"That was quite the speech you gave back there, Shin. I didn't know you had it in you."
"Is that supposed to be a compliment, or an insult?"
"Hmmm… I'll let you decide that on your own." Mai teased me as we walked back to her house. I was keeping up the guise that I was a woman, since I still needed to live my normal life, but she had already fallen into the habit of calling me Shin.
"Y'know, with everything we've been through, and everything we're gonna be putting ourselves through… I'm glad it's you at my side, Mai."
"Oh, Shin, I bet you say that to all the ladies."
"No. I don't." I shut down her attempt to deflect my compliment. I had something I needed to say, and there was no better time than the present. "In the mere six months I've known you, you've changed my life in so many different ways. When I'm with you, I feel like the best version of myself. You're smart, funny, talented, and so unimaginably kind. It's no wonder that, after spending so much time together, I would fall so deeply in love with you."
Those were my true, honest thoughts. It may have been the first time I had ever expressed them. I had gotten so used to lying and deceiving everyone around me that I had almost forgotten how to be genuine. But those words were the truth. The whole truth. My true feelings for the girl I loved.
"…I wish you had the patience to wait a damn minute for me to confess first."
The response was… not what I was expecting.
"I'm… sorry?"
"You should be, dammit! I had this whole spiel prepared about how you had reignited my passion for life and that I wanted to share the rest of it with you, but you and your stupid beautiful love confession made me forget what I was gonna say! Gah, you're such a pain in the ass!"
I retract what I said before. This is exactly what I should have expected from Mai.
"Am I to take that to mean that you feel the same way?"
"Of course I feel the same way! I've been in love with you for months!" As Mai's outburst ended, her face began to turn red as she realised what she had said.
She quickly buried her face in her coat, trying to hide her blush from me.
I wasn't letting her off that easy.
"Hey, Mai?" I said, putting a hand to her cheek. "Marry me when this is all over."
She looked up at me, and we both leaned closer together.
"Idiot. That's my line."
That was the first time I kissed the love of my life.