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“Ken-kun, wake up,” a soft voice spoke to him. Right away, Okarun clocked the voice as his mother.
Okarun grumbled and turned his face away to bury in his pillow, pulling his blanket up to his chin. He was having a nice dream where he had confessed his feelings to Momo and she had returned the feelings mutually. The dream was just getting to the part where they were about to kiss when someone tried pulling him from it.
“Ken-kun,” his mother repeated and shook his shoulder. “You have a visitor.”
Okarun furrowed his brows and smacked his lips together as his mind woke up a little more. It was probably just a distant family member that just wanted to be polite while visiting his parents. “Who’s’it?” he slurred as if it wasn’t important enough, he was going to go right back to sleep.
“A friend of yours,” his mother said with an excited lift to her tone. “A pretty girl with green earrings and she keeps calling you Okarun.”
Okarun’s eyes flew open and he sat right up in bed. “Miss Ayase is here?!” he screeched and tore himself out of bed. His blankets wrapped around his legs in the process and Okarun fell to the ground in a fumble. He pushed himself up on his arms and his hair that was still messy with sleep bounced in the air. “Why didn’t you start with that?!”
His mother huffed a smile and took a seat on the edge of the bed as she watched her soon kick his legs out of the blanket before running over to his closet. “You never told me that you made a friend. This is so exciting!” Okarun’s mother smiled with a small clap of her hands. “Why haven’t you brought her over before?”
“Just really busy,” Okarun answered as he pulled clothes off of his hangers as he debated on wearing them. With a shake of his head, the clothes in his hands were thrown over his shoulders to join the growing pile on the floor. Finally finding something he thought would be good enough, Okarun went running of his room to the bathroom.
Okarun’s mother shook her head in amusement and stood up from the bed to leave her son’s room. She could hear him moving around in the bathroom and the water running from the sink. Seeing that she wasn’t going to get any information from him right now, Okarun’s mother made her way back downstairs where her husband was conversing with the girl that had thrown their peaceful morning for a loop.
“He’ll be down in a moment,” Okarun’s mother announced as she entered the room. “Can I get you anything, Ayase-san?”
The girl tilted her head to the side with a polite smile, making her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail swish to the side. She was dressed in a white tee-shirt with an orange oversized American style varsity jacket over it. Her pants were a pair of short black shorts and her feet were adorned by a pair of socks that had been initially covered by her clunky sneakers when she first rang their doorbell.
“Oh, I don’t want to impose,” Ayase Momo smiled at Okarun’s mother and bowed her head, her earrings moving with the movement. “Thank you for allowing me inside, Takakura-san.” Upstairs, there was a large bang that could only be Okarun tripping and falling. “What is Okarun doing up there?” Momo giggled behind a hand.
“Frantically getting ready,” Okarun’s mother giggled, not sparing her son any embarrassment. “You seemed to have caught him off-guard.”
“Ah, well, I figured I wouldn’t make him go out of the way to pick me up at my house,” Momo said with a hand rubbing that back of her head. “I’m kind of far and making him go all that way just to head back into the city is crazy.”
“Ayase-san here was just telling about how grandmother is Santa Dodoria,” Okarun’s father said. He was sitting on the couch adjacent to the side one-seater that Momo was perched on.
“Really?” Okarun’s mother grinned as her eyebrows shot up. “I love when she appears on my favorite show.” She turned to her husband, taking a seat on the spot next to him with a hand laying on top of his. “Did you see that episode where she correctly predicted the true age and family of the celebrity that pretended to be twenty? I was so impressed!”
“That was indeed incredible,” Okarun’s father nodded along.
“Yeah, granny has that special sense to her,” Momo chuckled awkwardly to try and avoid bringing up the more supernatural side of her life.
“I meant to ask,” Okarun’s father cleared his throat and turned his attention to Momo. “What does ‘Okarun’ mean?”
“Oh, it’s just a nickname I came up for him, y’know?” Momo giggled again but this time it was warm. “It’s because of how much he likes the occult.”
Okarun’s mother pursed her lips softly. She really hoped that this wasn’t someone pretending to be her son’s friend only to turn around and make fun of him for his interests. It had worried her to see such a pretty and out-going girl ringing her doorbell asking for her quiet-mannered – and dare say, nerdly – son. “Do you believe in the occult too?” she asked carefully.
To her surprise, Momo fervently nodded her head. “Absolutely,” Momo answered honestly, her eyes echoing that she was telling no lie. “Aliens and yokais are super duper real.”
Okarun’s mother relaxed greatly at the girl admitting that. Perhaps she had judged the book by its cover too quickly. Her son never had any friends come over at all over the years and it made her careful about being so accepting people so quickly when it came to her son’s interests. Often adults would ask him about the occult, making her son think he had someone to gush about it only for his hopes to be crushed as they told him to grow up. Next to her, Okarun’s mother could see her husband relax too.
“I mean, it would be pretty dumb not to believe in yokais with who my granny is,” Momo laughed and Okarun’s mother nodded her head in agreement. That would be indeed be ironic. “Truth be told, I didn’t believe in aliens until I met Okuran but he changed my mind about the whole thing.”
“Oh?” Okarun’s mother hummed. She could smell a budding love story and she wanted all the details. “Do tell.”
“Well—”
“Miss Ayase!”
Momo was cut off as the man of the hour rushed into the living room, nearly tripping over the door frame and face planting on the hardwood floor below. Okarun caught himself at the last moment and slid into the room on sock covered feet, breathing hard after rushing so fast to get ready. He was dressed in a yellow hoodie with a graphic design on the front and down the right sleeve, both sleeves rolled up to his forearms. His pants were a pair of black joggers with a white stripe going down the sides of each side.
Momo immediately perked up seeing him, her whole demeanor brightening, and that didn’t miss the attention of Okarun’s mother. “Okarun! There you are!” Momo said and pushed herself off the couch. Much to the surprise of Okarun’s mother, Momo immediately grabbed hold of her son’s arm in a hug. “What took you so long?”
“I wasn’t expecting you to come over here so soon. We literally just talked about going out to the shopping district, like, two days ago,” Okarun said as he slowed his breathing down from how he was rushing before. “How’d you find out where I lived?”
“You told me once,” Momo shrugged.
“How’d you remember that?” Okarun asked incredulously.
“I remember lots of things you tell me,” Momo said with a shy murmur, a hand coming up to fidget with her bangs.
The more Okarun’s mother watched the two of them interact, the more she could see just how much they liked each other. There was a smile growing on her face and by the way her husband was looking to the side at her, Okarun’s father could see it too. It was only a matter of time before their son came home with news that he has a girlfriend.
Maybe it was too soon but Okarun’s mother could already daydream about how cute her future grandchildren would be.
Okarun’s father cleared his throat and leaned back on the couch, making the two teenagers look at him. “What are you two planning on doing today?” he asked with an easy smile. They trusted their son enough that they didn’t need to monitor his whereabouts at all times but it was nice to know a bit what they were going to do.
“We’re going shopping,” Momo answered brightly, tightening her grip on Okarun’s arm and he looked all too used to the contact – something Okarun’s mother noted. “I need to update my wardrobe and I want to get matching clothes with Okarun. It would be totes cute.”
Okarun’s mother giggled at how her son’s face heated up in embarrassment and he robotically fixed his glasses.
“We should probably get going if we want to beat the worst of the crowd,” Okarun said and started to pull Momo towards the entrance of the house. It was easy with how she still clung to his arm. Okarun’s mother wondered just how close the two teenagers were to be this okay with close touch for so long with each other.
“If we have time, we should get something to eat,” Momo commented as she disentangled herself from Okarun’s arm only to intertwine her hand with Okarun’s own easily. “I’m craving a hamburger.”
“Yes, yes,” Okarun laughed in a way that his parents had never had before. “We can get some food.” They both flickered their eyes to each other as if to ask ‘are you seeing this’ before looking back at the teenagers.
“Yippee!” Momo cheered and turned to his parents to bow towards them, briefly letting go of Okarun’s hand to present his parents with her full respect. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Okarun’s parents.”
“Be sure to come over again,” Okarun’s mother beamed, waving at the girl.
“You are welcome to come over whenever,” Okarun’s father added. He shot a wink at his son to show his approval of Momo.
“Mom! Dad!” Okarun exclaimed between gritted teeth.
“I’ll take you up on that,” Momo laughed before rising from the bow. “See you again,” she bid his parents before leaving for the entrance way.
Okarun was about to follow before his father waved him over. He raised an eyebrow and did as he directed. Once he was close enough, Okarun’s reached into his pocket to pull out his wallet. Okarun’s eyes grew up as his father pulled out a decent stack of yen bills and held it out to him.
“Here, take this,” Okarun’s father said to his son.
“Are you sure?” Okarun asked, looking between the money and his father’s face.
“Yes,” Okarun’s father nodded and shook the money at him. “I want you to have fun.”
Sighing, Okarun took the money and stashed it away into his own wallet. “Okay. I promise not to spend it all.”
“On the contrary, I want you to,” Okarun’s father said with a growing smirk. “Go treat that girlfriend of your’s to a nice date.”
“It’s not a date!” Okarun whispered in embarrassment to correct his father but he only laughed. “And Miss Ayase is not my girlfriend!”
“Oh, son, whatever you say,” Okarun’s father said in a tone that told everyone that he did not believe Okarun in the slightest. He even shot his son a wink, making Okarun’s grumble.
“Ken-kun,” Okarun’s mother called for him and waved to him to bend down closer to her.
“Yes?” he asked, bending down closer to her.
“Are you sure you two aren’t dating?” Okarun’s mother whispered.
Okarun’s cheeks flushed immediately in a deep red, straightening his back. “Mom, no!” he harshly whispered and looked back at Momo through the door frame. She wasn’t paying attention as she looked at the pictures of him with his parents in the entrance way. “She’s just a friend.”
“Hmmmm,” Okarun’s mother hummed with a smirk that said she thought otherwise.
Okarun’s face flushed all over again and he turned on his heel. “I’ll be home later!” he announced and went scurrying away. Momo looked up when he appeared and she smiled so warmly that Okarun’s mother was surprised they weren’t already dating. She watched her son slip his shoes on as fast as possible before grabbing the other teenager by the hand to run out of his house.
And it didn’t miss her attention how their fingers were intertwined from where she could see them through the front window. She waited until she heard the door click shut before turning to her husband. “Dear, what do you think about Ken and Ayase-san?” Okarun’s mother asked.
“Oh, they definitely like each other,” Okarun’s father agreed without hesitance. “I’m willing to bet that they are going to be dating with in the next few months.”
“Glad to see we both could see the obvious.” Okarun’s mother patted her husband on the knee and stood up. “I’ll head to the nearest matchmaking shrine to pray for them and to get a charm.”
‘Well, looks like I can look forward to a pretty daughter-in-law,’ Okarun’s mother thought to herself with a pleased smile.