[Name] was sitting
in a chair at the station, watching as all sorts of people passed her by
and fidgeting with the hem of her dress. Subconsciously, she worried
about it being too short whenever the wind would cause it to flutter an
inch or two up her thigh and she would tug at the ends, trying
desperately to keep it down. Her mother had insisted on her wearing
tights underneath, but [Name] had quickly refused due to the heat of the
weather. Now she was regretting that decision.Taking her phone
out of the purse she had resting on her hip, she checked the time before
opening up a game app. She had arrived at the station ten minutes
earlier than she should have, wanting to be on time for the special
occasion. She could only hope that Kasamatsu wanted to do the same.
They
had been sitting in the café where they had their first date, the
current one being their third lunch date. [Name] was rambling on about
her friends at school and the activities they were doing. Every so
often, Kasamatsu would grunt or reply to a comment he found interesting,
but for the most part he stayed silent, content with just listening as
he was left to his own thoughts. His cheeks had a very light tinge of
red to them and it was obvious that his mind was preoccupied with other
things, but [Name] merely brushed it off as his natural nervous
tendencies.“H-hey,” he interrupted, steel blue eyes
meeting hers for a brief second before glancing away. Instead of idly
shaking, his hands played with the napkin on the table in front of him,
picking at it and tearing off pieces. “My parents were wondering… U-uh,
dinner. W-would you like to come over for d-dinner?”[Name]
felt heat rise to her face and her eyes widened at the offer, staring
at him with slight shock. She opened her mouth, blurting out a few
incoherent words before she could get out a comprehensible sentence.“D-dinner?
I mean, isn’t it a bit early? W-we’ve only been dating for a week
a-and, I mean, w-we’re not even official…” She trailed off, noticing how
Kasamatsu clenched his teeth at her words, like she was force feeding
him something bitter. Looking down towards her empty plate, the heat on
her cheeks intensified. “But… If you don’t mind, I guess we could. Have
dinner, I mean. Y-yeah, dinner with your family sounds nice.”She
heard what she thought was a sigh of relief from her companion at the
table and, braving a glance, she found that he was staring at her with
determined eyes and a redder face.“G-good. It’ll be next week Saturday then.”
Cursing
as she lost yet another life in her game, [Name] pressed the button to
restart from the checkpoint, hoping she could avoid her character’s
inevitable doom.“H-hey, [Name]-san.”
[Name] looked up from
her phone, mentally cursing as she heard the sound of her character’s
death play through the small speaker. Walking towards her was Kasamatsu,
his hand up in a small greeting as he quickly closed the distance
between them. [Name] smiled and walked towards him after putting her
phone away to close the distance faster, lacing her hand with his once
they were close enough. In turn, this caused Kasamatsu to sputter at her
open display of affection, trying desperately to shake her off at first
before settling into the feeling of her smaller hand in his.“W-we should get going,” Kasamatsu grunted as he led her in the direction of his house.
“Okay,” [Name] agreed, following his pace as they walked together.
The
walk to his house was a silent one, neither of them saying anything for
the most part of it. Every so often, Kasamatsu would cast a glance down
to [Name], memorizing the facial features she made as she thought about
the dinner to come. Her brows were furrowed slightly and her eyes
shined with a certain worry. Her lips, shinier than usual—was she
wearing makeup?—were placed in a slight pout and Kasamatsu couldn’t help
but think she looked cute in that moment. He cursed himself for
allowing his blush to reappear at the thought, his eyes quickly darting
away so he could calm himself down. He didn’t want to become a trembling
mess this early into the evening.“I’m nervous.”
The sudden
confession caused both Kasamatsu and [Name] to stop in their tracks on
the sidewalk. Letting go of his hand and moving off to the side, [Name]
leaned against a wall nearby as she closed her eyes to take calming
breaths. It was at that moment Kasamatsu could notice the slight shaking
in her hands and the subtle waver in her voice. It was strange watching
her suffer through the nervous habits he would often be victim to. He
felt bad for thinking that he would be the only nervous one at this
dinner. Instinctively, his hand reached out to her own and he squeezed
it once, hoping to calm her down.“What about?” He asked, forcing himself not to stutter as he tried to be a pillar of support.
“A
lot of things,” she admitted, opening her eyes to stare at the
sidewalk, “Do I look okay? Am I dressed okay? Will they like me? Will
they hate me? I really want tonight to go well. I really want it to
work, for us to work. I… I really like you…”The last part of her
confession, though spoken quietly, resounded in Kasamatsu’s mind. He
felt the need to comfort her in her time of worry, but his inexperience
with these types of situations caused him to pull a blank on what to do.
After a silent moment, Kasamatsu found himself taking her face into his
shaking hands. Mustering up as much courage as humanely possible, he
looked her straight in the eyes before quickly bending down to place a
chaste kiss on her lips. It was clumsy and their teeth knocked together
slightly from the sudden impact, but when he pulled away he found that
it had the effect he was hoping for. Her eyes, which had been so worried
before, held no trace of that emotion as she looked at him in slight
shock and amazement, her cheeks flushing red at the surprise.“They’ll
like you,” he said quietly as he dropped his hands from her face, going
to hold hers once more. “B-because I… like you.”[Name] found
herself smiling as the pesky heat in her cheeks persisted on staying.
After another silent moment, the two resumed walking towards Kasamatsu’s
household, hands intertwined.“What about my dress?” She asked after a beat, tugging at it with her free hand. “Is it decent for dinner?”
“Tch,”
Kasamatsu scoffed, avoiding looking at her, “It’s too damn short. Wear
something longer next time if you want to be decent.”Truthfully, he just wanted to stop the ever increasing blush he got every time the wind lifted her dress.
{EXTRA}
After
a successful dinner with his family, [Name] waved a goodbye to them as
Kasamatsu walked her back to the station. The walk back was livelier
than their previous venture as [Name] commented on his family and the
conversations that had happened at dinner. Kasamatsu would reply every
so often, voicing his own opinion. Once they had arrived at the station,
all conversations about dinner had been exhausted and a comfortable
silence consumed the air around them.“Hey…” Kasamatsu started after a minute, looking away from [Name]. “I-I was wondering… D-do you want to make it o-official?”
“Huh? What do you mean Kasamatsu-senpai?”
Collecting his resolve, Kasamatsu closed his eyes to avoid an emotional meltdown. “[Name]-san, please be my girlfriend!”
His only response was a happy giggle and a sweet kiss to the lips.
He’s too cute!!