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Kyouka adores listening to music. She has a record player in her bedroom and goes out once a week to buy new LPs to add to her collection. She is almost always found wearing headphones, listening to the huge amount of music stored on her phone. She hums music and doodles music notes on her school books and talks about her favourite bands to anyone who will listen.
So when Mei learns that her birthday is coming up, it seems incredibly obvious what she should get her girlfriend. The only problem is that music really isn’t her forte. Mei can analyse technology and gadgets in detail in her quest to make her ‘babies’ better and better for any prospective Heroes who might want them… but music? She has no clue.
In fact, there is only one other person Mei knows who loves music as much as Kyouka. So after her English lesson, Mei stays behind and wanders up to Present Mic-sensei’s desk.
“Uh, Sensei, can I ask you something?” she says.
Present Mic-sensei grins, and his voice booms as he says, “YES, my dear listener! What’s on your mind?!”
Mei smiles awkwardly. “Um… you love music, right?”
He nods. “I certainly do. It’s my all time favourite thing… other than my husband.”
Knowing that Mic-sensei is referring to Aizawa-sensei, Mei smiles.
“Anyway, I want to get a birthday present for Jirou in Class 1-A, and she loves music but I don’t really know much about it, so…”
“Ah, you want advice,” Mic-sensei says, smiling. “Well, it’s difficult to know exactly what a person will like without looking at their interests in music. But a good suggestion if to see if she only owns digital copies of any of her favourite albums, and then buy her an LP of it. It’s always nice to have a hard copy of music. And, well, that’s what my husband bought for me on our first anniversary, and it was a lovely gesture.” His face flushes slightly. “So I’d go for that, young listener!”
Mei smiles, nodding her head. “That’s a good idea. Thank you, Sensei.”
Present Mic-sensei grins and gives her a thumbs-up. “No problem.”
So now Mei has an idea for what to get her girlfriend for her birthday. After school, she and Kyouka walk together, holding hands, before saying goodbye and heading off in different directions.
But instead of going home, Mei takes a quick trip to the shopping centre. She finds a music store and starts scanning the racks of records, noting the difference between LPs and singles and so on. Eventually, she finds an album that she knows Kyouka listens to regularly, and picks up the record.
It costs quite a bit, but Mei doesn’t care. And soon she has returned home carrying the present in her large school bag, unable to get the smile to leave her face.
And so, when Kyouka’s birthday comes around, Mei hurtles up to her girlfriend at school before homeroom and thrusts her wrapped present towards her.
“Happy birthday!” she says.
Kyouka smiles and gives her a quick kiss. “Thanks.”
And when she unwraps it and sees the large record, she grins and hugs Mei.
“Seriously, thank you!” she says. “This is such an amazing gift. I love you.”
Mei blushes, kissing her softly. “Not a problem. And I love you too.”