A Very Important Question
Title: A Very Important Question
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Kusonoki Taiga/Kitamura Shiori; everybody's in this
Summary: Kusonoki Taiga has a very important question to ask, but asking his friends and family for advice is proving unhelpful.
Notes/Warnings: For Yuletide 2010. Set three years after the end of NatsuNiji.
Taiga makes the mistake of asking Sakura first.
It would of course be scandalous if Sakura-chan was seen in a cafe with him, especially since she’s headlining a drama this season and is in more commercials now than Taiga can count. With her star rising and his too, thank you very much, the last thing they both need is a scandal based on a misunderstanding.
Taiga wears his latest disguise. He’s pretty proud of it, too. Glasses. Not sunglasses that scream “hey, I’ve been in movies,” but actual glasses. Scholarly-looking ones. Glasses that average everyday people wear. He’s timed his arrival at the cafe to make sure he could get this table in the back with the potted ferns blocking the view of anyone not on the wait staff.
It’s the perfect plan until Sakura’s ushered in through the back entrance. Taiga’s palms are sweaty, and he rubs them nervously against his khaki-clad thighs as she sits down in a huff. She takes off her “hey, I’ve been in movies” sunglasses and sets down her giant purse and makes quite a commotion as far as Taiga’s concerned.
“Would you keep it down?” he chides her. “This is important.”
Sakura rolls her eyes, every inch the successful actress. “I don’t know why you had to meet me here,” she says, waving for the waiter to bring some water. “I understand that you’re busy, Mr. I’m-in-a-play, let-me-send-everyone-I’ve-ever-met-a-mail-about-it...”
He taps his fingers against the table and grits his teeth. “This is something I couldn’t ask you about at the agency.”
“Why not? Why are you being so secretive, senpai?” Sakura asks, perusing the menu.
“Keep your voice down. This is personal.”
“We’re in public. Technically,” she reminds him. “You know, today’s my day off, and you had me come all the way here...”
Taiga shuts his eyes. “Sakura-chan, how would you want to be proposed to?”
He hears a choking sound, cracking one eye open to see Sakura’s face turn bright red. “Senpai,” she manages to sputter before her shaking hands close her menu.
Oh, Taiga thinks. She’s misunderstood. “I’m not proposing to you,” he tells her bluntly.
“Then why would you ask me...”
He tries to keep his voice down. “Because I have no idea how to ask, and I’d rather get a woman’s perspective.”
She calms down a bit when the waiter brings over their water. “So you’re asking Kitamura-san?”
Taiga scowls. “Obviously.” He’s been dating her for three years, after all.
“Well, I doubt that she’ll say yes,” Sakura says. “I mean, are you serious with those glasses? You look like an old man.”
He grabs a menu and holds it tightly. Because it would probably be unseemly to strangle star actress Miyase Sakura in a cafe in broad daylight. “You’re not helping me here.”
“Okay okay, I will think.”
Sakura takes plenty of time to think, and they’re already on coffee after their lunch (which Taiga will be paying for) before she has an idea. “Well,” she says, “if I was being proposed to, I’d want it to be special.”
Taiga wonders if he should take notes. “Special how?”
“Well, if you propose at a restaurant, make sure the ring appears with her dessert. Like it’s inside her scoop of ice cream.”
“That sounds messy.”
Sakura hushes him. “And have the whole restaurant sing a song that means something to you as a couple. Oh, and if he was proposing at the beach, he’d have to hire a plane with a sign that says ‘I love you, Sakura! Marry me!’ and there’d be fireworks...”
All of Sakura’s ideas are a little more ambitious than Taiga has in mind. By the time Sakura decides that her ideal proposal involves the man scaling a skyscraper with a “Marry Me, Sakura” cape on, Taiga decides that lunch is over.
She dabs her mouth with her napkin. “Ah, but senpai, I don’t think Kitamura-san would like any of those ideas. She seems pretty old-fashioned to me.”
Taiga is pretty sure being old-fashioned has nothing to do with how over-the-top Sakura’s suggestions are. He’s out two lunches and back to square one.
“But you know,” she says quietly as she gets up to leave. “I still am a little disappointed that you’ll never propose to me, senpai...”
He opens his mouth to protest, but she pats his shoulder.
“Oh, don’t worry. I wouldn’t say yes.”
Taiga glares as she heads back to the rear entrance. And he still has no ideas.
--
Taiga makes the mistake of asking his mother second.
“Oh Taiga!” his mom swoons, almost like a hearts-in-her-eyes manga character. “Shiori-san as a daughter in law, what a dream come true!”
He sets down a tray of hors d’oeuvres, moving the finally cooled cupcakes aside. At least focusing on cooking is easier than sitting still waiting for his mother’s advice.
“When Kotaro-san asked me for my hand in marriage, it was the happiest day of my life.” His mother pauses, staring off at nothing in a rather dreamy manner until she notices Taiga’s frown. “The happiest until my wedding day. And then the happiest until you and Daiki were born.”
Taiga puts a cupcake onto a plate and slides it down the counter to his mother. “Okay, so the most important thing is to make her happy?”
His mother’s not paying much attention to him. “He went to my father’s house, wearing a fine suit. He wasn’t so wealthy in those days, but he was well put together. Of course, Kotaro-san was always a good saver, and my father liked that about him...”
“Mom...”
“And he came in to ask my father’s permission, standing up straight and proper, and I thought I would simply faint right there and then...”
“Mom!”
She looks at him then, blushing. “Those were wonderful days. And you’ll have them too, dear.”
“That’s nice,” he says, temper flaring. His mother’s about as useless as Sakura when it comes to giving advice. “But maybe you could answer my question?”
“How you should propose? Well, you obviously have to invite her to your play, and work your proposal in at the end! That would be so romantic!”
He frowns. “But at the end, my character kills his best friend.”
His mother shakes her head. “I don’t think I like this play, Taiga.”
He nods and picks up a cupcake of his own. “Thanks.”
--
Taiga makes the mistake of asking his brother third.
Immediately, Daiki closes his gradebook and points for Taiga to sit across from him in the living room. “Marriage? With Shiori-san?”
Why is this so unbelievable? “Of course Shiori-san!”
His brother clicks his tongue. “Bank book.”
“I’m sorry?”
Daiki holds out his hand. “I need to see your bank book. I won’t let you embarrass yourself if you’re not financially stable enough to ask her. What kind of brother would I be if you handed all your debt to Shiori-san? Why, she’d come crying to me and I’d have no choice but to comfort her so...”
Taiga stands. “First, I have no debt! I’ve been working hard, you know! Second, I’m the lead in this play, and I’ve been saving for a place for all three of us and for Umi-chan’s schooling and...”
His brother is still thinking about comforting Shiori, it appears, and Taiga grabs a pillow from the couch to throw at him.
“Here’s what you do, Taiga. This is what a real man does when he wants to spend the rest of his life with a smart, beautiful woman.”
Daiki pauses for what he must think is dramatic effect. Taiga’s not the world’s most successful actor, but he can at least be a bit more subtle than his brother.
“You show up with the ring and your bank book. Don’t give me that look.” Daiki holds up his pen in one hand and his gradebook in the other. “You show her the bank book first, you know. If you’re smart, which I question about you as someone without a real job and steady income...”
“I have a steady income now!”
Daiki clears his throat. “You show her the bank book and say, here’s me. Here’s everything you really need to know.” Daiki then waves the pen. “Then you show her the ring and ask if she’d marry you. That simple.”
“Thanks,” Taiga says in irritation, turning on his heel. “That helps a lot.”
“That’s what a real man would do, Taiga! Taiga!”
--
Taiga makes the mistake of asking his friends fourth.
He sits in his desk chair, staring at the floor, letting the question sink in. Of course, he isn’t expecting their first reaction to be hysterical laughter. When he looks back up, Keita gasps.
“Wait, wait, Taiga. You’re serious?” Keita asks.
“Of course I’m serious!” he snaps. Why is everyone asking him that? He’s worked hard and saved money, all to become a man worthy of Shiori. Hasn’t anyone been paying attention? “I just don’t know how to ask!”
Joe’s sprawled across the bed behind Keita, hugging one of Taiga’s pillows. Sometimes it seems like his friends are even more at home in Taiga’s room than Taiga himself. “Listen Taiga, if you don’t know how to ask, then maybe you’re not ready.”
“Getting married isn’t like memorizing a script,” Taiga argues. “There aren’t standard lines for this!”
“Um, I think ‘will you marry me’ is pretty standard?” Keita points out.
“Better add ‘please’ in there say, 20 times?” Joe teases. He sits up and wraps an arm around Keita’s shoulder. “Ueno Keita-san...will you make me the happiest man in the universe?”
Keita pretends to swoon. Well, Taiga hopes he’s pretending. “Oh, Irabu-san! Yes! Where shall we go for our honeymoon?”
“A woman wouldn’t ask that right away,” Taiga grumbles. Especially not Shiori.
“Darling,” Joe says loudly. “Anywhere with you is exactly where I want to be.”
“Go home,” Taiga says in frustration, tapping his foot against the floor. The ring’s on the desk just behind him, reminding him of the challenge that lies ahead. Does Shiori love him? Absolutely she does. But marriage, even after this many years...Taiga’s not sure what the answer will be.
Keita gets up, shaking off his new fake spouse to pat Taiga on the shoulder affectionately. “My best friend, all grown up.”
“I see you’re in no hurry,” Taiga replies.
“With my mom, I don’t really have plans like that. She’ll just...mess things up. Somehow.” Keita shudders. “Besides, actors get married and divorced and married again all the time. Expensive.”
Joe nods in agreement. “And look how many actors get by on being eternally available bachelors! The second you put that ring on, you have to play someone’s dad or someone’s brother.”
His friends are kind of horrible sometimes, not a romantic bone in their bodies unless it’s called for in their scripts. “You’re both kind of useless, you know that?”
Joe smiles. “But we’re devilishly handsome!”
“And,” Keita reminds him, “we’re your friends, so you’re stuck with us.”
“Til death do us part,” Joe adds. “Oh, the speeches I could give at the wedding...”
Taiga gets out of his chair, knocking over the empty beer cans that have accumulated over the course of the evening. “Okay,” he says, opening his bedroom door. “Now you’re really going home.”
--
Taiga makes the mistake of asking Umi-chan last.
It’s a mistake because she’s the only one with actual advice to give.
She’s getting a little old for Taiga to be picking her up from school. She’d probably prefer to walk home with her friends, but word of a secret is enough to get her to hold his hand as they depart the schoolyard. He’s got Umi’s hand in his left, and the ring box in his pocket, right hand clutching it for courage.
“A secret, huh?” she asks, far more intelligent than most kids her age. At least as far as Taiga can tell. He doesn’t know a lot of nine year olds.
“It’s about your mom,” he says quietly as they walk. There’s a nice breeze, and it feels reassuring to have Umi’s small hand in his own. It feels right. There’s a lot more to marrying Shiori than just gaining a wife. He’ll gain Umi too.
“It’s about time, Taiga,” she says easily, squeezing his hand. “You want to marry my mama.”
“Well,” Taiga sputters, a little surprised that Umi knows exactly why he’s come all the way across town to pick her up, even though he has dress rehearsal tonight. “Yes. I was going to ask her tomorrow, but I...I don’t know what to say...and of course, I want your permission, Umi-chan.”
“Really?”
He nods. “You mean a lot to me. You and your mama both do. And I’ve waited a long time. I wanted to be a person worthy of your mama. I worked hard, I saved money. I don’t want to be your papa, Umi. I mean, I want to be a father to you, but I couldn’t replace him. But if I do marry your mother...”
Umi just giggles. “You’re silly. I know you aren’t replacing him.”
“You talk as though you know your mama will say yes.”
The little girl shrugs. “I think I know her better than you do.”
“Is that so?”
She smiles, and Taiga wants more than anything to make her smile that way forever. “I know my mama. She likes things simple. Just be yourself.”
Taiga frowns. “Myself?”
“She loves you just how you are, you know. And so do I.”
They reach the end of her block, and he sees the small apartment building in the distance. Shiori will be home from work any minute. “You really think we could be a family, Umi-chan?”
The girl just pokes him in the side. “Aren’t we already?” she giggles and runs off.
Taiga realizes that he doesn’t have to rent an airplane or ask someone else’s permission or show Shiori his bank book or anything like that. Umi’s right, he thinks, feeling the ring box in his pocket.
He feels a tap on his shoulder and turns around to see Shiori, a little tired from a long day of work, but with the same kind, smiling face he fell in love with at first sight.
“Taiga, what are you doing here?”
Just be yourself, Taiga tells himself, slipping the box from inside his jeans.
“Shiori-san,” he says with a grin. “I have something to ask you.”
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Kusonoki Taiga/Kitamura Shiori; everybody's in this
Summary: Kusonoki Taiga has a very important question to ask, but asking his friends and family for advice is proving unhelpful.
Notes/Warnings: For Yuletide 2010. Set three years after the end of NatsuNiji.
Taiga makes the mistake of asking Sakura first.
It would of course be scandalous if Sakura-chan was seen in a cafe with him, especially since she’s headlining a drama this season and is in more commercials now than Taiga can count. With her star rising and his too, thank you very much, the last thing they both need is a scandal based on a misunderstanding.
Taiga wears his latest disguise. He’s pretty proud of it, too. Glasses. Not sunglasses that scream “hey, I’ve been in movies,” but actual glasses. Scholarly-looking ones. Glasses that average everyday people wear. He’s timed his arrival at the cafe to make sure he could get this table in the back with the potted ferns blocking the view of anyone not on the wait staff.
It’s the perfect plan until Sakura’s ushered in through the back entrance. Taiga’s palms are sweaty, and he rubs them nervously against his khaki-clad thighs as she sits down in a huff. She takes off her “hey, I’ve been in movies” sunglasses and sets down her giant purse and makes quite a commotion as far as Taiga’s concerned.
“Would you keep it down?” he chides her. “This is important.”
Sakura rolls her eyes, every inch the successful actress. “I don’t know why you had to meet me here,” she says, waving for the waiter to bring some water. “I understand that you’re busy, Mr. I’m-in-a-play, let-me-send-everyone-I’ve-ever-met-a-mail-about-it...”
He taps his fingers against the table and grits his teeth. “This is something I couldn’t ask you about at the agency.”
“Why not? Why are you being so secretive, senpai?” Sakura asks, perusing the menu.
“Keep your voice down. This is personal.”
“We’re in public. Technically,” she reminds him. “You know, today’s my day off, and you had me come all the way here...”
Taiga shuts his eyes. “Sakura-chan, how would you want to be proposed to?”
He hears a choking sound, cracking one eye open to see Sakura’s face turn bright red. “Senpai,” she manages to sputter before her shaking hands close her menu.
Oh, Taiga thinks. She’s misunderstood. “I’m not proposing to you,” he tells her bluntly.
“Then why would you ask me...”
He tries to keep his voice down. “Because I have no idea how to ask, and I’d rather get a woman’s perspective.”
She calms down a bit when the waiter brings over their water. “So you’re asking Kitamura-san?”
Taiga scowls. “Obviously.” He’s been dating her for three years, after all.
“Well, I doubt that she’ll say yes,” Sakura says. “I mean, are you serious with those glasses? You look like an old man.”
He grabs a menu and holds it tightly. Because it would probably be unseemly to strangle star actress Miyase Sakura in a cafe in broad daylight. “You’re not helping me here.”
“Okay okay, I will think.”
Sakura takes plenty of time to think, and they’re already on coffee after their lunch (which Taiga will be paying for) before she has an idea. “Well,” she says, “if I was being proposed to, I’d want it to be special.”
Taiga wonders if he should take notes. “Special how?”
“Well, if you propose at a restaurant, make sure the ring appears with her dessert. Like it’s inside her scoop of ice cream.”
“That sounds messy.”
Sakura hushes him. “And have the whole restaurant sing a song that means something to you as a couple. Oh, and if he was proposing at the beach, he’d have to hire a plane with a sign that says ‘I love you, Sakura! Marry me!’ and there’d be fireworks...”
All of Sakura’s ideas are a little more ambitious than Taiga has in mind. By the time Sakura decides that her ideal proposal involves the man scaling a skyscraper with a “Marry Me, Sakura” cape on, Taiga decides that lunch is over.
She dabs her mouth with her napkin. “Ah, but senpai, I don’t think Kitamura-san would like any of those ideas. She seems pretty old-fashioned to me.”
Taiga is pretty sure being old-fashioned has nothing to do with how over-the-top Sakura’s suggestions are. He’s out two lunches and back to square one.
“But you know,” she says quietly as she gets up to leave. “I still am a little disappointed that you’ll never propose to me, senpai...”
He opens his mouth to protest, but she pats his shoulder.
“Oh, don’t worry. I wouldn’t say yes.”
Taiga glares as she heads back to the rear entrance. And he still has no ideas.
--
Taiga makes the mistake of asking his mother second.
“Oh Taiga!” his mom swoons, almost like a hearts-in-her-eyes manga character. “Shiori-san as a daughter in law, what a dream come true!”
He sets down a tray of hors d’oeuvres, moving the finally cooled cupcakes aside. At least focusing on cooking is easier than sitting still waiting for his mother’s advice.
“When Kotaro-san asked me for my hand in marriage, it was the happiest day of my life.” His mother pauses, staring off at nothing in a rather dreamy manner until she notices Taiga’s frown. “The happiest until my wedding day. And then the happiest until you and Daiki were born.”
Taiga puts a cupcake onto a plate and slides it down the counter to his mother. “Okay, so the most important thing is to make her happy?”
His mother’s not paying much attention to him. “He went to my father’s house, wearing a fine suit. He wasn’t so wealthy in those days, but he was well put together. Of course, Kotaro-san was always a good saver, and my father liked that about him...”
“Mom...”
“And he came in to ask my father’s permission, standing up straight and proper, and I thought I would simply faint right there and then...”
“Mom!”
She looks at him then, blushing. “Those were wonderful days. And you’ll have them too, dear.”
“That’s nice,” he says, temper flaring. His mother’s about as useless as Sakura when it comes to giving advice. “But maybe you could answer my question?”
“How you should propose? Well, you obviously have to invite her to your play, and work your proposal in at the end! That would be so romantic!”
He frowns. “But at the end, my character kills his best friend.”
His mother shakes her head. “I don’t think I like this play, Taiga.”
He nods and picks up a cupcake of his own. “Thanks.”
--
Taiga makes the mistake of asking his brother third.
Immediately, Daiki closes his gradebook and points for Taiga to sit across from him in the living room. “Marriage? With Shiori-san?”
Why is this so unbelievable? “Of course Shiori-san!”
His brother clicks his tongue. “Bank book.”
“I’m sorry?”
Daiki holds out his hand. “I need to see your bank book. I won’t let you embarrass yourself if you’re not financially stable enough to ask her. What kind of brother would I be if you handed all your debt to Shiori-san? Why, she’d come crying to me and I’d have no choice but to comfort her so...”
Taiga stands. “First, I have no debt! I’ve been working hard, you know! Second, I’m the lead in this play, and I’ve been saving for a place for all three of us and for Umi-chan’s schooling and...”
His brother is still thinking about comforting Shiori, it appears, and Taiga grabs a pillow from the couch to throw at him.
“Here’s what you do, Taiga. This is what a real man does when he wants to spend the rest of his life with a smart, beautiful woman.”
Daiki pauses for what he must think is dramatic effect. Taiga’s not the world’s most successful actor, but he can at least be a bit more subtle than his brother.
“You show up with the ring and your bank book. Don’t give me that look.” Daiki holds up his pen in one hand and his gradebook in the other. “You show her the bank book first, you know. If you’re smart, which I question about you as someone without a real job and steady income...”
“I have a steady income now!”
Daiki clears his throat. “You show her the bank book and say, here’s me. Here’s everything you really need to know.” Daiki then waves the pen. “Then you show her the ring and ask if she’d marry you. That simple.”
“Thanks,” Taiga says in irritation, turning on his heel. “That helps a lot.”
“That’s what a real man would do, Taiga! Taiga!”
--
Taiga makes the mistake of asking his friends fourth.
He sits in his desk chair, staring at the floor, letting the question sink in. Of course, he isn’t expecting their first reaction to be hysterical laughter. When he looks back up, Keita gasps.
“Wait, wait, Taiga. You’re serious?” Keita asks.
“Of course I’m serious!” he snaps. Why is everyone asking him that? He’s worked hard and saved money, all to become a man worthy of Shiori. Hasn’t anyone been paying attention? “I just don’t know how to ask!”
Joe’s sprawled across the bed behind Keita, hugging one of Taiga’s pillows. Sometimes it seems like his friends are even more at home in Taiga’s room than Taiga himself. “Listen Taiga, if you don’t know how to ask, then maybe you’re not ready.”
“Getting married isn’t like memorizing a script,” Taiga argues. “There aren’t standard lines for this!”
“Um, I think ‘will you marry me’ is pretty standard?” Keita points out.
“Better add ‘please’ in there say, 20 times?” Joe teases. He sits up and wraps an arm around Keita’s shoulder. “Ueno Keita-san...will you make me the happiest man in the universe?”
Keita pretends to swoon. Well, Taiga hopes he’s pretending. “Oh, Irabu-san! Yes! Where shall we go for our honeymoon?”
“A woman wouldn’t ask that right away,” Taiga grumbles. Especially not Shiori.
“Darling,” Joe says loudly. “Anywhere with you is exactly where I want to be.”
“Go home,” Taiga says in frustration, tapping his foot against the floor. The ring’s on the desk just behind him, reminding him of the challenge that lies ahead. Does Shiori love him? Absolutely she does. But marriage, even after this many years...Taiga’s not sure what the answer will be.
Keita gets up, shaking off his new fake spouse to pat Taiga on the shoulder affectionately. “My best friend, all grown up.”
“I see you’re in no hurry,” Taiga replies.
“With my mom, I don’t really have plans like that. She’ll just...mess things up. Somehow.” Keita shudders. “Besides, actors get married and divorced and married again all the time. Expensive.”
Joe nods in agreement. “And look how many actors get by on being eternally available bachelors! The second you put that ring on, you have to play someone’s dad or someone’s brother.”
His friends are kind of horrible sometimes, not a romantic bone in their bodies unless it’s called for in their scripts. “You’re both kind of useless, you know that?”
Joe smiles. “But we’re devilishly handsome!”
“And,” Keita reminds him, “we’re your friends, so you’re stuck with us.”
“Til death do us part,” Joe adds. “Oh, the speeches I could give at the wedding...”
Taiga gets out of his chair, knocking over the empty beer cans that have accumulated over the course of the evening. “Okay,” he says, opening his bedroom door. “Now you’re really going home.”
--
Taiga makes the mistake of asking Umi-chan last.
It’s a mistake because she’s the only one with actual advice to give.
She’s getting a little old for Taiga to be picking her up from school. She’d probably prefer to walk home with her friends, but word of a secret is enough to get her to hold his hand as they depart the schoolyard. He’s got Umi’s hand in his left, and the ring box in his pocket, right hand clutching it for courage.
“A secret, huh?” she asks, far more intelligent than most kids her age. At least as far as Taiga can tell. He doesn’t know a lot of nine year olds.
“It’s about your mom,” he says quietly as they walk. There’s a nice breeze, and it feels reassuring to have Umi’s small hand in his own. It feels right. There’s a lot more to marrying Shiori than just gaining a wife. He’ll gain Umi too.
“It’s about time, Taiga,” she says easily, squeezing his hand. “You want to marry my mama.”
“Well,” Taiga sputters, a little surprised that Umi knows exactly why he’s come all the way across town to pick her up, even though he has dress rehearsal tonight. “Yes. I was going to ask her tomorrow, but I...I don’t know what to say...and of course, I want your permission, Umi-chan.”
“Really?”
He nods. “You mean a lot to me. You and your mama both do. And I’ve waited a long time. I wanted to be a person worthy of your mama. I worked hard, I saved money. I don’t want to be your papa, Umi. I mean, I want to be a father to you, but I couldn’t replace him. But if I do marry your mother...”
Umi just giggles. “You’re silly. I know you aren’t replacing him.”
“You talk as though you know your mama will say yes.”
The little girl shrugs. “I think I know her better than you do.”
“Is that so?”
She smiles, and Taiga wants more than anything to make her smile that way forever. “I know my mama. She likes things simple. Just be yourself.”
Taiga frowns. “Myself?”
“She loves you just how you are, you know. And so do I.”
They reach the end of her block, and he sees the small apartment building in the distance. Shiori will be home from work any minute. “You really think we could be a family, Umi-chan?”
The girl just pokes him in the side. “Aren’t we already?” she giggles and runs off.
Taiga realizes that he doesn’t have to rent an airplane or ask someone else’s permission or show Shiori his bank book or anything like that. Umi’s right, he thinks, feeling the ring box in his pocket.
He feels a tap on his shoulder and turns around to see Shiori, a little tired from a long day of work, but with the same kind, smiling face he fell in love with at first sight.
“Taiga, what are you doing here?”
Just be yourself, Taiga tells himself, slipping the box from inside his jeans.
“Shiori-san,” he says with a grin. “I have something to ask you.”