Unei looked through the refrigerator for the leftover slices of cake from a few days ago, while Shun and Alice cleared and set the table. "We have exactly three slices of cake left." Unei took the cake out and went to get some paper plates and utensils. "Do you want to make another cake later? This cake tasted really delicious with three people's work, so I wonder if the next one will taste as good."

"Will it still taste this good even after a couple of days in the refrigerator?" Shun asked. "It's not like the ice cream cake that we kept in the freezer for your thirteenth birthday, Unei-nee."

"Ice cream cake? What is it? Is it good? I want to try that." Alice asked, eager to know more about ice cream back.

"We could make an ice cream cake if you want, Shun, if only don't act all smart around me. Alice, an ice cream cake is a like a regular cake with extra frosting and ice cream in the center. What's your favorite ice cream-"

"Why don't we make a mint ice cream cake? That's would taste great." Again, Shun was getting in the way and interrupting Unei's every statement.

Alice had an idea. "A strawberry ice cream cake would be nice. We can make it from a regular strawberry cake. Besides, how many people like the flavor mint anyway? It tastes weird."

"I can always say that strawberry tastes weird because it's too sweet." Shun argued. "I like mint the way I like it, and we're not making a strawberry ice cream cake. I haven't had mint ice cream in a long time."

"That's not fair. I never had any ice cream cake before, and strawberry ice cream is my favorite flavor. Shun, we are going to make strawberry ice cream cake, no matter what you say."

"No, we aren't."

"Yes, we are."

"No, we aren't!"

"Yes, we are!"

"You two need to stop it!" Unei barged in between the two kids that were arguing with each other across the table. "How about if we make a chocolate ice cream cake? Every time I make ice cream cake, Shun always chooses mint, and my parents always say to let it go because I'm supposed to be a role model. Unfortunately, we don't have mint or strawberry ice cream, so I finally get to make my own decision in my house. Fair enough?"

Shun and Alice nodded.

"Awesome! Now, the first step in doing that is to go buy the ingredients in the store, because I have no chocolate cake mix in my house. Let's eat our slice of cake and move on."

"Yes, Unei-nee!" Shun and Alice replied simultaneously.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Unei, Shun, and Alice were at the local supermarket looking for cake mix, frosting mix, and chocolate sprinkles. In addition to the ingredients, Unei also bought some snacks, including mochi, cookies, and other candy. Once she finished paying for everything, the trio started walking home along when Unei suddenly stopped.

"Here. Why don't we stop here to eat something for now? That piece of cake wasn't very filling because I cut a small slice for myself and big slices for you two." She got up and read the receipt. "Oh no, I forgot to buy something. Shun, Alice, can you guys stay here for now while I go back to buy something? It'll be really quick." Unei ran off without listening to what Shun and Alice had to say.

"Seems like she forgot to buy something important." Shun concluded. "Unei-nee wouldn't just leave us like that. Anyway, let's eat." Shun grabbed a box of green tea mochi which happened to be grabbed by Alice as well. "Alice, do you mind?"

"Do I mind?" Alice looked at Shun as if he was the one stealing the box of mochi. "I saw it first, so shouldn't it be mine? Besides, you always get to eat the mochi around here. Shouldn't you let me have this box?"

"It doesn't matter who got the box first or who doesn't eat this as often. It's my favorite, so this box is mine." Shun literally pulled it out of Alice's hands.

"You're so mean. That hurts, you know." Alice had to take the box out of Shun's hands, but the box flew out of their hands and tumbled down the slanted areas of grass. "See what you did? Now it's wet and muddy." Alice was going to run across the paths to get that box of mochi when the sky turned dark again and started rumbling.

This isn't looking good. The sky seems to be raining soon again. "Alice! Come back!" No matter how loud Shun yelled, Alice was too far away to hear him. He ran after her and kept yelling, "Alice! Get back here! It's going to rain!" He eventually got to Alice and took her hand.

"Shun, let go! That box of mochi-" Before she could finish her sentence, Shun brought her back to the grocery bags as fast as he could. "Wow. It's raining really hard now." Alice was right. The raindrops got heavier and louder as they collected on the branches of the tree. Suddenly, a fall of cold, freezing water splashed down next of Alice. "Ah! Not again!" Before she knew it, Alice was in Shun's arms.

"Are you okay? I know it's freezing, but you shouldn't go out to get a box of mochi because of that." In addition to cold rain and dark skies, a flash of light shone, followed by a loud rumble.

"Lightning! I hate lightning!" Alice got scared and got closer into Shun's arms. He's not mad at me at all. Shun let go of her and ran off in the rain. "Shun, where are you going?" It was Shun's turn to not be able to hear Alice. Next herself, Alice saw that Shun took off his jacket. Should I wear it? I'm freezing. Alice took his jacket and put it on.

Later, a wet and dripping Shun came back. "Found it." In his hands was that box of mochi that they accidentally threw away. "You can have it."

Alice looked Shun with a very shocked look. "You gave me my jacket to run off into the cold rain just to get a wet box of mochi back to me?" Shun nodded. "Shun, you're stupid. You're giving me this just because it's wet, and you don't want it."

Shun didn't like how Alice responded. "Really? Then I'm eating the entire box myself. This happened to be the only box of mochi that Unei-nee bought." Shun took a piece of mochi and chewed slowly.

Alice couldn't help but feel jealous. "Okay, I'm sorry. Can I please have a piece of mochi now?" Shun gladly offered the box to her. "Thanks." Another flash of lightning and rumble of thunder, and Alice yelled and went into Shun's arms again.

"Are you really that scared of thunder and lightning?" Shun asked. "Then again, it's kind of weird that a small rain shower could get this serious. And I'm-" He involuntarily sneezed into his arm. "I can't deal."

"I told you." Alice replied. "You shouldn't have run into the rain like that." Later, Unei came back with more grocery bags.

"Oh dear. Shun, are you okay? Why are you soaking wet? Here." Unei handed Alice and Shun each an umbrella. "What did you do while I was gone?"

"It's a long story, Unei-nee. Why don't we go back home first?" Shun suggested.

Unei looked around. "We can't actually go anywhere in this kind of weather, and staying here won't do us any good. I guess we'll just have to wait here under our umbrellas."

"Unei-nee, what did you go buy?" Shun asked.

"I needed to buy these umbrellas and some other stuff. Let's just wait here until my mom comes to pick us up.

"What...?" Shun and Alice replied simultaneously.

"We have no choice. Let's just wait..."