({?Where Are You ?~kaishin~?kaito x shinichi?})

({?chap9?Rye and Bourbon Cafe 2?})

"Well, see you on Monday?" Kaito asked, receiving a nod and a slight smile from Shinichi in return.

"Yeah, see you on Monday, Kaito," Shinichi said, flashing a small yet gentle smile. Kaito smiled back and started to walk away, waving one last time to Shinichi, who waved back at him

"Bye, Shinichi!!! Don't overwork yourself, alright!! See you on Monday!!!" Kaito shouted, and Shinichi chuckled at this. He nodded, waved at Kaito, watching Kaito until he disappeared from view and started to walk back to his house.

**Time Skip...**

Once Shinichi arrived at his house, he went to visit his neighbor's house first and gave them one box of lemon pie and the groceries that Haibara told him to buy.

"Oh, you're late," Haibara remarked, sitted in a sofa while holding a magazine in her hands as Shinichi entered the house holding 2 boxes and a small plastic bag.

"I ran into a friend at the grocery store, and he invited me to a cafe, which surprisingly belongs to Akai-san and Furuya-san," Shinichi explained, placing the groceries on the kitchen counter.

"Hmm... you mean the new transfer student friend of yours? Kuroba Kaito, right?" Haibara asked, taking a sip of her tea and continuing to read her magazine.

"Yeah," Shinichi answered before looking around finally noticing something"By the way, where is hakase and also before i forgot, Furuya-san also told me to give you this, a box of lemon pie. I have one too."shinichi stated continue to look around to find the professor who is supposed to be here.

"Oh... put mine in the refrigerator. Hakase is currently out for a bit. He'll be back," Haibara said. "Also, stay here and eat dinner with us. I'm sure Hakase will be back soon to cook for us," Haibara added, looking at Shinichi, who was holding the doorknob, about to leave.

Haibara made him stay for dinner because, knowing Shinichi, he would be too lazy to cook-and also, well, every time he cooked, he always burned something, including water, which Haibara didn't know how he managed to do-and just drink some coffee as a replacement instead.

Shinichi, unable to disobey Haibara's order, just nodded and sat on the opposite end of the sofa where Haibara was sitting, waiting for the professor to arrive.

"By the way, do you know that Akai-san and Furuya-san are dating?" Shinichi asked, and Haibara nodded before replying.

"Yeah, they told me a few months ago," Haibara said, continuing to read her magazine, still not looking at Shinichi. "They didn't tell you because you looked stressed and, well, depressed. Just look at yourself. You look paler than a corpse," Haibara stated, finally looking at Shinichi, who frowned at Haibara's words.

"For your information, I'm naturally pale, and also I'm not depressed," Shinichi said, glaring at Haibara, who simply just drank her tea and looked back at the magazine.

"You're not 'that' pale before, and you are definitely depressed. You even skip meals and stay up late more than usual," Haibara stated with a slight frown. Shinichi remained silent, not knowing what to say back to her.

"Oh, what do you think about that Kuroba guy? You two seem to get along since he even made you come to a cafe with him," Haibara asked. Shinichi was confused by this question. 'Since when did Haibara start to care about my classmates?' He thought but decided to just ignored it and share his thoughts about kaito with Haibara.

"He's energetic and understanding. Every time I tell him a story about murder cases, he can always follow along effortlessly. He's also a magician. He's quite funny, and based on his stories from his previous school, he's a prankster. He's a lot of fun to be around, I suppose," Shinichi stated, standing up and getting himself a cup of black coffee from the kitchen.

While Haibara just stared at him without him knowing, 'Kuroba Kaito, huh? I wonder if he'll find out about it sooner, and this guy (Shinichi) must've already seen the similarities but doesn't want to believe it,' Haibara thought as she continued to read her magazine.

Haibara decided not to meddle too much and just let them figure it out themselves. So, she would just watch and see what would happen. If they felt the same way about each other, they would know who the other was, no matter how different they looked or how good their disguises were.

-Time Skip (because I'm lazy)-

After finishing eating, Shinichi left and went to his house and go to the library to start the report about the case-of course, accompanied by his favorite black coffee and two slices of lemon pie that Furuya had given him-that he would bring tomorrow morning at the police station.

once the case report is complete , he considered whether he should sleep or read his Sherlock Holmes book all night since there was no school tomorrow because it was Sunday.

After a few minutes, he sighed and stood from his chair. "I probably should sleep now," he muttered and start heading towards his room.

When he arrived at his room, he lay down in his bed and tried to sleep, but suddenly, his mind wandered back to the events that happen today, specifically the event with Kaito. The more he hung out with Kaito, the more he saw similarities between him and a certain phantom thief in the moonlight

Firstly, Kaito liked sweets-he knew the Phantom Thief had a sweet tooth, depending on how much he ate something sweet like chocolate-sometimes when they were on the rooftop talking about stuff, the Phantom Thief would take out some sweets to eat, and he even offered Shinichi/Conan sometimes, which he declined since he didn't like sweet stuff.

Secondly, their grins were strikingly similar. additionally, they were both magicians and both liked to give roses to others. There were numerous resemblance, especially their mesmerizing indigo eyes.

Shinichi gazed at the blue roses in the vase. All of them were given by Kaito. Kaito always gave him blue roses every day they met, its kinda like his habit of giving him blue roses every time they met,-well kaito also gave his other classmate roses but not as much as shinichi and it's always in a different color-including today, even during the times when he practically ignored Kaito.shinichi still receive blue roses. When he asked why he gave him roses, Kaito just said it was because they were the same color as his eyes.

At times, Shinichi thought whether that Kaito could trully be the phantom thief , however the idea of kaito being kid was impossible 'why would KID even go here?'he thought It was impossible for shinichi ({•Shinichi is clearly in denial•}). but the truth is he doesn't want to believe it because if kaito was really KID wouldn't that make things worse for him. His feelings that would never be reciprocate will continue to bloom if kaito was really KID.

shinichi started to like kaito (as a friend for now😏) because like he said before kaito is really understanding and fun to be around. if kaito is KID wouldn't that make things awkward for shinichi.

He looked at another vase beside the one that held the roses Kaito gave him. Unlike the vase that held the roses from Kaito , this vase was full of dead blue roses. There were also more roses in this vase than the vase that held the roses Kaito gave him.

Despite the roses state, he never once thought of throwing those away, even though the roses were dead, because they were given to him by the Phantom Thief he loved.

"I wonder if this feeling I have for you will disappear like how the color and the beauty of the roses that you given me disappear," Shinichi whispered softly and silently before sleepiness took over him, and everything faded to black...

~({•})~({•})~({•})~({•})~({•})~({•})~({•})~({•})~

1958 words