Happy Birthday

20th of November, today is the first time Suzuki asked me to go out with her in a while, Makoto's birthday is Tomorrow but she still doesn't know what yo buy for him

"Yo, you're early"

"uh Sawano-Kun, sorry for the trouble"

"don't apologize It's not like I had anything better to do"

"thank you..."

she smiled as she thanked me, I can't help but pat her head when she smile like this she's so damn cute

"ah sorry I did it unconsciously"

I apologized when I saw her starting to blush, it's kinda her fault too for being this cute, yes it's definitely not my fault. I continued lying to myself as we walked to the mall

"I know I'm here because you don't know what to buy for him, but don't you have any idea we can start from?"

"I don't know..."

she look so sad I even feel guilty about it

"don't worry about it, I'll take care of it"

the easiest solution would be to ask him straight but Suzuki won't like the idea so we have to think about the gift

first thing is the budget, I know Suzuki won't mind paying for an expensive gift but that will just make Makoto feel uncomfortable, and a cheap gift won't satisfy Suzuki

honestly I would like to get the gift as cash, but I understand that it doesn't look like a proper gift from someone who cares about you

"no matter what gift I think about, Makoto will be probably happy just because you gifted him something""

"i-is that so? b-but I really want to impress him!"

she got closer me as her voice got higher, I think she's having trouble because Hiragi-senpai's confession

*sigh*

"he got into writing and reading lately right? so buying him a book should be fine"

"what if I bought him a book he already has?"

"Ugh.."

I want to say that she's overreacting but that's definitely a valid reason, buying something that he already has would be worse than just giving him nothing

"maybe I should ask Shiori"

I don't think she'll help if I say Suzuki's the one buying it she won't accept the help so maybe I should tell her that I'm the one who's buying it

"Shiori?"

"Makoto's sister"

I don't think I've ever called her before so I'm glad I still have her number registered, I instantly pressed the call button

"Aru? you never called before do you need anything?"

"it's Makoto's birthday tomorrow right? I wanna buy him some book but I'm not sure what he already has"

"..."

"Shiori?"

she didn't respond for a while so I got worried

"it's for Suzuki Haru huh? I don't like liars you know?"

"how do you..?"

"is that what you want to know now? you tried to deceive me you know? my heart is broken"

I hate how much information she has, if we reached this point I have to be honest

"yes it's for Suzuki, aren't you going to help?"

"hmmmm I guess it's fine, consider it a birthday gift"

"thank you I love you!"

"hmph, don't think I'll forget that you lied to me"

after that she sent me a photo of Makoto's collection, it's not big but it's not small either and it definitely has many series

I showed the picture to Suzuki, she examined the photo with too much concentration that I had to stop her from eating my phone

"did you find what you want to buy?"

"r-right, thank you for the help"

in the end I don't feel like I helped her that much so it feels kinda bad when she's thanking me like this

"well, should we go?"

"w-wait!"

"hmm?"

I turned around to see the blushing Suzuki extending her arms to give a bag

"what's that?"

it was packaged as a decent gift, so she did buy something for Makoto but chickened?

"i-it's for you"

I see, it's cruel to give me the leftovers like this but I'll accept it because she's cute

"I didn't know what to give you so if you don't like it..."

"wait, why are you giving me a gift?"

"Eh?! i-isn't today your birthday..?"

"huh?"I'm genuinely surprised, now that she told me that it's really is my birthday. how did I forget it?

"Eh, it's not? but it was written in the class list..."

I shook my head quickly, because I was so surprised she thought that it wasn't my birthday

"I just forgot that today's my birthday, thank you I'm really happy"

now that I think about it Shiori said something like "birthday gift" so that was the meaning..

I completely forgot to check the gift but I'm sure I'll be happy even if it was garbage

we walked to the book store and bought Makoto's gift

that's for Suzuki but for me it's different, of course I won't buy him anything special I'll just buy him a drink or something

***

after I finished with Suzuki I walked back home with a stupid smile on my face, I can't help it I'm really happy I got something since I left my home thinking I'm just gonna buy a gift for someone else

"Aru!"

someone called me when I got closer to the house, she was a blonde girl standing right before my home, she smiled cheerfully as she waved to me

"Emma? what are you doing here?"

I looked around and there's about four bodyguards hiding, of course they won't let her go alone

"it's your birthday right? you should have told me!"

"I really forgot about it, I just remembered it a moment ago"

"you can't forget your birthday! it's an important day!"

I can argue that it's not that special but..let's just go with it

"anyway"

Emma handed me a card that I didn't recognize, she explained it to me when she saw that I was confused

"you can use it in any restaurant owned by my father's company, you don't have to pay anything if you showed it to them, you can use only one time though"

Wah, that's so expensive I feel bad for taking it, in the first place I'm getting paid to hang out with her isn't it bad to accept gifts likes this?

"oh right, my father said that you can consider it a gift from him too, rejecting it won't be a good idea"

"Thank you very much, I don't exactly need something this expensive but I'm really glad I got a gift from you"

she smiled again when she heard my thanks, I looked at the card and said

"I guess I'll take my sister to a good restaurant again huh?"

"what?"

Emma shouted suddenly

"no! you can't! it doesn't have an expiration date so wait until you get a girlfriend, or maybe invite a girl you like! it's a great opportunity"

I don't have someone I like... but maybe it's a good idea to keep it, I thought that she may be hinting that she likes me but since she's the one giving me the gift I don't think she want me to invite her

it's kinda disappointing but I should leave my expectations low from now on

"thank you again, I'll make sure to use it wisely"

"that's good. well, I have to go now see you at school"

"yeah see you"

today is a great day, I didn't expect to get anything but I got two gifts

"oh right, Suzuki's gift"

I forgot to open it, I entered my room and opened the box that was inside the bag

"a scarf?"

I'm fine with cold so I don't wear scarfs but....

"I guess I'll start wearing it tomorrow"

it's a gift after all!

"hey Nii-chan"

my little sister entered the room without asking, she don't have any manners at all

"a scarf? is it a gift? I thought you didn't have friends to care about your birthday"

why is she so harsh to her big brother? I don't look like a loner right?

"by the way why didn't you give me anything since you knew it's my birthday?"

she looked surprised by the question more than I thought

"don't tell me...you think that you're worth my time and money?"

"you little..."

I'm glad I didn't use my precious gift on her!

"what do you even want?"

"righ right, Chi-senpai was so angry when mom told her that it's your birthday, why didn't you tell her?"

"are you really okay with the fact that Chi-senpai is your mom's friend?"

"I don't mind it, anyway she's gonna kill you so make sure to write a will"

what a considerate sister, I'll make sure to give her nothing when I die

I got a call from an angry senpai later, I tried to ignore her a little but she didn't stop at all so I felt bad

"Hi Chi-senpai!"

"I've been calling you for an hour and half now! are you trying to kill me from anger? that's working!"

she's really angry huh? maybe it wasn't a good idea to not respond

"I'm sorry..?"

"I forgive you"

I wonder if she's being sarcastic or honest, either way It's not gonna be a problem

"so what do you want?"

"it's me who should ask you this! I didn't have the time to prepare a gift so tell me what you want!"

"I don't really want anything..."

I can't think of anything right now, I have enough money to buy anything she may buy so..

"that's not good!"

"you don't need to care about it this much, you can just give me something later"

I heard something dropping from the other side, after some seconds Chi-senpai started shouting

"that's right Arucchi! I'll give you a special deal, you can ask me for a favor anytime and I'll gladly do anything"

I want to ask her about her identity...but since she didn't want to tell me before I don't want to force it

"you shouldn't say "anything" it may cause some problems"

"it's not like I really mean it, of course there's limits to what I can do"

I wonder if she understood what I said or if she's thinking about something entirely different

"well, I'll gladly use it. don't forget it"

after I ended the call I looked at my ceiling, before I went to sleep I decided to check my phone

[Happy Birthday]

I laughed after reading the system's message it's uncharacteristic for it to do something like this

"I enjoyed today"

I closed my eyes and went to sleep