Asami adds another thing and covers her mouth to whisper,
"Plus, you could kiss me anytime too."
Wakatoshi looks up to meet her beautiful dark eyes. He was speechless by her comment, and he did not know how to react. His eyes widen from realization.
"You feel the same way as I do?" He hesitantly asks, fearing that she wouldn't.
"What exactly is it that you feel?" She pouted and crossed her arms.
"A feeling where. . . I just want to be by your side." For such a huge man, a question from a woman with a petite figure scared him. He was afraid to tell her his answer, but he was glad that he did.
"That's exactly what I feel too!" She says in shock in a really loud voice. She even pointed at him and smacked her palm on the coffee table before laughing like an idiot. She laughed nervously because the other people looked at them. She bows to everyone for her unfiltered loud mouth and mouths sorry to every person she gets eye contact with.
She thinks they are soulmates.
She hopes he is her soulmate.
Who else could the universe offer to her, right?
"You know what, I am starting to get loud. Let's leave." Asami gets up and he follows behind, letting her lead to wherever she wanted to go.
They were now walking down the pavement side by side, heading to a green park they had recently discovered during their midnight escapades. She walks weirdly, not giving her confident strides in her heels. Wakatoshi noticed that she kept looking down and had her hands behind her.
He does not know what to say so he just tells her,
"Since you return the same feelings, is it official that I am your boyfriend? I-" He wanted to finish what he was saying but he got cut off by her.
"Yes, I want you to be my boyfriend." She stops walking and holds both of his hands.
"I meant lover. Wasn't that your preferred term?" She blushes hard when she hears this from him, but she doesn't deny it either.
"Whatever you want to call yourself, Wakatoshi-Kun. As long as I could call you mine, then go for it. You're my lover then." She smirks and he was caught off-guard.
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
After Wakatoshi accompanied Asami to her home, he bid her goodbye. Asami on the other side was greeted by her nosy mother. Her mother was in her living room watching soap operas from a free channel before going towards the door to call out the ace.
Since when did her mother arrive at her home?
"Hey Ushijima-san, do you want to have dinner with us?" Ushijima heard Kanai's mother call him as he was just walking away from her doorstep. He stops to turn around and greet the mother of his girlfriend with a good evening.
"Good evening Kanai-san." He greets her with a short bow.
"Ah, still a gentleman. Come inside! Let's have dinner okay?" She tells him and he could see Asami grinning at him awkwardly. The sun was just about to set, maybe he should have dinner with them.
Wakatoshi follows inside and then removes his shoes and puts them on the side. As soon as her mother left to go to the kitchen, she nudged his arm and smiled at him. It was the kind of smile where his heart would melt. He didn't understand what that meant but he just followed where she went anyway.
"Okay, you stay there." She told him and he stayed put.
"Where should I stay?" He asks her but she doesn't give him a clear answer.
"I am going to my room and you can't go in." She puts up a finger and tells him so. She noticed that he kept following her around like a lost puppy.
"I've seen your room many times." He rebuts, but he honestly didn't know what she meant and had a hard time trying to understand the hidden message(if there were any) in the words that she said.
She teased, " You're my lover now. Who knows what we could be doing in my room? Especially when my mother is here?"
He felt heat rise to his neck. He was flustered by her comment and he rubbed his nape with his left hand to ease himself.
He asks, "O-oh well, then should I help your mother in the kitchen?"
"Just kidding! Come in." She pulls him by his hand and they both enter her room.
When he mentioned helping out her mother, she preferred that he stay within her proximity. Her mother has a knack for making other people be put on the spot with menacing questions. Just what embarrassing questions could she ask him? Asami will not risk that.
To Wakatoshi however, what she did was foul play. Did she purposefully rile him up right after knowing that he was restless whenever she was around and not? So he sits on her bed and doesn't say a thing. Meanwhile, Asami takes some clothes from her bedside drawer to change in. Thank god they left the door open, he needed more air to breathe.
"Make yourself at home, I'll just change my clothes." She tells him as she was about to go out of her room to change in the bathroom. He looks at her and nods, then his eyes fall to the folded clothes she was holding. One of them was a lacy ash rose bra. He quickly looked away and when Asami saw this, she instantly put the clothes behind her back.
"You didn't see that!" She became embarrassed.
"It's fine, it looks comfortable." He wasn't flustered anymore. The fabric did look soft and comfortable, if she liked that then he was very fine with it. Whatever comforts her pleases him.
He's sure she'll look good in it though.
"Okay, I'll just change my clothes real quick. Do you want to do something?" She asks before she steps out of her room.
"I want to help your mother prepare the food." He said and Asami knew she couldn't stop him.
"Sure go ahead." She says in defeat and started to get worried. What could her mother possibly say?
They both walk out of her room heading in different directions. Asami headed for the bathroom to take a quick shower, and Ushijima went straight to help Asami's mother. When he got to the kitchen, he greets her again and asks if there was anything he could help her with.
"I am almost done. How about you set up the table?" Her mother smiles at him as she continues to stir the miso soup.
He puts the dishes and bowls on the table. Two bowls beside each other on one side and another bowl on the opposite side. He also set up the chopsticks and spoons on the right side of every bowl and after wrapping everything else up, he stands patiently in the kitchen waiting for orders. His eyes sparkled when he saw that the rice Kanai-san prepared was Hayashi rice, his favourite.
Kanai-san carries the soup she made to the table and once Asami was finished with her quick shower, she goes straight to the table and sits down. Wakatoshi pulls the chair beside her to sit down, but her mother was faster. It was as if her action was intentional, so he had no choice but to sit on the other side alone.
"Ah, I like this guy." She tells Asami and Asami just looked so. . . done. They just got together and she badly want to say "I like him too." If she did, however, the dinner table would become awkward.
"He's very likeable. What's there not to like?" She tells her mother and Ushijima looks at her. Her mother already liked him but Asami wanted her to like him more so she would approve of their relationship.
"Gosh, the two of you are very funny." Her mother laughs before eating her rice. The couple was surprised by this comment coming from her so they looked at her, both giving shocked expressions.
"Why are you giving me those looks?" She asks them and they just went back to eating.
"Well, I am not sure what's going on, but I do know the two of you are already together." Her mother says yet again and Asami chokes on her rice. Wakatoshi was faster than her mother to hand her water.
"See? I bet you guys got together just recently."
"Mom! H-how the hell did you know that!"
"Eh, if you guys weren't a thing yet back in Miyagi then supposedly, you guys must be a thing now."
"Kanai-san, do you agree with this-" Wakatoshi wanted to ask whether she'll be giving him his permission to date her or not. She cuts him off.
"You don't need permission when I've mistaken you as her boyfriend several times now. Just take care of my Asami and I'll be fine." Wakatoshi genuinely smiles at the sincerity of her mother's words.
"How about you tell me when you got here first?" Asami asks her mother and her mother just laughed.