I looked at the clock on my bedside table. It was just before midnight.
I’d finished preparing for the next day, taken my bath, and been about to settle in for the night when I received a message from Maaya. It was timed so perfectly, I started to wonder if she’d been watching me. But I knew why she’d messaged me now. First, she had to put her brothers to bed and finish studying, then she liked to watch some late-night anime. By the time she was done, it was always quite late.
What am I going to do with her?
I set my phone on speaker mode.
“Saki. Did you give Asamura my present?”
Is that really why she called?
“Yeah, I did.”
“Great! How did he react?”
“How…? He made a funny face. I wonder why.”
“I see, I see. Good. Hee-hee.”
Why was she chuckling? She had to be up to something.
“It was a book, wasn’t it?”
Based on the shape and weight, it had to have been.
“Yep. Big Brother Asamura loves books, right?”
Why did she sound so happy? I could practically hear her grinning. Besides, Asamura was my brother, not hers. Why was she always calling him Big Brother? I was starting to feel like they were siblings and I was just their friend.
“So it was just a book? Nothing weird?”
“Of course! A really useful book sure to help any young man in a pinch.”
That seemed like a lie. But she wasn’t the only one who could scheme.
“Sounds interesting. I think I’ll ask him to lend it to me when he’s finished reading it.”
“No. Don’t!”
Her response came at the speed of light or maybe even faster.
…I’ll have to question her tomorrow.
“Hey, what about you, Saki? What did you give him?”
I sighed as Maaya blatantly changed the topic. “A neck warmer.”
I told her we’d discussed what we both wanted and decided everything beforehand. I thought that was a good, worthwhile approach. After all, if you got something you didn’t want or like, it would just go to waste.
But Maaya seemed surprised. “What?! I can’t believe it!”
I’d set the volume on my phone pretty low, but her voice was so loud, it rattled my eardrums.
“Wh-what can’t you believe?” Her surprise shocked me in turn.
“That’s so boring! No sophistication, no delight, no nothing!”
“What’s wrong with getting what the other person wants?”
“That’s not the issue here, Saki-loo!”
“Wasn’t my nickname supposed to be Saki-poo?”
“Maybe I’ll start calling you Saki-moo, like a cow.”
“Please don’t.”
“Anyway, enough of that! Stop changing the subject!”
You’re the one who changed it.
“As I was saying, the surprise is the best part of a present!” she said, sounding exasperated.
Surprise, huh?
Personally, I thought it was unlikely that a surprise gift would benefit the recipient. Wasn’t it a bit arrogant to assume you knew what someone wanted? In the end, we’re all our own people.
But Maaya brushed off my logic. According to her, the surprise itself filled the other person with joy and lifted their spirits.
“You can think about usefulness and benefits the rest of the year!”
“What do you mean?”
“You can talk about what you want and get each other useful gifts all year round. But events like birthdays are different!”
“But aren’t birthdays for giving gifts?”
“A predictable item will be forgotten, but people remember gifts that surprised them. You’ve gotta entertain them. Defy their expectations and get their heart pumping!”
“I—I see. Is that how it is?”
As usual, Maaya had a novel way of explaining her point. She often compared things to anime, games, and manga, which I didn’t know anything about, making it difficult for me to judge the validity of her claims. But that meant I’d keep thinking about what she’d said and interrogating her until I was able to digest it.
I got the feeling that tenaciousness often put people off. When something didn’t make sense to me, I couldn’t help but ask about it.
Surprise can be good, huh?
If Maaya felt that strongly about it, I probably ought to give it some thought. That said, what was done was done. If surprises were that important, I’d just have to try again next year. In the meantime, I’d check in with Asamura and ask him how he felt about it.
After that, Maaya gave a whole presentation about the importance of surprises.
Soon, my eyelids began to droop, and the conversation petered out. We said good night and ended the call, then I lay down to sleep.
Hugging my pillow to my chest, I thought back over our conversation.
If surprises really were that important, I wished she would have told me earlier.