Innocent | Sugawara Koushi

25.

"I want to hear everything from the start. How did you two meet?" I looked up from my plate at Sugawara's mother sitting opposite me. We were at the dining table, Koushi and Souta on both my sides while their parents and Kyo on the opposite.

I looked at my boyfriend, but he was in the middle of drinking juice from his glass. He was glancing at me playfully from the side, giving me a sign with his brow to talk.

Thanks. I really needed the pressure at this moment.

"Well, it's nothing interesting. I was taking my sister's daughter from school that day and we've... met." I finished, wondering if that was the end of the investigation. But seeing the interested looks on everyone's faces I already knew it wasn't.

"Come on, a lot of people take children from there. You had to do something that made you meet again." Souta said with mouth full of rice, a couple of grains falling onto his plate in the process.

The whole family nodded and Sugawara finally put the glass down and took his chopsticks in his hands. "We were trying to find Ai's toy and Miyu ended up breaking a hanger in the closet." He said casually and I almost groaned.

Thank you again for ruining my good image in front of your family.

"I helped you repair it later!" I called, trying not to get embarrassed too quickly, but my cheeks were heating up gradually.

"Yes, and she brought me a tea as an apology." He added, giving me a little smile from the side. I pressed my lips together, but my own mouth betrayed me as I smiled back. I was going to take another bite of the delicious food when I saw three pairs of eyes boring into us.

Kyo and Sugawara's mom were smiling and Souta grinned playfully. "You're so fond of each other." He mused, making Koushi give him a tired look.

"Oh, come on. You were the same about Kyo when you two started dating." Their mother said and the attention fell on Souta, making me feel a little more relaxed.

"I wasn't the only one." Souta said proudly, but that only made two women look at each other skeptically.

"Really?" Kyo asked, while Sugawara's mom shook in a quiet laughter.

"You really forgot that you had to use trickery to get her here?" Her eyes were almost closing from the wide smile she had on her face. "And the first time she had dinner with us it almost ended up in her running away."

"Everyone would run away if their not-a-boyfriend-yet would trick them into staying the night. And that reminds me... you still didn't pay me back for my shoes." She said with eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Souta choked on his piece of chicken and started coughing frantically. He tried to said something, but he couldn't even form a sentence. I started hitting his back lightly, but Koushi pulled me away before getting up to give him one, firm smack on his back.

"I n-eed wat-er." Souta choked out between coughs and I quickly got up.

"I'll get it." I said quickly and almost ran to the kitchen. I looked around and opened the fridge. I took a small bottle out and came back to the room, opening it for Souta.

He took it and gulped half of it in one go. When he was finished, he looked at me gratefully. "You're a real life-saver. I own you one." He said with a smile, to which Kyo just scoffed.

"You own me a new pair of shoes."

"Come onnnn. That was like... three years ago." Souta whined, hiding his face in his hands.

"But I really liked them." Kyo pouted fakely, to which Souta groaned.

"Okay, okay. We will go shopping when we come back to Tokyo." All his defenses seemed to fell as he said that, but suddenly he turned to me. "Hey, do you want to visit us? I mean, with Koushi of course. We don't have a big apartment, but you two can sleep on the couch." He exclaimed, but Sugawara quickly shook his head.