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Kotake Tetsuya was discovering that messing up with his sleep schedule was definitely not a good idea. For just one day though, he could endure it. It was his birthday, after all, one doesn’t turn fourteen every day!
Besides, he had good reasons. His parents appeared in his bedroom with a birthday gift exactly at midnight: his very first phone. Of course, he would have to add every contact today, so he stayed up late to adjust everything and figure out how to use the new gift properly. After five hours of sleep, the now fourteen-year-old boy got up at 6am to go straight to his morning soccer practice. Normally the exercise gave him a much-needed boost to survive classes. Today though, Kotake was exhausted, and sighed heavily as he sat down on his desk.
Noticing he still had exactly sixteen minutes til class started, he figured he could just lie on the table for a little bit. There were already some classmates around but plenty of them still had to arrive, so it was quiet enough... yes, he could even close his eyes for a couple of min –
‘Good morning!!’
Nevermind, Harukaze Doremi had just arrived.
Wait, the Harukaze Doremi? Kotake double-checked his watch: it was still quarter past eight. What the heck was she doing here so early? She always rushed in just before the professor closed the doors.
‘Good morning Doremi-chan!’ Kotake heard a couple of classmates greet back. He looked at Doremi as if she was the most bizarre sight he had ever witnessed. He expected her to look tired, resisting a yawn, even. But surprisingly enough, she held her head high, a smile of her face... and was walking straight to him.
It’s not like they haven’t grown closer since they finished primary school and besides, they were seated next to each other this year, so for her to salute him wasn’t that strange. But she could have just stopped to chat with Okuyama Naomi, he figured, or sit directly at her desk. Instead, she stopped right before his seat and suddenly grinned, her shoulders going up in excitement. Now that was strange.
‘Good morning!’ Doremi then caught his puzzled expression. ‘Why are you giving me that look?’
‘What on earth are you doing here this early?’ Kotake managed to ask. He was wondering what she was doing specifically there, in front of him, but left that out of the question. Doremi looked at him as if he had just asked the stupidest thing she had ever heard.
‘Cause I have something for you!’
What?
‘W-what do you mean, you have something for me?’ The smile that reappeared on her lips suddenly erased all possible thought and the poor boy was unable to join the dots in his head.
‘Well, it’s your birthday, right?’ She turned around and bent down to take something out of her schoolbag, then turned again so eagerly that she almost hit him with the cute, pink plastic-wrapped bulk she held in her hands. With an excited ‘Happy birthday, Kotake!’, Doremi pushed the package right in front of his face.
Kotake was left speechless for a few seconds, but after some internal ‘get-your-shit-together’ screaming, he managed to simply muster:
‘Y-you remembered?’
He didn’t realise how soft his voice came off, but Doremi definitely did – she noticed something funny in her stomach which she couldn’t identify as anything other than sudden nervousness, and she tried to play it off.
‘Of course I did, you idiot. Seriously, what did you have for breakfast today? Your questions are sillier than usual’. She stuck out her tongue as a sign of playfulness, but then her expression turned into embarrassment and her left hand flew up to the back of her neck. ‘I don’t know if you’ll like it tho... I’m out of practice’.
Kotake almost asked what she meant, but he decided to cut out the silly questions. With an arched eyebrow, he gently took the gift and pulled the bow out. A sweet scent filled his nostrils as he looked down and let out the tiniest little gasp.
Cookies.
Star-shaped cookies.
Kotake lifted his head and saw a pink blush appearing in Doremi’s face, who was looking down as if she had just been caught doing something improper. He was sure his own face looked very similar, if not redder. When she dared glance at him, she quickly explained herself, almost stumbling upon her own words and frantically moving her hands all around her.
‘I- I’m not really sure if they’re good enough you know because it’s been a while since I last made cookies an- and it’s probably the first time I try on my own and I asked Momo-chan but the timezones are very different in the States and while I cooked she was sleeping and couldn’t really help me – and they’re lemon based! I think you liked those jellies that we cooked once...? But still I’ve never made lemon cookies before I don’t know maybe they’re not very tasty they seemed decent to me but if you don’t like them that’s fine! And-’
‘Dojimi.’
At the nickname, she stopped moving her hands altogether and turned her eyes at him, catching her breath. Kotake wasn’t sure if he had ever seen her so nervous around him before. Then again, he wasn’t exactly calm either, and when he spoke again he couldn’t hide his excitement. ‘You really baked these cookies for me?’
The comment didn’t help the poor girl as she looked away again and took a shy step back. ‘Well, y- you made me a gift a couple of years ago too, so...’. Kotake recalled he finished her last piece of steak that day, and it made her so angry that he thought she didn’t remember the present at all.
‘C- can I try one?’
‘Sure... Here.’ Doremi placed the bag in front of him again so he could get a cookie. He noticed the shape wasn’t perfect, although one could still tell it was a star. Given her clumsiness, he realised just how much time she had spent trying to get them right, and the thought alone made Kotake forget any snarky comment he could have possibly made. Instead, he sheepishly smiled at her and took a bite of the cute lemon-flavoured star. Doremi immediately turned her gaze down.
‘Oh, it’s really good!!’
Her eyes turned the size of plates as she looked back at him. ‘Really?!’
‘Totally!’ Kotake didn’t realise he shouted and caused some classmates turning to look at them – he was too busy enjoying his present. It seemed he was being honest, because he ate the rest of the cookie with his next bite. ‘Mmmmh.’ Being lemon-based, it had a strong, remarkable flavour, but it also tasted much sweeter than he had expected at first. Kind of like the girl who made them.
Speaking of, Doremi let out a little breath and grinned at him with such excitement, he thought she would grab him by the arms while talking to him. She placed her hands on top of her heart instead.
‘What a relief... I put a lot of effort in them! I was scared they didn’t taste good... You’re not lying to me, are you? You better not!’ She added, suddenly frowning and pointing an accusing finger at his face. Sheesh, her feelings really could change a hundred miles per second.
‘I’m not, promised! I really like them... I can’t believe I get to eat them for free!’ With that, Kotake earned a loud, beautiful, genuine laugh from her, and he felt his heart skip a beat.
‘I’m so glad... I haven’t lost my touch, after all!’
Kotake could still hardly believe his crush had not only remembered his birthday, but also taken the time and effort to make him a present with her own hands. And she was so excited about it too... He leaned back in his desk and smiled fondly at her.
‘Thank you, Doremi.’
The guy has always been rather proud and private with his feelings; with time, Doremi had learnt to read him through his actions. It’s not common to hear him truthfully express gratitude, let alone to Doremi herself... She took a picture of him in her mind, to make sure she would remember this moment, and flashed a warm smile in return.
‘You’re welcome. But don’t get used to it!’ She poked her tongue out at him again, and he chuckled. ‘Did you get any other presents?’
Oh yeah, the phone! He had completely forgotten about it by this point. The cookies were so much better, anyways. ‘My parents gave me a brand-new phone yesterday! I still have no contacts tho. Do you have one? I could add your number!’
‘Sure!’
But they were suddenly interrupted by the school bell, as classes were about to start. Surprised by how fast those last minutes had passed, both Doremi and Kotake sat down in their respective desks just before the professor entered the classroom. When had all their classmates arrived? Neither of them had noticed their presence. Kotake gave her a weird face and she tried to suppress a chuckle, taking a pen and scribbling something down on her notebook. While the professor took his seat, Doremi passed the note to him.
It was her phone number, with a star doodle beside it.
Kotake felt like the luckiest fourteen-year-old boy in the world.