Side Story: Ayumi's Yearning

Having the smart Conan gone from their group had given Ayumi such an unexplainable loss. Beside the two-years-old crush she had over the bespectacled boy with the cowlick, the sweet girl had grown attached to their friendship just like what she did with the other members of the detective boys.

Nevertheless, like the saying that went 'friends come and go', so did she and the rest of the detective boys meet Shinichi shortly after. It was such a sunny weekend morning, she remembered, when they had a sleepover at the Professor's house and the detective barged in to the kitchen, asking what breakfast they were going to have. It surprised them to see him there, but it turned out he always went to the Professor for breakfasts and sometimes dinner too. And since Conan had been talking about the high school detective quiet a lot before he moved away, it took only a short while for them to befriending him. Then before they knew it, Shinichi had somehow filled Conan's spot in their group.

However, there was one thing that Ayumi noticed that had always been there from the start of their friendship with the said detective, and that was the intriguing relationship he had with her strawberry blonde best friend. Well, she was the only one who noticed it though. Call it a girly instinct or whatsoever, yet she was right on the cue that there was something going on between the two.

Their gestures toward each other made it too obvious for her to see; it became some sort of a pattern that whenever Shinichi was there with them, Ai always made up so many reasonable reasons to separate herself hastily. It was as if she was deliberately avoiding meeting the detective. And as much as the two acted oblivious every time she hinted a talk about it, Ayumi had the feeling that they were playing a cat and mouse game here.

Because she saw how Ai flinched as her mood plummet promptly the moment they heard the distinct voice of the detective.

Because she watched how Shinichi's dark blue orbs getting duller and duller each time he gazed at Ai's small back as she walked away to the opposite direction as him.

Because she sensed the intense heavy air around them although it vanished a split second later.

"Just leave those two alone, Ayumi-kun." The Professor once told her, when she couldn't bear to see how Shinichi and Ai treated each other any longer. His expression was showing a palpable mix of tiredness, sadness, and disappointment as he let out a very long desperate sigh.

It had been months since then, and the detective had started to spend more times with her and the detective boys. Even so, there wasn't any progress made between him and her best friend. If there was to it, they seemed to hurt each other all the more, in which it broke her heart every time she saw the strawberry blonde's painful expression.

Agasa clearly understood how she felt, but still, he couldn't suggest anything to her. After all, there were just too many things happened between those two before this– things that the sweet girl didn't need to know.

"But, Professor." She whined. "It's like I'm seeing dad and mom quarreled, then mom stopped talking to dad for months."

Agasa chuckled at her novel illustration toward the situation they were in right now, although he couldn't agree more with her.

"Then, what do you do when your dad and mom stopped talking to each other?" He quizzed her, which she thought so hard to reply with much seriousness on her face.

"Nothing?" Ayumi answered plainly a minute later. "Before I knew it, they started talking to each other again."

"Right. It's because they realized they couldn't live without one another." Agasa explained. "Now, it's the same with those two. All we can do is to wait for the right time and keep hoping that they would talk to each other again one day."

The sweet girl was amused by his words. Guess, the Professor was right. While it was true that the one thing that mattered to her was in fact her best friend's so called happiness, Ayumi could only wish that they would resolve the things between them soon.

To her dismay, everything went against her prayer though, for weeks after that, Shinichi was getting busier with his detective job and assignments to spend less times with the rest of them. Ai, too, was getting her smile back even though she was hardly showing any signs of cheerfulness in it.

With everything laid out before her, Ayumi doubted that was the real reason for Shinichi's decreasing numbers of visit to his neighbour's house. Albeit, she kept quiet and faithfully observed them like a pedestrian who was waiting for the cross light to turn green.

Until one day on the first semester of her third year of high school, she noticed Ai got unusually distracted from her daydreaming stance during one of the lessons. Furthermore, she was making some various faces as she typed something on her phone secretly from behind her textbook. It nudged her curiosity as to who her best friend was chatting to before she eventually realized weeks later, that it was probably the detective.

Exactly like the Professor had told her; keep wishing and she would get it one day. So here she was, smiling so widely while stealing some glances at her strawberry blonde best friend who sat beside her desk. Her poker face was no longer so cold ever since those twinkles in her eyes subtly decorating her look with hints of contentment. And Ayumi couldn't miss how radiant her expression could get as the months passed by– despite her attempt to hide it– especially when the detective was there with her.

Now, only by watching their daily small interactions, it was obvious for the sweet girl to understand that the two of them were something more than just neighbours.

Like how they had a very exciting small whispering discussion on that one evening when Ai hurt her right arm.

Like how Shinichi seemed to be out of it and stealthily glanced over the strawberry blonde and Yuuto with eyes full of insecurities during the study session they had before the exams.

Like how Ai blushed more and more as she hinted some indirect questions about one particular sensitive topic on that one summer day in the pool.

Like how Shinichi naturally grabbed her best friend's wrist and shoved a spoonful of shaved ice to his mouth, intimately sharing her spoon when she offered a taste-testing on that very same day.

Not to say that griming expressions Ai had when something happened with the detective in that one meeting room in the police headquarter, as well as when a teacher informed her of a call from the hospital regarding Shinichi's condition.

Perhaps it was only a matter of time for them to be true to themselves about their feelings, or maybe they purposely hid the truth to their relationship from everyone else for some reasons. Still, Ayumi was greedily yearning, waiting for the good news she would like to hear from them one day.

After all, she had this one huge hunch that half of her best friend's soul actually resided within the detective, and so did half of his soul within her– without one another, they could only be empty living shells.

.

.

.

"How pathetic they are." Ayumi sighed.

She was hiding behind a wall on a street corner as her eyes bored their gazes irritatingly toward a drama-like scene that was playing before her right now. It was a scene where the two main characters, who were supposed to be so in love with each other, accidentally met in the middle of their way to their own respective house only to stop on their tracks and exchanged a minute of silent longing yet painful stare. They broke it with a very cold greeting before they got inside their own premise.

Ayumi would've been crying by now if this was a replayed scene from a TV drama, except that it wasn't. This was real, and it was played before her by the two persons who were so dear to her heart.

Everything was all because of that damn rumour about the detective few weeks ago, she blamed. While things had started to die down without much things to settle on both ends, and while the suspicious truth about his and her best friend's couple rings was kept nicely between her knowledge now, it annoyed Ayumi so much as to why they still had to keep their distance like this.

It was as if everything between them was back to square one like years ago, except that they were holding out onto a promise that was sealed by their rings on their chests.

"I know, right? They should have come forth with each other since things have calmed down." A voice coming from behind her said. The sweet girl nodded so eagerly in agreement, her focus was still fixated on the scene in front of her.

"It vexes me so much watching them like this." Ayumi replied before her voice trailed off into a slow tiny little whisper at the end of her speech.

Realizing she had been talking to a stranger, she turned herself over abruptly to check who the person was and was surprised to see it was Yukiko together with Chiharu. It looked like they had just gotten home from the day care.

"S-Shinichi-niisan's mom…" She blushed as she sputtered her greeting, which Yukiko replied with a sweet smile. "I-I was just passing by the street and saw them, and…"

"It's okay, Ayumi-chan." Yukiko giggled at her jumbled speech. "I know you're worrying about them, especially Ai-chan. In fact, I'm also as bothered as you are whenever I look at their current state."

Yukiko's words of assurance silenced Ayumi immediately as her eyes fell to her shoes. She looked like she was regretting her own helplessness in this whole affair.

"Is there really nothing we can do for them?" She softly said, holding out the tears in her eyes. "Should we stay quiet like we had done in the past?"

"Not entirely." Yukiko answered without any hesitation as she threw her iconic wink at the teenager. "It's true we could do nothing years ago, but the things between them now are not as thin as they used to. Although, I have to admit it is partly that foolish son of mine's fault. He is too dense to even notice a slight chance to get her heart back, while Ai-chan seems to never let her guard down."

Ayumi laughed at the older woman's comments. She somehow felt relieved after knowing that their odds for getting back together didn't completely gone below zero.

"So, Ayumi-chan. Would you lend me a hand in the future when I need to launch my plans to help them?" Yukiko asked, taking the prospect she was seeing through the sweet girl's care for the strawberry blonde.

There wasn't anything else that concern her more than her best friend's heartwarming smile, and for that, she would go as far as to do anything she could to protect what was left in Ai and the detective's relationship. So listening to Yukiko's offer, Ayumi didn't need a second time to think before she agreed wholeheartedly to help with whatever plans the ex-actress had in mind.

Again, all she had been yearning for was her best friend's so called happiness, and instead of only wishing for it, she would definitely do something to bring it out to her this time.

It was all that mattered to her right now.

Author's Note: I know this would be so hard on you, readers, but sadly I have to let you know that I [might] not be updating this fic next week. You know, due to exams and moderation week. This is almost the end of the year after all. But still, I'll try to see if I can manage to update it next week (fingers crossed)– I didn't want to give an empty promise though. I'll be back the week after, and that's for sure.

Anyway, I hope you like this chapter as well. And as always, please drop in your reviews and comments. Happy reading!

Disclaimer: All characters of Detective Conan are belong to Aoyama Gosho. I don't own any single of them.