163 An Outing (7)

If there was a spell to drop into the bowels of Earth and never come back out, Iris would have used it without a moment's hesitation. The situation they were currently in was simply too awkward for words.

Although no one was paying them any attention, Iris could just feel the lovey-dovey atmosphere radiating off of everything and everyone. A waitress even came over to put a clearly handmade candle of two doves standing on a sunflower on their table and lit it up.

"Welcome to Sunflower Garden. Here are the menus, and I hope you'll have an enjoyable time here." Right after, the waitress walked away, as if her presence could disturb the guests.

Iris watched after the woman's disappearing feet, wondering if there was a way to call her back and say that they were planning to leave.

Right then, Kyro bumped her knee with his own. The tables were really small, made so that the two people could easily reach other.

Iris' head snapped up, and she looked over at Kyro. He wasn't smiling, but he didn't seem as annoyed as she'd expected. It was a good sign… Probably?

"Did you know what kind of place this was?"

"No!" Iris instantly answered, violently shaking her head. "Of course not!"

"Then why are you acting so guilty? Raise your head from that table a little." His voice was calm, and Iris pondered how that was so. Was he really not angry?

But he should have been furious! The moment she previously mentioned something about girlfriends, he stopped talking to her for half an hour. How was this different then, with reminders whenever one's gaze strayed anywhere from the table? Wait, scratch that, even the table was now a reminder. After all, there was that very obvious handmade candle of two doves between them.

"It's just a little… embarrassing," she admitted. Then, she swiftly opened the menu, and her face fell once more.

All the titles were cheesy stuff like Dancing Swans, Lovers' Quarrel, Two Hearts, and so on. There were even some more suggestive such as French Kiss and Wedding Night.

Snapping the menu shut, she looked at like it was a snake in her hand. Kyro gave her an amused look, then opened his own menu. It wasn't long before his expression started to become strained. She could see him trying to keep his nonchalance, but it wasn't working.

"You couldn't make them any cheesier if you tried, could you?" she muttered, and Kyro sent her a pained look. "Why else do you think I took a break after the first glance?"

Upon collecting back her courage, Iris opened the menu again and looked through the pictures this time, ignoring the names. To her surprise, most of the choices were for two people straightaway. The comments near them were all about how eating from the same bowl would deepen the couple's feelings.

'Thanks, but I think I'll live without this kind of deepening,' Iris muttered in her mind and turned a few pages for something less prone to disasters.

"Page eight," Kyro said, and she looked up to see that his expression was quite strange.

When she opened the page, she understood why. It was the place with all separate dishes, but their names… This was where she'd seen Lovers' Quarrel before, and all the dishes here could be divided into two categories by name: too innocent for anything and disagreeing couple.

With a sigh, Iris looked through them all and decided on Youthful Kiss, which was in truth just simple chicken pieces with some potatoes and salad. There was nothing special about it besides the name.

Soon, the waitress came back, and they ordered. Iris managed to say the name of her dish, but Kyro didn't even bother. He just pointed at his on the menu, not saying a word. The waitress smiled brightly at them and left, saying that their orders will soon be ready.

When she was a good distance away, Iris leaned over to Kyro. "You should have seen your face. Icebergs look warmer than you."

"Do they?" he asked coolly, giving her a look that said she was walking on dangerous ground. '

Iris patted his hand on the table. "I'm sorry, but yes, they do."

The corners of his lips lifted up slightly. "You don't need to console me, I'll live."

"Good, for I have to share something else as well."

She then started to make fun of their surroundings, wondering aloud from what movie, TV series, or book they could have been taken. With her vast knowledge of romantic cliches, she had no trouble coming up with a story for every little thing around them.

Kyro seemed amused by all the nonsense that was coming out of her mouth, and even threw in a word or two every once in a while. The awkwardness thus receded, and Iris found herself stretching her mind for sillier and sillier things to surprise Kyro. He didn't seem to have seen any romantic movies, so some of the things women supposedly liked based on them left him quite startled.

"So you want to say that a man can be a total brute, but as long as he says 'You're mine' often enough and has a nice body, that's enough?"

Iris laughed at his I-don't-know-if-you're-trolling-me-or-I-was-living-under-a-rock expression. "I didn't write those books," she said. "But they're surprisingly popular. I haven't yet figured out why."

"But you've read them," he said in an accusatory voice.

"Uhm…" That was bad… Why did he suddenly go for this point? It wasn't like she loved those books, but she had read a few of them. Sometimes because they were simply too comedic, and sometimes because she wanted to read to the end and see if the female lead was stupid enough to end up with that kind of guy. "For research!"

"And you've learned?"

"That overly-possessive and jealous guys should be avoided," she told him seriously.

He shook his head, looking at her as if she had said something really stupid. "And you couldn't have figured that out by just thinking about it?"

"Shush! You can't judge those books like that! Its—"

Before she could finish defending the not-so-perfect romance novels, the waitress came with their order. The two dishes were arranged in a pleasing manner, and the two of them ate with little talk, both hungry and wishing to fill their stomachs first.

Once done, Kyro quickly paid and they left. Neither of them wished to stay there for any longer than necessary.

In the car, Iris soon felt the exhaustion of the day washing over her. They had went to sleep late last night and been woken up early by Kyro's parents. Then, the whole day was spent outside, walking everywhere.

The moment she closed her eyes, they fell tightly shut and she soon fell asleep. It wasn't even five minutes into the drive back home that she no longer was aware of her surroundings.

When they reached the parking lot, Kyro turned off the car. He looked to the right, thinking to tell Iris that she should leave now, but he couldn't say a word. She was half-curled up on the seat, deep asleep.

Her light hair hid a portion of her face, but he could still see her long eyelashes and delectable little mouth. All evening it had kept moving, speaking to him, but his thoughts hadn't always been on the subject.

With a shake of his head, he opened his door and stood up, walking over to her side of the car. When he leaned over to open her seat belt, she murmured something incomprehensible, but didn't wake up.

For a moment, Kyro just stood by the side, watching her. Did she think he was a saint? Not only did she live in his house without any worry, she didn't even put any guard against him. 'Do you not see me as a man? Or do you think my self-control is infallible?'

"Crazy girl," he muttered to himself and bent down to pick her up. With a kick to the car's door, he walked away and into the elevator that would bring them to his apartment.