More Than Nice

Kuai Liang looked up from his bowl of miso soup with an extremely cute frown on his face. Harumi knew he’d probably disagree with that description. It was true though. He was very cute. Handsome. Very polite and respectful. A little bit shy and unsure of himself. Some might have said awkward, but that was more the lack of regular socialisation outside of his clan and brothers.

“What do you mean?” He mumbled, keeping his voice low like he did not want anyone to overhear their conversation. She could understand that. Kuai Liang definitely was not used to being around civilians, and especially not used to conversations that weren’t matters of the utmost importance.

It was rare she managed to persuade him to leave the training grounds at all during his visits. He was here to train, as per his father’s request, and that was what he intended to do for the most part.

But occasionally, every now and then, she managed to win him over.

“You look at me the same way you look at the men you train with,” she elaborated, and Kuai cocked his head ever so slightly.

“With respect and admiration?” He questioned, his voice ever so slightly braindead like he was trying a little too hard to act oblivious.

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

It was hard to miss the way Kuai looked at the men he trained with. Well, to her it was, it seemed the men in question hadn’t seen. She couldn’t explain it other than if she were required to give a visual representation of “puppy love”, then Kuai Liang would be it. And initially, he only ever wore that expression around those men.

That was until she realised he was doing the exact same thing with her.

Kuai glanced around, shifting in place, like he couldn’t get comfortable. Finally he looked her directly in the eye, and said “I don’t really know what to tell you.”

He deliberately took a sip of his soup, clearly stalling for time while he could come up with something to say. It was a quirk she’d noticed early on. When he didn’t have a reply straight away, he’d find a reason he couldn’t answer. If that was sipping his soup, taking a drink, or even shovelling about 10 Gyoza into his mouth at the same time.

She still occasionally laughed to herself when she thought about how pudgy his cheeks had become.

“I have always known I was… different,” he finally began after swallowing. “While my peers would discuss the attractiveness of women, there was something…” He bared his teeth slightly like he was trying to think of another word than the one he’d already used. “It was like, they would point out an attractive woman to me, and I could acknowledge that they looked nice, but it was never anything more than that.” He chuckled slightly, although not a happy chuckle, one with a melancholy timbre that broke Harumi’s heart a little. “For the longest time, I simply believed myself to be broken.”

“Oh, Kuai Liang.” It was inconceivable, the idea that he could think there was something wrong with him for something so normal.

“It was a while before I realised that what they were seeing in women, I was seeing in men.” He pursed his lips slightly, glancing down at his bowl. “I believe I am what they refer to as a cut sleeve.” Harumi was vaguely familiar with the term he was referring to, at least enough to understand what he was saying. He was a homosexual. “At least, that is what I had believed until…”

“Until me?” Harumi finished. She wasn’t sure what to make of it, if she was honest.

“Yes, and I know what your next question is going to be,” Kuai said firmly, making sure she couldn’t sneak it in quickly. “You are going to ask me why, and I am not going to be able to answer you, because I don’t know.” Somehow, it seemed like that was the easiest part of everything for him to admit. “I do not know why I feel so differently about you, but I do. You are the first and only woman who I’ve found more than nice.”

“Oh,” Harumi chriped, unable to stop herself from smiling. “Well, I’m very glad to hear that.”

Really, regardless of what Kuai’s sexuality was, it didn’t matter to her. His feelings for her were genuine, she could tell from the way he spoke. She knew she felt the same about him too. Those were really the only two things that mattered.

And somehow, “more than nice” was the greatest compliment she had ever received.

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