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“O-Tae, can you give me the star girlands?”
“There you go Saya”
“A-Arisa-chan, does the placement of food look good?”
“Yeah, it’s perfect Rimi. If you’re done, can you help me with the candles?”
“Of course!”
“Wow! The preparations are going quite smoothly”
Saya cheered, after getting down from the ladder. They were working non-stop for a while now. A break was in place
July was both the best and the worst time to have a birthday party. Sure, they had summer break but it was so unbelievably hot, both outside and inside. Bless the AC
They were all munching on some bread from Saya and sipping lemonade brought by Arisa’s grandma. Even if there was something to talk about, they didn’t - there was no energy left in the girls, and they still had a few more decorations to put on. After a dramatically long sip from Tae, she broke the tension with one of her “just-now” thoughts
“Wouldn’t it be funny if Kasumi showed up here now~?”
“Don’t you even joke about- “
They all froze when they heard rapid knocking. The space went quiet as the girls looked at each other in fear
“You’ve got to be kidding me- ”
“Kasumi..? Now???”
But the knocking repeated, even louder than before
After a few hurriedly made decisions and given orders, Arisa went to the door. Her task was to keep Kasumi as far away from the basement as she could, while the others tried to hide the gifts. Decorations? Kasumi is not that dumb to forget about her birthday, and if she sees them (even incomplete) she will bawl her eyes out from joy, and would probably want to help with setting them up too. So yeah, first the presents
Breathe in, breathe out. Stay focused, no slip-ups. You got this Arisa
She opened the door. Yet before she said anything someone gripped her arms
“Goodness, at least you’re here! I was so worried you already went somewhere-!”
Arisa blinked her eyes in surprise. In front of her wasn’t a brimming with joy Kasumi but rather..
“O-Okusawa-san?? What are you doing here? Hold on, why are you so out of breath??? Did you run all the way here-”
“No time for that! Just tell me if Toyama-san is here?!”
“A-ah! Calm-, calm down!!”
Misaki placed her hand back, giving a small apologetic nod to Arisa. She took a few breaths - she seemed a bit more composed now
"Sorry, had been trying to reach too many people in too little time. Anyway, Toyama-sa- "
“Kasumi.. isn’t here. But she should be at home, did something happen??”
Misaki muttered something, turning around to leave. She stayed like this for a few seconds before turning back to Arisa. She looked sickly pale, was she dehydrated? It was really hot outside..
“Uhh, can you tell me where she lives..?”
“Huh?”
“I don’t know where Toyama-san lives, but I need to get to her. NOW”
“I’m not good with giving directions so how about I just go with you?”
Not the real reason, Arisa couldn’t trust to let Misaki go somewhere in such state. She really looked like she was about to collapse
Misaki took an awfully long time to reply. Or maybe it was only in Arisa’s head before she received a slightly confused question as a response
“Don’t you have anything to do..? I mean, it’s Toyama-san’s birthday after all..”
“Don’t worry! They will handle it. Anyway, should we go?”
Misaki didn’t question who were ‘they’. She simply nodded, following it up with: “hurry”
And just like this the Hanasakigawa’s Student Council members were on the run, Arisa leading the way. She just hoped to finally understand what was the rush for
“Okusawa-san, why do you need to see Kasumi right now? Is something bad happening”
“About to. Kokoro-chan wants to give her a birthday present”
“Wait, but isn’t that… actually nice.?”
Misaki turned her head, staring at her with disbelief. Arisa immediately reflected herself
“Ah, yeah, it’s Tsurumaki-san we’re talking about…”
Turn right, pass by two streets. Accidentally bump into a few people, others move out of the way seeing two girls running at full speed with panicked looks
“So.. what is she planning?”
“She wants to get her a star”
“Kasumi is a star person so I guess a plushie might wor- ”
“It’s not a plushie”
“Eh? Then what, some statione- ”
“A literal star. Kokoro-chan is planning on getting Toyama-san into a rocket with her so that she can pick her favourite one”
…
…
..
“SINCE WHEN DOES TSURUMAKI-SAN HAVE A ROCKET?????”
“I DON’T KNOW AND I DON’T NEED TO!!! I NEED TO FIND TOYAMA-SAN BEFORE SHE GETS LAUNCHED INTO SPACE!!!!”
“I-I’M HELPING TOO!!! Goodness, Tsurumaki-san..”
“..And you couldn’t have said that earlier?”
“We apologize Okusawa-san, yet you had ran out of the Tsurumaki Residence before any of us could stop you”
“Hold on, to recap: you can make any bizarre wishes of Kokoro-chan come true but you can’t catch a single, panicking running girl?”
“...Unfortunately”
“You guys are impossible”