Birthday Boy - Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san | Chapter 2
Nishikata and Takagi walk to school, both of them keeping quiet without any questions. Their walk is fast and uncommunicative. As they near the front gates of the school, Nishikata prompts a sentence to break the awkward silence.
"It's a good morning today, isn't it?" Nishikata starts to say, trying to talk about a separate subject. Takagi stares at him, Nishikata avoiding her smirk. He looks at her, with her replying,
"It is, isn't it?". Nishikata blushes, the red spreading through his cheeks. "You're blushing." Takagi alerts.
"I'm not!" he snaps, looking to the opposite side of Takagi. Her smirk disappears. They reach the doors to hear the bell ring it's loud, hard-hitting sound.
"The bell! We're late." Takagi explains. "Well, yeah. I'm not an airhead." Nishikata guffaws. Takagi then goes to her locker and sticks her 'walking' shoes in there and takes out a pair looking like the same but specified as casual ones. Nishikata strolls up to his classroom and slides open the door to reveal all his classmates at their desks with their current teacher, Tanabe-sensei, overlooking all of them.
"Gah, Nishikata! You're late again." yells Tanabe.
"Sorry, sensei!" Nishikata blurted. He sits down in his chair and drops his bag beside his desk. Not too long after, Takagi wanders into the room.
"You're late too?" Tanabe sneers. "Yes, sorry, sensei." Takagi exclaims.
"You, and Nishikata, will be cleaning the room at the end of the day." Tanabe demanded. Nishikata thinks about the small comment his horrifying teacher made, and then thinks to himself with a growl-
HUH?
"Alright, now, if everyone's here..." Tanabe declares, with Nishikata dumping his head into his desk, sulking with his arms covering up his annoyance. Takagi notices this and glimpses at him with a bit of a frown. She looks at him for a while, before being told to take out her English translation textbook. Nishikata follows after this, taking out a pencil case and accessing it. He seizes a couple of pencils and a eraser.
This is gonna be a LONG day...
"DING, DONG!" The school bell's iconic sound shoots itself across the whole town.
"Don't forget to practice your work at home."
Nishikata sighs, the fact he needed to stay at school again for cleaning was already annoying, but the fact he was teased 32 times today meant 320 push-ups. Everyone but Nishikata and Takagi were ushered outside by Tanabe, and even when Tanabe was out the door, he screamed from the corridor,
"DON'T TRY ANYTHING!". Hearing this, Nishikata's back shattered itself with goosebumps. "Are you okay?" Takagi whispers. Nishikata jumps up, his head shaking from fear. "I... how about we just clean up the room?" Nishikata replies. Takagi nods, and they walk over to the broom cabinet. Takagi clutches one of the several brooms in her hands and gets to work instantly, starting on the floor. Nishikata takes out another broom and ends up helping Takagi.
Hmm... how can I tease her? There must be something...
"Hey, Nishikata?" Takagi says. "Yes?" Nishikata answers. "Want to play a game?" Takagi asks.
Heheheh! This is how I'll tease her! I'll play along, but I'll mess up the game and embarrass her!
"What is the game?" Nishikata asks. Takagi then lists the game and the rules.
"The game is... the Yes-No game. The point of the game is, whoever says Yes or No first will lose. Pretty self-explanatory, right?" Takagi says, her absurd game throwing off Nishikata. "So, we'll play 'till one person gets one point. Fair?" Takagi asks.
What is she playing at? This must be a trap!
"Yeah, that's fair. I guess I'll play then." Nishikata puts his fingers to his chin.
There's something not right... but we'll just have to see!
"Hey, Nishikata?" Takagi interrogates him. "Yes, Takagi-"
Oh shoot.
Takagi opens her mouth to say, "HAHA! That was TOO easy! I can't believe you'd fall for that!" Takagi rants, pushing Nishikata over the edge. He pulls down his head to be looking at the ground. He sweeps the bamboo wooden planks and the dust ricochets of to emit into thin air. "Oh, well. Maybe next time you'll win. Any-hoo, how about that punishment..." Takagi begins to say, before Nishikata throws his head up into the air with a blush. "HEY! WHAT?! A PUNISHMENT?! We never discussed that!" he persists arguing with Takagi for about an hour, until the classroom has been cleaned to look as new.
"Ahhh, finally... I get to go home!" Nishikata says, holding up his bag in front of him, and checking the time on his phone.
"4:21. Huh." Takagi steps up to him. "Are we gonna walk home, or are we gonna daydream about rest?" Takagi asks.
"Yeah, let's go." they roam the school grounds, heading towards the locker room. While Takagi is getting changed into her shoes, Nishikata looks outside and coincidentally finds Nakai-kun walking around with Mano-chan. "Hey! Nakai-kun!" Nishikata says. Nishikata rushes outside to talk to Nakai.
"Hey, Nishikata-kun! Ready for your birthday present?" asks Nakai, suspiciously. "Hah, yeah! Can't wait." Nishikata says.
"Oh, hi, Mano-chan!" Takagi says, coming up behind Nishikata. "Hi, Takagi-san!". For a moment, they all talk about upcoming events and school. After a few minutes later, they've said their goodbyes, and have gone their own ways. "See ya at the party, Nishikata-kun!" Nakai says, the farewell making Nishikata feel better about the pushup situation. "Yeah, bye!" Nishikata waves, with Takagi saying the same thing.
"Let's go home." Takagi says, urging him into leaving. "Ah, yes."
They take their usual route, with Nishikata of course thinking of a master plan to beat Takagi.
What do I do? If I beat her, it'll be half the amount of pushups, so...
"Hey, what was that earlier?" Takagi asks. "What?" Nishikata says.
"About your 'Party'?" Takagi says. "Well, yea-"
THIS IS A TRAP!
"Wha- what do you mean...?" asks Nishikata, fazed. "You aren't having a birthday party?" says Takagi.
"N- no..." Nishikata stumbles. "Well, Nakai-kun says otherwise." Takagi replies.
"HUH?! He told you?!" Nishikata yells. "No, not personally. But it seems you just admitted it." Takagi answers, then she closes one of her eyes and says,
"Who'd you invite?" Nishikata flinches.
Something's not right...
"Why do you ask that? he questions. Takagi opens her eye and doesn't say anything.
"W- well, I invited... boys. Nakai-kun, Takao-kun, Kimura... kun." Nishikata sounds extremely fearful.
"Huh. Well, that's interesting. What is your taste in presents?" Sweat pours down his neck.
This has to be the most persistent tease ever.
"I... like videogames. And other stuff..." Nishikata breathes a sigh of relief. "But you'd like the newest issue of 100% Requited Love even more, right?"
"GAH! Takagi! Don't talk about it in such a civil place!" Nishikata whisper-screams. "It's just a cold street that's inhabited by cats."
Too true.
"Err... what are you getting at, Takagi-san?" Takagi looks right into Nishikata's eyes. He blushes at bright as a flame.
"Hey... can I come to your party?" Takagi asks.
...
Nishikata's blush has enlightened even further, causing his neck to be caught in the blush.
"You're blushing so much." Nishikata completely colors himself bright pink.
"No... no... I'm not..." Inside, he's screaming. His voice lost itself, no words were able to be said.
What do I do?
"Um... I-" Nishikata gushes.
"How about... if you invite me, no more teasing for the time being." Takagi says, prepared for a answer. Nishikata's eyes' pupils scrunch up.
"Time being? What does that mean?!" Nishikata answers. "Guess you'll just have to find out." Takagi's blush is as precious as Nishikata's reaction to her cruel proposal.
"I... oh god... I... I..." Nishikata still can't fully answer to any question. Anything he'd like to say was speechless.
"Ten... nine... eight... seven..." Takagi counts down. "WHAT?! There's a time limit!" Nishikata scrambles for some useful words for this unusual situation.
"Fin-" Takagi's heart thumps faster than ever.
"Fine, I'll think about it..." Nishikata looks away, at the sun setting. "Oh... that's not fair." Takagi blushes. It doesn't last, but it's there for Nishikata to visibly see. He looks at the ground, then his eyes follow up to find Takagi eyes meet his. "I-I... yeah, let's just keep walking!" Nishikata's face has blushed to the point where nothing else is there but a slush of red. "Will do." Takagi smiles, a shade of crimson red drawn all over her cheeks with her eyes sparkling.
Oh... my... god...
The rest of their walk is nothing but utter silence. All that is heard is a eerie breeze and the small steps they make. They make it to intersection where they part ways, but by the time they arrived, it was 5:00, and the sun was at the tip of the land, the starry sky reaching over the horizon.
"W- well... that was weird..." Nishikata starts. "It kind of was. For me." Takagi says. She looks back at him one last time, for the day, then walks away, down the road, her smile larger than before. She looks over her shoulder. "Hey, Nishikata?" Nishikata checks back at her.
"Huh?" Takagi squints her eyes. "Give me an answer tomorrow, okay?". She gallops down the path happily, her hair crazily waving around in the wind. Nishikata stands there for a minute, the black, dreamy night surrounding everything. The grassy shrubs, houses, and structures being enveloped in darkness.
Nishikata's eyes widen and his blush leaves. Then it suddenly re-appears, and in his state, is somehow able to say to himself quietly;
"I'll... I'll take that deal into consideration...".