Chapter 16

I woke up to several text messages, most of them from Sakura but strangely Sakuta had texted me too. I had hoped that Rio would have sent one, but I guess it was still a little soon for her to have any news. I opened up the one from Sakuta first. "Hope you two had a good time at the party, it was great getting to meet her. Mai is already looking forward to the next time."

I smiled, quickly typing out a reply thanking him for yesterday, and letting him know I'd talk to Sakura about getting together again in the future. Pressing send, I backed out and started from the first of the texts from Sakura.

"I woke up super early today, I'm really excited and nervous about meeting your family. I hope this doesn't wake you up." "Oh sorry, good morning by the way. I guess I should have said that first." "Thank you for yesterday, for everything. It was a great day, I really enjoyed meeting your new friends (so proud of you btw!!!) I hope we can see them again sometime."

She was always a hyper texter, but never like this before. Was the change in our relationship making her flustered? I debated whether I should say something later, but decided I'd let her bring it up. I didn't want to put her on the spot in case I was misreading things.

"Well good morning, I hope you're a little less nervous now. I'll get ready and then head over if that's okay with you." I sent the text, wondering if I should have said something sweet, though it was still a little early for my brain to come up with something.

I made my way to the bathroom, turning on the shower. The cool water woke me up the rest of the way, though as it heated up I felt very relaxed. I finished my shower, quickly brushing my teeth as I dried off. I wondered if Sakura had replied, but I had left my phone in my bedroom.

Finished in the bathroom, I made my way back to my room. I stood in front of my closet, unsure of what to wear. Should I wear something nice? It's not everyday that I got to introduce a girlfriend to my parents.

Girlfriend. I thought back a year, before Sakura and I had first met. Would I ever have imagined a day like this would come? Hypothetically, sure. Relationships happen all the time, you never know when you might find yourself getting into one. But if you had told me everything that would happen in a years time, I would have never believed a word of it.

A sudden vibration in my pocket pulled me out of my thoughts. I looked down to see that Sakura had replied. "Whenever you can head over is fine with me. Looking forward to seeing you!!!" I could have sworn I felt my heart skipped a beat as I read the text. Such a reaction over something so simple, I shook my head and smiled. "So am I." I thought to myself.

I quickly put on a simple button up shirt, nice enough but nothing too fancy. That with the black pants I was wearing already would hopefully be fine for the day. I grabbed my wallet, put on my glasses, and headed downstairs.

My mom was at her usual spot on the couch, looking back as she heard me coming down. "Hey mom, will you and dad be free today?" She nodded, looking a hit confused at first before smiling. "Today's the big day then? We're both looking forward to meeting her." I blushed but nodded. "I'm looking forward to it too."

I waved goodbye, promising to let her know when we were on our way over, and headed out. By now I was used to the route, and made it to Sakura's house in no time. I half expected to see her waiting outside, but the front of her house was empty. I made my way up to the front door, ringing the bell.

A few moments passed, and the door opened. On the other side was someone I had never met, though I recognized him from the photos I had seen the last time I was over. "Can I help you?" The rough deep voice shocked me for a moment, but I bounced back. "I'm here to see Sakura."

The man looked me over, simply nodding. "You can come in, she should be down shortly." I followed him in, closing the door behind me. He gestured towards the table I had previously sat at, so I grabbed my same seat as before. As expected, he took a seat on the other side.

"What is the nature of your relationship with my daughter?" I nervously swallowed, not expecting a talk with her father when I had left my house. "We've been friends for a while now, and recently we started to date." A simple "hmm" was all he said in response.

I wondered if I should have held off on the later part of my explanation, but then he finally spoke up again. "Do you think you can make her happy every day?" I simply nodded, still taken aback by the whole situation.

"She can be a handful to deal with at times, are you sure you can handle that?" I nodded again. He crossed his arms, rubbing his chin with his left hand. "She's very precious to her mother and I, and while I could never tell her who she can date, I still worry about her."

He lowered his hand from his face. "You can relax, I already knew who you were before you came to the door. I just wanted to have a little fun, see the kind of person you are for myself. For a while now, she's been a lot happier. Anyone that can make her smile as much as you have, well how could I object if that's who she decided to date."

I let out a sigh of relief, realizing I had been holding my breath. It seemed that her father might have more to say, but the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs drew his attention. I looked over to see Sakura, wearing a dress with flowers scattered around as the design. As our eyes met, the two of us smiled.

She looked over to her father, slightly blushing. "I hope you weren't too hard on him, I'd hate for you to scare off my boyfriend dad." He let out a hearty laugh, standing up to pull Sakura into a hug. "Not to worry, he doesn't seem to be too scared. Unlike the last boy I met, this one has some guys."

Last boy? Oh, I realized he must have been referring to the last boyfriend Sakura had. Feeling a slight satisfaction at the praise, I got up from the table. I made my way over to the father daughter combo, a few feet away as their hug ended. I introduced myself once again, giving him my name.

Just like his wife, he gave a knowing smile. "I can see why the two of you get along, it must be fate." He leaned him, dropping his voice so only I could hear. "You better take good care of her, though I get the feeling you will. As long as you can do that, you have my approval."

I nodded. "I promise I will, it's the least I can do for her." He leaned back, a big smile on his face. "Well I won't keep you two, you've got yourself a good guy Sakura. Will the two of you be coming back for dinner?" I looked over to Sakura, and she shrugged. "We haven't really discussed our plans for today, but I'll be sure to let you know dad."

One final stern look, and we were headed out. "Sorry about that, I was still getting ready otherwise I would have saved you sooner." I shrugged, reaching over to take her hand as we walked. "I was kind of expecting that to happen at some point, it just took me by surprise at first. He cares about you a lot, and I think he could tell that I do too."

The warmth of her smile matched the warmth of her hand. "You do have that in common. I'm glad that he likes you, you made a good impression on him." I did? I didn't really say much or do much, and quickly said that.

"The simple fact that you didn't back down and cower, and that you were honest means a lot to him. I'm sure he can be very intimidating, but you kept your head up the whole time." I looked over to her. "The last time he met a boyfriend of mine, it didn't go over very well. He never told me that I had to end things, but I could tell that my dad didn't like him."

She glanced over, a pained smile on her face. "I'm sorry, I just wanted to point out that you did really good today. The fact that both of my parents approve of you means a lot to me, so thank you for being so wonderful."

I still felt that I hadn't done much of anything, but those words of praise lifted my spirits even higher. "Does he know that I know?" Sakura shook her head. "Like I said before, they try to pretend everything is normal, so mom would have kept it to herself."

She sounded sad as she spoke, the reminder that her time was limited dampening the mood. But then she bounced back, smiling once again. "I'm still a little nervous to meet your parents, this is a first for me."

I was surprised, I had assumed that her nervousness from the earlier text was simply from meeting my parents, not meeting parents for the first time. "You've got nothing to worry about, I know they'll love you." A sly smile came across her face. "I wonder who will love me more, you or your parents?"

I felt my cheeks burning as I tried to speak, but she simply laughed. "I'm only teasing, I already know the answer to that." I raised an eyebrow, but before I could say anything I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out to see that Rio was calling.

"Are you with Sakura?" Before I could even say hello, she was already speaking. "Yes, I'm heading to my house with her so she can meet my parents." Sakura looked over, and I mouthed "Rio". Unfortunately, my phone was too old to have a speaker option, so I held the phone between us.

The scent of her shampoo distracted me for a moment, as our heads were close to one another. "Can the two of you hear me?" "Yes we can, hey Rio." "Hello Sakura, sorry to interrupt your date. Do you two have a minute?" I looked to Sakura, and she nodded.

"Yes we do, does this mean you have some good news?" "I think I do. I was talking with some other labs in our online chat, and one of them mentioned something that I think could be of help. It's an experimental procedure, but there's a chance it could work."

"How much of a chance?" I stayed silent, as this was a discussion for Sakura to have. "I won't lie, the chance for success is around 40%. I can send over the information for you to make the decision." "Please do, I'll talk things over with my family later, at least to let them know it's something I'm considering." "Will do, when you make your decision let me know, and I'll reach out to the lab."

We ended the call, silent for a moment. "What do you think I should do?" I looked over to Sakura to see her biting her lip. "You're asking me?" She rolled her eyes. "No I was asking the tree over there, of course you silly."

"Well if it can make you better, then of course I'd say yes. I'm surprised you're even debating this." A sad look came across her face. "I know that I don't have a lot of time left, not like you or Kyoko. But if this doesn't work, I might not have any time left. Procedures like this, when they say it only has a 40% chance of working, they really mean there's a 60% that I could end up dying."

A sudden chill entered my chest, an icy grip around my heart. "Sakura, I..." She looked over, a sad smile on her face. "Even if I decide to do the procedure, it would take time to prep everything. And if it does go badly, I want to at least make more memories with you. So don't worry, it's not like I'd be going for the procedure tomorrow or anything, we still have time together."

I tried to smile but failed, the thought of losing her was in the front of my mind. She leaned over, giving me a kiss on the cheek. "Relax, for now let's just be happy and enjoy this day. Those are worries for another day, I'd much rather see you smiling." The feeling of ice in my chest thawed slightly, though still lingered as we made our way back to my house.

The Author's Desk

This chapter is a little shorter, I have the feeling it'll flip flop over the next few. I have greatly enjoyed writing this story so far, but as we draw closer to the end I find myself dreading it. That plus feeling a little bit of a burn out from writing so much lately has me feeling a bit worn out. Is this how mangaka and authors feel as they come to the end of the road? Who knows.

I realized that we only ever get to see Sakura's mother in the film, though we do get to meet her brother in the short after story. I thought it would be fun to have the typical father boyfriend talk, though our hero had nothing to worry about in the end.

It was rather fun coming up with his personality, since the only line we really hear mentioning him is the talk about how they act as though things are normal. Building off of that, I tried to imagine how her father would be. Someone who is clearly worried about his daughter, but tries to act as though things are normal.

Next chapter, we finally get to have the meet the girlfriend event. It'll be interesting writing our heroes father, as far as I can remember he doesn't even have any lines and only a slight appearance in the film. The final chapter draws ever closer, as the stage is set on a big decision for Sakura.

As always, thanks for reading and I'll see you at the next chapter.