“...Ah, that’s not fair... You’ve made me so happy again...” Orihara-san smiled. “Thank you... I’m so happy I could just lose myself. I want to always be with you too, Kaoru-kun...” She smiled happily as she spoke those words that were more than I could ever deserve. The mood felt like the entire world was giving us its blessing.
...Okay, now’s my chance. This is the perfect time to recite the poem I’ve put all of my heart and soul into. The poem that I’ve been thinking of since the night of my confession, the poem that’s been blocked at every turn, almost as if by the invisible hand of god. Yes, I feel like I could recite my poem now and create a whirlpool of emotions! My poem was meant for this moment!
“O—”
“But...” Just when I started to recite my poem and got to the starting interjection of “O,” Orihara-san raised her voice. Once again, my poem was thwarted. When I looked up at Orihara-san again, I could see she had a sad look on her face.
“Why...are you saying that now?” Orihara-san said with a complicated expression that would be hard to put into words. There was sadness and confusion there, but there was also definitely happiness... It was such a difficult look that I couldn’t really describe it.
“Huh? Oh... I’m sorry. Did I say something wrong...?”
“...No. You didn’t do anything wrong, Momota-kun. I’m really, really happy that you confessed to me again in this place that holds so many memories for us. It’s just that...your timing really sucks.”
My timing sucks?
As I became confused, Orihara-san let go of my hand and reached into her school bag, which she had slung over her shoulder. What she took out was a bouquet...of bright red roses.
“Huh? What? This is...”
“...It’s a bouquet of roses. They’re just like the ones you gave me. I got these for today.”
“...Th-They’re for me?” I asked, flustered, and Orihara-san nodded firmly.
“I was thinking about confessing my feelings to you today...”
“What? Confess...?”
“You’ve always been the one to confess your feelings and propose, but I haven’t, right? That’s why I was planning on surprising you by confessing to you today.”
“A surprise...Wait, is that why we came here to the underpass?”
“...Yes. It was all planned. I brought you to this park, and I was going to confess to you with this bouquet I’d prepared...” Orihara-san complained with an expression full of anger and sadness that had nowhere to go.
“All that was left was to have you sit on that bench so I could surprise you by kneeling down and giving you this bouquet while I said something moving to create a whirlpool of emotions... Why did you have to go and confess first?!” Orihara-san said earnestly with tears in her eyes. “Why are you always like that, even during times like this, Momota-kun? Everything you do is just too cool...! You need to tone down being such a prince...”
I can’t tell if she’s mad at me or praising me. Seriously though, I can’t believe Orihara-san prepared such a surprise for me. Also...I can’t believe that I ruined it for her.
“Oh, I’m sorry...”
“...No, I don’t want you to apologize... You didn’t do anything wrong, Momota-kun. Ugh... Why did it turn out like this?”
“Seriously, why did it turn out this way...?” We both lamented, but a few seconds later...
“...Pfft!”
“Ha ha ha!” We both laughed; it was just too funny not to. Also, we were both so happy.
“Ha ha. Wow. We just can’t get it together, can we?”
“That’s true.”
“We’ve done this before too. Do you remember? On our first date, I wore a school uniform to match you, but you wore a suit to match me.”
“I do. I remember because it was the first time we held hands.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
I’ll never forget it. We’ve been doing this type of thing over and over again. We believe we’re being considerate of each other, then before we know it, we’re covering for our own mistakes, agonizing and getting frustrated, flailing about, getting out of sync with each other, and turning the situation into a fiasco. It’s always been like this since we started dating.
“Fun as always, huh?”
“...Yeah,” I said and nodded firmly. It’s fun. It’s too much fun. I’m so happy every day that I can’t help but smile. “Okay, Orihara-san, shall we head back soon?”
“Sure.”
I held out my hand, and she naturally took hold of it. In the beginning, holding hands made our hearts beat fast, but now it was natural for us. However, this excitement won’t fade away. No matter what happened from now on, I wanted to live without losing this feeling, and I thought that Orihara-san was probably thinking the same thing. There was no greater happiness than the emotions that I felt through the warmth of her body.
I don’t know how much I’ve grown as a boyfriend these last six months. I also don’t know if there will be any obstacles in the future even greater than the ones we’ve overcome so far. However, it’ll be okay. I’m sure we’ll be fine. I didn’t have any proof, but somehow that’s what I thought.
Orihara-san. Orihara Hime-san. She’s slightly older than me, but she’s my totally cute girlfriend, and from now on, I’m going to walk by her side.