✧ Chapter 16 ✧
[ Was All of The Indecisiveness ]
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The next afternoon, Shuichi was in his dorm room, listening to music. At least it distracted him from everything else.. especially Kaito's messy side of the room.

He was just about to complete the last question of his homework when heard a loud slam echo throughout the boy's dormitory building, followed by a loud shout.

Why did it sound like there was an argument going on?

He hesitated, his pencil hovering over his notebook. When he heard another slam, he flinched.

Thinking quickly, Shuichi shut off his music and grabbed his keycard to unlock the room door. He slid the card down the gap and opened his door.

The corridor was empty, except for Gundham Tanaka, who was closing his eyes and pressing his palms together, as if he were praying.

"Uh.. Gundham?" he asked the fifth year student cautiously. The taller male didn't turn, apparently lost in his thoughts. A hamster poked its head out from within the folds of Gundham's scarf, looking at Shuichi.

It just stared at him for a moment before retreating back to the scarf.

"Um.. nice talking to you.." Shuichi told Gundham with a meek smile, before walking off. There really were weird people around in Hope's Peak.

Shuichi continued to walk around, trying to find the source of the shout. The dormitories of Hope's Peak were quite large.

A simple blue building, five stories tall. Since Shuichi was in Year Three, he was housed on the third level, along with his other classmates. So he didn't know why was Gundham outside his dormitory room. Weird.

Maybe he was taking his hamsters out for a walk? He has heard stories about that.

He turned the corner, to the other rooms where he knew Ryoma, Kokichi and Korekiyo stayed. Along with another bunch of other year three students, of course.

Shuichi took a sharp breath when he saw Kokichi being held up by Akane. "I'll kill ya, you little punk!" she was yelling.

"A-Akane?!" Shuichi exclaimed, making the girl turn, still holding Kokichi who looked like he was struggling to stay awake. "What are you doing?! How did you get in-?"

"I stormed in, of course!" she glared at him, "I wanted to teach this little brat a lesson for killing our teacher!"

"But you'll get arrested for killing someone!" Shuichi tried to reason with her, "I'm sure you don't want to throw away your education here at Hope's Peak for that!"

Akane turned to Kokichi, who had a fresh bruise over his old one, and his eyes were teary. "So?" he managed to choke out, "Are you going to end it now or what?"

Despite being help up by a strong girl like Akane, Kokichi seemed to be perfectly calm. Beads of sweat trailed down his forehead. Shuichi could see a tear trace his cheek and drip onto the floor, but no one else seemed to notice.

Nekomaru, who had been watching the fight in a corner, punched his palm with his left fist, "Let us beat him up first! We won't kill him.!" he raised his fist, right at Kokichi's determined, but pale face.

"Wait-!" Shuichi gasped as the fifth year shouted and aimed Kokichi right in the face, the three of them hearing a loud crack.

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A bamboo sword knocked Nekomaru's fist away and with a loud shout, he fell heavily to the ground. "What the-?" Akane exclaimed as someone slammed her against the wall, holding her in place.

"What did we fucking say the other day, guys?" Fuyuhiko spoke up with a growl. "You guys are acting like fuckin' preschoolers."

Peko narrowed her red eyes at Akane, "Let Ouma go. He did nothing wrong."

"Fine! Just let me go, Pekoyama!" the brown haired girl snapped as she unclenched her fist around Kokichi's throat.

He fell back against the wall. and started to gasp for air, holding a hand to his neck. Shuichi quickly knelt next to Kokichi, holding him up. "Hey! Why are you two defending that purple haired monster anyway?" Akane asked as soon as Peko let her go.

"Yeah! What gives?" Nekomaru asked, looking at Fuyuhiko. The blond haired boy just sighed, looking mildly annoyed, "Fighting someone without evidence or reason is wrong. I already told you dimwits."

"But-." Akane started to say when Peko readied her weapon, not saying anything. The message was clear.

Shuichi helped Kokichi to stand, the other boy looking incredibly weak and listless. He didn't even seem to be saying anything, much to Shuichi's surprise. "Go ahead, Saihara." Peko told him quietly as she kept her sword, "Take care of Ouma while we settle this mess here."

Shuichi then realised that Nekomaru and Akane seemed to have trashed the place. There were overturned vases and a hole in the wall. Strangely, none of the other boys in the rooms seemed to have checked out the commotion. Maybe they were used to things being thrown all over the place.

Shuichi nodded and draped Kokichi's arm around his neck, helping him to walk. "I'm fine, Saihara.." he heard Kokichi mutter.

"Stop lying already.. you're obviously not fine." the blue haired boy replied stubbornly, taking the key card from Kokichi's lanyard and heading to Ouma's room. He swiped the card through the lock and opened the door, helping Kokichi through.

"Whoa-!" Shuichi nearly tripped over a box, which tipped over. But with a small grunt, Kokichi reached out and grabbed his arm to steady him.

Shuichi looked around the room, seeing the mess and clutter everywhere. The disorganised room was littered with beat up boxes and there was even a pile of clothes in one corner.

It seemed like Kokichi had pushed away some of Keebo's things and instead, made a research lab.

The biggest changes were a huge glass whiteboard in one corner, a small brown table and a popcorn machine.

Random, but definitely Kokichi's work. If Monokuma found out he brought a popcorn machine into his room... the bear was probably going to throw a fit.

But still.

A popcorn machine.

Shuichi was so engrossed by the room's changes that he had momentarily forgotten about Ouma, who had made his way over to sit on a bed, his eyes closed.

"Ouma?" Shuichi called timidly, not wanting to disturb the boy. Kokichi seemed to have fallen asleep, while sitting up. Shuichi cautiously went up to Kokichi and perched on a chair; just watching the boy.

Now that smaller male wasn't moving, Shuichi could see how bad he actually looked.

There was a fresh bruise on his cheek, followed by a black eye and what seemed to be a faint line of scratches across his neck. The red fingernail marks trailed down towards his black and white checkered bandanna, and disappeared from view.

"Where did I go wrong?"

At first, Shuichi didn't know who said that. The voice sounded too quiet. Too scared. Like it didn't even belong to a sane person. And at the same time, the voice sounded distraught.

"Can you tell me where I went wrong, Saihara-chan?" the shaky voice came again.

Kokichi was talking?

Shuichi heard him sigh, opening his purple eyes and fixing him with a emotionless expression. "I just wanted to find out what's going on in the hospital. Not get into a fight."

Shuichi wasn't sure what to say as he stared at Kokichi's lavender hued eyes. The shorter boy's bright eyes started watering, getting shinier as tears started to form.

The blue haired boy stared at Kokichi, who now had tears trailing down his cheeks. He saw the boy wince a little, when the salty tears mixed with the bloody scratches on his face. "Damnit.." Kokichi reached up and tried to wipe away the tears with the back of his hands.

He didn't know what happened but Shuichi found himself leaning forward. He pulled Ouma into a hug, taking the smaller boy's hand to stop him from wiping his cheek.

It was a rather strange hug, since Kokichi was sitting on a bed and Shuichi was sitting on a chair. But at least they managed.

He felt Kokichi tense up in his arms before finally relaxing, resting his head against Shuichi's chest.

The strands on the top of Kokichi's head tickled his neck a little, making Shuichi move his head. It was a rather cautious hug, since the two boys had once started out as enemies.

They didn't say anything.

They just hugged each other.

A warm, comforting hug.

♥ End of Chapter Sixteen ♥