The day after my meeting with NO NAME, which happened to be the girl I met at the ice cream shop, Hinami Aoi, it was time for my date with Yuki.
I hung out with Yuki an uncountable amount of times, but this was the first time she specifically called it a date.
Noticing this small change, I decided to dress up slightly better than usual. I looked through my closet, and picked my clothes for the day. I wore a white polo on top of which I put a black sweatshirt, grey jeans.
Now that I think about it, these clothes are quite similar to the ones I wore yesterday. So much for deciding to dress up slightly better than usual. I should buy some different colored clothes, perhaps some fancier ones.
I head to the living room and prepared to go.
"Going out now?" Dad asked me.
"Yeah."
"That's the second day in a row you head out to have lunch with your friends. I'm starting to think my food doesn't taste good," Mom joked.
"Your food is the best, Mom, don't worry. The thing is, Yuki asked me out on a date. I can't refuse that, can't I?" I decided to be honest with them this time.
"Oh-ho? Yuki-chan asked you on a date? No complaints from me then, go get them, Kiyo!"
"Mom, that's a bit embarrassing."
"Heh, just kidding, but seriously, are you two going out?"
"No. At least... not yet."
"Not yet, you say, that's my boy!" Dad said while patting me on the back.
"Atsuomi! Don't encourage our boy to be a playboy!"
"It's not that, Mika. Our son hasn't never been in a relationship, so I'm cheering for him. Plus, Yuki-chan is a great girl and a good fit for our boy. You have my support, Kiyotaka," he nodded.
"Uh, thanks, but I never said I liked her that way."
"Come on, Kiyo, you can't hide anything from us. We can tell just by looking at your face!"
"Is that so?"
"Yes, now don't disappoint me, Kiyo!" Mom cheered me on as I put on my shoes, which were my beloved white sneakers. Seriously, how are they so energetic when it comes to romance?
I sighed.
"Well, I'm heading out now, bye Mom and Dad!" I said goodbye to them as I opened the front door and left.
I messaged Yuki to tell her I was on my way.
Yuki
I'm coming to your house
I'll be there in a few minutes
11:34 AM [You]
I then started walking over to her house.
"... the favor is the following: let's go on a date this weekend during which I decide what we do!"
She did say that, didn't she?
What in the world did she plan?
As I quickly arrived at her house, I had many questions popping up in my head.
Nonetheless, I went up to the front door and rang the doorbell.
To my surprise, her mom opened the door.
"Hey there, Kiyo! Sorry, Yuki's still preparing herself in her room. Come on in. You can have a seat on the sofa if you'd like."
It would be rude to refuse, so I did as she said. I took off my shoes and made my way to the living room.
Once again, I was surprised to see not only Tsubasa, but also Ichika, on the sofa. To be fair, Ichika was probably Tsubasa's best friend, so having her in their house surely wasn't a rare occasion by any means.
"Hello, Kiyotaka," Tsubasa casually greeted me.
"Hey Tsubasa."
"Senpai!!!!" Ichika quickly got up from the sofa and ran over to me."
"Why is she here?" I ignored Ichika and asked Tsubasa.
"We had a sleepover, and she hasn't gone home yet," she replied.
"Hey! I'm right here!" Ichika said as she waved her arms in front of me.
"Sorry, how have you been, Ichika?"
"Hmph. Good, but school isn't as fun without senpai around," she pouted.
"Well, sorry about that then."
"You don't seem sorry at all."
"You didn't have to expose me like that."
Then, we heard someone coming down the stairs.
"I'm late, I'm late, I'm late, I'm-" she stopped.
"Um, hi Yuki. I'm here for our date."
"Mom! Why did you let him in our house without telling me!!" her face got red as she screamed at her mom.
"It'd be rude to keep Kiyo outside, wouldn't it? And you were so busy preparing yourself in your room, I didn't wanna bother you!"
"Jeez, whatever. Sorry for not being on time, Kiyo. Let's go!" she came over, grabbed my hand and dragged me to the front door.
Putting my shoes back on, I said goodbye to the Yuki household... and Ichika.
"That was embarrassing," she said, "Sorry about that. Did Mom say anything weird to you again?"
"Not at all, she was very nice to me."
"That's good," she sighed in relief.
I finally took a good look at her.
"You look stunning, Yuki."
Indeed, she was. She was wearing a black turtleneck sweater, paired with a short dark grey skirt. The lack of colors really made her golden hair stand out.
Lack of colors, guess we think alike, huh? We're wearing the same colors.
"I- w-what?" she got caught off guard by my sudden comment before regaining her composure, "Thanks, Kiyo. You look great, too," she said after examining my clothes, "Wait, we're wearing the same colors!"
"It seems like we are. Our outfits are matching."
"How amusing is that!" she giggled.
"Anyway, what's the plan for today?"
"Ahem, impatient, aren't we? You'll see. First, we're going to lunch! I have a place I want to try out near central Tokyo."
"Let's go then."
"Yep! Let's go!"
~~~~~~~~
The place Yuki wanted to try out was a Japanese restaurant. The restaurant itself looked really nice. It looked extremely luxurious yet also traditional. The food they offered had reasonably prices as well, some one wouldn't expect from a place that looked like this.
In the end, Yuki and I both ordered a bowl of ramen. Apparently this place was known for its ramen.
We were surprised to see food on our table extremely quickly. Not only that, we also got soup and some little appetizers for free.
"Wow, the food is so good!" I was immediately impressed by the quality of the food here.
"I know right! This place has been trending recently because of its amazing yet affordable food! They'll be getting a good review from me! Hey, let me try some of your ramen!"
"What? But we ordered the same one."
"I-I know that you idiot! I... just want to see if there's any difference in taste."
"Is that so? Then go ahead," I moved my bowl closer to her side of the table.
"Idiot," she murmured.
"So?" I said after she ate some of my ramen.
"Hm? Y-yeah, just as I thought, it's the same taste!" she awkwardly laughed.
"Well, I told you so. By the way, what are we doing this after this?"
"I'm glad you asked!" she took something out of her bag, "Tada!"
"Movie tickets?"
"Yep! Remember when you said you wanted to watch that new Spooder-man movie? Well, I got this for us!"
"No way, that's awesome! Thanks, Yuki. How much did they cost?" I asked as I took out my wallet.
"Hey, don't. Let me treat you to this, please."
"I guess, if you want, but why?"
"It's to thank you for the other day."
"Wednesday?"
"Yeah. And also as a thank you in general."
"What do you mean?"
"You're always doing so much for me! It's about time I did something for you!" she said in a determined tone.
"I see. Thanks then, Yuki," I thanked her with a smile.
"No problem! Anyway, the movie starts in a little more than half an hour. Are you done eating?"
"Yeah, should we go?"
She nodded.
"Let's go. To our next destination!"
~~~~~~~~
After paying for our food, we left the restaurant and made our way to the movie theater.
"Quite a lot of people here," she murmured.
"Yeah, there's a big line, but luckily, we already have our tickets. Wanna get some popcorn?"
"Do you even have to ask that? Is it even possible to watch a movie at the movie theater without popcorn?"
"Beats me," I shrugged, "Anyway, let's go then, there's a big line for movie tickets, but not a lot for snacks."
We waited a bit in line before buying a large popcorn, and drinks.
"Damn, this bucket is massive," I whispered to Yuki as the cashier gave me the bucket full of popcorn.
"Well that's a large bucket alright," she giggled.
"The movie starts, soon. Should we go?"
"Yeah, let's go, I'll grab the drinks."
We arrived at the entry point and showed the guy our tickets.
"Theater number 4, that way," he said in a stoic tone as he showed us the way.
"I need to go to the bathroom, Kiyo. Can you watch our stuff?"
"Sure, I'll go sit on that bench over there."
She gave me her things and went to the bathroom, as I sat down on the bench, waiting for Yuki.
"I'm done, do you need to go to the bathroom too?"
"Yeah, can't risk missing five minutes of Spooder-man because of a bathroom break."
"Hehe, you're right. I'll be here watching our stuff."
"Okay, stay here. I'll be right back."
"You got it."
I quickly made a trip to the bathroom and got back to Yuki.
"Let's go, the movie is gonna start soon!" she said.
"Alright, let's go."
We took our stuff and went the theater number 4. Our seats were towards the middle of a row, so we had to excuse ourselves as people moved out of the way for us.
We put the popcorn between our seats as the movie soon started. We were both immersed in the movie as we continuously ate our popcorn.
At one point, Yuki started resting her head on my shoulders.
"I hope I'm not bothering you," she whispered as she looked at me, the light from the screen making me see her face. Her cheeks were a shade of pink, and she quickly averted her gaze to the screen.
"Not at all," I responded. For the rest of the movie, I had Yuki's head on my shoulders.
~~~~~~~~
"That movie was great," I said as we came out of the movie theater.
"I agree! Spooder-man is such a cinematic masterpiece," she nodded.
"Thanks again for treating me to this."
"No need to thank me, Kiyo!"
"Where are we going next?"
"I'll let you guess."
"Hm... ice cream?"
"How did you know?"
"I didn't know, it was just a guess."
"Sometimes I feel like you can read my mind... only sometimes though..." she murmured that last part.
"Do you have a place in mind? Are we going to that shop again?"
"Nope! I want to try somewhere different, so I did my research and found a good place not far from here!"
"Wow, so you really planned it all out, huh? Is there anything else after that?"
"Y-yeah, one last thing... Anyway, let's go!"
She dragged my hand and took me away.
~~~~~~~~
After eating ice cream, we were now it this park. Yuki said she wanted to take a walk in this park, and currently we're sitting on this bench. The sunset had already started to set.
"By the way, Kiyo? How was yesterday? Didn't you say you were gonna meet an Atafami player or something?"
"Oh yeah, I did. I met the number two player in Japan. It was pretty fun actually."
"Really? How did he look like?"
"It was actually a girl."
"Wait what? A girl?"
"Yeah, I was surprised, too. She's also a first year high school student."
"Was she... pretty?" Yuki insecurely asked.
"I guess so..." Yuki started looking down, "But not as pretty as you."
"That's unfair, you can't just say things like that so casually," she lightly punched my arm.
"Anyway, she seemed like a decent person. She actually plays basketball and guess what? You're playing against her next week."
"No way! She plays for Sekimoto High?"
"Yeah, I told her that I would be there for the game, but only to watch my friend play."
"Friend, huh..." she whispered to herself.
"Say, Kiyo."
"What is it, Yuki?"
"Do you enjoy the time we spend together?"
"Of course I do, what about it?"
"Well I do too, but not only that, when I'm with you, I just feel so safe, and relaxed, and just... so happy to be around you."
I looked at her, as she continued on.
"But it's always been like that, hasn't it? We've known each other for so long, we spent so much time together, that's something that goes back a long time."
"What are you trying to say?"
"The thing is, I've had these feelings in my chest for a long time, but recently, they turned into something more. Every time I see your face, I would lose my composure. Every time I see you talking to other girls, I would feel a bit jealous. Every time you say something cheeky, it would make my cheeks heat up. I think you get the point. I think about you a lot, Kiyo, and recently, you've always been on my mind."
She continued, "I thought a lot about all this. About our friendship, about both of us," she looked at me in the eyes, "And I decided I want to take things further."
I sat in silence.
"Look, you idiot! What I'm trying to say is..." she took a deep breath and then looked me in the eyes.
"I love you, Kiyo. Will you go out with me?"
I don't know why, but everything felt so perfect at that moment. The way she said those words, the way she looked at me, the way the stunning sunset made her fluttering golden hair shine. Simply put, it felt out of this world.
"Yuki..."
I closed the distance between us, and we shared a passionate kiss that made time freeze.
"Idiot, that was my first time. At least tell me in advance."
"Does that answer your question?" I said soon after our lips parted.
"Yes, but I want to hear you say it clearly," she smiled.
"Is that so?"
"Yep," she cutely replied, to which I smiled.
"I love you too, Yuki. Let's go out."
"Say it again."
"I love you too, Yuki. Let's go out."
"Again."
"Seriously?"
"Yes."
"I love you too, Yuki. Let's go out," I sighed.
"Hehe~"
She smiled and hugged me tightly, as we embraced each other.
"Let me stay like this for a while," she murmured with her head in my chest.
"I don't mind," I said, lightly patting her head, "Take as long as you want."
That day, we went home together, not as classmates, not as childhood friends, but for the very first time, as a couple.
~~~~~~~~
Author's Notes :
Well, there it is, ladies and gentlemen. A turning point in Yuki and Kiyo's relationship, as they're now dating.
Thanks for reading!