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Present
TL: Daemon
ED: PuffyPyjamas
X-day is close. X-day, not in the Christmas sense, but X-day referring to a specific day.
Well, December is coming close, so it might be fine to call it Christmas.
Anyways, I made some calculations while looking at my own passbook.
I’ve worked at the HRG company for 3 days a week, so I have a good amount of money compared to most other high school students. The hourly wage of a telephone operator was relatively high.
“Last month, it came in on the 25th… so the balance would be…”
Hmmm. I see.
What should I do for her?
I thought of Hiiragi-chan’s face as I made my consideration… I have been worrying about what I should do for her, but it feels like she would be happy with whatever I do.
“Nii-san!”
“Uwah!? That was dangerous. I almost fell off the chair.”
Sana was standing at the entrance of the room, loosely crossing her arms.
“I called you multiple times, and you would respond!”
“And? What is it?”
“We’re meeting. Today. The home economics club. Kana-chan should be coming pretty soon.”
Aaah… That’s why she’s wearing normal clothes to go out rather than loungewear inside the house.
“What do you mean by meeting?”
“We talked about it yesterday. You weren’t even listening… A birthday party, for Sensei… and you.”
Oh yeah, they did mention that. Hiiragi-chan and I have the same birthday, so they wanted to celebrate.
That’s right, on the coming day of December 2nd, it’s a big event——Hiiragi-chan’s birthday. Mine as well.
Next week Friday is the second, so we ended up deciding to do it after school that day.
“Now that I’m at this age, when you mention a birthday party… it doesn’t really get me excited…”
“Why are you saying something an old man would say? If we were to decide who this for, it would obviously be more for Sensei than you, Nii-san.”
Well, if we’re having the main celebration be for Hiiragi-chan, then I whole-heartedly agree.
When Sana’s cell phone rang, she picked up the call and left the room. It seems that Kanata has arrived. Sana, who descended rom the second floor, guided Kanata and brought her to my room.
“… Seiji-kun, sorry for the intrusion.”
Kanata bowed at the entrance.
“Yeah. Welcome… Hey, Sana, why are we in my room.”
“Isn’t it fine?”
“Well, I guess yours would be pretty messy.”
“Hmph.”
She threw a cushion at me.
“Such nice siblings.”
Kanata muttered.
“What are we doing for this meeting? Are we going to go buy a present or order a cake or something?”
“Well, I guess so.”
“… Are we going to buy separate gifts, or pool together and buy one?”
“Sana doesn’t have an idea of what to buy alone … Also, Sana doesn’t have much funds… so buying together would be better.”
Kanata nodded.
“… Let’s do that. I also don’t know what to buy.”
That would be the safest way.
“Sana, didn’t you say that you saved up a bit?”
“Anything’s fine, right? In terms of budget, Sana is about 2000 yen as the limit…”
“My limit is about one-hundred thousand.
Sana made an exasperated expression.
“What do you mean 100 thousand. It’s way too much and to be honestly pretty creepy…”
“Sorry. There’s just that much difference in fighting power. Compared to the allowance of a JK NEET that just plays around after school, I, who has a job after school, just has that much more power.”
She made an expression of disdain when I showed her a smug face.
“A JK NEET. A student’s real job is to study. There’s no need to do a part-time job.”
“You’re probably neglecting your studies anyways.”
“Do all working people just act like they’re the greatest?”
This girl, she seriously said something that a NEET would say.
“…Saa-chan.”
“What?”
“…Working people are the greatest. That’s the correct answer.”
There was a certain weight in Kanata’s words, which were spoken firmly.
“Ugugu…”
“…However, 100 thousand is still going overboard. Including Saa-chan’s budget, let’s leave it at 2000 yen.”
Three people at 2000 yen each would give a total of 6000 yen. Having that would probably allow us to buy something good.
“Let’s do that. Secretly picking a present like this might be okay, but it feels like we’re leaving Sensei as the odd one out, so it kind of feels bad.”
“It’s fine. Sensei is probably busy. That’s why it’s a surprise.”
“She would probably be pretty happy about that I guess.”
“…We did tell her about Friday already, so maybe she’ll even make a cake.”
Aah… It really does seem like she would make one. She would probably make something on the level of a wedding cake.
After that, we discussed what we would get for the present. Each of us looked things up on our phones, saying this might be fine, or that might be good.
In between our broken up conversations, Sana, who kept taking glances at me, asked me.
“N-Nii-san, do you… have something you want?”
“Wealth and fame.”
“…Seiji-kun, give a proper answer.”
When I joked around, Kanata scolded me.
“Sana, are you…”
While waving her hands, Sana panicked and her face turned red.
“T-That’s not it. It’s just going along with the flow of the conversation. That’s the only reason I asked. Don’t be mistaken.”
Is this girl possibly a good person?
“… Don’t joke around and give her a proper answer.” I was told that by Kanata, so I thought about it for a bit.
“I wonder… Ah, the full DVD set of The Silver Thunder King, Breig. I thought it would be nice to have, but I second guessed and ended up not buying it—”
The Silver Thunder King, Breig is an original kids oriented robot anime. It has a few passionate scenes that would even make an adult feel moved and cry. It can easily be called a masterpiece.
“DVD… the full set… Sana also likes it, but Breig…”
Ah. For a JK NEET buying the whole set may be tough.
“You don’t have to push yourself, you know?”
“I’m not going to push myself! R-r-r-r-rather, Sana never said that she was going to buy it for your sake.”
“… Even while being completely obvious, Saa-chan is desperately trying to hide it…”
Kanata, there’s no need for an explanation.
Since we trailed off topic, I got us back on track. Sana seemed to always be calculating something inside her head, so the questions that Kanata and I had just seemed to fly over her head.
What Kanata and I decided on was that we should find something practical and used often in your daily life.
“… What about, a scarf?”
“Ah. Isn’t that fine? Sensei sometimes bikes to school, so that seems like something that she would need. It seems like something that would be within budget.”
Recently it’s been cold, so she’s been commuting by car. With that I would be able to see her… Let’s not say anything more.
It’s decided, Hiiragi-chan’s present will be a scarf.
Since it was still early afternoon, we ended up going into town to buy the present.
In about a week it would be December, so there was already an early Christmas mood. Familiar Christmas songs could be heard, and some of the earlier stores had employees with Santa hats on.
We were going to buy a pretty expensive scarf, so we arrived at a major department store.
Once we arrived at the women’s clothing corner, Sana and Kanata picked up some scarves made of cashmere or other materials.
“What would be good for the design…?”
“… Since it’s for use while commuting, probably something that isn’t too flashy.”
I looked at the two of them from outside the area. It’s hard for a man to enter a women’s clothing area…
… I also had something that I wanted to see, so I guess I’ll secretly check it out later.
“This is cute.”
“… Yeah.”
“Nii-san, what do you think?”
Sana showed me a red plaid scarf. I do think the design is nice.
“I think rather than plaid, something more plain might be better? Red is also a little flashy.”
Since it’s just for commuting, that much should be good enough. However, that might be a little picky.
“It’s something that she would be able to wear naturally at school——you might seem it’s pretty plain but it’s the same outside of school.”
Hiiragi-chan had taught me about teacher’s clothing before.
“Nii-san… You’re quite informed.”
“Eh?”
“…Seiji-kun, do you…?”
“Eh? Eh?… W-what…?”
“Do you want to become a teacher?”
“… Aaah. Yeah. So I was found out.”
I passed it off.
“… Saa-chan, based on that, how about this.”
“Ah. Nice.”
“…Right?”
What Kanata wordlessly showed was a warm grey scarf. Ah, it seems like it would suit her.
The two of them both tried it on.
““… So warm…””
“Alright, let’s go with that.”
Kanata as our representative settled the bill. She also got it wrapped as a present. The preparations are done.
“Will Sensei be happy about this?”
“… Saa-chan, it’s okay. Probably.”
Yeah. It’ll definitely be okay. It’s not that she doesn’t have any scarves, but she doesn’t have anything similar.
After leaving the department store, we called it a day.
“I have somewhere I want to go to, so let’s leave it at this.”
Saying some parting words, the two of them walked off towards the station without a care in the world.
Like that, I took a U-turn back to the department store.
“That present is from the three of us together.”
I’ll prepare something just from myself.
Thanks for the double chapter. Really appreciate your hard work
Thnx for the chapter!