When Kiyoshi Ihara wanted to propose to his long-time girlfriend, he was thinking “big and public.”

But Courtney Ward, who has known Ihara for almost five years and has been dating him for nearly as long, didn’t want to be the center of attention.

The compromise: Place an advertisement in the Northern Star.

“I wanted as many people to know this as possible,” said Ihara, a senior computer science major. “I wanted to draw as many eyes to this as possible.”

For Page 9 of Friday’s Star, Ihara purchased a $300 black-and-white, 3-by-8-inch ad to ask Ward, a senior psychology major, to marry him – and to root for the Huskies.

“She knew I was going to ask her eventually,” Ihara said, who was warned not to propose in a public place. “So, of course I was going to do that.”

His first plan was to propose via the Jumbotron at one of the Huskies’ home football games.

“I’m a pretty big Huskie fan,” Ihara said.

But, Ihara was told he couldn’t because he isn’t an athlete. He said his second choice was the Star, because many people read the paper, and he still could surprise his fiancee and friends.

The plan was for Ihara to wake up early and grab a copy of the paper before Ward awoke.

But Ward had already gotten up by the time he returned.

“I didn’t have the ring on me, so I had to make an excuse to go back to my room and get it,” Ihara said.

“He came back about 8 a.m. and said, ‘There’s something interesting on Page [9],’” Ward said. “I saw the paper and remembered all the Sweetest Day ads and thought it was that.”

Then, as the couple sat on the black leather couch in their two bedroom apartment – they still enjoy their separate rooms – Ihara slipped the Verragio set engagement ring with channel-set Princess diamonds onto her finger.

“It sparkles more when I cry,” Ward said. She said she only cried a little. “I was good.”

Ihara wouldn’t divulge the cost of the rock, not even to his new fiancée. However, he did have the ring custom-made.

“He had to have some hand in it,” Ward said. Ihara’s hobby is building custom cars. “It was perfect.”

For Ihara, the decision to pop the question was easy and only a matter of time.

“We bought furniture together,” Ihara said. “I might as well propose to her.”

He said he wanted to wait until he had secured a post-graduation job before making the purchase.

The couple met in 2000 on New Year’s Eve, when Ihara had taken a date to a party where Ward had arranged to meet her date.

Ward’s date never showed. And Ihara and his date didn’t quite hit it off.

The couple had mutual friends in high school but hadn’t met before the New Year’s party.

“But we never met,” Ward said. “Go figure.” The two hit it off and went on a group date with their friends a week later. A week after that, they went on their first “official” date.

“That first date was the day I asked her to be my girlfriend,” Ihara said.

In high school, Ward’s friends had some objections to her choice.

“They told me he was a player,” she said.

He responded: “It’s just not true.”

The two were even voted most unlikely couple by fellow students at their Palatine high school.

“And all the most-likely couples aren’t together,” Ward said with a smile.

Ihara and Ward have set a date for sometime in June 2006.

“We’re not in any rush,” Ward said. “We’ve waited this long.”