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Summer break had long since settled over Suzumegahara Middle School, leaving most of its campus sedate and serene. However, one particular building on the campus bustled with as much activity as ever, in no small part due to the dedication of the school’s table tennis club. In spite of being on vacation, the club’s members met same as ever, most every day of the week.
On that day in particular, Agari was pushing herself to her limits, resulting in her running roughshod over the club’s other top members. At that moment she faced Hanabi, and although their matches were usually fairly close, Hanabi stood no chance today. Koyori watched the practice match from a fair distance, her idle curiosity getting the better of her in spite of being embroiled in a match of her own.
“You shouldn’t space out like that, Koyori,” came Kiruka’s voice from across the table, snapping the redhead back to attention. The team’s captain cracked a small grin and continued, “If you do, this match will be pretty boring.”
A second of hesitation preceded Koyori’s response of, “Right!” The match continued from there with little hesitation on Koyori’s part, though she still spaced out enough to noticeably affect her performance.
Following Kiruka’s victory, she rounded the table with a small laugh, slinging an arm around Koyori’s shoulder upon approaching. The pigtailed girl squeaked in response to the physical contact, but did little to move away. “You still worried about Agari, huh?” Kiruka asked, her grin only widening as she spoke.
Koyori nodded as her gaze wandered back to the purple-haired girl. “Agari usually pushes herself pretty hard, but today’s different. I think she’s trying to get her mind off something.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you,” Kiruka responded with a shrug. “She usually gets like this when her birthday’s coming up.”
“Her birthday?!” cried Koyori. She started to say more, but Kiruka shushed her before she could. The redhead looked down at the ground and continued, now in a quieter tone, “She never mentioned that to me.”
“She makes a habit of not telling anyone about it,” Munemune said as she approached the two of them, waving a greeting. “I guess she doesn’t want anyone to feel obligated to do something for her.”
“She thinks that, but then she got all moody last year when nobody knew about her birthday,” Kiruka said with an exaggerated sigh. “She’s such a handful sometimes, I swear.”
“Then,” Koyori started, before trailing off. She looked down at her own clenched hands, the contemplative look on her face betraying the cogs in her head turning. Right before Munemune could interject for elaboration, she looked back up at her upperclassmen, declaring, “we should hold a party for her! A surprise party!”
Munemune smiled as she saw the fire in Koyori’s eyes before replying, “We’ve actually been planning one for a while now.”
Her novel idea being not nearly as novel as she thought deflated Koyori’s enthusiasm a bit, but she didn’t have much time to dwell on it before Kiruka grabbed her by the shoulders, snapping her back to reality. “But Koyori, that’s exactly why we need you,” she said. “The party’s in three days; we need you to get here super early and drag Agari away so we have time to set everything up.”
Kiruka’s encouragement rekindled the fire in Koyori’s eyes, and she grunted in agreement, her pigtails wagging furiously. “I can do that.” However, realization dawned on her a split second later, and she asked, “But, why does it have to be me?”
The team captain gave a nonchalant wave of her hand as she retorted, “You’re the only one who can convince her. With what a workaholic she’s being, we need someone who’s attached to her at the hip to drag her away from the club.”
Although Koyori nodded her understanding, it wasn’t until after Kiruka and Munemune had long wandered off that the full implications of that statement hit her. Her face erupted into a blush, and although she babbled incoherent protests at her upperclassmen, neither of them seemed to hear her. She stood there, blushing and failing to form coherent thoughts, until the sight of Agari approaching in her peripheral vision snapped her back into a comprehensible train of thought.
“Koyori,” the purple-haired girl started, flashing a smirk of confidence, “mind having a practice match?"
Koyori returned the smile and nodded, moving to one side of the nearest vacant table. Agari followed suit, and with nary a word more needing to be exchanged, they started.
Unsurprising to Koyori, Agari was on her A-game, as she had been all day. However, with her doubts of her friend’s worries now cleared, the redhead played with renewed vigor. The two players were even, leading to what they both felt was one of their closest matches in a long while.
On the fateful day, Agari woke up bright and early. She tended to, but on that day especially, she had to make sure not to miss any of practice. She hurried through her morning routine and only gave the most obligatory of farewells to her family before departing for the school. She spent most of the walk wondering how the other members of the club would react to her birthday, in spite of her best efforts to abate such thoughts. She started to feel a pang of regret for not bringing it up herself, but before she could dwell on the idea too long, she arrived at the school gate.
She expected to be alone on the school grounds, leaving her just a bit surprised to see Koyori already waiting there, her eyes darting every which way. Their eyes met for an instant, and in the next instant Koyori stood in front of Agari, holding her hands. Agari did all in her power to not blush and look down at their hands as she asked, “What’s going on, Koyori? You’re usually not here this early.”
“Actually, Agari, I wanted to see you,” the redhead replied, smiling at the purple-haired girl. The response caused Agari’s blush to intensify and her to look away immediately, but it took a few extra seconds for Koyori to realize the full implications of her own words. Once they hit her, she too looked away before managing to stammer out, “I mean, I wanted to go somewhere with you before practice.”
Koyori’s words piqued Agari’s curiosity, and she pulled out her phone to confirm her suspicions. She flashed her phone’s screen, which had no new notifications on it, before pocketing it once more and telling her, “You could’ve just called me, you know.”
Her friend’s statement caused realization to dawn on Koyori’s face, and with a laugh and a hand to the back of her head, she stated, “Sorry, it slipped my mind.”
Agari sighed, but a smile nevertheless formed on her face as she replied, “You’re hopeless sometimes, Koyori. So, where did you want to go?”
Unfortunately for Koyori, she hadn’t thought that far ahead. She used all the brainpower she could muster to think of a feasible excuse, leaving Agari standing there in silence all the while. Agari began to suspect something from the way Koyori’s gaze pointedly avoided her, but that feeling only grew when her eventual response was an uneasy laugh and, “I thought we could just go for a walk together.”
One hand on her hip, Agari asked, “Koyori, are you hiding something?”
“What would I have to hide?” Koyori retorted in a tone that implied she was definitely hiding something, as she waved her arms around frantically.
Before Agari could formulate a reponse, however, the redhead caught her off guard by grabbing her hand and starting to drag her along. It did little to physically move the purple-haired girl, Koyori only managing to drag her bit by small bit, but Agari eventually decided to go along with it. After all, it was Koyori; whatever she was obviously hiding, she must have had some good reason for it.
With a sigh, Agari started to walk alongside Koyori. At least, she tried to; since the redhead was still trying to drag her, the sudden shift in balance caused the two of them to nearly topple over one another. However, they did manage to catch themselves in time and remain standing. They stared at each other for a second, processing what had just happened, before starting to laugh about it. They resumed their walk, their hands occasionally brushing together as they drew further away from the campus.
“How do you like Suzumegahara?”
Agari’s question managed to catch even herself off guard. It was never something she considered much herself, so she couldn’t quite say why she asked it of Koyori. She caught herself sneaking frequent glances at her friend as they walked, the redhead clearly considering the question at length.
Further confounding Agari was when Koyori’s face became as red as her hair partway through her consideration. However, the blush eventually faded, and after a while longer of silence, Koyori started to speak.
“School can be hard sometimes, but the table tennis club makes it all worth it. I’ve been able to improve a lot thanks to you and everyone else, and I get to have a lot of fun every day, so I’m glad I came to Suzumegahara.”
Koyori smiled at Agari, and the sheer radiance of the smile forced Agari to turn away for a second, blushing, before she regained her composure and went to return the smile. However, by the time she turned back to Koyori, she was looking down, and her intense blush had returned. She started to speak, but only managed to say, “Plus…” before trailing off.
Agari’s curiosity mounted as she raised an eyebrow, asking, “Plus what?”
Koyori stayed silent for a while longer, until she finally grabbed Agari by both hands and said as fast as she possibly could, “Plus I got to meet you at Suzumegahara and that’s one of the best things that’s happened to me and my heart races whenever I’m with you and I hope we can play table tennis together a lot more from here on out!”
By the end of her declaration, both of them had faces that were almost impossibly red, and their gazes wandered every possible way except toward each other. Agari was the first to break the prolonged silence when her eyes settled upon a nearby food stand, and she suggested, “We’ve been out for a while, how about we get some food?”
Agari wanted to kick herself for what an obvious deflection the proposition was, but it eased her guilt somewhat that Koyori didn’t seem to mind too much. She looked up at Agari, then over to the stand, and made a small sound of agreement as she nodded, a slight smile reforming on her face.
The two of them each got a crepe and sat at a nearby bench, the awkward distance between them having given way to a more pleasant silence, as they sat next to each other and ate quietly.
At least, until Agari realized that this venture had basically turned into a date, and all her embarrassment returned in full force. Not helping was Koyori being seemingly unaware of this fact, despite the declaration she had given not ten minutes prior. The redhead only made things worse when she craned her head over apropos of nothing and took a bite of Agari’s crepe; it took all of Agari’s mental fortitude to not completely freak out. Instead, she only let slip a small cry of, “Koyori, wha-“
Agari’s declaration stopped dead in its tracks when she saw a pang of guilt flash across Koyori’s face. “Sorry, I was curious,” she said, holding up her own crepe. “Did you want to try mine?”
“No, no, that’s fine,” Agari replied, waving her free hand dismissively as she looked away. “I was just caught off guard is all.”
Silence settled between them once more as they finished their food, at least until Agari noticed Koyori pull out her phone. She put it away before Agari could gleam anything from the screen, but afterward she turned to the purple-haired girl and asked with a smile, “How about we get back to the campus soon?”
Agari nodded slowly, and the thought of how suspiciously Koyori was acting before resurfaced. She no longer thought much of it, since she thought that whatever Koyori was planning, it couldn’t be that bad. Plus, considering what day it was, Agari already had more than a sneaking suspicion about what would greet them the instant they got back.
When Agari and Koyori entered the club room, all the lights were turned off. Agari expected as much, though judging from the squeak she heard, Koyori didn’t. After only a few moments, all the lights flickered to life and the sound of party poppers filled the room. Again, nothing Agari didn’t expect given the circumstances, though she started to feign an expression of surprise to satisfy everyone.
“Happy birthday, Agari and Koyori!” came the declaration from the table tennis club.
That Agari was not expecting, and her feigned expression became the genuine article. She turned to face Koyori, whose look of confusion met her own shocked expression, and asked, “Koyori, today’s your birthday?!”
“Oh, it is. I totally forgot,” Koyori replied, laughing while sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. However, something occurred to her, and she turned to the rest of the club. “But how did you guys know about that?”
“You mentioned it to me before, Peach Panties,” came Hokuto’s voice from near the back of the crowd; a few other students stepped aside so she could move into view. “You didn’t make a big deal of it, so I’m not surprised you don’t remember.”
It took Koyori a short bit of pondering, but she did recall the incident in question Hokuto spoke of. “Oh yeah, I did,” she said, a bit of awe evident in her voice. “I’m surprised you remembered that.”
“Well, this is Hokuto we’re talking about!” Hanabi declared, bursting out of the crowd for the sole purpose of squeezing her friend’s hair bun. “She knows everything, after all!”
The blue-haired girl said nothing in response, though the blush that encompassed her face was more than telling in and of itself. Koyori pulled Agari’s attention away from the two of them when she started fishing around in her bag. She pulled out a small, gift-wrapped box and handed it to Agari, telling her, “Happy birthday, Agari.”
Agari looked down at the box no larger than her palm, not raising her hand to receive it, before looking back up at Koyori. “But I didn’t get you anything.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Koyori replied, at this point practically forcing the box into Agari’s hand. “It’s my fault for not telling you about it.”
Agari resisted for a bit longer, until she got an idea. She opened her hand to receive the gift, but as Koyori gave her the box, Agari grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her out of the room over her confused protests. Whisperings of her intent broke out among the other club members instantly, though the majority of them seemed to already know what would end up happening.
Once the two of them were outside and a safe distance from the club room, Agari let go of Koyori's wrist and explained, “Sorry for being so abrupt, but I couldn’t let anyone else see this.”
Koyori failed to hide her confusion, her eyebrows raising ever so slightly. “See what? Is something wrong, Agari?”
The purple-haired girl started to speak, but stopped herself not a word in. She put a hand to her chest, breathed deeply, and started again, “Sorry for blowing you off earlier today. The truth is, you mean a lot to me too. You’ve done so much for me that I feel I could only ever begin to repay.”
She could hardly hear anything now; the sound of her heart beating nonstop reverberated in her ears. She stole at quick glance down at Koyori’s hands grasping her chest, and took small comfort in that the fact that she was probably feeling similarly.
“So I guess what I’m saying is,” Agari leaned down and touched her lips to Koyori’s for only a split second before pulling away and finishing, “thank you for everything, Koyori. Happy birthday.”
Silence fell between the two, though neither could process it, their hearing drowned out by their own heartbeats. Agari was the first to try and say something, but before she could get a word in, Koyori leapt onto her, throwing her arms around her and planting her lips onto hers. The movement was so sudden that it took all of Agari’s effort to not topple over then and there.
Instead, she toppled over a few seconds later, when all her efforts to regain her balance failed and she fell backward. In spite of that, the two never broke the kiss, content to stay in that position for as long as they could.
Koyori was the one to break the contact, though only for a second, as she lifted her body enough that she could look Agari straight in the eye. “My heart’s about to burst,” she said, before moving to reinitiate the kiss.
“You two have gotten up to a lot in these few minutes,” said a voice, stopping Koyori dead in her tracks. It took the two of them a few moments to process that the voice was Kiruka’s.
It took them a few more to process that the captain was watching them. They both looked in the direction of the club room and found that she wasn’t the only one; at least half of the club was there, trying and failing to hide from view.
“Congrats, you two! You finally went for it!” cheered Hanabi.
The faces of Agari and Koyori both were red enough already, but as their situation dawned on them, the redness only got worse. The redhead failed to form any words, still having a hard time processing all of what just happened. Agari, meanwhile, was at least together enough to ask, “How long have you all been watching?”
“The whole time,” Hokuto answered immediately.
“Sorry to intrude, but we were all a bit curious,” Munemune explained with a half-hearted smile.
The two were still thoroughly dumbstruck by the whole situation, though Kiruka speaking up again helped defuse the situation, if only a little. “We’ll leave you lovebirds to your devices for now,” she said, “but remember that there’s still a party going on for you two.”
With that, she departed back to the clubroom. The rest of the club followed their captain back inside, leaving the lovebirds as alone as they thought they were from the start. Agari slid out from under Koyori and rose to a sitting position. With the slightest bit of disappointment evident in her voice, she asked, “That killed the mood a bit, huh?”
Koyori nodded her agreement as she forced a laugh. She rose to her feet and offered Agari a hand, which she was quick to take. The two of them then started to make their way back to the clubroom, their fingers firmly interlocked.
“My heart’s about to burst,” Agari echoed, her grin growing slightly.
Koyori vocalized her agreement. After a split second pause, she gave Agari a peck on the cheek and nestled up closer to her, only slightly impeding their ability to walk. “Happy birthday, Agari.”
“Happy birthday, Koyori.”
The two entered the clubroom once more, enthusiasm renewed and ready to tackle the days ahead together.