But I still tried to resist, however futile my efforts would come to be. “How can you just assume that I did something?”
“Well, lately you’ve been getting out of control unless there’s someone there to stop you. So I can’t help but think that you’ve done something questionable,” Yoshin replied.
Wow, Yoshin is so right that I can’t even respond. He literally has me speechless.
Even as I lay there, unable to accept reality, I refused to give up.
“You don’t trust me, Yoshin? That’s so wrong. Remember that church? We swore our love to each other and everything,” I muttered.
“No, I trust everything you do, for the most part. But this is a separate issue,” he insisted.
Hmmm, hearing out loud that he trusts everything I do actually does make me feel pretty good. Jeez, I guess I should just give up.
“Promise you won’t get mad?” I asked.
“Well, I don’t think I will,” he muttered. “Did you do something that’ll make me mad?”
“Tee hee hee... Actually...”
Putting up a safety net even at the very end, I took a leap and divulged to Yoshin what I had done. He looked completely bewildered at first, but then his expression shifted into total shock, his mouth hanging open in disbelief. And that was when my embarrassment hit.
“Why would you do something like that?” he moaned.
“Huh? Because, you know... I thought you would feel better if you gave me your cold.”
“And you actually got sick?”
“Well, I also just wanted to kiss you,” I confessed.
Oh, look at him now. He’s a little angry. He’s so quiet it’s kind of scary. Have I ever seen Yoshin angry like this before?
“You shouldn’t kiss me when it might make you sick,” Yoshin said with a sigh. “Plus I hadn’t showered, so I was dirty too. Even though you wiped me down—”
“You could never be dirty!” I exclaimed. “For you, I’d do any—”
“Girls shouldn’t say stuff like that.”
Arg, he scolded me. It’s like he’s trying to reason with a little kid. Kind of like a dad, now that I think about it. Is this how he’ll sound like scolding his kids when he’s a dad? He doesn’t sound that angry at all. More like he’s teaching a lesson.
“I can’t believe you got sick because of me,” Yoshin mumbled.
And now he’s sad! Everything’s gotten all jumbled into a misunderstanding. Oh, wait, maybe it’s not completely so...
“But Yoshin, think of it this way. If I got the cold from you, that means...”
“What does it mean?” he asked, after I failed to complete my statement.
“It sounds, you know...like you and I are becoming one—”
“Girls shouldn’t say stuff like that.”
He scolded me again with the same exact phrase, and at that point I realized myself that I’d said something kind of questionable. I must still be so fuzzy from being sick that I wasn’t thinking straight.
I was just trying to make him feel better, though. Oh, he must realize it too, because now he’s looking like he forgives me, sort of. Wait, but why does his smile look kind of evil, then? Huh? Why are you smiling like that, Yoshin? And why are you coming closer?
“Then I’ll kiss you too,” he declared.
“Wait, Yoshin! I haven’t showered! I may have wiped myself down, but as a girl I just can’t handle that!” I protested.
“You could never be dirty,” he said flatly.
“Now you’re getting back at me?! You’re so mean...!”
My reaction must have satisfied Yoshin, because he chuckled as he stroked my hair—even though my hair was a mess from lying down all day.
“We’ll hold off on the kiss until you get better,” he said.
“Okay,” I sighed.
If you say that with such a paternal smile on your face, there’s no way I can argue. No fair. Though I guess that’s mostly my fault.
“I mean, of course I’m happy you kissed me,” he said. “But of course I’d also get worried if you’re sick from it. So please don’t be too reckless with yourself, okay?”
“Why are you saying that all of a sudden?” I asked, genuinely puzzled.
“I’m not good at being upset with people, so I didn’t want to make you feel bad.”
Hearing such an adorable response made me want to give Yoshin a big hug, but I had to hold myself back. When I get better, I’ll give him the biggest hug imaginable.
“No worries at all! Besides, there are lots of fun things coming up in December, so if I get sick now, I’ll be able to get through the month completely healthy,” I reasoned.
“How can you be so positive right now?” he asked with some amount of disbelief.
“I mean, you know—it’s December. Your birthday’s coming up.”
“Huh?”
Oh shoot, I wasn’t thinking straight and blabbed again. But wasn’t I going to bring this up at some point anyway? No time like now I guess. Hm? Why does Yoshin look so weird right now? Like it hasn’t really clicked with him. He’s acting like it’s got nothing to do with him.
“Your birthday, Yoshin,” I pressed. “You told me before that it was in December, but I asked Shinobu-san for the exact date and I’ve been prepping for it...”
Huh? Yoshin’s got his arms crossed and he’s swaying, for some reason? What’s with the response?
After giving my remark some thought, Yoshin uncrossed his arms with an odd expression—a smile, but an awkward one. Or maybe exasperated?
“My birthday’s next month? Huh,” he finally said.
“You didn’t remember?!” I shouted.
How is that even possible?!