My Fiancée is a Cool-Headed, Peerless Angel - Chapter 25
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Chapter 25: My Fiancée is like a Primula Flower
TL: lime
ED: Spynine01
This is the gift that I found based on the advice I received the other day from the angel of affection and elegance.
I got an exquisitely priced bath towel that I would never ever buy myself. It’s “soft growing” or something like that…
I’m proud to say that this is a good choice to give Shiori since she takes a lot of baths.
Though she wanted a Landolt ring, so as an added bonus I bought her one since I happened to have an eye test chart with me. [ED: man don’t you just like it when you have a random eye test chart with you]
I don’t know if she’ll be happy with this gift or not, but I told myself that it was important to give her a present and celebrate her birthday, and thus I headed home.
It was a winter evening, the sun was going down early, the area was covered in darkness, and there was a cold wind blowing in my direction.
In my bag, there was a birthday present, and in my left hand I held a box containing a whole cake from the cake shop I had bought on my way back home. With my numb right hand, I unlocked the door.
The door unlocked itself with my right hand. I see Shiori’s shoes at the doorstep, so it seems like she’s already home.
I walked into the living room and saw Shiori sitting on the sofa with her headphones on, reading a book. Just as usual, this was a familiar sight to my eyes.
Maybe she doesn’t realize that today is actually her birthday…?
I was a little worried about the current scene that looked just like a normal day at my place.
『What’s that?』
『A cake. I also got a birthday present for you.』
『Really?』(TL: This is Kojiro’s imagination.)
I have a feeling that this was going to be a very casual conversation… There’s a good chance that it could actually go that way…
No, no. I bought you a birthday present and a cake. “Uwah! Thank you! Kojiro (whilst smiling).” I found out about your birthday and so bought you a birthday present and cake. [ED: Still his imagination, and yes it was written this way. No clue what the author was intending here]
――but… I’d like to see her take a little action instead.
Fortunately, she didn’t seem to notice me yet, so I took the cake out of the box and put it on the dining room table so she wouldn’t notice something out of the ordinary in my hand. Then I quickly grabbed a couple of small plates and forks from the kitchen and laid them out on the table silently.
It was a cheap cake, but just having the whole cake in the middle of the table lifted my spirits and made me feel like today was a special day.
Ignoring my usual routine of going into the bedroom, dropping my bag and changing my clothes, and then sitting on the sofa, I just sat down next to Shiori with my bag in my hand instead.
When Shiori finally noticed me, she closed her book, put it on the center table, hung her headphones around her neck, and turned to me.
“Welcome back.”
“I’m home.”
I said I’m home in response to her welcome back greeting. It’s the same as always huh…
Now, I wonder when is the best time to give her the gift.
Should I give it now, or should I wait a little bit longer…
While the little me was having a small meeting in my head, Shiori tilted her head, she was probably wondering why I was being so quiet today.
“Aren’t you going to change your clothes?”
“A-Ah. Well…”
She tilted her head again, it was as if my vague reply only raised more questions than answers. Then, she stood up.
“Dinner. I’ll make it.”
“――Ah, wait, wait.”
She was about to go to the kitchen, so I stood up, shouting aloud to stop her.
“What’s wrong?”
“No, well――why don’t you sit at the table for now?”
“Why?”
So I said, “Just do it, just do it.”
I don’t think I need to muddle the waters anymore, and thus we headed towards the dining table together.
On the way towards the dining room table, Shiori stopped in her tracks and looked at me, it looks like she noticed the cake on the table.
“This is…?”
“Hmm? Well, just sit down for now.”
With a small smile, she nodded slowly and took her usual seat.
I take out a gift wrapped package from my bag and hand it to the sitting Shiori.
“Happy birthday. It’s just a small gift but I hope you like it.”
I try to give it to her, but she continues to stare at me with a blank expression and doesn’t accept the gift.
“A-Are? Today… is your birthday, right?”
Her reaction is always weak, but she’s so unresponsive currently that I wonder if I might have made a mistake or something.
It was only for a moment that I saw the birthday date in the student ID, and I hadn’t checked it again since then.
It would be a really funny story if it wasn’t her birthday today.
After a short pause, Shiori slowly accepted my gift.
She was staring at my gift. And then――.
I could see a few tears well up in her right eye.
“Shi-Shiori?”
When I called out to her, she noticed the tears that she had shed and hurriedly tried to wipe them away with her hand.
“I-I’m sorry…”
The tears overflowing from her angelic eyes seemed to be too much to wipe away with her hands, and no matter how hard she wiped, the tears flowing just wouldn’t stop.
“D-Do you not like this sort of thing?”
When I asked her with a bit of impatience and worry, Shiori shook her head as hard as she could while crying.
“No… No…”
She wiped her tears and looked at me whilst denying it.
However, it seems that she still can’t stop crying.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had someone to celebrate my birthday with me――. It’s the first time I’ve ever been wished by someone my own age――. I’m happy… I’m so happy… I don’t want to cry, but I just can’t stop crying…”
I was relieved to hear her say that. It makes me feel very happy too.
“Shiori… It’s worth giving you a gift just because you said you’re happy now. So――you don’t have to force yourself to stop crying anymore.”
When I said that, whilst making a conscious effort to be gentle, Shiori shook her head, wiped away even more tears, and looked me in the eye.
“Kojiro… Thank you… I’ve never had such a happy birthday ever before…”
It was not the smile I was originally looking for.
However, what I could see was a beautiful crying smile, a smile as fragile as a primula flower blooming in winter.
[ED: Click here for a picture of a primula flower, I’m not sure if this is the one that blooms in winter or not but it still looks really pretty.]