The blond propped his head up onto his long, delicate fingers. "Are you OK?" He asked his date, who was currently a lot more quieter than normal.
"I'm fine..." Kotoko replied after a little hesitation. She looked at the menu and scrunched up her nose. "Watanabe-kun, I can't read the menu!" They were at a fancy Italian restaurant called Bella's. The menu was in English, and we all know that Kotoko is not very good at reading that particular language.
"Try sounding it out," he suggested.
"Pi-pi-pidda? Is that how you say it? Pidda?"
"No," he replied gently, and put her finger on the word. "Pi-ZZ-a. Pizza."
She tried out the word. "Pissa?"
"Rather, you should say it PiZZa," he smiled at her, stressing the Z's.
"Oh...pizza, pizza, PIZZA!" Kotoko shouted with joy after saying it correctly, earning a few looks from the people in the restaurant. She grinned, her smile beaming and lighting up her face.
"Wait...why are you grinning?" The blond asked, wondering, is there something in my teeth? Is my hair messed up?
"Because you're so nice about my mistakes," she explained.
But it's standard politeness and besides, why would I be mean about it? It's natural for Japanese people to not be able to read or pronounce English, because it isn't their first language.
The questioning look on Watanabe's face caused the redhead to elaborate with, "Well...Irie always calls me stupid if I make a mistake, or he doesn't talk to me at all..." a downcast look shadowed her expression that now, when the pale-haired teen looked, was actually almost always present.
Akio (Watanabe's first name) thought for a while. "Well, don't surround yourself with people who make you feel negative and bad about yourself. You deserve so much better than that."
Realization dawned on Aihara's face as she looked, really looked, at Watanabe for the first time.
"OK! Let's order PIIIIIZZZA!" She shouted jubilantly, earning a laugh from Akio and some of the other patrons.
A waiter walked up to them with a steaming pizza on his tray. He eased it onto the table.
The blond was confused. "We never ordered..."
"Sir," the waiter replied, biting back a laugh, "I think the whole RESTAURANT knows what you two, especially this young lady, wants." He tapped the shoulder of an older man walking back to his table.
"What did this young lady want?"
"Pizza," the man replied gruffly and made his way toward his family.
Akio started to giggle, and then a torrent of laughter rushed up. It wasn't mean, like a certain gray-haired someone. It was the infectious, I don't mean any harm kind of laugh. Kotoko was laughing too, tears in her eyes and banging her fists on the table.
Where did they go? Irie thought desperately. He was running through the rain, much akin to a steed galloping to his destination, a powerhouse of speed and strength.
Bella's Italian Restaurant. Watanabe mentioned that the food there was really good there once. He had no way of being sure that that was where they were, but it was the only lead he had. He ran faster, barely dodging traffic and pedestrians.
Mere jealousy wouldn't have him running like this. (Not that he knew what jealousy WAS, but still) No, this was desperation.
I thought that she would always be there, I thought that she would never stop loving me. And for the first time in my entire life, I was wrong. I need to get to her, before I lose her forever! And on he ran, rain pouring in his hair, his clothes sopping wet, and still, he ran.
The gray-brown haired teen arrived at the store. He saw Kotoko, through the warmly lit window, laughing hard, and Akio was laughing with her. He felt something in his stomach clench, and he burst in through the door and strode towards the back table.
Inside, meanwhile, Watanabe was telling Kotoko about the English military alphabet.
"Do you know how you spell your name in it?" He asked, and the redhead shook her head.
"Kilo, Oscar, Tango, Oscar, Kilo, Oscar."
"Oh...Kero, Oska, Thango, Oska, Kero, Oska..." she tried to pronounce the foreign words, and actually succeeded to the point where they could be understood generally. "How do you know this stuff?" she asked, interested.
"I'm half American," he replied, pointing to his blond hair. "My dad, he's in the military." He stopped abruptly.
"India, Romeo, India, Echo." he said, putting urgency into his words. "India, Romeo, India, Echo."
She didn't have to turn around. She knew who was behind her.
"Remember when..." she posed the question, seemingly, to Watanabe, but it sounded like a question generally to the restaurant and thus, to Irie.
"Remember when, we watched that Korean Drama? That girl, who loved a 'cold' boy, and never, NEVER stopped loving him even though he was really mean to her? The whole family said, that that was stupid, maybe she should forget about the cold boy for once, and start paying attention to the kind, handsome boys who had a crush on her? I think...I think I am going to follow on that now." She finished, her voice quivering yet strangely firm with emotion.
"What...what does she mean?" Irie asked uncertainly, voice almost breaking. In intelligence, he may be no.1, but in emotional equivalent, Kin-chan even scores much higher than him.
Watanabe stood abruptly, gray eyes piercing through his glasses. "She means that...she isn't going to chase you, or have a crush on you, anymore, because it's useless and she gets hurt too many times.
Basically...she's going to stop loving you from now on."