(Volume 2) Super Sentai Couple Pairings

Koh/Asuna (Ryusoulger): I'm By Your Side

I can smile because I am by your side. I pray again that you will be my person… — All With You, Taeyeon (SNSD)

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It was already an everyday thing for Koh to watch Asuna eat her fill of snacks — usual ones and even new ones — especially when things around them were peaceful and no enemies would dare disrupt their usual days. On that particular day, however, there was something strange about the way he would observe his childhood friend doing the usual thing.

He shook his head and turned around for the meantime, not noticing that Asuna soon turned his way, thus stopping her from eating her snacks.

“Are you okay, Asuna?”

She turned to the source of that voice, only to see the curious and at the same time, worried look on Ui’s face. She smiled at her friend and shook her head. “It’s nothing.” It was then that she recalled the discussion between her and Ui while she was busy eating her snacks.

“By the way, Ui-chan. Are you still going to go back on tour this year? From what you told us, there’s still going to be an event for vloggers abroad.”

Ui nodded, looking away with a dreamy look that made Asuna smile. “I can’t wait! I know it’s going to be exciting.”

She was happy that her friend was enjoying and having fun doing the things that she loved. Then again, the sole female Ryusoulger was also doing something she enjoyed even after their final battle. Of course, there were still monsters appearing and causing trouble around them. But not once had they faltered in fulfilling their duties as Ryusoulgers.

It was just that lately, she noticed something about Koh. And at some point, she couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. She had always known him to be more simple-minded than Melto. So having to watch Koh and figure him out was a bit of a challenge to her these past few days.

Then again, was that supposed to be a bad thing? It could be a sign that Koh was being even more mature than how he was after the battle. Of course, she also had to include the fact that Koh appeared to be watching her from afar and would stop at a certain point. She couldn’t figure out why Koh would do that.

“It looked like Koh’s actions had been bothering you lately, huh?”

Asuna turned to Ui once again when she asked that question. She nodded and turned to Koh who was then talking to Melto. “I know I shouldn’t be worried about anything. We still talk like usual. It’s just that…”

Okay… How was she supposed to explain things to her friend when she was also confused about all this?

Her eyes widened at what Ui pointed out. “Wait! You saw, too?”

Ui nodded. “It was really obvious. At first, I thought it was something he would usually do. But I don’t recall Koh ever doing that for longer than a few seconds. Lately, he would only watch over you for minutes, even.”

Woah! Asuna hadn’t expected that observation. But it was true, then…

‘I wonder what he’s thinking whenever he’d do that, though.’

Koh hadn’t been a particularly transparent fellow since those strange actions had started. Thinking about it at the moment, for some reason, was making her heart skip a beat. Honestly, she didn’t know what to do with that.

How was she supposed to approach this weird feeling because of Koh’s actions?

“Do you want to ask him about it, though?”

Asuna’s eyes widened at Ui’s unexpected question and she nearly screamed. It was a good thing that she was able to stop herself from doing that. But seriously, Ui shouldn’t be surprising her with such questions.

“I don’t think I can,” she responded as soon as she recovered. “I have a feeling that he’s not going to answer it truthfully, anyway.”

“What made you so sure about that? You haven't even tried asking him yet.”

“I’m not sure. But… I just know.”

It was a vague answer, but it was a feeling that she trusted so far. It was strange, to be honest. But perhaps she should consider it.

xxxxxx

Night time came. But Asuna couldn’t sleep no matter how much she forced herself. It was annoying. But perhaps not as annoying as the reason why she was still up and awake even though it was already near midnight.

It was that discussion that she had with Ui — about Koh’s actions lately.

Maybe she would consider it a good thing that Koh wasn’t around anymore after she and Ui were just about done talking about him. That means she had no reason to overthink about whether or not she should ask him or not.

“That’s going to be so embarrassing if I actually did that,” she said as she sighed and looked up to the night sky.

“What’s going to be embarrassing?”

Despite getting startled, Asuna whirled to the source of that voice. Only for her to open her eyes wide and gasped at the sight of the exact man she was just thinking about. And he actually heard what she said?

What the heck?

“Koh! What are you doing here?” she ended up asking. Thankfully, she managed to recover easily from the surprise arrival of her friend.

“I should be the one asking that to you. You’re supposed to be in bed already.”

The stern tone in Koh’s voice made her pout, though. “I can’t sleep. My mind’s been pretty occupied and I thought I’d get some fresh air.”

“Wow… You rarely even do that before. You must have been in a serious slump that’s making you stay awake until now.”

To be honest, Asuna didn’t know what to make of Koh’s comment. But she knew what he meant, though. This was indeed serious — at least for her.

“What made you come here?” she asked once again, upon changing her first question to him a little differently.

“Just thought I’d get some fresh air, too. I didn’t think you’re already here, doing the same thing. We must be thinking alike, huh?”

At that point, Asuna couldn’t stop the smile from appearing on her face. What in the world was Koh thinking for him to say that? “Since when did we actually think alike, huh?”

“Just now.”

The casual way Koh answered her question had only made her laugh. It was something that hadn’t happened in a while since starting to observe Koh’s strange actions. But it seemed that Koh… was doing that on purpose. For what reason, she had no idea.

“Thank goodness, you finally laughed. That took a while.”

Despite the surprise, she felt glad upon hearing that. The smile never left her face. And then she thought about what he said.

‘I finally laughed… What was that supposed to mean?’

“You haven’t been smiling lately, even when you’re doing your favorite thing. I couldn’t help worrying, though,” Koh said, as if reading her mind.

She could only look at him in confusion. Honestly, she didn’t think she hadn’t been smiling in a while. She thought she was still going about her usual days, doing the same thing in the same vigor and manner. Has something actually changed?

But Koh didn’t choose to say anything more. Instead, he sat beside her and looked at the night sky that she was looking at earlier.

But something was different this time.

Asuna soon thought that she wouldn’t mind doing this thing with Koh once again. A soft smile appeared on her face as that thought lingered. It was so much better being with Koh like this a thousand times over, if she was going to be honest. Regardless of his strange actions, she knew that being close to her was much more amazing and worthwhile than any of her hobbies.

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New one-shot posted here after a long while. I was busy doing other writing projects that, more often than not, I forgot that I have one-shot collections that I should update from time to time. But even so, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.