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─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
“Wait... you still got some in your face.”
“Really?”
“Oh, now it’s in your hair now too...”
“Ugh, I’ll just wash my face again.”
Taichi bends over the sink to wash away the rest of the cleansing foam from his hairline and inspects his face one last time in the mirror hanging above it. Meanwhile, a small figure appears behind him who looks at him eagerly, waiting for his reaction.
“So... what do you think?” you ask.
“My skin feels so... soft. Just like yours always does!” Taichi repeatedly strokes his face with the back of his hand.
“Right?!” you squeak before also caressing his cheeks with your fingers. “But that was just the first step. We got at least five other products coming up!” You walk over to Taichi’s desk where you have laid out all of your beauty products.
“Huh? But my face already feels cleaned…” your boyfriend mutters, still running his fingers over his cheeks.
“Yeah, but only because you actually did something for your skin for the very first time besides applying face cream.”
Taichi rolls his eyes. “At least I’m doing anything. Besides, who has time to spend two hours of their day slapping some overpriced lotions on their face anyway…”
Rolling your eyes at the partially incorrect comment, you pause for a moment until you turn around with a cheeky grin on your lips. “Oh, so you don’t want a face mask? Fair enough.” You shrug your shoulders as you're about to head to the desk. But before you could take a step, you feel Taichi’s arms wrapping around your body. He pulls you in a close hug and rests his chin on your head.
“Yes, I do,” he sheepishly admits. “With cucumber slices on my eyes and my hair wrapped in a towel.”
You press Taichi’s arms harder against your body and chuckle, “Oh, you really meant that?”
“Uh, duh? I want it to be authentic as if we were in a real spa.”
Out of the corner of your eye, you watch him burying his nose in your hair, inhaling your scent. A satisfied grin grows on his lips after he let out an exaggerated sigh.
This is a sight only I get to see, you think to yourself and smile.
“So... was it a good idea to make ourselves comfortable at your place?” you playfully ask, fully knowing the answer.
“Best one. I’m glad you didn’t feel like going out either. I’m still sore from training yesterday.”
“When is that not the case?” you chuckle.
While still being caught in his embrace with your back facing him, you run your fingers through Taichi’s soft hair, taking out the hair clips you gave him earlier for your spa day.
“Let me go for a sec. I’ll put them back in.”
At your request, Taichi releases you from his embrace. You turn around to put in back the clips, but take your time to look more closely at his face. How many times have you done this in the last three, no, six years?
You let your gaze wander over his unfairly nearly flawless skin. His chocolate brown eyes that you can lose yourself in for hours. His prominent cheekbones and sharp jawline that hours of hard volleyball practice (especially in the last three years) have made him look more mature, older, more attractive. And his little smile lines at the corner of his mouth when he's grinning, yes, just like right now.
Taichi’s voice snaps you out of your thoughts. “You know, you're really cute when you do that.”
Your gaze moves from his lips to his smiling eyes. They always trigger that tingling feeling in you, something that fills your whole body with warmth. A sense of home.
“You do realize you said that for probably the 100,000th time, don’t you?” you giggle as you take a step towards your boyfriend to wrap your arms around his neck.
“What, only that much?” he laughs, wrapping his arms around your waist to pull you closer to him. “I guess I’ll have to try harder next time, then.” Taichi lifts his hand to cup your face. His calloused thumb is stroking your right cheek.
You gaze into each other’s eyes for a while until you realize that your faces are only a few inches apart. Your eyes slowly close as you lean in to...
*ding*
Your eyes tear open from the sudden ring of your cell phone. “Are we in a bad romantic movie or what?” you laugh.
“Well, who’s the culprit?” Taichi asks.
You pull away from the hug and walk towards his bed, where your phone is lying.
“Ooh, your ‘BFF 4 EVEEERRRR’, is it?” he says who is peeking over your shoulder.
“How dare you mock the contact name I gave her in seventh grade?!” you gasp exaggeratedly. “Let’s see... she’s congratulating us on our three-year anniversary. That’s weird...”
“Oh wow, is that normal among girls to congratulate each other on their anniversary with their boyfriend?"
“Uh, at least not with us, no...”
“Read it out loud!” he requests as he lies down on the bed at which you make yourself comfortable between his legs, resting the back of your head on his chest. His arms automatically reach from behind, one fondling with your hair, the other one with the string from the hoodie he gave you earlier the day.
Still confused, you stare at your screen for a few more seconds before reading aloud the e-mail from your best friend from middle school.
✎﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
My beloved bestie,
I wish you both all the love on your third anniversary 😘✨🌹
Thank me later for setting you up with him. My pleasure 💅🏻
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏✉︎
“Wait, what?” Taichi laughs.
“Uh, she was the one who made me do that.”
“No wonder that came out of the blue. That was so not like you.”
“You still went with it though.”
“Guess why.”
“Hmm...” you tilt your head back and forth, pretending to be in deep thought, “no. I don’t,” you say playfully.
“Well, too bad. Did she write anything else?”
Ignoring his fake cold manner, you turn your face to the right to give him a peck on his biceps.
✎﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
You're probably wondering what this is all about. Let me go back a few years first *cue flashback harp music ✨*
You remember Shiroyan was in the photography club, right? He found some old film rolls the other day he forgot to develop. Well, he did it now. I sent them to you in a little package that should arrive today 💌
I literally get chills when I think back about that time. All that was missing were those bush hats jkxcfhvkhf
While Shiroyan was taking the photos, I was diligently typing down the dialogue 🤓
Have fun cringing!
PS: Don’t forget to use pr-
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏✉︎
“Ahem... so uh, photos, huh?” you stammer, hoping Taichi overheard the last sentence, and pick up your bag from the floor.
“It actually did come today. I picked it up this morning at the reception.” You stood up to make your way over to your bag on Taichi’s desk. “How could I forget about this... Oh, maybe it’s photos from our school trip to the aquarium! Or from home ec when we baked cookies for the very first time and you two completely messed up!” you squeak.
While you’re reminiscing about your middle school time, Taichi is quietly listening. Something’s bothering him.
What in the world does she mean by “bush hats”...
Completely unaware of your boyfriend’s confusion, you tear up the package. The first thing that greets you is a small piece of paper with a note on it.
✎﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
Look at the back of each photo ;)
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏✉︎
You put the note aside and look at a small stack, folded in rose silk paper. While you’re carefully folding back the paper, you’re all excited, waiting for the wave of nostalgia to wash over you.
However, like in a cartoon, your jaw drops at the sight of the very first photo.
She didn’t!
“Hm? What's in the photos? Show me already!” Taichi whines and props himself up.
With a sly grin, you sit down at the foot of the bed and look at your boyfriend before slowly holding out the first photo, from a weirdly far distance.
Irritated and annoyed, Taichi can only twitch his eyebrows at your expression and slowly turns his gaze to the picture. At first, he doesn’t think much about it. However, slowly but surely, his eyes widen more and more. Suddenly, it dawns on him.
He startles up – “Wait! Is that from- Ouch!” – and hits his head on the bunk bed. You can only laugh at his reaction before you read aloud the little notes on the back.
𝐇𝐞𝐲, 𝐊𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢! 𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟𝐢𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫!
𝙷𝚖? 𝚄𝚑, 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚎.
𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲? 𝐈 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧, 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐡, 𝐭-𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭!
𝐎𝐤𝐚𝐲, 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲? 𝐒𝐚𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐬𝐞!
𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠, 𝚢𝚘𝚞’𝚛𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚌𝚞𝚝𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 ♡️️
𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸... 𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘱.
𝐃-𝐃𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭-
𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝!
𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮-
𝙽𝚘!
𝐊𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢, 𝐈’𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐝! 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈’𝐦 𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐞!!
𝙸 𝚜𝚊𝚒𝚍 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝!
𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚝’𝚜 𝚜𝚊𝚢 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍...
𝐇𝐮𝐡?
𝚆𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚋𝚎 𝚊 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚖? 𝙸 𝚖𝚎𝚊𝚗, 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞, 𝚑-𝚑𝚢𝚙𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐.
𝐇𝐮𝐡?! 𝐈-𝐮𝐡… 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲, 𝐈 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐬…
𝚆𝚊𝚒𝚝... 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢?
𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐡…
𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚠𝚑𝚢?
𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰!
𝙸-𝙸 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚎!
𝐈𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞... 𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤.
𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 ♡️
“Oh my God! I can’t believe they took freaking photos of our confession!” you squeal as you fan yourself some fresh air. All the feelings are coming back to you, the memories heating up your face. “I actually forgot how awkward that was! Look at how cute we looked back then! You had such a baby face! So adorable!!”
You look up to Taichi to see his reaction, only to catch him suffocating himself by pressing his pillow on his face as hard as he can. “STOOOOPPIDONTWANNASEEIT!”
“But why?” you laugh as you successfully yank off the about-to-be murder weapon to reveal the lovely flushed face of your boyfriend, all red from the lack of oxygen he put himself under. “Isn’t it nice to walk down memory lane? That’s how it all started!”
“That’s it, ‘memory’! They should stay memories. I don’t want evidence making its rounds, it’s just embarrassing!” he snaps while avoiding eye contact with you.
You hold the fifth photo right in front of him, only a few centimeters away from his nose. “Look how hard you were blushing!”
“Stop waving that in front of my face!” he snarls as he attempts to swat away your hand, all in vain. You are already taking a closer look at ‘the evidence’.
“Why did you even say that back then?!“ You throw your head back and howl with laughter. “That absolutely made no sense, like why in that moment? And how you tried to talk yourself out of the situation, so dumb!”
Taichi can only pout and twitch his eyebrows while you’re picking up each photo to relive each captured moment.
“Only because you did that thing...” he quietly mumbles to himself and crosses his arms.
You look at him in confusion, “The what?“
“The thing, you know? Before you wanted to take a selfie, we were talking and you did that. When you just pause and, uh… lookatmethosesparklyeyescauseyoureinlovewithmeorsomethingidunno…”
He can slur his speech as much as he wants: in the last six years, you became fluent in “I’m too tired to function, so I won’t even put any effort into my enunciation”-Kawanishi, so you just launch yourself at him and rub your face on his chest which he already expected.
“You’re really cute when you do that, you know?” you giggle before giving him a peck on his nose.
“That’s my line,” he quietly objects before ruffling through your hair and giving you a soft smile.
“Did I really do that back then too?”
“Yeah. I didn’t know if I was just imagining things ’cause I had a crush on you, so I watched you for a few days.”
“Creep.”
“Shut up. Anyway, you never had that look when you talked to Shirokawa or to any other classmate, so I just hoped and assumed that you like me,” he explains. “And, I don’t know, I got nervous because you stood so close to me, so I accidentally said out loud what I thought and thought what I actually wanted to say.”
“So you did the old switcheroo like in a cartoon? That’s the whole story behind that?”
“What, disappointed? Did you expect some strategic plan? I wasn’t the suave smooth-talker I am now, you know?”
“I don’t know who you’re talking about but,” you crawl your way up until your face was right above Taichi’s, “I’m glad that it happened.” Your sly smile only earns you an eye-roll from him.
“Pff.”
However, his deadpan look softens the longer you look at him with those sparkly eyes that made him feel so nervous once, not knowing if they were only meant for him or not. Now, that he fully knows that he is the only one who can elicit that sparkle from you, he can’t help it but smile.
He cups your face and slightly pulls you to his direction. As you lean in and close your eyes...
You kiss.
A deep, intimate kiss. His lips are so soft and perfectly fit on yours. Out of reflex, you inhale his scent that is still partially mixed with your cleanser. You feel Taichi’s hands wander down to your back and waist that press you against him. Meanwhile, your hands find their way to his soft cheeks.
After a while, you break up the kiss and look at each other with the same eyes, the same sparkle from the very beginning of your relationship.
“Wanna send her a selfie of us? Like a before and after,” Taichi proposes as he plays with your hair.
“While we’re dressed like total hobos?”
“Yeah?”
“Okay,” you simply shrug in agreement. “But first, let me just... done!”
“Let’s do that pose girls always do when they wanna be cute that actually looks completely stupid.”
“Hey! I do that all the time!”
“Say cheese!”
“Tsk!”
“Taichi, you’re really going the extra mile with that duck face,” you laugh while you browse through the photos to pick out the best one.
“Can you photoshop it?“ asks Taichi.
“Huh?”
“You know, like soften out our skin so much to the point it’s super obvious. Max out that blur!”
You just blink at him in cluelessness before you decide to completely ignore him and scroll up to last month’s photos.
“You know, I already sent them another selfie of us the other day. I thought we look pretty cute in it. Look!”
─── ･✧*̣̩⋆̩☽⋆゜───
bonus
35 minutes later
“So, you’ll throw these photos away, right?” Taichi cautiously asks as he lays the cucumber slices on his eyes after he made himself comfortable on his bed. Meanwhile, you're applying your face mask in front of the sink
“I just ordered fairy lights with these little clothespins. I’ll attach the photos and hang them up in my room.”
“What?! Oh NO, YOU WO- OUCH!!” The only thing you can see in the reflection of the mirror are the cucumber slices fly across the room.
“If you keep on doing that, you’ll use up the daily stock of brain cells before the day over,” you comment while you're trying to evenly spread the cream on your face.
Taichi is rubbing the little bump on his head but soon after immediately grabs your bag.
“Forget it. I hid them when I went to the restroom.” You turn around to wink at your boyfriend who slowly realizes he has to admit defeat, however, still channels the last remnants of his vanishing life energy to glare at you with his signature deadpan look. He puts your bag back on the floor and drops himself onto the bed.
“I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.”
Taichi lets out a deep sigh, “I know.”
His gaze is locked to the upper bed, so he doesn’t notice you sneaking up to steal a quick kiss from him.
His reaction: sticking out his tongue.
Your response: stuffing a fresh cucumber slice in this mouth with the sweetest smile only a girl in love could have.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───