The following Friday after Nozomu's game. After school, instead of going to my house, Umi and I went downtown.
Since it was Friday, we were naturally by ourselves. I couldn't remember the last time I had a date with her wearing our uniform, but the date wasn't our main purpose today.
"How much money did you bring, Maki?"
"5000 yen, I think. I separated the money for our meals, so you don't need to worry about that."
"I see. You don't need to worry about the budget then…"
We were heading toward the store that we visited during spring break.
It was the store where we bought Umi's birthday gift. This time, we wouldn't be buying a gift for Umi though. Instead, we would be buying one for Amami-san. Her birthday was on Tanabata, just a few days from today.
Well, I was thinking of buying something good for Umi as well if something caught her eye.
For now, let's focus on Amami-san's gift.
"Umi, what kind of things does Amami-san like?"
"She should be fine with anything. Cheap accessories, stuffed animals, any useful things… I gave her stuff like stationeries and mugs sometimes. She alway takes good care of those."
Back when Amami-san helped me choose a gift for Umi, she told me that her approach to gift-giving was…
'Anything that is chosen by the other person will make me happy!'
That meant, anything goes as long as it wasn't something absurd.
I could pick a random thing in this store and she would still like it. That said, the choices were too broad, I didn't even know where to start.
In Amami-san's case, any small accessory that I could give her would look good on her. If she were to wear the random accessory or the expensive blue accessory that Nitta-san and I gave Umi at her birthday, she would look good in either of them. Well, she had good fashion sense, so she would make those accessories fit whatever she was wearing at the time.
She was similar to Umi in that regard. Though, unlike Umi who spent a long time deciding on what to wear, Amami-san had better instincts on what would look good on her.
"You really are thinking hard about this, hm?"
"Well, I mean… Amami-san is a dear friend of mine, so I have to at least put some thought into this, no?"
"Is she more dear to you than me?"
"What? Are you jealous?"
"Yes. So, appease me. Come closer, whisper sweet nothings in my ear to earn my forgiveness like you always do."
"Not now, please…"
I would, but we were in public. Besides, like I said, I wanted to put some thought into this because Amami-san was a dear friend of mine.
Of course that didn't mean Umi wasn't dear to me or something. She was my dearest, my everything, the one that I confided the most in and the only girl that I opened my whole heart to.
However, it was thanks to Amami-san that we were able to be together in the first place. Amami-san might not always give Umi the best memories, but thanks to that flaw in their relationship, Umi and I managed to deepen ours instead.
"…Well honestly, I also don't know what to give her. It's the first time I'm celebrating her birthday after what happened to us last year."
"What did you give her last year anyway?"
"I gave her a pen with a message 'You're a high school student now, study harder.' I meant to mock her with that, you know? …Aren't I a horrible friend?"
"You're kinda, I guess… I mean, Amami-san's grades were bad, so I don't think you are that bad. It's still reasonable, she probably didn't think too much of it either."
"Really? If you say so…"
"Oi, don't use that as an excuse to cling to me! There are a lot of people here!"
"Fine~"
Despite what I said, she still hugged me tightly without worrying about our surroundings. There were a lot of couples like us here, but we were the only ones doing something like this openly, it was embarrassing.
After that, we decided to retreat to the rather deserted shelves first before continuing our search.
Before I knew it, the priority of this outing had been thrown into disarray. The gift searching should be our priority, not the date.
After a few consultations with Umi regarding the gift, I managed to narrow down my choices.
"Ah, Maki, look at that!"
"Huh?"
"Over there, that one in the corner."
When I looked in the direction Umi pointed, I saw something familiar on a shelf where many stuffed animals were lined up.
"Ah, I know that… It's similar to the one that Amami-san gave you for your birthday, huh?"
"Mhm. It looks cute, but it looks grumpy like you."
"No it doesn't."
Amami-san also thought that it was cute, so this one should be a solid choice. It was the same character as Umi's though they had different designs. Amami-san would definitely love it if what she had matched Umi's.
The only problem was the price…
"How much is that one?"
"Including tax, 9800 yen…"
"Not a bad price for something that looks like you."
"I told you it doesn't look like me at all…"
There was a 20% discount tag there. Meaning that I only needed to pay 7840 yen. But that was still a bit expensive for me.
We could buy it if I splurged a little, but that meant we had to eat less. It had been a while since we went out to town like this and I wanted to eat various things with Umi, so if possible, I didn't want to use more money than necessary for the gift. What should I do?
"Maki, I have a suggestion… Let's use both of our money to buy it."
"You mean, you want to make this a present from both of us to her?"
"Yeah. Sanae and Manaka did the same on my birthday, so we could get away with it no problem. I brought enough money too, so it's all good."
We planned to buy two separate gifts, but since we couldn't find a better gift for her than this one, might as well…
This would make us an easy target to tease since only very good friends or married couples would do this, but they teased us almost every day anyway, so it didn't really matter.
"Alright, we'll use your idea."
"Thank you. Can I hold it?"
Whether the plushy looked like me or not was debatable. But Umi's expression when hugging the thing was very cute. That was not debatable.