"It's My Favorite Day II"
(Never Too Late)
A week later..
Lily received a once again unexpected visit.
She ran over to her door and opened it immediately
to answer. The person who showed up surprised her.
"Y-You..?!" Lily's brows furrowed closer.
"Emily, let's talk---" The professor tried to speak
but he was cut off by Lily herself.
"NO! I refuse to listen to you anymore!" Lily yells at
him angrily. She tries to close the door but the professor
stopped her.
"Emily, listen to me." The professor looked at her with
such concerned eyes and that somehow calmed her down.
She stares back at him, trying to see through what's he's
scheming now, "What do YOU want?"
"I'm not here to warn you about Ai. I heard from Aine...
How you feel for each other..." The professor talked in
a low tone of voice with his head slightly bowed.
"Huh..? Aine..?" Lily mutters.
"I feel bad and guilty for what I have done. I've separated
the two of you... I, who have no right to take away Ai, who
is like a son to me.. I have no right to take away his happiness
when all I have ever done was treat him as a mere experiment."
The professor continued to speak in a concerned manner, he sounded
sincere and regretful.
"I'm listening.." Lily slowly falls even more silent.
"So now.. I've realized what I should do.. to correct the mistake
I have done... I now grant you the permission to be together."
The professor looked straight into her eyes as he said so.
She couldn't help but smile.. however, Lily slowly dropped her smile.
"But no.. it's too late now... it's not like before anymore.. it's not the
same anymore... Ai-kun has changed.. I have changed.. things will
never be the same again." Lily sounded miserable.
"That's not true, senpai!" Syo's voice was heard out of nowhere.
"Eh?!" Lily looked around.
"Hello there, senpai!" Natsuki greeted her happily.
"We're here to visit you." Tokiya informs her calmly.
"S-STARISH..?" Lily was somehow speechless.
"The shortie is right." Ranmaru suddenly spoke.
"Hey! Who you callin' short?!" Syo angrily asks.
"Q-Quartet Night too..?" Lily looks at them.
"It's never too late, Lily-chan!" Reiji hugged her
as they came closer to her.
"You heard 'em." Aine also came for her.
"A-Aine!" Lily felt angry at first but she let it slip now.
Aine smiles with a frown, "I'm sorry for what I did."
"F-Forget about it.." Lily looks away.
"It's too early to give up, senpai!" Syo convinces her.
"Indeed!!!" The rest of STARISH and Quartet Night tells
her the same.
"See?" The professor walked behind her and patted her
shoulder before leaving with Aine. "Your friends support you.
They're telling you not to give up just yet. Fight for him."
The professor smirked as he got into the car.
"Good luck, Miss Emily, Crystal." Aine smiles at her.
"T-Thank you.." She whispers as they leave.
Now, she faces Quartet Night and STARISH.
"...Y-You're right!" She nods with a determined expression.
Her response brightened up the mood of everyone.
Finally, Reiji came up with an idea.
"Hey! I have an idea.." Reiji spoke up.
"I hope it's not some stupid sh*t again!!" Ranmaru gnarls.
"And what could that be, Kotobuki?" Camus calmly asks.
"I-I know!" Lily immediately got his idea.
"Ai-kun's birthday is coming up.. you're planning to
surprise him, right?" She asks Reiji.
"YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!" Reiji jumps with joy.
"How did she understand him?" Ranmaru raises
a brow.
"It's hard to understand the logic and mentally of
people who claim to be the best of friends.." Camus
mutters to Ranmaru.
"Ahaha! That's such a good idea!" Otoya laughs as he
agrees with Reiji and Lily's idea.
"Then let's do it!" Cecil happily says.
"Yeah. That don't sound so bad at all." Tokiya smiles.
"I'll do the cooking." Masato says.
"Me too!" Jinguji winks as he volunteers with Masato.
"Then it's settled!" Reiji high fives all of them one
by one.
"Camus-san.. Ranmaru-kun.. thanks for everything!"
Lily ran up to Camus and Ranmaru who was just about
to leave before everyone else and hugged them both.
"Thank you!" She smiles so happily.
The two fell speechless for a moment.
"W-W-What are you saying?! You baka!!" Ranmaru
was embarrassed. "Of course we're here for you!!! BAKA!!!"
He turned red and walked away immediately with almost a
tear about to fall.
"It's nothing, Emily." Camus smiles at her.
Lily giggles. "Thanks."
She faces STARISH with Reiji now.
"Let's do it, everyone!"
"Right!" STARISH responded with such energy.
Meanwhile.. at Ai's home...
"Where is everyone?" He walks around the place,
wondering where they might be. "Where the hell is EVERYONE?!"
He's starting to get annoyed without even knowing.
"Leaving me behind like that. Leaving without notice.
Could they atleast inform me if they're going somewhere
without me so I'm not left behind clueless of what might be
going on? This is nonsense. I'll just go back to work." He walks
back to his room after muttering some complaints in the hallway.
Ai sits down on his chair and is about to type again but stopped before
he could, "...I wonder... why was I acting like that? Jealousy.. really?"
After some days..
His birthday finally came up.
Once again, Ai was left all alone in the agency.
He searches around the place...
"WHERE IS SYO AND NATSUKI? They have some assignments
from me! What are they doing? Everyone is always gone!"
Aine complains while holding a bunch of papers that's actually
a list of tasks that everyone else is supposed to do.
Ai lost balance and dropped all the papers.
Luckily, Reiji walked in and helped him.
"Reiji?" Ai looks at him as Reiji picks
up one of the papers.
"Hello Ai-Ai!" Reiji greets him with a bright smile.
"Do you know what day is today?!" He asks him hyperly.
"It's Friday." Ai answers him.
"Oh.." Reiji was speechless. Thinking, "(He doesn't know
today is the day ehh?)" Reiji rubs his hand before putting
them on Ai's shoulder.
"Hey! Where are you taking me?! The papers!" Ai yells
at him as he tries to resist.
"Never mind them, for now come with me!" Reiji wore
a creepy smile on his face and started chuckling in a
suspicious manner.
"R-Reiji?! Is this what they call possession?! or lust?!"
Ai raises a brow on him and resists even more.
"Hehehehe!!" Reiji forcefully dragged him inside a dark
room and slammed the door close.
"STOP!" Ai yells but the lights suddenly went on.
"Eh..?" He wondered.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SENPAI!" Syo and Natsuki, and
eveyrone else from STARISH happily greeted Ai as
they make noise and throw confettis.
"My.. birthday..?" Ai didn't know how to react.
"Happy Birthday, Mikaze." Camus was wearing a
warm smile as he walked up to him and greeted him,
also handing over a tiny present.
"H-Happy Birthday...!" Ranmaru feels shy about it
however he did actually secretly helped in preparing
and even bought a gift for Ai.
"Happy Birthday Ai-Ai!" Reiji raises his hands and
greeted him happily.
"It's my birthday.. I didn't know.. so this is what you
do on birthdays..?" Ai whispers to himself.
"Ai-kun!" A voice that stopped everyone else from
doing their business for a while was heard.
Ai slowly turns around and looks at her...
"Ai-kun!" Lily calls out to him again, smiling so
happily as she hands out a watch, it looks exactly
the same as the one she gave him on Christmas day last time.
"Here, wear it!" She grabs his hand and makes him wear it.
"Crystal..?" He watches her put on the watch around his wrist.
"I love you, Ai-kun!" Lily told him straightforward,
in front of everyone.
"H-HUH?!" Ai went into blush mode without knowing.
"AWWWWWWWWWW!" Reiji and Ringo-sensei who just
arrived both fell speechless.
"Love.. is a wonderful thing." Jinguji closes his eyes
as he comments.
"It is indeed." Tokiya agrees.
"And powerful." Masato adds.
"And beautiful!" Otoya continues.
"Even if it gets painful.." Cecil stops
"Love will conquer if you don't surrender." Saotome
suddenly commented out of nowhere.
"P-PRINCIPAL?!" Syo gasped in surprise.
"Where did he come from!?" Natsuki wonders.
The others laugh, the others bury their faces on their
palms.. but Ai still remained speechless.
"What did you just say..?" Ai asks her while wearing
such a confused expression.
"I said I love you." Lily had no more hesitations,
she told him once more.
"Oh.. right... that's.. great..." Ai's gone even more red,
he looks away because he feels shy. "I.. I think I love you too.."
He mutters.
"What did you saaaaay~?" Reiji gives off another creepy grin.
"Yeah, what was it?" Lily tilts her head.
"I said.." Acting aloof once again, Ai hesitates to say it out
since he's still confused about how he feels. "W-WHAT IS LOVE?
WHAT IS LOVE? LOVE, WHAT IS THAT? LOVE LOVE LOVE"
"A-Ai-kun?!" Lily started to panic.
"Oh no.." Ranmaru mutters.
"EH?!" Syo gasps.
"Ai-kun!" She runs over to him, worried.
"What's this? Who are you?" Ai seemed out of himself.
He stares down the watch he's wearing and suddenly held
his head. "Argh..."
"Ai-kun! Are you alright?! Do you feel bad?!" Lily assists
him, helping him stand. She looks at Reiji while doing so,
"Reiji-kun! Please call the professor!"
"Okay!" Reiji nodded and immediately ran out.
"What's going on?!" STARISH runs over to help.
"Please, don't ask Lily-chan right now!" Ringo takes
cover for Lily.
"Lily? Who the hell is Lily?" Tokiya asks.
"Oops.." Ringo bit his lip.
"It's alright, Ringo-sensei.." Lily looks at everyone.
"My real name is Emily Venus, nicknamed Lily.
Ai-kun is..."
"LOVE. WHAT IS LOVE? FEELINGS. WHAT IS FEELINGS?
I am Mikaze Ai. An A.I, an artificial intelligence made as
a copy of Aine Kisaragi who once vanished in order to
take his place for a while. I am the 1st successful robot
invention of my professor. I am created to bring Aine back
to life, to act as his source of life force that might wake him
up again. 136139619071638126 system failure detected,
shutting down required. Please wait a few moments...
10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1... processing complete.
Initializing sleep mode... shutting down...." Ai malfunctioned
and that shut everyone up... in the end, he shut himself down.
"Ai-kun is.. a robot..." Lily muttered. Tears ran down as she
closed her eyes. "This is all my fault.."
"LILY-CHAN!" Ringo suddenly yelled.
"S-Sensei?!" She immediately responded.
"NONE OF THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" Ringo looked at her with
an angry expression, but it's only a sign of concern.
"Yeah! Ringo-sensei is right! And we don't care if senpai
is a robot or whatsoever! You better fight for him!"
Syo convinces Lily.
"Even if senpai is santa or an alien.. We will still treat him
as our beloved senpai!" Cecil warmly says.
"You guys..." Lily smiles again and wipes her tear away.
"Now, you better stop blaming yourself for everything okay?"
Ringo drops his angry face and smiles at her.
"Yes.. I'm sorry if I keep hesitating about stuffs right now.."
Lily bows her head as she kept assisting Ai who already lost
his consciousness.
"It's alright, silly. Nobody blames you." Ranmaru says.
"I'm back! Let's bring him to my car!" Reiji wasted no
time and immediately carried Ai to the car with Lily.
"Professor.. what will happen?!" Lily asks him.
"Emily, please stay behind for a while. You don't
want to see how I will fix him do you?" The professor
advised her.
"You better not.. Lily-chan.." Reiji pats her back.
"I understand.." Lily looks down and locks her
hands together, praying in silence. "Please..
let him be okay.."
A few months later...
Lily is sitting on the sofa while watching the news..
"Famous idol Ai Mikaze, the popular merman and
the A.I-ish star of Quartet Night was confirmed to
be in the state of comatose. Further information
was decided to be kept private by the Mikaze and
Kisaragi family along with the decision of his group
mates, Quartet Night. What will happen now that the
merman is in coma, almost similar to being frozen?
Will the ice princess melt the ice to wake him up?!
We would like to have an interview with the Crystal
star soon! Watch out!" The newscaster says.
"Ah.. right.. they think it's all business and joke and
stuff.. Could they atleast take what happened to
Ai-kun seriously..? And yes.. it happened again.."
Lily keeps rolling over the sofa as she talks to herself.
"Meow~" Her cats purrs as it strokes its body
against her legs.
"Oh hey there Lily... hey... you're pregnant!"
Lily suddenly smiled.
"Meow..~" It meows again.
"I see you're having a baby.. aww." Lily
strokes its back happily. "I wonder what is it like to
be in coma...?"
A year has passed and nothing still happened.
No news from Ai Mikaze or the professor.
None of them can contact the two.
Aine Kisaragi only says that Ai is still in a coma.
He doesn't know anything else.
Everyone's normal lives continued..
But it's still not the same for Lily.
"Aw man.. I'm so lonely.." Lily mutters as she
feeds her cat's little kittens.
Suddenly, she received a phone call from Aine.
"Aine..?" Lily calls him out.
"Hello, Crystal." Aine still sounded the
same as he was before.
"Um.. what is it?" Lily asks.
"Could you please come with me for
a while?" Aine calmly asks her out.
"Huh? Are you drunk again?" She wonders.
"Ahaha.. No I'm not. Please?" Aine begs.
"Alright.. just this once. It MUST be important."
Lily clarifies.
"Yes, definitely. Thank you, Crystal." Aine
finally cuts off th call.
"I wonder what he wants.. but it's definitely
NOT a date!!" She pouts as she talks to her cats.
"Meow?" The cat meows at her.
She finally gets ready...
And they meet.
"Okay, thank you for coming. But first,
please put on this blindfold for a while."
Aine requests.
"WHAT FOR?!" She freaks out.
"Hahaha," He laughs. "Please calm down.
Now, please? Don't worry." Aine insists.
"F-Fine.. I trust you, okay.." She finally
accepts.
"Thank you." Aine puts on the blindfold.
They drove over somewhere.
She keeps asking questions..
But Aine says it's a secret.
In the end, she fell quiet and stopped asking.
Pouting in the corner as she waits til she can
finally take off the blindfold.
The car finally stopped and she asks again
if she can finally take it off. Aine replies with a
no but instead guided her to a certain place.
"Just where are you taking me?!" Lily asks.
Aine chuckles and finally lets go of her hand.
"Aine? Aine? Hey Aine!" She yells out as she
takes off the blindfold.. and what she immediately
saw caused her to drop her jaw a bit open and she
somehow felt frozen, her heart jumped for a second.
"Hey, did you know? It's my favorite day today."
Her tears could no longer stop.. they began to keep
rolling down her pinkish cheeks.
"What's the matter? Too happy to see me?
Don't worry. I feel the same too."
"Ai... Ai-kun!" Lily jumped to him and hugged him tight.
"Woah.. hey..." Ai suddenly sounded different.
"What's the matter..?" She asks.
"You.. You're so much more lighter than before.
Are you eating properly? You should be. You've
lost so much weight. Look at you. You're not taking
care of yourself at all. If you don't take care of yourself,
then who would? Well, of course I would." Ai ranted but
in the end, he held her back.
"Ai-kun.." Her happy tears won't stop. "You're back...
You're really back... I don't believe it... How?" Lily
wipes away her tears and looks at him while holding
his cheeks.
"The professor fixed me.. and gave me a wonderful
present... I guess that includes you." Ai smiles at her
and gently caresses her cheek.
"Really? The current you... I mean, you've always been
you.. but since you forgot me.. You know.. you became
even more cold and acted more aloof.. so you really can
remember me...? The you right now.. you remember who
you are in the past?" Lily's words showed how confused
she is but at the same time, how happy she is.
"Shh." Ai gently pressed his forefinger against her lips,
silencing her. Finally, he moved closer to her face and
gave her a kiss.
Her eyes widened at first but at last, she closed them
and kissed him back.
"I love you more than anything else in the world,
I love you so much, Emily.. Crystal.. Lily.. Whoever
you are, whoever you become, it will always be you,
the only one I will love. I'm sorry I've forgotten..
I won't let that happen again. I love you." Ai kisses
her forehead.
"I love you too, Ai-kun. This is the best birthday
gift I could ever ask for. Also.. it happened here
again.. in this flowery plain, the beautiful tall trees
are still around.. it's like just the same back then."
Lily happily comments.
"Happy Birthday." Ai kisses her again.
"I missed you so much."
"I missed you too."
Meanwhile, inside Aine's car..
sat Reiji next to Aine.. he was
secretly watching the two through
the window and sobbing completely.
Reiji keeps sniffing, "Beautiful..
Wonderful.. FABULOUS.. BRILLIANT--"
"Perfect." Aine finished for him.
"YES! PERFECT!" Reiji keeps crying
happy tears as the two reunite.
"BUT HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!"
"The professor didn't actually delete
his memories.. he kept them and stored
them in his computer, ensuring that they
won't get corrupted. Since he regret all
the wrong he's done, he ensured to fix
him without making him lose his current
memories and also returned his memories
of the past. That's what happened and that's
why it took so long." Aine explained to Reiji
in a cool manner.
"I SEE. SO THAT'S WHY. OH THE GENIUS.
BLESS YOU ALL. THIS IS A HAPPY DAY.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILY-CHAN!" Reiji is extremely
overwhelmed and happy for his best of friends.
"Yes.. Yes.. Now let's go back to everyone,
they're waiting.. her surprise party awaits.
It's our turn to make her happy... as she made
us happy with her blissful songs and herself."
Aine calmly handed over a tissue to Reiji as
he drove the car, leaving Ai and Lily alone.
Back to the two...
"Now I remember how it feels like to be happy."
the both of them whispered in each other's ears..
A/N: Hey.. sorry for the late updates..
the story's ending soon. Keep looking out for it.
Thanks so much for all the support. I appreciate it!
I love you guys! Thanks really!
Chapter 36
"It's My Favorite Day II"
(Never Too Late)