It was like any other day, coming from school and having entered my home. I set aside my shoes and put on the slippers I use inside the house.

Done putting it on, I approached the living room, which was connected with the entrance through a small hall.

However, I noticed something weird. As I approached closer to the living room, I heard people speaking.

I could hear the usual voices like my parent’s and grandparent’s, but I could also hear unfamiliar voices.

Finally, I entered the living room, and what I saw shocked me.

There were 7 people talking at the table.

On one side was my family, comprising both my parents and my Grandma.

But on the other side of the table, there were unfamiliar faces.

There was one woman and man, both middle-aged. The woman looked Japanese, but the man surprised me.

‘It’s a foreigner…’

Yup, it’s someone not from this country.

Alongside those two are two more people.

On one side was a Foreign elderly woman.

And as I looked over to the other side, I was shocked by that person’s beauty.

A blonde girl, although its color is on the paler side, was sitting near the other three.

She is also the youngest one, looking the same age as me.

Her height is slightly smaller than mine, but she is by no means small.

Observing her, you could see that her proportions are not small nor large, but medium, which I believe has the best balance.

Her hair, which is paler than blonde, is straight and reaches down below her back.

Her eyes, beautiful with the color of blue, similar to sapphire, and her face, which can only be described as cute and angelic.

I could only wonder how a girl like this ended up in our house.

Still confused, my grandmother, finally noticing me, announced something shocking.

“Ara~ Ryuu-kun you’re finally here! Listen, this girl, from now on, will be your fiance!”

“…EH?!”

My shout surprised the beautiful girl on the other side of the table.

“Ah, I’m sorry about that, but… why is this so sudden?” I asked. “I don’t even know her name yet…”

“Hm? You don’t know? Her name is Schmidt Riko. Her father is Half German and Half American, and he’s the son of this old lady here. She and I were good friends back then. So we thought that we should at least have one of our descendants marry each other.” Grandma said, staring at the window beside me.

“But well, our children didn’t agree and married the ones they wanted. But now, we’re thinking of it again!”

“And I don’t get a say to this?”

“Of course you do. You can deny it right here right now or we can wait until college to decide if you want to marry her, but you’ll be living together during that time in order to find out if you are compatible with each other.”

“Eh?! Living together? Aren’t you worried that I’ll suddenly attack her… and speaking of her, what does she think of this?!”

I then pointed at the silent Riko, who continued to watch our conversation.

It was Riko’s mother who responded to me.

“Ara ara~ Fufufu, no need to worry about that! You two will be sleeping separately as there will be two rooms in the apartment! And, if you forcibly lay your hands on her, we’ve got tazers illegally imported from your local alleyway! And if you two do it with her consent, it’ll be easier since we can force the marriage to you!”

“Uwaa… this family seems crazy…” I whispered in a voice nobody else could hear.

“And speaking of Riko, she has already agreed to being your partner due to your previous meetings!”

“…What could you possibly mean by previous meetings? Isn’t this the first time we’ve met?”

When I said that, Riko-san suddenly felt down.

‘Eh? Is this my fault?’

My mother, who has remained silent up to this point, spoke up.

“That’s not very nice, Ryuu. When their family stayed here before in japan, during her kindergarten up to her early elementary school years, you two played around a lot you know?”

‘Seriously?’

I once again looked at the girl who was my supposed childhood friend, who was also looking at me, teary-eyed, expecting something. But…-

“I’m sorry… I really don’t remember anything… All I remember is that I did play with someone as a kid, but I do not remember their names or their gender.”

I said so with a serious face, to which Riko-san’s aura became worse.

Riko’s mom spoke up once again

“How horrible~ You know, back when you were kids, you two made a promise that you’d marry each other, and she’d kept that to heart throughout her life! To think that who she believed was her future husband, and the only one she remembers during her childhood in japan, forgot about it and may have actually cheated on her… It’s so horrible!”

Hearing Riko-san’s mom’s sarcastic retorts, I could only smile awkwardly as the guilt within me started to build up.

My grandmother then told me to come near her as she wanted to whisper me something.

“Besides, you want to move out from here, do you? Your parents have been pressuring and ordering you all the time. It must be a dream to live this household.”

“Ugh…”

Grandma was right. I’ve been saving up and planning to leave this house to be independent for a while now. It’s not like I hate my parents, but man, they never give me any privacy or free time, so now that grandma has mentioned it, I was seriously considering living with this girl till college and can go to a dorm and live there.

I’ve decided… sorry Riko-san… I’ll be using you as an escape from my parents till college.

“…Alright then… I don’t want to make any rash decisions… So I’d like to live with her for now till I go to college…”

“Great!” Riko’s mother exclaimed. “We knew you’d say that so we already had the apartment prepared for the two of you~ It’s near your schools so you won’t have any trouble’s commuting~ I’ll send you guys the address but there’s already a car waiting outside that will send you off to your new home~ All your stuff have already been transferred there too. Ah, by the way, RIko-chan will be going to the same class as yours now, so please treat her well from now on.”

Riko-san’s mom bowed at the end, but I was still processing what had just happened during this so I did not notice.

“Well then.” Rikomom said while pushing the two of us together and to the hallway which faces the door out. “Go do Lovey Dovey things on your new love nest~!”

Before I could even notice it, me and Riko were already on a car being driven to the ‘home’ we’ll be living in the next few months. Wait… If all my belongings were already in there, what did they plan to do if I didn’t agree?…

I could only shiver at the thought of me carrying everything back home.

I then looked at Riko, who was smiling, but was incredibly stiff.

This awkward car ride lasted more than 20 minutes.

 

—

 

When we finally arrived, we were surprised by the apartment. It was enormous. There were 3 rooms, one was a storage room and the other 2, which we haven’t seen the insides yet, were our bedrooms.

The kitchen also has its own designated area which was quite large, and it seems like if we don’t want to use the countertop near the kitchen, which was actually in the living room side, that has chairs, we’d have to sit down the floor on the living room and eat food on the table there.

The Bathtub and Toilet were in different rooms, so that was really nice, and there was also a fairly large terrace, which also had an area for clothes that’s hidden from others. But now that I think about it, how will we handle laundry? … we’ll have to talk about that tomorrow.

For now, I’d like to eat and rest as early as possible, so with that in mind, I asked Riko.

“Riko-san… you’re not used to japan yet, right?”

“Yes!” she answered with great enthusiasm

“Wanna go eat in a convenience store?”

“Yes please! I haven’t been in one here in Japan for years!”

“Eh… Is that so…”

I expected a poor response from Riko, but it seems like she’s actually happy with it.

Well, with that in mind, we set out to the nearest convenience store.

. . .

‘Ah right… I forgot about this…’

On our way there, we got a lot of stares directed at us, though it was mostly on Riko.

Well, it’s only natural, I suppose. She’s really cute, so lots of people will be attracted to her… I wonder how she dealt with boys back in America?

After a while, we finally arrived at the nearest FaniMart*. There I got myself a bowl of tonkotsu instant ramen which was made in collaboration with a Michelin star restaurant and strawberry milk.

However, as I was approaching the counter, I could see Riko on the line… having troubles.

She got what she wanted faster, which was just a quick meal they reheat here and a bottle of water, so she went on the line first.

But while she was on the line, a drunk, middle-aged man approached her while she was smiling happily on the line

“Hey ojou-chan*, you’re pretty cute you know? How about you hang out with this lonely ojisan* for tonight? Ehehe…” (Author note: first one is basically young lady and the other one is uncle)

“Eh… Uh…”

Riko-san, who wasn’t used to this, could not respond.

‘Hm? I thought America had those kinds of people too? Oh well then…’ I thought, approaching the guy on the other side, making sure *that* could see us.

“Hey Ojisan. She’s feeling uncomfortable you know?” i said.

“Hah?! You kids should respect your elders, you know? That’s why you should treat me with respect too, ahaha…” He said, as he slowly reached out his hands to Riko-san.

“Please stop…” Riko cried out in a small voice

The people around us, not wanting to be involved with trouble, only stood and watched. But I…

“Hey drunk uncle, stop that.” I said, holding his arms.

“Hah?! You want to fight kid!?”

As I thought, it still resulted in that.

I backed up a bit and avoided the punches he began to throw at me.

I’m not that strong, but i’m confident in my reflexes, especially against a drunk man

When he was finally exhausted and stopped, I began talking again.

“Hey old man, look at there.” I said, pointing at a security camera.

“If you don’t want trouble, you might want to leave now.” I said with a smile.

“Wha?! …tch!”

Finally, after that, he left.

The people around us began to clap.

“”””Uoh…”””

Which I ignored and just went to the line behind Riko-san…

‘You guys didn’t even do anything and just stood there… annoying.’ I thought, mad at their reaction.

While I was thinking this, Riko-san suddenly looked at me and then shyly moved her sight to the side.

With her hands covering her mouth, perhaps trying to deafen her voice, leaked out her admiration in a small, cute voice.

“Ryuu-kun is so… so cool…”

“Uogh!”

“Eh?! Ryuu-kun, are you okay?!”

“Ah, yes, i’m fine…”

When I heard her say that… it felt as if a massive arrow pierced through my chest.

‘So this is the power of cute girls… dangerous!’

After this. We ate at a table. And while she has smiling, I could only feel conflicted.

This is most definitely gonna be a tough few months.

 

—

 

Finally, we arrived back home. We brushed our teeth and got ready to sleep, of course, separately. But for some reason, when I came back from the bathroom, Riko-san was still in the living room, waiting for me.

“Err… Riko-san… why are you still here?”

“Ah yes, actually… I’d like to talk about something… it’s about your bedroom.”

“Hm? What about it?” I asked, confused by the sudden topic.

“Well… if you could please check it yourself.”

As Riko-san requested, I opened the door to my room and- …noticed there wasn’t a bed.

I hadn’t entered yet since they told us via LINE* that our clothes were in the storage room in a closet and we only needed that, of course, it being separated.

I was staring in disbelief at my room when Riko-san showed me a new text from her mother.

[Oh yeah, Ryuu-kun’s bed will be arriving tomorrow due to an issue from the delivery alongside the Sofa. Oh btw, there are no futons there~ Anyways, good luck on your first night together~!]

“This scheming mother of yours…” I said silently, grinding my teeth..

But while I was doing that, Riko-san shyly made a cute pose and asked nervously-

“So that’s why… can we sleep together in my bed?”

Hearing a pure and cute girl say such a thing, my nose almost bled from it.

But well… there isn’t any other choice now, is there? A HA HA HA.

And that’s how we arrived at this current situation.

In her bed, I was looking away from her, but she was hugging me from behind.

There was a soft feeling on my back and her warmth could easily be felt due to the thin fabric of her pajamas.

I could feel her body’s warmth and could smell her fragrance… Of course, my mind would go haywire.

But during this, a curiosity held my reason together.

“Riko-san… Do you still really like me? After all these years… even if i forgot about you, do you still believe in the supposed promise we made years back?”

There was a moment of silence, but i felt her hug strengthening and she responded to my question after a while.

“…Yes, I still really do like you, Ryuu-kun. And with the event that happened just a few moments ago… It only confirmed my feelings for you. I am most certainly still in love with you, Ryuu-kun. That’s why, even if you forget me, I’ll make new memories with you and make sure you fall in love with me. So please… stay… with me… forever…”

As she continued, her hug began to relax, until the end where it entirely gave out and… she fell asleep.

‘… UWAHHHH THAT WAS BAD! I almost really lost all reason back there and wanted to hug her back!’

“Aha.. Ha ha… ha ha ha…” I could only let out a dry laugh

‘The next few months… are gonna be difficult.’

I thought, while staring at the ceiling, waiting for my sleepiness to take over and end this hellish night.