Chapter Text
"This ring design is pretty."
"You're getting a ring?"
As the winter was approaching fast, the sun was setting faster than usual. Sunlight was casting the classroom in an orange glow. Normally, Kronii and Mumei must have been in the library; even the two who were famous for getting their ways could not get past the construction sign and the locked door of the library.
"Yeah, our engagement ring."
Kronii, who was currently scribbling on the blackboard with a broken chalk from a floor, jerked to a halt.
"An... engagement ring?"
"I assumed you weren't going to propose to me, so I thought I'd do it."
An awkward silence hung in the classroom. Kronii's widened eyes met those of Mumei's as she slowly looked up from a ring section of the magazine she was looking at.
"What, do you want to do it, Kronii?"
"No, no, wait, I mean... What do you mean engagement?"
"Are we not doing it? We're supposed to be together forever."
High school sophomore year, eighteen years old. If more than a decade of being friends with Mumei had taught Kronii anything, it was no matter how hard she tried, she could never keep up with Mumei's thoughts.
"Um, wait... But do we really need to... get engaged? We can be together without dating... or getting engaged... or just anything."
Mumei's facial expressions were always hard to decipher - especially with those deep eyes that always made Kronii feel like she's sinking into them; but at this moment, Mumei's expression was even more harder to look away from.
Did Kronii see disappointment from her face?
"Oh, no... I'm not saying we shouldn't do it. Um, if you want to, let's do it, yeah... Yeah, why not..."
Mumei, as if she was satisfied, looked back to her cell phone and the magazine she was previously reading.
Kronii's thumb caressed the ring finger of her left hand. The little irritated skin from the ring Kronii never took off except when showering; she really will never get used to the feeling of it.
Five years after graduation, the students had left the high school and were adjusting to their own lives they decided to pursue.
Kronii slip the ring back on her left ring finger; the ring naturally found its place on the finger as if it had been there for Kronii's entire life. The loud knocking on the dressing room door was heard, and a voice calling Kronii's name followed.
"Why?"
"Just wanted to check if you had finished changing."
Kronii slowly opened the door, facing Mumei and a ring on her hand that had the exact same design with the one on Kronii's ring finger.
"Yeah, I'm ready."
As they walked out into the living room, Kronii first sat down on the couch, and Mumei naturally followed and sat next to her - just like a magnet drawing them together. From years of staying together, they have learned the best comfortable position to stay together on the couch, just like how they had long since found the comfort in each other.
Engagement rings are meant to be fancy and meaningful, wedding bands are meant to be plain and simple so there's no need to remove. Is it okay to change the order of engagement and marriage? Kronii stared too long at her ring on the finger, which was simple and comfortable - which definitely looked like a wedding band.
"Come to think of it, we're not even engaged."
"Huh?"
"The ring. You were looking at it for long."
Mumei knew Kronii too well. Kronii stared at Mumei with surprised wide eyes. As always, her mouth itched to respond; however, the words never left her lips.
"Well, I did say I'd do it for you."
Mumei spat out the words easily and dryly, then returned to her position of leaning against Kronii while continuing to scrolling through her phone. Kronii remembers, Mumei promised to do the engagement proposal along with the joke "Kronii's too perfect to do it."
Relief is a mistake, familiarity is an illusion, and waiting and time are sins. Even after graduation, the two continued their undefined relationship. Despite their promise made in the library - to stay together, just the two of them - they continued their own career and pursuing desires. With years of living each one's life alone, somehow the coincidence connected them together, which with a little coordination, they moved into the same house.
Their relationship, undefined by words until this moment, was becoming into something that no one would be able to define anymore. They were afraid, if they define it with a concept, it would take shape. And if it takes a shape, it becomes breakable.
"Maybe it's good just the way it is."
"Was something bothering you?"
"No."
"Well, that's weird."
"You know, that's us. Weird."
Either way, we chose ignorance. We chose relief, made fantasy, and decided to live inside of it - that's all we needed.
"Should we go on a honeymoon?"
"You wanna go on a trip?"
"Yeah."