There were a few minutes left of class, and we had just finished our work. Shizune seemed kind of annoyed. She always got like that whenever we didn't finish early. Classwork was so easy for her, she turned it into a game; 'How Fast Can We Get Stuff Done?'. But since Hisao and I weren't as stellar as she was, we always slowed her down. Hisao signed an apology to her; he'd been picking up the sign language pretty quickly. [It's okay,] she signed, [I'm used to you being such a slow poke.] I smiled.
I've always admired Shizune's bluntness. Actually, I've always admired everything about Shizune. I loved being around her, ever since we first met. But it wasn't until Hisao showed up that I realized how much I liked her. When Hisao first came to our school, Shizune and I were his first friends, and everything was fine. But then Hisao started learning sign language, and soon after, he was able to 'talk' to her without my help. They could converse all on their own, and it made me feel...jealous. Just thinking of those two alone really irritated me, and then thinking of what they could've been doing - alone, together - infuriated me. 'She was mine first!' I frequently thought, even though I knew it was improper to think such a way.
I felt a tap on my shoulder. When I turned around, I saw everyone getting up to leave and Shizune signing, [The bell rang.] I was so deep in my internal ranting that I didn't even hear it.
School was over for that day, so we headed to the student council room; the room was pretty much empty, considering that we three were the only members. Most of the work in the student council was just filling out paperwork. It was so boring. Sometimes we would take breaks for snacks or just to talk. Since signing involved using our hands, we couldn't really talk while we worked. Well, Hisao and I could, but I never wanted to leave Shizune out of the loop.
This was one of those boring days at the clubroom. We sat at a table in the middle of the room, each of us with our own stack of papers. As we worked, I couldn't help but steal a few glances over at Shizune. She was so pretty.
After a while, I noticed that Hisao had been glancing at Shizune, and then over to me. I then noticed that he had been working a little bit faster than we were. 'What is he planning?' I thought. A few minutes later, Hisao finished his stack of paperwork and told us he would be studying in the library with Hanako. When I thought about it, it seemed that they had been studying together quite often. Suspiciously so.
As I pondered over various reasons why he had been hanging out with Hanako so much, Hisao pulled out a small piece of paper. I saw him write something, though I couldn't see what, and hand the paper to Shizune, who looked at it, wrote something on it, and handed it back to him. 'Wait, what are they doing?' I thought. 'What are they writing? What's on the paper?'
I tried my best to keep cool and fill out some papers, hoping my poker face was as good as I thought it was. Hisao took the paper, said his goodbyes, and walked out of the room. After a few moments of silence, still filling out the boring papers, and agonizing over the note, I felt a tap on my shoulder. No doubt, it was Shizune getting my attention. I turned to see that she had a nervous expression on her face. [I need to tell you something.] she signed. She looked at me with what seemed to be uncertainty in her eyes. I signed back [What is it? What's wrong?] She rose her hands, as if to tell me what was bothering her, but then she put her hands back down and looked away.
It hurt to see her like this. I knew something was wrong. I reached out and gingerly took hold of both her hands. I tried to look into her eyes, to encourage her. I smiled, letting her know it was okay. She looked back, the same expression of uncertainty still on her face.
Nothing that had come before could have prepared me for what happened next.
Shizune leant her head towards mine, and lightly planted a kiss on my cheek. I froze in disbelief. 'Does that mean...' I thought. She leant back and looked down with a blushing face.
As I looked at her, I couldn't help but feel a certain warmness swelling within me. As the feeling grew, I started to smile. I felt overjoyed. I leant over and returned the gesture. Her face was so adorable with that deep-red blush and that bewildered look.
Her eyes started to glisten with tears as her lips curled into a blissful grin. My own eyes started to water as she brought her hands up.
[I love you.]
[I love you, too.] I happily signed back.
We pulled each other into a tight, loving embrace, and I cried out of sheer joy. Shizune released me and gazed into my eyes, gently placing her hands on my cheeks and wiping my tears away. We stared at each other for a few precious moments, no doubt simultaneously thinking of the wonderful times we've experienced before, and precisely what we would do from then on.
We smiled at each other as Shizune pulled me into our first kiss, and in that moment, I couldn't have ever been happier.
Sometime later, after we had told our friends and received our congratulations, I pulled Shizune aside and asked about Hisao's piece of paper. She told me that she had told Hisao about her feelings for me about a month before, and that he had helped her build her confidence for when she was ready to confess to me. That day in the clubroom, Hisao handed her a piece of paper where he wrote 'Are you going to tell her?', and so Shizune wrote 'yes'.