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It was just a typical Monday, nothing special about it as Kaoru walked towards the front gate of the school. It wasn’t too cold yet, just chilly enough for a light sweater. This kind of weather was nice for walking outside in, especially for dates because oftentimes girls would get a little cold and he could either give them his jacket to wear or let them snuggle up next to him to keep them warm. They always looked so cute like that.
He spotted Shu holding Mademoiselle, looking at the shades of the orange and yellow autumn leaves. He smirked to himself, it was always a strange sight to see Shu carrying around a doll with him, but he took such good care of her that Kaoru couldn’t help but respect it. From how her hair was always nicely brushed to how her outfits were always matching Shu’s, he could tell that Shu really cared about her.
“Good morning Mademoiselle-chan! It’s such a beautiful day out, isn’t it?” said Kaoru, cheerfully. Mademoiselle tilted her head slightly to face him.
“Goodmorning, Kaoru-kun! It most certainly is!”
“As pretty as it is, it’s nothing compared to a lovely lady such as yourself-”
Kaoru flinched. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep from the night before, or the fact that often when he talked to Mademoiselle he forgot exactly who he was talking to, but it had just slipped out so naturally. Mademoiselle was rather pretty, so his brain just must have gone on autopilot. He stood up to face Shu at eye level, holding his hands out in front of him as if to interject to say ‘Wait, I didn’t mean to say that!’
But instead, the unexpected happened.
“Oh Kaoru-kun, what a gentleman you are! Handsome and well mannered, aren’t you the sweetest,” said Mademoiselle.
Kaoru’s cheeks flushed red. What was this feeling inside his chest? Was he that starved of compliments that he didn’t even
“I’d love to stay out here and chat, but you and Shu-kun need to head to classes before the bell rings and the teachers mark you both tardy. I would hate for you to get a mark on your record because of me,” said Mademoiselle.
“Right, right… Darn, pulled apart by the bell, aren’t we…”
“It’s alright, we can walk to class together.”
“That’s true!” said Kaoru with a nod. He walked next to her as they went into the building and up the stairs. “What’s your favorite class?”
“I have a liking for literature class, it’s so interesting to read all kinds of books!”
“Aha, I never took you for a bookworm, Mademoiselle-chan. Books are really interesting, you know I’ve read a bunch of shoujo manga-”
“Oh really? I haven’t read too much shoujo, Shu-kun doesn’t read manga often, he prefers French romance novels.”
Kaoru stopped dead in his tracks.
Right.
Shu.
He was so caught up in talking to Mademoiselle, he completely forgot that Shu was there, awkwardly standing like a stiff mannequin as the two of them carried on their conversation. He cleared his throat.
“Right… Forgot about… Itsuki-kun.”
“You’re so silly, Kaoru-kun,” said Mademoiselle, with a little giggle afterwards. “But it seems we do have a bit in common. Many shoujo mangas have romance as a main theme, correct?”
“Yeah! To be completely honest with you, I mostly read shoujo so I can talk to girls easier. Or that’s mostly what I tell them… There are quite a few shoujo manga that are quite compelling. Aha… I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” said Kaoru, feeling himself get a bit flustered.
“What’s your favorite?”
“Hm, I think that would have to be Fruit’s Basket. Hey, Mademoiselle-chan, maybe I could loan it to you sometime!”
“I would like that a lot, Kaoru-kun.”
Kaoru smiled. They were about to enter their class. He paused outside the door, blocking the way slightly so they couldn’t enter the room quite yet. It was a really wild shot but… He felt if he didn’t do it now, he might never do it. But the way he felt around Mademoiselle… it was really something else!
“I never knew you were so fun to talk to, Mademoiselle-chan… After classes, do you want to take another walk outside with me? Just something casual, we can spend more time admiring all of the beautiful leaves. They really compliment your hair, I’m sure you’d look just stunning in an auburn dress.”
“Kaoru-kun, you flatter me! I would love to.”
Kaoru let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding. He half expected Mademoiselle to turn him down, but he was glad he took the risk to ask her on a little walk date.
“Great! I’ll come pick you up after class, I’ll see you then!”
Kaoru sat down at his desk, heads in the clouds. He’d been in a little bit of a slump since the last girl he was seeing decided she was no longer interested in him but was using him for free date meals, but just talking with Mademoiselle was enough to kickstart his heart again. But something about this felt… different. Like he wasn’t trying to ‘win’ her over with his charms, he could just talk to her easily… Did this mean he had a crush? Or maybe it was the opposite of a crush. He frowned slightly. After a few minutes of spacing out, he looked over to where she was seated on Shu’s desk. After a few more moments, she waved her hand at him, sending a flurry of butterflies in his stomach aflutter.
She was so sweet… This was definitely some sort of crush.
Class couldn’t have ended soon enough. He found Mademoiselle waiting for him by the courtyard, the wind softly tussling her golden locks of hair.
“Good afternoon, Mademoiselle-chan! Ready to go out?”
“Good afternoon to you too, Kaoru-kun! I’m certainly ready, I’ve been thinking about this all day!”
“Haha, I’m sure-”
Kaoru stopped talking when he noticed Shu staring daggers at him for some reason. Now that he was actually paying attention, he hadn’t realized just how close he was standing next to him since he tended to hunch over to talk directly to Mademoiselle. Kaoru frowned. Was he going to intrude on their date? He certainly hoped not.
“Uh, Itsuki-kun, is something wrong?”
“Mademoiselle is a respectable young lady, I will not tolerate you treating her like you would any other girl without the care and refinement she deserves. If you make one foul move against her, I will not allow you to so much as look in her direction ever again-”
“It’s okay, Shu-kun! Sorry, Kaoru-kun, Shu-kun can be very overprotective sometimes. He can’t help it, he’s not used to this type of thing at all. I’m sure we’ll be fine, since Kaoru-kun is such a gentleman! He’s been nothing but caring with me, right Kaoru-kun?”
Kaoru felt like steam must be coming out of his ears as he processed what was happening. He pushed all the extraneous thoughts about Shu out of his head as he looked down to talk to Mademoiselle again.
“I promise I’ll take good care of you!” said Kaoru, beaming at her.
“See, Shu-kun, nothing to worry about! Now, let’s head on our walk. Perhaps we could do a book exchange later? Shu-kun recently introduced me to this story called Daddy Long Legs, it was originally written in English so it was easier to find a Japanese translation and…”
Kaoru smiled as Mademoiselle began to recant her spoiler free rendition of the narrative, afterwards explaining the premise of Fruit’s Basket to her. It wasn’t often the girls he talked to were so fascinated with learning about manga, and it certainly made him glad he picked it up in the first place. By the end of their loop around the school, neither of them were quite done talking so they walked around again before each heading off to their respective units.
Kaoru showed up to practice so chipper that no one seemed to know what was going on.
As the weeks went by, Kaoru felt completely smitten. Sometimes he would find Mademoiselle waiting for him in the courtyard before school, or when it was snowing she would be in the front hallway protected from the cold weather. Kaoru bought a pair of little green gloves to match his tie for her so her little hands wouldn’t get cold. She seemed to like them quite a lot, and the next day left him a little chocolate on his desk wrapped in a little green ribbon.
Even though they hadn’t held hands or kissed yet (not that Kaoru felt he could do either of those with Shu looming there at seemingly every moment), he felt closer to her than he had any of the girls he dated before. He wished she had a cell phone so he could talk to her late at night after school, but she said it was “more romantic” to keep her in his thoughts. He couldn’t win every game…
Things were going just fine until people started… noticing things.
Kaoru was sitting at his desk packing up when he noticed someone coming into the classroom instead of leaving for the lunch break.
Tsumugi of all people.
And now he was standing inquisitively by Kaoru’s desk. He glanced at him briefly. Wait, did he have something to talk about? Odd. He may as well get a head start on lunch. Kaoru opened his soda bottle and took a sip.
“Kaoru-kun, I just noticed but… Are you going on dates with Shu-kun? I see the two of you hanging out quite often, I haven’t seen him that relaxed in a while. I mean, I wouldn’t have expected you of all people to be into men, and quite frankly if you were I didn’t think Shu-kun would be your type at all, not that there’s a problem with that or anything, it’s just rather odd-”
Kaoru spit out the soda he was drinking.
“What? First of all, I’m not gay, and certainly not for Itsuki-kun,” said Kaoru, shaking his head. “The idea of doing anything with that guy… Ew, no. Not at all. You’d have to pay me to- actually no money could get me to even kiss him, unless it was like, maybe a billion Yen or something. But nothing less. Guys are gross.” Crap, now it sounded like he was overcompensating, didn’t it? Tsumugi raised a curious eyebrow at him. Kaoru wanted to scrub the smug look off his face.
“Oh? Didn’t you two share tea yesterday? You paid for it, if I recall. And you’ve been going for walks after school too, how romantic,” swooned Tsumugi. Kaoru scrunched his face up.
“Why do you even know that, are you stalking me? Or maybe you’re stalking Itsuki-kun because you have a crush on him,” retorted Kaoru.
“Deflecting the question, I see, classic move.”
“Classic what? I don’t have to explain myself at all, you wouldn’t get it.”
“Try me.”
Tsumugi sat down on the chair backwards but facing Kaoru so his hands rested on the back of the chair. He leaned closer in anticipation.
“I’m not going on dates with Itsuki-kun but… I dunno, it sounds dumb when I say it out loud but I really think I’ve got a good thing going with Mademoiselle-chan. I know she’s a doll and all but… She really gets me, and I can talk to her without trying to use any sort of pickup lines. And she’s really respectful too, I haven’t met someone who’s as interested in getting to know me as she is.”
“Ah. So you are dating Shu-kun.”
“Stop saying it like that! You wouldn’t understand, you don’t know her like I do,” said Kaoru. He clenched his fists together. If he couldn’t explain the feelings he had for Mademoiselle to Tsumugi, then there was no way he would be able to defend Mademoiselle from those who would scrutinize their relationship. He had to go all in.
“Mademoiselle-chan is a lovely lady with very complex opinions and values, she’s kind and sweet and wonderful and I have such a good time talking to her. She makes me feel at ease with myself, and I don’t care that you see her as just a doll, she’s a person and I… I think I love her!”
Tsumugi’s eyes widened.
“That’s so fascinating, Kaoru-kun,” said Tsumugi. “I wonder how Shu-kun thinks about this.”
“I’m done talking to you,” said Kaoru, getting up from his seat. He didn’t know why Tsumugi was so hell-bent on bothering him about this. He knew he and Shu used to be friends when they were first years, it was probably something related to that. Not that he really cared, he was just driving him nuts about his relationship. As he left the classroom, he spotted Mademoiselle in the hallway, Shu standing there like a stiff board.
“Kaoru-kun? Can we talk for a moment?” asked Mademoiselle. Kaoru’s eyes lit up, gaze softening as he saw his lovely lady.
“Sure, Mademoiselle-chan. Anything for you.”
She tilted her head down slightly, before looking over at him.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about us,” she said softly.
“So have I!”
“Please let me finish, Kaoru-kun. These past few weeks with you have been nothing but delightful, and I really do cherish our relationship. I’ve never really done something like this before, so I hope I was a good girlfriend but… I don’t know if I’m ready for this kind of relationship.”
“Oh…”
“It’s not you, it’s me. We can still be friends, Kaoru-kun-”
“Yeah, I understand…” Kaoru held back the tears in his eyes. Crap, he was getting so emotional over this. “I really had a good time with you, you’re something special, you know that right?”
“Oh Kaoru-kun, you’re making me blush. I had a good time with you too. Maybe our paths will cross in the future.”
“Aha.. maybe… yeah… It’s been nice getting to know you, Mademoiselle-chan.”
Kaoru wanted to walk away fast, to bottle up the feelings that were going to burst out of his chest. He’d finally found her, the perfect woman, and now she was dumping him?! And she still had feelings for him! But she just wasn’t ready… Kaoru could accept that. Maybe he pushed her too fast. He lingered for a moment, noticing Mademoiselle was still looking at him.
“Kaoru-kun… May I?”
“May you- Oh-”
Kaoru’s cheeks flushed a deep shade of red as Mademoiselle’s little porcelain lips touched the back of his hand. She was so small and dainty, and to dirty herself by touching his hands?? He must be really special to her.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Kaoru-kun.”
Kaoru smiled.
“I’ll see you later, Mademoiselle-chan.”
Maybe… things were going to be okay. It wasn’t like she was disappearing forever, or would never talk to him again. But one thing was for certain, he’d never forget her.
With that bittersweet note, he headed down the hallway. He would have been content with the feeling if he didn’t practically run into Mika, who seemed to be lurking around the corner.
“Awah! Hakaze-senpai, ya look sad. Did Madonee… um…”
“We’re taking a break,” said Kaoru, awkwardly. “No hard feelings or anything it was uh, mutual. I was also thinking about breaking up with her when she brought it on.”
“I thought ya said y’were takin’ a break?”
“Break… up.”
“Oh…”
They stood there looking at each other for a moment. Come to mention it, Mika had been suspiciously gone from any of the times he’d been hanging out with Mademoiselle. He was practically attached to Shu by the hip any other time, always clinging on to him from behind and following him around.
Before he could fully process the thought, Mika broke into a sprint down the hallway. From a distance, he watched Mika practically tackle and hug a flustered Shu who was holding Mademoiselle away from the action so as not to hurt her. He smiled softly, knowing at least one other person took the relationship as seriously as he did, even if no one else seemed to understand it.