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Once We Get Older, I’ll Become Your Bride!
TL: PuffyPyjamas
ED: Daemon
“When we grow older, I’ll become your bride!”
It seems that there are a surprisingly huge number of people who say such words when they are in kindergarten.
However, such a thing is nothing more than a child’s nonsense.
Usually, as you grow up, you look back on moments like this, thinking, “So something like this happened, huh.”
Fortunately or unfortunately, we were an exception to the norm.
Because we’ve been dating ever since we were kindergarteners—
◆◆◆◆
“When I grow up, I’ll be Mii-kun’s wife!”
I was a kindergarten student, Kudou Michihisa, and with me was Kurashiki Kouri. We were on extremely good terms and were playing together in my apartment.
In such a situation, Kouri’s innocent comment made me reply almost reflexively.
“Kouri-chan, you have to be a lover before a wife, don’t you?”
I just mindlessly uttered the knowledge I had overheard.
“Lover?”
Kouri asked me with a confused expression.
“It’s a promise to stay together between a guy and girl.”
“What is the difference between a wife and a lover?”
“I don’t know, but you can be a lover even if you’re not an adult.”
The only thing understood was that I could be a lover without becoming an adult.
That was the trigger.
“Then, I want to be Mii-kun’s lover from today!”
“Yeah. I will be Kouri-chan’s lover!”
In such a manner, we became ‘lovers’ in kindergarten.
However, among kindergarten children, it could be considered an extension of playing house.
We just walked hand in hand at most.
◇◇◇◇
Even after entering elementary school, our innocent ‘lover’ relationship continued.
“Mii-kun, let’s play♪”
“Yeah, Kouri-chan~”
I always stuck around Kouri, and she clung to me as well.
We always commuted to and from school together, and often hung out with just us two. I don’t know the reason, but we may just have been a very compatible pair.
Our innocent ‘lover’ relationship changed a little when we were in 4th grade of elementary school.
It was around the time when we still didn’t really understand the relationship between men and women.
The reason for the change was because we learned about ‘kissing’ in a manga meant for older boys and girls.
“Hey, Mii-kun.”
“What is it, Kouri-chan?”
“I want to kiss you. It says that you kiss when two people are lovers, right?”
Kouri said innocently. I was also somewhat interested in this ‘kiss’ mentioned in the manga. So—
“Yeah. I want to do it too.”
I replied innocently like that.
We casually kissed each other as the extension of the ‘play’.
“Puha~ Mii-kun, kissing feels really good!”
“Yeah, Kouri-chan! Now I understand why lovers kiss each other!”
We were innocent and cheerful.
Gradually, it became the norm for us to kiss every time we met.
Even now, I think of it as a very bittersweet memory.
◇◇◇◇
The innocent ‘lover’ relationship continued.
A happy life where two people play together rather than with other friends.
It was around the 5th grade of the elementary school that our relationship changed yet again.
My dad was a freelance designer at that time. He bragged how he had also designed a very famous advertisement.
But it seems that he was under a lot of debt without mine or my mother’s knowledge.
And one day, my father suddenly disappeared.
“I am sorry to have hidden it.”
Leaving behind a mere letter.
My mother, who remained, worked desperately to feed me by herself.
However, because of Dad’s absence, she just couldn’t bear the hardships that came with such a life.
“Sorry.”
She disappeared, leaving behind a letter, just like my father did previously.
I lost my father and mother one after another, I was left dumbfounded.
I just kept wondering why it happened to me over and over again.
Kouri’s father took me in, and I was rescued.
The events around this time are so bitter in nature that I don’t even want to ever recall them.
However, it was the reason why the relationship that Kouri and I shared changed from being innocent ‘lovers’.
The Kurashiki family who took over me ran ‘Kurashiki Industry Co. Ltd.’ At the time, Kouri’s grandfather was the president of the company, and it was decided that her father would be the next president.
I didn’t really know what the company specialized in. However, I was made aware of the financial strength it commanded when they took me in as a guardian. They had enough money to allow me to live in a three-story mansion without any inconvenience.
I knew from my childhood that, unlike my parents who ran away from home, Kouri’s parents were wealthy.
Looking at it, I—
“Oh, money is everything in the world after all.”
Came to see the world in a skewed perspective. Then, I came to distrust other people.
I came to avoid not only Kouri’s parents who took me in, but even Kouri who was supposed to be my lover.
At that time, it was Kouri who changed me.
One day, my distrust in others grew to the point that I ran away from home.
“No matter what happens to Mii-kun. Even if we don’t have money. I’ll be with Mii-kun for the rest of my life.”
She pledged.
I fell in love with the Kouri who spoke such words.
Since then, I have become much closer to Kouri than ever before.
Since we were under the same roof, there was a lot of time for us to play and share our worries.
◇◇◇◇
Moving on through middle school, the two of us stuck even closer to each other than before.
Since the both of us were together all the time as if it was a matter of course—
“Are you guys a couple?”
I was often asked such things by our surroundings.
Around this time, I came to know that being ‘lovers’ from kindergarten was considered strange. As such—
“I was in love with Kouri and confessed quite recently.”
I used words to muddy the watters.
Both Kurashiki and I had also started to grow our secondary sexual characteristics,
It was around the time when we both began to grow interested in ‘sexual things’.
From then on, the meaning of kissing had changed a little.
One day, after casually kissing Kouri in the classroom after school.
“Somehow, my chest is throbbing today… And my body is hot…”
Standing in front of me, Kouri said that with a cheerful expression. I felt that she was very fascinating.
“I’m kind of excited as well. I wonder if this is what love feels like.”
We didn’t really know until then that we truly ‘loved’ each other.
However, I began to vaguely understand that the pounding in my chest is called love.
“I feel exhilarated when I see Mii-kun’s face. So this is love…”
A strange relationship where we kissed each other and confirmed our emotions.
After that, we often kissed to reconfirm each other’s affection.
The empty classroom after school. The room that belonged to just us two. Somewhere along the road that we used to commute to school when nobody could see us.
In addition to these, we kissed in various other places.
“Kissing feels really good. I am addicted to it…”
“Yeah, I want to be able to kiss you anytime.”
Every time we kissed, we whispered such words. And it became a rule for us to kiss after a date.
◇◇◇◇
The relationship of kissing and confirming affection changed a little when we entered high school.
Around this time, many of our classmates started dating. It was not uncommon for boys and girls to kiss and display skinship.
One day, after our date was over and we went home, we did something unusual.
“Hey, hey, Mii-kun… I want you to touch my chest…”
Kouri asked me with her face bright red. As for me, her request made my entire body warm and red with embarrassment.
“U-umm. Is it okay, Kouri?”
“Ah, of course, not to the point of having sex, but if it’s just touching.”
“Then, I’ll touch.”
We hadn’t quite moved onto sexual actions, but this were a step just before that.
In addition to that.
“Hey, Mii-kun, I want you to stroke my back.”
“Aah. Is it okay like this?”
“Yeah, it feels good.”
With that feeling, we involved ourselves in various forms of skinship.
Anyways, as it became more common for couples, our allies also changed.
From the eyes of people watching us be a bit too absorbed in our skinship,
“Aren’t these guys just too into each other?”
“It’s getting really passionate, isn’t it?”
To the point where they looked at us in amazement.
It was natural for us to stay by each other’s side, so I didn’t care about what other people said about us.
◇◇◇◇
And in the winter just before our third year of high school, she proposed to me.
The circumstances surrounding the proposal were a little hysterical.
I was a little confused, but I decided to accept her proposal.
I could never forget the vow to live together that we made, and I love her.
However, there was a slight issue. That is, the permission from Kouri’s parents.
In order for a minor like me to marry Kouri, the seal of approval from Kouri’s parents was a necessity.
Approval from Kouri’s father, Kurashiki Hirohiko, and her mother, Kurashiki Hanae.
On a winter day in our second year of high school. We said this in front of the aforementioned two people.
“Father-in-law, Mother-in-law, please allow me to marry Kouri!”
Thanks for the chapter!
Is this gonna be the sweetest story ever?