This is the EPILOGUE to MY GRADUATE LIFE. Everyone's reviews basically stated the same thing. BOTH, BOTH, BOTH! So… according to all of your reviews, I will do both an epilogue and a sequel. Here's the epilogue! Thank you for reviewing! This story is COMPLETELY finished. Well… this one is… not the sequel, but you get what I mean. Don't ask me why I didn't put this together with "My Graduate Life" cuz... I really don't know.Enjoy!

Epilogue – Smile

I woke up and yawned groggily. Today was… June the third. Today was the Summer Festival… and my birthday. Of all days, my birthday had to be on the day of the Summer Festival. Great. I probably won't even have anytime to celebrate it, and I'm turning eighteen! The age where I leave the life of a teen and enter adulthood, and I won't even get to celebrate it. Well, I'm sure a birthday greeting from my friends and boyfriend will be enough. I mean, it's not like they would forget it with all of this preparation, right?

-X-

I spoke too soon. I've been stuck at this café for at least three hours since 9 o'clock this morning, and not one person – not my boyfriend NOR my best friend- said happy birthday to me yet. Toshirou is so off the hook because he's only known me for about a… week or so? I doubt he would remember my birthday from so long ago when we were children. I didn't even know about him until... he moved here! (Ref : My Graduate Life)

Rukia, however, is soNOT off the hook. She's known me since kindergarten. We've celebrated each other's birthday ever year. Busy things always happen around our birthday, yet we never forget to celebrate it. This year makes no exception. She will so get it from me if she doesn't at least wish me a happy birthday by tomorrow!

So, I gathered my next tray, put on an artificial smile, and walked out the kitchen doors into the outside diner. I walked over to the table that ordered the food on my tray and handed them their plates. "Have fun at Café Okashi!" I exclaimed as I started to walk back to the kitchen doors until I spotted Toshirou walking back to the kitchen too.

"Toshirou!" I exclaimed as I walked up to him. I still had on my fake smile on for I just couldn't put a real smile on. I mean, how would you feel if all of your friends forgot that today was your birthday? "Hey!"

"Hey," he replied. He stared at me for a little bit and frowned.

I looked at him. "What?"

"What's with that smile?"

I finally put on an authentic smile for the first time that day. Maybe someone actually remembered my birthday, and Toshirou didn't even know me my whole entire life. I'm pretty sure that I hadn't told him that today was my birthday. It's been a pretty long time since we were little, so it's not like he would remember from all the way back then. So, basically, I was happy. "This smile?"

He slightly smiled, seeing me change my attitude. "No, the other smile."

I looked at him, confused. "Other smile?"

"The other one."

"What other smile?"

"How about I put it like this, are you okay?" he asked me, his eyes filled with worry.

"I'm fine!" I lied as I put on a fake smile once more.

"That smile."

"Oh… that smile…."

"Yes, that smile. (Ahhh! All of these smiles have gotten me sooo confuzzled, and I'm the author!!!) What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Yes," I muttered. "I'm perfectly fine."

"You're lying," he pointed out. Is it really that obvious?

"I'm fine," I repeated as I looked down at my tray so he wouldn't see the phony look in my eyes. He could always tell when I was lying by looking into my eyes.

"I'm not going to force you to tell me what's actually wrong, Momo. I'm still worried, but Ill leave you alone for a little bit. Just contact me if you need anything, all right? I'll always be available," he replied as he picked up his tray from a table and brushed past me after murmuring softly, "I didn't forget, if that's why you're like this, Momo…."

I turned around to see him smiling softly at me before he disappeared through the kitchen doors. I put on a pure, true smile and kept it like that for the rest of the day.

-X-

"Where are we going, Toshirou?" I asked him as he drove to who-knows-where. He still hadn't said anything about my birthday, but the phrase that he told me earlier brightened my day a whole lot, and so I didn't expect him to give me anything else. I received all I wanted.

"You'll see," he smiled as he kept on driving. The streets started to look a lot more familiar. Finally, a sign that said, "Mongo Guriru" came into view. I squealed. "Oh my gosh! That's my favorite restaurant! How'd you know, Shirou-chan?!"

He smirked, "I heard you talking about it on the phone with Kuchiki." Mongo Guriru is basically a shortened word for Mongolian Guriru. It's a place where you pick out your recipes and sauces, and they cook it for you. It was so awesome!

The front seemed to be terribly crowded, but I was pretty sure I saw an empty spot. I also swear that I saw my mom in the restaurant! Oh, geez, my mind is hallucinating… Toshirou went around the back and parked. "Ne, Toshirou, why are we at the back of the restaurant? I'm pretty sure I saw an empty spot in the parking lot…. It looks really creepy out here… in the dark…"

He got out of the car and walked over to the other side and opened my door. He smiled and held out his hand for me to hold onto. "Just trust me on this one, okay?"

I slightly nodded and took his hand and got out of the car. I latched my hand into his and followed him as he walked to the back door. I looked around nervously and gulped. Boy, it sure did look like a big, dark, scary alley….

Entering the through the doors, I let out a sigh of relief. Back here, there were lights that were dimmed. There was a man in a chef's hat and an apron. His nametag bore the words, "YUKI". He had dark, purplish hair and grayish eyes, and he was lean and short.

"Hitsugaya-sama," he said, bowing. Toshirou looked at him. "Yuki, you're not my servant or anything."

"I know," he said standing straight once again. "It's just really strange to have such a famous celebrity like you here. (A/N – Toshirou's dad owns that big company…)"

"I'm not a celebrity. Anyways, is everything ready?"

"Yes. Is this her? You sure picked a nice one." He leaned in closer to me, and I stepped back a little bit, freaked out. What is with this guy?

Toshirou glared at him. "Don't go flirting with my girlfriend. Just take me to the lobby already." He tightened his grip on my hand as if to say that everything was all right.

Yuki grumbled a sorry and lead us to a double door with circle windows on each of them. I was about to open it when Toshirou stopped me. "Hold on," he muttered as he knocked the door three times. After three minutes or so, he finally let me open the door, so I pushed my way through.

"SURPRISE!!!!!!" people shouted from all directions, popping out from their hiding spots. I stood there, shocked, surprised, etc.

After a few minutes, Rukia, who was standing near me, scowled. "Well? Aren't you going to say anything?"

"Oh… my… gosh…"

"We throw this HUGE surprise party for you at your FAVORITE restaurant, and all you can say is, "Oh my gosh"?"

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!!"

"See? There you go again!" I hugged my best friend and said, "Thank you sooo much, Rukia!"

She smiled. "Don't hug your old best friend, me, but go hug Lover Boy. He's the one who did everything - well, except for gathering everyone… that was my job."

I turned to my boyfriend and pulled him into a kiss. I heard everyone woot and clap in the background. We broke off, and I looked at him and smiled, mumbling a small thank you.

"It was nothing," he murmured.

"Is that why everyone was ignoring me earlier?" I asked him.

"I didn't want to do that; Kuchiki made that plan."

I turned towards Rukia and glared at her. "Do you know how it feels like to feel like EVERYONE FORGOT THAT IT WAS YOUR DAY TO BECOME AN ADULT?!"

She looked taken aback before she retorted, "It's not like we really wanted to. It was just so you'd be extremely surprised at the surprise party."

Orihime piped up. "We all saw your sad face, and wanted to go say something to you, but Rukia wouldn't allow it. Of course, Hitsugaya-san didn't listen to her so he just went up to you anyways. He hated seeing you like that."

"Oh…" I said. "Well, anyways, thank you… to all of you. I'm really grateful... Really..."

"Oh my gosh, are you crying?" Rukia asked as her eyes widened.

"No," I sniffled, raising my hands up to my eyes to wipe away my tears.

"Oh my gosh, she's crying!" Orihime shouted, rushing over to my side. "Are you alright, Momo?"

I nodded. "I'm just so happy…."

Ichigo looked confused. "You're happy that we didn't say happy birthday to you earlier?"

"She's crying because she's glad to have friends like you guys," Okaa-san said.

"Oh…"

I nodded. All my friends pulled me into a tight hug. "Well, then, we're always grateful to have you as a friend too!" they exclaimed. We all laughed lightly, squeezing each other to death. I broke out of their hug and walked over to Toshirou, hugging him too. "I love you. Thank you, for everything." He smiled down at me and all was spoken with that smile. The smile that basically said, "I love you too".

-X-

I sat down on the couch in Toshirou's living room, waiting for him. He told me he had to go get something and would be right out. I hummed some tune for a minute or two and heard Toshirou's footsteps on the wood panel.

He walked out of the hallway, holding something behind his back. "What's that?" I asked him, curious.

He smiled, walked over to me, and sat next to me. "Turn around," he instructed. I turned towards him. "With your back faced to me." "Oh…" "Now close your eyes." I shut my eyes. Something cold touched my neck. I reached for it and felt… a chain. "You can open them now." I looked down at my neck to see a silver heart necklace on my neck. In the middle was another heart with diamonds in the middle. On the outline of the silver heart, the words, "I love you, Momo. – Toshirou" were scripted on it.

I gasped as he slid his arms around my waist. "Happy Birthday, Momo," he whispered in my ear. I turned around to thank him but was caught in a kiss. When the kiss ended, I murmured, "Thank you sooo much."

And I smiled. I thought silently to myself as we started to make out. Toshirou, watch me forever because I want to feel this smile, forever. I'll never forget to smile with you by my side.

Whenever I'm down, you always bring a smile to my face.

I cannot live without you.

So, watch me when I'm like this,

Smiling.

OWARI

And I'm done. Finally. I'm working on the sequel. I have another story in my mind soo… yeah… I'm trying to update all of my stories so be patient, please! Thank you for all of your reviews! Check out the sequel, "Tie the Knot in Ecstasy". Hope you like it!

Xoxo MimiMichie