I Have Always Loved You (Kyo x Tohru)

Chapter-8: That's... Good

"Momiji, you... What are you doing here?" Tohru asks, trying to pull up a smile.

Momiji gives her an uncharacteristically gentle smile. "I'm sure you got my letter, Tohru."

Tohru almost gasps.

Never in a million years did she think that the boy who wanted to confess to her today would be Momiji Sohma.

She has known Momiji for four years, ever since he came back from Germany. They met at the place she works part-time at. Then, they met again through Kyo and got to know they are actually distant cousins. Tohru has met most of Kyo's cousins throughout the years and is even good friends with them. Momiji is one of the closest among them.

He only started going to their school since last month. He's only a first-year. Therefore, she's seeing more and more of him now.

He's now taller. He had a growth spurt in the last few days. Until now, he was even shorter than Tohru. She always treated him like a... little brother.

But now... He's standing here, wanting to profess his love for Tohru. She had no idea he felt like that for her. For how long did he feel like this for her? How long was he hurting behind Tohru as her gaze always followed Kyo?

What is she supposed to do now?

"Momiji, why..." she asks, baffled.

"Because I love you, Tohru."

Her heart clenches hearing that. Every time she hears those words, she wonders when she can stop hurting others like this.

There is a long silence after his words which gets her guilt and mind to spiral.

She thinks hard about if she ever misled Momiji at the beginning, which had given birth to his feelings for her.

Was it Valentine's day chocolates? But she gave those to all her friends. Because it would have been weird to keep giving them to Kyo every year. So she branched out from only him to Yuki, then Arisa and Saki, to most of the Sohma cousins.

Come to think of it, Momiji always did something for her on White Days. Whether it was taking her to the hot springs, amusement park, arcade, or unlimited cake eating contest. Others would come too, if they could, to reciprocate for the chocolates. Kyo and Yuki always got her something nice every White Day as well.

If not Valentine's chocolates, then was it their hugging?

Tohru and Momiji are both huggers. Plus, Momiji used to be short, so they would hug often on various occasions. They even used to have a lot of sleepovers.

Over the years, so many times they would go on one-on-one hangouts. Were they like dates to Momiji?

How did she not understand? No one ever even pointed it out!

She should have stopped misleading him—

"Since... when?"

"I have always loved you, Tohru. Ever since I first met you." Momiji's voice is so soft, unlike his usual upbeat high-pitched childlike tone. However, that statement was a little balm on her guilt of misleading him. "I have wanted to confess that for a long time, but I had promised myself that I would do it if you're single when I'm taller than you. Look, now I am!" he beams at her, but then his expression dulls into a sad one, "Hopefully, I'll be even taller than Kyo."

Her heart aches so bad, hearing all this from a person so precious to her. But she needs to say it. To say the truth that she has never felt anything romantic for Momiji. Of course, she loves him. But not in the way he does. She really needs to speak. Because that's the right thing to do, to make things easier on both of them. But the words won't come out. It's already hard enough to break an unknown boy's heart, and now...