The box was so incredibly small, Shiharu was having a hard time deciding what could possibly be inside of it. She felt shivers of anticipation rushing through her as she looked up at Seiji, who was looking somewhat flushed as he waited for her to open the gift. Well, there was nothing else to do but to push back the lid and see what was inside...

Everything came to a halt as she gazed down at the twinkling diamonds of the ring, small but so elegantly designed that she knew it would be perfect upon her own small hand. But this... For her? She shut the box immediately, blinking fast as she reopened it and then shut it again. "It's going to be the same no matter how many times you open it." Seiji chuckled, his voice bringing her back, and Shiharu looked up at him with wide eyes. And so she reopened the ring box, unable to tear her eyes away from Seiji's face. He grinned back at her, his smile sheepish as he ran a hand through his disheveled hair.

"But this... This looks expensive..." Her words trailed off as she fought to find the right ones to say. Hundreds of thoughts were racing through her mind, hundreds of different thoughts and feelings that she couldn't seem to grasp. "This isn't something so easily accepted..." Seiji had another chuckle at her expense as she looked up to meet his gaze, her eyes full of the very same emotions he was feeling.

"I know..." He said softly, his lips curving with a smile as he looked into her eyes. "I'm sorry to surprise you like this, Nakamura-san." He paused again, wondering how far he could take this. Part of him was screaming to stop, to take it all back, to return things to how they had always been. But the other part of him, his heart, was telling him to take the plunge. "I love you." The words fell from his lips before he could stop them and they fell between them like a bomb, her eyes widening even further as if she was registering the meaning behind them. But she did not speak, did not even change her expression as she stared back at him, the little ring box still clutched in her hands. Had she not... Had she not understood him? "Ahh... Nakamura-san, shall I say it again?"

Shall I say it again...? Nakamura-san, I love you...

His words were repeating over and over inside her head; there on the carpeted floor, kneeling across from one another, Matsunaga-san was confessing to her the depth of his feelings, was confessing to her the truth of his heart, but she could not find any words to say. Instead, she began to laugh, her face stained crimson with embarrassment. "Wh-what..." Was all she could finally mumble, her grip on the ring box tightening slightly. And then it hit her, fast and hard, just what Matsunaga-san was saying to her. "Wait, WHAT?" She nearly shouted as she jumped up to her feet, pacing back and forth in a daze as she tried to comprehend all that had just happened. "It's not a dream..." She mumbled as she pinched her own cheek, the sharp pain reminding her of the reality she was in.

"Look, Nakamura-san, maybe you should sit down." Seiji said with a chuckle, rising up to draw her back down, placing her back in the spot she'd been in moments before. When she was settled back into place, he offered her a smile, his tender feelings only increasing for her in this moment. "I'm telling you this now, even though you might be a little put off by it... But..." He trailed off, wanting nothing more than to reach for her, to hold her as he had done one or two times in the past. "But I think I have loved you since the first time I saw you." He could recall that moment as freshly as if it had been the day before, not two years ago. That day he'd seen her with the twins clutching onto her, the only person he had ever seen that close to them in all the time he had been with them. And then she had turned to see him there in the doorway, with her sweet, but shy smile, each of her hands placed upon one of the twin's soft, downy heads. Seiji had never believed in love at first sight, at least not until that very moment.

Is this a dream... Shiharu could not help but wonder to herself as she listened closely to the words Seiji was speaking. Like him, she too could remember their first meeting as if it were yesterday, so profound it had been. He had come into the daycare to pick up the twins, the two little ones she'd found herself drawn to more than any of the others. He had come through the door in his nice looking suit and tired eyes, his expression turning to shock when his gaze had fallen upon her there with the twins. She had known them to be a little emotional, crying constantly and never taking a liking to anyone at all. But they had warmed up to her from the moment they'd met and Shiharu had found herself to be quite taken with them as well.

"Nakamura-san, you seem way more mature than any of the high school kids that I know, and that's why sometimes I forget about our age gap." He went on, speaking the words he'd been thinking of all these years with her. "Whenever I'm with you, I feel warm." Memories filtered through his mind, images of their time together that he would never, ever forget. "I feel so happy that I could burst." He watched as the blush returned to her face and he felt his heart skip a beat. "I don't think in the future I could ever meet someone more important to me than you." In that instant, she felt a rush of warmth through her whole body, the feeling of a tight embrace around her. And that was when she began to cry.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed, hands up to try and wipe the steady flow of tears away from her eyes, but to no avail. "I didn't expect you to tell me something like this." She cried, still making every attempt to stem the steady flow of tears. And then she felt it, the soft touch of his hand against her skin, and she opened her eyes to find he had moved closer to her. Seiji was reaching out, his warm, but gentle touch brushing the last of her tears from her lashes, his smile full of warmth and love. "I'm so happy." She whispered her own truth, finally admitting to him what she had felt all along. She loved him too.

"That's great," he said as relief spread through him, finally hearing what he had always longed to hear. She wasn't put off by his confession, she wasn't frightened by him, she was happy. She loved him back, surely is what she meant. "But, Nakamura-san, being with you these last two years have reconfirmed my thoughts..." She looked up at him then, her beautiful eyes shimmering like gems in the lamplight. "Your situation has forced you to become more mature than others your age, that's why you try so hard not to be selfish and act more like an adult." He thought back to all the times he'd witnessed her like that- putting everyone else before herself. In truth, Seiji wasn't sure she had ever been selfish even once in her young life. "But actually, true to your age, you're still just a teenage kid. When I realized that, you were so dear to me, as if you're a part of my family..." He stopped, shaking his head. "If only I were a bit younger, if only we were closer in age than these feelings might not be so complicated." Seiji had to continually remind himself that she was just a kid, mature or not, she was only seventeen.

Wait... Was I just... Was I just gently rejected? Shiharu's mind was going a mile a minute again, her every thought racing so rapily through her mind she couldn't keep up. Had he just confessed his feelings to her, only to now be rejecting her because of her age? Because she was still just a "kid"? This wasn't possible, this wasn't truly real... Was it?

"With that being said... i'd like to talk about the future."

Seiji's words brought her back to reality and she blinked, gazing at him with what he could only describe as thoroughly confused. He supposed he was to blame for that, handing her a diamond ring and confessing he loved her, only to call her a child. "Nakamura-san, you're going to grow up and meet a lot of people, experience a lot of new things...And at that moment, when you reach my age now.. Would you please see me with mature eyes? Would you please have me then?" His heart was hammering hard within his chest, his eyes never once leaving hers as he spoke the words within his heart. "If you wish to have me then, I'd like to start our relationship."

Shiharu continued to listen to him speak, allowing the words to imprint upon her own heart. She had never once, not ever, expected Matsunaga-san to feel the same way about her as she felt about him. In all her life, she'd never experienced feelings such as this, and had certainly not expected another to feel the same for her. It left her feeling warm and dizzy, a feeling she never wanted to lose.

"This ring... is my selfish desire to show you that no matter how long I have to wait, my feelings will never change for you." He twisted his hands in his lap as he went on, knowing very well that this precious girl might not want to wait her whole life for him. He wouldn't blame her, of course. Looking down, he found himself unable to face her now, in case he heard the words he didn't want to hear. "If you don't want it, you can just pawn it... Use it for supporting your everyday life..."

"No!"

Her sharp response cut him off and pulled his gaze back to her face. "No... I mean, I'd never do that." Her smile brightened her features and Seiji felt the warmth flooding his own cheeks. He'd never grow tired of that smile. Not ever. "But... that's ten years..."

"I know. I'll be waiting." He answered with a grin, his eyes finding hers yet again. "I'll be patiently waiting, but I won't complain if you reject me then." There was nothing more he wanted to do but to pull her into his arms, to hold her closer than he'd ever held her before, but he knew better. If her parents had been there still, they would have wanted her to experience life first, to meet as many new people as she could before she settled down with the first man that confessed his love for her. He would wait for her, regardless of the outcome, because he loved her that much.

"But... I think..." She trailed off, searching for the right words to say when they both heard the door slide open, and a little voice broke into the silence. Nearly leaping from her skin, Shiharu jumped to her feet, stumbling in her haste to reach Aoi. "I'll take him!" She volunteered, taking the boy by the hand to lead him back out of the room and down the hall into the bathroom. As the child did his business, Shiharu sat on the floor, rocking back and forth on her hunches as she thought about all that had just occurred. She had almost told him, she had almost told him the truth about her own feelings... Part of her still wanted to confess, to say the words aloud, but now that they'd been interrupted, she wasn't certain she could find a way to do it. All her bravery seemed to have vanished the moment Aoi opened the door.

Returning Aoi to his bed, Shiharu tiptoed back to Seiji, who remained exactly where she had left him. "It's late," he said when she entered, his lips curving with a smile. "Let me walk you home." She stood there in the door way, staring back at him with a smile of her own, knowing that from here on out... Everything was going to change. And not just because of his confession of love. Soon the twins would be leaving them and they'd have to find a semblance of normalcy in their lives without them.

As they walked in silence along the sidewalk, Shiharu was quite aware of the way his arm brushed against hers, the way he slowed his long stride to keep pace with her own. They had walked this path hundreds of times together, but she had never once noticed how he tweaked his own walk to stay on pace with hers. "Here we are..." Seiji said as they came to stand before the gate to the institution where she lived. "I'll be patiently waiting for your answer." He said with a grin, before he nodded a goodbye and turned to go, knowing without a doubt he'd wait the rest of his life if he had to.

There was nothing else in all his life he'd wait for but her, after all.