"Koh. KOH! Dammit Koh, wake up!"

Now that was not an alarm Koh remembered setting.

"Whahuhwhatshappening" Koh mumbled, falling off his side of the bed.

Aoba dropped a bowtie on the floor next to him. "Idiot. You know what today is. Now get up!"

"Hey! Don't treat your superiors that way" Koh mumbled, still half asleep. "You still don't know how to 'kindly' do anything."

Aoba smiled endearingly. "You keep thinking that, moron." She planted a kiss on his nose and rushed out of the room. "Now fix that bedhead. And don't be late!" she called over her shoulder to him.

"When am I ever?" Koh called back. He could hear her laughing as she left for her house.

Come to think of it, why had she spent the night? She never really did that, even though it was completely justified. I mean for christ's sake, they were

...engaged.

"So that's what today..." Koh mused aloud as he examined the bowtie.

And a smile that could outshine the lights of Koshien broke out on his face.

Maybe just for today, he thought, he could fix his bedhead.

Aoba rushed out of Koh's house, head a mess and still barely dressed, with butterflies in her stomach. It was one thing to say yes to a guy, it was another to actually do it.

Even if that guy WAS Koh Kitamura, famous pitcher for the Yomiuri Giants. Who also happened to be an idiot.

It had happened fairly suddenly. One day they were dating, the next it was Koh's 20th birthday and the engagement ring that Wakaba had asked Koh to buy for her so long ago was given to her instead.

Wakaba.

She still thought of that one day sometimes, when Waka told her to never take Koh away from her. She was so convinced that Koh would become the greatest pitcher in all of Japan, so convinced that she would become Aoba's dream boy that she had told Aoba she could never steal him from her.

How right she was.

Aoba decided that now was as good a time as any to pay a visit to Waka's grave. To ask for her blessing, maybe, but mostly to ask for forgiveness. She still felt guilty from time to time, thinking that Waka would be angry with her. Koh always told her that she might, but above all it must make her happy to see that the two people she loved most in the world loved each other, too.

Soon enough, Aoba found herself on the path to Waka's grave. It was still early, but the birds were beginning to chirp and the sun could be seen on the horizon. As she came to the grave, the sun peeked above the trees to illuminate the freshly planted clovers and the cap that lay resting there, still, after all these years. Aoba knelt down to try to compose a plea to her sister, an offering of any kind that could alleviate the guilt she felt for taking away the one she loved most.

Her mind was blank.

Finally, she opened her eyes. "Waka", she said, "I'm sorry. You told me to never take him away from you and I did. But now I finally understand what you felt for him. And so if you could forgive me of what I have done, because now I think I finally get it. I really do love him more than anyone else in the entire world."

"She would be happy, you know."

Aoba whirled around. Above her was the figure of her groom to be.

"She really would be happy."

Aoba couldn't think of anything to say.

"Are you here to ask for forgiveness too?"

She nodded, tears in her eyes.

"Ichiyou is right, you know. We really are too much alike."

And so, on their wedding day, Aoba and Koh Kitamura knelt in front of the grave of the person that loved them both the most.

And were forgiven.