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She leaves the cookies on his desk and refuses to watch his reaction. It's bad enough she spent her whole night baking cookies instead of working on something worthwhile. Measuring out each of the ingredients to the exact numbers in the recipe. Picking through three batches just to find the best ones. Painstakingly frosting them to look like the sides of dice. Making sure the violet ribbon she used to seal the plastic baggie was tied perfectly. She'd taken to making those stupid cookies with the same meticulous diligence that she attacked her projects with. If he didn't like them, Miu didn't want to know.
Except, when Ouma finally arrives to class (late as always) she can't help but watch out of the corner of her eye. A giddy feeling bubbles in her stomach as she watches him pause. His over-exaggerated smile falling blank. She's managed to surprise him. Even if he hates the cookies that in itself is a victory. She truly is a genius.
Gingerly picking up the plastic baggie, Ouma runs his thumb over the bumpy ridges of the cookies' icing. The cookies themselves are nothing special. Just basic sugar cookies. Miu had liked the idea of innovating but Kirumi had warned her that baking was a basic vanilla bitch and 'didn't take well to deviations.' Following a recipe wasn't hard though, no different than basic chemistry, and she was... willing to concede her brilliant ideas in favor of making something Ouma would actually like.
She'd deliberately picked out the royal frosting because she knew he preferred things with texture. Ouma had mentioned once, while harassing her in her lab, that he didn't have a sense of taste. That he preferred the sour or spicy things in the vending machines because pain receptors had nothing to do with taste buds. Maybe it had just been another one of his inane lies but she'd taken it into consideration. She wasn't about to let him accuse her of not listening.
Sitting down, Ouma's eyes began to bounce around the room from student to student. She could practically see him crossing people off the list. Quickly narrowing down who could have done it. The closer he got to looking at her the more she struggled to contain herself. There was something so exciting about the anticipation. About waiting for her efforts to be recognized. It felt like a hardcore version of edging.
Finally, he reaches her. Heterochromatic eyes, one a blue so deep it almost seemed purple and the other a light caramel brown, pinned her in place. It takes him mere seconds to put the pieces together. To take in the frantic tapping of her foot and gnawing of her nails. She watches him do it and feels breathless at the sight of it. There are so few people that Miu feels can truly keep up with her. Kokichi doesn't just match her, he challenges her. Makes her feel alive in ways she hasn't in years. Every time she manages to win his attention it feels like touching a live wire. It's addicting, how seen and understood he makes her feel.
He smiles at her and Miu feels weak at the knees. The silver of his braces glints in the fluorescents and she notices that the color of his bands has swapped again. He keeps switching between purple and yellow. Today, he's back to yellow. She wonders what it feels like to kiss someone with braces. Would Ouma taste as sweet as she imagines or would the metal flavor cancel it out? She hypothesizes that Ouma's addiction to Fanta will bury any metal taste but to really know she'd have to test it. Experiment a couple times...
“Is Iruma having dirty thoughts?” Ouma is whispering but she startles anyway, a squeal tearing through her before she can think better of it. How red must she be? Can he see how mortified she is? Does he like it? “You should have told me you were good at baking. I have so many schemes I threw away because no one knew how to bake.”
“W— Well... I—”
“Though maybe these were just a fluke. Maybe Iruma is just really good at this one kind of cookie.” He stares at her. Challenges her. “I guess I'd need to see some evidence to believe she can do more than just this, huh?”
Damn him. Can't even say thank you like a normal person. She's already planning her next idea though. Are grape pies a thing? If not, she's sure she can find a way to make one. That would show him.