Is this what you call love?

48-Y

After showing me all the flowers, she hands me a gift.

"Ryujin, I thought we were just gonna go out and eat dinner or something. This isn't what I expected our date would be. I didn't get you anything" I stare at the box in my hand.

"It said online that I wasn't supposed to tell you if it's a surprise" she frowns while looking down.

"Hey, you didn't do anything wrong. I just feel bad because you did all of this for me and I didn't get you anything" I lift her head back up so I can look at her face.

"I love everything" I smile at her.

"You do?" She's pouting.

"Yes."

"You should open your gift" She's smiling now.

"But next time maybe give me a heads up if gifts are involved" I chuckle.

"What if it's a surprise gift? I can't tell you that. The best kind of gifts are the surprised ones because you don't know what to expect. It could be something bad or it could be something good. If it's bad then at least you got a gift but if it's good then it's the best feeling ever" she excitedly say.

"So you like surprises?" I ask.

Her face becomes serious, "No."

I laugh, "Then why are you giving me a surprise gift? And you seemed really happy when talking about surprise gifts."

"You might like it. This is what Chan calls testing the waters. If you don't like surprise gifts then just tell me and I'll stop."

"Can you get any more adorable?" I rhetorically ask.

"I'm not sure. I've never tried and I'm not sure if I will. If I become more adorable then people might think I'm a puppy or a kitten then they'll take me and you'll lose your girlfriend" she comments with a serious face so I'm not sure whether to laugh or not.

"You should open your gift now" she reminds me.

I smile and I slowly open the box.

"What's this?" I take out a pen. It's a nice pen but I just didn't expect it as a gift on a first date.

"A pen. Did you not know? I figured you knew since you probably use it a lot at work" she looks at me unsure.

"Do you know what a pencil is?" She seriously ask.

"Yes, Ryujin. I do but why did you get me a pen? I appreciate it but it seems random" I say.

"You like to think I do or say random things when I don't. You're an assistant manager at my cousin's restaurant. Don't you use pens for notes or something?"

"Thank you for a very practical gift then" I kiss her on the cheek.

"You didn't even look at it closely" she pouts again.

"What?" I take a closer look and it's a customized pen. She had 'Ryujin "L" Yeji' etched on it.

"What does the 'L' mean?" I ask.

"It can mean whatever you want. Ryujin likes Yeji. Ryujin lost Yeji. Ryujin licks Yeji" she laughs at herself, "Or Ryujin loves Yeji" she becomes serious again.

"You love me?" I try not to get my hopes up.

"I don't know" she sighs.

"But I also can't say that I can't ever love you because I don't know what's gonna happen later on. So I put the letter L there so if someday I do realize that I love you then I don't have to get you a new pen" she explains.