My mind was racing at a mile a minute. So many thoughts, scenarios, and what-ifs flew around in my head like hornets inside their nest. My heart was beating with such force, I felt like I might fall over and collapse. As I ran around my room, picking up loose sheet music, long emptied cups of boba... stray articles of clothing that I definitely did not want to be laying out and about, I continuously shouted at my idiotic self for idioting more than any other idiot in the history of idiots has ever idioted!

"Why, why, WHY did I have to sleep in today? Of ALL days!"

I continued to act as if I didn't know why it had happened. I did my best to not acknowledge the fact that I had been so wired last night that I couldn't get to sleep. How could I, with the next day being what it was! Not even my partner had been able to help me out! It didn't matter what I played or how softly: Chopin's Nocturne Op 37, Ravel's Pavane for a Dead Princess, Satie's Gymnopedie No 1, not even my own renditions of Bach's Air and Puccini's Una Furtiva; NOTHING could get me to sleep! I played and played and played until I couldn't even distinguish the pieces from one another anymore. Everything became a dirtied canvass of notes, scales, and chords as the keys began to blur together.

The next thing I knew, I had woken up, the imprint of two of the black keys etched into my cheek and a puddle of drool that had pooled on the keyboard, no doubt dripping down between the gaps. It was light out already, and I thought that it was still morning. But as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and the drool from my chin, my gaze wandered around my piano's room until it landed on the clock mounted on the wall. 1:25.

"Huh. That's weird. If it's 1:25 in the morning, then it should still be dark out." And as my mind began to wake at the call of my mental efforts, my eyes slowly began to widen as I stared out the window into the bright, beautiful, gorgeous day outside that mocked me with it's splendor. "IT'S 1:25 IN THE AFTERNOON!"

I burst through the door of the piano room like a killer robot from the future and proceeded to gracefully trip over myself in a series of demonstrations of my agile prowess. The tripping against walls and slipping on rugs sliding across smooth, laminate flooring was just me showing off. Hearing the commotion, my mom emerged from her post in the kitchen, spatula in hand, ready for...something.

"I'll tell you one thing, if you think you can just barge in here and take whatever isn't nailed to the floor, you' have got-!" My mother ceased, mid threat, as she gazed down at me in a jumbled pile of limbs. She let out a labored breath as she placed her hand over her chest, "Oh, criminy sweetie, it's just you. What in the world are you doing there on the floor? Isn't your friend supposed to be getting here soon? And just look at you!"

She grabbed hand and hoisted me up into a standing, and much more dignified, position as she began to fuss all over me from head to toe.

"Still in your Pjs, wrinkled I might add, dried drool caked on your chin, your lovely hair more tangled than a teenage girl's iPod earbuds, and on top of all that, you've got your girls just hanging out for the world to ogle!" My blinked several times, unsure of what that had exactly meant, before looking downwards to find half my pajama top's buttons undone. I felt fire in my cheeks as I closed the curtain of my top.

"Gagh! Yes, I know mom! I just woke up!"

"Just now? You know your friend is supposed to be here at two, right?"

"Yes! I! Do! I need to get ready!" I cried out as I bypassed my mom and began ascending the stairs leading up to the second floor. "And I told you I was gonna need to use the kitchen when he gets here, didn't I!?"

"Yes, I know! I'm just making myself some lunch! Is that okay, your highness?"

"Ugh, yes! Just please make sure you're done soon! And did you remember to get the salmon from the store?"

"Yes, your majesty, I fetched it from the kindly fisherman at the bazaar over yonder just before-!"

"I get it, thank you!" I was in a hurry. No, more than a hurry! I didn't have time to be dealing with my mom's ridiculousness right now. I still needed to clean my room, get dressed, brush my hair, do my makeup, and-

"Remember to put a bra on, honey!" The whole world suddenly got a lot closer as my foot tripped on the lip of the final step, bringing me face down into a make-out session with the carpet that I'm sure neither it, nor I consented to.

"Oh my god, mom!" As quickly as I could, I pulled myself up from the floor and bolted for my room before I had to hear any more words of mortification catapulted from my mother's mouth. It's times like these when I wish my feet could be even a quarter as competent as my hands. I slammed my door shut and began getting to work. There was literally not a moment to spare!

And here I am now, flying around my room like a hen being chased by a fox, trying desperately to get both it and myself into something that could pass for presentable. I tossed clothes into my closet, sheet music was stuffed into drawers, miscellaneous trash was discreetly kicked under my bed, and slowly, the room eventually came together. I took a moment to admire my handiwork; everything in it's place, straight and tidy, I would dare even say that you would think it were the room of someone who was mature and had their act together... minus all the pink and white.

I wiped a film of sweat that had built up on my forehead before plopping down on my newly made bed, exhaling a tired, but satisfied sigh. I was really all set to lay there for a little while to catch my breath, before I heard the distinct opening motif of Beethoven's 5th blaring from the speaker of my phone. I reached over to grab the noisy device before bringing it in line with my face... and immediately proceeded to choke on my own spit. Through the coughing and retching and gasping, I could see those three little numbers in my mind floating ominously in front of my consciousness like a specter in the middle of a dark room. 1:48.

I used all my might to fight against my body's gag reflex and inhale to normalize my breathing again. Once it was clear that I was no longer in danger of dying a tragically pathetic death, in the middle of my pink and white chamber of girlyness, I brought myself up and ran to my closet to get dressed. Before I could open the door however, I stopped suddenly, as I could feel a rather pungent odor just barely tickling my nose. Turning my head to try and detect the source of this offensive assault upon my sense of smell, I soon cam to realize that no matter where I went in the room, the smell never got weaker or stronger.

Now I was just flat out confused. I poked my head out into the hallway, but the scent all but disappeared out there. It had to be in the room, somewhere. I began to frantically crawl around the perimeter of my room, trying to find whatever it could be as quickly as possible.

"Please, not now! He's going to be here any minute! I can't have some...THING rotting away in my room when he gets here! What even IS this? It's like... it smells like...chili cheese fries?" Well that was a head scratcher. I can't even remember having chili cheese fries any other time but at carnival my family and I would go to. And even then, I never brought any of them home. As I turned my head again, the smell suddenly got stronger. It was just barely, but it definitely was more noticeable. I stayed still, so as not to scare it off. I sniffed in the same direction I had been facing. Left, right, up...down. As I brought my nose lower, the odor was now definitely stronger.

And then suddenly, it dawned on me.

I stiffened and I could feel my brow darken as the horror of realization began to consume me like a snake swallowing it's prey whole. I sat in a kneeling position, as if ready to begin praying. Then I slowly, so carefully, raised my arm into the air, turned me head... and inhaled.

The gag the escaped my mouth could have been heard for miles. Past my neighborhood, through the streets of downtown, and probably even all the way to SnailPo world headquarters. Covering my mouth to prevent any form of discharge, I peeked at my phone again. Not only did the time of 1:50 horrify me, but the fact that I also had a message notification made a stone drop to the bottom of my gut. I unlocked my phone, opened up the text... and a chill ran down my spine. Never could I have thought that 17 simple, little words could shake me so thoroughly and with not a single trace of mercy.

"Hey, I'm on my way! I should be able to get there in less than ten minutes."- * +:｡.｡Shuichi｡.｡:+ *

My hands trembled, struggling to keep hold of my phone, as my eyes passed over to the time when I received that message. 1:47.

Then, once my eyes shot to the top of my phone's screen at the movement of the clock's numbers, I saw the dreaded reading of 1:51. Suddenly, everything seemed to slow down. My pajamas were now gone. The floor, which had at one time been plush carpet, was now cold and hard tile. The slow clatter of the shower curtain rings rustled with the echoing jingle of a thousand keys. The gentle squeak of the shower knob as I turned the hot water on and vaulted myself over the rim of the bathtub beneath the falling stream of water.

Which I regretted instantly as I let out a glass shattering yelp while the frigid water rained down upon my very sensitive and delicate recently awakened body. But I had to endure. I must! I only have literal minutes before he gets here. So steeling myself, I threw myself once again beneath the arctic falls and set to work to making myself not smell like carnival food.

I stood in front of the mirror in my room frantically combing dry shampoo through my hair. I had decided ain't nobody got time for washing all this hair and then drying it as well. So this called for drastic measures! After ensuring my hair didn't look like I had just dipped it in a fry bath I set to work trying to get my outfit just right. I had come this far, I REFUSED to trip right at the finish line! I had thankfully been able to quickly settle on wearing a pink/black flannel shirt over a white top.

"Excellent! Half the wardrobe: done!" Now, however, I was stuck between a pair of jeans or cutoffs.

"I'm definitely going for the laid back type of look, so would jeans maybe clash too much with that? But then again, these cutoffs are... a little shorter than I remember them being. Ooh, then again, I guess he has already seen my legs, since I wore a skirt the first time we met. But maybe the cutoffs are TOO impersonal? I mean, this is the first time we're seeing each other since we got out of that whackadoo school. On the other hand, this IS my house, shouldn't I seem more relaxed than I'd normally be if we say, met up to go to the movies or the amusement park? God, I wish I had asked him what types of clothes he thinks look good on girls! Only now am I realizing the limited range of my notes. Idiot! You were probably thinking about the piano again when you SHOULD have been trying to cover all your ba-"

DING-DONG BING-BONG DING-DONG BING-BONG

I could my heart suddenly ramming against my chest. Each beat feeling like a heavyweight boxer delivering timed and powerful jabs to a punching bag. I started to flummox, my eyes darting back and forth between the jeans in my right hand and the cutoffs in my left. My panic finally hit the ceiling as I heard my mom call out to me, "Kaede! Aren't you going to answer the door?"

"Gagh!" With one final pathetic flailing dance of fail, I threw on the cutoffs and tucked my top into the waistband. Giving myself a once over before heading out into the field, I had to admit, for it being a literal last second rush job? Not too shabby.

"Oh, wait hold on a second..." I reached up and grabbed the underwire of my bra and adjusted it up just a smidge. I smiled, noting my handiwork, "Nothing wrong with a girl trying to accentuate what she's got, right?"

"Kaede!" My mom howled from downstairs.

"I'm coming! Jeez, I'm coming already!" I called out to her as I descended the stairs and made a beeline for the door. Grasping the knob in my hand, I took a deep breath through my nose and exhaled through my mouth. This never failed to help me whenever I got the jitters before a big recital... aaand yet for some reason, it is not working here.

Great.

So I steeled what resolve I did have, and then I pulled the door open.

Shuichi Saihara, the Ultimate Detective, stood on the porch of my house wearing a crisp white collared shirt, black slacks, polished black loafers, and a black bow tie wrapped around his neck. In his hand, he carried a small bouquet of what looked like pink roses, acacia blossoms, and red carnations.

"Ah...uh...h-hi, Kaede. Um...I'm...here." He sputtered out. Taking in his appearance, up and down, along with the dusting of pink that graced his cheeks, he looked like he was picking up his first prom date, but had forgotten his coat back at home. That thought may have ordinarily gotten me all flustered, but those feelings were overtaken by how incredibly, hilariously adorable I thought he looked, and I couldn't help but begin to laugh.

Even trying to hold it behind the dam of my hand, chuckles still leaked out around my fingers. I tried so hard to keep them in, because I knew the more I laughed, the more mortified poor Shuichi would become.

"Wh-wha-what's so funny?" He nervously blurted out as the pink in his cheeks began to become a fiery red.

"I'm sorryyyyyy..." I tried to force the words out between my giggling, but I just couldn't help it. He was so utterly precious! "I- I don't mean...I'm not trying to be... to be mean. You're just...you just look so formal!...You-you've even got the bow tie and flowers!" My giggling soon began to grow silent as I began running out of breath. I gasped for air and my laughter began to come down and I could actually manage to open my eyes and see him, bright scarlet, the flowers hidden behind his back, and looking down at the ground.

"I don't... I don't know what you're supposed to do when you go over to a girl's house. So I... I asked my uncle, and he said this is what he did the first time he ever did it..."

"Guess that explains the bow then! Now I'm surprised he didn't also show up with suspenders and a fedora." I chuckled my last chuckle before I finally caught my breath and was able to actually converse with Shuichi, "I think you look great. Really, I do! You just caught me by surprise is all." I tried reassuring him with the friendliest smile I could possibly muster. Thankfully, this seemed to work, at least a little bit, as his shoulders became a little less tense.

"You... you really think so?" he queried, "I don't look too... dorky?"

I held in the bubbling urge to just start squealing. He's just too much! How is it possible for something that isn't a small, fluffy animal or sleeping baby to be this cute?

"Of course not! You look very..." Come on! Think of some big, impressive word that will show him you're more than just a piano freak! Do it, NOW! "...nice!"

"Are you for real with that, right now? 'Nice'?Do you wanna show him your kindergarten graduation diploma too!?"

Luckily, my embarrassment didn't have a chance to boil up too far, as the corners of Shuichi's lips were tugged upwards into a little smile, while he scratched at his hair, a habit I noticed whenever he was feeling embarrassed in some way or another.

"Oh, um... thank you. Ah you um- you look great too! Very insouciant and winsome," I can't tell whether or not he's just trying to show off... "Pink really does seem to be your color. It really compliments your hair and goes well with your eyes. Agh! Not that, you know- not um... not that I was really studying you, or anything! It was just a uh... a thing I noticed, you know! Like when you're walking down the street and you look up at the really big clouds and you think to yourself, 'Oh hey, look! Those clouds are really big!' You know, like that! Ah hah hah hah... haaahhhhh..." Frantically searching for some sort of out, he whipped the bouquet out from behind his back and presented them to me.

"Um, ah here! These are for um, for you. I'm not really sure what flowers they are, aside from the roses, but the lady at the shop just put it together for me when I told what they were for. I hope you're not allergic to any of them." My heart swelled as I took the flowers from him and brought them to my face. They had a delicate aroma that tickled the inside of my nose and felt as though it traveled all the way up to my brain.

"Thank you, Shuichi. They're so pretty!"

"You think so? Oh, that's good"

I stepped aside to present him with the doorway into my house.

"Well, come on in!" His body seemed to go rigid as he contemplated the interior, as if a soldier standing at attention.

"Yeah... right! Well then, I guess I'll just... come in! Thank you for having me!" He began stepping forward, one leg after another, body still stiff as a board. He kind of reminded me of a robot. One far less advanced and sophisticated than K1b0. Shutting the door behind him, I turned back around and tilted my head as he just stood in the middle of the foyer. A lone totem pole in the center of summer camp. Wait what? I rolled my eyes with a smirk as I came up behind him and took his arm.

"How about we go to the kitchen. I can find something to put these guys in before taking them up to my room." I felt a jolt run throughout his entire body at my touch before he nodded.

"That- that sounds, great. Yes! Why don't we go ahead and do that."

"Yes, lets!"

I pulled him along, since I knew he probably wasn't gonna move on his own. We walked down the hall towards the kitchen and I felt like I was trying to lead a horse to water. When we neared the threshold to the kitchen, I peeked inside to see if mom was still in there. Thankfully, the coast looked clear. Hopefully I can just fill a glass up with water and make it upstairs before she comes traipsing in like a-

"Heeellooo there!" Ugh, dammit.

I stared my mom down as she emerged from inside our walk-in pantry. I couldn't help but notice "she wasn't coming out with anything in hand. It as almost as if she was waiting in there the entire. How interesting. Well, there wasn't much I could do at this point. Might as well just hurry up and rip this band-aid clean off here and now. It'll only make things easier down the road.

"Shuichi, this is my mom. Mom, this is Shuichi Saihara."

Shuichi stepped forward, as if being called upon to recite his answer in a spelling bee, his chin even held slightly up at an odd angle, as a child would standing at a microphone that is slightly too tall for him to naturally speak into.

"H-hello, m-ma'am! I'm Sweetie Shaihara. I MEAN Shuichi Saihara! It's- it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm a f-f-friend of your daughter's!"

"Shuichi is aware that I actually communicate with my mom, right?" I held my laughter back behind my palm as my mom took his hand in her own and gave it a soft shake.

"Well, hello Shuichi. It's so very nice to meet you," As she took her hand back from him, I couldn't help but notice my mom subtly wipe her hand on the side of her pant leg. My laughing threatened to burst out from behind my pursed lips and through my fingers, but I remained strong. I didn't want to mortify poor Shuichi more so than I knew he must already be feeling. "Kaede has told me an awful lot about you. In fact, it's hard to ever keep the conversation away from eventually coming back around to you." My terrible, awful, no-good harpy of a mother relayed to Shuichi, relayed information that really did not need to be brought up.

The heat in my cheeks began to feel unbearable as the Wicked Witch of the End of the Hallway continued, "She says she's been teaching you piano?"

"Y-yes ma'am! Kaede is an incredible talent and an absolutely amazing teacher! I couldn't be more honored to have her teaching me!" My mother chuckled into her delicate fist, she too immediately catching on to Shuichi's all but too obvious anxiety.

"Well, I would hope so. You know, we've had some musicians and composers that work in the stage and film industries pay absolutely grotesque amounts of money to have her teach them. My daughter must really think you're something special." The hag continued on, giving me the most annoyingly smugly amused look I could ever remember anyone giving anyone.

"Really? Oh, gosh, that's so nice of you to say, but… I mean, I'm nothing special, really. At the very least, nothing special on the piano. Compared to her, there's no way I could even register on whatever scale she's on." I regarded him with a pained grimace at hearing his self-deprecation.

"That's not true, Shuichi! You are, singlehandedly, one of the most amazing people I've ever met! Compared to you I'm just a silly, little girl playing music. You're incredible! Recognize it, damn it!" Unsurprisingly, my nonverbal encouragements and affirmations failed to reach him. Unfortunate, as I would have given anything for just one thing to absolutely distract him as the hag giggled and uttered her next statement.

"You are just the sweetest thing, aren't you? And my daughter was right, you are 'the absolute cutest', aren't you?"

"OKAY, MOM! DON'T YOU HAVE TO DO A THING AT SOME PLACE ELSE! YES, I BELIEVE THAT YOU DO! MAYBE YOU SHOULD GET TO THAT! IT WAS SUPER IMPORTANT WASN'T IT! YES INDEED, THE MOST IMPORTANT! WELL, WE DON'T WANT TO KEEP YOU FROM YOUR SUPER IMPORTANT THING AT THE SUPER IMPORTANT PLACE! THANK YOU, GOODBYE!" I pushed her along, as if, if I was able to get her out of eyesight quick enough, the pure, unadulterated weaponized embarrassment that shot forth from my mother's mouth like artillery fire landing directly in the middle of my camp would somehow fail to make it to Shuichi's ears.

After finally getting my mom, who seemed irritatingly amused by the situation I know she knew all too well she had left me with, out into the hallway, and making damn well sure she ascended the stairs and outside of the vicinity of Shuichi's circle of hearing, I turned back around to the boy in the middle of the kitchen. His face was a neutral, unreadable blank. No information could be inferred from it, other than the vague notion that something inside of him must have broke. Thanks mom. It's good to know I can always count on my 'loving and caring' family to help me out in times of great need.

I steeled myself with a deep breath before approaching The Statue Formerly Known as Shuichi Saihara. Getting up close next to him and not having him react in any way shape or form, it really did almost feel like he was a statue. And it was really creeping me, the hell out. I raised my hand in front of his face and snapped my fingers a few times before he was finally pulled from… where ever it was that he had gone. His face immediately swelled with a passionate, crimson tint that seemed to spread like a wildfire on a dry, summer day in the desert.

He looked around, as if he didn't understand where he was for a moment. As his eyes focused on me though, I took this opportunity to try and undo the, what I knew was most likely irrevocable, damage my mother had done. A girl has the right to keep some of her cards close to her chest, isn't she!? Yes, of course she is! Shut up!

"So! Shuichi, are you hungry?" He looked around for one second, as if actually not knowing where he was at first. But eventually, he was able to gather himself enough to focus on me, enough for him to be able to slowly nod his head in affirmation of my question, "Great! How does fish sound to you?"

A/N: Hey guys, don't worry, I'm still working on 'This I Promise'. I've got the next chapter nearly completed. So rest assured, it's on it's way. Sorry it's taken so long. Like I said last time, I've been taking lots of overtime at my work, and this past week I've been on vacation just trying to relax and collect my pieces that have been taken and scattered by the job.

Anyhoo, this is actually somewhat of a gift to my favorite Dangaronpa youtuber, Weeby Newz. She ships Kaede and Shuichi super hard, and now that she's finished their free time events in V3, I thought I'd make this for her, so that she could have just a little bit more of the Kaehara goodnees I know she craves lol. Hopefully she'll like this shit. If you don't know who she is, just search her name in Youtube and you'll find her straight away. Her bread & butter are her character analysis videos, where she delves deep into select characters character and back stories so that you can try to cultivate a deeper understanding, and hopefully, a deeper appreciaiton for some characters.

She also has such a genuine and sincere passion for the series that's it's hard not to smile listening to her talk about it, or see her reactions to the sweet, sweet zaniness of V3. For real, go check her out. If you love the franchise, you won't be disappointed. For real.

Also, this was actually intended to be just a oneshot… but, it's ended up becoming a lot longer than I thought it would be. Lol oops. Oh well, it shouldn't be more than 5 chapters max. So please bear with me as I indulge in this silly, little love letter to someone who makes being a fan of Danganronpa even more enjoyable. And as always, please let me know what you think! Whether you think my writing is amazing(what is wrong with you?), or you think it needs improvement, please, please, PLEASE tell me! Not only do I want to improve in areas that I'm weak in, but obviously, I also want to reinforce the areas in which I'm strong. So really, please, let me know what you think. Your thoughts and opinions can only ever help in making your reading experience of my stories more enjoyable!