That was it. The ceremony was over and they were left to deal with the after. There was no guidelines for what would happen after that. Only that they would have to get to know eachothers and eventually get married. Kochi just stood there, still like a picture, once the ceremony was over. He had known that this part would be awkward no matter the outcome, but now he really did not know what he was supposed to do. They were of different social ranking in the society and the fact that they had gone to the same school all the way until university made it even harder to choose how to address the other. Could he refer to him by his given name? No, that would be way too familiar to begin with. It would be ok to use his last name? It was not like he had interacted with him that much in school to feel comfortable to use his given name now, it would be too awkward. And he felt that given the way Kyomoto had reacted just now, it would seem like last name was the best option.
“Kyomoto?” Kochi started gingerly.
No reaction. Taiga seemed to be lost in his own mind.
“Um, Kyomoto?” Kochi tried again a tad bit louder this time.
Kochi was about to call his name the third time, when Taiga seemed to have come to a conclusion and turned towards him.
“I do not know how to put this any better...” Taiga left the sentence hang in the air as he pondered what would be the best way to word what he was about to say.
Kochi could feel how his chest was starting to feel heavy. Could it be that Kyomoto was trying to nicely tell him that this could not be?
“Sorry. So I will just say it as they told me. There really is no easier way to make it come across any softer.” Taiga raised his eyes to meet Kochi’s.
Kochi had small hope that he would not be trapped in loveless marriage with a straight guy given that Taiga had mentioned that he was about to say something that some other people had told him to say to the person that would be picked for him.
“My parents’ told me that I should bring you home to meet them. Ah, bring the person that government would pick for me, which you are. So they would like to meet you. I am sorry to ask this as we have just met, but they would prefer it if you could come now.”
Kochi let out a sigh of relief he had not noticed that he had been holding.
“Oh.”
Taiga looked a bit mortified that he had to had ask that of him, which brought a little smile to play on Kochi’s lips.
“It would be an honour to meet them.”
It was Taiga’s turn to smile. His smile was due to him being relieved that Kochi had agreed to his parents’ request. Taiga was aware that his parents could be much to anyone, but he was a little afraid how this meeting would go. They would not be pleased by the fact that Kochi was of lower social rank than them. And Taiga was not sure how would they react to the fact that Kochi was male. He had marked both squares of gender in the questionnaire. Knowing that most likely his parents would like his partner to be female, that he himself did not really care, even if he based on his history of crushes he leaned towards males. He had never brought this up with his parents.
“Thank you.”
A silence followed, during which they noticed that apart from the staff, they were the only once left at the stage. Everyone else had already left. Kochi let a tiny laugh escape his lips. Taiga looked at him questioningly even if Kochi could see that there was a hint of laughter playing in Taiga’s eyes as he also seemed to be amused by the fact that they had not noticed the others leaving.
“And just how are we going to go to meet your parents? I came here by public transport.”
“Oh yeah. My car is right at the back.”
“Lead the way.”