A Celebration of Life -M. The day of someone being born to this world is traditionally celebrated, especially when that person is dear to your heart. That afternoon, I was looking through the calendar when I realized Atsushi-kun 's birthday was only a few days away. "Fiddlesticks." "What?" My friend Rizu-chan looked up from her laptop because my uneasy tone was recognizable. We were spending the rest of the day in a cafè near the port. "Atsushi-kun birthday is coming in 72 hours, I still can't think of what kind of present should give him." I bit my bottom lip in frustration. "Well, you can start with the cake-" she stopped in mid sentence as her countenance became insecrutable. "Crap..." "What?" "It was sort of Chuya-san 's birthday a few days ago, and I totally didn't forget about it." "Wha- how, how could you-" somewhat the sentences would not just formed in my mouth after the shock, before I blew a little raspberry. "How long have you been together? Normal couples usually celebrate each other's special days, right?" Rizu took a little offense from my accidental miswording. "What's that supposed to mean?" "I mean, at least have you said anything to him?" She tried to avoid my gaze. "Well..." She had not. "You asked me for a dating advice, meanwhile I'm doing quite disastrously with mine here. Funny, right?" She let out an awkward chuckle. "You're doing fine!" "Please, don't give me that bullshit." Rizu read through my insecurities like a pro. "Okay, but only because you haven't said anything to him. Now why haven't you said anything to him?" I tilted my head. "We don't usually commemorate his birthday..." "I don't get it. Why would anyone dislike the day they were born? It's a celebration of life! It's should be... you know, celebrated!" "I-It's not like that. I don't know! Okay? I don't know if he'd care about it all. I don't know what I'm supposed to do either." She pinched the brigde of her nose. It took me a bit of surprise Rizu would be frustrated as well about this particular matter, considering how much of a fine gentleman her significant other was. Then the idea crossed my brain like a wind crossed the port of Yokohama. "You know what. Let's celebrate life." I got up from my chair. "What? Wait, where are you going?" "You and I are going to plan a romantic dinner for our boyfriends and celebrate their birthdays together because we love them and we want them to be happy." I declared without missing a beat. "Okay, first, you made it sounds like they're gonna have a date. With each other," Rizu uttered as we start to clear our table. "Oh, you know what I mean!" I could have sworn my cheeks were heating up. "Okay, okay." She laughed. "But how are we gonna do that?" "Just like you said." I smiled with confidence. "Let's start with the cake." We took the bravest step at first. We tried to bake a cake. But 5 hours and one half burnt what-supposed-to-be-cake later it was decided that neither of us was that good at cooking. Thus, we went to a bakery and successfully ordered a frostbitten raspberry cake. Those fancy restaurants in the city wasn't really friendly with our budget, so we booked a reservation in a finest cafè in the corner of the shopping district instead for May 5th evening. Then came the most challenging part; to lure out the males from their respective offices and come to the destined place. *** Inevitably, there was a slight uncertainty, whether she would be able to pull this off. But the goal was to surprise the opponent. And the opponent was happened to be a lover of hers. Rizu asked Chūya to go on their usual spontaneus date. But it was so spontaneous she was already waiting for him at the subway station. Chūya showed up only minutes later in a maroon shirt, a black tie under a fine black suit, a pair of black dress-pants, and a pair of brown oxford shoes. What he did not expect was to find what the lady that had captured his heart was wearing for the evening: a white top with wide frilly collars that crossed the upper bodice with black linings that ended in a bow, long sleeves with frills around the wrists, a black skirt just above her knees, and a pair of knee-high black stockings. Their fashion sense seemed to mirrored with another. Rizu couldn't hide her smile at all. "Are you just gonna stand there and gawk?" "Yes." "Stop it. You look stupid." She walked up to Chūya. "I'm sorry if this is so... out of the blue. Red? Because you're, you know, wearing red--" "Rizu." He cut her off before she'd go further into a soliloquy of regrets. "It's okay. So what? We go on dates all the time. What are you, 13?" "Let's be real, a thirteen year old wouldn't be able to pull off these stockings like me," she noted, and a quick change of her expression indicated how brash she sounded. Especially, in public. "Yes, ma'am." Chūya's response only made her cheeks turned pink. She tried to brush it off. "O-okay, just to be sure there aren't important meetings or something?" "Nope. Even if so I'll just reschedule them. I'd go through anything for you." His cocky smile was unfortunately one of his best features. "Good! Let's start with your bank account." "What?" "Just kidding." Only half of a truth. "At least can you tell me where are we going that I had to reschedule my errands?" Chūya put his hat lower as if he was trying to hide his face from public. Rizu almost rolled her eyes. "Please, no meetings means chilling in a hot tub drinking Cabernet Sauvignon. You can do all that later." "So you can kidnap me?" "You're being a little dramatic. I'm not kidnapping you. Now put these blindfolds on." She bit her lower lip in excitement. *** As planned, I completely disconnected with Atsushi-kun that day. I left my place & went to the campus, in case he'd look for me there. The texts & missed-calls he bombed me made me realized I was a bit cruel to worry him sick like that. But I knew it would all be worth it in the end. I picked the most exclusive attire from my closet for the special day. It was a lilac dress with buttons, long sleeves with frills around the wrists, and the skirt just above my knees. Then I made my way to the Armed Detective Agency office. As expected, they were having a party that looked it needed some joy. When Atsushi-kun laid his eyes on me, he leaped across the room. "May-san! Where have you been?! I couldn't call you! I tried to look for you, but Kunikida-san wouldn't let me go and Ranpo-san said you will come. Oh, God! Are you okay?" His trembling hands only lightly touched my shoulders. Surprisingly he managed to notice my dress. "You look... nice." Oh dear, I broke him. "I'm sorry." I tried to put on my 'I feel terrible, please forgive me' face. "I was preparing for tonight. I wanted to give a surprise, so... surprise?" Atsushi-kun finally loosened his tensed shoulders. "Wait, tonight? What's gonna happen tonight?" "That's the surprise. I'm taking you out." I turned my gaze behind him to the people that had been forced to be the audience to my grand entrance. "Do you guys mind if I borrow him for the rest of the evening?" They expressed their approval without any hesitation. "He's all yours, May-chan." Dazai-san winked at us. "Don't be late for work tomorrow," Kunikida-san added without looking up from whatever he was reading. After we bid them goodbye, I took Atsushi-kun to the shopping district, and entered the first clothing store we came across. I needed to get him out of those suspenders and tie. "Um, you don't have to-" "Hush. This is part of the surprise. At least let me try to make it up to you after what I pulled this morning. If you're angry with me, that's absolutely understandable." Atsushi-kun lightly grabbed my arm. "I just need you to promise me to never do something like that again. Please," he really pleaded. A regretful laugh escaped my mouth. "I promise." I assured him before I pushed him into the fitting room. "Now get in there and change." A few minutes later he walked out of the fitting room in a blue shirt under a white knitted sweater, a pair of black pants, and his combat boots has been replaced with brown leather ones. I let myself to take that view all in. "You look... nice." Then I casually fixed his collar-shirt. "What would you do if I didn't come?" "Stay in the office until everyone leave." I heard him answered. "Then probably the same thing I always do." "Wallowing in loneliness and self-loathing?" "Yup." "Oh, come on!" *** Atsushi-kun and I were the first pair that arrived at the cafè. Our table was set, the cake looked fantastic, I was so confident everything would went well. Fortuna had blessed us that fine evening. Atsushi-kun sat right next to me. Blindfolded. "You know, the last time I was in this kind of situation, my life was at stake." "Shh, no work talk." Seriously, he was only one sentence away to bring down the mood. "Yes, dear." His remark caught me off guard. But the sight of our comrades of the evening saved me from that tension. Rizu mouthed 'hi' to me before she brought her blindfolded date to his seat. Then on a silent count of three, Rizu and I took off their blindfolds at the same time. "Surprise!" Atsushi-kun fluttered his eyes open. He looked at the cake front of him, before he almost jumped out of his seat to see who was sitting next to him. "Chūya-san?!" "Relax." He was completely unbothered. "Could you stop doing that every time we see each other?" Atsushi-kun nodded. The tension between them was always funny. But I couldn't look at it in the same way anymore after what Rizu said the other day. Damn it. "Well, now it's out of the blue." Nakahara-san turned to his date. "It's my birthday?" "Technically it was last week." Rizu bit her bottom lip. "Wow, okay. You had me thinking we were born on the same day or something," Atsushi-kun uttered. "No need to make it more awkward, dear," I said loud enough for him to hear. "Sorry." He stood up right next to me. Nakahara-san got up and stood in front of Rizu. She was ready to take damage control if anything went wrong. "Are you mad? Please don't be mad. I know you don't usually celebrate your birthday. But we celebrate mine every year, and now I just wanna return the favor." "You did all this... for me?" "Technically also for Atsushi-kun, but yeah." After a long pause, a word escaped Nakahara-san 's mouth before it turn into an awkward one. "Thank you." I saw a smile crooked on Rizu's face, before I turned to the birthday boy. "Happy birthday, Atsushi-kun. May goodness always come upon you. Thank you for being in my life." I could feel a blood rush on my cheeks. The countenance Atsushi-kun had was unreadable before I noticed his lips were trembling. Tears were emerging from his eyes. I took his hand in instinct. "Atsushi-kun?" "He's actually crying?" Nakahara-san 's remark made Atsushi-kun pulled away his hand and wiped his tears with his sleeves. "It's my birthday, I'll cry if I want to!" A faint laughter were shared. Then we were off to enjoy the cake. "An actual double date with Chūya-san." Atsushi-kun said as I cut a slice of the cake for him. "Huh, I didn't expect this would be on my bingo card, but here we are." "Just eat your cake, kid." Nakahara-san took a bite, and the pleasure painted on his face said it all. "I am fully an adult, especially today." Atsushi-kun protested. "I'd show you my ID if I had one." In unison Rizu and I said. "What?" *** fin.