"Your birthday party? Of course I'm interested, Kotoko." Watanabe smiled gently at her.

"Well, I just hope Obasama behaves," Kotoko fretted, rotating an earring with one hand. "She still hasn't given up on me and Irie-kun."

"You think there will be a problem if I show up?"

"She's the one with the problem," Kotoko averred. "But maybe with witnesses she won't be too outrageous."

Watanabe shook his head. "I still can't believe that the staid and sober Irie has a mother so emotional and volatile."

She smiled in remembrance. "Yeah. She used to drive him absolutely crazy. If you had seen him yelling back at her, you wouldn't call him so serious."

And the reactions were probably in reference to you somehow, he thought to himself. Maybe he had more feelings than he let on. Out loud he asked, "So do you have a list of presents that you'd like?"

"No, no!" She waved her hands in denial. "I didn't ask you for a gift. I'd just like to have your company."

"Oh, as a buffer between you and Mrs. Irie?"

"A buffer?" She looked puzzled then shook her head. "No. It's just that Satomi and Jinko are bringing their boyfriends, and I don't want to be the odd one out."

He sighed. "So you just need me for my body."

Kotoko blinked. "Say, what?"

"Just joking, sweetheart." He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "I may be a bad boy though." She cocked her head in inquiry. "I can't let your birthday pass without some sort of gift."

"Oh!"


"Onii-chan, have you asked off work for the 28th yet?"

Naoki balanced his phone on his shoulder as he folded laundry. "Was I supposed to, Mom?"

"It's Kotoko-chan's birthday! And you pride yourself on having such a great memory!"

"I remember the date, Ma. I just don't know what my work has to do with it," he complained.

"Her party, of course!"

"Of course," he muttered.

His mother continued on, unfazed. "All of her friends as well as the close family will be in attendance. Even that boy, your so-called friend."

"Watanabe is 'so-called' because he is my friend," Naoki reminded her.

"That makes it even more imperative that you show up and remind Kotoko-chan of how much better you are."

"Mom, are you at all in touch with reality?"

"Onii-chan!"

"Look, even I don't enjoy recalling how I treated Kotoko the past two years. I don't think you can say that I'm better for her than Watanabe."

Mrs. Irie, for once, let a few seconds elapse in silence. "Naoki," she asked in a hushed tone, "do you regret being mean and cruel to Kotoko-chan?"

"If I admit it, will you promise not to bring it up in every future conversation?" He let out a frustrated sigh. "It's just...I don't think I behaved well towards her."

"Well, maybe you didn't, but at least you were there! If not at her side, then close by, able to help her out when she needed it. Now, with you living who-knows-where, she can't see that you've had a change of heart. That's why you have to take advantage of this opportunity. Show up and show her the difference."

"I don't know, Mom. They seem pretty solid."

"Nonsense! If there's one person that I know better than you, it's Kotoko-chan! She still loves you, even if she has buried it some. All you have to do is exhume those feelings."

"Not exactly a verb designed for romance, Ma, but I get the idea. I'll try to make it to the party."

"Try? Try? Do it!" Mrs. Irie urged as she unconsciously mangled the catchphrases of both a sports manufacturer and a certain green Jedi master.


"Yowser!" Jinko's voice was awed. "Mrs. Irie sure goes to extremes, doesn't she?"

"I'll say!" Satomi agreed. The girls and their male companions had been taken aback by the over-the-top decorations. The outside of the Irie home rivalled some retail stores at Christmas time, decorated in blinking lights around the porch and leading from the gate. There were more lights, streamers and other festive arrangements inside.

"She practically has enough food to feed our entire school in the kitchen," Kotoko informed them.

The hostess, at that moment, headed towards the new arrivals with party hats, luckily of a more sophisticated design than children's cardboard cones. "Satomi-chan! Jinko-chan! Welcome!" she trilled. "And who are these handsome young men accompanying you?" Ryo and Junpei took her exuberance in stride, especially when they caught sight of the snacks on trays around the room.

Yuuki was not-so-happily carrying one around, offering them to people as they mingled. "Sorry about this!" Kotoko apologized to him for the fourth time that evening.

He sighed. "It's my own fault for agreeing to dress in a suit. How was I to know that she would put me to work as a waiter?" He looked over her shoulder, and his eyes sharpened. "Onii-chan's here!"

Kotoko turned automatically, and her heart almost stopped when she saw Naoko and Watanabe at the door. Naoki politely bowed his friend in ahead of him. When Mrs. Irie made a beeline for her elder son, Watanabe managed to reach Kotoko's side.

"Well, that was a little awkward," he admitted, tugging on his collar. "We ran into each other in the street outside."

"He wasn't rude to you, was he?" she asked anxiously.

'Not at all!" He patted her hand. "It's just that we've lost, I guess you could say, our easiness together that we had in school."

Her face fell. "It's my fault, isn't it?"

"No, no! Don't blame yourself! Actually—" At this point he was interrupted by the lady of the house.

"Kotoko-chan!" Mrs. Irie swept between them. "Look who just arrived! Onii-chan rearranged his schedule so he could celebrate your birthday with you!" She had a tight grip on Naoki's wrist and had dragged him over.

"Thank you, Irie-kun." Kotoko bowed slightly.

"Felicitations on turning twenty, Kotoko," he said.

"So stiff!" his mother chided. "At least give her a hug in greeting!"

He rolled his eyes. "Not appropriate in front of her boyfriend, Ma."

Mrs. Irie jumped, as if just now seeing Watanabe. "Oh, you're here?" she asked, almost disappointedly. "Come with me and let me get you a party hat."

Thus left with Naoki, Kotoko turned back to him and smiled. "Thank you for coming."

One corner of his mouth tilted up. "You already said that."

"I know." She laughed. "I guess I'm not sure what to say."

"That's a change." She looked at him inquiringly. "You used to never run out of words before."

Her face flushed. "And I bothered you way too much. I'm really sorry, Irie-kun."

"No," he countered. "I'm the one who should be sorry. I don't have a great personality, and I managed to always show you my worst side."

Kotoko twirled a lock of hair with one hand. "I wouldn't say that. You came to my rescue lots of times, even when it wasn't convenient for you. It's saying a lot that you'd do that for someone you didn't like."

He cleared his throat. "That's not exactly the case…"

"Yes, it is a lot!" she insisted.

"No. I mean that it's not true that I didn't like you—"

"Here I am!" Watanabe came back, a wry expression on his face. Mrs. Irie had found a very lacy feminine hat for him. Both Naoki and Kotoko snorted at the same time. "What? You don't like my new fashion accessory?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Kotoko reached up and plucked it off his head. "What in the world was she thinking?"