[Hisao] The Birthday Surprise: Part Three

The Birthday Surprise

Evolution


I rub my eyes once, twice, maybe even three times.

The room is a billiards room, having three tables and some chairs lined up along the walls. Cheesy noir decorations hang from the walls, giving the room a very '50s type feel to it.

But, that's not what has me standing here in amazement.

My heart is absolutely pumping right now. Before me sits seven women, and five of those faces I have not seen since our final days together after graduation. Let's see, we've got: Rin... Miki... Hanako... Misha... Shizune... Emi... and Lilly.

Yeah, that's everyone.

My grin widens to the point that it's almost painful.

"Happy birthday, Hicchan~!" Misha speaks in her typical booming tone, bouncing up from her seat and wrapping me in a hug for a moment before rejoining Shizune. I'm still registering what the hell is going on, but I certainly can't say I'm disappointed.

"W-what are you all doing here?" I stumble over my words, as I'm still completely dumbfounded. All of the sudden, six heads turn and face one, belonging to none other than the blushing face of my fiancée. I connect the dots in my head now. "So this is what you were planning!"

She gives her usual shy smile and looks down out of embarrassment.

"W-well, I thought t-that maybe we c-could use your b-birthday as an e-excuse to have a little r-reunion..." She trails off, pleading with innocent eyes to take the spotlight off of her. As I'm about to take the incentive and do so, Kenji bursts into the room with various bottles of alcohol in tow.

Perfect timing.

"Who's ready to have some drinks!" He belts out, recieving a surprisingly warm reception from the girls.

I guess some people really do change with age.

As we begin to mingle a bit, Miki turns on some jazz at a soft volume, enhancing the mood of the room. Hanako and Lilly are sitting together and appear to talking about various stories of their early adult lives, as I can see the girlish smirks and giggles from all the way across the room. Misha and Shizune are attempting to make conversation with Rin, but it seems to be deeming a frustrating task by the expression on Shizune's face.

I'm alone for a moment, which is fairly awkward, before the first of my old friends comes up to me.

The fastest thing with no legs.

"Hisao!" She bounces on her prosthetics as she paces over to me, basically jumping into a hug. "Long time no see!" I find myself hoping to some deity that she doesn't use that line when catching up with Lilly, which draws a slight laugh from me.

"It really has been. How have you been, Emi?" With that, she begins to give me a general rundown of her life after graduation from Yamaku. Over a few minutes, she speaks of how she's in school to become a physical therapist, and how she's managed to find a nice guy at her school who was willing to overlook her family problems and disability.

Next, though, she lays one hell of a statement on me.

"Yeah, we're actually expecting our first child." She rubs her stomach, which is only slightly larger than I remember from our days in high school. She must be only a few weeks into her term, but that's the least of my surprise. "We've been married for about a year now, and he's working his way up the corporate ladder at his work. It's all so exciting!"

The short girl bounces up and down on her legs to show he excitment, an act that has always made me smile like an idiot.

"Well, I'm really happy for you, Emi." I offer her a geniune smile. It makes me happy that she's finally found a person that loves her, and it truly makes me pleased to know that she's working her way to having a successful adult life.

"So what about you, Hisao?"

"Huh?"

"What have you been doing after graduation?" I close my eyes and rub my temples for a moment, thinking back on the events of my life in the past three or four years. I smile as some of the fond memories begin to come back to me.

"Hanako and I are living together and engaged, if you haven't figured that out by now." She giggles and gives me a hard pat on the shoulder, making me wince a bit.

Christ, she hits hard for her size.

"Good for you! I always used to think that someone would find their way into that girls life for the long run; I'm glad it ended up being as good of a guy as you!" She grins and takes a sip of her drink, which appears to be a wine cooler. Her eyes widen for a moment as she takes a look behind me. I turn around, puzzled at what's going on, before I realize that she just noticed who Rin was talking with.

"Do you think the Queen and her minion are actually trying to talk to her?"

"I couldn't tell you, Emi. Probably to the best of their ability." I offer laughter at the old reference. Shizune was quite the 'Queen' back at Yamaku, so I'm not really surprised that Emi still remembers our little inside name for the pair.

She gives me a hearty laugh and a girlish smile, before she begins to walk past me.

"Well, I need to catch up with her too, so I guess I'll save them from their misery." Before walking away, Emi pulls out a piece of scrap paper from her pocket and writes down a couple of numbers on it, folding it and putting it in my hand.

"If I don't have a chance to talk to you more tonight, feel free to call Seji and me! Maybe we can set up a date night with you two." She winks at me and waves her hand as she walks over towards the other side of the room, pushing Rin away from Shizune and Misha. Misha belts out a hefty 'Wahaha~' before Shizune taps her on the shoulder, signing something to her. As Misha gets up from her seat and walks out of the room, and I find myself turning away and looking at the wall decorations behind me, waiting patiently

Within mere seconds, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and am greeted by the short-haired deaf class president, a sight that I've actually surprisingly missed. She offers me a warm smile and a hug that I found fairly awkward. She was never a girl to show much affection back at Yamaku, so a hug is definitely a sign of change with her. She starts to sign before coming to a realization that I have no idea what she's saying, snapping loudly and pulling out a notepad and pen from her pocket to make things easier.

[Hello, Hisao.]

[How are you, Shizune?]

She offers me a warm smile as she writes, pointing her index finger towards the doorway to the room after she's finished.

[I'm always good. She makes me that way.]

I give her a puzzled look.

[You two are living together?]

She offers me a blush and a looks away for a moment, attempting to hide her smile. Shizune, embarrassed? What the hell is going on here? She scribbles and erases a couple of times, seemingly getting frustrated at getting the correct wording. Finally, she heaves out a sigh and furiously writes a sentence down, forcing the pad of paper in my direction.

[We've been dating for two years.]

I nearly drop the pad and pencil.

This is the girl, who back at Yamaku, literally denied Misha of there ever being a possibility of them being together. I really do need to question this, because I'm confused about what the heck changed.

[I thought you were never going to date her? You said so back at Yamaku.]

She looks a bit pained when she reads the words, almost sad. For what feels like ten minutes, she writes on the pad non-stop. Seems like she's got a story to tell with this one. She finishes what she's writing and pushes the pad in my direction, folding her hands together and watching me intently as I read.

[Let me explain something, Hisao. I know what I said, and so does she, because it's still true. Back at Yamaku, I had absolutely no plans on getting romantically involved with her. But, there came a time a little over two years ago where I was neck deep in work, school, depression and frustration. We moved in together while attending the same university simply because she still wanted to be my friend and translator, so I was okay with the idea. When I hit that stage of depression, she was the only person there for me. Nobody else cared, and a girl who I had denied over two years prior wasn't the same person to me anymore. I needed her in my life, in more than how I had kept her around previously.]

[One night, I got off of a shift at work and was up until three in the morning, attempting to study for an exam the next day. I was using pills, alcohol, everything I could to ease the stress, and as you figured out back in high school, I normally handle stress with ease. That night, I literally sat at my desk crying, and she came over into my room and stood in my doorway without me noticing. When I asked her, she said she stood there for five minutes, because she knew what she wanted to do. But she couldn't. I caught her standing there, and as she walked away, I literally ran out there and kissed her.]

I pause my reading for a moment and rub my temples.

This is one hell of a way to change your opinion on something, honestly.

Shizune is still watching me intently as I pick up reading the final stretch.

[I was crying, kissing her, hugging her, everything you could imagine. She was surprised beyond belief, and I asked her to come sleep with me for the night. We didn't do anything overtly sexual, and we still haven't beyond the usual kissing. We just slept, cuddled up and holding each other tightly. After that, we found ourselves dating, and if at all possible, we'll probably end up getting married sometime in the near future. I still don't know how to go about that one yet, but I'll figure something out. I don't find myself attracted to women at all, if you're thinking that I suddenly went gay. It's just her, and that's all there is to it. Nobody else.]

I set the pad down for a moment and smile. It's truly heartwarming, while still extremely odd, and makes me want to just go and give this girl a tight hug.

So that's what I do.

I wrap my arms around her and give her the tightest squeeze I can. I've obviously caught her by surprise, as she doesn't return the hug at first, but she does shortly after. I release her after a moment and offer her a handshake, which she takes professionally, smiling at me. Misha does a little waltz back into the room behind us, which I notice and point out to Shizune. She picks up the pad and quickly scribbles down one final note for me.

[Don't be a stranger, call and talk to Misha or email me some time. We'll get together with Hanako and you in the near future, I promise. You still need to tell me about you two anyways!]

I write back a last note for her, trying to let her be with Misha.

[I'm happy for you Shizune. Hanako and I have gone through some similar stuff, so I think we'll need to go more in depth on this another time. Your girlfriend is waiting for you, go have some fun, we can talk later.]

She gives me a playful elbow to the ribs and offers another smile as she turns her back to me. With a happy grin on her lips, she walks back over to her awaiting love, who has returned with two glasses of wine. My heart melts as Shizune pecks Misha on the lips and takes the glass away, Misha looking around to make sure that nobody saw what had just happened. I laugh a bit when she catches me staring at them, her face gaining in redness as she sticks her tongue out at me.

Good 'ol Misha.

I flop down into a chair for a moment, slick back my hair and take a sip of my whiskey, recapping in my head what has gone down in the past hour or so of catching up with Emi and Shizune. I haven't even gotten the opportunity to get through my first drink or speak with Lilly yet. In fact, I haven't talked to Rin either, which I'm hoping proves to be a less difficult task than it was in high school, although that may be a bit too much to ask for.

I grin.

Tonight is going to be one hell of a night.