The next morning he walked over to the bushes again, hoping to catch a fleeting glimpse of her, to no avail.
“Looking for me?”
Soshi kept his composure, though his heart jumped a little in his chest. “I might have been.”
Danielle looked over the bushes at him. “Oh? ‘Might have’ means you weren’t...I guess I’ll go, then.” She turned around.
“Wait.” Soshi squeezed his eyes shut. “...do you want to...go somewhere? I mean...” He paused, searching for the words. “Coffee?”
She gave him a disbelieving look. “Coffee where? I can’t go where you go and you can’t go where I go.”
“Then we can stay here.” He said, sitting down. Soshi was grateful for how small the bush was. He could still see over it when he was sitting. “And talk.”
“Why would I want to talk to you?” She asked, but she looked like she was going to smile.
“Just sit. If anyone asks, I was smoking something I shouldn’t have and you smelled the fumes, so we’re both spaced out.” He smirked.
Danielle shook her head, but she sat down on the other side of the bush. “Fine, you’ve got me convinced. You’re very persuasive.”
“Or maybe you’re just wooed by my good looks.” Soshi teased, but he had never thought much of his looks before now. He was also worried that he would run out of things to say, but he didn’t. Everything was fine.
After a few months passed, Soshi became very unhappy about the bush that was separating he and Danielle, and asked her, “What would you say if I asked you to marry me?”
She blinked a couple of times. “I would say that marriage is not something to be taken lightly.”
“I’m well aware of that.” Soshi answered, trying not to sound irritable. She sounded a bit condescending. “Danielle, does my age to yours really matter?”
She was quiet for a few moments before she sighed. “It’s against the law.”
“Yes, it is,” he said, “but why is that a law? It’s not as if we’re children. We’re adults, aren’t we? We can make our own decisions.”
“Yes, but we were all separated for a reason,” Danielle continued.
Soshi rested his chin on his hand. “Can you give me some?”
“...we were born in different years, so our views on the world may be different. Our interests, our likes and dislikes, all are accountable. It makes us all incompatible.”
“Mm.” He closed his eyes. “But I already have to put up with people who have different views of the world. They’re my age. Next point.”
“Our interests?”
“Change isn’t something to be afraid of.” He answered logically. “In fact, if our interests are so different, compromise is how it can be fixed. Next.”
She struggled to think of another point. “Soshi...”
“A point you missed,” he said, “is that sometimes you sound like my mother, and it annoys me to no end. Then again, I’ve heard that some women do that anyway. There’s one woman who lives next door...” He pointed at the house beside his. “She and her husband have the same argument over and over again.”
“If you put it that way,” she said sarcastically, “I guess there’s no reason why anyone should be separated from each other.”
“You’re right. Why the sarcasm?”
Danielle bit her lip in an effort not to smile. “Because I wanted to try to see what the point is to all of this, from the government’s point of view.”
“There isn’t one.” He sat up, watching her intently. “So tell me, Danielle. Will you marry me?”
“There you are!”
The pair was frozen in place when Shogo’s voice came up behind Soshi, and he stopped when he saw Danielle and Soshi talking to each other. The blonde didn’t say anything. He looked at his best friend, and then at the woman who sat across from him. Without a word to either of them, he grabbed Soshi by the arm and dragged him away, back into Soshi’s house.
The door slammed behind him. “What was that?” There was a certain fury hidden in Shogo’s eyes, a fury that Soshi wished he had never seen.
“...I don’t-”
“You asked that....that...that THIRTY....to marry you.” Shogo snapped. “What’s wrong with you? Are you INSANE?”
