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Shinji couldn't believe he was doing this. As much as he hates doing this, he's already there and he can't back down now.
Erika's birthday was coming up, and Shinji felt that he needed to buy her a gift. Well, to be fair, his idiot friends had planted the idea into his head as part of their plan to keep the band together or whatever. He didn't really get it.
But, although he didn't wanna think about it, he didn't actually have anything against buying her a present. He was buying her a CD, and since they had similar music tastes he could even borrow it from her sometime, so it would all work out in his favour.
Now he was currently at the CD store and looking around for what would be the best CD to buy her. He thought about it, and the best thing would be to just buy a CD he liked, since she usually liked the ones he showed her.
That's one of my favorite things about her, he thought, smiling to the ground, before realising what he was doing and shaking his head as if trying to shake off the stupid thought. He didn't like her, and he definitely didn't have a favorite thing about her. He did not think about her enough for that. That would be stupid. Because he doesn't like her. He doesn't.
Pushing the stupid thought away, he finally found the CD he was searching for, the one he himself owned and loved, and walked up to the cashier and payed for it. Just as he was leaving the store, he saw the one person he did not want to see right now. Her. She could not see him right now, that'd be embarrassing, so he turned around and ran toward the subway before she even had the chance to look in his direction. He thinks her friend saw him though. Let's hope she doesn't snitch on him.
Finally coming home, he put the bag with the CD on his desk and flopped down on his bed. Now everything was done, and he just needed to wait for her birthday to come around and then he could give her her present. Then he'd see her reaction, something that he secretly knew would make it worth it. He kinda disliked it, how when she smiled it made him feel all weird inside. But is was kinda nice though, even if he would not admit it to anyone.
Just as he was about to fall asleep, he suddenly wondered if he needs wrapping paper. I mean, of course she would still see what it was, she'd bought CD's before, but just so she won't see what CD it is the second he gives it to her. Yeah, he should use wrapping paper, it'll be kinda fun then. He went down the stairs to ask his mom about some.
"Hey, mom. Do you have some wrapping paper?" He asked her and she closed the sink she was washing dishes in. She then dried her hands and opened the shelf where they had the wrapping paper.
"Here you go! What do you need it for?"
"A present."
"For who? All your friends have birthdays in the spring." She asked him, looking at him suspiciously.
"You don't know her," he said before quickly realising his mistake and "correcting" himself. "I-I mean him."
"It's a girl?! Is she your girlfriend?!" His mom asked him, way too excited in his opinion. They weren't like that. Shinji and Erika just bickered all day, they did not like each other or were planning to start dating at all, right?
"No, she's just a friend." He said, although his reddening cheeks from thinking about him and Erika in a relationship did not help him at all here. Or anywhere else, for that matter.
"Mhm, I'm sure of it." She handed over the wrapping paper to him and a small bow to wrap around it. She then reminded him to write a little card on top and he nodded and then ran up the stairs as fast as possible up to his room. God, that had been embarrassing. And for what? He didn't like Erika. He didn't. He just kinda liked how she smiled and kinda thought about her sometimes when he was bored. And yeah sure he'd thought about kissing her sometimes too but that didn't mean anything. She was just cute.
Whatever. He'd now wrapped the paper around the CD and it looked kinda weird to be honest, but to be fair it wasn't the point that she would try to guess what's inside, the point is to guess exactly what CD is inside. However, now he was stuck on another thing. What the hell do you even write in these damn cards?
He wrote first the standard "From: Shinji, To: Erika" but that felt honestly kinda stupid since yeah of course it's from me to you, or else I wouldn't give it to ya. But whatever. He decided to be a bit corny and write "Hope you like the album :| " and with a little drawing that resembled him. He cringed a bit but, he thought, she'd like it anyways. Or at least he hoped so.
Her birthday.. afternoon at the club
Erika was happy. Today she was one year older and one year wiser, as her mom used to say when she was younger. She was also happy because of the attention everyone gave her today. She never got that much attention other days, and so she enjoyed it while it lasted.
Entering the club room, she didn't expect the guys to remember but they did. They had hung up a big banner where it said "Happy birthday Shibasaki!" And Satoshi and Hattori were now pushing Shinji in her direction. He, kind of uncomfortably, stood up and then she noticed the plastic bag in his hand. Wait, could it be..? Could he have bought her a present?!
"Happy birthday Shibasaki." He said while holding out the plastic bag to her. Oh my god, he'd bought her a present!! She reminded herself to calm down and not show just how excited she was. She still couldn't help smiling at the card he'd written and the little drawing of himself in the corner.
She shook it, as if it wasn't glaringly obvious what it was already just to tease him.
"Hm, I think it's a CD." She teased him and he rolled his eyes.
"And I think you should see what CD it is." He said, kinda nervous but with a small smile.
Erika, as if she hadn't thought about that, opened it up and grinned even more. It was the CD she'd been eyeing for like the longest time, and now he'd given her it!! She looked up at him as if to see if it was real.
"Yeah, it's one of my favorites so I think you'll like it." He said, trying his best to be stoic but failing when a smile broke through and he grinned back at her. Little did he know, that his dear friends were sending photos of the whole encounter to Erika's dear friend Kyouko while gushing about how they're like almost married. Not that he needed to know.
"Thank you!" She said, looking up at him and smiling the brightest smile he'd ever seen. Her reaction was even better than he'd imagined, and he loved it. He wanted to imprint that smile in his brain.
She was so excited she actually kissed him on the cheek too, in a bit of a spontaneous moment, and Hattori and Satoshi had to hold back from screaming. Oh my god yes it was happening!! They were getting married!! They immediately took pictures and sent them to Kyouko, who almost couldn't believe her eyes. Had her friend finally realised she had a big crush on Ubu?!
Said Ubu was now blushing a lot more than usual, yet he was still nowhere close to her red face. She resembled a tomato with hair. They were both really flustered, and like usual she ran away from the situation.
"Well, uh, thank you, but I have to go now! Bye!" She said, her voice becoming a bit higher with nervousness. He just stood there and nodded like an idiot before turning around and seeing his friends with phones towards him. He was going to kill them.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"