If there's a person out here more excited for Rise's birthday than anyone, it's Teddie. After all, behind the scenes, Teddie and Rise are dating. Her birthday is one month away, and she'll be making a one-night return to Inaba to celebrate it in peace with her friends, as she requested to her manager Inoue.
And of course, Teddie needs to release all of that energy he's building up over the excitement he's feeling about Rise's return to Inaba. In the evening of early May, Teddie chose to call Yu over the phone to have someone to talk to, since Rise isn't returning his calls. Perhaps she's a bit busy with idol work to pick up calls from her charming boyfriend, Teddie thought.
"Sensei! It's gonna be Rise-chan's birthday soon!" Teddie exclaims to his cellphone while rolling around in Yosuke's bed.
Yu chuckled over the phone. "You sure sound excited for her return."
"Of course I am!" he sits up as his eyes gleam with sparkles. "She's the greatest girlfriend I know and love!"
"Girlfriend?" Yu asks.
Oops, that slipped out by accident. Better think of something to cover the real story, Teddie thinks to himself. He doesn't want to cause a national crisis! "Yeah! You know, like how you're the best boyfriend I know and love!" he says in his signature naive tone.
"Oh... That's what you meant." Another chuckle from Yu. "Sounds like Teddie's got himself a lot of boyfriends and girlfriends. I might have to catch up."
"Certainly my charms are no match for yours, Sensei!" They both share a rambunctious laughter. Good save, Teddie, he thinks to himself.
"The old Teddie would have never said that. You've certainly grown a lot since we've met last year," Yu says.
"Really? You think so?" Teddie raises his eyebrows.
"Definitely. You may act like the Teddie we first met, but everything inside and out has changed about you. I'm proud of you." Yu's radiance can be sensed through the sound-waves, emanating from Teddie's cellphone speaker.
Teddie sniffs and gets a tad teary-eyed. "Awww, thanks Sensei! I did my best to catch up with everyone!"
"That's good, Teddie. Never stop doing your best."
Teddie can easily imagine Yu petting Teddie's hair and giving him a reassuring smile that shines brightly towards him. After all, if it weren't for Yu, Teddie wouldn't have even imagined himself to be friends with everyone around him. How time flies, Teddie wonders to himself. Just how much more will he grow from here on out? The future where an even more mature Teddie stands tall above the rest... How exciting that will be, he wonders to himself.
"By the way, since you brought up Rise's birthday, what are you getting for her?" Yu asks Teddie.
"Hrm!?" Teddie was taken aback by the sudden question.
"Since you knew about her birthday, I thought you were planning on getting her something."
"Hee hee, uh... about that..." Teddie laughs nervously and scratches his cheek. He was so caught up in meeting Rise again after a long time, he didn't even consider the possibility that he should procure a gift to celebrate both her birthday and her return.
"What's wrong?"
"Can I tell you the truth, Sensei?" Teddie lays down and sighs. "I don't know what to get for her..."
"Oh, that's a bit of a problem..." Yu sounds concerned.
"Her birthday in a month, and I don't know what I could do on her beary special day!" Teddie kicks his feet around. "Do you have any ideas?"
Yu remained silent for a moment. Teddie taps his fingers on the bed in anxiousness, awaiting his beloved Sensei's answer to his conundrum. How embarrassing this must be for Teddie. To think he couldn't even conjure up a gift for his beloved girlfriend! How shameful! He would rather die than face the humiliation of neglecting his significant other!
"I'm not sure if I can answer that for you, Teddie." Yu speaks up.
"Huh?" Teddie blinks. "That's not the answer I expected from you, Sensei."
"What I mean is, this isn't my gift. It's your gift, right? You should give her a gift from the heart. Think about a gift you know she'll like, and I'm sure she'll appreciate whatever it is you give her."
"Mm..." Teddie shakes his head. "But I don't know what to give her! I want to give her something she'll never forget!"
"I'm sure you'll think of something, Teddie. You've managed to find answers on your own before, I know you can find the answer to this too."
"You're giving me a pawful, Sensei..." Teddie groans.
"Like I said, I'm sure you can think of something. I think you understand her more than you realize."
"I do...?" Teddie's gaze lowers to the floor.
"Oh, sorry. I have errands to attend to. I'll talk to you later Teddie. Good luck with the gift hunting," with that, Yu hangs up the phone, leaving Teddie in deep thought.
Teddie is still holding the phone to his ear long after the conversation ended. Does he really understand Rise more than he thinks he does? To him, it sounds like a paradox, or some sort of riddle he doesn't know the answer to. In fact, despite his confidence in his charms, he still finds it baffling that he managed to steal Rise's heart and have her fall for him, especially when his charms prior to all of this didn't even affect her. Could there be an important factor he's missing?
Thinking about it too much gives him a headache. He shakes the thought off and closes his cellphone.
"Hey Ted, can you give me a hand here? I need to put this stuff away," Yosuke says as he gently kicks his door open. He's carrying a laundry basket full of clean clothes.
"Huh? What?" Yosuke's sudden entry startled Teddie.
"I need to put these clothes on my bed so I can sort all of this stuff out." Yosuke says sternly as he shakes the basket. "Care to help out?"
"Oh! Sure thing, Yosuke!" Teddie leaps off the bed, allowing Yosuke to dump the basket onto the bed.
"Okay, help me hang all these clothes in the closet, it shouldn't take long with the both of us." Yosuke handed Teddie a couple of hangars for him to hook his clothes on.
"Aye aye, sir!" Teddie gives a salute and proceeds to hook his clothes on the hangars.
"So I overheard you talking with Yu about getting a birthday present for Rise," Yosuke says while hanging one of his shirts.
"Yup!" Teddie replies as he hung one of his clothes in the closet. They're both hanging their clothes simultaneously. "I have no idea what to get for her birthday, so I gotta think of the perfect present!"
"Man, I don't know why you're thinking so hard about it. If you want to give her a present for her birthday, just get her anything related to fashion. Girls, especially pop idols, are into fashion you know?"
There's a good reason why Teddie's thinking long and hard about it, but it's not something he should say out loud, especially in front of Yosuke of all people. Instead, he'd rather ask Yosuke for clarity. "What kind of fashion?"
"I dunno, stuff like designer clothes, jewelry, that kind of stuff. They sell a bunch of fashion and accessories at Croco Fur in Okina City." Yosuke hangs his clothes in the closet and flips his phone open white sitting down on the floor. "Hold on, let me show you some of the stuff they have."
Teddie drops his clothes as he walks over to Yosuke, peeking over Yosuke's shoulder. "Oooh, so you can even use that internet thing on phones!" Teddie exclaims. "You really can do anything on there!"
"Yeah, it's pretty cool right?" Yosuke smirked. "Let me show you the stuff they got right now." He pings his phone in five-second intervals, allowing Teddie enough time to analyze his options. "Notice anything you'd want to get for her?"
"Hm..." Teddie cups his chin while looking at all of the products. None of them appear to have caught his attention, mostly because he isn't sure what sort of fashion Rise would be into. That's when he notices a diamond pendant. "Oh! What about that?" He points to the pendant
"This? You wanna buy Rise a pendant?" Yosuke selects the pendant and the phone displays the details of the pendant. Looking more closely, the pendant has a well-rounded diamond in the center, surrounded by a diamond-studded flower shape. The chain is a glossy silver that compliments the diamond well. He grins and gives Teddie a wink. "You know I gotta admit, it does look pretty good..."
"And that's what I'll be getting for Rise-chan's birthday!" Teddie pumps his fist in the air.
Yosuke nods and smiles. Seeing Teddie so cheerful always made him happy, even if that bear got on his nerves sometimes. "Okay, now how much does it costs..." He looks out for the price of the pendant.
... Only for him to leave his mouth agape. "This costs 58,000 yen!?" he shouts
"Huh!?" Teddie's jaw dropped. That's definitely not the price he expected out of a pendant! Actually he didn't expect it to be cheap, but not that expensive!
"Dude, don't tell me you're going to try to buy a 58,000-yen pendant for her birthday," Yosuke says with a furrowed eyebrow. "That's way out of budget for you isn't it?"
"Uh..." Teddie's left speechless. It's true that the pendant is way out of his comfortable price range. Most of the time he usually buys cheap food to indulge on. The money he earns working at Junes hardly gives him enough spare cash for such a luxury, and it's not like he has the money on him at the moment.
Yosuke pings on his phone, returning to the main site. "Why don't we look for something more cheap? Just looking at that price makes my wallet feel emptier," he says as he sorts out the products by price.
Cheap? Teddie may not have the required funds, but he won't accept a cheap knock-off for his beloved Rise! He clenches his fist, then raises it high in the air. "I'm still going to get it for her!"
Yosuke looks up stares at him with an exasperated expression. "Seriously...?"
"Yup! I'll work twice, no, a million times harder at Junes! I'll earn enough money to get that necklace for Rise-chan's birthday!" He shakes his fist. "Mark my words, Yosuke! It'll be the beary best gift she'll ever get!" Teddie's fiery spirit is so passionate, Yosuke can feel heat-waves pulsating from Teddie's body.
In the end, Yosuke sighs and shrugs. "Whatever you want man. Just don't break anything at Junes while I'm at school tomorrow."