_Chapter 38~ Fruit Punch_

September 3rd: my birthday.

Now, I was never really the celebratory type—in fact, aging another year typically meant I was one year closer to dying—but there were times I'd admit they were nice. Gaining privileges, more freedom, responsibility...

Even now, I could admit that it was one of those times that I was glad they existed.

"Happy birthday, Reina!"

Standing at the threshold of one of the bowling alley booths as I was, only familiar faces stared back at me. Excessive streamers and decorations adorned the surrounding table as well as various balloons and supplies reiterating the gist of this occasion. Even the birthday cake Mom told me to make for myself because I thought I'd be celebrating by myself was propped against the center table, proving her involvement in this all.

         From the corner of my eye, I caught Miyabi extending a finger to get a lick of the frosting but Daichi smacked his hand before he could, resulting in him feigning a kicked puppy.

          I knew Mom and Dad kicking me out of the house for today and the strange call from Erika to meet here seemed a little fishy, but... This occurrence was the least of my wildest imagination.

          "Wow," I drawled, nodding as I took a good look around. "I don't know what to say."

          "How about a thank you?" Grinned Erika, maneuvering her way towards me and engulfing me into a hug. "I could only manage this last minute. I can't believe you didn't tell me your birthday was coming up earlier!"

          "Well," I began as she retreated from the gesture, "it is on a weekend, and I can't comprehend why aging another year is so important to mention to the world."

          "Oh c'mon, don't be a downer," Erika sighed with a gentle nudge to my arm.
On the phone call earlier today I'd asked about last month and that strange prank but she just told me that her 'friend' had answered the phone for her instead and to forget about it.

          It calmed me down for sure. I knew it was a misunderstanding. But something about the way Erika went on about avoiding the subject made me think she might've been lying.

          "Happy birthday, Reina," said Miki, coming up from behind me.

          "Happy birthday." Saika smiled.

          Both girls as well as a few others who tagged along held out their arms for me and unable to withhold the joy swelling up like a balloon inside of me, I accepted and threw hugs their way. Considering I hadn't had the opportunity to talk to these girls prior to Erika's arrival, I was glad that there were sweeter people that I'd ever deemed attending Akelius Academy.

After withdrawing from Chiharu, it was to my surprise to find two more arms extended my way and that they belonged to Miyabi. Craning my neck upwards, I saw that he was wearing a lopsided smile on his face as he beckoned his arms.

"Can I get a hug too?" he requested.

Knitting my eyebrows together, I rhetorically sucked in a breath. "I don't know, can you?"

Miyabi narrowed his eyes a bit in disgust before letting out a defeated huff. "Don't be like those horrible teachers that ruined my childhood and give your friend a hug."

"We're friends?"

Almost comically, Miyabi's jaw fell and he was at an obvious loss of words for a while. Before he could speak, I chuckled and gave him a quick pat on the shoulder.

"Just kidding. Don't take it personally."

Miyabi placed a hand over his chest with a look of disbelief. "Already taken personally."

Daichi let out a laugh from beside him. "Amazing. One year older and you're already making Miyabi cry. Congrats, Reina."

"I'm not crying!" protested the male. He sniffled but looked in the other direction so we couldn't see his face. "Th-there's just something in my eye."

"Ouch. The pain of Reina's rejection is harsh," winced Daichi. "Now I'm not sure I want to ask for a hug as well."

Rolling my eyes, I faced him with a raised eyebrow. "You want a hug too?"

With a grin, Daichi shook his head. "Not after that," he confessed, extending out a fist to me. "Happy birthday, oldie."

I reluctantly connected our fists with a matching smile. "Thanks, youngling. Now, let's go get your senior some shoes so we can go bowling together."

With much needed dramatics, Daichi posed a curtsey and after informing Erika, led me towards the counter. After trading my shoes in for the right size bowling shoes, we made our way back to the booth where the rest of them were already set up for a match. Erika excitedly voted herself to go first and went straight for the bowling balls. As everyone cheered her on, I couldn't help but scan the group one more time and a frown ended up forming on my face. Ryu wasn't here? Well, it wasn't like he had to be here, but since everyone else was I kind of expected him to be.

"Thanks for aging today, Sheep."

Bewildered, I sat appropriately in my seat but decided not to question Miyabi's statement much. "You're welcome, Miyabi. Always a pleasure."

He laughed as a result. "You're old," he stated. "So old."

"And you're idiotic," I replied. "So idiotic."

Miyabi paused to stare at me. I stared right back at him. It wasn't long before Miyabi swivelled around to hide his face did I hear the slight sniffles erupting from him. Immediately, my heart dropped to my gut in overwhelming regret.

"Miyabi," I began.

"N-no, i-it's fine. I-I r-realize I'm incompetent," he blubbered. "Thank you f-for reminding me again. Really needed it."

I guess I picked on him too much. "Sorry," I said. "It was supposed to be a joke. But—"

"I'm an even b-bigger one so I couldn't take it," Miyabi finished.

"Hey," I said. "Don't say that. Look, please forgive me."

Miyabi paused. "Will you bake me your trademark cookies?"

"Yes, of course."

He spun my way, a wide grin plastered on his face. "Then I'll forgive you."

The way he'd changed moods so fast was amazing. He must've been faking it from the start, and that thought irked me, but I didn't regret it nonetheless. I needed to learn to be nicer and not talk bad to people's faces so easily.

"By the way, where's Iwasaki?" I asked him to change the subject.

"That's a good question," Miyabi mused in response.

My brows knitted together as I gave him a look.

"What?" Miyabi feigned innocence. "He'll come for sure don't worry."

Letting it drop, I bobbed my head.

"Hmm," he hummed.

"What?" I demanded.

"You must really like Iwasaki huh, Sheep?"

My cheeks enveloped with colour as my body lurched upright. "H-huh! What are you saying?"

"No, it's good that you do," he quickly protested. "I kind of appreciate it. Nobody really likes Iwasaki so it's good that you like him."

"...Don't you like Iwasaki?"

Miyabi let out a laugh, bumping shoulders with me. "I don't roll that way, Sheep!"

"I didn't mean it like that..."

Miyabi paused under my gaze before he spoke, "Hmm. I guess you could say I find him interesting."

I blinked at his choice of words. "Interesting...?"

Miyabi lifted himself to his feet. "It doesn't matter. Oh look, it's your turn."

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at him but rose up as well. "You've always been a weirdo, Miyabi."

He winked. "And you've always been fun to hang out with, Reina."

My eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. "Did you just—"

"Oh, so that's the scoreboard over there!" Miyabi cried, shading his eyes so he could get a better look.

"Did you just say..."

Miyabi turned my way. "What's wrong, Sheep? It's your turn, y'know!"

"No." I was fumbling for the words. "B-before you said that..."

His eyebrows furrowed. "Sheep?"

I opened my mouth again but Miyabi honestly looked puzzled.

"Um, never mind?" I clamped my mouth for a second. Was it just my imagination?

"Reina, it's your turn!" Erika called out to me. "Be sure to smother Daichi's lead here."

Daichi from beside her wore a contemptuous look. "Like Reina could."

Walking over to the bowling ball rack, I snorted as I slipped my fingers through the holes of an orange one. "You've been getting a lot more cheeky lately," I said as I passed him and entered the lane. "It seems I'm going to have to put you in your place."

"I'd like to see you try." Smirked Daichi.

With a playful glare, I prepped myself for the shot and going on past knowledge of the game, I carefully rolled it at an angle. It moved swiftly down the lane before hitting the center and knocking over all the pins. A strike.

Triumphantly, I turned Daichi's way who wore a look that said he believed it was purely luck. On the other hand, Erika, Miyabi and the other girls were lined up with matching grins, Miyabi standing in the middle. He motioned for me to spin around and although confused, I did as he wanted and twirled around.

Daichi appeared utterly lost. "What's going on?"

"On the count of one, two, three," Miyabi whispered to the reluctant girls beside him.

Simultaneously, they all jumped in a circle similar to the Miis would in Wii sports, and I erupted into giggles due to the weirded out stares the other people beside us gave in return. Even the person working the shoe counter seemed flabbergasted.

Needless to say, with the area around us enveloped by the sounds of amused laughter, my day just kept getting better and better.

*    *    *

Ryu showed up towards the end of a long hour and a half, apologizing that he'd been held up with volunteering at the local hospital. What a good guy, right? The face totally didn't suit that part of him.

When I'd told him that to his face, he just said he'd let it slide today since it was my birthday. I'm kind of lucky. I'd even suggested he play me in curling—I mean, bowling—because I'd dominated the rest of them easy peasy lemon squeezy and wanted more of a challenge. He'd accepted it, of course, and our game was a pretty close one. But I ended up getting the final—

"Strike!" cheered Miyabi from behind after Ryu's turn.

Fine. I guess I didn't end up getting the final point. Of course if I hadn't been tired from playing multiple games already I could've beaten him. And no, that wasn't an excuse (but active people and their athleticism, I tell you, were to be shunned upon by a lazy coach potato like me).

Once everyone started to reach their max points of exhaustion, we decided to call it a day.

"I guess this is where we part ways," said Erika as she scooped me into another hug. "I hope you had a blast today."

"Yeah, I did," I assured her, giving her another heartfelt squeeze. "Thank you. It means a lot. I could've spent my day at home like usual but that doesn't beat coming here today for sure."

Erika laughed as she pulled away. "I'm glad to hear that."

"See you later, Reina," said the girls in unison.

"See you. Thanks for coming," I told them before they left. Just before they could turn around, more words ended up tumbling out of my mouth, "And thank you for being few of the sweetest people alive. I didn't think it'd be possible for sweet people to enrol at Akelius but you're living proof of that. It's a miracle. You guys are miracles. Just know that."

My praise caused them to stare at me rather strangely, but the smiles making up the majority of their faces was what eased my nerves a little.

"The same applies for you too, Reina," Miki told me with a smile.

My heart swelled with joy at that statement.

"Bye, Reina!"

"See you tomorrow!"

At that, the girls vacated out the exit or entrance—I wasn't yet sure what to call it—leaving me behind with the boys. It was a tad bit sad, but true. Why was always the one left with them though?

Picking up one of my many drinks from the table, I placed it to my lips and took another leisure sip. I'd been super thirsty today for some reason.

...Apples. I wonder if the three of them liked apples as much as I did.

"Today was fun," cheered Miyabi as he returned from the counter with his proper shoes to join us. "Sucks that I couldn't get one strike though."

"Let alone strike, you couldn't even hit a single pin," Daichi said. "I can't understand how that's possible."

"It's because he's Miyabi," Ryu answered for him.

Daichi looked at him with a nod of understanding. "True."

Miyabi's mouth fell. "Hey, what do you mean 'it's because he's Miyabi'? For my first time bowling I think I did a pretty good job! Right, Sheep?"

At the mention, all of their gazes shot in my direction. I stared at them blankly for a second until I realized that 'Sheep' was supposed to be me. Taking another sip of my fruit punch, I sputtered, "Do you like apples?"

All three of them looked just as confused as could be.

"Apples?" asked Daichi.

"Watermelon is good too," I mused on without much thought. "We should all eat some watermelon. Even though summer vacation ended a few days ago. But my mom hasn't bought any since. I'm kind of sad."

"I... see?" said Ryu.

On the other hand, Miyabi was blunt, "Are you feeling all right, Sheep?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, tapering my droopy eyelids into a glare. "But I don't appreciate that term you're using with me, mister. My name is Reina Kikuchi. Repeat after me: Reina Kikuchi. I am not a sheep."

An amused smile adorned his lips. "Sheep."

"I'm not a sheep!" I protested. "I'm human."

"But Sheep—"

"Pointy head," I warned, taking uneasy steps towards him and poking him on the chest. "If you make fun of me one more time, I'm calling you pointy head."

"No, anything but that!" whined Miyabi despite wearing a smile.

"Well that's what it has come to," I stated, jutting my chin. "Pointy head."

Miyabi clasped his hands over his head. "My one feature I'm the least proud of. How cruel of you. How cruel."

"Cruel is my middle name," I boasted. Immediately, a laugh left my mouth. "Ha, I was kidding. I don't have a middle name."

"Silly, Billy, Sheep," said Miyabi. "You almost fooled me.

"Billy, Nilly, Tilly, Willy, Silly, Shee—" I stopped myself before I could finish, narrowing my eyes yet again. "Hey! I said to stop saying that!"

In response, Miyabi only burst out into a fit of laughter. The way he was laughing so hard was kind of funny I ended up producing a giggle as well.

"Wow, they're on mutual wavelengths," murmured Daichi from a distance. "It's pretty creepy."

Ryu who had been watching this unfold as well, came towards us. Our laughter halted.

"Kikuchi, we should get going," he told me. "It's getting late. I'll walk you home."

"Okay, Iwasaki," I drawled out like a kid.

For some strange reason, his eyebrows creased as he stared at me.

"What?" I questioned.

"Nothing," he said, averting his eyes. "Let's go."

After saying a curt farewell, Ryu started towards the doors. Before I could leave, I sent Miyabi one last glance.

"By the way, you did perform horribly today," I addressed his earlier question.

His jaw plummeted and I giggled as I gave Daichi a small pat to the shoulder.

"See you to...tomorrow, Daichi." I cringed a little at the slip of tongue but paid it no mind.

Strangely enough, Daichi avoided my eyes and simply nodded. "Yeah, okay. Bye, Reina."

"Bye!" With a grin, I spun around and hurried out the doors behind Ryu. Although I was trying to keep up, it was hard to run. I ended up tripping over my own feet but before I could've collapsed onto the cement, Ryu caught me. Eyes wide, I craned my neck upwards to see that he was frowning.

"Be more careful," he said.

I laughed a little. "Sorry," I cooed as he steadied me back on my feet.

Stuffing his hands into his pocket, Ryu started walking again. But unlike earlier, he slowed his pace to allow me to keep up. I found it hard to walk though. I looked down at my shoes, making a face. Were something wrong with them?

"I don't want to go to school tomorrow," I told Ryu with a sigh. "Wasn't summer vacation so short?"

"It always is," he responded.

"But it just went by so quickly!" I whined with a pout. "I spent it lazing around, but still. I'd prefer that. I don't like having to go to school."

"Yeah." He sounded a little distracted. "I'd prefer that too."

"Iwasaki," I spoke again after a silence was to settle in.

"Yeah?"

"Today was fun," I said. "I was really surprised. I didn't expect it."

"Why? What does Amaya do every year?"

"I didn't really know her until a couple months ago," I replied. "She's my cousin but she lived in... Where'd she live again? I don't know. But anyways, she lived somewhere else other than here. Maybe Hokkaido. Or Tokyo. I want to go to Tokyo—"

"You're getting off track," Ryu stopped me.

"Oh." My brows rose high. "I didn't even realize. What were we talking about? Hokkaido...?"

"I asked you what Amaya did for you every year but you said you didn't know her," Ryu prodded.

"Yeah, apparently we knew each other when we were kids, but..." My eyelids felt heavy and I ended up leaning against Ryu to keep balanced. "I don't really remember her, y'know? But I could've beaten you."

Ryu's body had clearly stiffened. "Beaten me...?" he asked.

"In bowling," I slurred. "I just played more than you. I was tired."

"You sound pretty tired now," he noted.

"I'm fine," I mumbled. I wasn't tired anyway. I could stay up for days if I wanted to. And days. And days. Imagine if I could stay up without getting tired? Why did humans need sleep anyway? We could function without it. Look at how well I did at it.

But strawberries were very good. And healthy. But apparently they weren't even berries! Raspberries too. But how? How were they not considered berries but bananas were? And how were tomatoes fruits? Why was life so confusing?

Oh, but planets. Didn't they find three exoplanets that were earth-like? Wouldn't that mean that aliens lived there if they were habitual? That sounded so cool. Aliens.

"K-Kikuchi."

My eyelids rose a bit as I looked in his direction. He appeared quite awkward as he shoved something into my hands. Startled, I looked down to see that it was a gift. My heart immediately jumped in my chest.

"You got me—"

"I didn't know what else to get so don't judge me for it," he quickly said, turning his head in the entirely opposite direction from me.

I could only gawk a little as I tried to subdue the irregular pulsations in my chest. I mean, I'd received presents from the rest of them today too but for some reason, I just wasn't expecting Ryu to give me one. 

Oh no. A smile broke out onto my face before I could stop it. Why did it make me so happy for some reason?

"Thank you," I told him. "Ha ha, my heart's beating really odd right now. It's always like this because of you."

"H-huh?"

"I guess this means I'm happy," I murmured to myself, shutting my eyes. "Like when I see cats. Cats are so cute. Why are cats so cute?"

He was flustered. "I-I don't know?"

"By the way, when's your birthday, Iwasaki?" I blurted out, nearly tripping yet again.

"H-huh?!" He paused. "I-It's May 14th."

My eyes bulged. "What! But that was a...couple months ago!"

"Yeah..." he said.

"We have to celebrate!" I cried, grabbing onto his sleeve.

"It's a little too late to celebrate..."

"No way..." I pouted. "I can't believe I missed it."

As if sensing my disappointment, he ruffled my hair. "It's fine. Next year we can."

"Will we still be friends next year?"

"Why not?" he said.

I smiled yet again. "I was just asking. Oh, by the way, Iwasaki, Aki sent me a text message."

He immediately frowned.

"He sent me it this morning at 12 AM on the dot," I told him, taking a sip of the drink and pulling out my cell. "It was very sweet of him." A warm smile graced my face as I held it out to his face. "Look at it. It's just so sweet."

Ryu leaned forward to see the message.

'Happy eighteenth birthday, Senpai! I hope you have a great day today. As I'm your favourite kouhai, I had to send this at exactly 12 AM (I bet nobody else tried to, right?) Ha ha, I would call you, but I know you're probably sleeping. Sadly I can't hang out today so that's why I'm sending this. Okay, but enough mushy stuff.

Don't tell anybody I sent you this. Unless you talk to Iwasaki. Then flash this in his face and laugh because he wasn't the first person to say it today. 😜 (if you're reading this, Aniki, HAHAHA)

Okay, sorry for the long message. Bye, Senpai!'

Ryu was fuming by the end of it. He seemed ready to hurt Aki. That made me laugh.

Without warning, Ryu sniffed around. His brows furrowed together as he stared at me, eyes narrowed. Colour drained from his face at a fast rate. Before I could figure out what the issue was, he snatched the bottle from my hands and brought it to his eyes, read the label then sniffed it. His eyelids shot upwards in surprise.

"Were you drinking this?" he demanded.

His yell made me frown. "What's wrong with fruit punch?"

"This isn't fruit punch..." Ryu halted, his mouth moving wordlessly for a while. He instantly came to a halt and scowled. "Who gave you this?"

"I don't remember," I whined, his anger making my skin crawl. "Anyway, Iwasaki, look, that light is red. We need to walk. We have to cross to get to the other side. Just like the chicken."

"Who gave you this, Kikuchi?" he reiterated.

Tears filled my eyes. "I-I don't know. Wh-why are you mad at me?"

"Of course I'm—" I began to sniffle and he immediately stopped himself. "N-no, I mean— Why are you crying? Please don't cry."

It was too late. "Why're you yelling at me?" I whimpered.

"I'm not!"

I flinched.

"I-I'm not," he tried again, this time his voice laced in panic. "Kikuchi, did the waitress give this to you?"

"W-we had to get our own drinks," I snivelled. "B-but someone got all of ours for us. Wh-why?"

"Someone with us?" Ryu frenziedly ran his fingers through his hair. "I knew you were acting strangely. But my drink was normal. And it looks like fruit punch like the rest of them did... What the heck? Was it an accident?"

I clasped his sleeve, lips quivering. "Iwasaki, did I do something bad? I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

The way Ryu stared at me made my heart feel heavy in my chest. He reached over and mussed my hair. "Sorry for yelling at you," he said. "Calm down."

I felt unusually tired. And my crying wasn't helping. "Did I do something bad?" I asked him, rubbing at my eyes.

"No," he hesitated. "But whoever gave you this drink did."

I peeked at my bottle he held in his hand. "It's not fruit punch?"

He simply wore a tight-lipped smile. "Let's just go," he said, grabbing onto my hand to keep me balanced. "We'll walk around for a bit then I'll take you home."