Even Though I Loved You First

“Back then I would’ve never thought that I’d have to visit my clients house. Haha.”

Walking down an empty street, a handsome man who in appearance looked like he was in his late twenties, chuckled to himself as he made his way back home from meeting a client.

The man himself was Touya Ichinose, he has been working as a lawyer for almost two decades now. Nevertheless, the exhaustion he felt at the end of the day felt new yet rewarding.

“Huh? Touya?” Hearing his name being called, Touya looked at his left. There, he found an adult woman with long chestnut hair looking at him with a shocked expression. It took him a while to remember, but he finally recognized the women.

“Oh? Momoka? I haven’t seen you since high school.” In Front of him, a former classmate of his, Momoka Kisaragi, walked up to him with a nonchalant smile.

⧫

Local Cafe

“Honestly, I can’t believe I would run into you here! Of all the times I visited.” (Momoka)

“Is that so? By the way you say it. You don’t live around here, right?” (Touya)

“It is as you guessed. I live in the next city over. Where Irakawa High School is located.” (Momoka)

For them, bumping into an old classmate was something that never really happened until today. When Kaho and Touya got married, they moved to this city due to an offer from a local law firm that was highly evaluated by many.

“How are you doing these days??” Touya asked. Last time they directly spoke to each other was in their second year of highschool, they didn’t land in the same homerooms for their second year and they were quite busy with their respective affairs.

Not to mention that Touya quitted his former club due to an offer from their student council.

“I’ve been doing good. I’ve been working as the manager of a local bookstore back home.” (Momoka)

“You really did have a strong passion for literature, come to think of it.” Touya said as he took a sip of the coffee he bought.

“Looks like you remembered. Anyways, enough about me, what about you? How have you been doing?” (Momoka)

“I’ve been doing well for myself. I’ve been working as a lawyer for over two decades, and I’ve also been married for almost that long.” (Touya)

“Oh, you’re married? It ‘s nice to know. So you tied the knot with Ms. Kirigaya after all?” Momoka wanted to confirm.

“Intuition?” (Touya)

“I mean,  you two were all over each other back in highschool.” (Momoka)

“W-were we really like that…?” (Touya)

“Yes.” Momoka nodded.

Even to this day, Touya had a hard time accepting that the overly clingy woman that his wife Kaho was once had a distant yet dignified behavior. If anything, back then Kaho reminded him of a cat who only wanted to be doted on contrary to her image which made others want to be doted on.

Even their mutual friend Haru Shirayuki used to tell them to get a room back in the day when all they did was exchange some simple chatter. The couple were usually left confused due to their unawareness of their own atmosphere.

“What about you, Momoka? Are you still with your boyfriend?” Touya asked, sending the question back to its sender.

“Hm? Oh no, we broke up in our second year of college.” Momoka nonchalantly shook her head. 

“Eh? Is that so?” (Touya)

“Unn. We didn’t really have the same views, you know? Before we knew it, it became a chore to be together and ultimately ended off things on a positive note.” She sighed.

“Well, that doesn’t matter. I met someone else right about when I started working and now I’m married.” She showed her ring finger, where a delicate silver ring rested.

Human relationships were constantly changing. As days pass people either get closer or distance themselves, this was the case for Momoka and his ex-boyfriend.

All the way until their graduation, both of them looked like a happy couple. Of course, it wasn’t surprising that things changed after they graduated.

Fortunately, nothing like that happened between Touya and Kaho. Of course, the two had their disagreements, but both were able to accept their partner’s flaws and communicate with each other.

“Overall, I think I’m doing pretty good myself, I also have a twelve-year old, you see.” (Momoka)

“I see. That ‘s great. On my side, I have three children. A set of seventeen-year old twins and a sixteen-year old boy.” (Touya)

“You guys seem busy.” Momoka stiffly laughed, Touya on the other hand, opened his wallet and took someone’s money.

“They’re good kids, they aren’t greedy and they are quite productive themselves. Reminds me of me and Kaho back in the day.”He got up as such.

“I’ll cover the bill.”Touya would’ve liked to stay and catch up. Unfortunately, it was already quite late, he didn’t want to make his wife worry. “Kaho should be waiting for me at home, so I’ll be going now.” (Touya)

“Now that you bring it up. I must go to the train station.” Momoka followed after Touya, also standing up.

“Wish I could drop you off. However, since my client’s home was really close I came on foot.” He picked up his suitcase and headed to the cash register.

“Don’t mind it. Well then, I’ll leave it to you. Hope we can meet again somewhere.” Momoka left the store after waving at him.

She has changed. Looks like she did consider her future thoroughly. Touya thought. The day didn’t follow the schedule Touya envisioned. Nevertheless, it ended on a really positive note.

As he walked down the street, he felt refreshed. This wasn’t exactly the routine he followed. Even the request from his client, it wasn’t exactly something he worked on. From his work to his end of the day, it felt like a nice change of pace for Touya.

Somehow, he felt way more excited to get home and drop into his wife’s arms after a warm meal with her and their children.