There was just something about Maito Gai that brought a smile to Ume’s face every time her gaze merely traveled to settle on his ever-so-bright figure. She could spend all day theorizing what exactly it was about him that had her so enamored in his presence, whether it was the way he spoke with untamable optimism, always seeing the most positive outcome, or the way he encouraged others to be the best version of themselves, no matter what. For her, it could be anything about him, really. The one thing she knew with certainty, however, was that what she loved most about him was his good-willed nature and the breathtaking smile he wore, one that had her mirroring his expression instantly.
They were the reason why she had fallen in love with the energetic man in the first place, why she had been so charmed by his mere presence the first time she had met him as a child. It was not for no reason that a majority of her childhood she had spent admiring the slightly older boy, utterly infatuated with the person he was and later would turn out to be. One meeting with him had been enough for him to capture her heart, so to her, it was no wonder that as the years passed by, her feelings only increased.
Neither did Ume question why exactly she had made the decision to invite Gai to one of her family gatherings. While it had been bold of her to do so, to take a plus one to one of the seasonal gatherings, not even an ounce of fear gathered within her. Even as she sat in the garden of her parents’ home and sipped on the savory grape juice that had been handed to her, did she not regret her decision even for one second.
With a teasing smile playing on her lips, Momo was quick to nudge her younger sister with her elbow to catch her attention. “Ume, you manage to surprise me year by year.”
She blinked, evidently confused by what her sister meant. After another sip of the grape juice, she asked, “How so?”
"Not that that is a bad thing,” In her seat, Momo leaned back with her arms crossed. Her back knocked against the wooden table, but she did not mind it. Then, she continued, “I’m glad you found someone who loves you as much as you love them.”
Ume almost choked on the grape juice, a bright flush beginning to bloom on her ivory cheeks. Embarrassment was crawling up her neck and left her shell-shocked for a moment, her lovesick gaze traveling from her partner down to the glass of juice in her hand.
“Yo-you can’t just say things like that! He could hear you!” Ume said after a moment, now looking at her sister wide-eyed.
In the distance, Momo could see the man in question run around the neatly mowed lawn with a child sitting on his back, her significantly smaller legs wrapped around his middle to keep herself from falling off. Her arms were placed on his shoulder, holding on tight as he ran.
The smile Momo wore was of genuine delight. Especially as she teasingly patted her younger sister on her back, saying, “Oh, don’t be like that, Ume! You practically radiate what you feel for him. There’s no point in hiding it. Plus , everyone in the family likes him, that much is obvious. There is nothing to fear.”
As if on cue, one of their sisters let out a loud squeal, one that faintly echoed in their ears as Gai picked up his speed and ran past them with the young girl on his back.
“Eri adores him.” Based on how tightly the girl held onto her elder sister’s significant other and how she gleamed with joy in his presence, the statement couldn’t be denied, not at all.
Behind the duo followed another child, one that was almost identical to the one being carried. Twins, that was much obvious from their mirroring appearances alone. “Give me my sister back!” She yelled loudly without an ounce of anger in her tone and, contrary to her words, let out a loud laugh while still running.
“And so does Azumi. And you know how Azumi can get.” Momo said with a pointed stare.
Ume still couldn’t keep the bright red blush away from her features, no matter how much she willed for it to disappear. “I guess?” Inwardly, she cringed at how awkward she sounded.
Without as much as the beat of a second passing, Momo slammed her hand onto the table, making all of their other family members sitting there jump in surprise. Distantly, she was sure that she could hear the scolding call of their mother, but she chose to ignore it.
“You guess? You guess ?!” She could feel her eye twitch. “The fuck , Ume-” As much as Momo wanted to finish her sentence, she shut up the moment she could see a certain someone near the table.
The furrow of his brows could only be described as an expression of concern, the fact only supported by when he asked, “Is everything alright?”
At that very moment, Momo felt the need to hit her little sister over the head. Especially when the usually so loud girl kept quiet about her feelings about the man she obviously was in love with.
“Gai!” In an instant, Ume’s face lit up into a wide smile, one that showed off her dimple.
Momo waved the concerned partner off with a lazy wave of her hand. “Yo, nothing’s wrong. Don’t worry.” The grin she offered him smelled of nothing but trouble .
Gai nodded at her politely, before repeating his concerns to his girlfriend. “Are you sure, my lotus ?”
There was no better side than seeing her sister metaphorically explode from all the love she was feeling at that moment. The blush grew into something more furious again, growing redder with each second passing.
“I’m just fine, thank you,” Ume said finally, smiling widely up at the man standing before her. Before standing up from her position seated on the bench, she placed down her glass of juice. Then, she finally moved upward to press a long kiss on his tan check, before sitting down again. “I really am, thank you, Gai.”
With no hesitation in his action, Gai leaned downward to wrap his arms around the figure of his girlfriend and pulled her gently against his body, her back meeting his stomach. Then he pressed his cheek against the top of her head and smiled brightly, a flush beginning to also bloom on his cheeks. His eyes fluttered shut and he smiled even brighter, holding his lover close.
“Alright then.” He said after a moment.
Momo averted her gaze to grant the two of them a moment of privacy.
Ume moved her left arm upward to rest it near his cheek, one of her fingers coming to twirl the short strands of his raven-black hair. Her head knocked further against his cheek, her figure leaning into his.
Kami, how much she loved that man.
“Where have you left my sisters, by the way?” She asked softly, her eyes roaming over the backyard in search of the pair.
Gai’s eyes fluttered open, but before he could get out as much as a word, he was interrupted by loud voices coming closer.
“ Gai-nii-san !” Somehow, the pair of twins always managed to synchronize when they spoke, even when shouting or pouting, “You said it would only take a minute.” In typical child fashion, Eri was the one to stomp her little foot on the ground and cross her arms, her lower lip pushing out as she looked up at the man. Azumi nodded in agreement, also stomping her foot.
From beside the couple, Momo let out a snort, ready to shoo the pair of twins away. That was at least until Gai spoke.
“I’ll come to join you any minute.” Reluctantly, he detached himself from his lover to look down on the pair of his sisters. His hand, however, remained on her shoulder and squeezed it once as he smiled at her. “If your sister agrees, that is.”
Ume felt a bit of disappointment come up within her, but could not bring herself to say no to their begging gazes. “Alright then. Go on. Steal my boyfriend away from me.” To call him hers felt heavenly on her tongue.
Judging from the equally lovesick look he sent her, Gai felt the same. When he turned back to the twins, he grinned at them. “You heard her. Let’s go!” And without giving them a chance to even make a move for it, he scooped both of them up and tucked each under one arm, not allowing either of them the chance to escape, even as they squealed loudly. He offered Ume one last glance, “I’ll be back.” And then, with the twins in his grasp, Gai dramatically stomped off.
“I’ll be waiting.”
With a raised brow, Momo looked over at her sister. “See, he’s practically part of the family already. I mean, Azumi and Eri call him nii-san for heaven’s sake. If you ask me, he’s total husband material. ”
Ume stared after her boyfriend with a dazed expression, still smiling widely as though he still stood by her side. Then, she blurted out, “Totally husband material.” without a thought, not even realizing what she had said.
“Ha! I knew it!” Momo practically yelled with a triumphant look on her face. She leaned back against the table, wallowing in her success. “I mean, sure, it was more than like, kind of obvious. How long have you had a crush on him? Since you were seven ?”
“Six,” Ume hesitantly corrected. “I, uh , was six.”
“See! You’ve had a crush on him longer than Azumi and Eri are alive. Think about that, Ume,” While it was an odd comparison, it did emphasize what needed to be pointed out. “Look at you now. You’re actually dating him. Good job .”
“I am dating him.” Ume repeated as though it were her nindō .
“Exactly.”
She swallowed harshly, “A-and he’s my boyfriend .”
Instantly, Momo scrunched up her nose. “Is that what the honeymoon phase looks like? Seriously ?”
Ume continued on, “And I love him.”
The elder sibling almost choked on her next breath. “Hold your horses, little sister. Moments ago you couldn’t admit anything and now you put that out here?! I was joking earlier, you know? What happened?”
“Well, now he can’t hear!” Ume defended. Wildly, she gestured around with her arms as though that would aid her explanation. “Now I can say these things aloud!”
Momo let out a sigh, “Just tell him. I’m sure he loves you too.”
“And what if it is too early?” Ume asked quietly. A frown was tugging at her lips, dragging down the smile lines on her face. “I don’t want to pressure Gai or make him feel uncomfortable around me.”
“Even a blind person can see that he loves you,” Momo disagreed. “and even if he didn’t, he would in due time. It’s not going to ruin your relationship, trust me.”
“I just-” Ume cut herself off, her finger coming to nervously scratch at the skin of the back of her palm. “I’m worried, you know?”
Momo placed a comforting hand on her sister’s shoulder and squeezed it once. “Just trust me, Ume. With him, you’ve hit the jackpot. You got really lucky . Stop overthinking it.”
Ume took a breath. “I’ll try.”
From the peripheral of her vision, she could see a small army of their young distant relatives coming closer. “You better, Ume, because we have small visitors coming along?”
“Huh?”
“Nee-san!” For relatives of the Aburame clan, their young cousins were unusually loud. Even as the leader of the small troop came to a stop before Ume and Momo, she still came close to yelling, “Can we pretty please braid your hair?”
“And decorate it!” Another one of their young cousins added as she held up several flowers to practically hold them right into Ume’s face.
“M-me?” She asked, obviously uncertain. Hesitantly, she pointed at herself with her pointer finger.
Momo let out a loud snort, one that she did not bother to cover up. “Yeah, obviously you , Ume. I mean, have you seen my hair?”
Until now Ume had not noticed how flowers already decorated the pitch-black hair of her older sister. All the way down to the tips of her hair flowers were braided into it, the last of them coming to lay down upon her ivory shoulders. They gave Momo an appearance of that of a goddess with her oval face and heart-shaped hairline, or so at least Ume thought.
Ume smiled. “I think it suits you.”
“Of course it does. Our little cousins did their best, after all. Now let them do yours.”
Confused, Ume lifted her thick strands of braided her up and looked at them before shooting Momo a look. “But it’s already braided?”
“Then let them unbraid it, dummy.”
The one with the flowers excitedly nodded in agreement. “We can put pretty flowers into it! For both you and him!”
With furrowed brows, Ume repeated, “Me and him ?” Her question was soon answered as in the distance she could see the other half of her little cousin's army drag Gai around the backyard, at least three of them pulling at his arm as another one pointed in her direction. “ Oh , you mean Gai.”
Momo let out a loud laugh, unable to keep it in anymore. “This is funny, kami, comedic gold. I wish I had thought of that. The universe is really pointing it with bright signs, isn’t it, Ume?”
“Shut it.” Ume grumbled with a smile she was unable to keep off of her face. She turned her face away from her sister while sitting own on the grass to make it easier for her cousins to reach her hair. Once she found a comfortable position, she stole a peek out her laughing boyfriend being dragged closer.
“Fine, I will. And you know what I will also do?”
“ What ?”
In a childish manner, Momo stuck out her tongue and took several steps backward. “Leave and tell mother and father all about this. And you know what? You can’t stop me.” Within the blink of an eye, the elder sibling vanished.
“Momo!”
“Nii-san, there you are!” How Gai had wormed his way into her sisters’ and cousins’ hearts so quickly, Ume could understand. He had done the same with her years ago already, after all.
When Ume turned her heart, she could feel her heartbeat pick up in an instant. Because there stood the man whom she knew she loved with her whole heart, smiling down at her with that bright smile of his. To his limbs several of her cousins were attached, holding onto him as though it were for their dear life. Even as they pulled on the dress shirt and matching dark pants he wore, he did not show one sign that he minded. Instead, Gai laughed as boisterous and loud as he always did, a sound she thought was melodic .
“My lotus!” He boomed out immediately in greeting before he added in a teasing tone, “What a coincidence.”
“A coincidence for sure,” Ume replied with a growing smile. She continued to look up at him as she spoke, “I’m very happy to see you, Gai.”
“So am I to see you!”
By now, her younger cousins had begun to force him to also sit down on the grass, right beside her. What they hadn’t calculated however was how much taller he was than Ume, him almost towering above her even when sitting.
With a giggle, Ume leaned closer to the man and whispered in his ears, “I hope they weren’t too forceful.”
The fact that the soft tone of her voice sent a shiver down his spine he did not let show. Instead, he only leaned closer to her, even going as far as to adjust his position in the grass to be seated closer to his girlfriend.
Gai shook his head after the shiver subsided. “They did not. I came willingly .”
Ume’s eyes scrunched up as she giggled again, “It did not look like that.”
“I had to entertain him somehow, didn’t I?” Gai said with a glance at her eager cousins. By now, they had begun to place individual flowers into her braided her. “And I could never resist spending time with my lovely lotus.” His attention turned toward her, a new sparkle now shining in his dark eyes.
In her heart there was only space for one man, she realized.
“I’m really glad that you came, Gai,” Ume turned her attention to him and only him, her smile growing impossibly bigger. She could not help it, he made her feel so much happiness that from the sheer amount of it she could burst and still experience more of it. “I really am. You make this day more special than it already is.”
As one of her cousins began weaving flower after flower into Gai’s hair, he said, “And I’m glad you invited me,” With his hand, he reached out to grasp her significantly smaller one with his, pulling it into his lap. Absentmindedly, he began to play with her fingers as his smile grew wider and wider, before he finally added, “I couldn’t be happier with you.”
At that moment, Ume realized that what her older sister said was true, she really was lucky . Because in the backyard of her childhood home sat a man in the grass right beside her, the very same man whom she had already loved for years and who she now knew for certain, loved her back just as much.
With her cheeks dusted pink and more than enough flowers placed in between the thick strands of her plum hair, Ume turned to Gai and smiled brighter than she had ever done before. “I couldn’t be happier, either, Gai.”
Dear kami, she begged, let this man be in her life forever.