Feast
Days turned into weeks and now the weeks have turned into a month since Minako came back. Shinjiro planned restlessly to make the best dinner party he had ever made, making all off the S.E.E.S member's favorite dishes. Koromaru was sleeping over at Shinjiro's place over night. He was just sitting down patiently while wagging his tail. The door bell rung and Koromaru ran towards the door.
"It's open!" Shinjiro yelled at the door.
"Hey, Shinjiro-senpai!" Junpei called out in excitement.
"Don't mind us." Fuuka politely let herself in.
"Good Afternoon, Shijiro-senpai." Yukari started taking off her shoes.
"You guys are too damn early. It's only four in the afternoon. I told you idiots to come at six." Shinjiro complained.
"We thought you needed some help for the 'welcome back' party for Minako. So we thought we'd come early to help set things up. Knowing that you'd say no, we decided to come here without permission." Yukari pointed at the huge bag.
"Although you had to drag me here even though I don't want to. Yukari-tan…" Junpei complained. "I was having a nice and peaceful time with Chidorita and everything."
"Stop complaining. I heard from Minako that you keep on calling her at the worse possible moments. Call it karma, Stupei."
"Huh? I have?"
"I hope you guys ain't gonna cook." Shinjiro butted in the conversation.
"No, don't worry senpai." Fuuka responded. "We decided to decorate the place. That's why Yukari decided to bring Junpei, so that he could get all the high places and not bother you. We'll clean it up once the party is over."
"That's right; we're going to decorate the place so we could get the happy mood in placed." Yukari started taking out the hanging decorations. "And Junpei is going to do most of the cleaning, right Fuuka?"
"What? Why me?" Junpei jumped.
"Umm well…" Fuuka was hesitating what to say to Junpei after that comment.
"Come on Stupei, Fuuka, let's work on these decorations." Yukari handed the decorations.
"Fine, you guys can decorate the place. You better get every single damn decoration out of the place before you leave. Got that?" Shinjiro started cracking the eggs in the bowl.
"Of course, we said we would." Yukari answered confidently. She started blowing up a balloon and tied it up once it was a good size. Not too small and not too big. She started putting on the floor as Koromaru started playing with it.
"Koro-chan don't play with the balloon, it'll pop." Fuuka started helping Yukari.
-POP-
Koromaru jumped and ran off in shock that the new found ball just popped.
"Too late…" Yukari commented.
As the gang started decorating the place and Shinjiro cooked. Everyone enjoyed at what they were doing. Mitsuru, Ken, and Aigis came ten minutes before six. Mitsuru brought a few bottles of sparkling juice so that no one would get drunk at the party and considered that Ken was underage. Everyone finished at what they were doing a few minutes before six.
"The place looks amazing. I'm surprised that you allowed this place to be decorated Aragaki." Mitsuru looked around the living room decorations.
"I didn't. These idiots just barged in here saying that they're going to decorate the place. What's done is done. It'd be a waste to take them down now." Shinjiro started placing the plates on the table.
"It won't be in vain though. I'm sure our leader would love this. And it's all thanks to the amazing Junpei." Junpei victoriously announced.
"Urg, whatever. Says the guy who was complaining from the start. You haven't changed one bit over the years." Yukari sighs.
"Hey, I resent that!"
"Yukari-chan, you haven't changed much either." Fuuka added.
"At least I'm not childish like him." Yukari pointed out the facts.
"Haha," Mitsuru laughed a bit while all eyes stared at her. "It's just like old times. This reminds me of the time when we had that dinner party that Aragaki made at the dorm. I'm still surprised that you can make this much food by yourself."
"Shuddup, quit talking about memories. It's making me all fuzzy inside." Shinjiro toke off his apron
Ken faced him, "You said the same thing back in Tartarus, when Sanada-san was talking about the past."
"Huh, really?" Junpei jumped in the conversation. The doorbell rung just as Junpei was about to add something to his comment. "They're here." Everyone quietly ran and hid out of sight. Shinjiro turned off the lights and opened the door.
"Hi Shinjiro-senpai. Thanks for inviting us for dinner." Mianko smiled.
"Hey, Shinji. We brought a big cake with us. Minako said that we should bring something." Akihiko gave Shinjiro the cake while they were taking off their shoes.
"You're making it sound like you're blaming me, Akihiko-senpai." Minako pouted.
"But I told you that there was no need to." Akihiko answered.
"But it's polite to bring something. It'd be rude to just come here to eat food and leave." Minako added.
"This cake is a bit too big, don't you think?"
"The bigger the better, is what they say." Minako proudly exclaimed.
"Who says that?"
"…You do sometimes."
"Huh? No, I don't."
"Yes, you do."
"Yeah, yeah. Enough with your lover's quarrel." Shinjiro put both of his hands on their heads. "Hurry up in." The two followed Shinjiro inside.
"Surprise!" Everyone jumped out and yelled. Minako jumped and fell down. Koromaru ran over and started licking Minako on the cheek and nuzzling her.
"You guys startled me." Minako stood up and petted Koromaru. "Everyone is here. Did you plan this Shinjiro-senpai?" Minako asked.
"Hmph. I did say that we should do this again years ago. Might as well do it now." Shinjiro blushed and turned his head away.
"Thank you, everyone" Minako smiled. Everyone started talking and sat down around the table under Shinjiro's orders. Everyone was enjoying their meals including Koromaru, who had a special meal made for him. Everyone was talking and smiling. Junpei was commenting once more again about the delicious dimension. Akihiko was basically inhaling the food. While Minako was worrying that Akihiko might choke while enjoying her own food. After everyone was finished with their dinner, they started eating the cake Minako and Akihiko brought (except for Koromaru, but fret not. Shinjiro gave Koromaru a bone as a substitute).
"See, it's good to have a bigger cake Akihiko-senpai." Minako started munching on the cake.
"Yeah, yeah. I give up. There's no use arguing with you." Akihiko sighed under defeat. Knowing that if he resisted, Minako would have finish him off easily.
"Hehe." Minako smiled happily.
"Don't give Akihiko-senpai a hard time. He'll start pouting like a child." Yukari laughed.
"Oh how's your relationship with your mom? Have you met with her yet?" Minako turned to Yukari.
"Yeah, during the spring break of my senior year in high school, we met. We're closer now and she's now remarried. Even though we're closer, it sometimes gets a bit awkward. But I'm sure we could get over that soon." Yukari sipped her glass of sparkling juice.
"That's good. I'm sorry that I wasn't there when you met with your mom."
"Don't worry about it. That whole time I was thinking, if you were there, you would have defiantly cheered me on. So I was able to muster up my courage thanks to you. You don't need to apologize. I'm thankful you were thinking of me." Yukari smiled. "That reminds me. Here." Yukari handed Minako something. Minako opened her hand and saw the same cell phone strap that she gave you years ago.
"This is…" Minako looked at her in shock.
"Yeah, to be honest. I still want you to have that. That way, I could remind myself to move forward without looking back. You helped me realize what my mom was going through a bit more every time I spent time with you. We're best friends and it helped me open up a lot. Could you hold onto that so I won't forget?" Yukari asked.
"Uh-huh. I'll take good care of it. You can do it Yukari. I'm sure you'll be able to talk with your mom without getting awkward ever again. I'm sure of it." Minako cheered her on.
"Thanks." Yukari let out a big grin.
Hours flew by as everyone was happily chatting. Ken, Koromaru, Aigis, and Mitsuru were the first ones that had to go out. Knowing that Ken is still a high school student and Koromaru still lives in the dorms, it made more sense if he left with Ken. Mitsuru and Aigis still had work early morning the next day so they had to leave. Junpei was knocked out from all the excitement and food. Yukari was extremely agitated that he was asleep that she started slapping him to get up, which he did after his cheeks turned bright red. Yukari, Fuuka, and Junpei were going to stay a bit longer so they could help clean the place up. The four walked Minako and Akihiko towards the door as the prepared to leave.
"It was a lot of fun. Thanks for the party. I'm so happy to see everyone together again." Minako was a bit saddened that the party ended but she had a great time.
"We'll do more things together as a group sometime again. In the meantime, I'm going to make sure Stupei here will be worked to the bone cleaning this place up." Yukari had a bright smiled.
"You're really keeping up with your word," Junpei sighed miserably.
"Take care. Let's get together and cook sometime." Fuuka greeted Minako off.
"Yes, we should make that cake again." Minako added.
"Oy, Aki. Make sure you cook something healthy. You better not start eating too much of that protein shit. And you better not give her something unhealthy or something that shouldn't be called food." Shinjiro commented.
"Don't tell me something like that." Akihiko was a bit ticked off. "You treat me like a kid way too much. You worry too much as usual."
"That's because you're still too damn reckless. Both of you are." Shinjiro stared at both Minako and Akihiko.
"You know us so well, Shinijro-senpai." Said Minako.
"Now you're making me more worried…" Shinjiro stared at Minako.
"I'll see you later, best bud." Junpei saluted trying to make himself look cool but made him look silly that way. Everyone said their good byes and Akihiko and Minako walked off.
"I had a lot of fun. What about you Akihiko-senpai?" Minako asked.
"Yeah, I had a lot of fun too." Akhiko smiled at Minako as they walked together down the street.
"… AHHH!" Minako yelled out, startling Akihiko.
"What? What's wrong?" Akihiko asked Minako.
"I forgot to ask what Yukari did as an occupation…" Minako started out in space in shock of what she forgot.
"I did say that it just didn't come to mind when it came to asking Takeba what her job is."
"You're right." Minako sighed in defeat. As Akihiko regained his honor.
Author Note: I have a good idea what the next chapter is going to be like but the writing is going to be postponed till I survive the week of tests, readings, and more tests! So until then, please bare with me!
Ryurieri: Thank you for loving it. I'll do my best to keep up with the work.
Scarlette Shizuru: I thought it would be fine as long as Akihiko or Minako wouldn't say that they love each other yet. They did say that they're happy with being with each other but they didn't say they love each other even though they knew that they do know it. Love is a strong emotion after all~ So I thought it was fine.
