As was often the case when GoGo and her comrades were bored, they were having a group discussion on something that had very little relevance to anything. In this case, each was recounting their first kiss. Fred was attempting to convince the group that his first kiss was with international singing sensation Laurel Saunders. Wasabi, a fan of her music, was more than slightly skeptical.
"You are a horrible liar, but this is taking it to a whole new dimension of duplicity."
"I'm telling the truth. I was sixteen and I met her backstage," Fred's voice took on a air of seriousness that was rather rare coming from him. "And she was all like 'and you must be Fred'. Then she kissed me on each cheek. I didn't wash my face for days after that. Even when I was in the shower, I held my face away from the water, and you know I wouldn't lie about that."
"Okay, that's enough," Wasabi, clearly convinced, hoped to calm Fred before he could continue with any extraneous details. "At the risk of losing my lunch, let's here GoGo's story."
While normally reserved and not one to reveal portions of her past, GoGo found this story more amusing than embarrassing. "Eh, it's not exactly interesting. I was thirteen and there was this guy named Scott. Our first and only date was down by a park where we just sat around and talked about how angsty our lives were for an hour. He kind of tapped me on the chin with his lips. I think he was aiming for my mouth. It fizzled out not long after that," She shrugged her shoulders. After completing her story, she couldn't wait any longer; she had to know the truth. "But what I want to know," She turned her gaze to Tadashi. "Is what Hamada's first kiss was like."
Immediately upon completing her request, Hiro burst into a fit of giggling that he took less and less care to contain. Tadashi shot him a glare. "Well, GoGo, if you must know, I can tell you that-"
"He has never kissed a girl before." Before Tadashi could finish, Hiro interjected, cackling.
GoGo exchanged glances with the rest of the comrades as the brothers considered the possibility of hitting each other. Despite her tendency to remain ambivalent, or at least to give off that appearance, something about this piece of information had a rather unusual effect on GoGo's mind. Had Tadashi seriously never kissed a girl before? How was such a thing even possible? As incredibly dorky as he was, GoGo assumed he would've at the very least kissed a girl once in his eighteen years of life. He was smart, funny, sweet, had the uncanny ability to make her stomach flutter pleasantly, attract-
"Oh come on guys, there's nothing wrong with that." Predictably, Honey Lemon jumped to her friend's defense. GoGo cocked an eyebrow in response.
"You're not being serious, right?" Teasing Tadashi was one of GoGo's favorite pastimes.
"Absolutely. There is nothing wrong with taking life at your own pace."
"Well, feel free to lie all you want. I think it's kind of weird." GoGo gave Tadashi a slight grin, his frustration becoming more apparent by the second.
"Because," While Tadashi was generally amicable, GoGo noticed a slight increase in the volume of his voice. "I'm saving it for someone special and I just haven't found that person yet," Strangely, GoGo felt her heart sink upon processing Tadashi's defense. "And by the way, you haven't kissed a girl either, Hiro."
Hiro held his hands up. "Hey, I'm fourteen and you're eighteen."
As the group continued their debate, GoGo found herself unable to move past Tadashi's explanation. She found it rather disconcerting. As he said, he simply couldn't find the right person, and GoGo was presumably someone 'already found'. That obviously meant that Tadashi had considered and dismissed the possibility of GoGo being the 'right person', if he even considered it at all. It made her feel as if a brick had been placed in her stomach. She had spent years building up her defenses only for Tadashi to saunter into her life and break them down with almost no effort. Funny, sweet, good-looking Tadashi who never gave GoGo so much as a second thought.
Later in the day, after the rest of the group had departed and only the Hamada brothers remained, GoGo figured she could hang around for a bit to get some work done. She was used to Tadashi's ability to unnerve her, but this was a metric of anxiety that she found entirely alien. She prided herself on her ability to keep her emotions in check and her peerless skills as an actress, but attempting to get any sort of work done in proximity to Tadashi was enough to convince her that this was her personal greatest nightmare. After she noticed Hiro exiting the lab, she made her move. However, she had to keep it casual. She couldn't actually let Tadashi know he had that sort of effect on her. She casually walked over to his lab to find him reading at his desk. In typical GoGo-fashion, she propped her elbow on his head.
"What's up, Hamada?"
"I can't tell if you're talking to me or my brother."
Tadashi had a point. This was a problem that needed immediate attention. "Tell you what, you'll be called dork and your brother will be code-named little dork. Sound good, dork?"
"I don't have much of a choice in this, do I?"
"No, you don't," GoGo calmly responded as she appraised Tadashi's book in an attempt to calm her nerves. Her plan sounded hypothetically sensible, but putting it into practice made her heart race uncontrollably. All things considered, this was likely the most terrifying experience GoGo had faced up to that point in her existence. "I seriously cannot get over that you haven't kissed a girl before. You are just full of surprises, dork." Her inflection was that of facetious dispassion, but she acknowledged that there was a great deal of truth embedded in both her statements.
He flipped a page in his novel. "And I can't believe you care so much."
GoGo arms and stomach felt as if they were going to freeze. She congratulated herself on her acting abilities. "Well, I don't really care about Bigfoot, but if Bigfoot one day hoped the fence of the White House and was declared president, I'd take a great deal of interest in Bigfoot." She further congratulated herself on the steadiness of her voice.
"Quite the analogy."
Despite her best efforts, Tadashi was totally impenetrable. He was supposed to be the one to dispense the witty banter to a nonchalant GoGo. Was he genuinely upset with her earlier comments? She desperately hoped that wasn't the case, but she pressed on.
"I'm just saying. I thought there would be at least one painfully nerdy girl you went to middle school with who loved getting homework done on time and following the rules as much as you."
Tadashi abruptly ended his reading session, stood up, and turned to GoGo, arms crossed. "I think I know you pretty well, GoGo, and it's pretty obvious this holds some significance to you," She felt her muscles tense up reflexively. Seeing him at this level of intensity was rarer than encountering Bigfoot. "So, please, tell me why my inability to acquire a kiss means so much to you."
Overt shyness was not something GoGo was accustomed to, even around Tadashi, but the one thing she desired more than anything in the world was a hole in which she could crawl in and be forgotten by the rest of humanity. She could feel her cheeks burn as she struggled to meet Tadashi's intoxicating eyes. Looking at him was also one of her favorite pastimes, but she found it beyond painful in this instance. She knew there was only one way to truly assuage her all-encompassing anxiety.
"Because I want to do something about it." She squeaked out.
"What?"
Unable to speak, GoGo grabbed Tadashi by his shirt, brought his face closer to hers, and locked her lips around his. It was as thrilling and cathartic as she hoped. Like pretty much every aspect of him, Tadashi's mouth was extremely soft, yet there was a passion behind it that made GoGo's stomach somersault. He smelled like something nostalgic and blissful and was really, really warm. Emotionally and physically, everything in this moment was perfect and singular. In spite of how amazing the kiss was, she desperately hoped Tadashi would positively respond to her imposition. She broke away and looked up at him.
"Well, you weren't exactly my first choice," Tadashi responded with a sly grin. "But I'm happy you're my first kiss."
She was pleased to have the care-free, snarky Tadashi back. "Shut up."
"Are you going to make me?"
GoGo gave a rare smile and took it as her signal to silence Tadashi.
"Dude! You did it!"
Before she could indulge herself, GoGo whipped her head to the source of the disturbance to find Hiro standing in the doorway. He must've been privy to the entire altercation. GoGo again felt heat rise to her face. Luckily, Tadashi intervened. "Yes, Hiro, I finally kissed a girl. Are you hap-"
"No, dude," Hiro cut him off. "You finally did it! You finally kissed GoGo! And you said it would never happen."
GoGo turned her gaze to find that Tadashi was the one who was now blushing. "Wow, you had a crush on me? That is pathetic."
He squinted at her in response. "Do you not see the irony in what you just said?"
"Even by your standards, that is super embarrassing, dork."