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“Oh, Mikoshiba...” Nozaki started, swiveling his chair to face the table Mayu was huddled at between Mikoshiba and Sakura. “Your birthday is coming up, is there something you want to do?” Mayu’s head popped up in a rare moment of reflex, startling Mikoshiba, who just barely managed to stutter out an answer.
“I-I didn’t really think of anything... I thought you would be busy planning for your notes and research...”
“Ah, that’s true. There’s a lot of new chocolate displays this year,” Nozaki nodded, touching his chin.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t make time to celebrate, Mikorin!” Sakura chimed in, an almost scolding tone directed at Nozaki. “Most of the research and note-taking is only during school anyway. We’ll have plenty of time after!”
“Y-you really don’t have to worry about it! It’s fine!” Mikoshiba insisted. “It’s awkward to be out on my birthday anyway...”
“Well, if you really don’t want to...” Sakura replied quietly. “Maybe we can do something the day after?”
“Mikoto-san’s birthday...” Mayu finally said. “Is it Valentine’s?” Everyone stared at him, except for Mikoshiba, who was fidgeting with his pen and staring at the flowers on the page in front of him.
“You didn’t know?” Nozaki finally asked. Mayu shook his head. “Ah. Well, yes, it’s Valentine’s Day.”
“Poor Mikorin...” Sakura wiped a tear from her eye.
“Hey! Don’t make fun of me!” Mikoshiba accused, finally moving into motion again to point an annoyed finger at her.
“Well, we can plan something for the day after,” Nozaki said. “Try and think of something you want to do.”
Everyone went back to working on their portions of the manga, and Mayu laid his head back down on the table and watched Mikoshiba’s hands carefully tracing ink in the shapes of flowers.
It was only after Mikoshiba and Sakura went home for the night that Mayu got up from the table to pull insistently on his elder brother’s sleeve.
“Hm? What is it, Mayu?”
“Mikoto-san’s birthday...”
“Oh, did you want to come along for the celebration?”
“Yes, but... a gift...”
“I see! Yes, you two are pretty close, you should definitely get him a gift!” Mayu could tell by the glint in his eye that his brother had some ulterior motives, but he couldn’t really be bothered to care too much. “You could get him chocolates! Or flowers! Wait, are flowers too romantic? What about a confession letter?” Mayu frowned at him. “No, you’re right, that’s too much.”
“His birthday,” Mayu emphasized.
“Hmm... you’re right that Mikoshiba doesn’t like Valentine’s Day much… so it would probably be best just to focus on the birthday part.” His brother held his chin and shut his eyes in thought. “Something heartfelt and not too romantic...” Mayu wondered why “not romantic” was even being mentioned as a qualifier, but chalked it up to the unfortunate date of Mikoshiba’s birthday and didn’t question it further.
As the minutes stretched on in silence with no new ideas, Mayu debated going home. He ultimately decided he was too tired, though, so after Nozaki suggested he ask Sakura for advice and returned to working on his manga, he curled up on his futon in the corner to get some rest.
“And everything has to be pink, you know? Always pink and covered in ribbons and stuff! It’s so embarrassing!” Mikoshiba buried his face in his hands as Sakura awkwardly patted his shoulder in an attempt to console him.
“Don’t worry, Mikorin, we’ll do something fun for your birthday so you’ll forget all about all the pink, okay?” The only response she got was something that sounded distinctly like a muffled sob. “Oh, Mayu-kun!” Sakura quickly waved as she saw the boy walking down the hall towards them.
“Sakura-san, can we talk?” A confused look crossed Sakura’s face, but she nodded.
“Sure, is something wrong...?” Mayu shook his head, then turned and started walking away, towards the stairwell. Sakura gave Mikoshiba another quick pat on the shoulder, assured him she’d be right back, and rushed to follow after Mayu.
“What’s up, Mayu-kun?” Sakura asked once they had gotten into the stairwell and out of earshot of Mikoshiba.
“Mikoto-san’s birthday...” Sakura’s face lit up.
“Oh! Are you going to do something for him? You should get him chocolates! Or flowers!?” Mayu sighed quietly to himself and wondered when exactly his brother and Sakura would finally get together. They sure had a lot in common, at least as far as he could see.
“His birthday,” Mayu emphasized again, feeling tired from repeating himself.
“Oh, right, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to do a Valentine’s thing, would it...? But I’m sure there’s something else you can do!” Mayu frowned. “D-don’t worry, Mayu-kun! If you need help, I’ll help you! We can go after school and look for something!”
Mayu wasn’t sure how well it would work out, but he wanted his gift to be a surprise, so he couldn’t ask Mikoshiba directly. Though it would certainly be tiring, Mayu didn’t think it could hurt, so he agreed to a meeting place with Sakura and left for class.
After the long day of school, they met up in front of the building and decided to head in the direction of the nearby mall.
“So, Mayu-kun, how were your classes today?” Mayu considered the question.
“I slept the best in math today.” He nodded slightly.
“Uh, I think you’re supposed to be paying attention…” Sakura said. “Ah, but what about gym?”
“We played basketball...” Sakura’s face brightened.
“Did you score any points?” Mayu considered it.
“Brother is better at basketball than me,” he finally said. He could tell Sakura was now questioning whether he had actually tried or not, but he didn’t feel the need to argue in his defense.
“I see,” she said. “Are there any sports you like besides judo?” Mayu tried to think about what other sports existed, finally landing on one he had tried as a kid.
“Archery?”
“Ah, I think that suits you! It requires a lot of strength, but you don’t have to move much.” Mayu nodded slightly. It was something he wouldn’t mind doing again, though practicing two sports at once seemed like it would be too tiring.
His train of thought was interrupted when he suddenly became aware of a familiar presence nearby, and he turned to find his brother hiding behind a nearby tree. “Hiding” was really being generous, as the thin twig of a tree was barely wide enough to hide one arm, much less his whole body. Still, the older Nozaki looked startled when Mayu lazily pointed him out, drawing Sakura’s attention.
“Oh, Nozaki-kun! What are you doing here?” Though Mayu could tell by the slight twitch in her eye that she already knew, she still seemed perfectly happy to see him.
“I—I needed some supplies from the art store!” He quickly lied.
“Nozaki-kun, if you wanted to come along you could have just asked.” Nozaki rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and finally moved out from behind the tree to join them, and the three of them started walking again.
It wasn’t too long before they arrived at the mall. Mayu felt a wave of tiredness as he stepped into the busy building, but he valiantly fought the urge to yawn.
“Okay, commence Operation ‘Get Mikorin the Perfect Gift’!” Sakura declared, clenching her fist.
“Operation ‘Gift’,” Mayu agreed with a surprising amount of energy, which was to say, with a voice he recognized as slightly more emotional than monotone.
“Ah, yeah, that’s a bit shorter, huh?” Sakura laughed.
“Mayu is very good at shortening things and coming up with acronyms,” Nozaki nodded.
“Doesn’t it get confusing though, since he does that all the time?” Sakura questioned, then shook her head. “No, never mind, that’s not important right now. Mayu-kun!” She turned back towards him. “Where do you want to start?” Mayu shrugged with one shoulder. “That’s what I figured,” she said dejectedly.
“We could go to the art store,” Nozaki suggested.
“Nozaki-kun, we both know you were lying, so how is that supposed to help us get a gift for Mikorin?”
“I was only partially lying, I really do need some supplies,” Nozaki said seriously.
“Okay, fine. We’ll go to the art store while we try to think of a better choice.”
With their destination agreed on, they set off in that direction. Nozaki busied himself loading a basket with screentone sheets while Mayu hung around with Sakura, who was browsing the oil paints and brushes.
“Do you ever draw, Mayu?” Sakura idly asked, thumbing through a cup of brushes.
“Yes, for judo.” Sakura gave him a weird look.
“Why would you need to draw for judo?”
“To teach my team moves. I practice because they focus better when I draw things they like.”
“What sort of requests do they make…?” Sakura asked suspiciously.
“Well, they always want me to draw girls…” He paused. “They have specific tastes, I guess.” Sakura looked even more suspicious.
“…would you show me sometime?” She finally asked, her curiosity about the content plain on her face. Mayu figured she was probably also wondering if he could draw as well as his brother could.
“One of my classmates made a blog to collect them,” he said, pulling out his phone. “Here.” He opened up the webpage and handed the phone to her.
“It’s surprisingly girly,” Sakura commented to herself. “Do you do all the drawings on a white board? That’s gotta be tough!” Mayu nodded. “Wait, ‘MayuMayu’...? Where have I heard that name before?” She considered it, scrolling through the pictures and squinting at the screen. Mayu wondered if she had spontaneously forgotten his name when she suddenly jumped, a bright blush appearing across her face. She hurriedly shoved the phone back into Mayu’s hands.
“Wait here I’ll be right back!” She almost yelled, scrambling out of the aisle and leaving Mayu standing there confused. He briefly considered following her but decided it would be too much trouble and went back to looking at the myriad of paint colors. He’d find out why she was acting so weird eventually, no point in expending the energy on it now.
She returned after several minutes of hushed voices floating over from the next aisle, smiling innocently but still blushing a little too much to really sell it. They went back to their shopping, but Mayu did not miss all the furtive glances she kept sending him.
Once Nozaki had retrieved all of his needed supplies, and Sakura had splurged on a few new brushes, they finally left the store and promptly realized they had forgotten to think about where to go next.
“Well, Mikorin collects figures right? We could go look at the figure store,” Sakura suggested.
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Nozaki agreed, nodding. Mayu also nodded his agreement, and so the three of them set off to look at figures.
“I forgot that it’s a little bit intimidating,” Sakura said as she stepped sheepishly inside. She turned towards Mayu. “Do you know what series or characters he likes? There’s a lot of choices…”
They started to wander around the store, Mayu pointing out the figures that he recognized from Mikoshiba’s collection. By the time they had circled the whole place, it was clear to all of them that identifying the series or favorite characters was not the issue; it was finding a figure from any of those series the store stocked that Mikoshiba didn’t have.
“W-well, it doesn’t have to be a figure! I’m sure there’s something else so let’s keep looking!” Sakura turned to lead them out of the store, accidentally bumping into someone who was standing behind her. “Oh, sorry—” She stopped suddenly as she realized who it was.
“Oh, Mikoshiba,” Nozaki half-greeted from behind her.
“M-Mikorin!? How long have you been standing there?” Sakura squeaked. He ignored both of them in favor of groaning pathetically.
“Not again…” He covered his face with the hand that wasn’t cradling a large figure box next to his hip. After a long minute of silence, he finally looked at them again. “What are you guys even doing in here this time!? Is Nozaki planning to buy a figure to mutilate again? And why is Mayu with you!?”
“Sorry, Mikorin! We were just looking around,” Sakura said, holding her hands up defensively.
“Although, now that you mention it,” Nozaki started, “it still wouldn’t be a bad idea to get a figure for reference.” Mayu could practically see the steam coming out of Mikoshiba’s ears at the comment.
“Out! Out! If you’re not going to respect the figures then just leave!” He summarily kicked both of them out of the store, leaving Mayu standing in the aisle, looking at the back of Mikoshiba’s head and the box that was still in his hands.
“Are you going to buy that?” Mayu finally asked, pointing at the box. Mikoshiba finally turned back to him, his cheeks slightly flushed.
“I was thinking about it, but I don’t have enough money right now…”
“Can I see?” Mayu asked.
“Huh? Oh, uh, sure…”
Mikoshiba sheepishly handed him the box. Mayu took it and examined the figure more closely. It didn’t seem as incriminating as the one that he had been holding the last time Nozaki and Sakura had seen him in the store, or at least it didn’t seem so based on the description his brother had given him of the incident. The figure was of a girl with short, pale pink hair, wearing a somewhat short skirt, a button-up shirt, and a green hoodie. She also had a small pixel spaceship hair clip in her bangs and a cat-shaped plush backpack on her back. Mayu really had no idea who she was or what series she came from.
“Cute,” Mayu finally commented. Mikoshiba seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
“Right? She’s one of my favorites from this series! But the price… it’s normal for a prepaint statue but it’s a little more than I can afford right now...” Mayu’s eyes finally settled on the price tag on the front of the box. It was a little over ten thousand yen; he didn’t really have enough money for it either. He briefly wondered if pooling their money would be enough, but he didn’t think that was any way to get someone a birthday present out of the blue and quickly gave up the idea. He handed the box back.
“Maybe for your birthday?”
“It’s too embarrassing to ask my parents for something like this! But maybe I’ll get some money or something…” Mikoshiba said, looking at the figure sadly before putting it back on the shelf. Mayu suddenly had an idea.
“Mikoto-san, do you want to come with us?”
“Huh? Why? No, I mean… what are you guys even doing here?”
“We just wanted to hang around,” Mayu lied. Mikoshiba eyed him suspiciously.
“You wanted to hang around?” He asked skeptically. Mayu shrugged.
“Brother was going so I couldn’t go to his house. I decided to come along.” Mikoshiba didn’t look entirely convinced but he dropped the subject.
“Alright, well, I guess I can go with you? Since we’re all here? Where were you guys planning to go next?” Mayu shrugged again.
“Haven’t decided.”
“Okay. Well, I guess we should go get Nozaki and Sakura, huh? They look a little antsy out there.”
“Gossiping?” Mayu suggested, looking at the pair outside, leaning close together with their hands hiding their mouths.
“Probably,” Mikoshiba said dryly. They finally turned and headed out of the store to meet Nozaki and Sakura.
“Why didn’t you kick Mayu out too?” Nozaki grumbled.
“Now, now, Nozaki-kun, I’m sure he has his reasons,” Sakura chided with a knowing tone. Mikoshiba seemed to pointedly ignore her implications.
“So, where do you guys want to go?” He asked.
“Oh, are you coming along, Mikorin?” Sakura asked, her eyebrows drawing together.
“Mayu asked me to come…”
“Oh,” Sakura said, giving Mayu a questioning look. “Alright then! Why don’t you pick, Mikorin?”
“Why do I have to pick?” Mikoshiba groaned. “Hmm… how about the game store?” Sakura discreetly looked to Mayu for guidance, and catching his tiny nod, agreed.
“Okay! Let’s go!”
“I didn’t know you liked games, Sakura?” Nozaki questioned.
“I don’t play them often but it’s fun to look around!” She shot him a “please play along” look, which he surprisingly noticed and heeded.
“Ah, okay. Then let’s go!” They finally headed off. “Maybe I should play a game sometime too? Dating sims are kind of fun. At least that one we played was.”
“Well, you are always complaining you don’t have any hobbies when you finish your manga early…” Mikoshiba said. “But then we’ll probably just end up drawing more doujinshi...”
“Doujinshi?” Mayu questioned.
“Ah, when Mikoshiba made me play the game, we got really attached to this side character named Tomoda, so we ended up drawing a doujinshi where he gets his own love story with the—”
“Nozaki!” Mikoshiba quickly cut him off. “I’m sure he’s not interested in what it’s about!”
“With who?” Mayu prompted, inadvertently ignoring Mikoshiba’s attempt to end the conversation.
“With the protagonist,” Nozaki finished before Mikoshiba could stop him. Mikoshiba covered his eyes with one hand.
“They pulled an all-nighter to finish it; it was little shocking the next day when I saw it,” Sakura added. Mikoshiba covered his face with his other hand. Mayu wondered to himself why Mikoshiba was so embarrassed about it, but decided not to question further.
“We’re here,” he finally said, which made Mikoshiba reluctantly uncover his face.
“They have a display for Girls Princess 4! I forgot it was coming out this month!” He suddenly exclaimed, eyeing the display in the front window.
“The tenth, huh? That’s this Friday,” Nozaki said.
“Crap, that means I can’t buy it yet!” Mikoshiba finally rushed inside the store to look at the promotional stands, and Mayu followed slowly after. “And I can’t preorder it either because I’m short a little bit...” He added with a depressed tone.
“Ask for your birthday?”
“It’s a gal game, though! It’s embarrassing!”
“Hm,” Mayu hummed noncommittally.
“I really hope I get some money so I can buy all this stuff...” Mikoshiba whined, turning the display game case over in his hands. Mayu watched his fingers twirling idly, then noted the price on the box. It was three thousand yen; that was certainly a price he could manage. With a plan decided, he touched Mikoshiba’s hand gently.
“I’ll be back.” He looked around for Nozaki and Sakura, found them in one of the corners of the store, and walked over. “Sakura-san.”
“Hm? What is it Mayu?”
“Can you do something for me?”
Mayu knew it couldn’t have been easy, but Sakura managed a lot better than he himself could have, he was sure of that. It was finally Mikoshiba’s birthday; Mikoshiba had declined going out until tomorrow, but had (happily, Mayu hoped) allowed him to visit. Staying at home kept him more or less safely insulated from all the pink and hearts and romance outside, which Mayu knew he would appreciate, and which he himself was a little happy for, too.
Now, the two of them were huddled together on Mikoshiba’s bed as Mikoshiba showed him what his parents had given him for his birthday.
“And they told me last week that they were going to give me some money too, so I wanted to go and preorder Girls Princess 4, but somehow I couldn’t get down there to do it? Every time I planned to go, Sakura appeared to ask me for help with something, it was weird!” Yes, it could not have been easy for Sakura. Mayu definitely owed her one. He pulled his bag into his lap and opened it. “So I never got to preorder it... I think I’ll go down tomorrow and see if they still have some cop—” Mikoshiba fell quiet suddenly when he caught sight of the game case that Mayu had slipped carefully out of his bag and held out to him.
“I asked her to keep you,” Mayu admitted. “Sorry.” Mikoshiba stared at the case for several moments, then looked at Mayu, then back at the case again. He did it several times before Mayu moved the case a little closer to him, trying to encourage him to take it. Mikoshiba’s hands finally lifted, gently taking hold of the case.
“You bought it for me....?”
“Happy birthday.” Mayu smiled softly, and a slight blush appeared on Mikoshiba’s face.
“T-thank you,” he said, his head falling onto Mayu’s shoulder to avoid the younger’s gaze. Mayu gently patted the back of his head.
“Shall we play?” He suggested. Mikoshiba sat up again.
“Yeah! But you have to pick your own love interest this time!” Mayu smiled again.
“Sure.” Mikoshiba smiled wide and got up to put the game in.