Chapter 69: Chapter 68: Comfort Zone (Part 2)

Right then, the door intercom chimes. Glancing at my watch, it’s 3:55. ‘Early again,’ I think with a smile.

“Chinatsu, would you mind waiting in the living room with Ryo, I need to have a short discussion with Ryu as you know.”

She smiles. “Not at all Sora.”

We head down stairs, and I open the door. As hoped, they stare at us open-mouthed. Glancing at Chinatsu, she has just as big of a smile going as I do.

“Close your mouths and come in.” I tell them in a laughing tone. Truthfully, I'm extremely happy with Ryu's reaction, and I doubt Chinatsu is any different.

Grabbing Ryu’s hand, I tell him, “Come with me for a minute, we need to talk privately.” Leading him up to my room, I shut the door behind us. Gesturing to the desk chair, I tell him, “Have a seat,” After he sits down, I sigh, and ask, “What happened this week? I got a call from you Monday and a text, then you texted me on Wednesday. Am I so unimportant to you that you can’t even spare me a few minutes to at least text me?”

His utterly horrified look almost makes me smile, but I stop myself. “Good Lord Sora, no, that’s not the case at all.”

“What did I tell you when you dropped me off Sunday? No more excuses. You even promised me too, now didn’t you?”

“I know Sora. I know what I promised you and, believe me, I feel bad. I’ve been hounded by Grandfather and Dad all this... “ He sighs. “Excuses… I apologize Sora. It won’t happen again.”

“I’m not all that demanding am I?” I ask him with a hurt look. Honestly, I'm really hurt he didn’t call me or text me more.

“No, you’re not. This is my failure, I promise it won’t happen again.”

I nod. I’ll believe him for now. “Okay.” I walk over to him and tap his forehead with my index finger. “Listen to me and believe this, if happens again you’ll not be seeing me again except in school as nothing more than a classmate.” I squat down, take his hands, and look up at him. “Ryu, I really like you. That should be apparent, unless you believe I go around kissing every boy that takes me on a date.”

He shakes his head. “Good, I’m glad, because you’re the first boy I’ve ever been on a date with or kissed. Look, if nothing else, at least send me a goodnight text to let me know you’re thinking of me, okay? I know, you’ve got school and family issues to deal with so I’m not going to freak out if you don’t spend an hour a day on the phone with me. I’m busy too, so I understand.”

“Sora, this is going to sound like I’m trying to make an excuse, but you're right, between school, my father, and my grandfather I’m really busy, It doesn’t help that Ryo isn’t interested in either Grandfather's business or the Dojo. If he was it might take a bit of pressure off me.”

I stand up, reach around him to grab a tissue off my desk and wipe off my lipstick. Smiling, I then sit in his lap facing him and wrap my arms around his neck to hug him. I nibble on his earlobe and he pulls me tighter against him. Okay, I found one thing he seems to like.

Whispering in his ear, I ask, “Ryu, what am I to you?”

“You’re my girlfriend aren’t you?”

I shrug slightly. “I don't know, you've never asked me. For all I know, I’m just a convenient girl for you to make out with. I don’t know where I stand unless you tell me. I’m not psychic, simply a slightly abnormal thirteen year old girl who likes a boy a lot.”

He chuckles.”Abnormal? You?”

I lean back to look him in the eye and nod. “I am. Ryu, I’m literally a genius. I’m not all that great at dealing with people I don’t know, but I’m working on that. I have pretty bad PTSD, and I never know what’s going to trigger it. I’ve had two attacks in less than ten days. They’re spectacularly bad too. I freeze up, shake, and cry. It takes a long time to calm me down when it happens. That’s one of the reasons I have to see a psychologist twice a week. I also cry over just about everything.”

Honestly, right now I'm scared to death. I'm afraid of scaring him off, but I'm more afraid of what will happen later if I have a PTSD attack when I'm with him without me saying something.

“Are you sure you want to deal with all of this? Please, think seriously about this. I don’t want to get attached to you and then you decide you can’t deal with my problems. That’s why I’m telling you this now. I have a lot of issues. Are you strong enough to deal with them? Are you strong enough to support me and take care of me if it happens when I’m with you? I’m not saying you have to answer me right this second either. I’m telling you this so you can seriously think about it and come to a rational, thoughtful decision. I’ll need an answer soon enough.”

I pause for a few seconds, staring intently into his eyes before I continue. “Ryu, I’m already damaged enough, I don’t need and I'm not sure if I can handle more.”

“Sora, you have to be the most unusual girl I’ve ever met. You don’t pull any punches do you?”

I shake my head. “I can't afford to.”

“Honestly, I knew the night of the party you had a lot going on with you. I found out even more of it on our first date and not one single thing has changed my mind. Nothing you just said did either. Sora, you are unusual, not abnormal. You're gentle, sweet, and kind, so what if you have a few issues, everyone does.” He reaches up and gently lays his hand against my cheek. “Now you listen to me, I want you as my girlfriend. I want to date you. I want to learn everything about you. I have since the moment I met you. So what do you say? Do you want to be my girlfriend?”

I look at him apprehensively. “Are you sure Ryu? I’m not kidding about my problems. I’ll expect you to take care of me if something happens and it probably will. It’ll be very bad and it’ll be scary. After my first PTSD attack it took me over an hour to calm down. I want you to be sure about this. That’s why I didn’t ask for an immediate answer.”

He smiles at me. “I’m sure if I can deal with my idiotic brother for the last thirteen years, as well as all my family drama, I quite sure any issues you might have will be well within my abilities to deal with. I’m absolutely positive about this. I promise to protect you and to take care of you. To put it plainly, Sora, would you go out with me and be my girlfriend?”

I smile beatifically. “I’d love to. Now, would my handsome boyfriend mind kissing his unusual girlfriend?”

He chuckles for a moment, then smiles, and says, “By the way, you're absolutely gorgeous today. You definitely put all of the other girls at school to shame. You, my gorgeous girlfriend, will probably have a very large fan club before the end of your first day at school.”

“Thank you Ryu, but I could care less about them. As long as you're my fan, I'll be happy. Now, what about my kiss?”

He pulls me to him to give me a soft, sweet kiss. Soon, he pulls me tighter against him seeking a deeper kiss, eliciting a soft moan from me, while my heart rate speeds up, and beats so hard I’m sure it’s trying to come out of my chest.

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I have to break our kiss a couple of minutes later because my rather amorous side attempts to make a surge to the forefront. I should probably work on controlling that side of me better or it'll be a problem since I rather enjoy kissing Ryu.

Leaning back, I smile at him. “Damn! You're a phenomenal kisser! Whew!” Which makes him grin. “Okay, let me put my lipstick and gloss back on so we can go. We have dinner reservations at 6:30, and I want time to play minigolf with my boyfriend. Although, to be honest, just being with you is enough for me, no matter what we do.”

As I stand up and turn around to sit in his lap facing my desk mirror he slips his arms around my waist and says, “Yep, as I said, you’re unusual. I love how you say whatever you’re thinking.”

“Ryu, I’m glad you like it, but I wasn't always this way. I used to be extremely shy, timid, and withdrawn. My psychologist, Airi, has helped me a lot with that. Anyway, stay still so I can do this.” I quickly put them on and when I finish, he gives me a tight squeeze and I place my hands over his while smiling.

“I’d love nothing more than to continue cuddling with you, but we have people waiting on us.”

Heading downstairs, we collect everyone and head to the train station. Once we board, we place Honoka between the boys, while Chinatsu and I lean back against Ryu and Ryo. As usual, we girls draw a lot of male attention, which I could care less about. The male attention I want, I have, and he has his arms around me.

Arriving at our next station we exit the train, and I wrap my arm around Ryu’s to make the short, five block walk to the minigolf course.

I’ve never held a golf club before, and I laugh myself silly when I miss the ball the first four times I try to hit it. Ryu smiles and wraps his arms around me from behind to show me how to do it. I still suck at first, but I slowly improve as we make our way through the course.

According to the scoring sheet, par is eighty-seven, and I got a ninety-eight. Ryu and Ryu? Seventy-two and seventy-seven respectively. Chinatsu got an eighty-nine. Honoka doesn’t play as she keeps an eye on everything. Although, at the sixteenth hole, I see her using her phone for a few minutes. Maybe Dad texted her.

It takes us a lot longer than I thought it would to make our way through the course. Probably due to me doing so poorly, so we’ll have to take a cab to the restaurant to make it in time.

As we are walking out of the course to the street to hail a cab, Honoka pulls me to her and whispers, “Don’t react and don’t look around, but we’re being followed by two men. I’ve called in our backup to deal with them.”

Slightly alarmed, I look at her to quietly ask, “Does that mean we have to go home?”

“I don’t think so Sora. We’ll do as planned and let a backup team intercept them. I’ve already sent pictures of these two to them, and they should be here in a moment. If we’re followed by more to the restaurant, I’ll make a decision then. Fair enough?”

No sooner do I nod in answer to her, than several men converge on a couple of men, who I assume on the ones she’s talking about. Sighing to myself, I paste a smile on my face and look back to Ryu as we reach the curb, and he hails a cab. Please God, don’t let something happen to ruin this.

How tense I am must be obvious to Chinatsu. What am I saying? Of course it would be, since she knows me better than I probably know myself. She steps close to me to quietly ask, “What’s wrong?”

I shake my head, while keep a smile pasted on my face, which I know doesn’t fool her for a second because of the look she sends my way. I lean over to her to whisper, “Not right now.”

She look at me questioningly a little longer, but finally nods. A few moments later a cab pulls to the curb and Honoka holds everyone back while she looks at the driver then his ID that is on the dash. Finally, nodding her permission, we load into the cab and tell him our destination.

We make it to the restaurant with ten minutes to spare. The first thing Ryu says when he sees where we are is, “Sora, places like this are far outside of my comfort zone.”

I reply, “Ryu, we’ll be coming to places like this now and again, either just us or with our family, so I suggest you and Ryo expand your comfort zones if you want to be our boyfriends. You know who our father is, so it’s going to be expected of you from time to time. We aren’t always going to want to eat at a McKing’s or places like that. That being said, the reservation is under my name, so please, let them know we’re here. We’re going to the restroom. Be right back.”

He replies, “Okay, see you in a few minutes.”

Taking Chinatsu’s and Honoka’s hands, I lead the way to the bathroom. Once we’re inside, we check to make sure we’re alone. Honoka looks at Chinatsu and says, “We were being followed at the minigolf course. I called in back up to take care of them. I didn’t see anyone following us here, so I think we’re safe. Personally, I think they were a scout team. Regardless, security has moved in closer to us. If you see anything that seems suspicious or out of place, even if something feels wrong, let me know. Try not to worry though, we’re safe. We have two dozen people within seconds of us right now. They’re moving the heavy weapons teams very close to us too. So relax and enjoy your date. By the way, our driver will be picking us up after we finish dinner.”

“Thanks Nee-chan.” I tell her.

Chinatsu looks at me funny and asks, “How can you be so relaxed about this?”

I chuckle. “I’m not relaxed as you know, but is me freaking out and ruining our date going to help anything? Nee-chan just said we’re safe. She doesn’t think we were followed here, so let it go for now Chinatsu. Snuggle up to Ryo and enjoy your dinner. That’s what I plan to do with Ryu. I’m not going to let these people, whoever they are, control my life. I’m going to enjoy being out with my sisters and my boyfriend.”

We then head out to meet back up with the boys. After we were seated, we did exactly as I suggested in the bathroom, we snuggled up to our boyfriends.

When we select what to eat, I notice the boys try to order the cheapest item on the menu, which I put a stop to. I tell them to order what they really want that it’s not a problem. They try to say they don’t have the money for a place like this, and I again tell them it’s not a problem because they aren’t paying for this, I am. We place our orders and then we talk and flirt until our food arrives. The flirting ends, temporarily, while we eat, although we still continue our conversations.

After dinner, Honoka calls our driver to tell them we’re ready, and it also brings another issue up when I pull out my debit card to slip into the bill, which he sees and starts to protest the expense. The look I give him shuts him right up, but the ¥17k tip I wrote down for our very attentive waitress almost made him choke. Dad told me twenty percent is standard, and that is what I left. Yes, this place is expensive, but the food and service is first class, so it’s worth it. Plus, the portions are rather large, which means we are taking home quite a bit of food for us girls.

A few minutes later the driver arrives and we take the boys home first. Honoka steps out with us to keep an eye out on our surroundings while we get our good night kisses.

After the boys head into the house, we load back up and head home. My head is definitely full of thoughts of Ryu and how much fun I had tonight, even if he was a bit obstinate at the restaurant. Well, I’m sure he’ll come around. Looking at Chinatsu, it’s easy to see she’s just as aroused as I am, so I know all too well what we’ll be doing when we get back home.

When I scoot over to her and wrap my arm around her, she looks at me, smiles, and then leans against me while tracing her fingers lightly along the inside of my thigh.

Regardless of the two men who followed us at the minigolf course, all in all, I'd have to say today was a really great day.

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