⠀⠀04. just a crush⠀⠀

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THERE WAS NO such thing as too much sugar—that was Ranpo's philosophy. He consumed it in such high amounts that Y/N had now decided that she absolutely, most certainly would not serve him a single treat unless he ate an apple.

But getting him to eat fruit had proven to be nearly impossible. In the end, Y/N had bargained that in exchange for that one, single apple, she would reward him with not one, but five goodies of his choice.

And with that, he had finally, finally complied with her deal and eaten the red fruit. And now, he stared at the sweets laid out in front of him with stars in his eyes.

What a child, Y/N thought to herself with an amused smile.

She left him to eat while she went to serve another customer, coming back to find almost half of the food gone within five minutes—including an entire chocolate cake. That apple would undoubtedly prove to be useless now.

She sat down opposite him while he continued to chew happily on a macaron, a somewhat comforting silence falling between them.

"You know, Y/N..." Ranpo began, breaking said silence. "I've been thinking about it, and"—he wiped the crumbs around his mouth with the back of his hand—"your friend from yesterday is kind of unsettling."

"Yuriko?" the girl asked with a light laugh. "I know she's not the best at making new friends, and at first, she can definitely seem a little... aggressive...?" She shook her head. That wasn't the right word to describe Yuri with. "I assure you though," she interjected quickly. "She's lovely once you get to know her."

The detective didn't agree, but chose to remain silent as Y/N continued speaking.

"In fact, I'm sure the two of you probably have a lot in common. If you could just stop arguing for a minute and coexist peacefully—"

"No!"Ranpo interrupted, turning his head away from her stubbornly, not even willing to hear her out.

She sighed, wondering why she even tried in the first place. Deciding not to mention Yuriko any further, she attempted to change the topic to something he was passionate about.

"How are the cherry puffs today?" she asked curiously, resting her head on her palm, interested in his opinion. "I tried making them a little differently and I'm not sure if it worked in my favour."

Ranpo swallowed the bite of puff pastry in his mouth, then said enthusiastically with pastry flakes still scattered all around his lips, "It's amazing—even more so than usual."

It was meant to be a compliment given without much thought to it, yet Y/N still felt the heat rise to her cheeks. Coming from Ranpo, it didn't just feel like empty praise as it did with most of the comments she received. Ranpo said it like he truly meant it.

"Thank you," she mumbled, averting her gaze towards the window in hopes that the glaring sun would make the blush on her cheeks less noticeable.

But instead, it did the opposite.

Beneath the sun's rays, the rosy tint that dusted her cheeks and the tip of her nose took on a deeper, warmer hue, allowing her skin to almost glow in an ever so ethereal way. With the sunlight hitting her face perpendicularly, it even seemed to illuminate her eyes, irises looking so much more lively and brighter than they normally did.

Ranpo froze mid-bite, because, with the light shining on her features and making them all clearer, like a camera that had finally managed to focus on the object, Y/N's unique beauty radiated through.

He'd never dwelled much on her physical features—or anyone's, for that matter. It seemed like such a trivial thing to focus on in the face of things like intelligence, or a kind, just heart. And yet, despite that, the one thought that struck Ranpo in that moment was... Y/N was very pretty—perhaps not by society's standards, but those standards were stupid anyway. Society even said that he was a joke of a detective, so what would it know about anything?

No... Y/N was very pretty, and it was by Ranpo's own standards. Giving it a little more thought, he realised there wasn't quite anything he could consider a flaw present in her—inside and out.

Briefly, the detective wondered where these thoughts were even coming from. Had all the sweets he'd consumed finally got to him? Maybe the girl was right about cutting down on his sugar intake after all...

He composed himself as she looked back towards him, her stare then dropping to the pastries in front of him, all but one final chocolate-filled croissant gone. She watched as he picked said croissant up and ate almost half of it in one bite.

Y/N sighed. "If you're going to ask for anything more, just remember it's going to cost you another apple."

An apple in exchange for something sweet... Somehow, Ranpo didn't mind that condition.

Not when the sweetest thing was Y/N herself.

There was something strangely calming about sitting soundly in bed while watching life go on through the window. The sight was a reminder that the world would continue to spin no matter what happened.

Y/N often found herself staring out her window when she was deep in thought—it was just in such a convenient place that she could remain seated on her bed and get a perfect view—like today, for instance, where she'd been unable to get Edogawa Ranpo off of her mind.

He, and only he, occupied every one of her thoughts.

The girl picked up her pillow and buried her face into it, screaming silently. How had she gotten herself into this mess? Y/N knew what this all meant—she liked Ranpo. She liked that stupid, immature, childish man.

How could I not? a part of her argued.

God. She was in some deep shit.

A sudden knock on the door startled her, her sister, S/N's voice following. "Y/N? Can I come in?"

Y/N composed herself with a deep breath. Then while raising her voice a little so it wouldn't sound muffled, she replied, "Yeah, sure."

The door opened a moment later and S/N slid into the bedroom, making her way towards her little sister who was still staring out the window.

"You look like you're thinking hard," S/N commented, flopping onto Y/N's bed.

Y/N turned to her sister and shrugged. "Not really."

S/N wasn't convinced as she raised a skeptical brow. "I've seen that look before. There's something you aren't telling me."

Y/N tried. She tried so damn hard to keep silent, but with every passing second she felt like she would explode, as if the words on her tongue were a timed bomb. Eventually, unable to keep it in any longer, she burst.

"I think I like someone!"

S/N's eyebrows flew up at her confession as she sat up, suddenly alert. "What? Y/N, oh my God!"

Y/N buried her head in her hands. "I've only known him for two weeks though," she mumbled through the gaps in her fingers. She lifted her head again. "That sounds insane. Can you even fall that fast?"

"Of course," S/N answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Why do you think there's such a thing as love at first sight?" She shook her head. "But never mind that. Tell me what he's like!"

Y/N sighed, falling back onto her bed, legs dangling off the edge. "Where do I even start?"

"From the beginning, maybe?" The sarcasm was as clear as day in S/N's voice.

"Shut up," Y/N retorted. She turned her head to her sister while still laying flat on her back. "Well... he's really smart. And he's good-looking too. I swear, he has the most mesmerising green eyes—they're so pretty. He's so pretty."

"My little sister is so whipped," S/N snorted.

Y/N blushed a deep crimson, slapping her sister's leg. "Shut up! I'm not telling you anything anymore."

S/N pouted. "That's not fair."

"Then stop... stop doing that!" Y/N replied, embarrassed.

The elder sister laughed and leaned back against the wall. "Fine, fine. Carry on."

"Okay, well... he's a little—okay, a lot—egoistic." Realising how that sounded, Y/N quickly added, "But it's not in the way that gets on your nerves. And at times, he can be a little childish, but... oh, I don't know... I think it just makes me like him more." Having given up on finding the right words to describe him with, she threw her hands up in the air. "He's just so adorable, S/N!"

Truth be told, she liked everything about him. As confusing as it sounded, even the things she didn't like were things she liked.

Y/N spoke again after she'd willed her burning cheeks to cool down, though this time her speech was quieter, as though these words were coming from the very core of her soul. "And... and he's always appreciating the things I bake. It makes me feel so fuzzy when he does that... it's like he truly likes them."

"Aww." S/N held a hand over her heart. "That's so cute... He sounds like a real gentleman."

Y/N pushed herself back up, recovering from her swooning state as she snorted inelegantly at her sister's words.

"Was my description really that biased?" she asked, laughter bubbling in her throat. "He's definitely not a gentleman." Then, with a second thought, she added, "But I can't deny that he's still just as amazing."

S/N couldn't help but smile at what her little sister had said. She sighed dramatically. "I still remember when we were younger—you swore you'd never go near a man."

Y/N flushed in embarrassment.

The incident had taken place on Valentine's day. Their father had taken the two sisters to McDonald's to get whatever they wanted, like he did every year.

The girls were unaware of the deeper meaning behind the annual treat as they skipped happily through the doors of the fast food restaurant, but the tradition their father had created had been in remembrance of his wife, who had passed away two days after giving birth to Y/N. The doctors had made errors in her C-section, and she'd eventually succumbed to her wounds.

The couple used to go out together every Valentine's day, and while they'd tried their hand at eating at a fancy restaurant (multiple times, at that), they'd always end up at McDonald's an hour later because the tiny quantities at the expensive restaurants would barely fill either one of them up. Y/N's father couldn't let go of that after his wife's passing, so he began to take his two little angels out instead.

That particular day, McDonald's had been more packed than usual, filled with couples in every corner. Six-year-old Y/N had been grossed out by the romantic aura in the air—she'd just wanted to eat her Happy Meal in peace.

For a couple of minutes, she'd tried her absolute best to ignore the constant kissing sounds coming from behind, but eventually, she'd stood up on the booth, turning around with her hands on her hips as she glared at the couple behind her.

"Stop kissing!" she had yelled. "Or you're going to get..." Lowering her voice to a whisper, she'd spoken the dreaded word. "You're going to get cooties...!"

Her father, despite finding the incident hilarious, had apologised to the poor couple and scolded Y/N in the car on their way home.

"I'm never ever going to go near a man," she'd announced, crossing her arms against her chest. "I'd rather never eat a Happy Meal again."

Her father had laughed. "Not even near me?"

"Except you!" Y/N had rushed to say—she hadn't wanted her father to take her seriously and never buy her a Happy Meal again. That would've been disastrous.

S/N, who'd been playing with the Twilight Sparkle toy she'd gotten with her nuggets, had giggled at her sister, and soon, both Y/N and their father had joined in.

Needless to say, it had been a day that neither of the two sisters had ever forgotten (especially the elder one), and one that S/N teased Y/N about regularly.

"Why do you still remember that?" Y/N grumbled, burying her face in her hands. "This is so not fair. I demand you to forget that!"

"Never!" S/N replied with a grin, leaping off the bed before her sister could grab her.

Y/N huffed. "All you remember are the embarrassing things."

"Well, someone's got to," S/N retorted. "Besides, it's not my fault that your most iconic moments are the embarrassing ones." Raising the pitch of her voice, she gave her best impression of a child. "Stop kissing, or you're going to get cooties!"

"S/N!" Y/N groaned. "I hate you."

Her sister burst into raucous laughter, and soon, Y/N felt a smile pull at the corner of her lips, laughter bubbling in her throat against her will, like some sort of contagious disease.

Within a few moments, S/N had finally calmed down, but not before tears had welled in her eyes from how hard she'd been laughing. Wiping them with the back of her hand, she sighed and gripped the door knob.

"I'll be going now."

With a twist of her hand, the door opened. S/N stepped outside, but before closing the door, she quickly popped her head back into her sister's room, a warm smile on her face.

"I'm rooting for you, Y/N."

─── ⋅✧⋅ ───

an apple a day keeps the ranpo away

[edited, 12/11/22]


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