Dedicated to our beloved Marui Bunta on his birthday, April 20th 2006
   May his birthday be showered with love, joy, and his favorite pastries!

---

    ", when's your birthday?"

    "Me? Eh... ."

    "Ah~ Do remember that mine is on August 25!"

    "Ahaha... Okay then... But why do you ask that so suddenly?"

    "Hee~ I've just got the information that I know you've always wanted!"

    "Hm? About what?"

    "Marui-san's birthday!"

    "E... Eh? When is it?"

Kirihara smiled in satisfy as he gave the girl in front of him a grin and a perfect peace sign with his right hand's fingers. "April 26th!"

Spring's Strawberry Cake

    "Ohayo !!" yelled a cheerful voice from outside, making the proprietor of the name almost jumped off the seat she sat on.

    "M-Ma-Marui-sempai…" she called his name, feeling her face turning a shade of scarlet. "W-what are you doing here?"

    "Why, is it wrong for me to visit my favorite kouhai's classroom to greet a good morning?" he grinned as he walked towards the girl. "Mind me if I sit beside you?"

shook her head sheepishly as the redhead took a seat beside her and smiled. She looked down, making him raising an eyebrow. Had he done something wrong that made her hate him? He leaned forward and lowered his head to see her face.

    "? What's wrong?"

    "N-n-nothing!!" she cried and backed abruptly, feeling her face heated up after realizing how close their faces were. "I-I'm okay, Marui-sempai."

    "Sou?" he said, half disbelieving what she had said, but let it slide. He blew his favorite green-apple-flavored bubble gum, but popped it before it ever formed a perfect ball-shape.

just realized three tidily-wrapped boxes—red, blue, and orange—in her sempai's hands. She wondered if people start giving presents to the birthday-boy a week before the day. Probably many girls wanted to get Marui-sempai's attention by doing so. After all, the girls in Rikkaidai Fuzoku that had a crush on Marui-sempai weren't few. She believed she had heard some girls claiming as members of 'Tensai Teki Marui Bunta Fans Club' or such.

    "?" Marui waved his hand in front of her face, worried after realizing that his kouhai had been spacing out for more than a minute. "As I thought, you're not okay. Should I walk you to the nurse?"

    "N-no, I'm okay!" she shook her head quickly as Marui-sempai's voice brought her mind back to reality. "I was just... thinking."

    "Hm~ Okay. You sure think a lot," he teased as a chuckle slipped out of his mouth, his lips curved the sweetest smile they could form.

    "M-maa, m-maybe..." she looked down, unable to control either the blush on her face nor her nervous tone of voice as the view of Marui-sempai's smile reached her eyes. He could not help himself not to pinch her bright-red cheeks this time.

    "-chaaaan!! You're soooo cute!"

Of course, this had successfully made her blush even more.

    "M-mou, Marui-sempai..."

The redhead cracked a grin as he stood up from the seat he was sitting on. In a second difference, two of the boxes in his hands fell down to the floor, and his grin stopped so suddenly, making wondered if he was worried that he had broken the presents when he even hadn't opened them. But it seemed not to be the problem, as he only stared at them in definite silence, his eyebrows were making an expression of confuse and anxious at the same time.

    "Marui-sempai? Is something the matter?"

    "What? Ah, no," he quickly replied. He took the boxes on the floor then looked at her. "Anyway, ..."

    "Y-yes?"

    "You—" he stopped, not letting himself to say more than a word. Instead of continuing his sentence, he turned his body and walked away while waving to , yelling, "Wait for me at the rooftop after school!"

She lost her balance all of a sudden. Her feet felt so weak, so weak that they could not support her body's weight anymore, and she landed artistically to the floor. Did... Did she just hear what she thought she did? Did Marui-sempai really ask her to... Go to the rooftop? Did he? Did he?

    "Oi ! What's happened to you?!" a black-haired classmate of hers frantically asked as he helped her standing up. "Are you okay?"

    "I thought I'd die," she whispered slowly.

    "What?"

    "I thought I'd die! Akaya-kun! I swear! I thought I'd die for a second there!!" she said in panic as she shook the poor boy's body.

    "Cccalm ddddoown I dddddonnn't unnddeerrstand wwhhattt yyouuu're saaayying," he said, body still being shaken by his seatmate.

    "A-ah, I'm sorry Akaya-kun," she let go off him, bowing a sorry.

    "That's okay, I'm starting to get used to it," he mumbled, but then quickly said, "What did he do to you this time?"

    "I can't look at his smile for more than 0.15 second! Akaya-kun, can you tell him not to smile in front of me again or else I'd die of heart-attack?"

    "How the hell should I tell him that?!"

    "Aa... Right. Anyway. Not only that! He asked me to go to the rooftop after school!"

A second after hearing the last sentence, Kirihara blinked his eyes. Never had he thought would make such a quick progress with his sempai. They've only known each other for a couple of months and now Marui-san was already going to confess to her? Oh, just wait 'til the rest of the team hear about this~!

---

    "What the hell am I doing...."

Kirihara shook his head. He definitely had made his homeroom teacher angry this time. Not only did he have to do library duty for a whole month, but he also had to show this new student around the school. And the new student, to Kirihara's embarrassment, is a girl. Now, what would his sempais say if they saw him walking around the school alone with a girl? (Well, of course he didn't mind if the girl being with him was one of his fans club's members, but that was another thing)

    "A... ano..."

    "What is it?" Kirihara demanded, not wanting to look at the girl behind him.

    "You can go... To your tennis practice if you want... I'll look around myself..." she said, more like a murmur, as she stopped walking. "I heard—I heard you're a regular and you'll get punished if you come late to practice... So..."

Kirihara turned his head in both surprise and merry. "Really?? Wow! And I thought I was going to blame you to my vice-captain if I come late today!" he shook her hands with a cheerful smile. "I'm amazed! You really understand me though we only met this morning! Thanks... Errr... What's your name again?"

    ". ."

    "Yay! Thanks ! I owe you SO much!"

    "Kirihara, it's not good to leave a new student walk around the school alone," a familiar voice to Kirihara's ears said from behind.

    "Niou-san!" he cried abruptly. blinked her eyes. She had lived for thirteen years and five months in this world, but yet never had she seen such a handsome boy like him, never! His well-built body, his beautiful hair, his firm yet cheerful and somewhat mischievous face...

    "Oooh, what's Kirihara done this time?"

's eyes widened.

    "Ah, Marui," Niou said. "Apparently, our Kirihara's planning to leave this lovely new student wondering around the school all by herself," replied the grey-haired, pointing to who was too amazed by Marui's appearance. True, Niou was a lot more good-looking than whoever this redhead was, but...

    'But Kami-sama, why do I feel nervous the second I saw him?'

    "That's SO mean!" the redhead pouted to the second-year. "She can get lost!"

Kirihara wanted to protest by saying "she was the one offering to do so!" but decided to shut his mouth this time.

Marui tapped her shoulder and asked with a bright beam, "Miss, what's your name?"

    "... !" she blurted out instantaneously, feeling a mixed feeling that she had never felt before in her life as she felt his warmth on her shoulder.

    "Marui Bunta, third year, tennis club regular, Niou's classmate, and of course, a pure genius," he grinned at the last two words as he blew his bubblegum. "Shikuyoro!" he added, popping up his gum, his hand made a peace sign horizontally.

    "Yo-yoroshiku..." she replied quickly when Marui offered a hand. Trembling, she shook hands with him. Her face was getting more and more red by then. Seeing this, Marui grinned once again and pinched her cheek. "You're all red! You look so kawaii!"

had never heard of a person who got instant death due to heart-attack caused by something like "being pinched by a boy", but she was pretty sure that, if this Marui Bunta kept doing like he just did to her just now, she would be the first person who got so.

    "Ah! I've decided!" he patted her head. "From now on, you're my favorite kouhai in this school! And of course, if you don't mind, I'll be taking you around the school!"

Niou was about to say that Sanada would be mad at him if he did so, but decided not to. Instead, he turned his head to Kirihara, and said, "Look at your sempai. That's what you do when there's a new student."

He covered both of his ears with his hands quickly, not wanting to hear what Niou had said. "Gah. I'm enough with so much lectures today. Let's go to practice."

Niou only shook his head as he followed the sophomore to the court. He gave Marui a sign that he'd somehow explain his conditions to Sanada, replied by Marui's V sign.

    "Sooo, ," Marui called, already on first-name terms (though herself didn't mind, really). "You're Kirihara's new classmate?"

    "His new seatmate too," she added without thinking.

    "Ah? Sou? You poor thing!" he laughed merrily. "Just don't ever show him your homework though he begs for it! He should learn sometimes."

Seeing the contented face of Marui's making felt eased. Her lips slowly formed a small smile. "Marui-sempai, so you're a regular too?"

    "Yep! I play both doubles and singles. I can do anything! Aren't I a genius?" he, once again, laughed. "Ah, this is biology lab," he pointed to their left. "And you can see my classroom from here!"

's smile widened. Being with him was so... comfortable.

    "But... I mean, won't your vice-captain be mad at you if you come late? I don't want you to be punished just because of me..."

    "Don't worry, Niou will find a way," Marui blew his gum again. "He is, after all, our beloved trickster."

And time went so fast for . Before she knew it, they'd walked through the whole school building. And, to her surprise, Marui felt the same way.

    "Mm-mm, I still want to talk about so much things with you..." he blinked as the both of them stopped near the court. "Hmm... What about going one or two more rounds again? Haven't shown you our principal's favorite spot have I?"

laughed.

---

    "Oie! Marui-san!"

Feeling that he was being called, Marui turned his head to where the voice came from, and found Kirihara waving at him in front of his class. "Wassup?"

    "Nothing, nothing! I've just never known you're such a brave guy," he grinned as soon as he sat beside his sempai.

    "Huh? What do you mean?"

    "It's no use hiding it from me anymore. I know everything 'bout ," he snickered.

    "Eh?"

And before he could say anything else, Jackal, Yanagi, and Yagyuu had already entered his class.

    "Marui! I'm all behind you! Fight-o!"

    "Congratulations on your move, Marui-kun."

    "Don't worry, the probability of it being successful is 99.87%."

    "What on Earth are you guys talking about?"

Niou, who can somehow guessed what it was all about, only smirked.

    "Argh darn it, bell already?" Kirihara cursed as the rest of the team went out of Marui's classroom and walked to their own classes. "Marui-san, you BETTER not messed up this time."

    "Kirihara, I don't—"

    "And one more thing," the sophomore stated before going out from the classroom. "Be careful with your smile."

Marui raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

    "It can kill people," he grinned and walked away, leaving the confused Marui Bunta behind.

---

walked back and forth nervously. She was, as promised, at the rooftop, waiting for a certain red-haired boy to come. Maybe she was too excited. As soon as the last bell rang, not concerning that her English teacher haven't even finished saying something about past tense, she took her backpack and rushed towards the rooftop. And of course, Marui hadn't even been there.

    "What should I do now... I don't want him to feel bad because I came here way earlier... But then again..."

    "What are you mumbling, ?"

If it wasn't for the fence around them, could have sworn she would jump down out of surprise, not caring the fact that she was actually at the rooftop.

    "M-M-Marui-sempai..."

The redhead only grinned as he walked towards the sophomore. He blew his gum. "So... You got something for me yet?"

She stared at her sempai for a moment, then said, "Huh?"

    "C'mon, yours is the one I've waited the most."

She blinked her eyes. What was he talking about? She looked aside nervously as she felt Marui-sempai's stare at her, waiting for her answer. She bit her lower lips. 'Say something, baka! Pretend to know what he's talking about, or tell him that you don't understand what he's saying!!'

She thought for another second, and quickly decided that the second choice was probably the best for now.

    "M-Marui-sempai, I don't understand what you're talking about..."

Perhaps she had to think for another minute. Perhaps she should have chosen the first choice. And then, probably her sempai would not drop his backpack and ran away, without looking back at her.

Like now.

---

    "Ohayou..."

Hearing a familiar voice greeted him from behind, Kirihara grinned and quickly turned his body to see her. "! How was—"

His eyes widened.

    "What the hell?! What's happened to you?!?"

Probably it was one of the most terrifying scenes he had ever seen in his entire life. His seatmate's hair was really messy (even more than his), her eyes had bags under them, and they were both red.

Looking at Kirihara suddenly made her mouth curved a wider frown. Her eyes slowly were filled with tears, and she wrapped him with both of her hands. "Akaya-kuuuuuun!!!"

Startled at the sudden move, Kirihara backed up. "O, oi oi?! What the hell?!" Then something hit him. ", what had that stupid Marui-san done to you?!"

    "I—he..." she sobbed, erasing some tears on her cheeks. "I—don't know."

    "You don't know?!" he yelled, slowly getting attentions of all creatures in his classroom. "Then WHY are you crying now?! If he did something like dumping you I will never ever ever forgive him and I will beat the crap outta him and I will make sure you will not see his face ever again!!" he exclaimed without a breath.

    "N-no, it's not that, calm down, Akaya-kun..." she said when she had finally got a hold of herself, patting Kirihara's shoulder. "It was my fault. It wasn't his."

    "It SHOULD be his!" he blurted out. "You COULDN'T have done something wrong! It should be HIS fault!!"

    "A-Akaya-kun, calm down..."

    "NO! I won't calm down!!"

    "B-but I..."

    "No buts!"

    "B-but..."

    "I told you 'no buts'!! I'll tear his head off this time!!"

    "A-Akaya-kun!!"

    "I'll make sure—"

    "Kirihara, your voice can be heard all the way from my class," Niou said, appearing in front of the classroom.

    "Niou-san!"

    "Niou-sempai!" The sophomores said in perfect sync.

The trickster slowly walked to the two, looked at Kirihara for a sec, then stared at for about ten seconds. His next line was unexpected, "...You too?"

    "What?" the classmates said, again, in unison.

    "Marui, he seems to be depressed over something," Niou said, nodding his head. "Only that, he also seems really angry."

    "Angry?" 's eyes blinked in terror. "D-did he say something about me?"

    "He hasn't talked since he got to school."

blinked her eyes. Marui-sempai? Not talking? And not to mention, he looked angry? But at who? Could it be... At her? So it was true. She did make him mad yesterday. But why?

    "Everyone, get back to your seats, class is about to start. Niou, you're not even in this grade," their homeroom teacher, as well as their math teacher, Miyata-sensei, ordered. "And—oh gosh, what on Earth could have happened to you, ?"

    "I-I'm okay," she said quietly. "I'm okay..."

---

She should apologize.

Wasn't that obvious? She made him mad at her. For whatever reasons. So she should apologize. Right?

It was for that reason, braved herself to go to his classroom. She took a peek inside and found Marui-sempai talking merrily to Niou-sempai. Thank God, so at least he wasn't "depressed" anymore.

    "Marui-sem—"

    "Ah, Niou, let's go to canteen. I'm STARVING," the redhead said, pulling Niou's arms, walking out of the classroom without even looking at . Niou, too, looked confusedly at Marui.

    "Marui, there's in front—"

    "Hmm~ I wonder what I should eat today? I want yakisoba but melon-pan sounds delicious too~ What do you want to eat?"

    'Calm down, , calm down. Maybe Marui-sempai didn't realize you were there. Let's try it again.'

    "Marui-semp—"

    "Ah, you should've seen Yanagi yesterday! He actually tripped down because he didn't see a ball near his feet. He thought no one saw but I did! You should've seen his face! It was SO funny!"

Marui Bunta officially hated .

---

    "Kirihara, it's not like you to be calling us for an 'emergency meeting'," Sanada's eyes twitched. "This better be important or I'll get back to practice."

    "It's important, believe me," the only sophomore there spoke up.

    "Kirihara, Marui's not here yet, I'll go and call—"

    "Jackal-san, there's no need to do that," Kirihara quickly said. "I want to talk about Marui-san now. I don't know what the heck he did, but—"

    "He has made sad..." Yanagi cut. "...Is what you're going to say."

Kirihara was about to be surprised, but, remembering the one who said it was their data-man, he shut his mouth before saying anything like "How did you know?". Instead, he nodded and said, "Right. Niou-san, since you're his classmate, I would like to hear your opinion first." All regulars raised an eyebrow for the sudden-polite words he was using, but ignored it. They, after all, wanted to know whatever happened between the and Marui, too.

    "First off, I'd say Marui has officially hated for some reason. He didn't even care to look at her when she came to our class," Niou said, looking to all his teammates one by one.

    "Maybe -san refused him," blurted Jackal, replied by everyone's you-so-need-to-get-a-life looks on their faces.

    "Jackal, it's illogical," Sanada finally spoke up.

    "Yes, we all know how she likes him so much," Yagyuu added.

    "There's a probability..." Yanagi suddenly said, "That had forgotten about Marui's birthday yesterday."

    "Yesterday was Marui-san's birthday?"

Silence.

Silence.

    "What the heck, Kirihara, you don't even know your own teammate's birthday?" Niou demanded, shaking his head. "I can't believe you."

    "Yeah, you should care about people around you a little more," Jackal added, nodding at Niou's sentence.

    "But!" the sophomore cried in defense. "I saw it on Yanagi-sempai's data book!! His birthday's on April 26th!!"

    "Kirihara, it's a '0', not a '6'," the master corrected.

    "They looked the same!"

    "How can you not tell the difference between a '0' and a '6'?"

    "Your handwriting was so messy!"

    "A '0' and a '6' look very different, Kirihara."

    "It was a '6'!! I swear it was!"

    "It's a '0'."

Yagyuu pushed his glasses up his nose and walked in between Kirihara and Yanagi, interrupting their not-important argument, then asked, "Kirihara-kun, did you happen to tell -kun that Marui-kun's birthday was on April 26?"

The black-haired thought for a moment, tapped his forehead, and said, "Crap."

---

Marui Bunta sighed. Remembering what had happened after school the previous day made his head hurt. He felt like he wanted to cry. Just how could his favorite kouhai, the one that he loved the most, forget his birthday? He thought she cared for him. He thought she liked being with him. But now, maybe it was only him who had been happy when they were together. Maybe she did not - and had never - like him at all. He felt stupid.

    "Marui-sempai!!"

The pure genius heaved a long sigh, one of the uncountable sighs that day. He did not want to see her. He did not want to hear her voice. He did not want to be near her. He stood up from the bench he was sitting on, walking towards the opposite direction of the voice.

    "Marui-sempai, please!"

He took his tennis bag and put his racket in, trying his best to ignore the voice that had been calling him.

    "Marui-sempai—I'm sorry!!"

At the last word, Marui's ears tingled, and his movement froze for a second. But then he walked away again. It was too late, he thought. It was too late if she wanted to apologize now.

    "Marui-sempai, I didn't know yesterday was your birthday—I'm so sorry!"

Now, his movements stopped completely.

    "I-I heard from Akaya-kun that your birthday was on April 26h," she explained as he finally caught up to the boy. "I-I didn't know it was on the 20th. If I knew, I'd buy you something, or I'll bake you something, b-but I..."

Marui stared at the girl in disbelief.

    "I'm sorry," she bowed, apologizing with a trembling voice, some sobs could be heard as her shoulder moved up and down. Marui blinked. Had he ever mentioned his birthday to before?

    ", when's your birthday?"

    "Hm? Well... Mine is on . When is yours?"

    "Take a guess."

    "Mou, Marui-sempai, that's mean!"

    "Ahahahaha..."

Okay, that just meant he was stupid.

    ", I-I'm sorry," he quickly said. "There's no need for you to apologize, I-I was the one at fault. Forgive me, ne, ?" He slowly moved his hand to her face, rubbing her cheeks gently. "There, don't cry, please! I-I was wrong. I shouldn't have become angry at you. I'm sorry."

Her heart beat so fast as she could feel his warm hands on her face. Still sobbing, she looked and shyly moved her hands to the redhead, giving him the white box she was carrying.

    "For you. I haven't got you your present yet, so I bought this near here," she said, feeling her face slowly heated up, and her stomach began to flutter again. "Maybe it can't be compared to other presents you got, but... Happy birthday."

At first Marui blinked and just stared at her, but then he moved his hands and took it from the sophomore's hands, beaming brightly. He opened the box slowly and...

"Wow! Strawberry cake!"

Finally could see his smiling face, , too, smiled as she erased some drop of tears on her face. "I'm glad you like it."

    "I wanna eat this now~" he said merrily, taking 's right hand and held it tight before dragging her to the nearest bench. She looked down and blushed furiously, feeling Marui's tender hands on her.

    'Kami-sama, is this really happening?'

    "Itadakimasu~!" he said when he opened his mouth for his first bite, when the two of them had found a comfortable place to sit on. "Uwaaah~ I love this!!" he cried as chipper as ever, smiling in amazement. "I've never eaten something this good before! , you have to get me this again some other time!"

She could only smile when he said that and repeated her last reply, "I'm glad you like it."

Swaying his feet back and forth merrily, he took a peek at the silent girl beside him. "? Why aren't you saying anything?"

    "H-huh? Ah, nothing, it's just that...." she said, looking aside, blushing. "I'm happy - I'm happy that I can see your smile again..."

    ' what on Earth are you saying?! That sounds like you're confessing to him!'

He raised an eyebrow amusedly. "Oh~?"

Her heart was beating faster and faster, praying in her mind that her sempai would not notice her red face.

Still blinking his eyes, Marui munched his cake slowly.

Then he grinned.

    ", you haven't tasted this cake, have you?"

She gazed upon hearing he name being called, the quickly said, "N-no I haven't. Why do you ask?"

Before she could hear his reply, her curiosity suddenly drove way, and her eyes widened at what happened next.

His lips were on hers.

And before could react, Marui already pulled away, grinning. "So? How does it taste?"

There was a moment of silence as touched her lips slowly, feeling the heat spread quickly all over her body. She opened her mouth but shut it before anything else.

    "So?"

She finally smiled as she nodded to her sempai.

    "Sweet."

[ owari ]
// ichigo akira 2006.04.14