Needle and Thread - Oumasai

Soulmate...?

Ouma had finally walked through the school gates as lunch was about to start, a thought festering at the back of his mind. Much to his regret, he felt obligated to stay something to the blue haired individual who he had seen get rejected yesterday.

He avoided as many teachers as possible, not wanting another lecture. He waited until he heard the lunch bell go off, to make his way to his locker. Shuichi grabbed a bunch of his notebooks and textbooks out and sat against the wall in the empty hallway.

He placed the books to one side of him, working through one at a time. Saihara didn't bother to lift his head up when a figure approached him, too tired to talk to anyone.

"Shuichi Saihara, right?"

The student remained silent, unable to read the words in his textbook anymore and simply stared at it. He startled awake once he felt the individual slap him in the face. Saihara looked up at the male to see the purple-haired student.

"Sorry, I thought you were dead~ You weren't moving at all."

"S-so your f-first instinct is to s-slap me??"

"Yep!~" He smirked down at the other, "I'm Kokichi Ouma~ Nice to uh... wow, you look reeeeally tired."

Shuichi groaned and rubbed his eyes, "Is it that obvious...?"

"Pretty much," the short male chuckled and looked down at all of the books around the other. He started to have flashbacks of Keebo, who was doing the same thing, "What's with all the books?"

Saihara yawned before mumbling, "..s..tudying.."

Kokichi looked around, not wanting to meet any teachers. He picked up a stack of the book, "Come on, the floor can't be comfy~ Hmm, let's go to the library!"

"A-Alright.." Shuichi agreed, letting out another loud yawn. He started to pack his books away then get up from the floor, pushing his hat down further onto his face.

"Let's go then~" Kokichi instructed, looking back at the tired male. He noticed that he had a tight grip on the cap he was wearing, "Can you even see with your hat so low?"

"Oh.. well I.. I can't really.."

Ouma started struggling with the heavy books in his hands as he attempted to snatch the hat, "Then take it off~"

"I.. I'm not doing that." Shuichi replied, raising the hat slightly further up so that he could see where he was going.

"Hmph!... Just saying, you don't act very high-rank-y," Kokichi shrugged, teasing him slightly, "You're supposed to be mean. What's wrong with you?"

Shuichi decided not to answer, already used to his friends mocking him for his different personality. Ouma placed the textbooks on one of the library tables with tired arms, "Why do you need..so many..." he mumbled and stretched out his limbs.

"Thanks.." The taller student sat down, expecting the other to leave. To his surprise, Kokichi sat in the chair across from him, "No problem~...."

Saihara opened the textbook and quietly started to answer the questions, checking them as soon as he completed each one. When he lifted his eyes up, Ouma was still sitting there, staring at him.

"..U-um...do you need something?"

"I saw what happened at the park."

Shuichi's face fell as he instantly returned to solving the questions,"Did R-Rantaro.. send you here or.."

"Why the hell would Rantaro talk to me? His head's too far up his ass to decently chat with me rather than wanting to hurt me~" The purple-haired male snickered and leaned his body back in his chair to rest his feet on the table, "I just think that you could do better than piano girl."

"Her and Rantaro are soulmates.. you must of heard that."

"I did~ They're perfect for eachother if you think about it. The asshole and the bitch~"

Shuichi muttered something under his breath, "At.. least Rantaro got what he wanted.."

"Hm? What did you say?~"

Shuichi shook his head and returned to flicking through his textbook, "N-nothing, it doesn't matter."

Kokichi rolled his eyes and stared at the ceiling, getting quite bored, "...Hey, Shuichi.. why didn't you punch me? You're a high rank, I'm a low rank. On top of that, I gave you permission to."

"Ranks don't matter. It doesn't make you less of a person just because of a title..."

Both individuals stared at their index fingers, noticing that a red string was forming. Their eyes were wide as they watched the string connect with the person in front of them.

Ouma saw this and scrambled out of his chair, knocking it over. Without giving it a second thought, he saw Shuichi's open pencil case and took out a pair of sharp scissors, using them to cut the string.

"K-Kokichi, th-that's not going to-"

"S-Shut up!" The smaller boy shouted, snapping the scissors together, only to find that the string didn't break. He desperately attempted again and again and again before finally giving up. He dropped the scissors with a horrified expression on his face and ran out of the library. Shuichi attempted to chase him, but he didn't have enough energy to catch up with him.

Even though the library was mostly empty, there were still a few people sitting down studying or using the computers. The students were all looking at Shuichi with confused expressions and mumbling amongst themselves.

He pulled the hat further down on his face and sat back down at the table, re-opening his textbook. He picked up his pencil and started to work through the questions, but kept getting distracted by the new string on his finger. The blue-haired male set his pencil down to examine it more, a slight blush on his face.

"...I-I have..a soulmate?" He muttered quietly to himself, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that this was actually happening.

"I.. have a soulmate." Shuichi repeated, verifying his situation. He felt a large smile grow on his face.

He didn't know exactly how long he had stayed in the library, examining the red string around his finger, but he snapped out of his trance once he heard the bell ring.

He was late again.

In a blind panic, Shuichi gathered all of his supplies and shoved them in his bag. He dashed as fast as he could to class and was greeted by the teacher's scowling face.

"S-Sorry I'm late.. I.."

"I let it go yesterday, and I did warn you. This has gotten you a detention, your pare-- uncle will be informed."

Shuichi's eyes widened, he knew that he couldn't allow this to happen, "Please, I.. I didn't hear the first bell ring."

"No excuses. You are a high rank, so act like one."

"...."

"Sit down," The teacher instructed with a harsh tone, pointing towards a seat. Shuichi decided not to put up a fight and sat in his seat, since there was nothing he could do now.

~~

Ouma scrambled around his small house to find something, anything to break the string. After countless attempts from using kitchen knives, furniture, and throwing it in his fireplace to burn it, he flopped on his bed in defeat.

Kokichi glared intensely at the string with pure hate, "I wish I never met you Shuichi..."