"Okay!" Hina clapped her hands together to get the attention of the former gang members that sat in a line in front of her. "It's [name]-chan's birthday next week, and we obviously have to celebrate it with her."
"Why did you only tell us with a week to go?!" Baji pulled at his hair, "How am I supposed to find a present for her in a week?!"
"Baji-san, calm down. You'll figure out something." Chifuyu was having the same problem. He didn't expect your birthday to be so soon.
"What should I get her, Ken-chin?"
"I dunno."
"Smiley, what are you thinking?" Mitsuya looked over to the orange-haired boy.
"She likes taking pictures, right? Maybe I can get her a cheap camera."
"Okay, enough!" Hina clapped her hands for the second time, "I've already thought of something that we can all do on the day. Luckily for us, it's on a weekend, so that means we have the entire day to prepare for it. Me, Takemichi-kun and my brother, Naoto, will set up a surprise birthday party in the park just outside our apartment complex. By now, everyone should know where that is."
"But, Hina," Takemichi raised his hand, "if it's gonna be right outside the building, wouldn't [last name]-san notice it... if she goes outside?"
"That's where one of you guys come in!" Hina declared, "While we're preparing, one of you will be in [name]-chan's house keeping her distracted." She then pursed our her lips and examined each and every one of them, "Hm... I'd say, Mitsuya-kun would be the best choice!"
"Why?!"
"Because Baji-kun, Mitsuya-kun can bring his sisters along as well! That way, [name]-chan will have no choice but to keep them company."
"I wanted to keep [name]cchan distracted. Mitsuya, let's switch!"
"Mikey, you'd spoil the surprise the moment you'd see her."
"Ken-chin, that's not true!"
"So, over this week, please make sure you get her some sort of gift... or whatever you'd think she like, and bring it to the party. That's my plan! If any one of you comes late, you're never allowed near [name]-chan again, got it?!"
"Roger!"
"Hina can be so scary sometimes..."
"Takemichi-kun, did you say something?"
"Nothing!"
———
...How old were you again? Oh, that's right, this was your fifteenth birthday. As they say, halfway to thirty years-old. Knowing that created a bitter taste in your mouth. You were barely into your late-teens and you were already dreading life.
Your parents had left you a few gifts on the kitchen table—money and some stationary. Unfortunately, they had to leave for work due to some emergency. What a coincidence that it just had to happen on your birthday.
As you had just finished up your breakfast, the doorbell had rung. "I thought I said I was going to press the bell, Taka-nii!"
"Sorry, Mana. Next time." Mitsuya was a bit nervous. He had come a few minutes earlier than he was supposed to since his sisters were way to excited. Hina and the other boys hadn't even started to set up the party yet.
"Oh! It's my favourite girls in the entire world." After opening the door, you had squat down to their height. "What are you guys doing here?"
"[name]-nee-san!" Luna jumped onto you, "Have you already forgotten? It's your birthday!"
"Happy birthday~" Mana attempted to sing the traditional song, but ultimately gave up because she forgot it.
"Thanks, Luna-chan, Mana-chan." You then allowed them to run into your household while you talked to their older brother. "So, where did you hear about my birthday from?"
"A little birdy came into our house and whispered it into my ear." He chuckled, "Hina-chan told me, since... well, it's Hina-chan. I couldn't not tell my sisters about it and so, here we are. Happy birthday!"
"...Thank you, Mitsuya-san." He pat your head and revealed from behind him a wrapped up gift. "Oh, you didn't have to."
"I wanted to. You've done so much for me and my sisters; this is really the least I can do." You led him inside your home and opened his gift on the kitchen table. With some precision of the scissors, you were able to open it without ripping the wrapping paper. "...It's an embroidered bag." The beige tote bag was no longer plain, but instead had colourful flowers embroidered onto it.
"Yeah. It took me a few all-nighters, but I managed to finish it on time. I tried to implement elements of that garden we went to. Hopefully you like it."
"Of course I do, Mitsuya-san. It's beautiful." You folded up the bag and placed it back onto the table, "I'll make sure to use it whenever I go out."
"Our turn, our turn!" Mana tugged at your sweatpants, "Look what I got you." She handed you a piece of paper. "Sorry I can't get you anything better. I don't have money." On the paper, was just a simple drawing of you, herself and Luna holding hands with a shrine in the background.
"Don't apologise for that, Mana-chan." You kneeled down to her, "This is so creative of you. I really appreciate you taking the time and effort to draw this for me. I'll make sure to frame it."
"Yay!"
"I...!" Luna interrupted the short-lived celebration, "I drew something too. I wanted to get you a pretty hair tie, but I didn't have money either."
"You don't need to be sorry either, Luna-chan." You received her drawing. It was a tad different to her sisters. Instead of it being the three of you, it was yourself, Luna and Takashi. She was in the middle of the two of you. "This is cute."
"Happy... birthday!"
"Thank you. You Mitsuya siblings are the best." The only boy in the room scratched his cheek as he was left out of the group hug.
。。。
"Erm– Hina, we still have a lot of time left in the day. No need to keep worrying." Takemichi tried to slow down his stressed out girlfriend. She was walking back and forth in the park, trying to use her 'designer eye' to figure out a nice layout to the party.
"Nee-san, mom and I are gonna make the cake now." Naoto nudged his sister out of her distraction, "We'll have it ready in an hour."
"Good job, Naoto!" She waved him a see you later as he ran back up to their home. "Takemichi-kun, I have an idea. It might be a bit simple, but since it's just gonna be a small outdoor party, it'll be fine. We just have to find one of those retractable tables that we can put in the middle... and then we can just decorate the table with streamers and stuff. Since this is a public park, I don't want to ruin it."
"Um, Hina, when should we be finished with this preparation?"
She stopped walking for a second, "In about two hours! I don't want [name]-chan to think that we've all forgotten about her. And I'm worried that Mitsuya-kun might not be able to distract her for the entire day. I just hope he's alright."
"I think he's fine. He sent us all a picture of [last name]-san with his sisters a few minutes ago. You said you needed a retractable table?" Takemichi thought about the object, "I think I might have one at home. I can go and check?"
"Yes, please! I'll go to the store and get some candles."
"Roger!"
。。。
It's been a few hours since the Mitsuya family came over. You thought that they'd only stay for a few minutes, but here they were, spending their entire day at your house. You gave them a few snacks to munch on in order to stop them from running around, but their energy was off the charts. Then again, they were children.
Eventually, you all had decided to play the wonderful card game—Go Fish. "Mitsuya-san, do you have any three's?"
"Go Fish." You groaned and picked up another card. You were not doing too well. "Mana, any queen's?"
"Taka-nii, no fair! You saw my cards!"
"I didn't!" The boy was trying to calm his sister down, but was rudely interrupted by the ringing of his phone. "Mana, I promise I didn't look at your cards. It was just a coincidence."
"Promise?"
"I promise." The girl quickly calmed down and looked over to her sister. While they exchanged some words, Mitsuya excused himself and walked out of the apartment to take the call. "Hey, Takemichi. How's it going down there?" He leaned over the railing, "Is that a table I see?"
"Yeah! Luckily I had one at home. How's [last name]-san going? Having fun being with her?"
"She's been a lot happier. Mana and Luna are keeping her company right now. I don't think she suspects a thing. What's Hina-chan doing to that table?"
"Hina? Oh, she's sticking the happy birthday sign on it. I did the streamers. I think the others should also be coming soon. It's almost time to get ready! Be prepared. The next time I call you, you should come down! Maybe in like... ten minutes. But when I call you!"
"Got it. See you soon, Takemichi." Mitsuya ended the call and waved to the couple at the park. He stepped back into the house and realised that you were now laying on the couch as his two sisters were watching the television. "Did you guys get bored of playing?"
"They saw a cartoon so they wanted to pause the game." You stretched out your back and sat up, "Thanks for spending the day with me, you guys. Usually I spend my birthdays alone since my parents are off at work. You're lucky you have each other."
"That's okay, [name]-nee. From now on, you won't spend your birthdays alone. You'll spend them with us."
"Thanks, Mana-chan." She then went back to watching the show.
Mitsuya ruffles his sisters heads as he walked past them to sit next to you. "So, were you going to spend the day inside?"
"Yeah. I usually bake myself a cake and eat it alone. I save some for my parents though." You leaned back onto the couch pillows, "It's been a nice day so far having you guys around." Just in time, Mitsuya could feel his phone vibrating in his pocket.
"Then we're going to make your day ten times better!" He grabbed your hands and made you stand up, "Put on a jacket because we're going outside! Luna, Mana, it's time!"
"Finally!"
"Huh? What's time? Where are you gonna take me?" Now you were officially scared. What was going on? You ran into your room and put on a hoodie, fixing up your face on the way. When you had gone back into the living room, you noticed that the three of them had already gotten ready to leave. "Mitsuya-san, where are you taking me?"
"It's a surprise." He let his sisters walk out first before you did. "Okay, now put this blindfold on."
"Again? Did you already give me a surprise? You didn't need to." He shook his head and placed it on you instead. Mitsuya then led you out and closed the door behind him, "Mana, Luna, let's help [last name]-chan down the elevator."
It was a rough and terrifying trip, but you all had made it out of the apartment building alive. Despite living in this area for years, you genuinely had no idea where they were taking you. It hadn't even been two minutes since you got out of the elevator and they had said that you made it to the destination.
"Mitsuya-san, are you sure? I'm scared to take the blindfold off." He reassured you that everything was fine and urged you to take it off. Your hands moved up to the mask and slowly took it off. When your eyes had adjusted to the afternoon sun, a bunch of party poppers had made their way into your face and the sound of them 'popping' into your ears.
You took a step back when you noticed what was going on. "Everyone..." It wasn't just Mitsuya here—the entirety of the shrine gang was as well. Hina cheered and immediately embraced you.
"Happy birthday, [name]-chan!"
"Happy birthday!" The other boys chimed in.
This was one hell of a surprise; never would you have thought that everyone was in on this little secret. You should've known the second Mitsuya told you that Hina had informed him of your birthday. If she knew, she would've most likely been at your house at midnight. However, since she wasn't, it just meant she was up to something even bigger.
"Thanks for surprising me, you guys. I didn't expect it at all." You saw Takemichi high-five himself. "Thank you for taking the time to do this small party for me... I can see that, um, a lot of work went into decorating that table!" Hina puffed out her chest in pride.
"So, let's party!" Mikey jumped up in the air. And so, that declaration began the event of the day. "[name]cchan, open my gift!" Mikey can given you a notebook... with his signature on every single page. "I spent all week doing this."
"I don't know when I'll ever need this, but thanks!" He was only meaning for it to be a gag gift—he actually gave you some clothes.
Draken gave you some hair accessories saying, "Girls like these things, right?"
Chifuyu gifted you a pair of socks, a bit random but at least it would keep you warm. In addition to that, he gave you a cat key ring to remind you of Peke J. Baji had given you a small pouch full of skin care products. He told you his mom helped him pick them out. Smiley, like he was intending to in the first place, bought you a cheap disposable camera. Angry bought the film to go along with it.
Takemichi gave you a mug that had 'I <3 JAPAN' on it. You didn't know how to react, but he seemed to be very proud. Naoto gave you a card and some flowers; as well as revealing that he was the one who made the cake.
Now, lucky last, Hina. She had been waiting for everyone else to hand their gifts to you before giving you her own. "Since I'm your best friend, this is what I got for you!" She seemed a bit too happy.
You cautiously opened the box but what had come out was some springy toy that was made to scare people. You let out a yelp and threw the toy into the air. Unluckily for you, you tripped over your own feet and fell onto your bottom. "Tachibana-san! How could you do that?!"
"It was a harmless prank! Here's your real present." Hina kneeled down onto the ground and gave you a smaller box. "This one doesn't have a prank in it, promise!" You lifted open the lid—lo and behold, it was a silver piece of jewellery. A bracelet to be specific. "It's a friendship bracelet. I have the same one. It'll keep us connected, you see?"
Hina let out a sneaky giggle and held her hand out to help you up, but you waved it off, "I can stand up without your help." You were just a tad salty at her prank.
"I know that!" She knew you could stand without her, but she still held out her hand anyways. She probably will always have it out for you, just in case you needed it.
"Hey..." You called out to her, "Thank you for organising this, Hina-chan!"
Stage 5: complete!
word count—2623
even if it isn't your birthday, i hope you enjoyed this :) happy birthday if it is your birthday!