She is Reading My Thoughts Again Today - Chapter 25

Yakiniku Day

[Good morning.]

When I woke up in the morning and opened my smartphone to check the time, I received such message. It seemed that it had been sent a few minutes ago. I don’t recall I’m used to exchanging messages and greeting each other with someone in the morning like this. As my thoughts and vision slowly coming back to me, I took a better look on the message. I finally realized that the sender is Kisaragi. Is there something she didn’t understand about an upcoming assignment or test? No, that can’t be it, she checks her schedule at school every time. Just yesterday we confirmed our schedule for the week ahead. So what was it? Was there something wrong? I wondered what it was.

[Good morning. What’s up?]

I replied to her quickly and put my smartphone down. As I was about to get up from my bed, I noticed I got a reply from her.

[Today is Nao Kisaragi’s birthday! Congratulations!]

“Huh?”

I woke up at once. I started to sweat heavily; I knew it wasn’t because of the heat nor the humidity. But the only thing that was on my mind was, what should I do to celebrate her birthday.

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The sound of grilling meat comes from all direction. The smell of the cooking meat is mixed with the smell of sauce and butter. Delicious smells are floating in the air, but that is not the thing I need to be concerned about right now. As I stare at the grill, I ask myself if this is the right thing to do. No, judging from her expression, it is not that the right thing to do.

“Hokuto-san.”

“Yes.”

My voice turned inside out.

“…yes.”

“Um, what’s this?”

“Birthday present.”

“Why is my birthday present eating yakiniku?”

“Would you have preferred sushi?”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

“Why did you text me [Good morning]? If you just want me to celebrate your birthday, you could’ve just told me today is your birthday.”

“It’s true that I wanted to celebrate my birthday, but I didn’t expect you to go this far.”

“Then why did you come?”

“It’s Hokuto-san who called me and brought me here.”

“You’re right.”

I wondered what should I do if she is not free today, but luckily, she had no plans today. No, to think about it again, it may be unlucky for her.

“As for me, a pan of bread, some tangerine jellies or tangerine gummies would be enough for my birthday present… No, I was hoping I could celebrate my birthday normally.”

“I hate to say it, but I don’t know what a normal birthday present is.”

I thought a lot of things for her birthday present, like accessories or sweets. However, none of them seemed appropriate.

“So here we are, celebrating your birthday.”

“You do know my favourite food is tangerine right?”

“Yeah, I know. But I don’t want you to think that if I give you tangerines then you’ll shut up about it.”

“That’s mean.”

“That’s right. But if you don’t like meat, we can go wherever you want, or you can tell me what do you want to eat.”

“I like meat.”

“That’s great then.”

“But when the time comes and you go out with someone, don’t try doing this kind of thing. She will be disappointed in you.”

“I get it already. Enough of it okay? I’ll cook the meat and you’ll eat them, okay?”

I think I’m going to die of embarrassment if she says anything more than that. She looks annoyed for a while, but eventually she returned to her usual face.

“Okay then.”

Then I looked at her face and smiled the best I could.

“Happy birthday.”

“Thank you.”

I look away from her blushing face in reflex. I can’t do this. I’m still ashamed of everything I did. Next time, I’ll think about it properly and act accordingly as I planned.

“Next time?”

“…next time.”

“That would be nice. I’ll look forward to it.”

It’s a serious conversation, but it’s hard to call it serious because her eyes lit up as she takes a look into the menu. It seems like she likes the menu, I’ll call this a success.