“ how are you so happy all the time? ” kyosuke probably doesn’t realise how rude or blunt that sounds, but he’s genuinely curious as he ASKS TOHRU this question.
“ Oh!” The question causes Tohru off guard, more for the sudden and random asking of it than the actual question itself. Putting something like what he was asking into words wasn’t exactly simple. She was the way she was for a lot of reasons, reasons that were layered and layered from years upon years of experiences.
Though, she decides to respond to him with what she wants and currently believes is the main reason. Her eyes soften and her lips curve that typical Tohru Honda smile. Her voice is full of sweetness as she then answers the question her orange-haired classmate had randomly asked during that lunch period.
“Well…I suppose you could say I’m so happy all the time because I choose to be. I choose to always look on the bright side of things, seeing the sun through a rainstorm. It was a trait my…mom always said was one of my greatest qualities. I know she wouldn’t want me to not be happy.” What she fails to mention is how keeping up her happy smile wasn’t always easy, how it pushing through the pain and grief of losing her parents was a daily struggle. It was a struggle she faced with that smile, the smile of the truly lonely girl who feared being left behind again and again.
...She chose to be? Kyo supposed that made sense: still, something about her happiness, it felt--- not fake, nor put on. It was clearly genuine, he just sorta wondered... if maybe she was forcing herself. Kyo stared down at her gingerly, then considered, before he spoke plainly,
“But, you know you don’t always HAVE to be happy, right? You can let yourself feel other things.” maybe he was toting a line he really shouldn’t be: after all, he and Honda-san weren’t exactly close. They were simply classmates. Still, something about her felt familiar, in a way Kyo couldn’t entirely grasp. Like a hazy, faraway concept that ached in his mind and in his bones....
Something occurred to him: she spoke often of her mother, and usually in the past tense. Had she left the family? Died when Honda-san was a young child? To lose a parent; Kyo couldn’t begin to imagine that pain. Very carefully, he breached the subject, “Sorry, but what did you say your mom’s name was again?”