Saturday passed without anything major happening. The following Sunday marked my birthday, but as the world's most average high school student, I wasn't celebrated with singing birds or fanfare when I opened the front door. Instead, I attended the morning classes at my prep school like always. After the first lecture ended, we had a brief break.
I figured I might as well grab a coffee, so I headed to the break area with the vending machines. Down the hallway and taking a turn, I arrived at an area about one-third the size of a regular classroom, which had large tables that seated six, the size you'd see in a school cafeteria, plus several folding plastic chairs to sit on. After I bought a cup of coffee with milk and no sugar, I blew a few times on the steaming brownish liquid and looked for an open seat. That's when I spotted a familiar girl—Fujinami Maho.
One seat was open in front of her. Our eyes met as she raised her head, and I sat down.
"Good morning." She greeted me with a faint mumble.
"Morning. What's up? Catch a cold?"
More than her height, the white mask she was wearing stood out most right now.
"I wouldn't have come to attend classes if I had a cold. I'm just protecting myself. The air during these winter days is so dry, it makes it easier to catch colds and other infections."
"Ah, makes sense."
"Grandma always told me to wear a mask whenever it's cold outside."
I just nodded in silence. This "Grandma" she spoke of was actually the person looking after her right now. After Fujinami's parents died and some trouble brewed up with her relatives, she was taken in by this person, who is now caring for her.
"Well, even this mask isn't going to protect me from the cold wave."
"Even so, it's better to be protected than absolutely defenseless. When I was young, I had this period where I would constantly wash my hands like a maniac."
"Only when you were young?"
"I caught a cold right before my birthday, so I couldn't eat my birthday cake. So I swore to myself that I wouldn't catch a cold the next year."
"Ah, so your birthday is during the winter season? Is it close?"
"Actually, it's today." I shrugged while responding.
"Is that so?" Fujinami stood up and headed to the vending machine without saying a thing.
She took out some change from her pocket and bought a can of hot corn potage. I was busy wondering if she'd gotten hungry when she returned to her seat and placed the can in front of me.
"Here's your birthday present. Though it might be a bit heavy to have with your coffee."
"Huh…?"
"Also, it's nothing much."
"Ah, no, it's fine. Just…"
I didn't expect her to give me anything, so that surprised me—quite a bit, actually.
"Thanks."
"No problem. It's nothing expensive, so you don't need to thank me. Plus, I think you'll get the real present from your girlfriend later."
I flashed a wry smile.
"Anyway, if you'd excuse me." Fujinami turned her back toward me, and I sent her off with a slight bow as I grabbed the can.
She said it wasn't anything special, but I was pretty happy to have somebody celebrate my birthday.
I had another shift in the evening. I got to the bookstore about twenty minutes before I had to work, so I figured I might as well check the state of the shop today, walking around the place with my sports bag on my shoulder. It looked like we'd have a good number of customers again today. While I was busy counting the magazine copies we had on the display, I felt someone poking my back.
"Yo, Junior-kun."
Turning around, I was greeted by the sight of Yomiuri-senpai, her black hair as long and glossy as ever.
"Ah, yes. Hello."
"How fare thee?"
"…What?"
What did she say?
"'How fare thee' means—"
"I get it, I get it. It's basically 'How are you?', right?"
I think people would say that at the beginning of a letter or something like that.
"Exactly! I'm surprised you know."
"Well… this is the first time I've been greeted like that, though. More importantly, are you feeling better already?"
We moved away from the main area so that we wouldn't get in the way of the customers. Before she answered my question, however, she pointed toward the office in the back and started making her way toward it. She probably didn't want to bother the customers. I nodded and tagged along.
"I'm back to 100%, yep. But I swear it feels like it's been such a long time. So you were worried about me, huh?"
"Well, yeah. I'm glad you're feeling better."
"I was actually pretty much back to full health two days ago, but everyone from work said to make sure and take one more day off."
"Was it a cold?"
"Yeah. My throat was killing me and I had a fever of more than 39° Celsius."
"That must have been hard on you."
"T'was, t'was. Applause, applause, like I was clapping my hands at a shrine!"
As always, her statements had a bit of an old man vibe to them… which means she's back to normal. A flawless recovery, I dare say. Either way, we continued our conversation until we reached the office. We did knock, but nobody was present after we entered.
"I was actually trying to be careful, you know? I guess the endurance karaoke from a week ago is what dealt me the final blow. But I couldn't help it, we got all the people from high school together."
"So it was like a class reunion?"
"Two of my former club colleagues are getting married next month."
"Huh?!" I couldn't hold back my surprise.
"Mao-chan of all people, too. She said she'd probably be the last one, and yet she's got so much of a head start. They apparently promised to do it after they graduated from their technical school, but she was angry since it took half a year longer than planned."
"Ah, right… Um, congratulations?"
"I'm not the one who's getting married, you know."
"I know, but…"
I seriously didn't know how to even respond to that. Then again, if they were classmates of Yomiuri-senpai, then they're proper adults, and there is nothing that is "too fast" in modern society.
"She was having a major case of marriage blues, though. So we all went out for karaoke to hear out all her grumbling and complaints. Yep. You'd best be careful, Junior-kun."
"Right…?"
Since all that sounded like it was from an entirely different world, I couldn't exactly comprehend how and what I should even be careful of. Seriously. I'm drawing a blank here.
"When two absolute strangers engage in a social partnership contract, they've got a lot of friction and strife awaiting them."
"Is that so?"
"That's how marriages often work. You're experiencing Romeo and Juliet at its finest, Junior-kun."
"The encounter of two people who couldn't be more different?"
"You've got the Capulet Family who belong to the sauce faction when it comes to fried eggs, and then there's the salt and pepper faction headed by the Montague Family. The rift between these two is insurmountable."
"I feel like Shakespeare is turning over in his grave right about now."
"A difference in values gives birth to strife, leading to tragedy. How sorrowful t'is. By the way, what faction do you belong to, Junior-kun?"
"Fried eggs? I prefer soy sauce."
"A third faction rises from the ashes! Personally, I'm all for ketchup. What if the soy sauce family speaks against our marriage? Oh, Romeo, why must thou be a soy sauce worshiper? Please, let us cast aside our seasonings! Actually, let's just give up on the whole marriage thing."
"The only thing I completely understand is that I'm absolutely lost as to what you're trying to tell me, so I give up. Anyway, what is it you wanted to talk about?"
"Oh, yeah. Junior-kun, today's your birthday, right?" Yomiuri-senpai said as she placed a paper bag on the desk.
"Yes. Well… I'm surprised you knew."
"Saki-chan told me. Hers is next week, isn't it?"
"Correct."
"She'll get her present later. But this is for you." She said and took out another smaller plastic bag.
Judging by the shape, I figured there were books inside. Since she nodded while handing it to me, I figured it'd be fine to open it up.
"Whoa… These are…"
So many classic books. She probably bought them at a second-hand or antique bookstore. I spotted Plato's "The Apology of Socrates," Descartes' "Discourse on the method," Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus," Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" and even Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra."
"This… is quite the collection."
"All handpicked by Judge Yomirui Shiori, my recommended set of philosophy must-reads. Though they don't have any particular order or organization to them, and some are completely unrelated."
"That's still plenty. I would have had trouble getting my hands on all of these since I'm just a high school student. And I've been holding back on buying them in case they're too hard for me to read. I did look through them in the library, though."
"I was really wondering if I should give you a sex toy as a present instead, but I was worried that I'd get in legal trouble for giving that to a minor, so I went with something a bit more orthodox."
"I'm glad you chose the philosophy book set."
"I'm sorry it turned out to be such a boring present." She apologized with a serious expression, which made the whole adult toy thing seem like she was actually being serious and not just pulling my leg.
These kinds of thoughts make it even more likely that I'll catch a cold because it causes my body temperature to skyrocket.
"Anyway, thank you very much."
Just as with Fujinami-san's can of potage, I felt genuinely happy about a surprise present. I always thought it'd be better to be clear about what you would like as a present, but getting something unexpected like this doesn't feel so bad. Since she gave me a lot of older books and classics, it's probably gonna take me a lot of perseverance to read through them. Even so, a bookworm like me would never reject getting a book as a present. And they'd offer me a lot of reading time in return, too.
Once my shift was over and I returned home, Akiko-san had already left for her work at the bar, but my old man was still awake. I guess he was waiting with Ayase-san for me to come back home. Maybe it was because it was Sunday and she had more time, or maybe because it was my birthday, but it seemed like the dinner Ayase-san made was quite a bit more luxurious and feastful for the eyes. There was roast beef as the main course with salad and potato potage. As we sat down at the table, my old man said "Phew, you went all out today, huh?" and nodded to himself.
"Oh, right. It's your birthday today, Yuuta."
"You remembered?" I spoke with a surprised tone of voice. I was actually not expecting my old man to remember.
"Of course I would!" He gave me a sour look.
"Since we said we'd celebrate both mine and Ayase-san's birthdays on Christmas, I figured you'd forgotten the actual date."
"Well, Saki-chan's extravagant dinner gave me a bit of a hint, I guess."
"So you did forget?"
"Hahaha."
"Don't expect that laughing will cause me to forgive you."
He tends to do that when trying to avert the blame. Then again, I wasn't angry either. This is just another casual exchange we tend to have.
"Now, now." Ayase-san chimed in with a wry smile and started passing out rice bowls filled with steaming rice.
She then set down three pairs of chopsticks, poured tea into our teacups, and filled the table with plates. Wiping down the table was my old man's duty. As it turns out, Akiko-san and Ayase-san had always split up their work when it came to routines like this, but both my old man and I were never the type to wipe the table before dinner. We figured it'd make more sense to do that after it got dirty.
That being said, Akiko-san working as a bartender made her quite peculiar when it came to cleanliness and tables. As you'd expect, Ayase-san was influenced by her. And now it's our turn to be influenced by Ayase-san.
"Time to dig in."
We all spoke in unison and started eating. After chewing on the roasted beef once or twice, my old man opened his mouth and said "It's delicious!" with great gusto.
"Your cooking is wonderful, Saki-chan."
"Didn't you say the same thing yesterday?" I said.
"I'll say it again and again. That's just how delicious it is!"
Is this what you call being an overly-doting parent? Then again, Ayase-san just played it off with a slightly bashful "This isn't much," and explained that she made it with a rice cooker.
"…You can do that?"
"Yep. Even pudding and pancakes. Rice cookers nowadays have so many different possibilities. It's great."
"I had no idea."
I'd only ever used them to cook rice. I didn't think you'd have such a large range of options with a simple rice cooker. The roasted beef was evenly warmed, with a beautiful pink color on the inside. It wasn't too hard to chew, either. Instead it filled my mouth with its juices at every bite. Combine that with its sweet sauce and rice that tastes like onions and soy sauce—
"I could eat this forever," I said.
"Thanks. I'm glad my efforts paid off." Ayase-san smiled happily.
As I thought, she made it because it was my birthday today. Just that realization alone caused me to feel itchy with happiness. Lost in thought, I realized that I'd stopped eating, so I frantically munched up the last bit of rice.
"I'll grab myself some seconds."
In order to hide my embarrassment, I opted to stand up and went back to the rice cooker. After we finished eating, my old man went to prepare the bath, and Ayase-san and I were working on cleaning the dishes when she whispered into my ear.
"Come to my room later, okay?"
My heart jumped. Ayase-san looked at me and simply moved her mouth—And that movement formed the word Present. I could easily read what she meant to say, even without being an expert at it.
Once my old man entered the bath, I went to Ayase-san's room and knocked on her door. After receiving permission to enter, I snuck inside. Ayase-san had been waiting for me.
"So… this here is from Maaya."
"From Narasaka-san…? Wait, is this a present for me?"
Ayase-san nodded. This was my fourth surprise today. Maru, Fujinami-san, Yomiuri-senpai, and even Narasaka-san had prepared a birthday present for me. I would have never imagined that.
"Let's start with Maaya's present." She handed me a book wrapped in paper.
Three out of four people gave me books as a present…
"…Do I really look like that much of a bookworm?"
"Wait, you aren't?" Ayase-san's genuine surprise made me feel conflicted.
What surprised me even more was the book that greeted me when I removed the wrapping paper. The cover read "The Seven Rules To Follow That Will Make You Succeed in Love." And something was stuck between the pages, almost falling out. It turned out to be a card that said HAPPY BIRTHDAY, along with a short written message that read 'This'll help you to capture Saki's heart, honey~'. I think my expression was distorted in disbelief for a bit, because Ayase-san sounded worried.
"What's wrong? Is it not good?"
"No, no, it's perfect. Don't worry."
I closed the book and wrapped it up again in the paper. What in the world is she thinking? I'll just pretend I didn't see that.
"And this here is from me."
She handed me her own present, wrapped neatly with paper of a bright red color. Upon opening it up, I was greeted by the neck warmer I had expected. It felt pleasant to the touch, like it was made of quality material. She probably had chosen a bright color for it so I'd stand out when pedaling the streets at night on my bike. I did know what I would be getting beforehand, but I still felt happy even without the surprise.
"Happy birthday."
"Thank you."
"Though you'll get a cake with candles on Christmas."
"Yeah, I figured. But the same goes for you, Ayase-san. Let's all celebrate together as a family."
"Yep."
In one week, I'll be the one giving Ayase-san her present. And since it's another Sunday—Oh, right. I realized something odd about this whole thing. Namely, the thing about handing out presents in secret…
"Since we're siblings, it'd be fine if we just give each other our presents with other people around, no?"
"It's really hard to figure out where to draw the line… But I'd prefer it if there weren't too many eyes around," Ayase-san said, which caused me to start thinking again.
"Maybe we could take an earlier shift and then eat out somewhere together?"
"Wha… Eating out?" Ayase-san raised one eyebrow and then looked at me. "But it's just once a year… And my birthday, so…"
"I'll look for a store, then."
"Yep, let's do that."
We heard my old man yelling "The bath's free!" which caused both of us to jump in surprise, but he immediately went into his bedroom. We decided to discuss the details over LINE, and I left Ayase-san's room.