My love of RenKyo is battling it out with my complicated relationship with my most love/hate trope: recovered slutboy mega virgin girl couple.
Also I was stumped with the last chapter, so here's a second one today since I didn't upload yesterday.
Chapter 7:
The gravity of what Kyoko had done didn't hit her until she was halfway to the restaurant. She had practically yelled at the Tsuruga Ren out on the sidewalk. Over what? She knew she had a right to be mad. She knew she was justified. But she didn't know why she had snapped at him so severely. Things had been going so well between them, so smoothly.
So why was she so angry over an apology dinner? He hadn't forbid her from attending, and yet, the thought of her not being able to go to the dinner upset her so greatly that she was yelling at a man who she had been putting on an untouchable pedestal for so long, why?
She really wanted to go to dinner with Koga. Not to return to work the next day and accept his apology in person, but telling him she couldn't have attended dinner. She wanted to sit with him, eat with him, to see him earnestly apologize to her the way that men so rarely did. She wanted to know what sort of thing he ordered at the restaurant, if he'd offer to pay for her dinner, whether he'd catch her eye across the table and flash her a sheepish smile and– woah. Maybe Ren was right to be jealous?
No, Ren had been an exception, she wasn't suddenly some frivolous girl who fell in love with any man who paid attention to her. She wouldn't be the kind of girl who fell head over heels for the wrong guy again.
And yet, she still couldn't place why this dinner had been so important to her that she would fight with Ren over it. He had been a bit of a jerk, but she knew he had a jealous streak. This time last week, she might have been angry, but she at least would have talked it out with him? What had changed?
She walked through the doors of the restaurant and scanned the table for Koga, not spotting him at a glance. If he stands me up I swear to God… Kyoko mused half-heartedly as she scanned again.
It was only when he looked up and met her gaze that she saw him. He looked so different. His hair was gelled and pushed back slightly from his face, without being pressed flat against his head. It was still tousled in places, choppy in a playful, boyish way, and he was wearing a red button down that had been steamed or pressed to be smooth and sharp, and from what Kyoko could tell from the glimpse of his leg she caught under the table, it was tucked into dark navy slacks, paired with rich brown loafers.
When he caught Kyoko's eyes, a smile broke across his face. He looked at her like he had been lost at sea, and she was the pier that could moor him.
Sparks erupted in Kyoko's chest and she hugged her box of firecrackers tight to her chest. She felt the electricity all throughout her, and it fluttered her chest, made her head empty. And, for a brief moment, before her senses returned to her, it made her want to kiss him.
She wanted to know how he would kiss her. She wanted to know what his lips would taste like, feel like against the nape of her neck.
The thoughts burst and fizzled out as soon as they came to her, but there was a moment where they exploded inside her.
Like fireworks.