Birthday Party

October 13th – Suzuki Hanami

I still couldn't believe this was actually happening. The day after Kimura and I had our conversation after training with her mom we were all at school again and both Kimura and Tanaka tried to be as friendly to me as possible, to the point where it almost became irritating. Was that what girls were like? I tried hard to keep up the persona I worked so hard at maintaining, but especially looking at Kimura all day it wasn't an easy thing to do. I only could hope for my vain attempts at being this kind of person becoming a real thing one day. But for now, all I had was an act I could perform.

And now the three of use were walking home from school and were on our way to my house. It was already getting dark as we had to stay late in school to prepare for an upcoming event, but the two of them insisted on celebrating today. Somehow they figured out it was my birthday today and both of them insisted on celebrating it at my place. They even made me call my mom and she happily agreed to have a party at our place. Usually it was just me and her at my birthdays, so she probably was very happy I had some friends to bring along, but this still felt very sudden and I didn't know what I should do with two pretty attractive girls at my place. Did I even tell my mom they were girls? I only told her their family names, so she probably wouldn't guess I would bring some girls home. This was getting weird. My mom did know about the whole Sun and Moon thing, but she didn't know which girl was the Sun, at least not by name as far as I was aware.

When we arrived at my house I almost panicking. My poker face was hanging by a threat and the two of them clearly noticed it and that made it even worse. When my mother opened the door and let us in she realized that I brought two girls with me and of course she made a face to go along with it. This was all as I had feared. Tanaka and Kimura at least seemed to be willing to spare me for now and behaved somewhat modestly. When we got to the kitchen I could see a big cake on the table, like I had never seen for my birthday. Apparently my mother was going all out for this occasion.

Being at my place luckily calmed me down a bit and when we all sat down around the table I felt like I was somewhat in control of the situation. At least until they started to sing happy birthday and I had to sit there and wait for them to finish. The fact that they were all terrible singers didn't really help matters. After they had finished we finally ate the cake and it was really good. I didn't care much for sweet stuff normally, but at that moment the cake really tasted like the exact thing I wanted to eat in that situation. And having Tanaka and Kimura there was also pretty nice. They got along really well with my mother and we really had a decent conversation like I didn't have in a while. I was glad that they talked me into it and as I was thinking that the three of them suddenly went silent and when I looked up they were staring at me, all sporting a somewhat mischievous look. What did I do now?

“Hey Suzuki,” Kimura said, “Did you just smile? Do you enjoy yourself'?” Did I actually smile? Well, I was feeling good about the situation, but now I was really self conscious all the sudden.

“M-Maybe? I was just thinking that it is nice to have some people around, that is all.” I looked at my mother and her smile suddenly changed and to my surprise it seemed like she was genuinely happy to hear me say that. Now I suddenly really couldn't stop smiling. I knew that my mother didn't have it easy. My father left us long ago and she wasn't on speaking terms with her mother either, so it was always just the two of us. Seeing her being happy was all I ever wanted, but it seemed to be happening only on rare occasions. So I was really glad to see her this way on my birthday, it felt like the best gift I could ever receive.

“Hey Suzuki, we got something for you as well,” Kimura suddenly said. And she handed me a small box that was wrapped nicely, with a ribbon to top it off.

“Reiko and I choose it together, so you better be happy about it.” I was quite flabbergasted as I never expected them to actually get me a present for my birthday.

“C-Can I open it?”

“Of course, we all want to see your reaction.” This time it was Tanaka who answered and she showed that smile that I had seen her smile with Kimura quite often before and it made me slightly worried that the gift might be a trap, but I still wanted to open it regardless. I ripped open the paper and it revealed a small box and it looked like it might contain some sort of jewelry. Now I was really intrigued. I opened the box with slight anxiety, but nothing happened. At least it didn't seem to be a trap. But then I wondered what I was looking at. It seemed to be a bracelet of some kind, made up of a ribbon and some sort of small crystal. I took it out and hold it against the light.

“It's a moonstone Suzuki,” Kimura said laughing. “Quite fitting isn't it.”

I had never seen a stone like this before, but it was quite beautiful. It was semi transparent and of a light blue color, shimmering in the light of the ceiling lamp. Suddenly I felt very overwhelmed by emotion and I couldn't help but start to sob and I felt like I was about to start crying. The two girls and my mother seemed quite surprised by this and I could see them get worried, so I wanted to tell them that this was just because I was so happy.

“Eh, Suzuki, are you alright?” It was Tanaka who actually said it out loud, but the other two were definitely thinking the same thing right now.

“Yes, I'm just a bit overwhelmed because I never had any friends to celebrate my birthday with and you even got me such a beautiful gift, thank you so much,” after that I had to wipe the tears from my eyes as I was a bit embarrassed after all.

“Well, good thing we pestered you then, wasn't it.” That was Tanaka again and she said in that tone that often came with her smile, but now I was glad to hear it, as it did take off the edge of the situation and made everyone laugh. Then suddenly the phone rang and my mother got up and answered it. At first I didn't think much of it, but then she seemed to get more and more worried and when she finished the call she looked almost shocked.

“That was Sophia,” she said. I was wide awake all the sudden. Sophia? Her mother? They hadn't talked to each other in years and now she was calling out of the blue?

“What did she want?” I asked as my mother didn't continue talking on her own.

“She said that Kimuras mother might be in danger and we should look for her.”

We all looked at Kimura after she said that and she now seemed as shocked as my mother was. What was this all about?