The Promised Revenge [Manjiro Sano]

33.5

April 20th 1998

Most people celebrate birthdays as the most special days for a person.

Cake. Party. Friends.
A day filled with the combination of the three.

Or so you thought, or as Aarush seemed to be having...

After another "disagreement" your parents apologized for the morning after, you and your brother had no choice but to ask if everything was okay between the two, only concern shown in your expressions. And trying to get your minds out of it, all they thought as a way was suggesting throwing a huge party for your upcoming birthday.

Aarush certainly was the excited one, and so were you. He had started handing out invitations to his friends, and you wanted to emulate his initiative, so you decided to follow suit, giving out invitations to all the girls in your grade asking them to tag along.

Your mother's advice that this would be a great way to make new friends was the fuel that drove you into the action, hoping that her guidance would prove to be helpful. But all the courage and confidence you'd mustered up to foster friendships in your life was lost when the big day arrived when all of the friends Aarush had invited showed up with little gifts, and not a single one of the ones you'd invited came.

Despite suffering from a shattering disappointment, you didn't outwardly show the same level of anguish or ire as one might anticipate any other child to be feeling in your place, even when your mother approached you to have a private conversation about it.

So as you stood in the corner you were used to staying in now, a birthday hat on your head, playing with a blowout noisemaker in your hands, you maintained a stoic demeanor and displayed no outward signs of dismay or distress.

You looked up, looking at your brother laughing loudly with his friends, jumping and dancing together, and somehow, you didn't feel any real sense of resentment at the difference between the both of you.

He asked you to come to play with them as well, not once and not twice, but you refused every single time, knowing that your presence within his group was certainly unwanted from the drops on their faces when he suggested that.

And yet again, somehow, you didn't feel any irritation...

"Gotcha!!"

You let out a startled and muted cry when two sets of hands caught you from behind and lifted you off the ground, placing you on his shoulders, and he laughed heartily as he could sense your rising panic even without a direct view of your facial expression.

"Dad! You scared me!" you whined, arms around his head to keep your balance.

The cheeky guy smirked and replied with a playful sense of feigned shock, "Oh my goodness, do you feel fear? The almighty and infallible Y/n who fears nothing at all?"

Before you could express your annoyance more clearly through words, he pulled you off his shoulders and carried you, meeting your irritated stare with his teasing and facetious display of surprise.

With a long-suffering groan and a look away from his vibrant stares, you responded with a more grounded and blunt reply. "I never claimed to be fearless in the first place."

"Aw, you're all grown up!" the man suddenly spurted, bringing you even closer to him and hugging you tightly, getting you to groan even louder, the shine in his smile just like a kid's.

"I'm only seven!" you grumbled, fighting to get a decent breath from his tightness.

"Seven is too much," he finally let go and conceded with a more sincere and focused gaze, holding you firmly in his grip as he met your face with his green eyes.