Leo

Bitter & Sweet

"..."

"It's not that interesting, right?"

"H-huh?"

Mitsuki took another brief pause before saying

"My place, I meant."

"Oh..."

Chouchou said the first thing that came to her mind

"You probably like it this way, with few things..."

"It's minimalistic and stylish!"

Then she crossed her arms displaying a thoughtful mannerism

"Though if it were me, I would put more things around and..."

Mitsuki chuckled. He figured out it would be the case

"Chouchou's room is very colorful and lively. It reflects how you are and what kind of impression you give."

She looked at him with curious eyes

"Hehe... you think so? It took me a lot of time to achieve that!" 

Chouchou took a pause before saying the following

"I think your place somehow reflects a part of you too. It's a small apartment and has few things, yet it feels very peaceful."

"As if nothing bad can happen here."

Mitsuki arched his little eyebrows in surprise, then he chuckled again and sat next to Chouchou despite his agitated heartbeats and asked

"How can you be so sure nothing bad can happen here?"

She pouted and pointed at him

"It's how it feels! That's what you said, right? On how it reflects part of you!"

"Being around you feels like that. I feel... Secure..."

The words left her lips so easily. "Secure," was something she wouldn't have said about him many years back when she met him. Mitsuki always looked small and weak in her eyes, perhaps this is why she never considered him as a guy who she would choose as a boyfriend. The Mitsuki she knows now is... Well, almost the same. It's just that Chouchou was discovering him little by little during the years, and even more now that she was hanging with him. On how reliable he was when his friends were in need, or how he was willing to protect them in the most selfless ways.

"So, you feel that way..."

Mitsuki quietly said, not looking at her directly. His view dropped to the floor, and his hands held anxiously together while a faint and very unusual shade of red colored his cheeks.  "Secure," she said and the first thing that crossed his mind was to embrace her. Mitsuki felt many things, a mixture of shame and excitement... and happiness. 

These new symptoms were getting worse to the point Mitsuki thought they were dangerously... Uncontrollable.

Timidly(As much as someone like him could get) looked back at the auburn-haired beauty just to find out she was looking at him with a surprised expression

".........."

"Ah," Chouchou faintly said, her lips barely parted. She did it! She made Mitsuki blush! And oh boy, she definitely wanted to see more. It was clear to her now, that it just took a compliment to obtain it, and to her, it felt weird. Wasn't Mitsuki the type of person who would receive tons of compliments anyway? She watched him curiously, thinking saying something nice for once about his appearance would do the job. So when her eyes wandered too much on his long neck, traced upwards to his now strong jawline, and focused on his thin lips, her mind went blank, forgetting what was the purpose of her actions. Chouchou was lost in what seemed to be a very pleasant view