♥The Shape of Love♥KnB♥Kaijou♥

♥29♥ Autumn river

'Akina has most of her looks from her Dad...' 

The house phone suddenly rang and Akina excused herself from the table to answer it. Her Dad insisted he should answer it but Akina told him that he has worked all day and should take a well deserved break. She beat her Dad to the phone and answered it. 

'Akina is a good kid. It's nice to know she and her Dad gets along...' Moriyama smiled to himself.

"You must be thinking Akina gets most of her looks from me, right?" Her Dad asked Moriyama.

"Eh?!" 

"Hahaha, she is my daughter after all!"

"Ah...yeah..." 

"Is it really that scary to come face to face with the Dad?" 

"A little..." 

"Too bad there isn't a Mom here to give you a sense of safety, huh?" Her Dad was teasing the frightened Moriyama and laughing about it!

"U-um, dinner is very nice..." Moriyama misdirected the conversation, hoping to gain the upperhand and somehow calm his nerves. 

"Thank you. As the owner of Maple cafe, I have high expectations in my cooking." 

"So you're the chef? That is cool." 

"Come and work part-time for me if you feel the need to. Work experience is pretty important, making coffee is not simple." 

"I can see you have a lot of pride in it." 

"So tell me about basketball, you and Akina play as a Shooting Guard... Who is the best shooter between you two?" 

"It's Akina." "Definitely Yoshitaka." 

Moriyama looked back to see Akina made her way back to the dinner table. Moriyama smiled at Akina as he continued. 

"Akina can shoot a ball into the basket without facing the post. That takes a lot of skills to do so. Plus, she copied my shooting style that I have pride in so she is definitely better than I am." 

Getting complimented by her boyfriend made Akina blush in embarrassment. She tried to focus on eating but both men already captured the sight of her blushing face so she's not able to conceal a single thing. 

'So cute...' Moriyama and Her Dad thought at the same time. 

When dinner was over, Her Dad served up dessert. He made Akina's favorite maple syrup cake since tonight was a good night. 

"I think you really got yourself a good boyfriend, Aki!" Akina's Father was openly praising Akina, "He seems like a nice guy, not like what you told me..." 

That made Moriyama worry now; what did Akina say to her Dad? 

"I told him you were hitting on girls and you found me and asked me out on the spot." Akina's words stabbed at Moriyama; the one thing he doesn't want her Dad to know happened right in front of him... 

"Well, you are a young boy so it is normal to hit on girls. I did the same thing too, except I had more luck than you did of course!" 

"You did?" 

"Sure did. Why? You don't believe me? How else do you think Akina is born?" Her Father laughed, "Akina, go and make me some tea, would you?" 

"Hn. Yoshitaka, want a drink?" Akina asked. 

"No thanks." 

Once Akina stepped out of the way again, both men were able to have a proper talk. 

"She has been showing more expressions on her face recently. I wonder if it's because of you." 

"Me? I haven't done anything much..." Moriyama was not used to being praised so much, "I am just her boyfriend..." 

"That girl hardly tells me a thing. She always bottles up everything and leave me wondering what's troubling her. I bet she tells you a lot of things, right?" 

Now that Moriyama think about it, Akina does tell him a lot of what's on her mind. As of now, Akina has been wondering if she should continue basketball when she goes to university or she should do it just for fun. Moriyama told her it doesn't matter what she chose to do because he will be there to support her. He thought it was normal for couples to share things with one another and he didn't think it was anything special that they shared their problems with one another. 

"You see, my wife walked away from us when she was young. She must think she had to stop being a kid so it would make my life easier..." 

"Akina is a good kid because you raised her well." 

"Thank you. Continue as you are with Akina, okay? She always thinks not telling me a single thing will make me less worried about her. I'm sure if she's with you, she'll be able to express more of herself." 

"Thank you..." Moriyama was in such a good mood now; he can't wait to show off to Kasamatsu and the others!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Thanks for having me over, Akina. It means a lot to me." Moriyama was at the door and Akina was seeing him out, "Next time, you should come to my house for dinner and meet my family!" 

"Okay." 

"By the way..." 

"Hm?" 

"You will be a good wife someday." 

"Wife? To who?" 

"To me of course!" Moriyama chuckled when he saw a light blush on her face, "Here's something for you to think about: Our future."