Chapter 98. Christmas Day (2/6)

She was caught off guard by my bold first pitch and took a step back under the powerful winds that gusted by her side as the ball passed over center plate. She’d never imagined I’d just blurt that out so boldly in front of both Irene and Alicia. 

The only one not here to witness the intense battle right now was Chris, he was still asleep in his room after staying up late. He’d been too excited for whatever presents he’d receive for Christmas and couldn’t fall asleep apparently. It supposedly happened every year, or so I was told.

Rosa’s cheeks were slightly red right now. It wasn’t from the embarrassment of the words themselves, it was because she’d been caught off guard and hadn’t reacted in time to stop such an easy pitch. She couldn’t even swing her bat. It was an overall embarrassing situation for her.

“Oh my, these two love birds should get a room~,” Irene said teasingly from second base.

Alicia looked up between the two of us with a wide smile cheerfully from third base. On the surface, it had done little to no damage to her. However, what it did do was reinforce in Alicia’s mind that I was Rosa’s boyfriend and off-limits. It was the first time I’d told Rosa I love her in front of others after all.

I won’t even give her a single opportunity to retaliate. I will wrap this up in an instant and crush her. Were these thoughts normal for a boyfriend toward their girlfriend on Christmas Day? Absolutely not.

I stood up and walked into the kitchen after I secretly picked something up that I’d noticed nearby.

I approached Rosa with a resolved look on my face.

She took another step back, flustered by my sudden approach, and asked, “What are you doing?”

I raised my right arm from behind with the item hidden in my fist then said, “Look up.”

She glanced up at my hand as I opened it pinching something between my thumb and index finger. Before her brain could even register what it was, I raised my left hand and placed it on her right cheek. Without giving her a single chance to resist, unable to even swing her bat, I locked lips and kissed her passionately underneath the mistletoe I held up with my right hand.

Irene had her hands on her cheeks swooning from left to right while giggling and repeatedly saying, “Oh my, oh my, oh my oh my! How bold~”

It had quite literally been a nasty underhanded curveball that just barely passed over home plate up and in like a powerful uppercut she hadn’t been prepared to receive.

When I released her, she was flustered, unable to keep up with my consecutive stream of pitches. With two strikes I gave her no time to rest and immediately threw my third pitch.

I got down on one knee and grabbed her left hand with my right.

I looked up at her seriously and asked her, “Rosa, will you marry me?”

The moment the words left my mouth everyone momentarily froze in shock.

My third pitch was a sinker that broke straight down right over center plate.

Rosa was late to react, but she knew she couldn’t let this pitch go by so easily. In a panic, she opened her mouth and said, “This is so out of nowhere. I need some time to think-”

She took a haphazard swing and the bat just barely knocked the bottom of the ball sending it high up in the air. It wasn’t a pop fly that could be caught though, it had stayed out of bounds. A foul ball.

I didn’t wait though. No mercy.

“Rosa, marry me.” It wasn’t proposed as a question this time, but a statement.

It was another fastball straight down the middle.

I looked her in the eyes firmly. She couldn’t even pay attention to the ball.

She tried to take a swing at it.

“But-” There was hesitation in her swing so I delivered the final blow and cut her off.

“Marry me.”

“Yes.” She closed her eyes and uttered that out as her bat swung over the plate toward the ball.

But she... missed. 

It was… the fatal changeup. It only looked like the same pitch, a fastball, but it wasn’t. It was delayed.

Three strikes, batter out.

The inning was over. I’d somehow cleared it. This inning was Christmas. It was a day where love and romance blossomed. It was a critical inning where the entire momentum of the game could be changed.

The flow from thereafter would be in my favor.

This day was already decided. The results were obvious.

There was no chance Alicia would ever dare confess to me on a day where Rosa had been proposed to directly before her eyes. To do so was to sully Rosa’s special day. A day for her to remember. She could not leave a single stain on such a day.

In the end, after Rosa’s request a few days ago, I knew this day would be inevitable. It was best to get it over sooner rather than later. Today just coincidentally turned out to be the perfect sort of day to do this. Rosa had misread the field as she never imagined I’d make use of such a trump card to keep her at bay here. She won yesterday, but today was her crushing defeat.

The only issue I had with the entire situation was the look on Alicia’s face. It was not one of discouragement. Her eyes were sparkling. She was overjoyed for her friend’s engagement.

Meanwhile, there was Irene who had a big smirk on her face. She’d enjoyed the show.

She didn’t even seem slightly phased. In her eyes, this was only the beginning. This defeat here didn’t mean much as long as their side won in the end. It felt like Irene and Rosa had come to some sort of mutual understanding and were in a cooperative relationship of some sort.

When I thought things were over, Irene suddenly opened her mouth and asked quizzically, “By the way, what about the engagement ring?”

Ah. That was a thing too, wasn’t it?

After I thought it over a bit I came up with an idea to deflect the subject.

“I’m not particularly fond of the idea of presenting an engagement ring when proposing. In the past, it’s been associated with buying a woman from their family in exchange for a valuable ring. I’ve never liked it as it implied Rosa was an object to be bought. I’m not opposed to giving her a ring at a later date, but I didn’t want her accepting my proposal to be tainted by the connotation that she was bought off or bribed with a ring.”

“For now at least, I think this would be more fitting as a replacement.”

I still had the mistletoe in my hand. I stood up and used the poultry shears on the kitchen counter to cut the smooth red lace ribbon tied around the end of the mistletoe in half. I then tied one half around the ring finger on her left hand. I cut off the ends of the long tails, then did the same for myself.

I spoke out in a gentle, relaxed tone, “Don’t you think something like the red string of fate is quite nice? It fits Rosa’s eyes and hair color quite well. Though there are different places it is said to be connected between two people, depending on the land you originate from, why not take matters into our own hands and tie that thread where we want to instead with our own two hands? In this case, let it temporarily take the place of an engagement ring between the two of us. One that binds the two of us together.”

Rosa leaned close to me and rested her forehead on my chest. She wasn’t putting up any form of resistance anymore. She just accepted today as being her loss and she decided to enjoy the moment.

I wrapped my arms around her and held her close. With her so close to my body, I could feel her heartbeat. It was fast. Insanely fast.

She’d been thrown for a loop and taken on a wild roller coaster ride the instant I said I love you.

She couldn’t settle down.

I could sense she was happy. Extremely happy. But at the same time, she felt angry and frustrated.

She was constantly flopping back and forth between the two internally, I actually found it adorable.

If there was ever a time to use this phrase, it was definitely now. If asked about her feelings right now, they would best be described as ‘It’s complicated.’