Chapter 85: Another Year With My Beloved
"By the way, when are you guys heading back to Tokyo?" Kuro asks.
"Kaori and I will be on our way back to Tokyo on January 3 since she has work on the 4th."
"Ai and I originally planned on heading back on January 2 but we decided to extend for one day."
"You guys should come back when you have a long break. We could go to Nara next time! And if I'm on vacation too, then we can go to Osaka or Kobe!" Kuro says enthusiastically.
"Sure, why not? We'll notify you if Kaori and I will be coming again."
"Nice, nice!"
Kuro then suddenly pauses and looks at me; he looks like he just remembered something.
"Hey sis! Since you're here on New Year's Eve, are you going to take part in 'that'?"
"Eh? What are you—" Ah! I remember now!
"What are you two talking about?" Ai asks in curiosity.
"Well...it's nothi—"
"Sis didn't tell you that she always takes part in the New Year's Eve festival? She always was part of the main event each year before she moved to Tokyo."
"She never mentioned it before."
"Really?! It's really cool! She wears a really awesome costume and the makeup looks good on her then she has to do a traditional dance on front of everyone ten minutes before the New Year comes. Everyone looks forward to it each year! But ever since she moved to Tokyo, it hasn't been the same no matter who takes her place."
"H-Hey! Why did you tell him about that?!"
"Tell me more about it." Ai says bluntly.
"Eh?! B-But—"
Kuro cuts me off.
"It all started when she was forced to be a replacement for the original performer who was a family friend of ours. Sis was requested by that person and ended up learning the dance in three days. When the festival came, we didn't expect much from her since it was her first time and she didn't get a lot of practice but we were all surprised when she came out with the costume and makeup on! She looked great! We were even more surprised when she started performing; it was captivating! Ever since then, the festival committee would request for her to perform."
Kuro! Stop talking about it! Or else! I turn to look at Ai and I can see that he's interested.
Kuro continues to talk about the festival. He tells Ai that every year, our area holds a New Year Welcoming festival and every year since that time I was asked to be a replacement for the performer, I've been taking part on the traditional dance. The dance is always the finale of the festival that happens ten minutes before the New Year enters. It lasts for ten minutes and right after the dance, everyone starts a countdown; the dance ends 1 minute before the New Year starts. After the countdown, fireworks would shower the sky and everyone starts celebrating even more.
"Since we're all free today, do you want to go visit the shrine where the festival is held?"
"I'd like to." Ai says happily.
"Eh?! But—"
"It's settled then!" Kuro says as he eats faster. "Let's go after eating!"
I know what this little brother of mine is doing. He's going to make sure that I take part in the festival by showing that I'm here in Kyoto! Sigh! Little devil...I was planning on not participating because I want to go and enjoy the festival with Ai! How dare you take that away from me! Sigh...
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We went on our way to the shrine which was just walking distance from the house; it's a fifteen minute walk.
"Here we are! Welcome to the shrine, Ai! And welcome back, sis! Haha."
Kuro rushes to the office of the shrine; he's probably going to tell the head that I'm here. Sigh.
"This place is beautiful and big." Ai says as he looks around.
"It is, isn't it? Want to go around?"
Ai nods and I tour him around the place.
"Is this where the performance will be held?" Ai asks as we reach a part of the temple grounds.
"Yes. This open ground here at the back will be the venue for the stage; it's perfect because it's a huge open area that's enough to accommodate the stage and a big crowd of people. The stalls will be at the front of the temple grounds and at the eastern side."
"What about the western side?"
"That's where they'll set up the fireworks. It's going to be beautiful, I'm sure."
"I look forward to it then, both the fireworks and your performance. The festival sounds fun."
"I would say it is." I say in a somewhat sad tone.
Ai turns to me and holds my hand.
"Kaori, are you okay? Do you feel unwell?"
"I'm fine. It's just that I wanted to enjoy the festival with you...instead of performing."
Ai seems sad as he realizes that I wanted to be with him instead of the stage. "I'm sorry I didn't realize. It was selfish of me...I didn't think properly."
"I-It's okay! If you really want to see me perform, then I won't mind. As long it will make you happy then I'm fine with it! I'll do my best! We can always go around the festival before it closes; it closes an hour after the fireworks so there's still time for us to go around after."
"Kaori-chan!"
I turn around and I see familiar faces that are about to tackle me to the ground. Everyone is here toda—
"Hey! W-Wait! Hold on!"
As I thought, they didn't slow down and tackled me to the ground!
"Kaori-chan! You're back! I missed you so much!"
"I missed you too, Machi." I say in pain.
"Hey, move over Machi! Give me some space!"
"No way, Tori! It's your fault for glomping her at the same time as me. I was first!"
"Hey...you two...are crushing me..." I say in pain. Sigh. These two didn't change.
"You two! Stop fighting and get off of Kaori this instant! You're both crushing her!"
A tall man with long black hair tied into a pony tail lifts the two girls off of me.
"Are you alright, Kaori?"
He holds out his hand to me and helps me get up.
"Thanks, Jirou. Machi and Tori are still a handful as always."
"They sure are."
"Hey put us down already!"
"Let go of us, Jirou!"
"Kaori, who are they?"
"Oh, they're people who work here in the shrine. That man is Jirou; he's the eldest among us all. Machi and Tori, despite their young looks and childish actions, are two years older than me. They're the people who took care of me and taught me the traditional dance along with Takeo-sensei, the shrine's head."
"Ho ho ho. You are all so lively today!"
An old man approaches us; Kuro is with him.
"Takeo-sensei!" I happily go towards him and hug him.
"My, my, what a surprise; you're here in Kyoto! You've become such a beautiful woman, Kaori. "
"Haha. Thank you, sensei."
Sensei's eyes gleam and he takes my hand. "Since you're here, then that could only mean that you're going to participate this year! We must start practice at once! You only have today and tomorrow before the actual performance! But I have faith in you especially after finding out that you've become an idol in Tokyo! This will be a piece of cake for you and you will surely attract a lot of people this year!"
"Haha...same old sensei....haha."
"Hm? And who might you be?" Takeo-sensei goes towards Ai and looks at him from different angles.
Sensei can be quite eccentric. Ai starts feeling uncomfortable as sensei continues to "examine" him. Haha.
"Sensei, this is person is Kisaragi Ai."
"Is he a friend of yours?"
"Sensei, he's the person I'm seeing at the moment."
"It's nice to meet you all. I'm Kisaragi Ai. I hope to get along with all of you."
Sensei and Jirou's eyes pop wide open while Machi and Tori froze as if they were turned to stone. There was an awkward silence but it was interrupted by Sensei.
"A-Aren't you a member of Quartet Night?!" Machi asks.
"Yes, I'm part of that group."
Tori thinks for a moment. "Ah! You're Mikaze Ai then!"
Ai nods.
"Wow. To think Kaori could get a man like that."
"W-What's that supposed to mean, Jirou?!"
Jirou laughs at me.
Sensei smiles at Ai. "So you're Kaori's man, eh? Not bad, not bad! You've got looks and you seem to be a fine person, my boy!"
"Thank you, sir."
Sensei then stares at Ai's face.
"Sensei, what are you doing?" I ask awkwardly.
"Sis, this year's festival is going to be different."
"Different? What's that about Kuro?"
"Usually the traditional dance has only one dancer, right? This year is going to be different because when the New Year comes, it's going to be the 50th anniversary of this place. In honor of the deity that they worship, there will be two dancers for the traditional dance. Sensei told me about it when I went over to the shrine's office. When he told me that, I told him that you were here in Kyoto together with the person you're dating."
"Eh?!"
"I told him that both of you are idols so learning and practicing the traditional dance will be no problem. Sensei wants you to dance at the festival with Ai."
I look at sensei who was looking at Ai. He's probably thinking about Ai's costume and makeup for the dance. He was like that too when he I was introduced to him as the replacement; sensei has good eyes. Hmm...maybe he should retire as the head priest and become a talent scout at the agency. Haha; that would be surprising for everyone.
"Alright, it's settled! Kisaragi-kun, you'll be performing at the festival with Kaori."
Sensei takes Ai's arm and starts pulling him towards one of the temple buildings.
"Jirou! Come with us! You'll be helping me in teaching him!"
"Yes, sensei!"
Jirou hurriedly goes over to them and Kuro follows.
"Now Kaori, you need to start practicing too!" Machi suddenly takes my arm.
"I'll have to do the trial hair and makeup on you too. Oh, and I also need to check if the costume's measurements are alright or if there's a need for alterations!" Tori suddenly takes my arm as well.
"W-Wait, you two—"
Before I could even resist, they've dragged me along to the practice hall at the other end of the temple grounds.
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"Straighten your back! Stiffen your arms a little; they're too soft! You lost your expression again! How many times must I tell you that your character's smile must be one of ominous and gentle air! You forgot to turn the fan one more time!"
Takeo-sensei is really strict. I didn't know that the dance was this hard; the steps themselves are manageable but the execution is difficult. I'm grateful that Jirou is teaching me the steps; Takeo-sensei watches and points out the mistakes and improvements to be made. I wonder how Kaori's doing at the moment. I hope they're not pushing her too hard since she just got better from her fever.
I suddenly stop dancing and look at my watch.
"What's wrong, Ai?" Kuro asks.
"Why did you suddenly stop, my boy?! You were on the right track!"
"I'm sorry but I need to go to Kaori."
"Hm? Why?" Takeo-sensei asks.
"Kaori just recovered from her fever this morning and so she's still taking medicine; her medicine is here with me." I take out a small medicine case from my pocket.
"Oh, I see. I understand."
Takeo-sensei approaches me and takes the small medicine case and gives it to Kuro.
"Here, go and give it to your sister; tell her to drink her medicine."
"Okay."
Kuro leaves the practice hall. Takeo-sensei then turns to me.
"You're probably wondering why I sent Kuro instead of letting you go see her, right?"
"I—"
"Well my boy, it's simply forbidden that you see each other's dance before the performance!"
Jirou then explains, "It's a tradition that when you have a partner for this dance, you must not see each other perform before the day of performance. It's so that the each person would concentrate on practicing their part and there is a belief that when the partners don't see each other's dance before the actual performance and they end up performing well, then they will receive many blessings."
"But how will they perform well if they don't practice with each other?"
Takeo-sensei goes to me and points at my chest.
"People who are meant for each other, be it friendship or love, will always be in sync right here in their hearts. The practice of not seeing one's partner when doing this particular dance has been done for years and it has even been used to tell if the bond of friendship or the bond of love between people were real and strong. The best performance done by a couple was fifteen years ago. The couple was able to perform excellently without practicing together or seeing each other's practices; the most impressive part was that they performed blind folded."
Takeo-sensei then returns to his spot and sits down. "Enough small talk, continue from where you stopped!"
"Y-Yes."
I continue to practice as I wondered how people in the past were able to perform well without practicing with their partner. What did they do? What did they think? Did they think of their partner as they practiced by themselves? Did they just leave everything to trust? It's interesting. If you'd ask me, I think I'll leave everything to trust and faith; I believe that we'll do well because I believe in Kaori and in myself. I look forward to performing on stage with her once again. It also means that her wish to spend the festival with me will come true; the thought makes me feel happy.
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Ai and I went back to the shrine the next day for our final practice.
"Alright you two, this is your last practice. We'll only practice until noon since we'll be setting up the place for the festival at one o'clock. Give it your all, you hear me? Don't you dare put to shame this shrine's festival later!"
"Yes! We'll do our best!" I say.
Sensei, Ai, and Jirou starts going to their practice hall and so I headed for my practice hall where Machi and Toru were waiting; they went on ahead because they were fixing my costume and the makeup that they'll be putting on me. I wonder how Ai will look like later; I look forward to it.
"Kaori! Kaori! Look! This is the costume that you'll be wearing! Isn't it beautiful?!"
Tori holds out a white kimono that has light blue, gold, and red flowers on it; the designs are minimal but because of that, the kimono looks so elegant and beautiful. She then shows me the obi; it's light blue and gold. The footwear was a pair of wooden sandals that were taller than the usual wooden sandals; I hope I can dance with them properly.
"Since your hair is black, we've decided that your hair accessories will be silver and light blue; aren't they pretty?" Machi shows me several small flower hair pin pieces.
"They're beautiful. I'm excited to put them on later!"
"Just leave your makeup to me!" Tori says.
They put everything aside except for the wooden sandals which they made me wear for practice so that I'd get used to them. I wonder how Ai's doing; Sensei is quite strict so I hope he's doing okay. Will we be able to perform properly later? I hope that everything will turn out okay. I'm excited to perform with him again on stage once again; I'm sure we'll do well. Though we'll only be dancing for ten minutes, that short amount of time is precious and important; we'll give it our best for sure. To be honest, I'm giving my all not for the audience; this time I'm giving my all so that I could enjoy my time on the stage with Ai.
"Hey Machi, have you noticed? Kaori is shining more than ever. Just watching her dance makes me feel so happy."
"Her dancing sure has improved a lot! She's perfect for the part. I hope that guy is doing his best to get the dance right; it would be a waste if he'll perform poorly! I won't forgive him if he puts Kaori-chan's efforts to waste! Tori, we'll need to do our best as well in doing her makeup and fixing her costume!"
We practiced until noon but I didn't get to see Ai after because Sensei and Jirou made him help out with preparations. I ended up staying in the practice hall since they wouldn't let me help with anything since I just recently recovered from sickness.
Maybe I should just keep practicing; I'm not quite used to using the tall wooden sandals yet. As I practiced, I thought about the things Ai and I could do after dancing. We could go and eat first then check out the bazaar and then we'll go try out the mini games! Perhaps we should pray at the shrine first before anything else; I think that would be appropriate. I wonder how Ai will look like with his costume and makeup on; I'm excited to see that. I'm sure he'll look really beautiful later; I hope that I won't be too amazed by his looks later haha. I sure hope that Kuro will record everything on camera and I hope he'll get lots of pictures too! But most of all, I hope we'll all enjoy every second.
I practiced and practiced until who knows what time. I ended up getting tired and fell asleep on the floor of the practice hall.
"Kaori-chan! It's time to get changed and ready for the performance! The preparations were hectic and there were some things we had to do so everything took longer than expected." Tori says as she enters the practice hall and starts laying out the makeup she'll be using on a table.
"Eh?! Kaori, wake up! Wake up! You shouldn't sleep on the floor! You just recovered from a fever, right? You should take care of yourself more!" Machi says as she tries to wake me up.
"Hnnn...Ah, sorry! I was practicing and then I guess I got a bit tired and fell asleep. Haha."
"How long were you practicing then? You probably slept for quite a while. Anyway, this is no time to laugh! It's already ten o'clock in the evening! You do know how long it takes to put on the makeup and costume on! C'mon, get up! Let's get started on fixing you up!"
"Ten o'clock?! Let's hurry! It takes at least an hour to put everything on!" It's already that late?!
I get up immediately and start stripping my clothes off in the middle of the hall as Machi and Tori start helping me in putting the costume on. They then made me sit down and Tori started doing my makeup. She made my face look a little paler than my original skin color. She then applied a cream colored eye shadow as the base for my eye area, light blue for my eye lids, red and a little green at the ends for my eye lid creases, and dark brown for lining my eyes. She then uses black eyeliner to apply a thin line on my eyes to finish it off. She trimmed my eyebrows just a little and applied a black eyebrow pencil. My lips were colored like Snow White's red apple. She didn't apply blush on my face since I never look good with it anyway. Haha.
"Whaaa! You look great! I did such a good job." Tori says in satisfaction.
"Now move over, let me do the hair!" Machi says as she pushes Tori to the side.
"H-Hey! I'm supposed to help you with the hair!"
"I know, I know! But you're only supposed to help with putting the accessories on; I'm still the one doing the basic stuff. Now move over."
Machi starts combing my hair and parts my bangs. She then uses a flat iron to make my hair really straight; I'm naturally straight haired so I thought it was unnecessary to use the flat iron but she did anyway.
"Machi, the hair accessories will just slide off since you straightened my hair so much." I said.
"Just be quiet and let me do my job!"
"Y-Yes, mam!"
She does some other things to my hair and after a long while, she and Tori started putting the flower hair pins all over my hair; they're putting a lot of them on.
"All done!" Machi says proudly.
"You look so beautiful, Kaori!" Tori says as she hugs me tightly.
"Let go of her! You'll mess up her outfit and hair!" Machi says as she takes away Tori.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
Suddenly, the door of the practice hall swings open with great force.
"ARE YOU TWO DONE WITH FIXING UP KAORI YET?! IT'S ALMOST TIME FOR THE PERFORMANCE!"
"SENSEI!" Machi and Tori says in sync.
"SO, IS SHE READY TO—"
Sensei looks at me and suddenly takes my hands.
"Kaori, you look wonderful; you are really cut out for this. There's just a few minutes left before the performance, let's get you to the back stage already. Ai is already prepared so it's just you that we're waiting for."
"O-Okay."
As Sensei pulls me away with him, I can hear Machi and Tori whispering to each other. "The old man goes soft whenever he sees our work, no? We should have work every day so that he'd always be calm and kind. Haha."
Sensei and I pass thru a hidden path to get to the back stage are so that I won't be seen by anyone. As we walk, I can hear the festival music playing, the people having fun, I can also hear the sound of the food being cooked at the stalls; I'm getting hungry from the scent of the food in the air.
"Here we are. This is where you'll enter the stage from, Kaori. You know your cue so just wait and enter when it's time. I'll go to the front now; I'll be giving the remarks in a while. Good luck to the both of you."
Sensei gives me a tea rose pink colored fan with a golden sun on it and leaves me. I stand there at my station, patiently waiting.
"Kaori?"
"Eh? Ai? Where are you?"
I don't see him anywhere but I can hear him.
"I'm here on the other side of this partition."
"Partition? You mean this wooden wall?" I approach the wooden wall on my left and knock on it; it's surprisingly thinner than it looks.
"Yeah, that's right."
So he's just at the other side, huh? I can't wait to see him; I wonder how he looks like in costume.
"I can't wait to see how you look like, Kaori."
Eh? "I feel the same. I can't wait to see how you look like too." I chuckle at the thought that he and I were thinking of the same thing.
"Let's do our best on stage tonight." He says gently.
"Yeah. Let's also have fun while we're at it. How was practice?"
"Takeo-sensei is surprisingly very strict. It was quite difficult to please him; I'm thankful that Jirou was there to help."
"Haha. Sensei is very strict indeed; he's a perfectionist to the core when it comes to things like this."
"Kaori, let's enjoy the festival after the dance. The festival looks great after we got everything set up; I want to go around with you."
"Sure, I'd love to."
Sensei's voice can now be heard thru the speakers; he's giving the opening remarks for the traditional dance countdown.
"Ai, I'll be preparing now; my cue is shortly after Sensei finishes his speech. Good luck to us both."
"There's no need for luck tonight; I'm sure we'll do well."
"Haha. You're awfully confident! I guess you got a 'very good' from Sensei during practice."
I hear him softly chuckle from the other side of this thin wooden wall.
"Well, my confidence is all because of you. You never fail to give good results and you always do your best so I just know that everything will turn out well. I'm confident because it's you and because I love you."
W-Why is he talking like that?! He's making me feel embarrassed! If he's going to be like that, it just makes me want to go over to him and hug him.
"I love you too." I said embarrassingly.
Sensei's speech is almost ending and I position myself by the back door of the stage. Sensei finishes his speech and exits the stage from the side.
"See you on stage, Ai."
Shortly after, music started to play. The taiko drums began their beat and after a few counts, I enter the stage.
"Wow! She looks like a living breathing doll!"
"Her kimono is so beautiful!"
"Her movements are so graceful and fluid."
"I wonder how her partner will look like!"
As I dance on stage, I can see the audience enjoying; it makes me feel happy. I can't pin point where my family is in the audience but I just know that they're somewhere there. It's been quite a while since I last danced here; I kind of missed it. Dancing in this festival, on this stage, is one of the best ten minutes of my life. That's because, in order to execute this dance well, you have to simply enjoy and trust your partner with all your heart.
The audience suddenly becomes even more excited and restless. What's gotten into them? Ah! Could it be?! How many minutes have passed already?! Have I danced for five minutes already?! Maybe they're all like that because he—
When I turn around, just as the dance steps dictate, my eyes widen in utter surprise.
At the other end of the stage stood a young boy...no, a young man dressed in a lavender colored kimono filled with light blue and yellow birds; his hakama is a darker shade of his kimono. He's holding a royal purple fan with a golden moon on it. His hair is tied into a half ponytail; his bangs are elegantly placed at the side of his face. His makeup is similar to mine but with different colors; his eye shadow is a combination of lavender, red, and yellow. He's wearing lipstick but the shade is a very light pink that seems almost natural; I think they made him wear it so that he won't look too pale.
Ai really looks beautiful. Actually, he's somewhere in between beautiful and handsome; I can't take my eyes off of him.
Ack! I need to concentrate! I might forget the dance steps this way! Focus! Focus! Focus! Dance now, admire later!
I execute my dance steps and so does Ai. We were doing very well that everyone couldn't take their eyes off of us the whole time. This may sound cliche or corny but the whole time that we were dancing, I felt like there was magic in the air; the five minutes that we were given to dance together seemed like an hour or so.
The music approaches its end and so we execute the final steps of our short dance. We both twirl around to exchange places and end up facing each other with Ai holding up my right hand with his left and the distance between us becomes less than a foot away; we're so close that our noses almost touch. Ever since practice started in the day, this was the first time we've seen and touched each other. Seeing him, eye to eye, in his get up makes my heart beats even faster than ever before; the sight before me is too much to handle. Ai absolutely looks wonderful. I don't know what word could accurately describe him at the moment; the only word that enters my mind is "wonderful". I think that he is feeling what I'm feeling as well at the moment. His face says it all; his eyes are wide open like mine and his mouth is slightly open in surprise. I can see the faint red color of his cheeks to his ears; perhaps my face too has been colored that way as I feel it getting warm.
Sensei then gets up on stage and speaks thru the microphone. "Now that the traditional dance is over, let the countdown begin!"
You can hear all of the people counting down from 60 seconds. It's so loud that you can probably hear it outside the temple's perimeter.
"Kaori, let's hurry."
Ai smiles at me and then pulls me with him as he exits the stage from the side. He then to runs towards the eastern side of the temple grounds. He holds my hand tightly as we go thru the large crowd of people; there are so many people this year! Was it like this too back then? I lift my kimono up with my other hand since it's making it hard for me to run.
"Ai, where are we going?" I ask as I try to catch my breath.
Ai looks back at me and stops for a second. "It's hard to run in that kimono, isn't it? Hold on tight and don't let go."
"W-What—"
Ai squats a little and pulls my arm from behind him. I fall onto his back and he immediately lifts me up and carries me on his back as he runs towards one of the temple buildings.
"Ai, what are you up to?!"
He doesn't respond and just keeps running.
"35, 34, 33, 32..." The people who are counting down start to count louder as the number of seconds between this year and the next decreases.
Ai enters the building and goes up the flight of stairs; he ran up to the top floor. He then puts me down and immediately opens a door.
"Kaori."
"14, 13, 12, 11..."
He holds out his hand and I take it. We step outside the door and the view of the area is quite nice; I can see the stage and stalls from up here.
I can hear Ai breathing heavily beside me.
"Are you okay?" I ask worriedly. "You ran really fast and you even carried me all the way here."
"7, 6, 5..."
He smiles at me and points at the sky.
"I'm okay. You should look over there."
I look at where he was pointing. "Why?"
"2, 1..."
Suddenly, the clear night sky was painted over with so many colors.
"Happy New Year!"
A big smile grows on my face. The view from here is nice! How did he know about this spot? It's amazing; it has a good view of the fireworks show.
I turn to Ai in excitement. "Ai, the fireworks—"
The sound of fireworks and people celebrating fill the air as I'm taken by surprise by Ai's sweet kiss. The light coming from the fireworks lights up and shows the features of his face. He puts his arms around my waist and pulls me closer to him. His kiss takes a part of my strength away and so I cling onto him. He releases me after a while and puts his forehead against mine.
"Happy New Year, Kaori."
His smile is so gentle and happy...it's making me feel so happy inside.
"H-Happy New Year to you too, Ai."
I smile at him and bury myself in his arms. I think that this is a good way to start the New Year.
Ai wraps his arms around me. "Before I forget, you look really beautiful in that kimono and your makeup suits you."
"You too; you look really good too. I was instantly charmed when I saw you on stage."
We laugh together as we remember our reaction on stage when we faced each other at the end of the dance.
"Ai, I look forward to spending another year with you."
"Me too. I look forward to spending another year with my beloved."
"B-Beloved?" I feel my face getting warm.
"Of course." He kisses my forehead. "You're my beloved—the one person I love the most."
His smile and words make me want to melt away. This is one of those times when he's too much; he's going to drive my heart and mind crazy if he keeps this up! But...it makes me really happy to know that he feels this way. I'm happy that I love him and he loves me back. I look forward to tomorrow and to the days to come that I'll be spending with him.
Happy New Year...Ai.
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Ai and I spent the last two days with my family. We left Kyoto on the morning of January 3 and arrived at home sometime in the evening.