My Name is Ami

“Ami, rise and shine, dear!”

I heard my mother’s voice accompanying the sun rays to wake me up. The curtains were set aside; allowing the sun to shine in and the blanket is pulled down; allowing cold air to freeze my feet.

“Mom, it’s barely a decent time to wake up.” I bend my legs to make myself warmer. Didn’t work much.

“Satoru-kun would be sad if you don’t get up and make his food.” My mother cheerful reply sent me awake.

“His food?” I blinked, “I thought his parents are home. Doesn’t that mean he’ll have his mother to cook for him now?” I grab my blanket and tried to pull it over my head before my mother sat on it.

“But you’re making his lunch, not his breakfast.” She wiggled her eyebrows giving me a sly smile. “Now go wash yourself and make some food. I’ll and prepare breakfast.”

Exhaling, I jumped of the bed, as slow as possible, before I walked sleepily towards the bathroom. It was too cold for a shower so I just washed my face and brush my teeth. That was enough to start the day. A little Gal cologne and I am done in no time.

The smell of breakfast greeted me downstairs and I quickly came to the kitchen to see what’s cooking…get it? What’s cooking? Haha... ha...

“Hey mom, what’s cooking?” haha.. Cue laugh here… that was lame... oh well…

“Food. But I’m the one that cooks it, of course.” She turns to me and hands me her apron, while she turns back to her egg roll. I headed to the knifing section that mom left for me to use and starts chopping sausages. I didn’t feel like making complicated lunch. I just wanted to be done with it.

So I did. I made a simple fried rice dish that barely has much variation of food. Sure I added veggies here and there but it’s not as rich as it would be if I put more time in it. After I’m done with lunch, my mom called me to the dining table and Dad was already there with his working shirt on.

“Wow…this is our first time eating together.” I exclaimed.

“It sure is. We’ve been a family for several months but this is our first time together. From morning till night.” Dad said while he applied butter to a toast.

“We won’t exactly be together. She has to go to school and we have to go to work.” Mom handed a bowl of rice that I receive happily. I started fishing for the eggs and sausages. Hams are for last. So the taste will be the last that lingers in my mouth.

“What time will you guys come home?”

“Not so late. We did most of our works while we were away so we don’t have much to do.” Mom explained to me. It’s really nice that both my mom and dad work for the same company at the same division in the same team. It won’t be as nice if the company goes bankrupt though…Don’t even want to imagine that.

“As long as you get to make dinner. I’m tired of cooking these several months.”

“That’s what you get from being a housewife.” Mom pats my head. “But, you can always ask your husband to cook.”

“Husband?? What are you talking about? She’s too young to have a husband.” Dad suddenly replies. His newspaper fell from his lap.

“I don’t mean now, dear. I mean in the future.”

“Please. You two set me up with Toru and now you’re alarmed when I have a husband? If you want to set me up, better set me up for good.” I said, quickly finishing my food. I took the lunch boxes (one for me, one for Toru) and put them neatly in my bag.

“You’re going now? Isn’t it too early?” Mom asked glancing at the clock.

“It’s my turn to clean the class. I’ll see you guys later. Bye.” I put on my shoes and left the house. Toru was just leaving his house too. It was his turn to clean the class room, and we normally leave at this time of hours but I didn’t expect him to be able to get up.

“Ohayo. You’re able to get up…” I greeted; amazed.

“I figured since you’re not here anymore, I should learn how to survive by myself.” He proudly boasted as he grabbed my hand and crossed his fingers with mine. “Besides, do you really think I’d miss the chance to walk you to school? You have a lot of explaining to do.”

“Ah, you still remember.”

“I am a good boyfriend that remembers everything.” Again, he proudly boasted. I didn’t really mind, really, since he’s just joking and I like his smile while he jokes like that.

“I thought it’s best to wait for lunch time when everybody is there. That way I don’t need to repeat what I said and you get to listen while eating the lunch I made.”

“Thank God you made lunch!” Toru exclaimed in relief. “I tried to survive by myself, but my cooking skill isn’t…really survivable…” He reached inside his bag and took out a lunch box that contains a messy looking lunch. I wanted to laugh but since I’m a good girlfriend I just smiled and said, “Maybe it doesn’t taste as bad,” which caused to Toru to pout for the reason that I don’t know.

--

“Everyone here?” I said in the most mysterious way I possibly could. I glanced around mysteriously to look at my 3 friends’ face (of course one of them is my boyfriend). The couple looked confused. Each stopped eating and stared at me as if I said something weird, not that I would blame them.

“Good.” I straighten myself and cleared my throat. “I have something to tell you.”

“About?” Yusuke, seemed intrigued, started moving himself so he sat straight towards me.

“Me.” I simply answered. “There are a lot of things that you don’t know about me. You won’t know it unless I told you, of course, so I decided to tell you since y’all meant a lot to me.”

“I know who meant a lot than me.” Yusuke snickered while nudging Toru with his elbow.

“Basically, the reason why I moved here is because of family. I was adopted.” I paused, waiting for responses. And as I suspected Yusuke’s snicker has gone, Miku was wild eyed, and Toru was gaping.

“No wonder…your mom said…yesterday she said “new daughter” when she was talking about her plan.” Toru seemed aghast as he runs a hand over his head, through his soft brown hair.

“Anyway, my real parents died when I was young and my parent’s friend took me in. That’s when I met Shu.” I fluttered my eyes to take a stealing glance at Toru. He was paying attention. Can’t really guess how he feels.

“He was the son of the family and he was very welcoming because he wanted to have a little sister so we started becoming brothers and sisters. Of course, staying with a boy who isn’t related to you can’t prevent any feelings being developed. I started to like him, and he to me. Basically it was quite obvious that we like each other.”

“Ah, but the girlfriend didn’t like it…” Yusuke interrupted, recalling the day when we met Shu in the park with Naoko.

“She wasn’t his girlfriend at that time.” I shrugged, silently saying ‘well…’ “She was just a person who has a crush on him but she didn’t like it anyway. So she was glad when my parents adopted me and took me here.”

“How’d she get here? Did she hate you so much that she followed you??” Miku jokingly asked me as she toyed on her food.

“No…Shu came to study here. He said it’s to see me and Naoko didn’t like that.”

“He came here to meet you? So he still loves you? But he has a girlfriend!” Toru sat up straight, clenching the chopstick hard that it might break.

“She didn’t like it more when she knows we work at the same place and that’s why she came to pay us a visit.”

Hearing this, Yusuke started to snicker. “Oho.. I bet it wasn’t a pretty sight in the café…girl screaming and poking…confused manager…I wish I was there!”

“Actually they took it outside.” I had to crush his imagination of the fight that he has. Why do they keep on interrupting? I’m getting closer to the best part! “That’s when I eavesdropped on them.”

“No way?!” Miku exclaimed. She seemed shocked; both because it was impolite of me to do so and of the juicy information that I would get by eavesdropping.

“Yes way…” I replied with a sly smile. “In fact, I heard something very…informative when I eavesdropped.” I added a long pause just to cause an effect and, as expected, the three of them held their breath expecting me to spill it.

“We’re … related.” I said breathlessly as if it was something really shocking (which is really shocking but not for me, at least not anymore.)

“INCEST!!!! INCESTTT!!!!!” Yusuke yelled out, gripping his hair. Miku had to slap him after she herself recovers from the unexpected news.

“It wasn’t incest, you psycho!” I cried. But I had to admit, that it is incest if I was in a relationship with Shu……ewwww…

“But imagine... that if you didn’t know until you two confess that you’re going out, your parents, or his parents, or whoever who knew you two are related, then you two would be in a real pain. Imagine how hard it is for you to stop loving each other.”

I stared at Yusuke in amazement. “Wow…you’re making sense.” Since he is known to be the kidding one so we rarely able to make him talk seriously. Toru cracked up hearing what I said while Yusuke exclaimed in protest.

“She’s right Yusuke. You made sense! I’m so proud of you.” Toru said while slapping his friend’s back. Yusuke end up attacking Toru and both of them started to wrestle around the area causing them to be covered with grass. Boys… what’s with them and being dirty?

“So, what happened now that you two know you’re related?” Miku asked ignoring our stupid boyfriends.

“I don’t really know. I’ve never really met him after that.” I went all misty eyed as I remembered yesterday which reminded me of something. “Oh! I forgot another part that I need to tell you. My parents came home and confess that they had planned for me and Toru to fall in love!”

“How’d they do that?”

“Well…we never really told you but we were living together since my 1st day in Tokyo since our parents left us.” I pointed myself and Toru when I said the word ‘we’ in a way that a kid would when he pointed at the broken vase.

“You two what?!” This time, it was Yusuke that yelled out. Apparently he was listening despite wrestling with Toru. “That is so unfair!! You get to spend time longer than normal and, and, and…do things in secret!”

“Shut up!” Toru hit Yusuke’s head hard. He was sort of blushing, knowing what Yusuke meant with his last sentence. “Nothing ever happened. Just normal healthy relationship going on in my house.”

“Yeah…sure…I bet it is.” Yusuke started to sing out that Toru is a pervert so they started fighting again. Seriously, can’t they be serious? Geez…I used the word ‘serious’ twice in that sentence… am I that serious?

Since I no longer have anything else so spill, I decided to join the fun. I threw a sausage at Yusuke. (Of course, because I was siding with my boyfriend) And I got an unexpected attack from Miku! She threw some of her rice at my face…and that, my friends, started the war.

--

We spent the rest of the lunch time and some of the class time to have food/grass/dirt fight. The girls didn’t really wrestle on the grass like the crazy two what with the skirt and all but the boys started throwing whatever their hands can get when I threw sausage at Yusuke.

The teacher caught us and he told us to change to our gym clothes, which I did happily since it means we get to skip the rest of the 6th class of evil math. I was done changing and Miku was running to the class—being the diligent student she is—so that she won’t miss the math class. Suddenly I was pulled by Toru to the side.

“Sorry. I didn’t want to call out since the teacher would hear.” He explained to me when I automatically yelped in pain. He did grab my arm quite hard.

“Are you trying to make me skip Tsubaki-san’s class? If you are, you don’t need to apologize for anything.” I said with a smile and a small giggle which caused Toru to smile also.

“No, actually I wanted to talk to you about something.” He said smilingly (that made my heart go DDR MAX…don’t ask why…)

“About what? You’re not still mad about Shu are you? He’s my brother so there’s no way—”

Toru put his finger to my lips, gesturing me to stop talking. Gladly, I obliged. “No, no…It’s something more…important.” And then he started to blush. He seemed to be looking for the right word to say next but since he couldn’t he let out a chuckle instead.

“This is harder than I thought.” He looked at me, pink faced, grey eyed, argh! He’s trying to kill me with his cuteness!! “I didn’t really plan for this but…you just made want to do this.”

“Do what?” I try not to blush and lose myself and go kiss him passionately. Well, maybe not too passionately. I’m still in school area. I’m not that crazy! However I want to… haha…*ehm!

“I…today, when I heard my mom waking me up and had her cook breakfast for me like what had been happening for several years I realized I wanted to trade it. Knowing that you’re no longer in the same house, that you’re not there to greet me as I wake up made me realize how much I wanted to be with you.”

Toru looked nervous. He was really nervous!! Awww… so sweet… “When I saw you go out from your house, I just wanted to hug you and tell you how much I miss you. I want our parents to leave us again just so that we get to live together again.”

“Haha…that would be a hard thing to do. I don’t think my parents would leave me since we're finally able to be a family, if you know what I mean.” I said, placing my palm on his cheek, admiring his cute nervousness.

Toru took my hand and looked at me intensely. His eyes were glued with mine and I couldn’t take my eyes from him. I was hypnotized…

“What I’m trying to say is…I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. So,” his lips tugged into a sweet embarrassed smile as I am anticipating his next line, “will you marry me?”

…………………………………………

I…I can’t… I don’t… I … AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did he just… Did he really…??? This isn’t April Fools right? Should I check the calendar just in case???

“Ami? … It’d be really nice to hear a reply.” Toru’s nervous voice brought me back from my thoughts and I realize I was grinning like crazy. Well, how can I not be crazy when I was just being PROPOSED by the guy I’m so in love with?!?!

“I…It’s…I’m just…I…” I stuttered with my answer. I never felt so overwhelmed like this before. This is so sudden! I can’t stop grinning! Damn it! Pull yourself together!

“Yes.” I managed to squeak a very small rat-like voice that made me want to replay the whole thing again so I can present a better answer but I don’t think Toru really cared. He grinned even crazier than me and hugged me tight.

“Ah! Thank God you answered that! I thought I was being too fast or something. I was afraid you’d freak out but I thought that I had to tell you how I felt and I … it just came out.” He explained almost childlike which made me pull his face and gave him a happy kiss. That sure stopped Toru from being childlike…

“Uhmh!” Someone behind us, or was it next to us…well, I don’t exactly know where it is since I was floating in air from happiness….ok, so what was I saying? Oh! Someone….coughing.

I quickly pull apart and turned to see Yusuke and Miku—both hands in their sides—glaring at us. “I can’t believe you’re engaged before me!” Yusuke complained. We could only give a silly couple smile that made Yusuke to glare even more.

“That’s just not fair. We’re best friends for crying out loud. We’re supposed to do things together.” He reasoned to which Toru replied laughingly with his arm over my shoulder: “what kind of rule is that? You had secret dates when we were working in the café.”

“Well, at least you can tell me if you’re planning to do that to let me know that I’m not the only one with the thought of marrying my girlfriend.”

“Umm…” Toru looked confused, “I’m not planning on marrying your girlfriend. I’m marrying my girlfriend.”

“You know what I meant!” Then, Yusuke turned to Miku and took her hand like how Toru held mine. “Miku, I also realized how you meant so much to me and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”

Poor Miku, who was also not expecting to be proposed, stood there in shock. You can see from the way her eyes widening. I thought she’d burst in tears and muffled a cute ‘yes’ but instead she …

“That’s not romantic at all!” yelled at Yusuke who was the one shocked now. “How am I supposed to answer to that? I won’t give you an answer until you propose me in a proper way.” Then, she walked away leaving Yusuke still in shock.

Me and Toru laughed at his condition and told him to run after her. “Go and propose again or something. Use that brain of yours to melt the romance reading girl. She might be more expert in romance than you!” I yelled out to Yusuke’s back who was chasing after Miku.

“That was so sweet.” I commented on the two silly couple that began to go out of sight. “Yeah, but ours is sweeter.” Toru hugged me from behind and pecked my head. My head that had onigiri on it…oh well, it is edible…

“I wonder how we’d tell our parents. I don’t think it’ll be hard since they were sort of expecting this to happen.”

Toru smiled a mischievous smile and pulled me closer to him; his arms wrapped around my waist. “Let’s make a plan. Make them not expect that we’re engaged. What do you say?”

I replied his smile with my own mischievous smile and gave him a kiss. “That just made me love you more.”

--

:.:.: Epilogue :.:.:

--

“The newlyweds may now enter the reception room.” The voice of the announcer made everyone in the room to turn their head towards the door that the person is pointing. It was decorated with flowers and ribbons. White and red with a little violet here and there.

The door opened and it revealed two newlyweds holding hands with their own pair. The colorful room seemed to go white all of the sudden when the brides stepped in with their beautiful white gown. The grooms were also accompanying them with their own white tuxedo. Everything seemed so pure and white.

The guests began to give a standing ovation and the room was full of clapping hands and shout of congratulations. The newlyweds took their seats in the long table and the party started.

“This sure is a big wedding.” Ami whispered to Miku.

“Yeah, everyone in both our families and our classmates came. This is what I call a full house.” She replied back.

The room was full of chatter and laughter. Jokes shared here and there. Teasing from old friends to the newlywed was given as a speech. Drinks passed here and there. Plates clanging. Food refilling. Everything was so alive.

Yet…in the hearts of the newlyweds, the room was quiet and only they and their spouses are there. 4 best friends, having their wedding together.

“This is for your idea of doing things together, Yuuji!” Toru exclaimed to Yusuke, raising a small sake glass.

“For doing things together!” Yusuke clank his own sake glass with Toru and both of them drank the sake.

“This…is for starting a new life together.” Miku said raising her sake glass, waiting the guys to refill their sake.

Even though 4 years have passed, they didn’t change much. Miku who still enjoy reading majored in literature; Yusuke who still helps his uncle’s café majored in business; Toru who enjoyed his school life to the fullest majored in education; Ami who had a very interesting past majored in psychology.

Everyone was still together and is now, together, starting a new life. The four of them raised their glasses high and cheered.

“To new life!! Kampai!!”

--

Author’s Note:

At last!! The story is done…I’m sorry that I kinda lump the whole ending together in this one chapter so it might be a bit fast on how I cut it from one scene to the next. Alas, this is how I made it. But comments on how you think of this last chapter is, is still absolutely welcome.

THANK YOU for those who read the story from the beginning till the end. I really really really REALLY REALLY appreciate it! I’m glad it was entertaining enough for you to keep on reading. And if it wasn’t, I’m very sorry but inputs on how to improve would be nice… wait, how’d they read this if they didn’t read the last bit since it’s not entertaining?? … oh well…

Anyway… yes, “My Neighbor is My Boyfriend” (or MNIMB for short) is done, but I do plan a sequel to it, concerning the next generation.. if you know what I mean… hehe… There will be new characters (duh!) but there will still be our lovely 4 best friends in the story. Maybe I’ll make it as the boy’s perspective this time… I still don’t know… what do you guys think?? Since I’m planning to make it “my neighbor is my girlfriend” .. haha.. yeah, well…

So, for now, I must bid you farewell from this lovely 2 couples and say hello to … a new idea of stories that I will post sooner or later. Adios! … for now …

And as usual, REVIEW PLEASE!!!!