guy she had been texting that day?
"I smell something suspicious." Mitsuhiko said as he appeared from behind Ayumi, startling the girl a bit.
"What's wrong with her these days?" Genta asked. He also appeared from behind Ayumi, just next to Mitsuhiko. Once again, startling the girl.
And what's wrong with you guys suddenly appearing behind my back? Ayumi sweated drop.
"Hey, why don't we investigate her?" Mitsuhiko gave out his idea, "We can follow her to see what she has been doing recently."
It was a good idea. They were the detective boys anyway, and there was no such thing as unsolvable cases for them (if Ai was around).
"But don't you think we should give her some privacy?" Ayumi was afraid this would irritate her best friend.
She knew Ai wouldn't do things irresponsibly and besides, she was the most reliable person among them all. She must had her own reason why she was rushing lately. Thus they shouldn't be prying into this, right?
"Then, how about if it was a request from a client?"
The three of them turned their head toward the voice, and shocked to find out it was Yuuto. No wonder their class was becoming noisy with girls squirming and squealing when they were discussing a minute ago.
"What do you mean by that, Yuuto-san?" Mitsuhiko began interrogating him.
"Actually I am here to find Haibara-san to ask her something, but it looks like she has gone home." Yuuto explained, "Then I heard your conversation."
The detective boys were trying to digest the things Yuuto said.
If they followed Ai because there was a request from a client, wouldn't it be alright? Just say, they were killing two birds with one stone.
"Okay, let's talk about the agreement while we are following her then." Mitsuhiko said to Yuuto.
The rest of them agreed. And so, they started their stalking– oops, cross that. They started to track down Ai's trails and followed her.
The only clue they had to track her down would be the word 'errands' which closely related to her family. Who were asking them to run some errands if it weren't their parents? But Ai was living alone since the Professor moved out.
"Maybe he was back for a few weeks, and that's why Haibara-san is rushing to go home." Mitsuhiko deducted.
"It might be that, since we all know how Professor could get out of hand which make Ai-chan worry about him." Ayumi nodded.
"Especially with his diet." Genta continued, "Just like how she scold me for eating too much."
Yuuto was only listening to their deduction from aside since he wasn't as close with Ai as them. She was famous at school for being an Ice Queen so it was hard to get close to her to begin with. That was why it tweaked his interest when he saw her having that expression last time.
He was amazed how the detective boys came up with their hypotheses. He followed them when they decided to run down the road toward the Agasa Residence.
Perhaps they had really grown to be good detectives now even without Ai's help.
True enough, they found her getting out from a supermarket that was on the same direction to her house.
The four of them kept following her secretly, but then they lost her on the crossing road.
Which way was she heading to again?
Before they could decide, the four of them jolted when they heard Ai's voice from their back.
"Great job for tracking me, you guys."
They could only grin and apologize for following her, which earned them a sigh from Ai. It was then she noticed the soccer captain was also with them, trailing her. But she didn't bother to ask why.
Fortunately, she hadn't lost her touch in playing this kind of game yet.
She had a hunch it would come to this from the moment Ayumi protested. After all, she was talking about the detective boys here. They had great curiosity as ever and Ai had successfully poked into it.
She was going to call Shinichi to inform him before she received a message from the detective first. He told her that he had come to pick Chiharu up from the day care since he was out early today.
Good timing.
At least the detective boys were now thinking she was running errands to buy ingredients for dinner. The rest could be covered with some white lies, just like how she used to do.
And so the five of them were walking home together now. She missed them anyway.
As usual, Ai was walking behind them all but today she was accompanied by Yuuto. That spot was actually belonged to Ayumi after Conan moved to somewhere far from Japan. Thus, this walking arrangement really brought their memories back.
"While we were walking like this, we would usually encounter a case." Mitsuhiko told Yuuto their routines from the old days.
"But it suddenly stopped coming after Conan left." Genta said sadly.
Of course, since he was the corpse magnet, Ai smiled at the thought.
Yuuto noticed it and he blushed as he was witnessing her cold facade melted before his very own eyes, just like when he saw her in the airport. Eventually he noticed she had been showing her smile whenever that name of the guy was brought up.
"That reminds me, he was also good at soccer." Ayumi continued, "Just like Yuuto-kun."
"Really?" Yuuto answered with courtesy.
Now he was curious, just who was this Conan guy? Was he related to the famous detective he saw her with?
Come to think of it, she was also staring at him when he was playing soccer. Was that because he reminded her of him?
"Ah, it's Shinichi-niichan!" Ayumi suddenly called out.
Shinichi flinched when he heard his name was called by a familiar voice, and so did Ai. He couldn't just run away from there now, could he?
He turned his back and saw them walking toward him.
"Oh, it's you Ayumi-chan." Shinichi greeted.
Mitsuhiko and Genta also greeted him and he did the same.
His eyes came in contact with hers for a second, and in that short moment they seemed to be questioning each other. Why in the world did they meet right here, right now? And while he was carrying Chiharu too.
That was when he caught something more interesting.
There was a guy walking beside her.
He took a glance at the boy but before he studied him further, Ayumi distracted him.
"Isn't this Ran-neechan's and Araide-sensei's baby girl, Shinichi-nii?"
She felt sorry the second she recalled that the parents of the baby were no longer in this world. She shouldn't have brought the deceased names with such a cheery voice.
"Right, this is Chiharu." He replied with a grin.
He tried to lift up the mood as he joined their walk. There was no turning back now since their houses were all on the same direction. He could feel his back was getting hot from Ai's boring stare.
He bet she must be furious, complaining about why the hell he joined them. He could have just find some excuses like he always did and went on. But he couldn't help it. He was trying to find out who that guy beside her was.
"She's so adorable!" Ayumi said with glassy eyes.
"Her cheeks are like mochi." Genta drooled.
"But why is she with you instead of Ran-san's parents?" Mitsuhiko asked.
There were so many questions arose in the three aspiring detectives' eyes. So he explained his situation to them, leaving out as much details as possible but not too empty. He tried to prevent them from prying further into this.
"Wouldn't it be hard for you to take care of Chiharu alone, Shinichi-san?" Mitsuhiko asked in concern.
"Not really. The day care helps and sometimes I'd ask for A– I mean Haibara-san to help me in the evening." Shinichi replied.
It was the truth, but not entirely true either.
The detective boys were now relieved after reaching to a conclusion that Ai was rushing these past few weeks because she was running errands for Shinichi. The two were neighbors so they could understand why. It fitted the timeline too. Therefore, the mystery of rushing Ai had been stamped as a case closed for them.
But there was still someone who found this odd. It was Yuuto.
He somehow saw how Ai flinched when Ayumi called out to the detective. Also, their exchanging stares seemed suspicious even though it was just for a second.
Added with the scene he saw when the detective and Ai were together, was there something they were hiding?
The detective boys were now asking Shinichi to tell them stories of his recent cases, which he happily told them with a wide boyish grin. It was a great chance to swift their topic into something else.
Ai could only stared and smiled softly at how childish he could be. Really, she could never be mad with him for too long. It felt just like years ago, how the five of them would walk home together like this.
Yuuto noticed it again. He was getting more convinced with his doubt, but he won't say anything until he was really sure of it.
"Haibara-san, isn't he Kudo Shinichi the high school detective of the East?" He asked Ai in a whisper.
He tried to open a conversation with her. Who knew he would get some information that might backed up his suspicion.
"Yeah, but he is no longer a high schooler." She remarked with her usual cold facade. Her smile was gone.
What was he trying to ask?
"If both of you are neighbors, does it mean you are close with him?" He continued with the interrogation.
Ai was getting uncomfortable now. She felt that he had been trying to get into her personal space.
"What does this have anything to do with you?" She replied. Her tone was a bit harsh.
"Oh, ah, n-no." He staggered, "It's just that I used to be his fans."
He was surprised by how cold she sounded and decided to back away this time.
At the same time, Shinichi felt something was fishy with the boy.
Even though he was talking with the detective boys, he still could hear him and Ai were whispering to each other at the back.
Just what stuffs were they whispering about? It sounded so intriguingly secretive.
Watching the two had somehow made Shinichi felt troubled. It reminded him of how he used to walk on that spot and had a lot of whispering talks with Ai. For a minute, he imagined if only he was back again as Conan, he would definitely be standing on that spot with her.
He then shook his head to get the crazy thought out from his head.
What was he thinking?
The boy was only seventeen. What should he be worried about?
He tried to brush the thought but the image of the boy walking and whispering so close to her always came to his mind. He couldn't help but felt unsettled.
What in the hell was this feeling?
Author's note: If you all worry if this simple happiness will end soon because of this Yuuto character I created, well you better not! Because I don't like dramas with homewrecking story either. I ensure you this character I created would in fact indirectly support these two to deepened their ship further.
Do not forget to give your comments and reviews. Happy reading!
Disclaimer: All characters of Detective Conan are belong to Aoyama Gosho. I don't own any single of them.