The Loveliest of Lies (Oumota)

I can tell when someone is lying to me

It took Kaito a good half an hour to find Kokichi.

He was in the library, sitting in a chair with a book in his lap. But he wasn't reading it. Instead, he was staring at the secret-door bookshelf with a pensive look on his face.

Kaito cleared his throat.

"Yes?" Kokichi gave him an annoyed look.

"Hey. Ready to go?" Kaito asked, grinning.

"Is it that time of the day already?" Kokichi complained, carelessly throwing aside his book and leaping out of the chair.

"Yeah. So, please, please, behave."

"Don't worry, I'll behave." Kokichi snickered.

Kaito frowned.

"Momota-chan, I'm not going to try anything." Kokichi assured him. "This is too valuable of an opportunity to snoop to pass up."

"How was your afternoon?" Kaito said, relaxing.

"Pretty shit."

Which means that he didn't find out anything new.

"How was your afternoon?"

"It was better than yours. I spent some quality time with Kiibo and Iruma. Learned some pretty amazing things."

"Good. You can tell me about it later." Kokichi nodded briskly.

"As long as we can speak in private...in your room."

Kokichi froze.

"Kokichi? If it's too much trouble, we can meet in mine."

"No, no. It's no trouble. Just...are you sure you want to meet late at night? Alone. What would the others think?" Kokichi flirted, smirking at him.

Kaito quickly returned the smirk.

"They wouldn't think anything, because they're not going to find out. It's our secret."

"Okay." Kokichi stated simply, losing his flirtatious attitude.

"Good. Let's get going. We don't want to keep Harumaki and Tojo waiting."

Upstairs, before Kaito could react, Kokichi thumped loudly on Maki's door three times.

Kirumi answered it, greeting them with a stiff nod.

Kaito swallowed and stepped back.

Kokichi frowned at him, then shrugged and walked towards Kirumi.

She gracefully stepped out of the way and let him into Maki's lab, before turning back.

"Coming in?"

Kaito didn't say anything and elbowed past her.

Kokichi was surveying the room with comically side eyes.

Maki was watching him wearily, clearly having second thoughts about letting him in.

Kaito looked up and whistled in awe at the weapons and equipment lining the walls.

Seeing it all made him finally realise that yes, Maki was indeed an assassin.

If she wanted to, she could easily murder any one of them.

But she isn't going to. She's our friend.

"Quite a place you got here." He joked.

"It's well stocked. Too well stocked. Every day, I have to make an inventory of everything to make sure that none of it is missing. It's a pain." Maki said.