Hiding The Pain || MonoShin [BOOK 1]

Chapter 7.5 - Happy Birthday Tsunotori!

The essay's due date was up and gone, and the date of April 21st was making it's way stealthily to the students of Class 2 - B, especially the special person born on that day, Tsunotori.

It was the day before her birthday, and Shiozaki had taken Tsunotori into her dorm so that they could hang out, conveniently leaving the common room available for all the other students to plan Tsunotori's surprise birthday party.

"I think we should go casual American theme." Kendo suggests, looking around the room. They all sat in a circle, most people sitting cross - legged. 

"I don't think we should do that, it may make her homesick or something." counters Monoma, staring intensely at the wall, looking like he was thinking really hard.

Kendo rolled her eyes. "Got any better ideas?" she asked Monoma, and the boy went pink and looked away, embarrassed, saying nothing.

"That's what I thought." she says, smug. "Besides, if we use that theme, it may make her think of this place as her home, rather than make her homesick."

"Kendo's right; Tsunotori speaks with her family almost everyday, and they always fill her in. I'm sure she'll be happy rather than homesick." Honenuki assured, stretching his legs out a bit as he gave a groan that was a mix between relief and pain after sitting together for so long, most of it due to Monoma and his perfectionalism.

The rest of the class give their sounds of approval, and Kendo's smirk just grows wider.

Monoma still looked skeptical about the whole idea but nodded anyway, looking back at Kendo. "So, what do we do now that we've decided the theme?"

"Simple," Kendo answers. "I'll be in charge of overseeing the operations; and Shoda can be my assistant."

Kendo continued, assigning jobs to everyone to prepare for the inevitable party that was to come the next day. 

"One last thing." she comments, eyes boring holes into Monoma.

Monoma doesn't like the look on Kendo's face, and he feels he should start running.

"We're inviting Class A." she informs, and Monoma's eyes go wide.

He should have run away.

Before he can open his mouth to object to Kendo's information, Kendo speaks first.

"And Monoma, because I want this to be Tsunotori's greatest party ever, you have to be nice to Class A, or else you'll be kicked out and stay in your room."

Monoma shrugs, mumbling something incoherent, and Kendo takes it as a yes.

Tsunotori wakes up the next day feeling refreshed. It was the day of her birthday, and she was excited to enjoy it with her friends.

She walked into the kitchen, seeing everyone already awake and eating breakfast. Once she comes out, they all look rather stiff and turn away from her. Shiozaki is the only one who tells her "Good Morning." and even then it didn't sound happy.

Tsunotori decides to brush it off as a bad day for them, though she doesn't know why the bad day is on her birthday.

"So..." Tsunotori starts, sitting at the counter near the kitchen, elongating the 'o' sound. "Do you guys know what today is?"

"It's Thursday." Kuroiro says, voice a bored monotone.

Tsunotori gives a nervous laugh. "Yes, it is, but do you know what else today is?" she asked hopefully.

"A school day?" asks Honenuki.

Tsunotori's face falls, but she just nods her head and proceeds to eat breakfast.

The school day isn't much better, and even Vlad King seems to be having a bad day. Her class even sits away from her during lunch. She tries to talk with Class A instead, but they all shy away from her. After class, everyone runs out before her, leaving her to do cleaning duty alone.

When she's done, Shiozaki is in front of the door, and she brings out something from her bag. Tsunotori is confused, but Shiozaki just smiles. 'What's with the attitude change?' thinks Tsunotori.

"Let's go for a walk Tsunotori-chan!" Shiozaki suggests, grabbing the item which was black cloth blindfold and putting it over Tsunotori's eyes, tying the back so that it successfully took away her vision. 

"Where are we going Shiozaki-chan?" Tsunotori asked her vine - haired friend, who just giggled. "You'll find out soon." is the only reply the horned girl gets, her friend adjusting the cloth that obscured her vision.

Tsunotori sighed, but said nothing. After all, she trusted her friend! Though, that didn't mean it would stop her from feeling a bit nervous about where she was being taken.

After a while of walking, she could hear the distinct sound of their dorm door opening and closing, but Tsunotori couldn't pinpoint exactly why she had to wear a blindfold if they were just going to the dorms. That is, until the mask was pulled off, and her class (with Vlad King) screamed, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TSUNOTORI!"

So this is what they were planning all along! A surprise birthday party!

They moved to the side as Tsunotori walked to the back of the group, tears in her eyes, where a cake with 'Tsunotori @ 17' written on it was sitting. 

"Aw, thank you guys!" Tsunotori cries, hugging each and every one of her classmates and her teacher for their kind gesture.

"Let's party!!" Awase calls, before everyone starts to chose a party game to play.

Class A also comes in, all bearing gifts for Tsunotori. She feels so honored, and she wants to decline, but they insist, so she takes the gifts.

Having 40 gifts on your birthday is pretty cool if she says so herself.

Monoma smiles at Tsunotori's happy attitude, and Shinso walks up to him and elbows him in the ribs. Monoma glares at him, but Shinso chuckles.

"You guys are good friends, planning all this for her." Shinso commends.

Monoma is a bit taken aback, but gives a soft smile. "Yeah, we are."

Kaminari comes out of nowhere and asks Shinso to come play pin the tail on the donkey with him, and Monoma ignores him.

Because today is about Tsunotori, not his one - sided rivalry with Class A.

WORDS - 1022

Anyways, lemme explain the story line.

The first chapter is set in Late March, and April 4th is their first day of school. Pony's birthday is on April 21st, so I decided to try and make the timeline suitable for her birthday.

I'm not going to talk much about the joint training or anything that happens after it here, because this is more or less based on the anime. I haven't read the manga seriously, but I have seen enough spoilers to make it decent. So the PLF doesn't exist, Hawks isn't a double agent, Endeavor is still in the hospital and I don't know what else because like I said before, this is based off the anime.

(But when Season 5 fully comes out I'm totally elaborating on those joint battles)