✧ Chapter 6 ✧
[ Believing in a Lie ]
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Kokichi held his own neck and stumbled into his room, sliding the key card to lock the door behind him. The area where Maki has dug her nails into was hurting a lot. More than he let on.

"Ouma? Kokichi, what happened?" Keebo Tetsuya asked urgently as he got up from the bed. "Did you get hurt?!"

Kokichi winced, taking his hand away from his neck and seeing spots of pink blood on his fingers. Maki had dug her nails into his skin so hard, she had drawn blood.

"Ouma! That's blood.. what happened?" his roommate asked, concern in his voice.

"Bloody hell, Keeboy, it's just a small wound. Oh I made a pun." he tried to smile, but it just sent another sting of pain.

"Ugh, just get me some meds or something.. how do you freaking treat neck wounds?" Kokichi asked him hoarsely.

"Um, just because I'm the Ultimate Robotics Scientist, doesn't mean I know everything." Keebo frowned, "I'm better at robotics than humans."

Kokichi raised an eyebrow at Keebo, who shrugged. The purple haired boy sighed, "Forget it. I'll just go to the bathroom and wash off the blood, I don't think it'll be that bad, right?"

[ Twenty minutes later ]

"How long did she even hold you up?" Keebo asked Kokichi who was staring at the nail marks on his pale skin in the bathroom. "..."

Kokichi didn't answer him, just running his fingers against his own neck to get used to the sting of pain. He didn't expect Maki to suddenly burst in and interrupt his moment with Shuichi. Damnit..

And those scars against his neck were ugly..

Keebo frowned when Kokichi sighed, "Long enough for her to leave scars, duh." at least his voice was back to normal. A little rough, but otherwise fine. He glanced at Keebo, who was standing at the door of the bathroom.

"You know that box I told you not to touch?" Kokichi asked him, looking back at the mirror.

"What about it?"

Kokichi hesitated, wondering if he should finish his sentence.

"Can you grab me the bandanna inside? The black and white one."

Keebo nodded, walking away as the purple haired boy sighed. He had one chance with Shuichi but that was ruined by Maki.. oh well. He thought as Keebo handed him the bandanna.

There was always another time. Maybe an even better opportunity for him to tell Shuichi what he wanted to say.

"You shouldn't really tie that around your neck, Ouma.. the wound has to heal properly."

"Saihara-chan doesn't need to see the scars." Kokichi replied, dropping his hands to his side as he stared at himself in the mirror.

"You're still hung up about Saihara? I thought you said-."

"I know what I said, Keeboy. And I've fought it for months. If my love's stronger than the serum, what can they do?" he looked at his best friend, who seemed a little loss for words.

"They'll kill you if the serum doesn't work, Ouma. Remember?"

"Then it's a risk I'm willing to take." Kokichi turned away from the mirror, and went over to his bed.

Kokichi heard the other boy sigh, and flick the bathroom lights off. Keebo was a great friend, a little serious most of the time, but with a big heart.

And Kokichi was surprised to see that he hadn't fallen in love yet.

But then again, if Keebo ever fell in love, Kokichi wouldn't have any friends. Would he? Keebo would get taken away, just like everyone else. There were no exceptions on this island after all.

They had five years to stay in Hope's Peak Academy. Two had flown by and now Kokichi was running out of time. He just needed to get closer to Shuichi.

He knew the boy had a case of falling in love too easily. Too quickly. And Kokichi wanted to distract him.. before he got taken away by Monokuma.

For the past one and a half years, he watched Saihara get his heart mended and broken, over and over again.

If he kept that up, Monokuma would notice and of course, Shuichi would get sent away to the hospital.

And Kokichi wasn't going to let that happen to him.

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"Hey Saihara-chan!"

Shuichi propped his head up, ignoring Kokichi who was waving at him. He really needed to study for the text tomorrow, since it was 30% of their entire grade..

Knowing Kokichi, he probably hasn't studied at all. However, he could faintly recall Kokichi getting better scores. Sometimes scoring higher than Miu, who was a genius when it came to Math.

"Saihara."

Shuichi pulled his hand away just in time when the book slammed shut, nearly hurting him in the process. "Wh- Ouma- seriously! I'm trying to study!" he hissed, trying to open the book.

Kokichi smirked slyly, not pulling his hand away from the cover of the textbook.

Today, Kokichi was wearing a silver star shaped pin, which he used to clip his hair to the side with. With a black and white checkered bandanna around his neck, a long sleeved grey shirt and ripped black jeans, the other boy looked rather stylish.

"You lost the previous round, Saihara.. so now you gotta keep playing every week till you beat me. Remember?"

Shuichi frowned, wishing he hadn't started this stupid cycle. He knew he should never have trusted Ouma at all.. no one should ever trust him.

"Fine," he muttered, "What do you want me to do today?"

Truthfully, he didn't want to do anything besides study. Just to take his mind off things. The days without Kaito was still gnawing at him, sending him deeper into loneliness.

He hated being without his best friend. Especially if Shuichi knew where he had gone.

If Kaito had survived the side effects of the serum.. he should've returned weeks ago. But if he wasn't here, it meant he was dead.. right?

Every night, Shuichi just stared at the stars, wishing to see Kaito again..

Because.. before he knew about Kaito's crush on Maki-

"Earth to Saiharaaa?" Kokichi waved a hand in front of his face, snapping him out of his thoughts. "There you are. Anyway, I was thinking we'd play a simple game today."

"Which is?" Shuichi frowned, wanting to get over the games and get Kokichi away. He had no time for him, after all..

He didn't even care about the stupid immature guy.

"Hmmm, I was thinking we'd play Rock, Paper, Scissors." He held up a scissor gesture, extending two fingers and giving Shuichi a grin.

"That's what you want to play today? Isn't it about luck?"

"Tsk-" Kokichi shook his head, "It's about being clever, Saihara-chan. See? Rock, Paper, Scissors!" he said quickly and put out a rock.

Shuichi was unprepared and hastily showed Kokichi his fist as well, giving them a tie.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors!"

...

Shuichi frowned when the both of them put out the same thing: Paper.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors!"

Kokichi raised an eyebrow, looking at their hands which had formed scissors. "Hmm.. I suppose we should end it with one more round, right?"

"Rock, Paper, Scissors!"

This time, Shuichi put out rock again, but Kokichi swept out his hand and wrapped it over Shuichi's fist. The dark blue haired boy's eyes widened and pulled his hand away from Kokichi's grip, blushing furiously.

Thankfully, Kokichi didn't seem to notice.

"Tada! I won!" he sang, sticking his tongue out. "Paper beats rock- ouch!" he turned when Shuichi saw a classmate of theirs.

"Quiet down Ouma, you're in a library." Rantaro sighed, holding his books a little tightly. "You're too loud."

"Sorry Amami-chan!" Kokichi giggled, rubbing the back of his head, where Rantaro had hit him with a roll of papers. "We were just caught up in the game."

Rantaro Amami was a studious student, always wearing his school uniform, even though it was the weekends. Some claimed he was really strict and the strong, silent type.

But Shuichi just found him quite gorgeous.. especially with his deep voice.

"Anyway," Kokichi looked at Shuichi, who snapped out of his thoughts about Amami, "Saihara-chan here owes me a new can of Panta. So let's go! See ya, avocado!"

"Kokichi- wait!" Shuichi protested but found himself getting dragged out of the library and heading to the cafeteria.

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Kokichi gleefully grabbed the can from Shuichi and once again, tossed it into his backpack.

His plan worked perfectly! And knowing Shuichi, Kokichi was able to predict him in the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors easily.

[ Heads Up: If you are confused by the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, don't read the next part, since that might confuse you. It shows how Kokichi manages to beat Shuichi with the power of quick thinking and strategy ]

See, when Kokichi quickly started the game, Shuichi had put out rock, as Kokichi had predicted.

That started the whole plan for winning the game.

Since Paper beats Rock, Shuichi knew he had to put out Paper. So, if he put out paper, Kokichi put it out too, since he knew that the blue haired boy would do so.

Paper vs Paper.

Scissors vs Scissors.

And at the final round, so Kokichi could win the game, the purple haired boy put out a hand: Paper.

Since Rock beats Scissors, Shuichi put that out. But Paper beats Rock, enabling Kokichi to win.

Simple as that.

[ Okay, you can continue from here, since I just finished explaining how Kokichi won, sorry if that was confusing ] 😅

Kokichi hummed a little song, thinking about what to do next when Shuichi sighed. "I'm going to go back to the library.."

"What? Why?" The purple haired boy asked.

"You didn't say I had to hang around after I bought you Panta," Shuichi shouldered his backpack, "So I can leave now. See you in class."

Before Kokichi could protest, the boy walked away. Damnit..

Kokichi sighed to himself, hopping onto a wooden fence and swinging his legs. He looked at the scenery before him. It was the school's ground garden, where there was a pond and several gazebos around.

There were two gardens in the school after all. One on the roof, and the other was here. Kokichi liked the one he was at, since it had a certain peacefulness to it..

"What are you doing here, you degenerate male?"

Kokichi turned, surprised when he heard a voice behind him.

♥ End of Chapter Six ♥