"So I guess we have to go see the victim's house," Heiji said, grinning slowly as another interesting case unfolded before him. Kazuha adjusted herself on her chair slightly; she loved seeing Heiji like this. "Occhan, let's go."

"Hai, hai," Kogoro said, removing sulkily the earphone through which he'd been listening to a horse race.

"I'll take this kid," Heiji said, already ushering Conan forward.

"Take care of him, Hattori-kun," Ran said, knowing it was pointless to try and complain.

"We'll be back before dinner, Kazuha," he now said, putting his hand on Kazuha's hair. "Be safe, don't let anyone see your stomach." He grinned down at her, that annoying way that made her blood boil. But before she could retort - "Cool down. Ja ne~"

He took his hand away, pulling her ribbon, that it became undone.

"A'ho!" Kazuha yelled, but he just smirked widely and left.

"Really," she said, when he'd left for sure, "always picking on me like that."

"I think it's amusing," Ran said, after they'd left the crime scene, and started the short walk to Heiji's house. "You act like a married couple already."

Kazuha, who had heard this comment many times from a wide variety of people (from everyone at school to her parents), merely sighed, unable to stop smiling.

"Kazuha-chan," Ran said carefully, looking at her. "What do you think would have happened if Heiji found the unvandalized picture?"

She reacted immediately, not going to forget that tragedy that fast. "He would know that I've liked him ever since," she said. "But I still don't understand why the picture was drawn on! I swear I didn't do that.."

Ran grinned. That time, Heiji and Kazuha had to wake up early after a late night out to catch their flight; there had been no time to tell her what really happened. "Kunisue-san did. He liked you, and I guess he got jealous when he saw Hattori-kun's picture inside your charm. Well, you can't blame him, he must've really liked you."

"Oh, so that's why.." Kazuha said thoughtfully. "But really, even if he'd seen the real thing, he still wouldn't've—"

They paused to greet Heiji's mother, Shizuka, and said they would be preparing dinner. The sun had set a vivid orange over the whitewashed walls; it was almost 6.

"—he still wouldn't've liked me." Kazuha mumbled to Ran as she washed the vegetables.

Ran had no reaction, remembering what Sonoko said: "A man's first love is special to him." So silence reigned.

Kazuha didn't mind. She had known all along that Heiji wouldn't forget her: everytime he went to Kyoto, he would always bring her jewel along, in high hopes of finding her. And when he finally did, he would be ecstatic. Well, Kazuha thought dully, as long as she's decent and can take care of Heiji…

She held back her tears with a great effort. Accidentally, she cut herself on the knife she'd been peeling a carrot with.

"Ah," she said softly, reaching for the band-aid in the first aid kit.

"Careful, Kazuha-chan," Ran told her, looking up to see her cleaning the wound.

"Just distracted by my thoughts," she said.

"Why, what were you thinking about?"

"Well—"

"Tadaimaaa!~" a familiar voice called from the direction of the front door.

"I'll tell you later," Kazuha muttered out of the corner of her mouth, as Heiji burst in the door, grinning as he braced himself to tease her lightly again.