Kirk and De'Ashia both attended Rufus King High School. Their paths did not often cross except when they participated in the school’s Magna Club, where students who shared an interest in Japanese animation and comics would get together and share art and movies; but Kirk and De'Ashia seldom spoke to each other during this time. Their paths did not cross until they were attending the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. While at UWM they saw each other more as De'Ashia cut through the union to rush to chemistry while Kirk waited for his next class there. After several weeks of this routine, the pair realized they knew each other from high school and started to spend more time together between classes. Their friendship grew and they spent more time together talking about their similar interests like video games, anime and the classes they hated. In 2016 their friend group went to Anime Midwest together. They had a great time going to panels, shopping in the vendors hall, and eating cup ramen. They also enjoyed telling a friend, who had not come to the anime con, that they were having the worst time of their life. After the con ended it was time to tell this friend they had been lying but Kirk and De'Ashia remained vague on what they were going to tell the friend. This led the friend to believe Kirk and De'Ashia were hiding that they started dating. At that point in time the friend was incorrect. Kirk and De'Ashia believe they bonded even more over keeping up the lie because a month later they actually did start dating and they have been inseparable since then.

Kirk had woke up before De'Ashia to start preparing for the proposal. He had planned on spelling "Will U" out of french toast, then setting up the ring next to the plate which was positioned next to where he would be down on one knee when he woke De'Ashia up. It did not go exactly as planned, he could only create the letters for "Will" and decided to pull up a picture of De'Ashia on his phone to substitute the "U". He thought everything would be fine from there but the smell of breakfast filled the room as he was setting up causing De'Ashia to start waking up. In attempt to keep his surprise a secret, Kirk rushed to throw the covers over her. While it wasn't exactly what he envisioned De'Ashia still loved it, even teared up a bit, and obviously she said yes.