ᡕᠵ᠊ᡃ່࡚ࠢ࠘ ⸝່ࠡࠣ᠊߯᠆ࠣ࠘ᡁࠣ࠘᠊᠊ࠢ࠘𐡏 ♡
"The days following when he first kissed me, everything just kept getting better.
The next morning, when we all met in the common area for classes, Toge was standing next to Panda in front of you and Maki. I could see both of you laughing to yourselves, and I guess Toge took an interest in listening to you.
I remembered how nice it felt to hug him, he was so gentle with me but he still kept me close to him just enough. He's the first boy I ever hugged. I just wanted to feel that way again. I didn't think it would embarrass either one of us, I'd never been in a relationship. When I ran up behind him and wrapped my arms around his torso from underneath his arms that were of course in his pockets, he stiffened. I hugged him closely for a few seconds until I felt how his body was shaking.
I'd felt that same vibration before from the first man I tried to hug.
I released my grip on him, sliding my arms off of him because I knew he was uncomfortable. I was about to nail my arms to my sides and start apologizing like I learned to, but before my fingertips left the fabric of his uniform, he turned around to face me, bending his knees and pulling my arms over his shoulders.
I was lifted off the ground and spun in the air. I held onto him in fear that he would toss me, but as my arms wrapped around his neck, he lightly tapped my feet back onto the ground.
I could feel his body growing warmer as he pressed himself gently against me once again. He smelled so nice, like peppermint. His voice was smooth and deep from the morning. I could hear him laughing in my ear.
I'm always the type of person to hug someone around their waist. I always need comforted. As his fingers reached around my back and trailed my ribs on either side of my stomach, I felt a new sensation in my stomach. I could feel my face growing hotter, and I was no longer breathing.
He spoke this time, his voice still smooth and now whispering, "I'm so happy to see you.""
"And then what happened?"
"You were there, we all went to class after."
Nobara tossed her pencil onto the table in the darkly lit room. "I need details, Kaori."
She tilted her head, looking at the pitch black ceiling as she thought more. "I don't remember anything else other than normal classes that day, sorry."
"Well what about after that day?"
"We went to school."
Nobara sighed heavily at her dense friend, shaking her head with a pitiful smile, "dates? Hangouts? Affection?"
"Affection?"
"How does he show you he loves you?!"
Kaori thought again, deciding to answer her questions in order.
"Sometimes we go to a store nearby, hang out, walk the isles, and play simple games. We played hide and seek our first time in a Target, but we got kicked out by management.
Other than that we still go shopping together, sometimes he comes over to my dorm for a movie night."
"Does he spend the night?"
"He leaves when I get tired. He's always half asleep but he never asks to stay the night. Sometimes we share a blanket and he still holds me close even when the blanket is thick. I'm usually always glued to his side, whether we are laying down or sitting up."
"Laying down?"
"Whenever we've had a test or intense training earlier that day, he's always extra tired. I am too, so I always prefer to lay down those nights on the couch instead. He always gets our favorite blanket out, laying on the narrow cushion next to me as he covers us up. He pulls me especially close to him during those nights.
I guess I'd say those are our hangouts, what was the last thing?"
"Affection."
"Right. Well... he always hugs me when we say hello or goodbye for the day. Sometimes we take the bus to the stores around Toyko, he always holds my hand during those times. If I happen to be wearing a ring those days, he plays with those fingers the most. Sometimes he wears them, and it gives me a weird feeling in my stomach again.
He doesn't kiss me all that much. He always has his mouth covered with something, I don't know why he does that."
"Maki noticed he never takes it off, only when he uses cursed words."
"Does she know why? She's known him a couple months more than I have."
"She doesn't, but Panda says he hates his technique so much that he just decides to hide evidence of it."
"I don't know why he hates it, I don't think of him differently because of it."
"Continue your story and I'll analyze at the end."
"Well, the only times he does kiss me is to wake me up if I've fallen asleep, but that's only when we're alone. When I fall asleep in class he just taps my arm.
It's always a quick one, I don't know the term for that."
"A peck."
"He does a peck? Well anyway, it's always so quick that I never see the lower half of his face anymore. He looks so... nice. I wish I would see him more."
"You need to watch a romance movie, your like a newborn baby."
"What?"
Nobara took notes on her notebook, tearing the page out after she finished her bullet points. "First of all, you need to watch romance movies. You don't know what a proper relationship is because you don't watch enough movies! Next movie night, watch The Notebook or something like that." She laid down the paper for a moment to let Kaori read the notes.
"Next, you need to learn how to properly cuddle."
"What's-"
"Look it up." She scanned her notes again. "You also need to complement him, do you do that?"
"I tell him good job when we finish a mission. He's always appreciative of that."
"Do you complement the way he looks?"
"Why would I do that?"
Nobara groaned again, scribbling more notes onto the paper. "You have got to call him something other than nice, and say it to his face. He might take off his mask if you reassure him that it's okay with you, even if you complement that part of his face he'll feel better about it." She tapped her chin with the eraser on her pencil, "more of a pretty boy isn't he..." she mumbled to herself.
"Hm?"
"Look, sweetheart, you need to use these words." Nobara flipped the paper to show Kaori.
"All of them at once?"
"One at a time, girl."
"But when..."
"If he smiles at you, hugs you, or does something to give you that feeling in your stomach, which are called butterflies, just look him in the eye and say "you're cute.""
"Huh?"
"Read a romance novel!" Nobara drew a few stars next to important details on the paper before handing it to kaori in the form of a folded square. "Try it out."
"Thanks, we don't have to do this again do we?"
"If you follow instructions, no."
"I'll try my best."
Nobara stood up from her seat at the table walking to the door hidden on the dark wall. "See you tomorrow," she said, holding the door open for Kaori to exit.
"See you!"
Maki nodded at Kaori as she passed, meeting Nobara at the door before they walked off together.
ʚ♡⃛ɞ
It was August now. Half a month had passed since Kaori and Toge started dating, and the whole school of five students plus teachers immediately knew about it. Even Yuta, who was in Africa at the time, got a message from Gojo on the pair.
Kaori scanned her paper again, walking towards her dorm room without noticing who was in front of her in the hallway.
A few doors down, Toge was just about to turn the key in his door before he shouted out to his girlfriend, "Kaori!"
She trained herself to keep her ears covered in cursed energy whenever she was awake. Even when Toge was in a situation he couldn't speak to her, she considered this to be useful training.
When she looked up, she saw him already running down the hall to her. She stuffed her notes into her pocket, walking forward to him, already anticipating the next hug.
As soon as he hugged her around her waist, she was quickly lifted into the air again, spun, and placed back into the wood floors. She hugged him happily, his face in her collarbone as she touched his soft hair with both of her hands.
"Do you want to come in?" she asked, pulling away from the hug to grab her own keys.
He nodded happily, holding out his hand for her to drop her keys into. He took the keys focusing on the lock as he opened the door for the both of them. He stepped aside, waiting for her to enter the room first.
"You're cute."
Kaori stepped into her dorm, remembering what Nobara told her earlier, so she turned around immediately.
"You're cute."
Toge looked down, his eyes flickering around the room, even behind him as he turned to look for a different person she would be talking to.
"Really?"
"Yeah." She smiled, already feeling accomplished.
Toge sighed heavily, pulling down his collar by the zipper, revealing his mostly unseen portion of his face.
Kaori's stomach had that feeling again, and she knew to call it butterflies. "Your face is so cute," she said again, holding out her hand to stroke across his skin. Her thumbs circled his snake eyes, and his skin moved to the unfamiliar sight of a smile as his lips moved.
"So is yours..." he hummed, cupping her own face with both his hands. She smiled at him, four of her fingers moving underneath his chin as he leaned in to the side of her.
His lips aimed for her rosy cheeks, but as her hand on his chin tore that destination away from him, his lips instead landed on her own. He stopped for a moment, feeling his breath hitch before he realized it should have been normal to kiss his own girlfriend back.
The only reason he kissed her anywhere other than her lips is because he felt that her lips were reserved for special occasions only. With how self conscious he felt about his markings also added to his fear of proper affection. He avoided her lips to make sure he could cover his face again without her seeing what he hated most about himself. He knew the strain that Kaori had been putting on her body while she applied cursed energy to her ears all day. He wanted to be normal with her, not having to worry about their language boundaries.
He pressed his lips to hers, moving them with hers in sync. Her hand on his face brushed along his skin more as she moved it to the back of his neck, now having herself to be the one to pull them close.
As Toge pulled away for air, he pulled her shoulders forward to touch his, and the same for her core. His hands wrapped around her waist again, and his forehead rested on her shoulder.
The rest of the night, he kept his collar down and kissed her goodnight again, this time without missing.