April 1st
A quiet room with only the sound of the cool breeze blowing through the half open window.
But, as a contrast to the serenity outside, the room inside was a chaotic mess.
Magazines lay scattered across the floor, some half open, others creased at random pages.
On the bed, lay a heap of clothes, school uniforms tossed carelessly, jackets draped over the edge like forgotten thoughts.
The wall beside the bed, was covered with a large old poster of Iron Man.
Beside it, a portrait picture of a family.
A boy, around 15 years age, sat at a small desk, beside the window, leaning over a book.
Someone enters the wide open door, without making any noise.
The figure moved slowly, weaving through the disarray of magazines and clothes, careful not to disturb the mess.
Then, just as they were almost close enough to reach out, the figure paused for a second, their eyes gleaming with playful intent.
With a sudden, swift motion, they leaned in, placing their hands over the boy's eyes.
"Guess who?"
".....Mama?"
"Surprise!", she gave him a box, packed in gift wrappers, after removing her hands.
"What is this?"
"Open it, then you will see."
The boy, eyes gleaming in interest, opened the wrappers, and the box with curiosity.
".......A camera?"
"What do you think, huh? Isn't it pretty?"
"..........I don't really know much about it. What would I even take a picture of?"
"...If you don't know how to use it, I would teach you, but you have to figure out yourself what you want to take a picture of, won't you?"
And snap!
..................................
A fucking weird dream again.
April 1st
A fine spring morning, with a little bit of warmth found me lying on my bed.
Every morning since I woke up in this light novel world, I go to the mirror in the bathroom immediately, to check if everything that has happened, was all a dream or not.
Maybe I still can't accept the reality of a concept like transmigration.
Or maybe I just miss my previous life.
I know it's a stupid thought to look back on that shitty life, with all the bad omen of the world dumped on me and me only.
It's not like I don't like it here.
I have all the freedom I wanted, in a true sense.
I can play games, read manga or light novels, wander around malls and cafe, as I wanted.
What else could I have asked for?
Today, the school would transfer the private points, on the basis of our class points.
Currently I am in class B, which has 567 class points.
That means from school, I would get 56,700 private points.
Moreover, as per my contract with Horikita and the others, 35 students would pay me 10,000 private points each, summing up to 3,50,000 private point.
So, in total, I would get, 4,06,700 private points, which is a huge sum from my point of view.
No.
From anyone's point of view, this is a huge sum of money.
There are so many things I want to do.
But, first of all, I have to pay 40,000 private points to that old lady clerk of that drug store for the information.
And, then I have to pay 4,200 private points to Minami-san for the short cakes I ruined.
Well, even if I exclude these two expenditure, there would be lot of points remaining.
For the time being, I decided to check that curd maker I was meaning to buy.
***
"Haaa...."
I had a blast today.
A hearty meal for breakfast and lunch at the Keyaki Mall, after nearly 3 weeks.
The sheer number of games and manga I bought amazes me to the point that, I don't think I would need any other form of entertainment for this month again.
The games are your typical battle RPGs, racing, and whatever I deemed to be interesting.
I bought a whole lot of manga too, of various genres, except romance.
Previously, I bought a romance manga, and after reading it, I caught onto something.
This romance genre makes me realize, how fucking lonely I am.
That's why, I have forsaken the path of romance, and started walking on the path of seinen manga.
Now that the sun has set, the stars are gradually taking control over the sky.
I still had some business left at the cafe, so I headed there at once, after keeping all the stuff in my room.
The cafe was bustling with students of all grades as it was spring break.
Well, the graduation of third years was just over a few days ago, but some of them stayed over for proper farewells from club juniors etc.
It was hard to find a seat, so I decided to complete my business here at once.
As I searched around, a familiar figure was waving at me from some distance.
I waved her back, and she returned to the counter, as I followed.
"Good to see you again, Yamauchi-kun."
She greeted me.
"Good evening, Minami-san. The cafe seems busy."
"Yeah, it's usually packed around this time."
"Oh, here. The money I owed you."
I transferred the private points to her, as she had paid for my mistake for ruining the shortcakes of that girl.
"...You shouldn't have bothered about it at all, Yamauchi-kun."
"Well, I don't like to remain in debt, so......By the way, do you remember that I asked if you made birthday cakes here?"
"Ah, I remember. Would you like to make an order right now?"
"No, um, do you have already prepared cakes, or something of that sort?"
"We don't usually prepare such cakes for sale. If you want to place an order, you can do so. It would take quite a bit of time to prepare though."
"Alright, then. How much time would it take?"
"For a customized cake, it would usually take at least 3 days to prepare and decorate. But, if you need something simple, then I might have a few options available. It would take 2-3 hours maximum, to complete it. What do you want to do?"
Minami-san showed me a variety of pastries.
They were not exactly birthday cakes, but they would do just fine, with the level of decoration and the effort of art put into each of the pastry, she showed me.
From, those, I chose the most simple one.
It was a classic vanilla sponge layered with a smooth, creamy frosting, its surface perfectly flat.
"By the way, Yamauchi-kun, whose birthday it is?"
"........A friend of mine. A really close one."
"I see. That's great.", she wrote my choice on a piece of paper, probably to keep the register, and turned to ask me.
"Would you like any decorations, like fruits or sprinkles, or any kind of message you want to write?"
".......Just write the name."
"Alright...........What's your friend's name?", Minami-san asked, still writing my order on that paper.
"........Yuichi......Yuichi Amamiya."
Yup.
It's my birthday today.
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Author's Notes :
Greet our MC, for his loneliest birthday ever.
Comment your thoughts too.
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