AND SO THEY MEET.    
“Love is in the air! Noma, Serin is getting it!” – Senji

“Are you ready, Senji? Frodo’s getting antsy!” Serin yelled, petting Frodo’s head gently.

“I swear, Frodo, Senji is more of a woman than me.”

“Yah, just because I take longer to get ready does not mean that I’m more feminine than you. I just enjoy taking long showers.” Senji remarked.

“I know, it’s just fun to tease you.”

“You’re lucky you’re my cousin.” Senji murmured.

“Isn’t the other way around?” Serin laughed, picking up Frodo and walking to the front entrance.

“Yah, we’re equally attractive, I mean it’s the family blood, right?”

“Probably.”

Before the duo got to the front entrance, Noma came running out of his office, carrying two little black earsets.

“Before you guys go out, I need you to put these on.” Noma declared. Following Noma’s directions, Serin grabbed one of the earsets from Noma’s hands and put the small earset in her ears.

“Why? We’re just taking Frodo on a walk, nothing special.” Senji blurted.

“Well, who knows if you’re going to get jumped and I won’t be able to contact you via phone.”

“I highly doubt that Serin would let that happen. We both know that Serin would kick those guys’ asses in a second if she suspected anything suspicious.”

“Just put on the damn headset, Senji.” Noma demanded.

“Sheesh, someone’s a little more sassy than usual.”

“Shut up, idiot.” Noma said as he smacked the back of Senji’s head.

“Yah, why does everyone like to smack the back of my head?”

“Cause you deserve it.”

“Come on, Senji. Bye, Mama Han!” Serin said, blowing kisses to Noma.

Walking out of the house, Senji followed Serin, but not before blowing Noma a kiss also; causing Noma to roll his eyes as he closed the front door.

As Serin and Senji walked, Frodo was slowly walking, taking his time to see his surroundings. Seeing something that interested him, Frodo suddenly started running, pulling Serin along with him.

“Your head is pretty smack- Woah!” Serin shouted in surprised, trying to keep up with Frodo.

“Frodo, stop running! Uncle Sen will give you treats!” Senji yelled, running after Serin.

As Serin ran along with Frodo, he abruptly stopped, making Serin crashed into someone. The crash made Serin and the person she collided with to fall.

“ing , man. Frodo, what did mama tell you about running like that?” Serin hissed in pain as she got up from the concrete ground. Although, Frodo didn’t really hear her, putting all of his focus on the stuffed animal. If there is one thing you needed to know about Frodo, it’s that he loves stuffed animals.

“Hi there, little fella.” The man laughed, petting Frodo’s head. Frodo returned his greeting with a few on the man’s face and soon again, going back to snuggling his face into the man’s stuffed animal keychain.

“, sorry! My dog has this weird obsession with stuffed animals.” Serin apologized, giving the man a hand to lift him back on his feet.

“Oh, it’s okay. I have a bulldog so I get what you mean.” The man laughed, grabbing Serin’s hand.

“Well, this is Frodo.” Serin stated.

“Oh, isn’t that from Lord of the Rings?” The man inquired. 

“Yeah, you watch the movies?”

“Of course, who doesn’t?” The man smiled.

Finally catching up to Serin and Frodo, Senji stopped by Serin’s side, panting.

“ing , the stamina that dog has isn’t normal.” Senji panted, trying to catch his breath. 

“Took you long enough, Senji.” Serin teased, patting the back of Senji’s back.

“Oh, who’s this?” Senji breathed out, taking deep breaths of air in and out.

“Oh, I’m Kentaro.”

“Nice name, is it Japanese?” Senji greeted.

“Yeah, what are your names?”

“Well, I’m Senji.”

“And I’m Serin.” Serin smiled.

Making his presence known, Frodo whined, nudging his head into Serin’s head. That was the sign that Frodo wanted to eat.

“So now you want treats.” Senji complained, taking Frodo in his eyes. Frodo responded by looking at Senji with his big eyes.

“Don’t you dare make those eyes with me.” Senji warned, pointing his finger at Frodo.

“Okay, enough. Kentaro’s gonna think you’re crazy.” Serin sniggered.

“Oh, it’s okay. Honestly, I do the same thing with my dog.” Kentaro smiled.

“I was actually on my way to go get something to eat. Do you guys want to join me?” Kentaro asked, hoping for a yes.

“Sure, why not? Lead the way.” Senji beamed.

Putting his bag in a more secure position, Kentaro started walking to show Serin and Senji the way to the restaurant. With a small distance from Kentaro, Senji looked over to Serin, signaling her if he was okay.

“Checked his background already, he’s clean.” Serin commented.

“Good, you can’t always be too sure with those pretty boys.”

“Speaking from experience?”

“Maybe, that’s a secret for me to know and for you to figure out.” Senji joked.

Finally arriving to a restaurant that only served ramen, the three made their way to one of the tables with the help of the restaurant’s host. Making their orders, the three waited for their food. Frodo had already consumed his food ten minutes ago and was sleeping near Senji’s seat under the table.

“So Kentaro, are you visiting?” Senji asked, wondering about Kentaro’s past. If this boy was going to be in the vicinity of his cousin, he had to make sure that Kentaro was actually good. Senji had to make sure that Kentaro was boyfriend material. Sure, the boy was pretty, but did he have substance?

“I’m living here with my uncle. My parents passed away so I had to move in with my uncle.”

“, I’m sorry for bringing that up.” Senji’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Wow, nice job of making the conversation all sad, Senji.” Serin replied.

“Yo, I didn’t know. I just wanted to know if he was visiting or not. I mean I don’t see that many Japanese people in our area so I was curious.”

“No, it’s fine.” Kentaro laughed, waving his hands in front of him.

“It happened many years ago so I don’t mind it when people bring it up.”

“Anyways, moving on, are you single?” Senji smirked, seeing Kentaro’s face go red.

“Unfortunately yes, I haven’t found anyone interesting enough. I mean there’s pretty girls everywhere, but it’s kind of hard to approach them.” Kentaro blushed, looking down at the table in embarrassment.

“Aww, that’s so cute.”

“You’re such a weirdo, Senji.” Serin said, shaking her in shame. Leave it to Senji to make it all awkward.

“What? He’s a cute guy so it’s hard to believe that he’s single. Don’t you think so, Serin?”

When the question was directed to Serin, she nearly choked on her water.

“What?” Serin coughed, trying to clear . Kentaro handed her a napkin to wipe the water dripping down .

“I said, don’t you think Kentaro’s cute?” Senji smirked; who knew Serin would react like that? Guess it was time for Senji to play matchmaker.

“Yeah, sure, whatever.” Serin mumbled, putting her attention on a random wall of the restaurant. When Kentaro heard that response from Serin, you should have seen the look on the boy’s face; it was red as a tomato.

“That wasn’t a proper response, my dear cousin.”

“Says the man who is hardly ever proper.” Serin argued, glaring at Senji.

At that moment, the waiter finally arrives with three steaming bowls of ramen. Placing the bowls in front of them, Serin and Kentaro started to eat, trying to escape the awkward atmosphere that Senji had created.

Finishing the last of their food, the three started putting on their coats.

“So can I have your numbers?” Kentaro wondered, grabbing his phone out of his pocket. Despite the awkward conversations started by Senji, Kentaro found the two cousins to be quite funny and he wanted to stay in touch, especially Serin. For some reason, she really interested him.

“Sure.” Serin replied, grabbing Kentaro’s phone out of his hand. Going into the contacts section of the phone, Serin put down Senji’s number down.

“It’s Senji’s number so don’t be surprised if a deep voice responds.”

“Oh, okay.” Kentaro said confused; why didn’t Serin enter her number in? He wasn’t going to ask her about it though. He wanted to give her the benefit of doubt; maybe she didn’t trust him.

“Welp, it was nice meeting you.” Senji smiled, putting Frodo in his arms.

“Oh, it was nice meeting you too.” Kentaro smiled.

Going their separate ways, Senji couldn’t stop giggling to himself. Looking at Serin, he found her looking in the distance, thinking hard about something.

“Thinking about Kentaro?” Senji teased.

“No. What are you? An idiot?” Serin harshly replied.

“Sometimes, but not when it comes to you. I know you better than you think.”

“I swear; if you do anything stupid, I’ll kill you.”

“What? I would never.” Senji laughed, making Serin’s temper go even higher.

“Oh, wait until Noma hears this. I’m so excited to tell him all of the details.”

“Yah, you wanna get smacked?” Serin countered.

“Bring it on, Rinrin.” Senji taunted.

“I ing swear.”

“Please do, it makes things way more entertaining.”

“I ing hate you right now.”

“We all know you love me.” Senji chuckled, gaining himself a hard smack on the head.