Summary: After days of secretly rehearsing the proposal he hoped would become the happiest memory of your lives, Kaito finds every carefully memorized word slipping away the moment he sees you. As his flawless plan unravels into forgotten lines, dropped bouquet of flowers, and nervous laughter, he realizes that perhaps love was never meant to be recited from a script. Sometimes, the most unforgettable confessions are the imperfect ones spoken straight from the heart.
⌯⌲ Song inspiration: Mirage by Jason Ross
The resort's backyard had never looked more beautiful. The backyard pool shimmered beneath the fading sunset, its still surface blending almost seamlessly with the ocean stretching beyond the cliffside. Fairy lights hung from the trees, waiting for dusk to awaken them, while the salty breeze carried the scent of blooming flowers and the distant rhythm of waves kissing the shore. It was exactly how Kaito had imagined it, so why was everything going wrong?
He stared at the bouquet in his trembling hands, taking another deep breath before quietly mouthing the words he'd spent the last three days memorizing. "Don't mess this up... just don't mess this up."
He had practiced in front of the mirror until his reflection became embarrassing to look at. Recorded nearly fifty voice memos only to cringe and delete every single one. Even Lucas had caught him talking to himself in the hallway, laughing so hard that Kaito nearly threw his phone into a bush. She’s going to laugh, he thought. Not in a good way, in a “bless his heart, he tried” way.
"You're proposing to her, not your script." Lucas' words echoed inside his head.
Easy for him to say, this was you. The girl who somehow looked beautiful without even trying, who always smiled whenever he apologized for things that weren't even his fault, who made him want to become someone stronger every single day.
His grip tightened around the bouquet. "Please let me get through one sentence..."
He heard footsteps approaching him. He looked up and immediately forgot every word he'd ever practiced. You approached slowly, the sunset’s rays wrapping around you like it had chosen to follow you. The breeze played with your hair as you smiled upon seeing him, warm enough to make his heart forget its rhythm.
"...Hi."
The single word escaped before he could stop it, his eyes widened.
"That wasn't the opening. I…" He blinked.
"...Wait." His ears immediately burned crimson. "That wasn't... um..." He laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck. "...Can I start over?"
You couldn't help but smile. "Of course."
"Okay." He inhaled. "You… I forgot it." A defeated groan left him as he covered his face. "I actually forgot it."
You giggled softly.
"I practiced this for days," he mumbled through his hands. "I had this whole speech memorized. I even timed myself."
"You timed yourself?"
"...Maybe."
"And rehearsed in front of the mirror?"
"...Maybe."
The corners of your lips curled higher. "And recorded yourself?"
"...Lucas told you?"
"He didn't have to."
His shoulders instantly slumped. "I've never been so embarrassed in my life." Trying to recover, he reached into his pocket for the folded speech he'd sworn not to use. Instead it’s a receipt, not the script. "...This is the flower shop receipt."
You bit your lip to keep from laughing. "Oh no..."
"Oh yes," he sighed dramatically. "This is a disaster." As he hurriedly shoved it back into his pocket, the velvet ring box slipped free. "No, no-!"
He fumbled for it, the bouquet tipped sideways. Several flowers scattered across the stone path. The ring box bounced once or twice before he managed to catch it inches away from the pool. Kaito remained crouched there for a moment, staring at the tiny box in his hands before letting out a long, defeated sigh. "...I almost proposed to the pool."
Your laughter rang through the quiet evening, simply happy. It was the sweetest sound he'd ever heard. When he looked up, you had already walked over, kneeling beside him to gather the fallen flowers one by one.
"They're okay."
"So was the proposal supposed to be."
You tucked another flower back into the bouquet before gently taking his free hand. "It still is."
His turquoise eyes searched yours. "...Really?"
"I don't need perfection."
Those four words settled every frantic thought racing through his mind. Slowly, he stood then, after a brief hesitation, folded the speech in half without reading it and slipped it back into his other pocket. "I don't think I need this anymore."
The ocean breeze filled the silence between you.
"I kept thinking..." he admitted quietly, "...if I said everything perfectly, maybe I could show you how much I love you." following a small laugh escaped him. "But standing here..." He shook his head. "...I can't remember any of it, but what I do remember..." His fingers intertwined with yours. "...is that every day with you makes me want to become better than I was yesterday."
"I want to celebrate your happiest moments. I want to be there when you have your worst days. I want to make you laugh, even if I'm usually the reason we're both laughing." His cheeks flushed brighter. "I'll probably keep overthinking, I'll still apologize too much and still get scared but..” His thumb brushed softly across your knuckles.
"I'll never stop choosing you."
With one steady breath, Kaito lowered himself onto one knee and this time, there were no rehearsed lines. No perfect script, only honesty. Opening the velvet box, he smiled shyly through eyes beginning to glisten.
"I guess... my proposal wasn't anything like I practiced." He laughed under his breath. "...But maybe that's okay." His gaze never left yours. "Because the only thing I wanted to say... was the one thing I never forgot."
"I love you, and I always will."
"So..." His smile trembled with hope. "Will you marry me?"
You didn't answer right away, tears gathered in your eyes as you laughed softly, shaking your head in disbelief. "Kaito...you really practiced all of that… just to forget everything?"
He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "...Yeah."
"And somehow..." You stepped closer, your hands gently cupping his warm face. "...I think that made me love it even more."
His breath caught. "...Really?"
You nodded. "Because none of the words you memorized mattered." Your forehead rested against his. "The ones from your heart did."
A tear escaped before he could stop it. "...I'm crying… this is embarrassing."
"I think it's adorable."
He laughed through watery eyes as you slipped your hand into his once more.
"My answer..." Your smile was radiant beneath the first stars appearing overhead. "...is yes."
For a heartbeat, he simply stared. "...Yes?"
"Yes."
"...Really?"
You laughed. "Really."
The biggest grin spread across his face before he pulled you into a hug so full of relief that it nearly lifted you off your feet. "You have no idea how happy you've made me," he whispered against your hair.
As the fairy lights flickered to life around the pool, soft music drifted through the evening air. Kaito chuckled, suddenly remembering one final secret. "...There's one more thing."
You tilted your head. "What is it?"
His face turned red all over again. "I… also practiced our first dance."
"You did?"
"...Thirty-two tutorials." You laughed so hard you nearly cried again. Holding your hand against his heart, he smiled sheepishly.
"So..." He bowed with exaggerated nervousness, extending his free hand toward you. "Would you do me the honor of letting me mess this part up too?"
Your fingers slipped into his without hesitation. "I'd be disappointed if you didn't."
Together, under the glow of fairy lights and the endless waves of the sea, the two of you swayed across the stone patio. Kaito stepped on your foot exactly once and he apologized immediately. You only laughed, rested your head against his shoulder, and realized that the most unforgettable love stories were never the perfect ones, they were the ones imperfectly, wholeheartedly lived together.
NOTES:
⌯⌲ Song inspo lives rent free in my mind, I finally found someone who I can give it to! I love this song so much.
⌯⌲ If you noticed I keep mentioning Sunset themes, it's what I like and I shouldn't overuse that tbh. (I mean you could never go wrong with sunset aesthetic)
⌯⌲ This Kaito card is so cute! There’s a lot I wanted to tell more but it’s now in this fic and can I just say I’m proud of Kaito’s character development overall? Yes, very much so. I used to dislike his raised voice so I minimize my volume, putting that aside, we all have a little kaito in ourselves. So carry on and be brave!
A boy that died wishing for nothing but ordinary happiness
Guess who got a day off because tomorrow is brasil x japan's game? I pretty much could do something heartwarming, but I thought this trend suited moment perfectly🥰 if brasil wins tomorrow, I'll draw ruitoku smut to repent my sins lol
Someone have successfully deciphered what Kyklos said at the beginning of Who Killed Robin? Act II! I'll try to explain as best as I can but please do note that I'm just relaying the information.
Full credit goes to the brilliant mind of Fujino-san on Twitter! You can read/retweet the related post in question here.
First, I want you to see how Kyklos' lines are written in the original Japanese text. I'll also attach the English version for comparison.
Have you ever downloaded any text file in Japanese but when you opened it, they're all garbled, undecipherable text? That's most likely because the original JP text is encoded using Shift JIS and your computer couldn't read it一as most non-Japanese device do.
Kyklos' lines in Japanese are actually the result of an SJIS (old, deprecated) decoder trying to read a UTF-8 (modern) encoded string thus, it resulted in a garbled text. All you have to do is convert them back into the UTF-8 encoding and it will be readable. Here is the result, courtesy to Fujino-san:
English translation:
Guider: Oh, dear Master ......Can you hear my voice? I have brought you the Queen.
※ I translated 案内人 directly as it is but I'm not very sure if I capture the nuance right. "Guider" here is as in a navigator, an escort, the person who can guide you from one place to another.
Fujino-san had also confirmed that the displayed text on the English version is simply the result of trying to open an SJIS encoded text on a non-Japanese PC. So it's not the result of JP text → EN translation → garbled text, they're both actually encrypting the same Japanese text! Simply put:
JP → UTF-8 encoded text being opened as SJIS
EN → opening an SJIS encoded text on a computer outside Japan
Below is my personal thoughts regarding this revelation:
All this time we all thought that Kyklos is the last boss. That she is THE Big Bad and, in a way, MC's "goal". But now that we know she's basically just an escort and there's the existence of a "Master", this opened up to new possibilities. We used to wonder why would the Kyklos cursed MC in the first place and now we have a tiny bit of light to this. The Kyklos is working for someone else but... just who is this entity that the Kyklos refers to as her "Master"?
The way the shadows started clapping at MC's arrival, how the Kyklos spoke as if addressing a royalty... How is MC the "Queen"? Who (or perhaps "what") is supposed to be her subjects?
After recontextualizing the situation, I thought the cut off word is "She"一like when you capitalize the pronouns of higher/divine beings. But the cut off JP word is "シ" (shi, in Katakana) and I'm not sure if "Here stands She" is correct grammarly anyway so I think I was off base. Still, due to the capitalization in English, I'd like to think that it either stands for a name or perhaps a title.
To end this post, I'll bring up how Fujino-san pointed out that some of the compounds of the garbled text could form the word "Kusanagi" (highlighted below). It's probably just a coincidence一as Fujino-san admitted as well一but it's still quite an astonishing coincidence if true. Just as astonishing as how the date when MC were cursed is also the night of a new moon.
"if men could get pregnant-" they can. "if men got periods-" they do. "men never experience-" they do. "men would never understand-" i promise you whatever you are about to say there are men who go through the exact same thing
stormborns
romaincrisis
pixelskylines
kianamaiart
