Has a Problem
Valentine's Day is a little chilly.
Mouri Ran walked slowly, cat-like steps to the door, and hooked the door with her fingers.
At the almost imperceptible 'bang' of the door, she let out a breath, took out her cell phone, and called in a whisper, "Hello, Sonoko."
The stairs were a bit long and she maintained her catwalk, her voice a bit louder, "I'm out, how are you doing?"
"Good, we'll meet at the destination, by the way, Mi..."
As she walked to the first floor, her somewhat tense mind completely relaxed, but her afterglow glimpsed a small shadow on the wall, so her tone of voice was steeply hesitant before she could be cheerful, "...rai...Huh?"
She wondered, "Conan?"
By the wall, Conan sat up from the floor as if he just realized Mouri Ran, "Sister Ran!"
"I just went shopping and came back so tired that I didn't want to go up the stairs, so I sat down and rested," he held up a box of chocolates, being very nice, "What a coincidence, Sister Ran."
And even more so, "Where are you going?"
Behaviorally, there was a hint of a ghost, like a spirit in the back of her mind.
Mouri Ran took a step back, "Huh? Haha, I, I, uh, I'm going shopping."
You can't just say 'Ahaha, I'm going to help Sonoko catch a handsome guy with the King Ball', right?
Conan: "Really?"
"It's too tiring to go out shopping alone, take me with you!" He naturally held Mouri Ran's hand, "Or two? Sister Ran is going shopping with a Mr. 'Mirai'?"
"Actually straight up called him 'Mirai'."
Because she didn't know his last name at all, and before she could say
On the other end of the phone, Suzuki Sonoko heard Conan's voice, "Hey, are you okay Ran? I can't believe that kid found out, damn it, today's sweet date can't be spoiled by that kid, get rid of him!"
Conan caught the key point: sweet date.
He stares at the phone.
Mouri Ran captures the key point: get rid of him.
She silently looked at Conan's tight grip on her hand and replied in a whisper, "No way, it seems a little difficult."
"I can't help it, you just don't want to get rid of it, do you?" Suzuki Sonoko suspected, quickly pressed, "Say! Are you still thinking about that arrogant reasoning maniac!"
The voice was so loud that it wasn't amplified, but Conan heard it, and his eyes couldn't help but blur.
"He just disappeared, didn't come back for so long, it's Valentine's Day, don't even show up, don't even call!"
Mouri Ran was helpless, she half crouched down and Conan's eye level, curved her eyes, "Fine, then we will go for Valentine's Day dinner together, but be good, there is something very important today, Mr. Mirai..."
She paused appropriately.
On the phone, Suzuki Sonoko didn't resist for a second, quickly biting the hook, "Mr. Mirai!"
"Mr. Mirai is such a good detective," she exclaimed, "We've known him for so long, but we don't even know his name, we only just got his contact information, we don't know what time he plans to arrive at his destination today, so there's no way we can bump into him, ah no, there's no way we can meet him by chance."
"He even sent us a message," Suzuki Sonoko was very touched, "explaining that he would travel quietly, as if he was going to do something secret, to try to draw out his stalker."
That's not the point. The point is: "For the sake of sending a message, he asked Auntie Ishida for our registered contact number!"
Rounding up, "Took the initiative to ask for our contact number!"
"What a discreet and excellent detective, so handsome and proactive."
There seemed to be no logical key between the sentences.
Mouri Ran smiled at Conan, stood up and reached out for a cab, echoing Suzuki Sonoko who was immersed in pink bubbles, "What an excellent detective."
"I'm about to get in, are you still near the dessert store?"
Suzuki Sonoko's voice lowered as she sighed, a bit more like a flutter, Conan didn't hear it clearly, only a few key words, like even the contact information.
Before he had a chance to make a silent comment in his mind, he heard the highlights: 'What an excellent detective'.
This comment came from Mouri Ran.
So, "????"
In the street traffic, a cab stopped, Mouri Ran opened the door and looked back to Conan, surprised for a moment, "Huh, Conan, what's wrong with you?"
She touched Conan's head helplessly, "Sonoko doesn't really hate you, don't be mad, just get in."
She continued to divert Conan's attention by telling the driver where she was going, "Did you just come back from a trip? Let me guess, those two streets again?"
Those two streets: the streets where major car accidents with double-digit death tolls occurred not long ago.
Before the accident, people in the neighborhood were more cautious and stayed away from the area.
"But Shinichi was also very concerned about those two places, saying that he suspected that there was something wrong with the accident," Mouri Ran poked Conan's angry cheek and laughed at the cuteness of it, "I thought that no one would be too concerned about it except for the detectives."
"Conan is a little detective too."
Conan: "!"
"I learned it from Uncle Mouri!" Without a second thought, he immediately threw in the towel, "Uncle Mouri's been complaining about the lack of customers due to car accidents lately!"
"Ran, where are you and Sonoko going to have dinner? It's Valentine's Day, and I thought you were going to have dinner with Shinichi!"
He emphasized, "After all, it's Valentine's Day!"
And then, uncontrollably sly, "Who is that 'Mr. Mirai' from the dessert store..."
It was amazing that Suzuki Sonoko and Mouri Ran had been struggling for a while now, and Conan had even overheard them talking about 'handsome' and 'a good match' when he'd been stalking them recently, and the alarm bells had rung.
"He works at a dessert store. He's not a serious guy."
Even if he's handsome, isn't it obvious that he's betraying his good looks? He's not a serious guy.
Mouri Ran glanced at her cell phone, and quickly lowered her voice, "Shhh, you can't say that."
"Mr. Mirai is very nice. I invited him to the party because I wanted to ask him to help me investigate the stalking."
Conan sat up straight and looked in the rearview mirror, "What, what stalking, it must be an illusion."
The cab was driving through the intersection where there was a car accident, and just as it turned the corner, the traffic light at the intersection jumped to red, and the cars behind it had to stop.
Through the rearview mirror, Conan caught a glimpse of the car behind the cab that could only stop, judging from the original movement of the car, the other car was going to make the same turn as theirs.
In the driver's seat of the car was a short-haired man wearing a knit cap, who saw the stoplight and pulled down the brim of his hat.
In a quick glance, Conan saw a dark greenish eye color and "...''
"Huh, there's a scar on his face?
On the right side of the green-eyed driver's face, from the corner of his eye to his jaw, there was a burn-like scar that stood out.
Conan couldn't help but pay more attention to it, and only withdrew his eyes as the distance increased, continuing his efforts to probe the mysterious person's information, "But today is Valentine's Day."
"He actually agreed to the commission. That 'Mr. Mirai' must not be a good guy, right?"
What kind of a serious guy agrees to a high school girl's Valentine's Day commission!
"Shhh," Mouri Ran immediately covered his mouth and whispered a warning in his ear in an airy tone, "If you don't want to be beaten up by Sister Sonoko when you meet her later, be careful what you say."
"Sonoko likes him, so she made a special date for Valentine's Day."
She smiled and curled her eyes a little strangely, "But there is actually a handsome guy at today's party, that Mr.
"From what I know about Sonoko, when she meets a handsome guy who strikes up a conversation, even if he's not her favorite type, she's bound to be friendly and caring."
After all, it's a handsome guy, and a few more glances means a few seconds of your life will be much more precious.
"But this time, her reaction was quite cold, even if she was hit on, she didn't care too much, she was thinking about Mr. Mirai."
It's weird.
For Suzuki Sonoko, handsome men are like wild cats on the side of the road, and just because you have a crush on a handsome cat doesn't mean you'll never pet another one again.
Humans, for one, have always been shameful creatures who will pet as many cats as they can, preferably hundreds of cats, and turn them inside out.
But Suzuki Sonoko, for once, was oblivious to the other dudes, as if she'd met an ordinary human being instead of the cat she'd been pining for.
Mouri Ran muttered, "And I've only met Mr. Mirai a couple of times, and we've only talked about ten times in total."
Something's not right.
Conan: "..."
He quickly reddened at the sound of the air that grazed his ears, and caught the point: "So, Sonoko?"
"The one who's interested in Mr. Mirai is Sonoko?"
"Wait, didn't you guys say you found Mr. Mirai equally interesting? Isn't it him and Sonoko, not him and you?"
What? How can a handsome man be interested in Suzuki Sonoko? And he agreed to a Valentine's Day commission that seems to have a drunken intent!
And that's in the presence of Mouri Ran!
Conan's judgment in a second: "He has a problem!"