"Well, there's a very simple explanation for that."

MakubeX shifted from foot to foot and felt his face turning pink. Why was it that only a handful of words could be so difficult to say?

"It's because you've become so beautiful." He stopped short at the end of that sentence, waving his hands. "N-not that you weren't before! You've always been pretty, but now that so many of us are older, it... just..." He sighed. "This really isn't going as I'd planned..."