Chapter 9:
Eventually a maid came by to inform them that dinner was to begin and Sayuri followed her new fiancé to the dining room, where an impressively long table was set with seven places. Of course the senior Ootori took the head of the table with his second son sitting to his right and to his left. Mr. and Mrs. Nitta sat by Fuyumi. Kyoya took his place to the right of his brother and held out the chair next to him for Sayuri to sit before sitting himself.
As soon as she was seated, servants came and placed a dish of salads with a sesame dressing and mandarin slices and the dinner officially began. It seemed that Fuyumi had struck up a friendship with Graham in the short time they had met and conversed about the interesting differences between Japanese and British culture and how silly some of them were. Kyoya's brother remained as silent as ever and it was almost as if he wasn't even there sadly enough. Sayuri might've attempted to strike up a conversation with him, but she had a suspicion that Kyoya placed her on his other side on purpose.
The rest of dinner continued on like that with the next dish being a squash soup and the entrée consisting of traditional Japanese dishes until dessert, which was a simple sweetened green tea frozen yogurt with almond shavings and mint sprigs to decorate it. Their drinks had changed from wine to champagne and when there was a small silence Kyoya took the opportunity to raise his voice.
"I'd like to announce something… something rather important." He stated with a small accomplished smile. "I have asked Sayuri-san to marry me…And she has accepted." He finished, directing the spotlight on her now. Forcing a blush, she ducked her head in mild embarrassment but glanced at her mother for some sign of approval and luckily found it along with mock surprise.
"I'm so happy for you Sayuri. You will have a good husband in Kyoya I am positive." She complimented Yoshio more than her daughter and her new fiancée.
As for the senior Ootori, he simply stared at Kyoya for a prolonged time before nodding once slowly and saying, "You both have honored your families with this match. I wish you both happiness and success."
Fuyumi immediately focused on her after that and chattered on happily about wedding arrangements until Kyoya pointed out with an amused smirk that they would most likely wait until Sayuri graduated from Ouran Academy before having the actual wedding. His sister then pouted about how it was rude to get her hopes up and that three years was too long to wait. Graham of course said quite the opposite and spent much of the evening wondering out loud how his little girl had grown up so fast and that Kyoya had better take care of her.
Once they had all finished dessert they all congregated back into the parlor and her father said his goodbyes to Fuyumi while Hatsumomo shook hands with Yoshio. Kyoya on the other hand took the hand that held her new ring and kissed it with a straight face, no smile. Sayuri bowed her head to him before her mother called her away to the car that had arrived to take them home.
Once inside, Hatsumomo gripped the arm of her daughter. "You've made me proud Sayuri. You're growing to be a fine woman. Just keep it up."
Just keep it up… It was all right as long as she was the fine young lady that her mother needed her to be. As long as she kept it up. But how long could she keep it up, Sayuri wondered as she fell asleep, gazing at the engagement ring resting on her night stand.