It had already been 4 months. The days were flying by, and one day I had to stop what I was doing and think about it.
"Kokone? You coming?" I looked up at Ichiro, who was holding my hand tightly, looking back at me curiously.
"It's been 4 months." He turned all the way around, his eyebrows knitting together.
"Since…?"
"Since we started this. And it's been 3 months since the wedding." He smiled, still looking confused as he reached up and stroked my cheek.
"So? Oh, shoot. Did you want to do something special or…?"
"No, no. I was just thinking."
"Well we should probably get going if we're going to meet up with Heiji and Kazuha."
"Right. Okay."
I thought about a lot on the way to the restaurant. First, the wedding.
There were white, beautiful gardenias lining the aisles as well as every other available surface. Hoards of people I didn't know attempted to greet me. Needless to say, I was uncomfortable. Large groups of strangers had always made me feel claustrophobic, so this definitely wasn't the best situation for me to be in.
But anyway, the ceremony was rather traditional, and when Ran walked down the aisle with her father linked to her tightly, a nervous and panicked look on his face, Shinichi glowed like the moon. She was beautiful, there was no doubt. Everyone cooed and some even cried.
Ichiro and I played what we planned to at the reception, nothing seemed to go wrong at all. We even went through with our surprise: singing Amazing Grace as a tribute to Ran and Shinichi's everlasting love.
Blah, blah, blah. All that crap.
Anyway, there was alcohol, as there usually is at these types of events. I politely refused every time someone offered me some, and was about to do the same thing to a rather relaxed looking guy.
"Hey there. How do you know the bride and groom?" I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. How many times had I been asked this question?
"We're close. What about you?" Standard answer that didn't suggest interest, check.
"High school," he slurred, leaning forward slightly. "Champagne?" he offered. I shook my head and held up a hand to hold it off.
"Aw, come on. A girl like you's gotta have fun sometime, neeeeeeee?" He drawled lazily. I scrunched my nose at him and leaned away.
"What is that supposed to mean, exactly?"
"Hey, hey. Hey." He stepped closer, and my eyes widened at his boldness. Now he whispered in my ear: "Let's go somewhere." I took his rather full glass of champagne and flicked the contents into his face.
"You don't have to go an-be all ssstingy!" He said loudly, causing heads to turn.
"Hey, I'm back. Everything's loaded…what's going on here?" Ichiro had gone to load our instruments and equipment into his rented truck.
"Hey man," he hiccupped. "This lady might be stuhhhninng, but she's impossible."
"Don't I know it." I jabbed Ichiro with my elbow. "Kidding, kidding! Sir, maybe you should sit down and drink some water for a bit." Ichiro reached out to guide the man to an open seat, but he swatted at him and so blatantly missed that I absently wondered just how many glasses he had had. Ichiro did have to move away to dodge however, and the guy ended up hitting me square on the left shoulder, causing me to fall backward against the table that had any leftover chicken waiting to be eaten. Ichiro reached out to keep from actually falling into the food, but I ended up pulling him down with me as we landed on already prepared plates.
"Woopsss, mah-bad…" The man swayed slightly. Ichiro struggled to get off of me without causing an even bigger mess, but this proved to be impossible.
"You alright?" He asked breathlessly, holding out a hand to help me off the table. People were definitely watching now. I growled and got up to face the drunk man myself, and was startled to see that Ran was right there. Uh oh, I thought. This doesn't look good. Shinichi was looking around the crowd, and when his eyes landed on Ran, he came up to meet her from behind.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know why Shinichi invited you!" Ran said to the drunk man, who leaned away from her angry fist. "You leave her alone, you hear me?" And then, one of the funniest thigs I ever saw: Ran using Karate in a wedding dress.
So that was a rather eventful wedding, moving on…
Next, I thought of Hyo Yeoung. We had surprisingly hung out a lot together, all things considered. He seemed to be thankful for my company, and I was certainly grateful for his. Just watching him draw or paint or sketch was enough to fill an afternoon. Somehow though, it seemed weird to hang out with Hyo Yeoung and everyone else, so I was careful to keep those two groups separated; it wasn't that hard to do.
I had also gotten to know him a lot better in the process. I found out that he hated the smell of eggs, and that his favorite color was green, among other things.
Then, I thought of my therapist. Why, just the other day she had accused me of heartlessness. I had actually gone to Ichiro's house and pouted a little after that. When I asked him if he thought it was true, he looked completely disturbed by this thought.
"Of course not!" He had exclaimed. "The only reason you do anything at all is because you care for everyone around you! I should know, it's one of the things I love and hate about you."
"Why do you love and hate it?" I asked, honestly curious. He placed a hand on my knee.
"It's a good thing, because you care so much about everyone. But at the same time, that's usually the reason you get yourself into trouble." I hadn't ever thought of it this way before, and immediately understood.
"Oh. Wow. I guess that's true…" I took a moment to think about this, but was interrupted by a light kiss on my cheek.
"Don't worry about it," he insisted. "You're definitely not heartless."
After that, I spent a great deal thinking of Ichiro. Our relationship hadn't changed much intellectually, or emotionally per se…
However, we spent a lot more time kissing now that we were actually together. Though I sometimes got so caught up in the moment and wanted to go farther, Ichiro never let us. So all we did was kiss.
Which was fine with me, I mean, who's complaining? But I was beginning to wonder if it was just because he was being a gentleman, or if was something more…
"Kokone? Hellooooo?" Heiji's voice broke my train of thought. Somehow I had made it into the restaurant and into my chair without even noticing.
"What?" I asked, annoyed.
"I asked what you were thinkin' about so hard over there."
"Oh. Nothing really…" Heiji and Kazuha exchanged a look while Ichiro regarded me carefully, but the conversation picked up from there. We were eating and talking buoyantly for about 2 hours when I glanced at my watch and became suddenly aware of how late I was.
"Crap, I have to go pick Kazuko up from her friend's house across town. Crap, crap, crap. Sorry guys, I have to leave." I stood up and pushed in my chair hurriedly, leaving what little change I had near my plate.
"You don't have to -"
"Bye!" I gave Ichiro a quick peck on the cheek and nearly ran out of the restaurant.
Once I accomplished this task and succeeded in dropping Kazuko off at her home before anyone could notice how late I was, I returned to my apartment. It was eerily quiet, but I had already told myself earlier that I wouldn't call Ichiro unless it was absolutely necessary. Flicking on all the lights that I could, I finally settled down on my couch and turned on the TV.
Ogawa Ichiro's POV:
"Can I leave you guys here for a little bit? I have something I need to do really quickly." Heiji and Kazuha looked up from the newspaper article they were sharing on my kitchen table. Did it make sense for them to come to my house – my kitchen – after we had just eaten dinner? No. But it didn't matter. They both nodded and I took the liberty to leave.
Nerves racked my frame as I felt the seemingly huge weight in my pocket. What would she say? Would this be acceptable? What if it wasn't?
It only took me minutes to arrive; I knocked on the door solidly after resolving that I could indeed do this. Possibly. She opened the door and –
"Ms. Lee, I have something to ask you." Kokone's mother looked genuinely surprised at my presence on her doorstep. "It's important."
"What?" She didn't open the door any farther, so I supposed it was either now or never.
"…Do you think it would be alright…if…if I asked your daughter to marry me?" I pulled out the little black box and handed it to her. She opened it, a concentrated look on her face. The ring was simple enough, nothing too flashy, just the way Kokone would like it – so I hoped.
"You're asking permission?"
"Uh. Y-Yes, ma'am?" I squeaked. Her expression was stony and almost threatening. She handed the ring back to me, and then ducked back inside for a second. I was only able to deliberate whether I should go in or not for a mere second before the woman swung the door open and came cursing and swatting at me with a broom. She was able to hit me once on the side of my head before I completely grasped what had just happened, and this suddenly seemed like a terrible idea.
"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!" I tried to yell over her as I sprang down the steps and started running. She followed me – and God she was fast, for a 52 year old woman – to the curb, but stopped there and continued to shake her broom above her head madly, calling variations of "absolutely nots" the entire time.
I reached my house and threw my front door open, then slammed it shut and locked it for good measure. While I was completely out of breath leaning against the door, Heiji and Kazuha came in with hesitant and curious looks on their faces.
"…What's going on?" Heiji asked, concerned.
"Never – approach – Korean mothers – alone." I gasped. Their eyes both widened.
"Ichiro-san. What did you do?" Kazuha asked in wonder. I shook my head and pushed past them to get a glass of water. They waited expectantly for me to answer but I continued to shake my head.
"I have no idea what to do. I ask permission, she says no. What am I supposed to do?" I wasn't asking them really, rather just thinking out loud, but they both responded as if I had just asked Kokone to marry her right there in front of them.
"You don't mean -?"
"You have a ring?"
"Wait, wait, you asked permission? Why would you do that! Doesn't her mother hate you?" I shot Heiji a look at this comment.
"It's rude to just exclude her from all off this! This is her daughter we're talking about, basically her only familial connection. I thought she might appreciate the sentiment…"
"You're absurd. Did you hear what Neechan's dad did when Kudo asked him for permission! He nearly threw the poor guy out the window!" We continued this discussion for another 20 minutes, when my front door opened. Kokone came in uneasily, her face red and I almost thought tear streaked. Her jacket was hanging off of one shoulder, as if she couldn't possibly bother to put it on the entire way before coming here.
"Woah," Heiji commented. "Did you ask your mother for permission as well?" Kazuha smacked him upside the head. Kokone apparently didn't hear this, and continued to stand in the entrance of my kitchen, breathing hard as she swiped at her eyes; she had definitely been crying.
"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" I approached her cautiously.
"My mother -" She broke off and scrubbed at her eyes. I noted in the back of my mind that no one else had ever seen Kokone cry before, and wasn't sure if I should kick Heiji and Kazuha out or what.
"W-What about your mother?" I asked nervously. She took a deep breath and composed herself.
"I'm getting. Married." The words seemed to make her sick, as she covered her mouth and gripped her torso. Shit, I thought. Her mom had told.
But wait…wouldn't that mean she had said yes? And wouldn't that mean we would be getting married?
"…She…she said yes?" I asked, about to rejoice. But then why was she crying? What was making her so upset?
…What if Kokone's mother wasn't the actual problem? What if Kokone didn't want anything close to marriage?
"Of course she said yes! She's enforcing it!" She screamed.
"O-Okay then, so…what's the problem?"
"The problem! The problem is that I don't want this! Why are you asking me these things, shouldn't you know that I'd rather marry my CURRENT BOYFRIEND?" My brain shut down for a second. What was she saying? She shook her head and squatted down to the floor, covering her face with her hands. Judo came from the corner of the kitchen, whimpered, and sniffed at her hair, nudging her slightly.
"So…you're getting married. Right?" Heiji seemed about as confused as I was. Kokone let out a choked sob in response and Kazuha got up to comfort her.
"Kokone-chan, Kokone-chan!" she reassured her gently, rubbing her shoulders. "This is a good thing! You loveIchiro-san, right? Huh?"
"Hyo Y-Yeoung," she cried out pathetically. "I-I have to m-m-marry -" she couldn't even finish this sentence as she started to full out weep, her frame shaking uselessly.
We all stared in silence.