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Giyuu promised to help his sister out, but this was not what he expected.
He usually dropped his sister's lunch and be on his merry way, but today, Tsutako begged him to stay longer and help a bit.
The man agreed thinking that he would do a little bit of cleaning, not cross-dress and taking pictures with the tourists.
"I am the only one here today, I still have to go through a lot of things I have to clean, but the tourist group showed up unannounced today and wanting to take pictures." Tsutako explained and smiled sweetly.
"Can you please just put this one and take one for the team?"
Giyuu, the ever-so-helpful and obedient brother he is, now taking one for the team that he was not even a part of.
He tried to negotiate if he could help out with indoor cleaning instead, but Tsutako insisted Giyuu being out there, pretending to sweep the garden a little, was the help that she needed most. Out there, Giyuu just needed to stand and exist for the sake of tourist taking a picture, so less things to instruct in general.
With that, he sighed and braced himself for the job.
After a couple hours, the last of the tourists are gone back to their tour bus. They only stayed for a couple of hours, but it drained all of Giyuu's energy.
He definitely was not a people-person.
So when the tourist bus was finally gone and out of sight, Giyuu just slumped to the nearest bench he could find.
When suddenly he could hear clicks and whirring of camera.
'Oh, not another one!' he thought.
With that Giyuu stood and straightened up his posture one more time.
He turned to see a boy, peach-haired around his age with DSLR camera on his hand and strap around his neck looking back at him.
Sabito was walking around the local temple taking pictures for his school assignment. His chosen topic was heritage.
So then proceeded to go to local temple and take pictures of it. There's nothing more 'heritage' than an old temple, right?
Once he got to the temple, he saw a few tourist busses parked in the temple parking lot.
As he got closer, he saw the temple was crowded even though it us weekday. He spotted one lone miko girl trying to smile awkwardly for the picture.
He remembered feeling for the poor girl, but decided to walk around the temple and take pictures of the nature and surrounding until the tourists are gone.
He thought those shrine maidens are so brave being among sea of strangers like that. Sabito bet they had a lot of training dealing with that.
After a couple of hours, Sabito decided to check again if he has better luck taking pictures of the temple without any human subject.
Lucky for him, it seemed like the tourists are gone. He then started taking test pictures to see if he has the right camera focus, sensitivity and all that stuff.
He snapped a few pictures before realizing the shrine maiden from earlier was still around.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize you were there!"
Seeing the miko tensed, he explained that he's just here taking picture for his course assignment, and that no need to worry about him. He is more interested in the building structures than taking picture with her.
Giyuu let out a visible sigh of relief and Sabito could not help but comment.
"Not a people person are you?"
"No, not really"
"..."
After a beat of silence, Sabito spoke again.
"Is there any chance that I can go inside the temple?"
Tsutako said that the temple is closed to public today. Even though this guy was not a tourist and he was nice to Giyuu, Giyuu was not sure he is ready to defy his sister and get her into trouble, so with regret, Giyuu had to reject his request politely.
"I'm terribly sorry, the inside of the temple is closed today."
"Oh well, I figured as much, I'll come back another day or something." the man shrugged his shoulder, thanked him and walked towards the temple gate exit.
Giyuu sighed. The boy seemed nice, but he was just too drained to engage in a conversation with him. If only he was more sociable. He wasn't so bad looking either...
Shaking his head and clearing his thoughts, Giyuu sighed. He realized he didn't even ask for his name, there is no way that he will ever see that guy again. Oh well.
Not long after the man was gone, Tsutako peeked her head out.
"Oh Giyuu, thank you so, so much! You are the most amazing little brother I could ask for! Let's go get changed and go home. I'll make you salmon daikon for dinner as a thank you for today!"
Giyuu is so tempted to ask for more for compensation, but nothing really beats salmon daikon, so he just smiled at his sister and followed her in to pack up and get ready leave.
It had been a long few hours.
Sabito had just finished developing the pictures he took at the shrine earlier today.
What he didn't tell a soul that he actually took a picture of the shrine maiden.
The picture he took of the girl was her having a moment of peace sitting on the bench. Eyes closed, shoulder relaxed and leaned back against the bench. Most importantly, a gentle smile graced her lips.
The smile was too dazzling and Sabito determined he should see the maiden again.
So a few days later, he sets out back to the temple.
He tried to ask about the person in the picture to the shrine maiden there, but she claimed not to recognize the person in the picture at all.
"I know all the girls here, but that girl is definitely not one of ours. Are you sure that picture was taken here?"
She got a little bit of further with the second one but not by much, "It's not one of our girls, but she kind of looks like Tsutako." but she was not allowed to pass her contact information to protect the girl's privacy, so he thank her for the trouble and went home.
Ok, that's kind of frustrating. He felt a pang of disappointment on his chest that he may not see that shrine maiden again.
Was that shrine maiden was just an illusion? A ghost perhaps? Who knows.
Maybe he was just tired. With that, Sabito decided heading home would probably be the best course of action for the day.
Sabito sighed and put his head on his desk.
It's been a week but Sabito just could not get this girl out of his head.
Even though their interaction was fleeting, he just could not get over the smile in the picture and he felt that he needed to see her one more time.
"Sabito, what'cha up to?"
He recognized that voice, Shinobu, one his roommate decided to intrude into his bedroom again, probably to borrow glass cleaner liquid or something
Without lifting his head Sabito replied, but it came out as a muffled.
"Leave me alone Kochou"
Shinobu noticed the a photo that stood out among the stack of other photos and papers that were scattered on Sabito's desk. She snatched it out and observed it.
"Oh, is this for your assignment? I thought you don't do people as your photography subject."
"Oi! Give that back!" Sabito finally looked up, realizing which photo she took and snatched it back "No, I just happen to take this one and I thought it's a nice picture and want to give it to the person."
"Aww, how romantic!"
Leaned back on his chair, he then let out a sigh "...But I hit a dead end. All I know that this person may be related to Tsutako, but the mikos in the shrine wouldn't give me any more than that."
"Tsutako? Now that I think of it, I may know her. Let me see the picture again."
After taking a good look at the picture, Shinobu told her about Tsutako Tomioka, a friend of her sister, Kanae.
With a renewed hope of the prospect of meeting the her again, Sabito jumped out of his chair.
"How do I meet this person!??"
Shinobu taken aback slightly, she was not expecting Sabito would jumped back to life just like that and yelled out in excitement. Her poor ear drums.
"Oh jeez, no need to shout! let me ask my sister."
"Thanks Kochou!! You are the best!"
Sabito couldn't help but to smile ear to ear hearing the renewed prospect, which Shinobu promptly told him to stop smiling because it's giving her the creep.
That was a few days ago.
He found out that the maiden he had been looking for was indeed Tsutako's little brother, Giyuu. To think that Sabito had been thinking that he was looking for a girl kind of embarrassed him. But when he looked at the picture one more time, he just sighed and thought that this guy is beautiful regardless of his gender.
He also received an explanation how Giyuu was not actually a ghost. He was only helping out that day, that's why none of the other shrine maidens knew about him and that Tsutako rarely goes on outdoor duty.
He is now sitting at a booth in a café pre-arranged by Tsutako and the Kochou sisters.
'What is this some kind of a date or something?'
He was not going to let those scheming sisters ruin his evening. He is determined to just make a new friend and enjoy the new company.
He breathed in and out . 'Okay, don't be nervous.' Sabito tried to calm himself down, he's not usually this nervous meeting new people 'It's just a friendly meeting, not a date, you can calm down... Oh my god! There he is!!!"
The bell by the door chimed and a raven-haired man stepped into the establishment.
Even out in casual clothing, Giyuu still looked beautiful as ever. He was wearing a navy cardigan over a black t-shirt and his hair tied back into a low pony-tail, just like when Sabito met him for the first time.
It was only later that Sabito found out that this is the only hairstyle Giyuu ever had.
"Good evening! Sorry, have you been waiting long?"
Giyuu now standing right by the table and greeted him, popping Sabito's daydream.
"No, not at all! Have a seat!" Sabito offered the chair across of him
After the two settled, Sabito started.
"So, I'm sorry I didn't tell you that I photographed you."
"Ah, not too worry about it. That's why I was out there anyway. More importantly, I also have to apologize on how I interacted with you that day. I could have been nicer but I was so tired."
"Haha, thinking back, I thought you have some sort of training as a shrine maiden to handle all of that, so I just left to hang around the forest until the tourists are gone" Sabito recalled vividly and placed a hand behind his neck as a sign of regret "My bad, I should have offered a help."
"Not at all, you were right to assume that, I just happened to be a fake shrine maiden." He let out a giggle that Sabito could only describe as a melody from heavenly harp played by the angels.
Sabito found that this went a lot nicer than expected. Giyuu was much more relaxed and actively engaging in the conversation, and Sabito find him easy to talk to. Not to mention, Giyuu is much more attractive up close that even the picture that Sabito had been obsessing over the past week did not do him justice.
"So about the picture, I went back to the shrine to give it to you, but I thought you were a ghost or something because none of the other shrine maidens can tell me about you!"
"Ah, yes, my sister and her friend mentioned something like that. I thought that was very thoughtful of you."
"Well, If I can be honest, I wanted to see you again."
Sabito went for a direct strike. He really hoped that he did not scare Giyuu off with his bluntness.
Soft and shyly, Giyuu shared that he felt the same sentiment.
"I'm glad, me too".
They both stared dumbly and smiled contently at each other. As if they both can feel the same thing, that it was the beginning of their love story.
"So shall we start over then? I'm Sabito Urokodaki, I'm a second year university student at Kimetsu University. Nice to meet you!"
"I'm Giyuu Tomioka, I'm also a second year in Yaiba University. Nice to meet you too Sabito."
And somehow it's like Sabito can already see the perfect picture of his life, with Giyuu in it.