~Suzuno's POV~
It's Winter again, orange-leaved trees were gone, some leaves turned white, the snow was piling up hills on the yard and the street,the breeze was really cold, everyone was getting ready for winter, they placed Christmas decors on their houses and street lights, Christmas is coming up fast, my birthday, children played less from the cold weather... It's like they don't like playing outside when it's cold... I guess they don't like playing outside on my birthday...
Chapter 7: A Fixed Promise
Suzuno was looking outside the window, it was snowing, it made her happy a lot, she went down still in her pj's on, everyone was, it was Christmas vacation already.
As Suzuno walked down the stairs carrying Yuu-chan in her arms.
"Good morning!" Hiroto smiled.
"Hey Suzuno!" Nagumo greeted her too.
"Good morning Hiroto, good morning Nagumo." Suzuno smiled at them and took a seat. "Oh, and good morning everyone!" She remembered.
"Ohaio!"
"Good morning Suzuno!"
"Good morning!"
Suzuno got replies and smiled and ate, she placed Yuu-chan on her lap while she was eating. When all of them were in the middle of eating, suddenly, Suzuno turned to Hitomiko.
"Hitomiko-san! What's the date today?" She asked happily.
"Oh? The date today?" Hitomiko was thinking. "Oh! Today's December 20!" She answered happily, carrying a pitcher for the water.
"December...? 20...?" Suzuno whispered sadly and turned back to her food looking down, begining to cry. "Mommy..." Suzuno hugged Yuu-chan tightly, then Hitomiko suddenly noticed her, by seeing tiny drops of tears falling down from her covered face.
"Suzuno!" Hitomiko nearly dropped the pitcher and ran to Suzuno. "Why...?" She asked and held her shoulder.
"Suzuno...?" Hiroto noticed and stopped eating as went around the table behind Hitomiko.
"Hey! What's wrong? Suzuno?!" Nagumo followed Hiroto.
Everyone stopped eating and went to Suzuno to ask her why she was crying.
"Suzuno-chan! Why are you sad? Isin't your birthday close?" Yagami patted her back.
"Y-yeah! And you're crying!" Ann added.
"Suzuno... Why are you...-"
"Mommy... Died today..." Suzuno blurted out, with a soft brittle voice.
Everyone looked at each other in shock, feeling pity for Suzuno's mourn for her mother.
"Suzuno... It's oka-"
"NO! IT'S NOT! I BROKE A PROMISE TO HER BEFORE SHE DIED! ...I broke it..." Suzuno sobbed.
"What promise...?" Netsuha asked.
"You broke what?" Clara asked too.
"Okay kids, give space, I'll talk to Suzuno for a while..." Hitomiko lifted Suzuno's hands bringing her to the living room, Suzuno followed Hitomiko as she carried Yuu-chan on her hand, while her other hand wiping her tears and nose.
When Hitomiko and Suzuno sat down on the sofa and tried to reason out with her, all of the children were peeking at the door, evesdrooping on their conversation.
"Suzuno, you told me you got over this already, you said so when you cried from your father's death two months ago..." Hitomiko held Suzuno's shoulder.
"I lied... I'll never get over my parents death, I lied because I didn't want you to worry about me..." Suzuno replied sniffling.
"Suzuno..." Hitomiko whispered.
"..." Suzuno turned away hugging Yuu-chan.
"I'll just leave you here okay... Try not to remember." Hitomiko stood up, she wanted Suzuno to calm down, alone. Suzuno nodded.
Hitomiko was walking towards the dinning room door, everyone noticed and went bak to their seats quickly, when Hitomiko was in the dinning room, everyone was eating,
nervously.
"I saw you all there snooping around, don't deny it..." Hitomiko glared at them, jokingly.
"S-sorry Hitomiko-san." Everyone bowed.
Later after eating, Hiroto and Nagumo looked for Suzuno, she wasn't in the living room anymore, instead, they found her on her bed, staring at the widow again.
"Suzuno..." Hiroto called her sadly.
"Hm...?" Suzuno was still looking at the window.
"Is there anything that can make you happy?" Hiroto said.
"No... Nothing..." Suzuno looked down, still facing the window.
"How 'bout play soccer with us! I don't mind about the cold weather!" Nagumo smiled.
"No... Thanks anyway..." Suzuno replied, sadly.
"Oh okay... We'll just leave you alone? If it's that what you want..." Hiroto said sadly too.
"Okay... That's fine with me... Thanks for trying though..." Suzuno smiled and turned to them, but her eyes still looks sad.
"Okay, no problem... We'll see you later..." Hiroto and Nagumo left.
"Bye." Suzuno turned back to looking at the window.
When Hiroto and Nagumo were outside, they were planning in how to cheer Suzuno up.
"How do we cheer Suzuno up...?" Hiroto sighed.
"I don't know... I feel really bad for her..." Nagumo sighed too. "How about a gift...?" He got an idea and turned to Hiroto.
"Nah, she still won't be happy..." Hiroto shooked his head.
"How would you know?" Nagumo puffed up his cheeks.
"Not just a gift something special." Hiroto smiled.
"Like what? A flower again?" Nagumo laughed.
"Not only those, she likes ice cream!" Hiroto smiled.
"Maybe more..." Nagumo thought.
"Wait..." They bouth thought.
"All she wanted was to fix was-!" Hiroto stopped and they smiled at each other.
"The music box!" They said happily raising their fingers.
Later, they peeked at the door, seeing Suzuno asleep, covered in her blanket sitting on her bed, hugging Yuu-chan.
"We should get her music box and fix it..." Nagumo whispered while he was peeking, looking at the shoe box under her bed.
"Yeah, but how?" Hiroto whispered looking at Nagumo.
"We'll get the music box in secret, go to Yahiro's shop to replace the broken pieces, then return it on her b-day." Nagumo smiled.
"But she'll look for it! She'll be devistated if she finds out it's gone!" Hiroto said worriedly.
"Don't worry, we'll destract her!" Nagumo whispered.
"Fine... But make sure this is a good idea..." Hiroto sighed.
"Okay, I'll get the music box, wait here." Nagumo started crawling to her bed.
"Okay! But be careful!" Hiroto whispered.
Nagumo crawled to Suzuno's bed, trying not to make a noise, when he grabbed the shoe box, there was a chiming sound, but Suzuno didn't wake up, she was sound asleep.
"Whew..." Nagumo sighed and took the shoe box and tip-toed to the door and shut it. "Yes! Got it!" He said happily, and checked inside the shoe box, inside was the broken music box.
"Good! Now we have to bring it to Yahiro-san's shop!" Hiroto was happy too.
"Wait how are we going to pay?" Nagumo got worried.
"Don't worry, I saved 100 yen! It's all in my pocket!" Hiroto smiled and tapped his pocket, making sounds of coins.
"Good! Let's go!" Nagumo ran to the hall going downstairs.
"Let's tell Hitomiko-san first." Hiroto said.
"But!" Nagumo didn't want to.
"Nagumo..." Hiroto insisted him to.
"Fine..." They walked to the kitchen.
When they arrived at the kitchen, they saw Hitomiko washing the dishes.
"Hitomiko-san!" Hiroto said happily.
"Oh! Hiroto what is it?" Hitomiko turned to him and smiled, while washing the dishes.
"Could we go to Yashiro-san's shop?" Hiroto asked.
"Why?" Hitomoko turned to washing the dishes.
"It's really important, it's for Suzuno's birthday." Hiroto smiled.
"Fine." Hitomiko sighed in relief. "But don't go alone." She added.
"Don't worry! Nagumo will go with me!" Hiroto laughed.
"Oh, okay, be careful!" Hitomiko smiled.
"Okay! We will!" Hiroto ran to Nagumo and they both ran outside with their jackets on.
They walked to Yashiro's shop for a couple of blocks, Nagumo held the box tightly, so no pieces will fall down. A few minuites more, they arrived the shop.
"Yashiro-san!" Hiroto called, ringing the door's wind chime tied to it, when they opened the door.
"Oh! Hiroto! Nagumo" A man with an apron went to the cashier and wiped his hands with his hanky. "What brings you here?" He smiled.
"We need you to help fix this..." Nagumo placed the shoe box on the cashier. Yashiro opened it, seeing the broken music box.
"Oh? Sure!" Yashiro said after he looked at it.
"How much do you need?" Hiroto started to put his hand in his pocket.
"Perhaps just a good reason why you want to fix this music box." Yashiro smiled.
"Our friend is really devistated from her mom's and dad's death, she's in the orphanage with us..." Hiroto answered.
"And she's really sad that her music box is broken, she promised her mom that she would take good care of it before she died. So we want to cheer her up by giving this in her birthday this week!" Nagumo added.
"Oh... I feel bad for her... Make sure you're both not making this up!" Yashiro laughed.
"We're not! It's true!" Hiroto and Nagumo replied.
"Okay, okay, I was kidding." Yashiro laughed. "Perhaps just 10 yen would do." He smiled.
"What?! Yashiro-san! You're too kind! Make it 20 yen!" Hiroto said.
"No, no, I'm sure..." Yashiro smiled. "Just pay me later, you could pick replace or fix the broken ones if you like."
"Okay!" They happily said and picked.
After so much of picking, there was a piece that was not broken.
"Hey! There's the side piece of the box! It looks like it's still okay." Hiroto pointed at it.
"Yeah, perhaps we could still use it" Yashiro replied.
"Wait, why is there a circle hole on the bottom part?" Hiroto asked.
"Probably it's a turn key music box." Yashiro answered.
"What's that?" Hiroto asked again.
"It's when-"
"The music box only works with a kind of key." Nagumo answered.
"What he said." Yashiro pointed at Nagumo.
"Oh... I guess Suzuno has the key right?" Hiroto looked at Nagumo.
"Yup, it's around her neck with her locket." Nagumo nodded.
"We'll, were both done picking some pieces to replace, it's time for me to help you fix it." Yashiro smiled and took the shoe box and took it inside for him to fix it.
"Okay we'll wait here!" Hiroto and Nagumo sat down.
Later, after an hour, Yashiro was done fixing it, he returned the shoe box containing the fixed music box, but the shoe box was wrapped in a blue-sriped gift cover wrapped with a light-blue ribbon.
"Yashiro-san! You didn't have to-"
"It's okay, just tell her happy birthday." Yashiro smiled.
"Thanks Yashiro-san! Merry Christmas!" Nagumo smiled and took the box and left first.
"Merry Christmas to you too, Nagumo!" Yashiro waved. Nagumo waved back and left the store.
"Here, you're payment." Hiroto placed yens on top of the cashier and left following Nagumo.
"Hiroto wait! You're payment is too much by 10!" Yashiro called, Hiroto stopped, holding the door open.
"It's called a tip Yashiro-san." Hiroto smiled. "Merry Christmas." He left, following Nagumo. Yashiro smiled.
"Merry Christmas, Hiroto." Yashiro whispered. "I hope Nagumo and you will make your friend happy on her birthday..."
-End of Chapter 7-