Take my glasses and see.

The emotional forecast in the apartment on the night of Kimiko's date with Daichi was a heavy chance of rain. Her painted-on smiles, the shake at the ends of her words, and the constant fidgeting of her fingers let him know to keep an umbrella nearby.

Kimiko had already told him about what had happened, but despite his attempts to comfort her, her thoughts were trapped in a maze with no end.

The next morning, the mood was partly cloudy, so Makoto tried to lean into the sunshine peeking through and coax it out. He'd even made her laugh a few times.

It was a workday for Kimiko and Makoto both. Currently, the man was back at the café he used as an office, enjoying his break by simply sitting in the plush booth with his laptop closed while he sipped his drink. The smell of coffee beans being freshly ground crossed with the steady Lo-Fi beats that twirled their way through the room to greet each guest. Its gentle sincerity reminded him of the woman he now lived with, wondering how Kimiko was doing over at her café right now, remembering how she zipped around with more grace and ease than the frantic pace and clinging cats should allow.

Then, with the same swoop of confidence and stealth of a red-tailed hawk, a tall man slid into the booth and sat on the other side of Makoto. "We're talking."

"Well, we are now."

The man was Makoto's height, his features mimicked his own in such a way that it was impossible to not recognize them as brothers.

"I'd ask what you're doing here, but I imagine it's for a client. Yes?" Makoto said.

"Partially." He replied, setting his to-go coffee beside him on the table.

Makoto leaned back in his seat with his hands behind his head. "What's the other part then?"

His brother narrowed his eyes, shook his head, then fixed his long dark coat and slate grey button-down shirt with a tug at each sleeve as he spoke. "The other part is your inability to read a single document you sign."

"I read plenty."

"Oh?" The man with matching blue hair took his phone out of his pocket and typed into it.

"What's the client's problem?"

"Worried about her partner cheating. The usual. Look-" He presented the phone to him. It was a previously streamed video of Makoto and Kimiko in their apartment, chatting while sitting on their fluffy, green rug. They called it their frog-rug, or frug, for short.

With furrowed brows, he stared at the screen. The implications stacked high and all Makoto could do was stand in their shadow. This video was the night before, when she'd poured out her account of what had happened to her on that date. It was the night he clumsily tried to put her at ease without knowing the right thing to do to make it so. That wasn't all, though. It wasn't just the clumsy words or one night, it was every word he'd said to her in that apartment, and every word she'd said to him. Those shared moments had snuck out into the judgemental realm of the internet, and there was no taking them back. A curtain pulled back on the peaceful shower of their lives for all to see, and likely, for all to still see.

He looked at the creator responsible and cringed.

Insta-Love Matches

It was the company he and Kimiko were contracted with.

"I thought that this must be a breach of privacy so I looked into it for you, naturally." His brother's voice was lower than his, but not by much. More due to the delivery of his words than its natural depth. "However, it appears on page one hundred and two, that there is a clause that states your footage may be broadcasted to compensate for the expenses of you living there with her."

Makoto's posture slid down in his seat, his chin to his chest as he stared at the edge of the table.

"Which, by the way-" His brother continued while he put his phone back in his coat pocket. "-why didn't you tell me about any of this?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's in the contract."

"Makoto."

"Tatsuya."

"I'm serious."

Makoto sat up swiftly. "Well maybe I just didn't want to, okay?" He knew he was acting childish but he didn't care. He pushed his hair back, only for it to flutter in place once more.

Tatsuya sighed heavily, then glanced away and took a mental note of an unkempt man at a table in the corner of the café who was still on his phone, swiping right over and over again faster than he could blink. "Second day of this. Seems as though he hasn't cheated yet, but only because nobody wants him."

Makoto smirked with a halfhearted snicker. "Should have just stuck with the girl who did like him, for whatever reason that was."

"Ego is an easy way to rust a well oiled machine."

"I think you comparing women to machines might be why you don't have any."

"And I think your inability to accept what you really want in life is what's keeping you from being happy."

Makoto threw his hands up in a huff. "I was just playing around Tatsu, you didn't have to go for the gullet!"

Tatsuya smiled just a second for the first time in their interaction. A moment later, it was gone. "So, what are you going to do now that you know you're being broadcasted?"

Makoto shrugged. "Same thing as I was before."

"Mm." Tatsuya hummed. "Does Kimiko know?"

Makoto's heart jolted as if it stumbled on the first step of stairs only to catch itself at the last second. "I'm… not sure."

"You should let her know before she finds out in a more uncomfortable way."

Makoto glanced over at the man Tatsuya was tailing, he was slumped over on the table in defeat. The defeat of being unable to cheat on his girlfriend.

"Yeah… yeah." Makoto spoke in a sigh.

Then, his eyes caught a rare sight, his brother had a knowing smile, not unlike the sly expression Makoto usually had when he made a revelation that connected two dots together before someone else did.

"You broke up with Kimiko before you two ever began." Tatsuya said.

Makoto’s eyes averted to the mug on the table.

Tatsuya took the cup of coffee he'd ordered earlier and tilted it toward his mouth. "I've never seen you do that before."

Later that day…

The evening had come, and Kimiko walked out of work with a flutter of her apron, practically skipping in her excitement to see Makoto earlier than usual.

The silhouette of a tall man, dressed in modern, neatly ironed, business casual wear leaned against the short wall that confined a green park beside her workplace.

Her momentum stopped in a skid. She swore she could feel the sting on her hand again.

"O-Oh, hi Daichi." She said.

With a slight delay, he walked up to her just as her co-worker left the café, eyeing his expensive watch and giving Kimiko an encouraging look before she left.

"Nakano, Kimiko. The way I proposed to you was completely inappropriate for a person of my status. I want to make amends for that slight."

A simmer of stewing feelings brewed within her like a hot pot threatening to boil over. With a look away from him and a breath, she was able to settle herself. "It wasn't just that."

"I know." He said. "And a lack of ring as well. It was rather classless of me."

"No, I-"

"Please. Let me show you that my affections are true. It will take but a few minutes." Daichi offered his arm to her but she didn't take it, instead, she silently walked beside him to the jewelry store nearby.

The shop itself replicated what it must be like to step inside a disco ball. Spangled objects lined the glass cases and atop the counters. The reflected light of the overhead chandelier cast a bright allure, enough to catch the eye of a fish from the next sea over. The wonderland of gems captivated the customers within, but Kimiko felt a magnet pulling her to the exit.

"Obviously I won't be getting your ring from here. I want only the best for an important heirloom such as that, and a small establishment like this won't do."

Kimiko hoped the owner wouldn't hear his insults.

"But I did pick out something beautiful for you." He said, then revealed a rectangular red box coated in velvet, pulled from his back pocket. "For you, my dear."

He already bought it?

Dread twisted sparks of static into her stomach and crawled up to her chest.

Daichi handed her the box with a smile. With hesitance in her dainty fingers, she tilted it up until it opened, revealing the blinding glitter of large diamonds draped on a silver chain. Inane instincts pulled her apart, one with the relief of a honey bee finally being gifted a flower for its thankless efforts. While the other anguished at her own foolishness for happily providing honey to a mosquito that really only ever wanted blood.

It came back to her like an echo of a dream once thought lost. The freshly cut grass of the school yard and a daisy flower chain in her hands, an offering to her reserved friend, only to be denied. The cold and rainy day that his spilled soup puddled on the table. She cleaned it for him and let him eat hers instead, the favor not once returned no matter how hungry she was. A muggy afternoon that he spent ignoring her in favor of a girl with long blonde hair who nearly every boy seemed to crush on, while Kimiko swung on the swings alone and wished it could be her instead.

She'd always wanted his attention so badly, his approval.

Now, in a way, he was giving it to her.

But… did she still want it?

Now that she was away from the pressures of his family, without the concern of hurting his feelings publicly, she had room to be true to herself.

She looked at the display of that same necklace in the store. She saw the cost on the sign. The air got trapped in her lungs.

Daichi waited with clear expectation until finally, she spoke up.

"Thank you, um… It's just too much, I'm afraid."

"Too… much?"

"It's too much money, Daichi."

"How considerate.” He smiled. “Such a good wife to be."

Kimiko hated how instinctively pleased she felt to hear him praise her.

"But, truthfully, I want you to have it." He said. "Consider it earned after my poor manners yesterday."

Poor… manners?

With a soft close of the lid, she placed the box back into his hands. "I really wouldn't be comfortable with that."

He opened his mouth to protest, but she was heading out of the store.

He followed her.

"Kimiko please, you know I'm not good at… expressing things."

"Yes, I know."

He sighed in frustration, then took her by the arm to keep her from walking away from him. It was easier to tolerate her defiant face when his father wasn't here.

"Then you should know how hard it was for me to come here at all. You wounded my pride at that gathering."

Her green eyes flashed up at him, a warning. "What did you say?"

"Kimi-"

"No. I let you walk over me because I felt sorry for you, and because I'm scared of your family, but I at least have enough resolve to keep you from doing it here! You have no right to speak of your feelings as if I victimized you!"

"Oh? Then what logic gives you the right to broadcast your version of events to thousands of people?"

"What?!" Her spirit kept, despite the whisper and shake to her voice.

"Your little recount to Makoto yesterday was streamed online for everyone to see, including, potentially my family if they come across it. Do you have any idea what that will do to my reputation?!"

"It will make it more accurate for one thing!" Her voice wavered, her eyes strained to keep her tears held back. She was too overwhelmed to process everything he said and what it meant.

"I came here to appease you, and this is how you behave?!"

"To appease me?!"

"Yes. You've always been emotional and irrational. I figured a gift would please you like it always did before!"

A strike of memories flashed in an instant. Of little Kimiko being upset with his sharp tongue or lack of positive attention every so often. A brand new pack of cards, a pair of shoes, even halfhearted praises, she'd regarded as treasures. Those were always enough to earn him her forgiveness.

"Well I'm not a child anymore, and while I do care for you, do not presume me stupid. I know why you asked me to marry you and it wasn't love!" Her tears finally escaped and she swiped them away with her sleeve.

"Then what, pray tell, do you suspect possessed me?"

"Convenience. Your father will not allow you your inheritance independently unless you marry someone he approves of."

"Yes, and I could find several women who wouldn't have pushed a box worth more than three years of their pay back into my hands when offered, but I still chose you."

Kimiko shook her head. "You chose a "submissive" girl. One that you wouldn't have to worry about because you think the rumors are true about your grandmother, and you know I would never have the heart to do such a thing when I barely have it in me to stand up to you."

"That isn't true." He spoke as if it were fact.

"It is." She pulled back and walked away.

He took her arm once more.

"It isn't."

Staring into his eyes, she swore she saw someone different. The soft and vulnerable edges of a person with genuine intentions, but she'd thought a lot of things about him that she wasn’t sure was true anymore. It felt dangerous to slip back into that way of thinking, to walk into that quicksand again.

"You were my truest friend." He said. "You cared for me in a way that I've never felt before. When I parted from you as we grew older it was because I didn't think my family would approve of me pursuing you given your status. It was a surprise to hear my father say that he'd always approved of you, but that was how I knew that my risk in choosing you to be my wife was the right one."

"What?" Her voice was small and confused as she processed his warped perspective of what she would be comforted to hear.

Kimiko glanced down, taking the time to still her mind for a few moments before she looked back up into his eyes. "I'm sorry, Daichi. But you really don't know what love means. You loved how I made you feel. You don't love me. Not then... and not now either." She took a step back from him as he looked at her in silence.

"I have to go, okay?" Her body turned away.

"Wait."

She hesitated but didn't face him again.

"You wanted to marry Makoto immediately, and grow to fall in love."

She stayed silent.

"We can wed and grow together. Just like that."

Kimiko didn't know what to say, and she was tired of arguing, so she simply headed home without another word.