Matter of Valentine's
Kura sighs and puts her phone down. She thought she can keep an unprivated account and interact with her online friends, fellow data scientist, and machine learning enthusiast, keeping her time in Blue Lock only in public as her first ever big job experience, sharing her time in it with others, and sometimes like now, share small bits of her daily life without saying much. It’s only supposed to reach a few people, a small community of her own. But no, that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?
Someone just had to reply to her tweet and ask for chocolate from her using her first name with his official account, therefore making it clear to everyone who sees it that she’s someone to him. To Nagi Seishiro.
And just to make it worse, someone else has to join in because he probably doesn’t wanna get left behind. Kura is sure that, unlike Nagi, that person uses it on purpose. Because she knows one Mikage Reo quite deeply after all.
As she’s busy fuming in annoyance, someone walks into her office room.
“Kura.”
And so the first culprit has come.
“What is it, Seishiro?” Kura asks, attention unbroken from her laptop where she’s privating all her other social media accounts just in case. “Aren’t you busy playing your newest game?”
Nagi ignores that question and walks behind Kura, letting his arms fall on her shoulders.
“Where’s my chocolate?”
“Seishiro.” She sighs. “Didn’t you get a lot from your fans too?”
“But Bachira, Isagi, and others also got a lot from their fans too.”
“They’re my friends, so I gave them one no matter how much they’ve gotten from their fans.”
Nagi pouts ever so slightly. “But why not to your boyfriend?”
Kura turns to face Nagi, giving him a sarcastic smile. “Because he can’t read the room.”
The man pauses and plops his head on her shoulder. Kura shakes her head and keeps her eyes on her laptop. Before suddenly, the second culprit comes too.
“Kura!” Reo bursts in. “I haven’t got a chocolate from you!”
“Reo,” says Kura, “what do you think people who disturb my casual daily life behind the scenes get for valentine's anyway?”
Reo laughs nervously, walking towards Kura’s desk. “A box of chocolate?”
Kura stops what she’s doing for a second to meet Reo’s eyes. “Wrong answer,” she says, “they get nothing.”
Both Nagi and Reo let out a sad moan, giving Kura a pang of guilt she tries her best to refuse to acknowledge.
Seeing that strategy fails, Nagi lifts his head a bit and meets Reo’s eyes, encouraging him to ask her the question he’s too tired to ask. So Reo gives in.
“Princess, are you really angry at me?” He circles the desk and stops on Kura’s right side, his amethyst eyes full of worries. He touches her arm and tilts his head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you mad… it was just a joke.”
Nagi snuggles against Kura’s neck. “Mhm, what Reo says. So don’t be mad, please. I want chocolate.”
“Nagi! Now’s not the time yet!”
Reo clicks his tongue at the man, but Nagi only answers with a hum. Meanwhile, Kura sighs. They really know how to break her walls down.
“No, I’m not mad.” Kura turns to Reo. “I’m just slightly annoyed that some people seem to not know how scary certain fans can be.”
“I understand, Kura, don’t worry!” Reo nods as he smiles. “So, please? Will you forgive us?”
“Please, Kura? I swear I won’t try to trap the glassware again next time,” Nagi pleads.
“And I won’t buy everything you call interesting!” Reo grins and claps his hands together. “So please!”
Kura sighs. She gives up. She can’t watch them like this all day. Slowly, she stands up, giving Nagi time to move away from her.
“Okay then. Wait here.”
Without saying another word, she walks out of her office, leaving Nagi and Reo in anticipation.
A few minutes later, she comes back with two boxes in her hand.
“I have one for each of you.” Kura puts them on top of the table. One is decorated in purple wrappers with a big ribbon tied around it, while the other is wrapped in a sleek black color. “I’ve taken notes of both of your tastes and preferences, so everything should be good.”
Nagi and Reo take their respective boxes. Reo is more expressive, with him grinning widely and rotating the box around, while Nagi is more subdued, only looking at the box with a blank expression, but Kura does notice the sparkles in his eyes.
“I was about to give you each one for dinner, but you two can have it now,” she says, “happy now?” Kura puts her hands on her hips, still keeping the annoyed tone in her voice, though now that she’s seen their joyful face, she has forgiven everything. Not that she’ll tell them.
Silence envelops the room for a few seconds before Reo suddenly jumps from his chair and hugs Kura.
“R-REO?!”
“I love you so sooo much, princess!” He tightens his hug for a second before letting go, not letting Kura have time to complain about the sudden hug. “Ah, and about Nagi’s mistake, don’t worry about it!”
Kura is confused, of course. “What do you mean by that?”
He pulls out his phone and opens his account, displaying his latest tweet to Kura.
“See?” he says. “I’ve solved it.”
‘me and @ngseishiro’s beloved’ is the caption of the tweet: a photo of her hand with her engagement rings that Reo had taken around a month ago.
“R-REO?! YOU…. YOU WHAT?!”
Kura immediately snatches Reo’s phone and reads the tweet over and over again in disbelief.
Realization starts to dawn on her the more she reads it. He really did it. He really tagged Kura in that post too. Kura turns to a statue, her mind freezes at the possibilities of what her future might hold. And at that moment, Reo leans forward and steals a kiss.
“Love you,” he whispers against her lips before letting go of his hug.
“Nagi, I’m gonna eat these in the living room! Wanna join me?” He waves the box in his hand as he walks out of Kura’s office.
“Wait a second.”
Nagi stops in front of Kura, tilts Kura’s head up, and gives her a quick peck too. “Mm, I love you, Kura,” he says, “thank you for the chocolate.”
Then, he walks out with Reo, and Kura is left alone in her office. Reo’s phone is in her hand, and she’s staring down at the tweet that exposes their relationship in just a few words. Sure this is… too sudden for her, and makes her question if Reo really understands when she said some fans can be scary. But on the other hand, she feels free in a weird way. She put the phone to her forehead and sighs. This valentine's is too eventful for her, it seems.