The shopping district near me was pretty much my best bet to not let Hana know what I was doing, the last thing I wanted to deal with was her begging me to see what gift I got her before her birthday, going out in public wasn't too much of a hassle all things considered, it was not like I had anything else more productive to do, walking around the store I decided to go in first I looked at shelf upon shelf for something, anything that would work as a gift, and despite this being an accessory shop there was nothing that piqued my interests. But what did wasn't a gift but a group of people, it was 3 of my club mates. Matayoshi, Haga, and Sasaki were walking past the store I was in when Sasaki peered into the window and noticed me standing there blankly staring at them.
I heard the sound of muffled words behind the glass before I saw Sasaki motion towards the other two that I was in here. They quickly followed him into the store to speak with me, hopefully they didn't hold me up too much.
"Sato, what a surprise."
Sasaki said this half heartedly, which was a unique quip of him, he somehow managed to look cold and out of energy all the time with the way he spoke.
"Are you being sarcastic or serious?"
"Both, actually."
Haga and Matayoshi stood behind him whispering among themselves, they saw I was in a shop that someone would usually buy a gift at for a special someone.
"I don't gossip much, I tend to like to keep to myself, but lots of people talk about You and Yamada being together."
"We aren't."
"I would be inclined to believe that, if you weren't buying a gift for her right now."
I crossed my arms, and just shrugged.
"I mean it's her birthday soon is it not?"
"Yes, but most people would get her something less sentimental."
"Geez, get off my ass."
Sasaki paused, and pondered what I had just said.
"Sorry, I wouldn't have bothered you but we were having trouble finding time to talk to you in school, Haga had an idea."
Haga stopped bantering with her tall, slender friend and stood alongside Sasaki.
"We want to throw a surprise party for her, all of us here including Kido."
"Kido was too busy to come with us right now, something about his girlfriend or something."
I looked at them for a half second and then my eyes wandered back to the shelves.
"Not to sound condescending, but why are you all out here?"
Matayoshi chimed in, having not spoken once until now.
"We were buying gifts for her as well, and also some usb drives to store our photos electronically."
Haga produced a medium-sized bag in her hands, and squinted at me.
"I didn't know what kind of writing she liked so I got her pencils and a new keyboard."
"How much did it cost?"
"Surprisingly not that much, about 8,000 yen?"
"You consider that a small sum of money?"
Haga shrugged, and walked back to Matayoshi.
"Sato, Yamada's first name is 'Hana' right?"
"Yes, why are you asking?"
Sasaki brought his hand up and pointed towards a shelf I haven't looked at yet.
"Flower related accessories over there, but by god if you're going to get anything don't get her a ring."
"Yes, that would be wise."
"Speaking of which, at some point today please send Matayoshi Yamada's address, if we're going to throw her a surprise party we need to at least know where she lives."
"I will make sure to have that done."
Matayoshi, who I hadn't paid attention to quickly left with Haga just behind him. Sasaki quickly noticed this too and facepalmed himself, sighing deeply.
"By god, those two are going to drive me crazy."
"Whats going on?"
"Sometimes they can't take a second or two to slow down."
He stopped, and and looked around to see if anyone was watching then quickly put something in my hand and forcefully closed it.
"Get her something nice."
He quickly took off in a light jog as he rushed out the door to follow his compatriots. I opened my hand, and was met with the sight of an extra 500 yen sitting in my palm.
I moved to the shelf with flower accessories, hair bands, rings, bracelets, necklaces, and hair pins lined the shelves. I looked towards the necklaces and noticed something that caught my eye, a small metal emblem of a purple and white flower attached to a thin steel necklace. It mainly piqued my interest for one single reason.
The abandoned school, specifically our walk through the woods when she had picked that flower from that bush. It looked almost exactly like that flower, the only difference being the way the stamen was shaped, but otherwise it was almost identical to the one she put in her hair.
"Hmm…"
The price wasn't too steep, only about 1000 yen, and it was most likely something Hana would like too, so I took it from the shelf and brought it to the cashier.
*****
It was 8pm, and she got off at 7:55, I needed to hurry and not have her see me. I was nearly back at my house when I saw Hana clad in her work uniform, her hair tied into a bun, and walking down the somewhat empty streets, for some reason she looked really pissed off, she hadn't seen me yet but there were few options for me to hide, the small bag I was holding would be extremely suspicious if she saw it while we were talking, I wanted her gift to be a surprise, I quickly ducked behind into a nearby alleyway between 2 residential buildings, and watched her from the shadows until she went by.
10 minutes passed and I was sure she had most likely moved out of sight, as I moved away from the alley I quickly realized I was mistaken, I felt fingers quickly enclose around my shoulder startling me beyond belief, I quickly spun around almost falling and was met with her, with a stone cold frown stuck on her face.
"Why are you hiding from me?"
This would be a reasonable question, usually if you see a friend of yours you say hi, or something along those lines.
"Good mother of god, you saw me?"
"Yeah, I watched you from the corner of my eye until you disappeared behind this alley."
As Hana said, she pointed back deeper into the alley with her thumb, which led to another street beyond it, which she most likely traveled to sneak up on me, and her eyes moved towards the small gift bag I had gripped tightly in my hand.
"What's that?"
"N-nothing."
Hana noticed my hesitation and my stuttering and raised her eyebrow.
"I know you as many things Masaichi, and a good liar is not one of them."
"It's a bag."
"No shit."
Hana moved her gaze from the bag and back to me.
"Sorry I had a bad shift, you know I rarely swear otherwise."
"What about during our online matches?"
Hana squinted at me, slightly displeased at me, and then that demeanor quickly changed as she realized what I most likely had in my hands.
"Oh, I see."
The gig was up, there was no hope as to what I could avoid now.
Or so I thought.
"I'm too tired to want to know what is in it, I just hope you didn't spend a fortune on it."
"Would you be mad if I spent 1000 yen on it?"
She paused, and slowly a slight grin creeped onto her face.
"No, thank you."
"Well that's a relief."
Hana rested her back against the alley wall, and looked towards the direction of the street, a single car passed by us before she broke the silence.
"You seem like a whole different person right now."
"I'm tired, and angry."
"Because of work as you said, but what actually happened?"
"Someone else who worked the registers quit yesterday, and I had to pick up the slack."
"Oh, I see."
Hana paused, and quickly locked eyes with me.
"What's up?"
"About that time after I was sick and got better, did I push you away?"
That whole week was mostly a blur, her heart-bled feelings had spilt out towards me in plain view, she had feelings towards me, but I had not found the right time to tell her I felt the same.
"No, I think we both just needed a bit of space for the time being."
"Yeah."
Hana took off her hat and shoved it in her satchel, and began to undo her hair.
"I have kind of been worried as of late, I assume you feel the same but I don't want to jump to conclusions yet, sure we have been on a date but I need to hear it from you if you want to make things serious or not."
"That would be wise."
Hana was finished untying her hair, her short brown strands released from their constriction moved slightly in the mild wind of the summer afternoon, Hana suddenly looked around the alleyway and back towards me.
"I don't have the energy to make some elaborate, romantic excuse to do this, so please pardon me."
"Hm?"
Quickly she moved from her position to the wall and got close to me, somewhat invading my personal space.
"I feel like you're about to slap me."
As soon as I said that, her hand quickly bolted from her side and quickly gripped my hand, interlacing her fingers between mine.
"No, even if I did want to, it wouldn't be the person I like."
Not expecting this I froze up, despite the fact she has made bolder and more extreme advances on me. But despite that I could feel her heart beating out of her chest just from the close proximity we were from each other, even looking at her face I could see past her worn and tired expression and see something more. I walked her back to her house, holding her hand along the whole way.