Chapter 205 – The Lonely Umi is Cute

After we'd had our fill of the food, it was time to hand over our gifts to Amami-san. Except for Nozomu, whose gift was the cake, all of our gifts were left outside the room.

Our gift was much bigger than everyone else's so Amami-san had been wondering what kind of gift we were giving her.

"Happy birthday, Yuu-chan. This is from Manaka and me."

"Happy birthday!~"

The first ones who gave their gifts were Nitori-san and Houjou-san. It was a small box wrapped in a pretty and expensive looking ribbon. Those two looked like a couple of ordinary high school girls whenever they hung out with Umi and Amami-san, but they were genuine rich ladies, so who knows how expensive the gift they bought was.

"…Here's mine, Amami."

"Huh, I thought you said you didn't bring me any gifts, Nagisa-chan."

"I'm not that bad of a person okay! …Also, mine is nothing comparable to those two, so if you don't like it, just throw it away or something."

"You don't need to mind something like that. Also, I'll treasure your gift, so don't worry! Thank you very much, Nagisa-chan!"

Amami-san hugged Arae-san's gift tightly.

The package looked way cheaper compared to what Nitori-san and Houjou-san brought, but since the gift came alongside her rarely seen dere side, Amami-san was giddy about it.

"Alright, now that we've seen the tsundere gyaru in action, it will be this Nakamura's turn next."

"Oi, four-eyes, who are you calling tsundere gyaru?"

"I'm the only one here today, but I brought the other three's gifts too. Sorry it's a little bulky, but here they are."

"Oi, four-eyes, I'm talking to you."

"My name is Nakamura Mio. Address me properly, Arae Nagisa-kun."

"If you know my name then call me by name properly… Nakamura Mio… Right?"

"Mhm. Sorry for teasing you like that, I couldn't help myself."

Both of them withdrew at the same time. Things got a little heated, but I guess they weren't crazy enough to start a fight in someone else's home.

"Jeez, get along better, you two… Can I open this now, Nakamura-san?"

"Go ahead. I haven't done anything weird to the gifts yet, so you don't have to worry."

After receiving permission from Nakamura-san, Amami-san opened the box containing gifts from the class 11 girls.

It was clear which of them sent which gift. The glasses were from Nakamura-san, a colorful guitar pick from Shichino-san, indigo-dyed ribbon from Hayakawa-san and a cosplay dress of a particular anime character from Kaga-san. The gifts also came with messages from each of them. Amami-san read through them with a smile.

"The last one is from Maki and I. Can you bring it over, Maki?"

"Roger."

I ignored everyone's teasing and went to get the gift. I handed the box containing the large plushy to Amami-san together with Umi.

As soon as the plushy's unfriendly face appeared from behind the paper package, Amami-san's face lit up.

"Isn't this the same plushy I gave you for your birthday, Umi?"

"Yeah. I found it in the same store where you bought mine. I've been sleeping with the plushy you gave me. It's comfortable to hug it at night and I heard that you found it cute too, so I thought that it would be a nice gift for you."

"Yeah. Also, hear this, she said that it looks like me. Can you believe it? Well, at least she didn't pick it up solely because of that reason."

"Its face… Pfft, yeah, it looks like you when you're idling around in the classroom. Don't you think so too, Nagisa-chan?"

"I don't look at his face that much, don't ask me… I don't think they look alike though."

"Really? Well, in any case, this guy is cute~"

I agree with Arae-san's opinion here. Amami-san seemed to agree with Umi though.

I guess they shared similar opinions because they were close?

"Thank you, you two~ I'll place it in my room immediately~ Ah, actually, I can use this guy as a cushion… Hm, what do you usually do with it, Umi?"

"Hm? Well, I just leave it on my bed and whenever I am about to sleep at night, I…"

For some reason, Umi's face reddened in the middle of her sentence.

It was just an innocent question, what was she so embarrassed about?

"What's wrong, Umi?"

"H-Huh? Nothing! I-I'm fine… Y-Yuu, you set me up didn't you?!"

"What? What are you talking about? I'm just asking you a normal question~"

"Ugh, you little…"

Looking at Amami-san's smirk, it was clear that she was teasing her.

For some reason the people around us were giving us both warm looks.

"Maehara-kun, let me spell it out for you. This girl is lonely at night, that's why she sleeps with a plushy in her arms thinking that it were you. Take care of your girlfriend more okay? You're her precious boyfriend, right?"

"N-Nakamura-san!"

"…Ah, I see."

I understood what she was using the plushy for now.

Back when she had problems with Amami-san, she tried to distance herself from her best friend and because of that, she found herself feeling lonely quite often. She used plushies to ease that loneliness and was still doing that to this day. I thought that our night calls and texts would ease her loneliness, but I guess it wasn't enough, huh?

…She's so cute.

"Uh, Umi?"

"What?"

"I think that side of you is cute."

"If you bring that up again, I'll kill you then I'll kill myself."

"Sorry, please don't do that."

After calming down Umi, the party proceeded in a friendly atmosphere.

Eri-san and Rocky also sat down at the same table as everyone. We did various things like playing around in the pool, playing video games and doing karaoke with everyone.

I still couldn't handle playing around with this many people, but thanks to Umi and Amami-san's lead, I could enjoy my time without feeling awkward.

I hope I can do the same next year too.