Chapter 87: Date with Kaori (III)

"Now then, we have our final five participants! Because the boys have done all the hard work in the previous round to show their love for their partners, the next performance will be the girls' time to shine."

"We call it the Sparkly Cute Girls Gathering! The Lovey-Dovey Confession!"

"The rules are simple. The participants are going to pretend that they're currently standing in front of their beloved one, and they'll confess right here! The judges will be everyone in the audience! We will judge how much you're clapping, screaming, or whatever with a machine, and the girl with the highest points is the winner!" The emcee announced as he revealed a machine which has nothing but a screen to show the supposed "points" from all the sound the audience will be making, "Girls! It's time to re-confess to your boyfriends in front of everyone! Let's begin with...you!"

The "chosen one" stood forward as she self-introduced as per the emcee's request.

"I'm Kayasuki Himari. I'm a fresh college graduate, and I was the ex-captain of the female basketball team. During my captaincy, we won several trophies and even reached all the way to the quarter-finals of the national stage."

"Oh, what a self-reliant and strong woman. I wonder why you chose him to be your boyfriend?"

"He's my Kouhai in the basketball club. He's one year younger than me, and he's really cute. His face gets red so easily when I tease him, and he's always very cute. He's such a softie but always tries to act tough. But despite being teased so easily, he's sometimes so serious as well. He's the one who cheers me up whenever I'm down and is always by my side whenever I need him. That's why I really love him."

After taking the microphone in her hand, Himari's soft voice filled the place, and both her voice and her kind words reverberated inside her boyfriend's chest. Himari was a rather tall girl, even taller than her own boyfriend. It was a miracle that her boyfriend even managed to carry her all the way till the end; he must have really trained a lot.

"Himari-senpai..."

With that, Himari took a deep breath. And, lifting both her breasts up with her arms to emphasize them, she focused her gaze on the audience. Or rather, on Akio, her boyfriend, who was currently present in that audience.

"Akio-kun, I'm ready to give you my everything. I love you."

A simple yet straightforward confession earned her a massive cheer from the audience. It seems that both the males and females loved her confession as a wave of cries and whistling followed.

"92 points! Amazing! We've already crossed the 90 point mark with the first entry! Way to go, Kayasuki-san."

"Now, on to the next couple!"

The next three couples all had their own varying personality. Maybe because of a freak coincidence or something, all the girls displayed different types of "deres" to their boyfriend. A tsundere, a loli senpai, and even a little sister character.

Of course, they all scored above 90; the tsundere even scored a 98.

And now, it was finally the girl I'd been waiting for: Kaori. I mean, she did confess to me already, but I wanted to hear it again.

"Miyazono-kun is good at the violin, right? I look up to those who can play instruments; too bad I never really had the talent or time for it. So, what kind of boy are you interested in?"

"Uhm...Fuu-kun is my savior? Though he always tells me that I'm cute, he's sometimes too much of a siscon, and it's troubling me a bit. I'm sometimes jealous of his sisters!" Kaori exclaimed with a pout, inciting more cheers from the audience who liked to see the jealous and pouting Kaori.

"Fuu-kun saved me when I was down; his music attracted me to become who I am today. We only started going out for a short time, but his daily act of kindness to me, his pampering whenever I feel down...is something very precious to me."

She once more showed a gleeful smile as she opened her mouth.

"And this Fuu-kun… I…"

Kaori's eyes slightly turned towards me.

"I really love him! …You know?"

This time around, it was a straight confession. And in response to that, the whole male audience screamed at the top of their lungs. Even the females joined in at cheering for the bold Kaori.

"120 points?! It broke the limit of our measuring device?!"

"Ohhh, am I actually pretty amazing?"

"A girl that loves her Fuu-kun this much really is cute, after all!" The emcee let out a broad smile as he spoke, "So with that, the winner of his tournament is Miyazono Kaori-kun! Please, a round of applause!"

Feeling happy and embarrassed, I could not directly look at the stage and just hung my head.

Man, I thought I would be immune to this type of sweetness already. Or, at the very least, not get so flustered.

But the thought of Kaori on stage with a bright smile proclaiming her love to me just brings butterflies to my stomach, my heart throbbing with happiness and happiness glowing inside me. I could not conceal my delight, and even though I could not see what expression I currently had on my face, I probably had a daze, dreamy-like state of expression.

"Fuu-kun!" Kaori jumped down from the stage. Fortunately, I immediately snapped back to attention as I caught her in my arms, not letting her go before spinning in a circle with Kaori in the air.

"How was my confession again, Fuu-kun?" Kaori proudly asked me after she got released from my arms. Though, her blush could not be hidden behind that smile.

"I love it," I replied without beating around the bush. No teasing, no acting all proudly, no counter-attacks. Just my pure feelings towards her heartfelt confession; it was the least I had to do to reply to her admission once more.

"Hehe..."

"I would hate to interrupt your couple-time, but here are the prizes you won." The emcee interrupted us and presented to us a...what is that?

"It's a bottle of kitchen cleaning supplies."

"Huuuuuuuuuh?!"

The prize greatly surpassed my expectations. Even Kaori had an astonished expression on her face. So many people participated in this event that I thought it had some excellent prizes. Did time change, and people actually start to love kitchen cleaning supplies now?

"Haha, I know it's nothing, but it was just a free event for us to spread love around. The world could use more of it, don't you think?" As usual, the emcee's words started going deeper and darker at the end as he continued muttering as he left us alone with the bottle of kitchen cleaning supplies, "I'm thinking of quitting my job already. Maybe it's time to earn more stable salary..."

"Oh, by the way, emcee-san, could you tell me your name? I'm curious."

"Huh? Oh, sure. Omota Uramichi."

Uramichi? Sounds familiar...but nothing comes to my head.

"Omata-san. Thank you for the prize~."

"No problem. Enjoy the rest of the day with your girlfriend."

With that, the event ended, and these precious memories were stored in my head to reminisce later on.

∞

Today was just a rather special day. Usually, this mall wouldn't have anything going on, much less two events happening simultaneously. Of course, it was a good thing since it allowed us to have more fun than just walking around hand-in-hand.

But when there weren't any events happening, this mall would be rather bland apart from its rather...exotic stuff that was on sale. Despite so, the actual reason why this mall still exists today was down in the basement. And it was this reason that also prompted me to choose this place for our date initially. The art and craft event and the couple event were just side-dishes.

There were two basements, and the lower basement only had one stall - the music store. And it was this store that single-handedly supported the mall to survive its competition.

When we entered the music store by taking the escalator down, we were greeted with the sight of endless instruments. Unlike a typical music store with limited space, due to the nature of this store being both the producer, supplier, and seller, it took up the entire basement floor.

"Wow!" Kaori excitedly exclaimed as she hopped up and down, "Fuu-kun! Look!"

The sea of pianos proved to be a fantastic sight, and as expected of a legendary store, if it can even be called a "store" at this point, there were much more people on one basement floor than two floors above ground.

"Look!"

"Wow!"

"This makes such a nice sound!"

"The keys are so smooth!"

"The sound is so loud!"

Kaori neer stopped chattering as her comments just rushed out of her mouth as she touched each piano, key, and note.

We have been out and active for almost an entire day already, but Kaori's energy never ceased to cheer everyone around her up.

Initially, this part was supposed to be the most looked-forward-to place of attraction to musicians like us, but with the appearance of the couple events and the fact that we were here as a "couple" rather than "musicians",...

Well, we still had a fun time looking through all the instruments, though we didn't buy anything. It was expensive, after all.

∞

Kaori's smile was as bright as the setting sun behind her, her blond hair scattered behind her as the wind blew.

[Image here->]

It was already 8 pm, a time that was neither early nor late for thirteen-year-olds like us. Kaori had a curfew to follow, and I don't plan to disrespect that on her first date. Basic trust from her parents must be earned, after all.

"Thank you for today, Fuu-kun. Did you...enjoy it?"

"Did you know that the definition of a 'date' is really simple? It's simply three words - a romantic appointment. There is no specific place involved. No specific time was involved. No specific crowd was involved. As long as you're with a partner that you're happy with, it would be considered a 'date'. If you don't enjoy the date with someone, then that just means that you have attended a 'gathering' or a 'meeting', not a 'date'." I said, "And I defined today to be a date between you and me. So? Did you think I enjoyed today?"

"Phew...thank God. I was really worried that you wouldn't enjoy it!"

Holding her hand as we walked back today, I gave it a little squeeze.

"You can be more confident about yourself, you know? I don't know what is holding you back all the time, but I feel that if you want to live your life, you should always be true to yourself.

You don't have to pretend. You don't have to compare. Shouko is precious to me, and there's no doubt about that, but you're equally cherished as well."

"Hahaha, I'm always fine. I'm not holding myself back after all." Kaori smiled as her hand, which was held in my mine, swung back and forth cheerfully. Her other hand had an almost hollow ice-cream cone, with the ice cream already all eaten up.

"I had fun today, didn't I?"

As we slowly walked to the bakery's front, Kaori let go of my hand and turned to smile at me.

"If I'm not wrong, Shouko-chan got a present from you after the date, didn't she?"

Well...

"I'm sorry that-"

"Oh, I'm not explicitly asking you for something. Though, I still want a present." After saying that, she grabbed my shirt and pulled it towards her, resulting in my lips meeting hers aggressively. My eyes widened in surprise, but I quickly recovered and enjoyed the kiss.

"Yep, tastes like chocolate~." Kaori smiled as she licked her lips after backing off, "Shouko-chan hasn't done a kiss with you for this long, right? I wouldn't stop competing against her for you, Fuu-kun."

Her smile just now turned a bit weird for that one moment. Did I just imagine it?

"Papa, mama!" Kaori greeted her parents as she ran towards the bakery. It was apparent to see that her parents had been waiting in front of their stall for their daughter to come back home safely.

"Kaori-chan. Welcome home. Fuu-chan, thank you for bringing her home safely." Kaori's mother smiled and thanked me.

Kaori's father merely nodded before leading Kaori back home. Seeing her husband's attitude, Kaori's mother simply let out a sigh and a wry smile.

"Sorry about his attitude. He might act all tough in front of you, but he never stops praising you in front of me."

A classic tsundere father. How absolutely creepy. Not that I'm going to say it right in front of anyone's face.

"It's fine. Thank you for allowing me to bring your daughter out. I'll be leaving now."

"Yep. Have a good night."

"Good night."

And with this closing arc, little did I know that a new chapter of my life would be opened, leading me to countless possibilities and futures. Little did I know that every decision of mine would lead me down different paths, and with just one mistake, I would fall onto the path with no return...

*****************

A/N: Finally, although it's only August in the timeline, more specifically, the last day of the summer holidays, it's the end of the first-year arc. The next arc would be in year two, which would start immediately in the next chapter. Look forward to it, because I'm looking forward to writing it as well.

Well, I certainly didn't expect people to know the anime character...and here I thought it was a relatively unknown character...

But a promise is a promise. Here is your chapter~.