One Day

A/N: Takes Place IMMEDIATELY after 281. If you have NOT read 281, do NOT cross GO; Do NOT collect $200. Retreat. Read the chapter. And return here.

Thank you.

Note: This is probably OOC and I don't even care.

. . .

"I'd like to have the right to call myself your 'boyfriend.'"

If this was last year, I would have thought he was playing an elaborate prank on me. If this was months ago, I would have thought he was being a hopeless playboy-someone who didn't know clearly what he wanted. If this was a week ago, I would have thought President Takarada told him something. If it was two hours ago, I would have thought he was making fun of me.

And now... I don't know. In every iteration of my daydreams, this wasn't how I expected this moment. This was when my cheeks should have erupted into flames and when my heart would burst from my chest. He loved me!

I felt none of those things.

"No," I found myself saying. Tsuruga-san's face barely shifted. Shouldn't there have been a reaction there? "Which isn't to say 'no' forever," I said slowly. "Just... not right now."

Tsuruga-san nodded, sitting back in his seat. And that should have been that. There was no reason to continue the conversation. But something in me told me to press on, continue. For someone who just asked to be my boyfriend... he didn't seem to care that I turned him down.

"I'm not mature," I challenged. "I pretend to be. I'm an actress; that's what I do. I wasn't watching you two peacefully from sidelines. I was hurting. I was angry because you disrupted our entire friendship, even if you didn't actually do anything. The entire time I thought you were with Morizumi-san, I didn't know how to act. I didn't know how to speak with you, much less sit beside you when Yashiro-san drove us together. It didn't help that you were being an ass speculating about my friendship with Sho. Tsuruga-san, for those few days, I hated you. I hated loving you even more."

And finally, finally, an expression crossed his face. His brows furrowed and his apathetic mask morphed into something akin to a kicked puppy. His lips curled down and he grasped desperately at his wrist, the one with his stopped watch. I wasn't done yet. At least now I knew I made the right decision. He was testing me. For what, I still didn't know. All I knew right now is that we loved each other... and neither of us was ready to do anything more than admit it.

"I didn't want to believe that you would ever betray someone you were in love with, but what I saw made me doubt everything I knew about you. I was mad at you for being so effortlessly flirtatious. I was mad at myself for getting caught up in it. If my love was strong enough, if I knew you better, or if I was actually mature... I would have known. I would have known that you were never with Morizumi-san in the first place. Known that you would never betray someone you love. But I didn't.

"That's why I'm in the Love Me! Section. If I was truly mature; I would have never doubted my feelings. I would have never doubted your intentions. And I can't... I can't be in a relationship right now. I know I'm not ready. I don't presume to know much about your past, the world or life you inhabit outside your identity as 'Tsuruga Ren,' but I don't think you're ready either.

"There's so much I need to..." I shook my head, forcing myself to look at my hands where they stayed frozen in my lap. "There's so much we need to work on before we could ever... be together." My last words are barely a whisper as they fall from my mouth. "I don't want... I don't want to ruin this."

"Kyoko."

"Wha-?"

I looked back up to him, and my whole face flushes as I process the small, heavenly smile he offers me. My chest tightened and I dug my fingernails into my palms, trying to remember how to breathe. Now my body wants to dissolve into a puddle? Now, when he says my name? Not when he asks to be my boyfriend?

"Ye-Yes?" I squeaked.

"You continue to be way more than I could ever deserve," he said, shaking his head. For a second, I thought I recognized some sort of fondness. Amusement at something I didn't quite understand. Tsuruga-san shifted on the couch and pulled my left hand free from my lap. He raised my knuckles to his lips and pressed a kiss against my skin; a shiver ran down my spine, leaving me breathless. "One day, I'll be able to ask that question again and mean it."

I smiled and squeezed his hand as he pulled away. "And maybe, one day I'll say yes."

. . .

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