When they were almost home.
Shimizu Nayotake suddenly stopped in her tracks.
"What's wrong?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku and Tsushima Kagami turned their heads to look at Shimizu Nayotake.
"I forgot Mom told me to grab the discounted meat at the supermarket at six!"
After hearing this, Tsushima Kagami and Yukinoshita Shizuku exchanged a smile.
"Forgetting once is no big deal."
"Let's just hurry home for now."
Shimizu Nayotake could only nod.
Then she kept walking alongside the two of them, continuing down the road home.
They arrived in front of Shimizu Nayotake's door.
Shimizu Nayotake fished her keys out of her school bag.
Standing at the doorway, she glanced back at the two of them.
"Today… thank you both."
"Thank us for what? It was just a little celebration."
Tsushima Kagami said with a smile.
"Go on inside."
"It's cold out here."
Yukinoshita Shizuku urged her as well.
Shimizu Nayotake nodded, slid the key into the lock, and turned it. The lock gave a soft "click."
She pushed the door open.
"Surprise——!"
Colorful paper poppers burst overhead, and confetti drifted down all around, as if a sudden snowfall of colors had begun.
Shimizu Nayotake was so startled she stepped back, nearly bumping into Yukinoshita Shizuku behind her.
She stared wide-eyed at the scene before her.
The tiny apartment had been completely transformed.
The coffee table from the living room had been shoved into a corner, replaced by a round table draped with a colorful tablecloth.
On the table sat a big cake with candles stuck in it, their flames swaying gently under the warm yellow light.
Colorful streamers and balloons hung from the ceiling, and the words "Happy Birthday" had been cut out of colored paper and pasted on the wall.
Seika Ijichi and Hiratsuka Shizuka stood at the very front, still holding the popper tubes they had just set off, wide grins on their faces.
Behind them was Hiroi Kikuri, a balloon in each hand, doing her best to tie them to the backs of the chairs.
PA-ko stood beside the cake, carefully adjusting the position of the candles.
Kosaka Akane and Machida Sonoko were there too.
Kosaka Akane and Sayuri were both blowing on party horns that had come from who-knows-where.
Machida Sonoko stood next to her, camera in hand, snapping away furiously at Shimizu Nayotake.
"Happy birthday!"
At that moment everyone shouted "happy birthday" in unison, their voices carrying enough force to blow the roof off.
Shimizu Nayotake stood in the doorway, taking in everything before her.
Looking at all these people who shouldn't have been here.
She looked from one to the next, and every single face was wearing a smile.
At last her gaze settled on a familiar figure among the crowd.
Her mother stood beside the cake, dressed—just like her—in a brand-new set of winter clothes.
Her hands were clasped in front of her, the corners of her eyes a little moist, a smile on her lips.
"Nayotake, happy birthday."
"Mom…"
"Today's your birthday, you know."
"Silly child, you even forgot it yourself?"
Shimizu Nayotake froze.
Her birthday…
She had completely and utterly forgotten it.
All this time her mind had been full of her mother's illness, the progress of the aid application, and her part-time work schedule.
Her own birthday had long since been squeezed into some corner of her memory, gathering dust.
She looked at the people in the room.
Then she turned her head toward Tsushima Kagami and Yukinoshita Shizuku.
In the end her gaze came to rest on Tsushima Kagami.
"There was a date of birth on the application form."
"So I just happened to remember it."
Just happened to.
It was that "just happened to" again.
Kagami, he…
really was such a sly person.
Looking at his "what's the big deal" expression, Shimizu Nayotake suddenly felt a heat behind her eyes.
She fought desperately to hold it back, not wanting to cry in front of so many people.
She wasn't the crying type.
She didn't know from what age onward she had stopped crying entirely.
Not even when her mother had attempted suicide and had to be rushed to the hospital had she cried.
But now those hot, stinging things suddenly refused to obey.
They welled up from her eyes, blurring her vision, turning the colorful balloons and streamers before her into shapeless blobs of color.
In the short span from that afternoon until now, she had already cried twice.
But this time was different from before.
This time it was because, for the first time, she felt that she too was someone blessed with happiness.
She was beginning to understand more and more how Xu had felt that day.
Kagami, he…
was a deeply sinful person!
"Don't cry, don't cry!"
Sayuri came rushing over in a fluster.
She plopped that handmade birthday hat right onto Shimizu Nayotake's head.
She pulled her inside, and Tsushima Kagami and Yukinoshita Shizuku came in together as well.
"You won't look pretty if you cry! Hurry, make a wish! Blow out the candles!"
Hiratsuka Shizuka had already taken out a lighter and lit the candles on the cake one by one.
The moment the lights in the room were switched off, the house plunged into complete darkness.
The candlelight glowed in the dark, flames flickering, illuminating every smiling face.
"Happy birthday——!"
Everyone gathered around, surrounding Shimizu Nayotake in the middle.
They started to sing the birthday song, voices uneven—some off-key, some rushing the beat.
But that lively, clumsy, unadorned sincerity
sounded, in Shimizu Nayotake's ears, more pleasant and moving than any perfect chorus.
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…"
Shimizu Nayotake stood before the cake, surrounded by everyone.
The candlelight danced across her face, making her eyes shine brightly.
"Time to blow out the candles."
Shimizu Nayotake's mother said with a smile.
Everyone nodded in anticipation.
She looked at those candle flames, looked at the faces gathered around her.
Sayuri's smiling face, Seika's, junior Kikuri's, junior PA-ko's, Shizuka's, senior Akane's, senior Sonoko's, her mother's…
and Kagami's and Shizuku's too.
She closed her eyes, pressed her palms together, and made a wish before those dancing flames.
[I sincerely wish that all of these friends around me can be happy.]
She opened her eyes, took a deep breath, and bent down.
Then, carrying this blessing for her friends, she blew out the candles one by one.
Each candle that went out carried a silent blessing.
One for senior Akane.
One for senior Sonoko.
One for Sayuri.
One for Seika.
One for Shizuka.
One for junior Kikuri.
One for junior PA-ko.
One for… Shizuku and Kagami.
When the last candle went out, the room erupted with warm applause and cheers.
The lights came back on, and the room was restored to its warm brightness.
Everyone chattered away about how to cut the cake, who would get which slice, and who the strawberry belonged to.
Sayuri had already started secretly dipping her finger into the cream and sneaking it into her mouth, only to be caught red-handed by Machida Sonoko and given a lecture.
Watching this scene from the side, Kosaka Akane finally couldn't hold it in and laughed out loud.
Shimizu Nayotake stood in the middle of it all.
That crooked birthday hat perched on her head.
A cut slice of cake was pressed into her hands, topped with the biggest strawberry.
She took a bite.
The cream melted on the tip of her tongue, sweet in just the right measure.
So delicious.
She thought to herself.
So this was what happiness tasted like.
____
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