Rapid Fate Online Chapter 113: Oh…

He nodded silently in agreement and closed his eyes for a few seconds to collect himself.

As he closed his eyes, the waitress returned with drinks so you were pre-occupied with her while he steeled himself.

“Mmmm, this is good,” you commented, using your straw to chip at the ice in your drink as you watched the bubbles pop in your glass. 

“Y-Y/N,” Tamaki said timidly.

You looked up. “Mmm?” you hummed.

“I…” All that internal practice went out the window as his lips clamped together and his mouth ran dry.

“Jiki? What’s wrong?” you asked worriedly. He looked like he was about to pass out, “what is it?” You got up and reached over the table to him, “why do you have that look on your face?”

He looked up at you and then in a fit of courage, not bothering to wait till you were both outside or anything he jumped up and grabbed the ring box from his pocket.

“Marry me!” He called loudly, grabbing the box with both hands and shoving it out in front of himself as he bowed his head down – as if begging for you to accept his item. 

You froze.

Then he realized what he had said and froze as well.

“These were just supposed to be promise rings! Not engagement rings! I just asked her to marry me!”

You couldn’t believe your ears.

It’s what you had been wondering about, but you didn’t know if he had been thinking along the same lines as you had.

It appeared that he had, and you gasped in awe before taking the ring box from him and grabbing his outstretched hands.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” you squealed enthusiastically.

Other customers had heard his proposal and were watching on by now and clapped happily when you accepted.

He kept his head down so you had to place the small box on the table and move around to the side of it and force him to stand straighter so you could hug him.

Poor Tamaki was still in shock.

He had accidentally asked you to marry him… and you had accepted…

Was it really ok to get married?!

He could hear the clapping and calls of congratulations around him, along with the muffled things you were saying but his mind had blurred and he was unable to make out anything clearly.

In another wave of panic he stepped past you and ran for the door- wanting to get outside where he could clear his mind a little more.

You had no idea what was going on and called out to him as he ran, then grabbed your bag, slapped some money down on the counter and took off after him. 

“Jiki!” you called as you got outside, “Jiki??” 

He had vanished.

“What on earth just happened?!” You wondered, jogging along a little to try and find him.

You figured he would go to somewhere that was enclosed and away from everyone so you ran to the nearest alleyway and looked in.

There he was, down the back, crouched down with his head pressed against the wall of the building and you let out a little apologetic chuckle and slowly walked towards him.

“Jiki?” you asked as you got closer, then crouched down beside him and copied his position- pushing your forehead against the wall, “what’s wrong? Are you ok?” You swiveled your head a little to look at his side profile.

“I… that didn’t go how I had planned for it to go,” he said softly.

“How did you want it to go?”

“Well… I was going to ask you to wait for me…”

“Wait for you? Where?”

He shook his head. “I was going to ask you to wait for me so when we are older we could get married. I was giving the ring as a promise ring but then I panicked and asked you to marry me, and it was right in front of everyone! I’m so sorry I put you on the spot like that…”

“P-Promise?” you asked, your heart sinking, “oh… so you didn’t mean to ask me to marry you?”

Tamaki turned his head a little and looked at you as you turned your head and stared glumly at the ground.

He then realized that he hadn’t put you on the spot… you had said yes very willingly and now you were sad that he was seemingly going back on his original proposal.

“Oh! I … w-we can get married!” he stammered, “that’s ok with me!”

You shook your head. “No, you just wanted to promise… that’s ok too, I don’t want you to feel pressured. I just… sorry, I had been thinking that we could get engaged. Because we’re both old enough now and we could have had a 2 year engagement and then gotten married after our first year of being new graduates. But if you’re not ready… then that’s ok…”

Tamaki was torn, he really wanted to make you happy but he was also so nervous about taking that next step.

“W-We can get engaged, like I asked…” he said, pulling his head off the wall.

“No… it’s ok, I know you’re not ready,” you said with a sad smile as you pulled back to look at him, “I accept your promise…”

You stood up and held your hand out to him.

“Come on. Let’s go ba— THE RINGS!! I forgot them! Oh no!” You spun around and raced back out of the alleyway back to the cafe.

As you ran back in, the waitress was standing at your table with the food.

“I’m so sorry!” you gasped, stopping beside her, “we just had a… something came up. Can I please have the food to go?” 

She nodded and you looked down at the table, noting with a sigh of relief that the box was still there, you opened it and saw two rings there, they looked identical to the ones you and he wore in game as husband and wife and it made you choke up a bit.

“I know this sounds stupid but it’s kinda like a slap in the face that these are only supposed to be ‘promise’ rings when they look like our real wedding bands in game…” 

You closed the lid and put the box in your pocket while you waited for the waitress to pack your food to go. 

It kinda stung that you had gotten all excited about Tamaki proposing to you to only find out later that he hadn’t mean to ask you to marry him… 

“It’s not that he DOESN’T want to marry you, you goose, he’s just not ready to make that step. Stop being such a pouty sprout.” You berated yourself.

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