Together Forever

Chapter 2

Pursuing My Love

My first day was obviously not the best day I've ever had, but I still had things to do. Once school was over, I decided to follow Honoka home. In my past lives, our families were always close so I knew that her parents could help me out. When I knocked on the door and they opened it up, they had no idea who I was. that's when I tried to explain what was going on, but that's when they suddenly started to give me a weird look. I didn't know what to do. Eventually, I apologized to them and left their house.

After that, I was stuck. I had no idea what to do. I didn't plan on things being so difficult, but I had to confident. It was only my first day so there was a lot more time left. That's when I decided to go home and plan out the next stage of my plan.

It took me a while, but I was able to come up with something that could possibly work. Honoka was always one for sweet, adorable things either being food or random acts. Thankfully, I've maintained my ability to bake so I decided to do that first. I baked her a bag of cookies and left them in her shoe locker. When it was time to go to school, I waited around until she showed up. Right as she opened up her locker, she saw the cookies and decided to read who they were from. It was hard to gauge her reaction, but it wasn't what I was expecting.

After that didn't work, I decided to try something else. It was kind of creepy when I first thought about it, but little notes always worked. I placed them in all of the places that she used most and always got the same reaction. She'd quickly read them and then throw them away. I couldn't believe what I was watching. It seemed as though none of my strategies were working. It didn't make any sense because Honoka was always a hopeless romantic. There was just something about this Honoka that made her reconsider my whole about doing things.

Now, school was ending so I made my way down to the shoe locker. On the way down, however, I came across something that I didn't expect at all.

"Oh my gosh, here she comes."

"Oh yeah, the prince is on her way to practice. I want to see."

"Get out of the way. I want to see too. Maybe she'll finally wave to me."

All of these side conversations were making me curious. Girls are known to gossip, but this seemed like something else. It sounded like unrequited love. I was interested so I decided to park myself alongside the wall of the hallway until this "prince" made her appearance. However, I thought it seemed a little mean to refer to a girl as "prince," but when I saw who it was, I couldn't have agreed more. she was tall and long, flowing blue hair. As she passed all of the girls in the hallway, they all squealed in delight.

"It's Umi-senpai!"

"Oh my gosh, she's so cool. She's so pretty."

"Hi Umi-senpai, it's so nice to see you."

Of course, she didn't pick out any one girl to give her full attention to, but she always greeted them with a lovely smile that nearly knocked them all unconscious. The strange thing was that when she saw me, she stopped.

"Hello. I don't think I've ever seen you before. Are you new here?"

I was actually kind of shocked. I didn't know her and she didn't know, yet, she took time out of her day to make her acquaintance.

"If you're shy, I apologize for springing myself on you so abruptly."

"No, no. It's fine. I was just spacing out. My name is Minami Kotori and I just transferred here."

"Oh really? we usually don't get transfer students so it's honor to meet you. If you'll excuse me, I need to get to practice."

"I'm sorry for keeping you."

"No problem at all. I'm Umi, by the way."

And with those words, she left while all of the girls slowly turned their attention to me. Some of their looks were of admiration, but most of them were of jealousy. Apparently getting to talk to that girl was considered an honor. That's when I quickly grabbed my stuff and headed home for the day. When I got home, I got back to business and came up with an entirely new plan that would help get Honoka back on track with me.

…

The next day, I decided to take a totally different approach with her. Right as I saw her, I would simply ask her out. Asking her would definitely be the easiest part. Waiting for the answer that I wanted would be a whole lot harder. However, I was optimistic. It was subconscious, but all of the prying I did to her would get her to go out with me at least, and if that became the truth, I would make sure that she would remember it forever. That would be the only way for her to realize that I'm the one she loves.

I waited in the front of the school until she showed, but when she did, she confronted me first in a rather aggressive way.

"What is your problem?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've been making things for me. You've been leaving me notes; it's getting kind of old."

"Well, how else was supposed to get your attention?"

"You know that there are better ways of communicating with a person, right?"

"Not really."

"So what do you want?"

There was my moment. I took a deep breath and looked her right in the eye.

"Please go out with me. It can even be just a one-time thing, but I would really love it if we went on a date together." I waited for a response, but I could tell there was a lot of disgust on her face. I was so tempted to cry, but I had to stay strong. Breaking down in front of her was the last thing I wanted to do.

"Alright. If it'll keep you down from doing all of these ridiculous things, then I'll agree."

"Really?" I couldn't but glow from her answer. It was what I've been waiting to hear after all of this time.

"Yes. Just let me know when and where we should meet."

"There's this school idol concert tomorrow after school. We can go there." It was so slight, but Honoka paused a bit before she responded to me.

"Okay. It seems like you have pretty good taste in first dates. I'll see you there."

I waited for her to leave my sight and once she was gone, I ran to the restroom and locked myself in a stall. I couldn't contain my excitement any longer. I squealed at the top of my lungs and let out a few tears. The first steps of our relationship were finally starting. I wasn't going to let anything stop me now. Honoka was so much closer now. It almost as if we were already together. I just needed to make sure that tomorrow would be the best day of her life. But then again, there was no way that I could fail. Honoka has always had a love for school idols and I'm taking her to the city's best group so I know she'll enjoy herself and me.

That's when I pressed my hand against my chest and let out a huge sigh.

"I missed this feeling so much. It's literally been a lifetime since this warm feeling has entered my body. Please don't mess it up Kotori."

End of Chapter 2