"Happy Birthday Toya!" I heard a girl's voice say happily as I sat awkwardly on his bed, avoiding the camera from his phone. "Where are you right now?"
I quickly glanced at Toya, not expecting him to look back at me. I'm pretty sure he's on a video call with someone... I wonder who?
"My friend wants to talk to you." Toya suddenly faced me and blurted out, surprising me a bit as he titled his head. I hurriedly but curiously walked up to him to see who he was talking to.
"Heya!" The girl waved enthusiastically but quickly started introducing herself. She had long blue hair and star hairclips. "I'm An Shiraishi! I heard alot about you from Toya!"
Seeing that she really wanted to know more about me, I decided to give a quick introduction about myself, trying to start a casual conversation. It's still strange to talk to someone you don't know.
"A-An-chan!" I heard another voice say through the phone, assuming that it was one of Toya's friends again. Reminds me of Sakuranomiya...
"H-Hello, I'm Kohane Azusawa, nice to meet you!" The girl stuttered, An giggling a bit. "Ah! Happy Birthday Aoyagi-kun!"
"Thanks," Toya smiled as another one of his friends snatched the phone away from them. "Happy Birthday Toya, where are you?"
This time, it was a boy with ginger hair. He seems to be a little more rude than the others, as well as his tone seemingly being more gruff than the other two. "Oh, right, I'm Akito, and you must be Toya's friend?" Akito completely changed his demeanor.
"Right, so these are my friends. We perform together." Toya stated the last part hesitantly, probably due to the fact his father wants him to do classical music rather than street music.
"I wish you and your group the best," I said to Toya, the other three looking at us through the phone to see our reaction.
"No wonder Toya likes her..." An chuckled as she muttered into Akito's ear. An earned a sigh from Akito before going back to talking with us.
"Hey, since it's Toya's birthday, why not try bake a cake?" Akito suggested, still keeping his kind demeanor. "[name] can't go to the arcade, sadly."
"Does [name] know how to bake though?" An said, looking at Akito.
"Maybe we could try help them from the phone...!" Kohane recommended, showing us a recipe. "This is an easy one, it only needs a few ingredients, which Aoyagi-kun already has from last time! It's relatively small and isn't that sweet either!"
"Well, I guess I could try..." I responded. "Never in my life have I ever baked before, and I don't really cook often..."
"All right! So, I'll send Toya the recipe and we'll help both of you out with the baking and mixing!"
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Here are the ingredients," Toya placed the ingredients on the counter as I placed the necessary materials.
"Okay! First heat the oven to 180°C!" An instructed. "Then [name], you put all the ingredients into the bowl and mix it until it's smooth!"
"How much is considered, uh...smooth?" I questioned, looking at the bowl in front of me with a spatula in my hand.
"I-I'll tell you when to stop, just start mixing!" Kohane looked determined to help me with the mixing. I'm... glad.
"Ah..." I accidentally spilled some of the mixture on the table.
"I think that's enough mixing!" Kohane said, looking at Toya too. He was watching me mix everything without actually noticing that he was. An giggled a bit at his behaviour.
A few minutes passed quickly due to all of us talking. Toya and I carefully poured the mixture into the cake tin after realising. "So, we place it in the oven for around fifty minutes?"
"Mhm! We can continue talking in the meantime, since [name] can stay for a few more hours!" Kohane and An said together in unison. They seem to have grown a bit attached to me.
"If only it was cheesecake..." Akito quietly sighed to himself before asking, "So, how long have both of you been friends for now?"
"Around a month, I think." Toya answered almost immediately, putting the cake tin into the oven before closing the oven door. "Should we tidy the kitchen up?"
"Sure..." I started placing all the dirty utensils into the sink, meanwhile, Toya cleaned the counter and repeatedly checked on the cake.
"I wonder what the cake would look like..." Kohane said as all of them watched us clean the kitchen. "They're both so quiet...even when they're together..."
"Doesn't Toya have cookies on his birthday? So this must be his first time having a cake, no?"
"Cookies?" I asked curiously.
"My mother bakes cookies for me every year on my birthday," Toya explains. "It just randomly started happening."
"Toya really likes cookies too, if I recall." An added.
"They're really delicious too..." Toya muttered loud enough for everyone to hear. I've only met his dad so far—I wonder what his mother looks like or what her personality is like? Maybe similar to Toya's?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"It should be done by now," Toya went and got the cake out of the oven. It doesn't look the best, but as long as it didn't get burnt...
"That's good for a first attempt," Akito inspected the cake from the phone. "Here's a bit burnt though..."
"What are we going to do with it?" I asked, specifically looking at Toya for an answer.
"I'd like to share it with everyone." Toya smiled a bit.
"Hey Akito! He's smiling!" An exclaimed before chatting with Akito and Kohane again.
"I can try give some leftovers to everyone else, we should probably try the cake and see how it tastes." Toya suggested. He looks pretty happy and excited about the cake. Cookies though... I'll leave that question for next time, anyway...
"Well... I guess we should try it together."
extra note:
I rushed the end and I'm quite proud of myself for finishing this in one day.
I also got both of toya'sbirthday cards in only twenty pulls !! I woke up early for it and I'm tired lmao
