Kuu-Chan Learns Love

Outside the Arts Department building, Tomohiro was sitting on a bench waiting for Noriyuki to come out after his class. He was scrolling on his phone to let time go by faster and as he was scrolling, a short-form video played with a girl talking to the screen with the title “Little Ways to Express Love to Your BF/GF!” displayed on top of the screen.

“Hello everyone, Ai-Sensei here! In this short video, I’ll show you three small ways to express love to your significant other to reignite the spark back into your relationship. Number one, smile when you see them. This may seem obvious but as time goes on, we take our partner’s presence for granted, so smiling at them just for being there will make their heart skip a beat. Number two, hold their hands. There is a phase in every relationship where we never want to let each other go, but when that phase is gone, hand holding is the last thing we think about when we’re in public. Randomly grabbing their hand to hold it will truly make their heart flutter. Number three, ask them about their day. Remember when we were all curious about our partners and would be extremely interested in them. Well, if you’re not asking them about their day, then it might mean you lost interest in them. Just simply asking how their day is would bring a smile onto their faces because it shows interest in your partner’s lives. Well, hope this helps all you couples out there, I’ll see you in my next video. Bye!” The girl in the video was extremely perky and never lost her smile throughout her whole lecture.

Tomohiro scoffed, “The algorithm truly knows who’s the right audience.” Tomohiro closed the app and put his phone in his pocket. He took a deep breath and thought, “Do I ever do those things with Yuki?” He was lost in thought for a few minutes and then shook his head to come back to reality. “No, don’t fall for that type of content. Yuki knows I love him. Right? Technically, he always smiles when he sees me and asks me about my day everyday. Could it be possible that he shows more love than I do?” He shook his head again, “No, don’t think like that. We’re a happy couple.” Tomohiro focused on the present moment to try and get these thoughts out of his head. Although, wherever he looked, there was a couple walking past him or somewhere nearby. All the couples were smiling and holding hands with each other. “Is the universe messing with me,” he had a discontent look on his face and ended up going back on his phone. Instead of going on the social media apps, he went into his photo gallery and looked over the pictures he took with Noriyuki. In all of the photos, Noriyuki had a giant smile on his face while Tomohiro was either expressionless or had a small smile. “Noriyuki looks so much happier than me in all of these.”

“Kuu-Chan?” Noriyuki came from behind Tomohiro which startled the latter.

“Yuki, when did you get here?”

“I just came out. Were you looking at our pictures? Aww, were you missing me that much,” Noriyuki teased Tomohiro which made him blush and turn away.

“I was just…,”

“Huh, just what? Are you okay?”

“Never mind that! How was class?” Tomohiro suddenly asked.

“Class? I guess it was okay.”

“I see, what are you…planning to do for the rest of the day?” Tomohiro was hesitating since he wasn’t acting like his usual self. “Stupid, I got influenced,” he thought to himself.

“Just getting some assignments done and going grocery shopping for dinner.”

“Can I…go with you this time?” Tomohiro blushed.

Noriyuki’s eyes widened, “You want to come with me?” His face turned into a mischievous smile and he teased Tomohiro, “Someone’s really missing me today, isn’t he? Fine, I guess I’ll let you go with me.”

Tomohiro couldn’t face Noriyuki since he didn’t want him to see his beet red face. “D-Don’t act like you’re doing me a favor.”

“I think I just unlocked the tsundere side of you,” Noriyuki kept teasing.

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“Okay, Kuu-Chan, can you go two aisles over and get me the cooking oil,” Noriyuki asked Tomohiro. Both of them were at the market getting the ingredients for tonight’s dinner.

“Mm,” Tomohiro followed Noriyuki’s directions and went over to the aisle with the cooking oil. He stood in front of the shelves that were stocked with multiple types and brands of cooking oil. “Hmm, which one does he use? I only remember the picture of the bottle.” He looked around and spotted a bottle that was familiar to him. When he went to grab it, his hand was met with another person’s hand who was grabbing the same bottle.

“Ah, I’m–” Hanazawa Erisa paused after seeing Tomohiro standing next to her.

Tomohiro stared at her with his expressionless face, “Oh, it’s you, crazy junior.”

“Ah!” Erisa quickly retracted her hand and got into a defensive stance, “You can have it! Please don’t hurt me! I’m sorry! I won’t show my face here again!”

Tomohiro looked at her with a dumbfounded expression, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Erisa suddenly bowed, “I’m sorry for hurting your boyfriend the other day!”

Tomohiro sighed, “I’m not the one you should be apologizing to. Anyway, you can take that. I’ll just go tell him they’re out and we can look for another one.” Tomohiro was starting to leave until Erisa called out to him.

“Excuse me!”

Tomohiro stopped and turned around, “Yeah?”

“Do you guys…shop together all of the time?” Erisa felt embarrassed to ask that.

“Not really. This is my first time shopping with him.”

“Really? Why’d you decide to come this time?”

“Are you going to try to steal him since you know he comes here,” Tomohiro asked nonchalantly, which caused Erisa to quickly defend herself.

“N-no. Nothing like that! I-I would never try anything like that ever again.” Erisa stuttered.

Tomohiro gave a small chuckle, “I just want to show him more love,”

“More love?”

“Mm. There’s times where it seems like he shows more love to me than I do to him. So I’m trying my best to show him more love even if it’s something small like this.”

Erisa blushed at his answer, “I see,” she smiled. “From the way it looks to me though, it seems as if you both show each other the same amount of love.” Her tone changed to a more defensive one, “Of course, this is just my perspective and I have no say in what you do in your relationship!”

Tomohiro smiled, “Thank you, but it doesn’t feel that way to me. So, I’m going to keep trying to show him more.”

Erisa was in awe to see Tomohiro acting this way.

“You better take that last bottle or someone’s gonna take it away from you,” Tomohiro said before leaving the aisle.

“Ah! Thank you!” Erisa bowed to him as he left.

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That night, Tomohiro was under the covers scrolling on his phone. As he was scrolling, he came across a short video from the same account he saw this afternoon. Out of curiosity, he tapped on it.

“Hello, everyone! It’s me, Ai-Sensei and today I’m going to teach you how to express love with bigger gestures. One, plan a surprise date! If you know your partner’s schedule, then on their day off, surprise them with a date to a place they’ve been wanting to go to; go the extra mile to plan and spend a special day with them and their heart will be fluttering so much it might fly away! Two, give them kisses! We only tend to be affectionate and physical in the first stages of dating but often we forget to give each other affection as time goes on since we take each other for granted. Give your partner the kisses they’ve been deprived of as the years went by. Not limited to kisses, but just affection and physical touch in general. Express to them the attraction you still have for them and love can blossom again. And the best way for love to blossom is with my third tip! Number three, lay them down in bed and have se–”

“That’s enough internet for today,” Tomohiro turned his phone off and put it on the stand near his bed. “Planning a date,” Tomohiro laid in bed thinking about where he would take Noriyuki for a date. He kept thinking about the places Noriyuki mentioned to him that he’d always wanted to go to. “Maybe I can plan to take him there,” Tomohiro thought. He decided that he’s going to do it; he was going to go the extra mile and plan a special day for him and Noriyuki.

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“I’m so ready for the weekend! This semester has been killing me,” Osuke stretched his arms up as he and Noriyuki were walking over to Noriyuki’s place.

“Just a few more weeks and it’ll be summer. Let’s do our best with these next few exams,” Noriyuki tried to cheer up his friend.

“You don’t understand the pain of being a science major, do you,” Osuke glared at Noriyuki. “Oh yeah, what are you doing this summer?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll take Kuu-Chan to the beach house.”

“Your beach house? Can I come too?” Osuke’s expression changed to an excited one.

“That’s right, you’ve never been there yet and I said I’ll take you there one day too. How about we all just go there this summer?”

“Yes! Now I’m more motivated to get through school. My first summer at a private beach house,” Osuke chuckled and had a wide grin on his face. He and Noriyuki went up the stairs that led to Noriyuki’s apartment door and opened it.

“Yuki!” Tomohiro gave Noriyuki a wide smile as they entered the building.

“This is creepy,” Osuke had a fearful look on his face.

“Kuu-Chan?” Noriyuki was also surprised.

“Don’t look at me like that. Aren’t you happy to see me?” Tomohiro went up to hug Noriyuki who was taken aback at this new side of Tomohiro.

“I-I am,” Noriyuki blushed and returned Tomohiro’s hug.

“This is a weird sight to see,” Osuke referred to the pink, affectionate aura emitting from Tomohiro.

“Osuke, would you mind leaving us alone together, please?” Tomohiro looked at Osuke with a cute expression, his eyes sparkling.

Osuke blushed, “Uh, s-sure. I’ll get going now, Yuki.” Osuke left and shut the door behind him, leaving Noriyuki and Tomohiro by themselves.

“Yuki, do you have any plans this weekend,” Tomohiro looked at Noriyuki with an innocent sparkle in his eyes.

“U-uh, I don’t think I do, why?” Noriyuki was still in awe of this new side of Tomohiro.

“Great! I have something nice planned for the both of us tomorrow,” Tomohiro gave him a bright smile like a happy child.

“O-oh okay,” Noriyuki gave a small smile and patted Tomohiro’s head.

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“Are you ready?” Tomohiro stood by the front door of their apartment as he was waiting for Noriyuki. Noriyuki picked up his bag from the living room floor and put it around his shoulder.

“Mm, let’s go!”

As Noriyuki and Tomohiro were walking to the bus station, Noriyuki suddenly asked, “By the way, you’ve never told where we’re going.”

Tomohiro chuckled, “That’s a surprise. You’ll see when we get there.”

“O-oh. Mm. I can’t wait to see what you planned for us, Kuu-Chan,” Noriyuki’s smile made Tomohiro blush and look away.

After a bus ride, a 30 minute train ride, and another short bus ride, Tomohiro and Noriyuki arrived at their surprise location.

“We’re here!” Tomohiro excitedly declared as Noriyuki was staring at the sight in front of him.

A giant arch above them read “DreamLand”. Inside was an amusement park filled with large and small rides as well as food and game stalls. Cute mascots walked around, taking pictures with kids and ensuring that guests were having fun. Pointing towards the sky was the top of a castle that stood in the center of the park, which was one of the main attractions that the park was known for. The entire area was enclosed by a pink wall; the park was so big that it would take one the whole day to reach from one end to the other.

“Kuu-Chan,” Noriyuki was speechless at the surprise. He looked at Tomohiro who gave him a bright smile.

“I bought the tickets already so you don’t have to worry about that either,” Tomohiro took out two tickets from his wallet and showed it to Noriyuki.

“Ahh, you didn’t have to do that. I would’ve been fine paying for myself.”

Tomohiro pouted, “Are you saying you won’t accept these then?”

“N-no, I’ll accept it,” Noriyuki had a nervous smile, but it changed to one that expressed love, “Thank you, Kuu-Chan.”

The whole day was spent with Noriyuki and Tomohiro going on rides and playing many games together. As the day went on, they had to help each other carry the many prizes they won as well as bags of items they bought from the gift shop. Throughout the day, Tomohiro would look at Noriyuki and secretly smile at seeing how happy Noriyuki was. “I’ve never seen him like this before. Maybe I should do this more often,” he would think to himself every time he looked at Noriyuki.

“Hey, Yuki. How about we take a picture to remember this day,” Tomohiro asked as they were sitting down to take a small break.

“Mm! Let’s do that!”

Tomohiro took out his phone, opened the camera app, and flipped it to the selfie side. He positioned the camera to fit him and Noriyuki in the shot as well as some of the background of the park. Before he snapped the shot, he saw how Noriyuki had a big smile on his face and didn’t want this picture to be like the other pictures he had of both of them. Seeing how Noriyuki looked happy, it made his own smile naturally come out and then he took the picture. He looked at the end result and smiled to himself.

“Did it turn out good,” Noriyuki asked.

“Mm. It turned out perfect,” Tomohiro said as he looked at the two smiling faces that the camera captured.

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At the end of the day, when they were walking back to the bus station, the sun was starting to set down, giving the sky an orange color. Noriyuki was carrying a couple of bags in one hand while Tomohiro was carrying a large sheep plush toy.

“Thank you, Kuu-Chan,” Noriyuki suddenly said.

“A-ah, it’s nothing. I just thought we should do something together for once. It was good to see you so happy,” Tomohiro blushed.

Noriyuki chuckled, “As long as we’re together, I’m happy. No matter what we do. That’s why you don’t have to try so hard.”

Tomohiro was taken aback by what Noriyuki said, “What do you mean?”

“You don’t have to go the extra mile to plan something like this to show me you love me.”

Tomohiro blushed even harder and stuttered as he said, “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m just saying, you don’t need Ai-Sensei to tell you what to do to express love,” Noriyuki said with a laid-back expression on his face.

“W-What are you t-talking about?” Tomohiro was at his limit, he was seriously red and tried to hide it from Noriyuki by facing the other way.

Noriyuki snickered, “You’re so cute, Kuu-Chan.”

Tomohiro pouted, “H-how did you know?”

“Hmm, she’s been popular on social media lately. There were some girls watching her videos in my class and I realized that you’ve been suspiciously doing exactly everything she says.”

“You’re more perceptive than I thought.”

Noriyuki looked proud of himself and smirked. “Look, I know that you want to try harder to express love, but you don’t have to do it her way. You have a different way of expressing it.”

“But, it always seems like you’re always showing me you love me while I don’t do much.”

“That’s just how you see it. You express it more than you realize. It’s okay if the way you show love isn’t like how others show love. If I can feel that you love me, then you are doing your best.”

Tomohiro looked at Noriyuki who had a genuine smile on his face. “Well, there is one thing I want to do with you.” Tomohiro held the large plush over one of his shoulders to free up one hand and grabbed Noriyuki’s free hand to hold it.

Noriyuki blushed, “Kuu-Chan.”

“I’m not doing this because I’m being told to do it. I’m doing this because I want to do it myself,” Tomohiro looked at Noriyuki with a cute-serious expression.

Noriyuki felt his heart melt as he couldn’t stand how cute Tomohiro was.

“From now on, I’m going to hold your hand more and I won’t let go of it. And I’ll get mad if you try to stop me from doing it,” Tomohiro said with determination.

Noriyuki chuckled, “All right, all right. I got it.” But, in his head, he was already thinking of doing the same thing.

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Kuu-Chan Shorts

“Is Kuu-Chan okay?” Osuke sat across from Noriyuki at the University Student Center.

“Oh, he’s back to regular Kuu-Chan now.”

“Thank goodness, smiley Kuu-Chan was starting to scare me.”

“I thought you were scared of regular Kuu-Chan.”

“I am, but the happy one seemed scarier.”

“I see…,” Noriyuki stared at his friend in disbelief.

Trivia: Despite being a love content creator, Ai-Sensei has had no romantic experience