Mikomi had finally confessed his feelings. With a hopeful look on his face, he gazed at Serah who had begun to back away slowly. Mikomi could feel his heart breaking as he was getting the one reaction that he feared. His hand began to tremble but he didn’t want to let her see that so he moved it slightly out of sight. Serah’s eyes weren’t looking at his hands anyway so it may not have been a big deal.

“W-why?” squeaked out Serah. “Why would you do this?”

“I don’t understand,” said Mikomi. “What do you mean by why would I do this?”

Serah trembled a bit as she held her right arm close to her body with her left hand. Mikomi could tell that he had made her extremely nervous. This was almost like what had happened in the other timeline when they were at school and Serah told him she would think about it. That memory popped into Mikomi’s head so he took a stab in the dark with it.

“Are you asking me why because you’re afraid that I’m only doing this to abandon you later?”

Serah’s face went from a look of confusion to a look of shock instantaneously. Mikomi had hit the nail directly on the head and she couldn’t believe that he would guess the true reason behind her apprehension. He once told Serah that she wore her heart on her sleeve but she didn’t think her reaction would have been that obvious to him.

“The last time we talked, you told me about how your friends abandoned you and that you felt like you had finally made a friend in me. That, honestly, touched me. I won’t lie, Serah… I thought about this for a while with my reasoning being that I wanted to be the one to end your loneliness. I wanted to be there to protect you… to make sure that you had someone in your life that would never abandon you but then I started to think about those reasons and I concluded that I would just be taking pity on you if I based my wanting to go out with you for those reasons alone.”

Mikomi walked over to Serah’s couch and took a seat on it. He patted the cushion next to him and Serah took the invite and sat next to him. Mikomi reached over and grabbed her by the hand which startled her a little but she relaxed and squeezed his hand back.

“Make no mistake, Serah. I do like you a lot. I like you to the point where I believe I could say that I love you but I couldn’t just say it with those reasons behind it. I didn’t want to pity you so I began to think that if I took all of that away… if I forgot about the fact that you were lonely and that my being there could end that terrible cycle… would I still be able to say ‘I love you’ to you as a person at face value?”

Mikomi turned his head towards her. She was looking at him with a sense of wonder. She was hanging onto every single word he had said with bated breath. It was almost as if she were waiting for a moment like this her entire life. Mikomi reached over and grabbed her other hand and held them both tightly. He looked into her eyes and answered his own question.

“The answer was yes.”

Serah began to tremble a bit. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing right now. Her lip began to quiver and her heart began to beat just a little bit faster. Mikomi continued to stare into her eyes as he continued his confession.

“From your really cute looks to your personality, down to the things that interest you. Everything that makes you Serah, I love. I realized that I should not and should never love you out of pity. While I still want to be the one who ends your loneliness, I want to do it genuinely and I can only do that if I felt like I could love the real you instead of just loving you as a means to protect you.”

“Mi-komi…” muttered Serah with a quiver in her voice.

“Now that you know why will you go….”

Serah didn’t let Mikomi finish that question. She immediately lunged at him and kissed him right on his lips. She wrapped her arms around his body and pressured him onto his back. There, she continued to hold her kiss for what seemed like an eternity but it was an eternity that Mikomi wanted to be trapped in. As he held her tightly, he could feel a slight wetness on his face from the tears coming from Serah’s eyes. It was then he realized just how much this meant to her. Serah finished her kiss and then laid her head down on Mikomi’s chest.

“I take it that means yes?”

“Shhhh,” replied Serah. “Don’t say anything, please. Let me just stay like this for a while.”

Mikomi slid his left hand up and held Serah’s head. She closed her eyes and when Mikomi looked down at her, he saw something that he hadn’t seen before. It was the first time he saw this and a look of awe and wonder washed over his face as he was captivated by its beauty.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Serah was smiling.

The two of them stayed like that for a good thirty minutes. Neither of them said a word to one another. They just continued to lay there in each other’s arms, as if time had become frozen for them and they refused to leave at that moment. Mikomi knew that he had to ask Serah one other question so he decided that enough time had passed and broke the silence between them.

“Say, Serah. Today, my father is home from work. He’s having a party at my house to celebrate his company’s announcement. I told him that I was going to be there but I was thinking that you might want to come as well. This way, I can properly introduce you to my family.”

Serah’s right hand, which had been resting on Mikomi’s chest, turned into a fist. She gripped the collar of Mikomi’s shirt so tightly to the point that he felt like it might rip. Mikomi sensed that he had just taken Serah out of her comfort zone and had to say something a little more reassuring to calm her down.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I know you’re pretty nervous around people so I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.”

Serah shook her head ‘no’ as she continued to rest it on his chest. She then repositioned herself to where she was looking into his eyes. He could only stare up at her cute face with a sense of wonder. Her eyes were also blue, but a lighter shade than his. Still, he got lost in them as she stared right back into his.

“No… it’s not that. I’d love to go. Sorry if I seemed nervous but I’m happy that you invited me. That was the first time anyone had ever invited me to a party in my entire life. I was just taken by surprise, that’s all.”

Serah’s tone wasn’t as soft as it usually was. Her tone was reminiscent of when she was talking to Mikomi’s mother at the dinner table a couple of weeks ago. Was this all that she needed to hear to break out of her shell? She seemed to be a little more relaxed and open than usual so maybe Mikomi said the right combination of words to get her to come around. Mikomi looked up at Serah and smiled at her reply.

“I’m not going to lie. I didn’t think you were going to say yes but it makes me happy that you want to come. The party isn’t until one o’clock so we have a few hours to ourselves. We can stay here if you want to.”

Serah simply nodded and laid back down on top of Mikomi. If that was her answer, then he had no problems with it. Three hours passed and Serah, who was still tired from being woken up by Mikomi’s visit, had fallen asleep on top of him. Mikomi couldn’t help himself and just stared at her as she slept. He couldn’t believe how peaceful she looked and just how much cuter she was. It was hard to believe that someone like that would have the kind of issues she did. Mikomi realized the time and let out a sigh knowing that, for the second time today, he was going to have to wake her up.

Needless to say, he didn’t want to, but he knew that if he didn’t, then he would have been late getting back home and that would break the promise he made to his father. Mikomi gave her a gentle nudge and she slowly opened her eyes. Serah looked around for a moment and then slowly turned her head and looked at Mikomi. Her face was adorable but what captivated him was the fact that she smiled again when she saw him.

“Sorry to wake you… again but it’s about time we head over to my house for the party.”

Serah slowly got up and didn’t realize the position she was in. She pressed her knee very close to a certain spot. Mikomi looked down at how close she came as a single bead of sweat rolled down his forehead.

“One more inch and…”

She got up and he breathed a sigh of relief. He got up off the couch as she took her leave to go freshen up. A few moments later she emerged from the restroom with her hair looking much more normal. She had also ditched the sweater and put on a light pink t-shirt with a cute white rabbit design on the front. She then grabbed a thin, black sweater and put it over on top. She signaled to Mikomi that she was ready to go but before he could open the front door, she stopped him.

“Hey, Mikomi. Um… before we go, could I ask for a favor? Would you… mind if I…. took your picture?”

“I don’t mind at all.”

Serah quickly ran into her room and grabbed her camera. It was one of those cameras that instantly developed the photo after it was taken. Serah opened up the room-darkening curtain to let some light in. She told Mikomi to stand in front of the couch so that the light would hit his body. Mikomi was a bit impressed with the fact that she knew some of the basics of photography. Most people would just grab a camera and shoot without taking things such as lighting, surroundings, and other variables into account but Serah seemed to know what she was doing.

Serah asked Mikomi to smile and then the flash went off. She pulled the photo out of the camera and watched it develop. The picture came out nearly crystal clear. She ran back into her room where she left the camera and the photo behind. She quickly made her way back out to the living room and the two of them left the house. Mikomi wanted to ask why she took the photo, but he merely assumed that this was a big day for her and she wanted a memento of it.

Even though he was fulfilling a promise to his father, he began to tense up because he realized that he would also be introducing Serah to everyone as his new girlfriend. While he already had his parents’ support, he was a bit nervous about how everyone else from the office would act. Plus, with her anxiety around other people, he could only hope that this didn’t end up embarrassing her too much. Nevertheless, she agreed to accompany him so all he could do was make it as comfortable as possible for her. Soon, the celebration of his father and his own hard work was about to begin!