I felt so happy, and I asked her by what time should I be ready? What should I wear? A few questions like that.
After that, we both started practicing again.
It was finally time to leave, and I remembered to ask Keiko about the boys from before. She's strong enough to take me down, so they shouldn't be a problem, but I don't like them coming to her and troubling her, so I went to her and asked her what they said before the starting of the training.
She was sitting down and was wiping her sweat. I went and sat by her side silently and asked her about the three of them.
She said that they asked why she asked me out on a date and why didn't she accept any one of theirs.
I asked what she said to them. She told them that cause I am her boyfriend.
After hearing her say that, I felt so happy. I didn't like them talking to her, so I expected that they won't disturb her again.
I laid back on the ground; she got up and went to get changed.
After some time, the three who were disturbing Keiko returned. One of them asked me to get up politely. I didn't feel like standing at that moment, so I sat and asked them what brought them to me.
They didn't answer the question I asked. Starting from the one standing on my left side, they introduced themselves. The one standing left to me was 'Yamagishi Mitsuo', the one in the middle was 'Nakano Nobu', the one to my right was 'Yoshino Ryuu'.
After they finished the introductions, I felt like I should introduce myself. When I was about to introduce myself, they stopped me, saying that they knew me and they got to the point why they came to me.
Yoshino Ryuu, the one to my right, said, "We came to you to ask whether you are Keiko's boyfriend or not. If not, we would like it if you don't get in our way, and if you are her boyfriend, then please break up with her," he said politely, and the three of them bowed.
For a few seconds, I couldn't understand what he said. Then I got up cause what he said didn't make any sense, and why are they ordering people around? Who do they think they are?
I got up and walked to the one named Ryuu and asked him to repeat what he said again.
He was shorter than me; his head came up to my nose, and his hair was bleached. His body looked fine, and the other two surrounded me. The middle guy named Nobu is as tall as me, and the guy named Mitsuo came up to my shoulder. They both didn't bleach their hair and looked more decent than him.
He repeated what he said. I laughed at what he said. I couldn't get angry or, more precisely, I shouldn't get angry. He was just saying, even though what he said didn't make any sense.
I said, putting my hands on his shoulders, "'Keiko'? She's Kimura-san to you, and the thing you said now, that's something you people must follow and not the people who are dating."
He gently removed my hands from his shoulders and said, "That is, if you both are dating for real, not when you both are pretending to be dating."
I couldn't say anything as his imagination was running wild.
Then I asked him, "Why do you think so?"
"I have been watching her for the past four months and asked her every single Saturday out on a date, but she rejected me, saying that she already has a boyfriend, but she didn't mention his name, and he didn't even come to pick her up from her training, not even once in the past four months," he said.
"That is because I was on my punishment period," I replied.
"No, you are just using it as a means to strengthen your lie," he answered.
"So, you don't believe that she has a boyfriend, and you won't believe that the boyfriend is me," I said.
"Yes," he said, confidently.
"And are these two also trying to hit on Keiko?" I asked him, looking at the other two.
"Oh, yes, we three agreed to try our best to win her, and the losers should just back off," he said while signalling them to back off from me by waving his hands.
These guys are crazy, who would do such a thing like that?
"Now there's a new player in the game and he won, so the losers must back off, so if you just back off I will be going," I replied.
"Sorry, no new players are allowed," he answered.
"For the previous question, why won't you believe me that I am her boyfriend?" I asked.
"You came recently, and you had an argument with her on the first day you came. Anyone who witnessed it wouldn't believe that you both are dating," he said even more confidently.
"Dude, she's like that, she doesn't like people looking down on her, and she doesn't like to look weak to the people she likes or to the people close to her." I realized why she was like that to me that day and whenever we had a spar, she didn't want to look weak in front of me, while saying that to him.
"Really? You think she wanted to look strong in front of you? No, she wanted to look strong in front of her brother and your grandpa, that's all there is to it," he said in a way that he's clarifying my misunderstanding about her.
I couldn't argue back cause what he said made a point, and I can't prove that he's wrong, and I didn't like this conversation taking this long, so I decided and spoke.
"Let's have a duel tomorrow at five thirty in the evening. Whoever loses shouldn't disturb her, is that okay?" I said, looking at the exit.
"I think it's the most efficient way too, let's do it and no going back on your words or no asking for another chance, okay?" he replied with a smile on his face.
"Okay, now we need a third person and referee for tomorrow's match."
When I said that, Kenji came in, saying that he will be the third person for our bet and the referee for our match.
Ryuu turned towards Kenji and said, "Why should I trust you? You are his friend."
For which Kenji replied, saying, "You can bet on who could date my sister and I can't be the referee?"
Kenji's words made a point, and Ryuu thought for a minute and said OKAY for Kenji as our referee.
The three of them left, and we both remained in the hall. I asked him, since when was he listening? And he said he was listening from the start.
We also walked out of the hall and started heading outside after I completed my dress change.
When I came out, he asked, "Why didn't you reply that Keiko was trying to look strong for you and not for me or your grandpa to notice her? We all know what she is capable of doing."
"Yes, even though I knew what she is capable of, I had a feeling that she wanted to be recognized by the elders," I replied.
"You fool, my sister doesn't care about the elders or me or anyone in here. She just wants you to think that she won't be a burden to you, and she wants your eyes to look at only her, and for your information, she's stronger than me," he said it in a teasing way, pushing me with his elbow while smiling.
"I never thought of her as a burden, and why would she think like that? We are not at war for her to become strong, and I have my eyes only for her," I said, rubbing the part where he pushed me while feeling embarrassed for saying something like that.
"You should have been confident earlier. Keiko felt bad for not expressing herself properly and left with Akiko," he said while booking a cab.
"What!? Was she here earlier?" I asked him with a shocked expression.
"Yeah, all three of us were there. She felt happy when you said that she wants to look stronger in front of people she likes and felt bad when you couldn't answer that she wanted to look strong for you," Kenji said it in a low voice, which made me a little sad.
"Deep down, I felt like that when I was saying it to him, but when I heard what he said next, I thought maybe that is also possible, so I couldn't say it. And how would I know how she felt about me?" I also said it with a low voice.
"Yeah, how could she tell you? It took her five years to decide," he said nonchalantly, looking at his mobile.
"What? Five years? To decide what?" I asked him with a question mark face.
"She started liking you from our freshman year of high school, and she decided to propose to you after you returned from your punishment."
"What? Really? Then, did you know about that all these years?"
"No, I just had a doubt, but after our training began, she told me that she'd propose to you when you returned, and I even asked her if she was just infatuating it, because you did something for her. Then she replied, saying that she held back for five years and she doesn't want to hold back now."
"So, that's the reason why you left me without doing anything and said to propose to her quickly."
"So, when did you realize you love her? During your punishment time? Or before it?"
"Me? I too realized it when we were in freshman year of high school."
"Then why didn't you propose her all these years?"
"I thought that she liked my..."
I hesitated to say it, then Kenji said, "Your... what? Say it."
"That she liked my younger brother."
For that, he said, "Your what? Younger brother?" and began to laugh loudly.
We chatted like that until the cab arrived and returned to the Minka.