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“Hey, Reo,” Nagi says as they step out of the helicopter. “Isn’t this a bit… much?”
Reo offers Nagi a hand as he makes it down the final step. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Nagi says slowly, peering around at their surroundings. “I thought this was just, like a… a casual dinner, or something.”
“It is,” Reo says, a bit confused.
“Um,” Nagi says. “Reo, we just flew two hours in a helicopter to get here.”
Reo’s brows furrow. “Well, how else would we have gotten here?” He checks the time on his watch. “Ah, we should hurry. They’ll be bringing out the first dish soon.”
Nagi doesn’t resist as Reo pulls him along. Reo’s glad he’d scoped out the place beforehand, or else they might have gotten lost. Thanks to Reo’s foresight, though, they’re able to find their private room without too many wrong turns. Reo lets out a sigh of relief when he sees that the table’s still empty—he’d have been a bit upset if he’d arrived to find their appetizers go cold. With Nagi’s hand still in his, Reo tugs him to the window by their table.
“A good view, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Nagi murmurs. “It is.”
It takes Reo a while to pull his eyes away from the lights reflected in Nagi’s eyes to the actual lights outside. It really is quite the view—although Reo thinks he still might prefer the one in their apartment. Regardless, this was something novel, and it excites him to see the quiet awe in Nagi’s expression.
He lets go of Nagi’s hand and settles at the table set for two. A few moments later, Nagi follows. The room is fairly dimly lit, with a single candle at the center of their table being the primary light source other than the few other candles spaced around the rest of the room. There’s a tiny bouquet of flowers in the center as well, and Reo watches with amusement as Nagi tentatively reaches out a finger to poke it.
“It’s real,” Nagi says after a pause.
“What else would it be?”
Nagi gives Reo an unreadable look before his gaze dips again. “You didn’t tell me it would be this fancy. I would have worn something nicer.”
Reo bites back his immediate instinct to ask if Nagi does, in fact, have anything nicer in his closet. When Nagi first moved in, Reo had been a bit appalled to see how little clothes Nagi actually had, and while he had offered multiple times to go shopping with his new roommate, Nagi had yet to take him up on the offer.
Still, the jacket Nagi wears now—a milky white hoodie with a scrawled mendokusai in the corner—is one Reo thinks Nagi looks fairly dashing in. Really, Nagi was quite attractive, even when he didn’t put any effort in. Reo can hardly imagine what it would be like if Nagi did, and he decides maybe it’s better for Reo’s heart if Nagi stays like this instead.
“It’s—it’s fine,” Reo says eventually. “You look good.”
He feels Nagi’s surprised gaze on him, but for better or for worse, a waiter comes in to present their appetizers and pour drinks, and Reo can pretend to pay attention to them instead. He doesn’t actually know what the appetizers consist of, but they all look fairly fancy. He hopes Nagi doesn’t ask what they are.
“There’ll be a bit of a break before the main dishes arrive,” Reo begins to say as he picks up his chopsticks. “I think the first one is a…” He trails off, trying to recollect what the online menu had said. “Truffle-scented salmon milk fry?” Reo nods. That sounded right. “Then, I think… Ezo abalone—oh, and then there’s a Peking duck tasting comparison, and I think it’s only after that that we get the crab. It’s just the steak and the mushroom and chicken broth risotto after that. Oh, and dessert, of course.”
When Reo looks up, he sees Nagi staring at the appetizers in front of them. Eventually, he looks up at Reo.
“I thought this was the entire meal.”
Reo laughs. “You’re so funny sometimes, Nagi.”
Nagi looks like he wants to say something there, but he stays quiet, and the two make short work of their appetizers. Reo lets out a content sigh and reaches for his glass.
“When you’re ready, we can head outside,” he remarks, and Nagi tilts his head to the side.
“Outside?”
“Our ticket includes the sky garden observatory,” Reo says with a grin. “Plus, a little something else.”
“What else?”
“It’s a surprise,” Reo stresses. Nagi looks fairly unimpressed.
“Can’t you just tell me?”
“That’s no fun.” Reo uses a napkin to dab at his mouth before smiling at Nagi. “Ready?”
Nagi still looks a little wary, but he nods and follows Reo down a few different corridors until they reach the doors to the observatory.
“Isn’t this place usually crowded?” Nagi asks as they step outside. “I haven’t seen anyone else here.”
“Oh, that’s because I booked the entire place,” Reo tells him.
“What?”
“I booked the entire place.” He takes a few steps forward before turning back to find Nagi still behind him, with a strange look on his face—like he’s trying to figure something out. “What?”
Nagi presses his lips together and shakes his head. “Never mind.”
Reo gives him a questioning look, but when he doesn’t say anything further, he smiles and holds his hand out. After a beat, Nagi takes it, and the two begin to walk the perimeter of the observatory.
“It’s the same view,” Reo says as they walk, “but it’s a bit cooler when there’s no window in the way, huh?”
“Yeah,” Nagi murmurs. “Kind of cold, though.”
Reo squeezes Nagi’s hand. “Bear it for just a few more moments, okay?”
Nagi hums his approval, and Reo beams. They walk in a comfortable silence for a few more steps, until Reo breaks it with a question.
“So, Nagi,” Reo says lightly. “What’s your New Year’s resolution?”
“Eh?” Nagi asks. “I don’t have any.”
Reo’s lips pull down in a frown. “Really? Not a single one?”
Nagi shakes his head.
“You must have something.”
“Not really.”
“So you’re saying you’re perfectly happy right now,” Reo says skeptically. “There’s absolutely nothing you want to change.”
Nagi thinks about it for a moment, but eventually shrugs. “Yup.”
Reo clicks his tongue. “I know you’re lying to me, but fine. I’ll drop it.”
“What about you?”
Reo spins to face Nagi with a wide grin. “I’m so glad you asked!” He begins gesturing quickly with his free hand. “Obviously, it’s to win the World Cup. But—but—it’s not enough to just say that.” He wags a finger in the air. “No, no, I have to do something to show my commitment, you know? Some sort of gesture, get it?”
“Not really.”
“Exactly,” Reo says, before he begins pulling Nagi forward a bit more insistently. “That’s why I’ll show you.”
Nagi doesn’t protest as Reo leads him away from the circular path on the rooftop to the small, raised platform a distance away. Once at the platform, Reo lets his hand drop from Nagi’s so that he can rummage in his pocket as Nagi turns to inspect the area around them. For a moment, Reo thinks he’s misplaced it—but then his fingers brush metal, and he grins.
“So,” Reo says triumphantly. “To prove to you—and myself—and anyone else out there—that this is my wish, now and forever—” He takes the lock out of his pocket and brandishes it in front of Nagi. “Ta-da!”
Nagi blinks at the lock for a few moments, before his gaze goes back up to Reo.
“Get it?”
Nagi shakes his head.
“Look,” Reo says, bringing the lock closer to Nagi. “It’s got our names on it, see?”
“‘Reo + Nagi,’” Nagi reads quietly.
“Yup,” Reo says with a beam. “We’re going to lock this over there,” he gestures to the fence behind them where thousands of locks already hang, “and cement this dream. You, me, and the World Cup.” He grins at Nagi. “Yeah?”
“Reo,” Nagi says after a pause. “This is shaped like a heart.”
Reo blinks at him. “Yeah, it was the only shape they had. So?”
“Um.” Nagi shifts a bit on his feet. “Reo, is this a date?”
It takes Reo a moment to process the words. “A date?” He repeats, before squinting at Nagi. “A date?”
Nagi stays quiet. Reo blinks a few times.
“N… no,” Reo says eventually. “This isn’t—this isn’t a date. What—” He lets out a weak laugh. “Why would you think that?”
Nagi brings a hand to the back of his neck and glances away. “You… flew us all the way out here, you booked the entire place just for us, um…” He trails off. “I’m pretty sure the restaurant thinks we’re celebrating an anniversary, we were just having a candlelit dinner, with, like, roses, and…” His gaze goes back to the lock still in Reo’s hand. “You’re… about to attach a heart-shaped lock with both of our names on it to a fence.” He glances back at the fence. “The fence that’s… also shaped like a heart.”
“Oh,” Reo says. He stares at the lock. He turns back to stare at the fence. He glances back at the lock. “Well, yeah, I didn’t…” He trails off. “Um…”
“Is this… not a date?”
Reo opens his mouth, then closes it, then opens it again. “I mean, it—I… I didn’t—” He clears his throat and starts again. “No. I just… wanted to do something for our first New Year’s celebration together, I didn’t think…” His face begins to flush. “I didn’t realize what it would look like.”
Reo feels kind of stupid, now, standing there with the lock as the wind whips at his face. This entire thing was stupid, just plain outlandish. Reo had wondered if he had been planning too extravagantly, but he hadn’t ever considered that he could be making Nagi uncomfortable. No wonder Nagi had been acting so strange the entire evening.
“Sorry,” Reo mutters, his fingers curling over the lock. “This was a bad idea. We can just—we can go home now.”
Home—that’s right. They lived together. Was that something that was also making Nagi uncomfortable? Nagi had seemed to agree to the idea easily enough when Reo had proposed it earlier, but maybe he had simply agreed to make Reo happy, and maybe this, too, was another example of Reo doing too much, being too much—
“If,” Nagi says, interrupting Reo’s thoughts, “if it is a date.”
Nagi pauses. Reo stares at Nagi.
Nagi coughs and continues. “If it is a date,” he repeats slowly. He’s not meeting Reo’s eyes, but the moonlight illuminates a slight blush on his cheeks. “Then, I wouldn’t… mind.”
Reo continues staring at Nagi.
“You wouldn’t mind,” Reo repeats faintly.
“Yeah.” He’s still looking away. “Actually, I’d, uh, really… like it. If it was—yeah.”
“You’d like it?” Reo pauses. He lets out a breathless, hopeful laugh. “You… want it to be a date?”
“Maybe,” Nagi murmurs. His blush almost seems to deepen—god, is Nagi embarrassed? Reo can hardly believe his eyes. “Yeah.”
“Yeah,” Reo says, his head spinning. “Yeah. Okay.” He can’t help the laugh that bubbles out of him. “Then—yeah. It’s a date.”
Nagi doesn’t smile, but he comes close to it. “Okay,” he murmurs. To Reo’s surprise, he reaches for the lock Reo had all but forgotten about. He turns it over in his hands, once, twice, before turning back to Reo. “Forever, right?”
Reo blinks. “Huh?”
“This. Us.” The words seem to come so easily to Nagi. “It’s forever, isn’t it? That’s what this is for.” He shakes the lock a little.
Reo’s eyes widen. “That’s… uh, isn’t that moving a bit… fast…?”
“No?” Nagi offers. Reo can’t find it in himself to protest.
“Okay,” Reo says with a helpless laugh, folding his hand over Nagi’s with the lock in between. “Forever, huh? That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“It’s a promise.”