Falling For My Sensei

Chapter 6

After my first lesson, I go back to his place to grab my stuff, then left after giving Kyo my address.

I’m back home, and Kyo will be here in 2 hours to pick me up for our date. I wasn’t expecting to be dating this soon, but Kyo is a good guy, and on top of that, he’s hot. He’s nicer and better looking than any guy who has ever shown interest in me before, which is a bonus; even though looks aren’t the most important thing to me…sure, he has to be attractive, but a man who knows how to treat me in a way that I need and want is more important than looks to me.

I have no idea what he has planned, but being that it’s a Sunday afternoon, I know it’s not something that would require me to dress fancy. I’m going to go with my go-to style since it’s not too hot or too cold outside. After showering and getting dressed, my doorbell rings, which means he’s early: “One second,” I tell him through my ring camera, and I can see him respond with a smile, then he leans against the wall by my door.

I stop and look at myself in my full-length mirror before stepping out of my room. I’m wearing a pair of ripped high-waisted skinny jeans with the bottom folded, a soft short-sleeved blush-colored blouse, and my white Converse. My hair is in a ponytail because I didn’t have time to do anything else to it, and I put on lip gloss and a little mascara.

“I’m not dressed in a fancy way, but this works for an impromptu lunch date,” I state to my reflection.

I could have worn a dress or skirt and put on heels, but I want to be genuine and let Kyo see me for me. Dressing comfortably is my go-to look.

Once I open the door, Kyo smiles and then takes in my appearance.

“Sorry, I kept you waiting. I didn’t expect you to show up early… Is my outfit okay for what you have planned for today?” I ask, while silently second guessing my outfit choice.

He smiles again: “What you’re wearing looks nice, you could have worn a big potatoe sack and still look nice…you don’t ever have to stress about what to wear when you’re out with me, I want to get to know the authentic you, I don’t care about materialistic things.”

I release a breath I didn’t realize I was holding: “Good, I’m glad you view it that way because I do as well. I prefer comfort while still looking good, so I guess that’s something we have in common….and you look nice as well,” I state with a smile.

He’s wearing a pair of jeans, a pair of white and gray Jordans, and a lightweight light gray fitted henley shirt with the sleeves crunched up to his elbows, he has on a watch and I don’t know what about it is about it; but some guys forearms look really good when their sleeves are crunched up or folded while wearing a watch, it somehow makes the guy look hotter. His hair is in the same style it was in when I first met him.

“So, since you gave me a tour of your place, would you like a tour of mine?” I ask while secretly being happy that my place doesn’t look messy.

“I would love to get a tour, but it’ll have to wait til later or another time, because we have plans and I fear if you let me inside, we’ll get too comfortable and decide on staying in.”

“True, but would that be a bad thing, Kyo?

“It wouldn’t be on any other day, but since this is our first official date, I would like to show off how lucky I am to have you by my side, Kora.”

My face heats up as I blush: “I’m pretty lucky too.”

“Thank you for saying that…did you know that you’re blushing again?” He states with a light tease.

“Come on, let’s go,” I say while grabbing my bag and my keys by the door, then place my hand on his chest and lightly make him back up before I lock the door, and he responds by laughing.

“So where to?” I ask curiously as we walk to his car.

“I was thinking of getting our favorite dish to go and going to a park to have a picnic, how does that sound to you?”

“That sounds perfect, thank you for thinking of that for our first date.”

“Of course, I’m glad you like that plan. I wasn’t sure if you like picnics, but I decided to take the chance.”

“I love picnics…. there’s just something about it that’s peaceful, and they’re universal: between two love interests it can be romantic, and between friends and families it can be a good way to have a fun, relaxed day at the park.”

“I’m glad I made a good choice….so have you had a lot of picnics before?” He asks as he opens the car door for me.

“My parents and I had a couple of them when I was small, and my friends and I had them a couple of times as well, but I never had the experience with a love interest before.”

“Really? Did they not know that you liked picnics?”

“They knew, but they didn’t care to actually plan romantic picnics, and whenever I suggested it, it was dismissed.”

“Damn, I’m sorry you went through that. Some guys don’t listen to the things their partner tells them. They don’t realize that a lot of times those things are what’s needed to keep the relationship going.”

I shake my head in agreement: “Since we’re on the topic of past relationships, why did your ex claim she cheated on you? What was her reasoning? Because from what I have personally experienced with you, I don’t see any red flags or even yellow ones so far.”

“Thank you,” he replies while laughing, then shrugs: “Believe it or not, her reason was ‘I don’t know why I did it’ then she stated that she ‘didn’t want an exclusive relationship anymore’…I’m just glad it happened early on instead of after investing a lot of time and effort into the relationship.

“I’m sorry you experienced that, but I’m not sorry it happened because we wouldn’t be on a date right now if it didn’t.”

“I could say the same to you,” he responds before stepping out of the car to open my door.

We leave happy stirfry seconds after we enter it because our food was already bagged up and waiting for us.

We arrive at the park within a few minutes: “This is my favorite park. The cherry blossoms are so pretty here; even the mess the petals make on the ground is pretty. This is the park I used to come to with my parents on picnic days.

“Really? My parents love this park, they would come by to take strolls under the cherry blossom trees while the petals move with the breeze…. They told me that Cherry blossoms can signify true love…When I didn’t believe them, they told me to come here and watch the couples walking the pathway, and I would notice cherry blossom petals cascade over only a few couples.”

“Did you ever do it?”

“No, but I did walk the path a few times alone and with past girlfriends, and I didn’t ever experience the cascade of petals.”

“Hmm, so maybe there’s truth to what your parents told you, Kyo…when my parents and I used to walk the path, there were always cascades of petals, and I used to run ahead of them trying to catch the petals while laughing, but they never told me of that superstition.”

“I guess there could be some truth to it. Did you ever walk that path with anyone other than your parents?”

“Nope, I never had the urge to walk the path with anyone before…so do you want to sit under this tree? We could watch people walk the path together and see your parents’ theory in action.”

“Sounds good,” he states as he pulls a blanket out of a backpack he was wearing, then he pulls out a small Bluetooth speaker and places it on the blanket.

The cherry blossom tree I picked out as our picnic spot is by the pathway. Once Kyo places his bag down and we sit, he hands me my food.

“Thank you for the food, I didn’t expect my Sunday to be this eventful…if you wouldn’t have asked me on this date, I would have been lounging on my couch watching a show on Netflix or something.”

“You’re welcome and thank you for saying yes to this date…I’m enjoying getting to know you better.”

“Me too,” I reply shyly.

“Good, I’m glad….so would you be interested in a second date?”

I giggle: “Date one isn’t over yet, but you’re already thinking about a second date?”

“Yes, is that weird? I can’t imagine anything happening that would stop me from wanting to take you on another date. I really like you and would like to explore this connection between us, and don’t worry, if it doesn’t work out, we can remain friends or at the very least still be instructor and student,” he states the last part confidently.

“I really like you too, I know that neither of us were looking for a relationship, but I’ll admit, I feel the connection between us also….I figured if today didn’t work out, I would have just stopped taking private lessons with you because that would be weird….right?”

“I disagree, Kora. If today didn’t work out, I would have continued training you as long as you were still comfortable with it. When it comes to Martial arts lessons, I try to keep my personal feelings away from it, and our training lessons would strictly follow the curriculum.”

“Does that mean that you went easy on me today during training because it definitely didn’t feel easy?” I teasingly state, which causes him to laugh.

“I didn’t go easy on you, but I am speeding up the lesson curriculum since you’re a fast learner and we’re having one-on-one lessons, so we don’t have to drag it out.”

“Oh, so it’s the opposite, that’s so mean, you’re supposed to go easier on me,” I state while cleaning up our now empty food containers, which causes him to laugh.

“No can do, I may be altering my methods, and I may not be as strict with you, but that’s as easy as I can go on you when it comes to taking lessons…Let’s just say, if Jonah knew I was giving you lessons the way that I am, he would say I’m showing you favoritism because I trained him the same way I train everyone else.”

“Okay, my lips are sealed.”

My zipping lips gesture makes him chuckle, then a mischievous expression appears on his face. “You know, since your lips are sealed, you can’t stop me from doing this,” he silly states before tickling my sides, and his silliness makes me laugh, not the actual tickling.

“Joke's on you, I’m not ticklish.”

“Then why did you laugh?” he asks, confused.

“I thought your silliness was funny and cute.”

“Oh,” he responds with a blush coating his cheeks, “have you noticed that no one has had petals cascade on them?” He asks while looking at the couples walking by.

“I have an idea,” I state excitedly.

“What’s your idea?”

“How about we let fate decide if we should have a second date or not.”

“I don’t like that idea.”

“Why not? It’ll make it interesting, Kyo.”

“What if it doesn’t go in our favor?”

“ I don’t know, maybe we’ll listen and maybe we won’t,” I respond with a shrug.

“Okay, would that be the same way we will view it if it does go in our favor?”

“Definitely not…if fate is in our favor, then I’m all in to see where this thing between us goes.”

“I’ll be all in as well….what do you have in mind to test fate, Kora?”

I gesture to the pathway: “We walk the path….no one has gotten rained on with petals this whole time, so if it happens to us, then the universe is on our side.”

“I have a better idea, let’s dance,” he states while putting on a slow song.

“Here? In front of everyone?” I ask unsurely.

“Sure, why not?… Would you be embarrassed to do that?”

“As romantic as that sounds, yes, I’ll be a bit embarrassed if everyone looks at us,” I admit.

“Don’t worry about everyone else, just focus on me and you at that moment…I would love to be able to do romantic things with you if you let me.”

“Ok,” I state while covering my face, already feeling embarrassed even though we haven’t started dancing yet.

He smiles while he stands up. He then sticks out his hand for me to grab. Once I grab his hand, he guides me a few steps away to the pathway. He slowly guides my arms around his neck, then puts his arms around my waist and begins to sway.

I can’t help but look around to see if anyone is looking at us, and when I notice they aren’t, I relax and focus on enjoying this moment with Kyo. Then I look at him and notice him smiling.

Midway into the dance, we hear a gasp and then claps, which snaps us out of the mesmerizing trance we entered while looking at each other’s eyes. When we turn to look where the sound is coming from, we see an older couple sitting on a nearby bench looking at us. As we turn back to look at each other, we notice that the cherry blossom petals are cascading on us, which causes us to look up at the tree for a few seconds in wonder. We then look at each other again with smiles on our faces.

“All in?” He asks with hopefulness clear in his voice.

“Yes,” I reply while shaking my head and smiling.

“Me too,” he states while smiling back. Then he pulls me into a hug.

A few more seconds pass by before the song ends, and Kyo guides me back to our picnic area: “I don’t know how I could make our second date beat today, but I’ll try,” He states with a weary laugh.

“Kyo, I’m sure whatever you plan would be great. Please don’t stress yourself on trying to top our dates with any of our previous dates. What’s most important is that we get to spend time together while enjoying each other’s company, and please don’t think that we will always have to go out for dates because I’ll also enjoy calmer dates at home,” I respond reassuringly.

“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind….I know we both work tomorrow, so would you like to start packing up?”

“Yeah, we should, if only there was no such thing as bills,” I reply while laughing.

We arrive at my place around 6:00 pm because we stopped to pick up some dinner. Once he steps out of the car, he walks me to my door: “Would you like the tour of my place now?”

“I would love to, but I have to get back home and prepare for this week’s classes. I’ll accept that offer next time, if that’s okay.”

“Of course, that’s okay, I completely understand,” I reply with a smile, and he smiles broadly in return.

“So, Kora, what would you like to do or where would you like to go for our next date?”

“Hmmm, I don’t know, you can surprise me.”

“That gives me endless possibilities,” he replies with a laugh.

“I’m not picky.”

“Good to know,” he responds, then looks at his watch, then back at me with what seems like a saddened expression.

“Everything okay, Kyo?”

“Everything is fine, I just received a question regarding our classes this week, and it’s reminding me that I can’t stay much longer, even though I want to.”

“I don’t want this date to end yet either, but we know it has to…I had a lot of fun today…Thank you for taking me on a date.”

“The pleasure was mine, and thank you for saying yes and for agreeing to see where this thing between us goes…there’s one last thing I would like to do before heading home,” Kyo states while moving closer to me.

“What’s that?” I ask while closing the gap between us and placing my arms around his neck, then he tightens his arms around my waist.

“This,” he states before placing his lips on mine. His lips are soft, and although it’s just a tap kiss, it has me craving more, so when he begins to move away, I pull him in for another kiss, and I can feel him smile against my lips. Then he kisses me back. Our kiss gets more and more intense by the second. I feel as if I’m a teenager who's making out in public without a care in the world. We both separate for some much-needed air, then the word “wow” immediately escapes both of our lips.

“Kyo, I know you’ll be busy when you get home, but can you text me when you get there to let me know you got there safely?”

Kyo smiles in response: “You didn’t have to ask. I’ll be busy, but I had all intention of texting you, and I’m even going to call you before bed. I would love for your voice to be the last thing I hear before falling asleep…if you don’t mind.”

“I would love that,” I respond with a smile, which he returns, then leans down for one final kiss, and then leaves once he sees me enter my place and lock the door.