“Happy birthdaaaay, Aoi!” Mimimi cried out, signaling a bang, bang, bang of crackers.
Aoi Hinami’s surprise party had finally begun.
We were gathered in the living room–like shared space on the first floor of the guest house.
The room had four big three-seater sofas facing each other and two low tables between them. The colors were all white or wood grain, including the rug below, making the area feel clean and warm.
Not only was there a projector on the wall, there was also a kitchen right beside it. Tama-chan was there, working at something.
“Man, this has really been a nice day,” Mizusawa said in an easygoing manner as he sat on a white upholstered sofa.
“Come on. I’m used to hearing happy birthday today, you know? I heard it from kids, from the staff, and from dinosaurs, too.”
“Hey now, but we say it with more heart than any of them!” cried Mimimi.
“Ah-ha-ha. Yeah, maybe that’s true. Thanks,” Hinami responded with a teasing smile that showed a hint of vulnerability.
Was it because we’d had that conversation at Yontendo World, or just my imagination? I felt like Hinami’s attitude was softer and more open than usual. But in a sense, that forced me to remember the darkness behind it.
…No, this isn’t the time to be thinking about that.
We just had to make Hinami happy with this surprise, have it resonate with her.
That was what I wanted to do.
“All right, guys, then everyone must be getting hungry by now!” Mimimi started officiating.
“We’re real hungry,” Nakamura heckled her.
“Then it’s the birthday dinner you’ve all been waiting for! Tama, you do the honors!”
Mimimi’s call signaled Tama-chan to bring in plates of various dishes. Tama-chan must not have been able to carry it all, as Takei was helping her set the tables. On the other hand, it would be a disaster if the two of them got closer through this trip, so we really have to protect her.
“Huh…is this…?” Seeing the food that had come out, Hinami was surprised.
“Ohh?! Has she noticed?!”
“…The cheese penne we ate in Omiya?”
“Exactly right!” Mimimi said with a roaring laugh.
Hinami was smiling awkwardly, but she seemed glad. “Ah-ha-ha…wow.”
“It’s a full-course meal re-creating all the delicious cheese dishes that we’ve had going out together!”
With that introduction from Mimimi, we understood.
Hinami picked up the dish of carbonara on the table. “So this carbonara is the one we had together after the track tournament last year?”
“That’s right!”
“…That takes me back.”
So it was from all the places that Hinami, Mimimi, and Tama-chan had gone before. Most likely, they had re-created and tried making those dishes that Hinami had liked, over the course of less than a month to prepare.
“Huh…?” My gaze was drawn to the salad that was sitting on the table. “Wait, is this salad from Kitayono?”
“Ohh! Amazing, a correct answer from Brain?! You got it! This is the Italian salad from Kitayono!”
“Ha-ha…for real?”
Even though it wasn’t my birthday, I was enjoying this, too.
We had visited that restaurant at a turning point after Hinami had started coaching me on life strategy. It was a delicious Italian place that Hinami and I had both loved.
Call it memories or our history—there was just a lot in there.
…Wait, but more importantly…
I looked out over the various dishes that were lined up on the table.
Salad, carbonara, cheese penne, caprese salad.
All of them had to hold lots of memories for Hinami, Mimimi, and Tama-chan.
“Hey, Aoi, do you remember?” Tama-chan said, pointing to the cheese penne and caprese salad. “This is the first restaurant we went to when me, you, and Minmi just became friends.”
“…Yeah, I remember.”
“And remember? You suddenly ordered a cheese assortment, and cheese penne, and a caprese salad.”
“Yeah,” Hinami said.
With much playfulness, Tama-chan said, “Maybe it’s funny coming from me, but I thought, What a weird girl.”
“Ah-ha-ha…that’s what you were thinking?”
“Yep. But now…I think it’s cute that you’re like that.”
“Ohh… Thanks.” Hinami smiled, and then her gaze fixed on the food lined up in front of her. Her expression was gentle, as if she was thinking back on something, and it didn’t at all look like acting.
Eventually, she smiled like she didn’t know what else to do, and in a more sorrowful voice than usual, she said, “…What do I do? It feels like a waste to eat it.”
“I understand the feeling! But feel free to just go for it!” said Mimimi.
We watched in silence as the three of them expressed their feelings to one another.
Hinami and Mimimi had known each other from their club in middle school. Hinami had met Tama-chan in their first year of high school, but she’s also told me that Tama-chan resembles her lost sister.
I don’t mean to make comparisons as to whose bond was stronger or who she’d known longer.
But I’m sure the relationship between the three of them is irreplaceable.
“Wow…this is good! Actually, this is pretty close to the real thing…” A smile grew on Hinami’s face as she tried out the salad. Once she put some in her mouth, she didn’t stop, and in a blink, she’d eaten up half of the salad.
“Ah-ha-ha. I thought eating it was a waste, Aoi,” Mimimi said.
“It tastes so good! I can’t help it.”
While watching the two of them banter back and forth, the rest of us glanced at one another and got started on the food lined up on the table.
“Ohh…this was reproduced pretty well.”
Eating the salad, I was surprised, too. Of course, it wasn’t a perfect reproduction. But I think it was pretty impressive to make from scratch. At the very least, there had to have been some trial and error.
“Right?! We went to the restaurant a bunch of times and had them teach us stuff!”
The other food we ate was all high quality, too, and though I couldn’t share in those memories, I could tell there was special meaning in the food from Hinami’s smile as she ate.
I learned that over these past few weeks, Mimimi and Tama-chan had gone to all these restaurants, and they got those that would help out to teach them the recipes. The two of them had worked together at Tama-chan’s house to prepare the ingredients and sauces and whatnot, and then that day, they had brought it with ice packs to drop it off at the guest house with the luggage. Then the two of them had gotten back from USJ early to cook everything.
“That’s amazing to go that far,” I said.
“Uh-huh. Of course it is,” Tama-chan answered bluntly. Then she gave Hinami a soft look. “I mean, Aoi’s done a lot for me. This isn’t even enough to repay her.”
“Hanabi…”
And then smiling at her with only good feelings, Tama-chan said, “So…thanks again, Aoi.”
“…No, thank you,” she said, even as her voice gradually started to wobble at the end.
“Ahh! It’s not fair for you to be the only one doing the thanking, Tama! I wanna thank her, too!” Mimimi said.
“Ah-ha-ha. I get it already.”
“That’s fine! It’s still important to say these things out loud!” Then Mimimi got a bit shy. “I think without you, Aoi, I wouldn’t be doing track, and my grades would be a lot worse… You’ve been supporting everything I do, in a way.”
“Come on…that’s exaggerating.”
“It’s not exaggerating! It’s totally for real!”
As shy as you’d expect, Mimimi said, “So thanks! I respect you more than anyone in the world!” Face red, she averted her eyes a little.
It was completely different from how Tama-chan had communicated it, but I’m sure both of them were being utterly sincere.
So even the perfect heroine Aoi Hinami could barely find the words. “Yeah…thanks.”
But their surprise did not end here.
After we’d more or less finished eating the food, Mimimi went to the kitchen. “And now, this is the main event for today!” she said, bringing out a luxurious and magnificent cheesecake about the size of her face.
It was topped with berries and other fruits and filled with love, along with the desire to give those who ate it joy. It didn’t just look like it tasted good—it was aesthetically pleasing. It was that kind of cheesecake.
I watched to see how things would go, wondering if this also called back to some memory, but Hinami was staring blankly at the cake.
“Whoa there, Aoi! I’m guessing you don’t know about this cake!”
“Huh? Y-yeah.” Aoi nodded.
Tama-chan seemed almost shy. “Um…” Then she accepted the cake from Mimimi and slowly carried it over. “I told you that I wanted to get serious about helping at my family’s bakery, right?”
That was enough for everyone there to get it.
Tama-chan carefully placed the dish on the table and brought it up to Hinami.
And then she set atop it a chocolate disk that read, “Happy Birthday! Thanks for Everything, Aoi”—and then she smiled at Hinami.