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"Starfishes has eyes? No, wait. That sounds stupid."
Izuka palms her own forehead, shaking her head at the question she just uttered. Of course starfishes has eyes, they are a living being. Despite the stupid question she just asked, the tall man beside her could only shake his head with an unamused expression on his face.
"You are stupid. I'm not surprised."
Jotaro mumbles in a low voice, turning his attention back to the marine life displayed behind a thick, glass wall. Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, one of the biggest aquarium in the whole Japan offered a view of numerous ecosystems inside of the ocean, and the two companion found themselves taking a walk through the dimmed hallway on their free time.
It happened a week before today. With the long summer time coming and no enemy Stand User reported by the Speedwagon Foundation, Izuka thought that they all deserve a break after all the things they've went through from the long trip to Egypt a year ago, continued by a full one year of studying until they graduated just two months ago.
The group are now separated, pursuing their own dreams or just continuing their own life by their own. Polnareff is still in Paris, working as one of Speedwagon's agents. Joseph went back to America after making sure his daughter was okay years ago and has stayed there the whole time until now. Meanwhile, Jotaro is planning to pursue a study in marine biology— or so Izuka heard.
Izuka herself also have a dream of her own, which is to continue managing her family's clothing business. Because of it's nature as a family business, she grew accustomed to how things work, therefore she already knows how to manage almost everything by now. The only thing left is to wait for her own father to finally let himself rest and hand the business to her.
So what exactly is Izuka supposed to do now? She decided on one outcome. To pursue her own social and love life. After receiving the acceptance letter to a particular university that just happens to be the same as Jotaro— which she insisted as a coincidence even though it's clearly not —Izuka only have one thing left to do, which is sorting out her feelings for the stoic man who's currently standing beside her.
On a sunny Monday, an idea popped up in Izuka's head. Why don't I ask Jotaro on a date? And that's exactly what she did, except that it might not be what it was meant to be. It's concept was meant to be a date, but now even she is not sure if the other party knows that this is supposed to be one.
"That, is unnecessary."
She grumbled, a pout forming on her face. Unknowingly to her, Jotaro's eyes followed the movement of your lips to how it's corner turned down and your pink, plump bottom lip jutted out. It made something inside of him falter, his expression almost fell if not for the quick realization at his own moment of vulnerability which Jotaro quickly hide with a small tug of his cap down.
"So? Where's it's eyes, then?"
Izuka asks out of curiosity. She crouched down and pressed her palms against the glass, leaning her face as close as possible as if trying to peer into the poor starfish's body like an x-ray. With a shake of his head, Jotaro stepped closer and leaned down with his hand on his knee to support his weight.
"There."
He pointed to the end of it's pointy 'limb'— if one called it a limb, anyway. Izuka's brows scrunched in confusion because one, there's nothing that looked like eyes there, and two, because she expected it to be at the bottom of it's stomach like where stingray's eyes are.
"Yare yare daze,"
Jotaro grumbled. He opted to kneeled down with one knee on the ground, one finger pointing to the starfish who has been decided as an object of observation as of now by the two bystanders.
"The eye is made of a couple hundred light-collecting units and is located at the end of one of the tube feet on each arm. It is a compound eye like that of an insect, but it doesn't have a lens to focus the light. This reduces its ability to see anything but light, dark, and large structures such as the coral reef it needs to live on."
Izuka's mouth formed an 'o' as Jotaro starts to explain and begin to nod even though she doesn't really understand the entirety of the concept. Part of it is because of the amount of words he just said in one sentence. Jotaro is a man of few words, so to hear him talk one long paragraph, explaining how starfishes eyes work is quite surprising although not so out of character.
Part of the reason why she doesn't understand his explanation might be because she's busy stealing a glance at the man's face as he talk. There's a small crease on his forehead, right underneath his cap, something she noticed happening when he's concentrated. The glimmer in his eyes as he talk about the things he love doesn't go unnoticable, and Izuka found herself feeling a strange happiness for it.
It seems like I picked the right place for today, she thought to herself.
"Oi. Are you listening?"
A deep voice snapped her out of her daze, followed by a flick to her forehead which sent a sharp pain on her skin.
"Ouch!"
Izuka yelp, holding her forehead where a red spot starts to form at where Jotaro just flicked it. She attempted to glare at the man who doesn't seem the slightest bit bothered by it. When he truly doesn't get bothered, Izuka sighed in defeat and grumbled to herself, all while pouting like a child.
Unbeknownst to her, Jotaro felt a slight pang of guilt when he heard your pained yelp and an urge to reach out and rub the red spot on your forehead to cease the pain. Those feelings vanished the moment he realized that it was there, only for another one to emerge when you pout. He hates to admit it, but he found you cute before annoying.
Jotaro like his peace and hates women who screams around him. He enjoyed the silence and dislikes the crowd. Yet, a girl who is not close to the definition of 'quiet' and 'peaceful' made him feel emotions he has never felt before and the problem is that he doesn't found himself hating them. In fact, he crave it, wanting more and more of those warm, fluttery feeling in his chest and the way his soul floats when he hear you laugh.
"That's not how you treat a woman, Jotaro."
I huffed, standing up from my crouching position on the ground to straighten the wrinkled fabric of my pants.
"I do what I want, woman."
Came his grumbled response in a deep voice. But despite of the nature of his words, they lack the usual bite and instead sounds softer. Izuka has heard countless warnings from older women in her life. 'Don't get swayed by men easily,' they said. 'Play hard to get', they said. But here she is, heart beating twice time faster by a hint of softness in Jotaro's words. Well, what is she supposed to do when the men she's crushing on is like a brick wall!? She supposes that her case should be an exemption from those terms.
"Rude."
She stuck her tongue out at him before turning around and continuing to walk further inside of the aquarium. The taller male follows behind her like a shadow looming menacingly, not making a single sound as he observes the marine life inside of the big tanks, stretching hundreds of meters along the area. As if the arguments didn't take place before, they continue to enjoy the rest of it's sight until a specific spot where the hallways widened into a big circle where all of it's sides are made of glass walls so that it feels like they're standing in the middle of the ocean.
"Pretty..."
Izuka can't help but breathes out a soft gasp at the sight all around her. This room is specifically big and tall, the glass walls stretching up twice the height of the previous hallways. Here, seaweeds and corals are scattered all over the sandy ground, small fishes filling up the spaces below and bigger creatures upside. What catches her attention the most is the jellyfish on a secluded corner far into the left area of the room where there are less people.
With a light jog, she approaches the odd looking creature who floats gracefully in the water, it's white tendrils flowing behind it. Izuka doesn't know what it's name is or how poisonous it is— which she's sure is very poisonous because of it's bright colour along with the jellyfish's nature as a poisonous sea animal, but all she cares about right now is to admire the beauty of it.
"Jotaro! Take a picture of me and her! Or him, I don't know- but hurry before it floats too high up!"
She excitedly fumbles in her bag and pulled out a polaroid, handing it out to the still quiet man. With her back towards the camera, she poses as if she's reaching out to the jellyfish who's starting to float higher and higher inside the tank.
Jotaro, on the other side, is currently in shambles. The blue hue of the dim light lights your face just perfect and the fact that you're admiring something that he also loves? He was ready to press the camera's button when you turned your face around and smiled. A smile so pretty he momentarily froze when he catch a sight of it. At that moment he realized that he is truly in love.
"Jotaro! Hey, did you take the pic yet?"
Izuka's voice snapped him out of his daze and he quickly realized that he, in fact, did not press the camera button because he was busy admiring your beautiful frame with his own eyes, recording it into his memory for him to replay over and over again all to his liking. But that is a problem he's going to deal with later, because now that he knows what he's feeling, he won't hesitate in doing what he needs to do.
"J-Jotaro? What-"
Izuka stuttered in surprise as the man suddenly stand up straight and took a step towards her. What did I do wrong? She thought to herself in a flustered panic because of the sudden movement. What's worse is that she can't see his eyes because it's hidden underneath the shadow of his cap. Izuka's eyes widen when her back hits the thick glass wall, having no where to run with Jotaro in such close proximity with her, only one step apart.
"Did I do something wrong? S-sorry for whatever it is-!"
A quiet thud can be heard as Jotaro's palm made contact with the glass wall behind her, right beside her head. His eyes catch sight of Izuka's reddened cheeks and the way her breath hitched when he gets closer. He already got to this point, so there's no way he'll back down. He uses his other hand to gently grasp her chin and tilt her face up, admiring the redness coating her cheeks from this close.
A few minutes before, Jotaro was just like a clumsy bird who just hatched from the comfort of it's eggshells, all confused and curious as it faces the new world. Now that he was faced with the reality, he's very determined to get what he wanted— which is you.
"Look at me."
His voice is gruff and low it's making Izuka's heart beats rapidly inside of her chest. Jotaro has never acted like this before, let alone make gestures that is too close to being affectionate like what he's currently doing. Her mouth opened silently before she shut them close without uttering anything.
Izuka learned from romance books that she often reads all throughout her teenage years that when you locked eyes with the one you love, time stops and the world comes to a halt. It would feel like a bubble is created around the both of you, creating a world just for the both of you. Izuka never understand what it means and how it feels, but at this moment, it truly feels like there's only the two of them there in the midst of the crowd.
The gap in between them closed and his lips met hers in a soft kiss. An spark lights up in his chest and Jotaro knew that he has found his purpose. Her. Izuka is his purpose, his life, and the only one he need to complete the empty spot in his heart that he never knew existed before. He just crossed a line that he cannot return to, and Jotaro has zero intention of turning back and letting her go.
The kiss broke after a few short seconds, leaving the both of them panting softly. Right at that time, the world starts to spin again and Izuka realizes what just happened. Her skin burns hot from all the blood rushing up her face she wasn't sure how she's still conscious right now.
"Stop gaping like a fish."
Jotaro's low voice cuts through the tension like a sharp knife, snapping Izuka out of her daze. He looks the same as ever with no signs of being flustered. But upon closer look, there's a faint blush dusting his cheek red, his facade faltering just enough to allow a crack to form for the blush to slip out.
Jotaro's large palm met the top of her head before she could utter anything else, ruffling the soft strands fondly. Although, it didn't last long before he dropped his hand and turn his back towards her.
"Start moving or you'll get lost."
Izuka stare silently at Jotaro's retreating figure who's getting smaller and smaller as he got swallowed by the crowd even though his height made his head sticks out tall and proud amongst the sea of people. Her whole body is fuzzy and warm, a new sensation that is very much welcomed. When the last bit of his white coat disappearing into the crowd, Izuka starts to panic and forces her wobbly legs to move.
"Huh? Wait- Jotaro!"