Falling for my best friend [OFFICIAL]

Chapter 39: Rumors and the Truth II

"Who?" Rantaro asked.

"Kaede mentioned her..." I murmured loud enough for the two of them to hear. My memory was hazy, but I remember hearing the worry in Kaede's voice when she uttered her name on the phone.

"Yeah, you can say she's Kaede's rival in the piano world."

"So this Junko girl hired you to drug Kaede over a stupid piano competition?" I turned to Rantaro who was baffled by the realization.

"Yes. Her goal in hiring me was to never let Kaede be 'happy'. This meant ruining her relationships and bringing down her confidence in playing the piano." Kokichi looked at me the entire time he spoke and emphasized the word, relationship.

"She doesn't want Kaede to be happy?"

"She's a psycho." Rantaro leaned into his chair looking out the window. Although all of this information was hard to swallow, I had many more questions to ask Kokichi and he didn't seem to mind at all so we started our informal interview. After an hour of talking, we found out that Kokichi was having a financial issue and conveniently got a text from Junko, hidden by a random number, offering him lots of money before school started. Since he was desperate for cash and couldn't let anyone know, he took the offer.

"I was confused by the weird tasks she gave me everyday, but I thought they were fun and harmless. Teasing you and Kaede and eavesdropping on your conversations was simple stuff for me, and for the amount of money she was offering, how could I refuse? That's when I reported about your date with Kaede that she told me to make sure I followed you guys and brought friends along to separate you two. Junko... She's a psycho with too many toys. It was like she knew everything and had a plan for every situation Kaede was in."

"Kokichi, what are you trying to say?"

"Shuichi, do you remember when the girls gave you those ferris wheel tickets? She planned for them to meet us at the cafe and told them to give those to you so that I could take pictures of you both on the ferris wheel." My eyes widened. "From the very beginning of the school year, she planned everything. It's like she's been watching Kaede all this time. I feel like she even expected me not to put the drugs in Kaede's bag..."

"Was she the reason that you disappeared?" He stared at me for a second before nodding his head. He stretched out his arms and yawned as if this conversation bored him, but Rantaro and I were on the edges of our seat trying to process all of this information. All of these hidden puzzles were coming together, but it almost scared me to know that a person I knew little about seemed to be watching our every move. Kaede... I have to find out the truth and protect Kaede.

"Well, I think we've reached a good halfway point. I have some leftover pizza. Let's change locations." Kokichi left his room immediately, but Rantaro and I hesitated.

"You've been pretty quiet." The green-haired boy glanced at me, then walked downstairs. "Rantaro?" I followed him into the kitchen with a puzzled look on my face. When I got down there, I was surprised to see the two of them eating pizza. I clutched onto my head shaking away the thoughts I had. Why did he have that look on his face just then? I sighed and took a slice joining them, but there were millions of questions floating in my mind. After we finished a box, the tension seemed to have faded a bit. I wanted to let everyone know that Kokichi was here, but not knowing where he was actually hiding held me back.

"Hey, how about we play some games?" Kokichi wore a wide grin and an upbeat voice. Immediately after he asked, Rantaro grabbed him by the collar alarming the both of us.

"I don't know if you heard, but that Junko girl made everyone hate Kaede and we don't know what else she's willing to do to ruin her life." Rantaro had a scary look on his face, but Kokichi remained calm.