Rin was lying under the kotatsu in her mom's room, pondering how to gift wrap the rice cooker she got for her dearest Kayo-chin. It was only a couple weeks after Christmas, the shops were still full of holiday themed gift bags and shiny Santa-san papers. But the rice cooker was a birthday present, this just wouldn't do! She had to be creative.
On the morning of the 17th of January Hanayo woke up to a familiar knock on her window. "Kayo-chin! Good morning!" Her first thought was to pull the blanket over her head, the second was that Rin-chan's voice sounded really... weird. Kind of hoarse and a little deeper than usual. Hanayo hurried to open the window, her worried expression polar opposite of her best friend's cheerful, flushed face. Her motherly instincts immediately took over.
"Rin-chan? What happened to your voice? Have you got a fever? Don't stand there in the cold, that's only gonna make things worse!" She spluttered. Rin just grinned at her, and lifted something large and cat patterned to the other girl's face. It faintly smelled of chocolate, watermelon and the unmistakable odor of permanent markers. "Happy birthday, Kayo-chin!"
That afternoon, when Rin finally woke up from a feverish dream of ramen ribbons that just wouldn't tie into a proper knot, she looked at her texts and let out a satisfied sigh. It was totally worth eating 32 packs of ice cream.