In a town bustling with many different people from all walks of life, I am the only one that stays the same.

Without change, I continue to dredge through this meaningless concept called "life."

I, Ayame Tsurako, am discontent with my life.

From childhood, I've gotten perfect marks in school and have gotten many awards and countless praise for my studiousness.

I would try my best to make my parents proud, in which they were.

They were incredibly proud and supportive about me taking my studies seriously and getting good grades, but there was a constant shadow hanging over their faces.

Why were they looking at me so happily yet so painfully at the same time?

That look always confused me when I was met with it, so I would try my best to ignore it every time.

Moving forward, I abandoned all of my friends and relationships to focus on my academics, which isolated me from everyone else.

In short, I became an outlier in this constantly changing society.

Continuing this practice all the way into my first year of high school, I had absolutely no friends coming into a new era of my life.

Forget a boyfriend, I have never had anyone that I could call a close friend in my entire life.

Yet, something akin to a miracle happened one cold day in December.

It randomly rained sometime during the first week, which caught me by surprise since I hadn't looked at the weather forecast that morning.

As a result, I had to hide under the roof of a random building on the way home to escape the rain.

The rain looked like it was getting stronger by the minute, so I needed a plan or else I would end up spending the whole night stuck here.

As I was pondering some escape scenarios, a student from my school walked up to me with an umbrella in hand.

"What're you doing here?"

"Nothing, I'm fine. Please leave me be."

What a hindrance, I thought.

Men are disgusting creatures that have only lust on their mind.

I believe this boy's name was Akihiko Tanaka, most likely from the neighboring class.

There's no way he would've came up to me with pure motives.

They always have an ulterior motive.

Seeing the scowl I had on my face, the boy chuckled and let go of his umbrella.

"Oops."

Immediately, the umbrella descended to the ground with a thud.

"What are you doing?"

It was so obvious that he did it on purpose, so I exasperatedly stared at him.

"Looks like I dropped the umbrella... I guess I have to go home without one now..."

The boy shrugged with a wry grin on his face and turned his back on me as he began to walk home through the heavy downpour of rain.

"What are you doing, you idiot!" I yelled angrily.

The small act he did was so idiotic yet effective at the same time.

It forced me to pick up the umbrella while also ensuring that I would use it.

This was truly the plan of a master idiot.

Even though I found it stupid, I found it quite endearing at the same time.

There he was, a lone boy walking through the rain just to make sure that I would be safe from it.

It was all my fault that he got drenched.

If I hadn't been such a stuck-up person, maybe both of us would've been able to get home safe and sound.

As he ran home with his clothes completely soaked, I could only stare at his back with an intrigued expression.

There was no sense of malice or lust in his expression as far as I could tell.

That was a real rarity in men who interacted with me, so there's no way I would've been able to miss that.

Perhaps there is something more to him than meets the eye.

Akihiko Tanaka...

I'll remember that name.

***

"So that's how you two met..."

Akari was speechless once she realized how eerily similar Ayame's situation was to her.

They were both stranded in the rain until their knight in shining armor came to save them.

From the rain, to the umbrella forcing situation, even to the running home through the rain situation; there was an undeniable similarity between the two instances.

"Perhaps it was fate that tied us to our destined ones? Nevertheless, we're both lucky women to have met these amazing people."

Ayame simply believed that it was fate's intervention that brought her and Akihiko together, to which Akari nodded.

She too believed that destiny had played a role in letting her meet Takei.

As she was mulling over the concept of fate, Akari realized something that had been on her brain for a while.

"From the sound of it, it sounds like you hated him at first. How did you manage to fall in love then?"

"Fufufu, are you interested?"

"Very much so."

When the story was being told, Akari could tell that Ayame wasn't exactly the fondest of Akihiko at the start.

"Well... That sounds like a story for another time."

"..."

"You know that pouting makes you 10 times cuter right?"

Just like her daughter and grandson, Ayame was very fond of teasing people.

Is this something that just runs in the Tanaka bloodline? Am I going to be like this with my son's girlfriend as well?!

—

New Idiot Couple Meter: 28 -> 30%

Yes, Akari. You're going to be like this with your son's girlfriend as well.

Serious-san: Was that a question?

Sugar-chan: She's already moving towards that path...