Of Cats and Crows (Sugawara Koushi)

Birthday Madness

Everything was in line for the evening. Aunt Nami was preparing the house for the party that evening with the help of her kids and Mei. All of the others would bring their dishes when they arrived. Koushi and Mei were extremely stressed out. They were the key people for this to work.

Mitsumi was in her humble apartment getting ready for the day. She had been reminded to dress up several times by her ever-so-loving boyfriend who only spammed her phone about it. And oddly enough, Bokuto did as well. But she set that aside and assumed they were hanging out, or something. She put on a mint green pinafore dress with a white short puffy sleeve shirt her mother had brought her as a birthday gift. Her unkempt curls were pinned back half up half down. She clipped in a matching bow and slipped on the white socks that had a wavy cut at the top. Hopefully she wasn't under dressed.

Sugawara picked her up exactly at 11 am. He was dressed in a light blue striped collared shirt and dark jeans. His hair was neatly combed and styled into its usual look. To her relief, she wasn't overdressed. "Is that a new outfit?" He walked into her living room after being welcomed in.

Mitsumi found her bag and smiled, "My mom brought it by this morning. What do you think?" She spun around for him to look before holding his hands.

"It's perfect for you, Sparks." He kissed her forehead. "It's perfect for our day out."

Mitsumi kissed him back really quick. "Are we doing your thing first?"

He shook his head, "No, we can go to the bookstore first." They had their whole day planned out. Well, he did the scheduling and she chose the activities. She hadn't mentioned her birthday one bit yet. And this was normal for the girl. Although part of her wanted to use it as an excuse to do absolutely nothing.

The bookstore was tucked away in one of the many hidden alleyways of Tokyo. Mitsumi searched the different shelves, pulling out whatever books seemed interesting by the cover. She wasn't looking for anything in particular. And that made her search even more exciting.

"Historical fiction?" Suga had never known anyone that was fond of that genre.

She nodded and pulled a brown book with gold lettering off the shelf. "I read it all the time in highschool." She skimmed through the pages of the novel and seemed content with her pick.

It wasn't long before they found themselves walking through the manga aisle. Mitsumi felt like she was completely exposing herself. "Ah, Nodame Cantabile is so funny. And it's really relatable for musicians." She spotted the guilty pleasure manga on the shelf.

"Didn't they turn it into a television drama?" He held the book she chose earlier in his arms.

"They did! It was really well done." Mitsumi didn't own the last volume. It had been hard to find. "They have it!" She took the last copy of the final volume of the shelf. "I've been looking for this for years!" She held the book up as if it were a trophy.

It was official. Suga was dating a crazy, sweets loving, stationary hoarding, manga collecting, volleyball nerd, concert pianist. The second he felt like he finally got a grasp on her, he learned something new. All of her interests and hobbies were vastly different from each other. He couldn't keep up with her endless need to learn. Which was ironic since he was studying to become a teacher.

He was lucky that Noriko, her mother, had sent him money for the special occasion. She told him to spend all of it and to text her if he needed more. Suga pulled his wallet out to pay for the books. Although, the girl didn't make it easy on him. "Chie, I seriously can cover these. I have plenty to cover all of today." He explained to her.

Mitsumi huffed a little bit. "If you insist. But, expect me to pay you back later." She watched him pay and headed out with him. Now they were off to pick up something. What it was, she had no idea.