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Today's the day. We've been living together as friends for years, and today is it. Today is the day I'm finally going to ask Koushi to be my boyfriend. Oh god, I think I might puke. I have it all planned out. We're going to the park later. Well, he's going to the park, I'm going to surprise him there with a bouquet of flowers and I'm going to officially ask him to be my boyfriend.
There, it was in writing. Daichi had to commit to his plan now. He had written it down, and if it was written down, there was no changing things. Today was the day that Daichi was going to ask Koushi out. They had been friends for seven years now. Daichi had been in love with Koushi for the majority of those seven years, and it was time he did something about it. He was 99% sure that Koushi was going to say yes. He could see the way that Koushi looked at him when he thought Daichi wasn't paying attention. They spent more time cuddling than not when they were at home. Hell, they held hands from time to time. All that was missing was the label. Today was the day for Daichi to fix that. He just had to make sure every little detail was perfect first.
Koushi usually took his lunch breaks in the park near his workplace at 1:15 each day. His lunch breaks were an hour long, and it usually took him a total of five minutes to walk to the park, and a total of five minutes to walk back to work. Daichi would have exactly forty five minutes to grab the flowers, get to the park, find Koushi, and ask him out while giving Koushi enough time to process things emotionally before returning to work. Easy enough, in theory.
Once Koushi had left for the day, Daichi had called in to work to take the day off. Luckily, no one had asked any questions; his bosses didn't need to know that he was ditching to ask his roommate out. Then Daichi had called in to a local flower shop to place an order for a bouquet. He went for a nice, 3800 yen bouquet, ignoring the mild judgment from the florist on the other end when he admitted total ignorance about the types of flowers he wanted. He wasn't looking for anything fancy, just something that would get the point across to Koushi. With everything else squared away, all Daichi had to do was get dressed and follow his timetable to a T. He could do that.
***
'There is no way I can keep to my timetable,' Daichi thought as he tossed another shirt onto his bed.
Clothing covered almost every surface of Daichi's bedroom. He had cycled through several outfits and none of them were good enough for spontaneously-but-not-so-spontaneously asking out a roommate and best friend. Everything was either too nice, or not nice enough, and Daichi had no idea what the middle ground of those two extremes was.
"I could call Asahi," Daichi mused out loud, then shook his head. While Daichi and Asahi kept in relatively close touch, Asahi was definitely in the middle of a work day and would not appreciate a frantic phone call from Daichi.
A faint buzzing from underneath a pile of pants snapped Daichi back to attention. He tossed the pile out of the way and snatched his phone. The florist was calling; Daichi was definitely late. Daichi accepted the call and pressed the phone to his ear.
"Hello?"
"Hello Sawamura-san," the florist said, "this is Nakamura Riko from Kobayashi's Florals. I just wanted to let you know that your order is ready for pickup."
"Hello Nakamura-san," Daichi replied. "Thank you so much for the call, I will be there shortly."
"We look forward to seeing you. See you soon."
Daichi groaned as he hung up the phone. He checked the time, noting that it was now noon. The park was a good half an hour away from the apartment by bike, but Daichi also had to account for picking up the flowers and walking time. With another groan, Daichi grabbed the first shirt and the first pair of pants he could reach—a blue button up shirt, and a pair of black pants.
'This will have to do,' Daichi thought as he stripped off his lounge clothes and pulled on the clothes. 'Hopefully I won't sweat too much.'
***
Daichi hated biking in long pants, he really did. As to how Hinata had done it in high school was beyond Daichi. Within minutes of leaving home Daichi was overheating and uncomfortable. It didn't help that he was positive he was wearing Koushi's pants, as his own pants never fit that snugly. Still, Daichi had committed to those pants, he couldn't go home now. Traffic hadn't been too bad on the way to the florist's shop, and he managed to make it in record time. He parked his bike out front, locked it, then made his way inside. It was colder than Daichi anticipated, making him less annoyed with his clothing choices.
"Hello, welcome to Kobayashi's Florals," the girl behind the counter said, boredom obvious in her voice. "How may I help you?"
Daichi approached the counter, trying his best to appear more put together than he felt. "Hi, my name is Sawamura Daichi. I'm here to pick up a bouquet."
The girl nodded, getting down from her stool and making her way over to a nearby cooler. She pulled the door open and scanned through the names on the tags. Finally, she pulled one of the bouquets from the shelf and shut the door. She crossed back to the counter and held the bouquet out to Daichi.
Daichi took the bouquet, wincing slightly from the cold. The bouquet had been wrapped in clear cellophane and bright red tissue paper. The bouquet itself contained red roses and several smaller, white flowers that Daichi didn't recognize. It was what Daichi assumed to be a standard bouquet you'd give to a loved one; it was perfect.
"That'll be 3800 yen," the girl said.
Daichi fished the money out of his wallet and paid her. The girl punched the amount into the register, then passed Daichi his change back. Daichi left the shop, then came to a horrible realization as he approached his bike.
"How the hell am I supposed to bike and carry this?"
***
By the time Daichi got to the park, there was, thankfully, half an hour left on Koushi's lunch break. In addition to having to stop every few minutes to adjust his grip on the bouquet, traffic had gotten worse the further into the city Daichi went. He had narrowly avoided getting hit several times, but he lost at least two flowers along the way. He was disheveled, sweaty, and out of breath, but otherwise, things were going to plan. He could do this.
Daichi parked the bike near the park entrance and set off into the park at a jog. His legs were sore from the bike ride, and Koushi's pants were still digging uncomfortably into his legs, but Daichi didn't care. He was on a mission. Luckily for Daichi, Koushi was easy to find. Koushi was sitting on a bench near the solitary duck pond near the center of the park, one leg crossed in front of the other, his full attention on his phone. Daichi's heart skipped a beat, and he sped up to a run.
"Koushi!" Daichi called.
Koushi looked up from his phone, startled. Daichi was suddenly and painfully aware of just how disheveled his clothing looked. He couldn't stop now though, not when he was so close.
"Daichi?" Koushi asked standing and slipping his phone into his pocket. "What are you doing here? What's with the flowers?"
"Koushi! I have something I need to ask-."
"DAICHI WATCH IT!"
Time slowed as two kids on rollerblades swerved around Daichi. The third one wasn't as lucky. The kid clipped Daichi with enough force to knock him off course and directly into the pond next to the running path. Daichi could see the look of alarm on Koushi's face as he went under, the flowers still clutched in his hand.
'Well, that's 3800 yen down the drain,' Daichi thought.
Daichi resurfaced with a gasp. The kids had looped back around and were apologizing profusely to a panicked Koushi. Daichi's spluttering caught Koushi's attention. Koushi rushed to the edge of the pond and held out his hand. Daichi grasped it, hoping that he wouldn't in turn pull Koushi into the pond.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did you get any water up your nose?" Koushi asked in rapid-fire succession as he pulled Daichi to a standing position.
"I'm alright," Daichi said. "Soaked and annoyed, but otherwise fine."
Koushi let out a sympathetic noise, "Are your flowers okay?"
Daichi looked down at the bouquet in his hand. Several of the roses had lost their petals, and the rest of the bouquet looked as waterlogged as Daichi felt. Still, like the situation, it was salvageable. Daichi could make this work.
"Well, they won't need to be watered for a while," Daichi joked weakly.
"Thank goodness for that," Koushi said. "You might want to get out of the pond, by the way. Your socks and shoes will thank you later."
Daichi looked down with a blush. He stepped out of the pond, his shoes giving a nasty squelch as they met paved pathway. Koushi reached a hand out and plucked a stray rose petal out of Daichi's hair.
"Thanks," Daichi mumbled.
"You're welcome. Now, why did you come to the park dressed like that and why did you bring flowers?"
Daichi opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by an irate quack. Daichi spun on his heel in time to see a mallard running up the bank towards the path, quacking angrily as it went. Daichi stumbled backwards into Koushi.
"Angry duck, run!"
***
It took them an embarrassing amount of time to lose the mallard. The mallard had eventually lost interest and returned to its pond, but by that time more of the flowers had lost their petals. Koushi called into work to let them know he would be taking the rest of the day off due to his roommate having a slight accident. He was kind enough to omit the part about the mallard, but did inform his boss that Daichi had been pushed into a pond
"That was the angriest duck I have ever seen," Koushi groaned as he dropped onto the nearest bench.
"This is not how this day was supposed to go," Daichi grumbled, also dropping onto the bench.
Koushi sat back, his head tilted towards the sky. "How was this day supposed to go, exactly?" he asked.
"Well, if things went the way they were supposed to, I would have shown up here looking significantly less disheveled with a nicer looking bouquet for you," Daichi admitted.
Koushi sat up, his interest piqued, "Those are for me?"
Daichi nodded, his cheeks flushing as he stared at the drooping bouquet.
"What's the occasion?"
"There's no occasion."
"Don't lie to me Sawamura."
Daichi stole a glance at Koushi. Koushi was staring at him intently, his cheeks pink from either the exertion of running from an angry duck or from blushing, Daichi couldn't tell. What Daichi could tell was that Koushi had his undivided attention. It was time. Daichi gave a quick glance around for any more territorial aquatic birds or children on rollerblades before standing. He turned to face Koushi, then dropped to one knee.
"Daichi?" Koushi asked.
"Koushi," Daichi began, "we've known each other for seven years, and I-."
"Yes!" Koushi blurted before slapping his hands over his mouth.
Daichi blinked, too stunned to speak. Once his soul returned to his body, Daichi forced out a quiet, "You didn't let me finish."
"Sorry," Koushi muttered from behind his hands. "Go ahead."
Daichi reached out and pried one hand from Koushi's mouth. He gave it a gentle squeeze and began again, "Koushi, we've known each other for seven years now. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't in love with you for just about as long of a time. You are the most consistent thing in my life, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate you for that. You've always been there for me, and I hope I've been there for you in the same way."
Daichi could see the tears welling up in Koushi's eyes, so he paused to reach up and brush a stray tear away with his thumb. Koushi raised his now free hand in order to press Daichi's hand to his face, then nodded for Daichi to continue.
"You are… you are the most important person in my life," Daichi continued. "You have changed my life in so many unexpected ways, and gods above I'm rambling."
"It's okay," Koushi murmured, lowering the hand from his mouth at last.
"Will you be my partner?" Daichi asked.
"I already said yes, didn't I?" Koushi replied.
"I know, but I want to hear you say it again," Daichi said.
"Yes!" Koushi exclaimed, launching himself off the bench and tackling Daichi to the ground in a bear hug.
Daichi went down without much of a fight, wrapping his arms around Koushi just as tightly. Koushi quickly released Daichi once he realized he had crushed the remaining flowers, but Daichi couldn't care less about the flowers. Koushi had said yes, and that was all Daichi had needed.
***
That night, the only thing Daichi could think to write was:
He said YES! I fell in a pond and got chased by a duck, but he said yes!