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It was just a simple phrase. Three words, eight letters. Yet Kubo has been having a tough time finding the right way to say it. Does he ask her to go on a movie date? A library date even?
Maybe go to an amusement park and shout the words out loud as they ride the rollercoaster. “That's a little overkill. Agatha doesn't like going on rides.”
If not that, then a normal park would do. There's one nearby school, Kubo could take her there later. They'd have a small picnic, have small sweet talk. Then he could tell her those words. “No, that sounds too boring.”
Oh! He could take her to a beach and have the picnic there instead, where they could bask in the bright rays of the warm sun, enjoy the sand rippling between their toes and melt away with the ocean waves.
Kubo paints a picture in his mind, of how he'll carry her in his arms as he walks into the water. She'll be squirming and complaining the whole way there, but still he could imagine the bright smile he loves plastered on her lips. He'd tell her those sweet words as the waves crashes against them, and it will feel like the Earth itself will celebrate their love.
Then reality comes in and reminds Kubo about the fact that going to the beach is expensive. It'd be even more expensive if you want to have a picnic while on the beach in the first place. Even if he's thrifty by nature, Kubo doesn't want her to show any money; that'd be too embarrassing for him. Especially in a moment like this.
“No,” Kubo grumbles under his breath and runs his fingers through his hair, crumpling the idea in his mind and throwing it as far away from him as possible. All the ideas he had sounded like the plot of a cheesy romance movie with all the possible clichés put into a blender.
“Someone looks stressed,” Eggs teases him before playing a simple ‘ba-dum-tss’ beat on his drum kit.
“Not helping,” Kubo sneers as he scratches the back of his head. He almost forgot that he was stuck in his school's Music Room with his friends to practice their performance for an upcoming program in a few days.
“If this is about Mrs. Hencher, we're right there with you,” Wybie says in a sing-song tone, making Eggs and Norman chuckle a bit.
“I don't even want to think about what other old song she wants us to perform next.” Norman shivers.
“Same.” Eggs points his drumstick to Norman while nodding in agreement. ”Forcing us to do a rock version for ‘Let It Go’ last Christmas is where I draw the line.”
Norman gives them a funny look, before he plays the first few notes of that song in the keyboard.
“Make it stop!!!” Wybie screams as he puts his hands on his ears as Eggs wholeheartedly laughs at him.
“Guys, can you be helpful for once by staying quiet?” Kubo barks at them, making the three boys fall silent.
“Easy there, buddy,” Wybie cautions, catching onto Kubo's vibe of being genuinely frustrated at the moment.
“Since when did you become such a killjoy, Kubo?” Eggs on the other hand, can't read into mood changes very well.
Kubo snaps his head and glares at Eggs silently. The goofiness in Eggs's face disappears in an instant.
“Guys, let's not start things when Mrs. Hencher is still on her way here.” Norman reminds them carefully.
“What's bothering you anyway?” Norman asks as he looks to Kubo.
Kubo gives it a moment. “It's nothing,” he answers, hoping he'd sound convincing.
“It's not ‘nothing’ when your face looks like you're plotting murder,” Wybie mentions as he form quotation marks with his fingers.
“Point taken,” Eggs agrees.
“Look, if any of you can give me ideas how to come out to a person I like, that would be really helpful,” Kubo tells them as he rolls his eye and huffs.
“Of course! It's an Aggie situation!” Eggs facepalms.
“That explains it.” Wybie comments and promptly shrugs.
Kubo plants his palms onto his face and groans, knowing very well that this was going to happen once he mentions Agatha in any of their conversations.
“Hold on, what do you mean by ‘coming out’?” Norman asks him.
Kubo slowly looks up to Norman, not really knowing how to reply and why he worded that the way he did.
“Um...” The three boys can see Kubo's face contorting all over the place as he thinks of a way to sound subtle. “You know... You tell them... The thing...”
“Bro, what ‘thing’?” Eggs questions.
“Dude, you literally have a girlfriend. How do you have no idea what I'm talking about?” Kubo closes his eye and pinches the bridge of his nose.
“I didn't know how I got with Winnie,” Eggs shrugs. “All I know is we said we liked each other. Then I woke up one day and suddenly Winnie's my girlfriend now...”
“You ain't getting anything from me either since that's exactly what happened with Coraline and I,” Wybie says as he faces his palms up to Kubo.
“Seriously!?” Kubo whines.
“I am illiterate when it comes to romance.” Norman crosses his arms. “Plus, I'm not a mind reader. Please, just get to the point.”
“Singles don't have a say in this,” Kubo teases lightly. Norman gasps. “Hello? Excuse me? You're dating my cousin in case you forgot???”
”Your point being?” Wybie questions Norman, making Norman look at Wybie in disbelief.
“Guys, I think I get what Kubo is saying,” Eggs comments in the middle of their debacle, prompting the three boys to turn their attention to him.
Eggs taps his chin with his drumstick for a while, trying to think of a better way to share his thoughts.
“Are you going to tell Aggie that you're not straight?”
Kubo blinks.
“The power of your brain is beyond me, Eggs.”
~
Agatha raises a brow as she watches how exhausted Kubo looks when he exits the Music Room. His shoulders are more slumped than what she's used to seeing him in. His face looks like he just went to a best friend's funeral. It's concerning to her. She wants to tell him to walk to his home on his own because he probably needs to rest, but she didn't want to drag his mood down further, so she decides against it.
“You look sprightly,” Agatha jokes to him, trying to brighten up his mood.
“Really?” Kubo stops beside her and gives a small smile. “I didn't think you'd notice.”
“Come on, I know that face,” Agatha says as she wraps her arm around Kubo's shoulder, prompting their eyes to meet. "What is it?”
“Trust me, you don't want to know,” Kubo laughs loosely.
“Is it because it's cursed, or is it something else?”
"The first one,” Kubo sighs as he wraps his arm around her, urging them to walk to the school's exit. "Guess who thought it was a great idea to make a fast-paced rock cover of 'When You Believe' for our doxology number?"
“No way.” Agatha covers her mouth in shock.
“Yep.” Kubo nods. “That bad.”
“I thought Mrs. Hencher assigned you for the major performance?” Agatha questions him.
“We were until we weren't.” Kubo rolls his eye and huffs. “Some other group from the higher years ruined everything, so Mrs. Hencher didn't have a choice but to make us in charge of the doxology. And we don't even get to choose the song!”
“Unbelievable.” Agatha cringes. No wonder Kubo looked so defeated when he walked out of the Music Room. “I'm sorry.” She couldn't even imagine how frustrating it must've been for him and the others to get shoehorned like that.
Kubo says nothing as he rests his cheek on top of her head, and she can understand where his tiredness is coming from. It became silent between the two of them for a while. Each had one arm still hooked around the other as they walked to Kubo's home.
“Do you still want to review for our math quiz for tomorrow?” Agatha asks Kubo after a while as they walk past the park near their school. “You might need to rest for a bit.”
Kubo turns his gaze to Agatha, and he couldn't help but smile whenever he looks at her. His heart fills with warmth once he read her blue eyes; she's really concerned for him.
“It's alright, don't worry,” Kubo chuckles a little. “Besides, we both need to study.”
~
It took only a couple of minutes of walking before they finally reached Kubo's home. The two of them stopped over some little food stalls that offered free samples since they're free to eat, even though the taste varies for them. Agatha bought some cheap sodas and their favorite flavor of chips from the vending machines along the way.
Kubo couldn't help but insist on getting something for Agatha too. Luckily, just before the two of them could reach the doorstep of Kubo's home, an ice cream truck arrived. Kubo quickly calls for it and buys them a cup of cookies and cream flavored ice cream.
“Isn't this a bit too much for one study date?” Agatha giggles.
“Aggie, I need to digest something other than math,” Kubo replies with a grin as he opens the door for her, letting Agatha walk inside first before him.
Kubo smiles as she removes her shoes before entering, and not long after, he does the same before closing the door from behind.
It didn't take long for them to set up their study area in the living room by simply dragging the center table near the sofa.
Agatha takes out their recent math activities and homeworks and starts recalling the topics they needed to pick up again.
It wasn't even a minute until Kubo opens up a bag of chips, and he smiles deviously when Agatha scolds him for it.
“One bite wouldn't hurt,” Kubo teases as he hovers a chip in front of her mouth. Agatha rolls her eyes and cracks her mouth open to take a bite, making him smile.
“You're lucky that Fish 'n' Chips are tasty.”
The afternoon sun outside slowly gave way to the purple-pink hue of the early night sky as they review through all the topics for their quiz, as well as eat up most of the food they bought for their study date.
Their brains were fed, their tummies are filled, they were simply enjoying each other's company despite everything that had happened.
“I wanna try one last thing,” Agatha speaks suddenly while Kubo is cleaning up the mess on the table.
“Hmm? What is it?” Kubo asks her as he throws the empty can of soda into the trash bag.
Agatha pats on the space beside her, and Kubo doesn't think twice and sits down beside her on the sofa.
“Salma and the others took the same math quiz earlier today, and I caught some very interesting information,” Agatha tells him
“Really? What did they say?” Kubo asks her.
“They didn't mention the questions and the order in which they appear, but they said there was a bonus section at the end of the quiz,” Agatha answers as she leans closer.
“And so the plot thickens,” Kubo comments as he rubs his chin with a goofy grin. “Let's keep this as our little secret.” He boops her nose and wiggles his eyebrows, and Agatha couldn't help but laugh at him.
“I don't think you're going to like what the bonus question is going to be,” Agatha giggles through her words, and her giggles slowly turned into uncontrollable laughter as Kubo's funny face turned into a horrified expression.
“Don't tell me it's going to be a trick question.” The genuine fear in Kubo's voice made her laugh even more.
“Not really.” Agatha breathes out, trying to stop the bubbling laughter in her chest. “Salma said the bonus section requires you to make an equation. If you solve your own equation correctly, you get 5 points.”
“Aww. Does that mean we have to study for that again?” Kubo frowns cutely.
“You don't have to if you don't want to, sweetie,” Agatha tells him and plants a quick kiss on his cheek, before grabbing her pen and notebook at the corner of the center table.
As Kubo watches Agatha make endless scribbles and long sequences of letters and numbers into her notebook, a bright little idea pops up in his mind.
Kubo grabs his own notebook and pen from the table and starts writing a simple equation. He wasn't sure if it will ever be correct based on the laws of mathematics, or if this will work at all. Kubo can only hope and pray that Agatha will like it. But all he knew was he had a clear idea how he's going to show it to her.
After a few minutes of figuring the equation out, Kubo finally got the result that he wanted. As if on cue, Agatha finishes hers as well.
“I'm sure I'll get those bonus points for sure,” Agatha says as she smiles proudly at her written handiwork.
Agatha turns her gaze to Kubo, and her eyes grow wide in surprise. “You did your own equation?”
“Yeah. Figured I might give it a go,” Kubo smiles shyly, hoping she'd never notice how nervous he is.
“Interesting. Let's see it.” Agatha shifts herself to face Kubo, giving him all her undivided attention.
Kubo breathes deep for a moment, before showing his notebook to her.
The equation read; I (5+5) VEY (5-5) U
Agatha took the time to stare at the equation, and Kubo took the time to study the countless of expressions pouring out of her face.
“That's new. I haven't seen something like that before,” Agatha speaks after a while, leaning closer to the page of his notebook. Kubo felt a wave of relief crash onto him, knowing that she hadn't caught onto what he was doing.
“How did you solve it?” Agatha asks him. The genuine curiosity makes Kubo's heart skip a beat.
Kubo grabs his pen and shakily takes the notebook.
“You disregard the 'I' term first and solve the equation inside the parenthesis. Five plus five is ten, obviously.”
Kubo writes it down as “I IO.”
He intended to write the number ten without the standard way of writing the number one (1).
“The term 'VE' gets carried down as well...”
Kubo follows his answer as “I lOVE”
“Then, we space out the 'Y' term...”
Kubo writes it as “I IOVE Y”
“We do the same thing with the next parenthesis. Five minus five is zero. Last, we follow the term 'U'.”
Kubo carefully writes the last letters of his solved equation.
“I IOVE YOU”
Kubo puts the pen down and looks at Agatha with a smile. Her reaction is everything he could've asked for and more, as a wave of disbelief, warmth, shock all crashed onto her face.
Agatha meets his gaze and covers her mouth, but her hand can't cover the smile in her eyes. The pure happiness in her eyes sent sparks flying through his heart.
“Did you really just-” Agatha laughs in between her words, and Kubo couldn't stop himself from pulling her into his arms and smile there like an idiot, before hiding his smile on the crook of her neck, feeling her skin heat up pleasantly.
Kubo didn't need to take Agatha out on a fancy date; he didn't need to waste hours of his life overthinking all the ways he could tell her how he felt about her. It turns out, something as simple as this can make time and existence itself stop just for the two of them to cherish this moment for as long as they desire.
“God, you're so unbelievable.” Agatha wraps her arms around him, letting herself melt away in his embrace. Her smile turns into a grin as she feels those words carve into her skin.
“I love you, Agatha.”