Chapter 112 The Amamis

April 3rd, Umis birthday.

The morning sun shone through the curtain. It was the first time in a while that the weather was this clear since it had been cloudy the last few days.

In this kind of weather, you dont need more than two layers of clothing during the day.

It was also a perfect time for a party.

Okay, all set

The first thing I did when I woke up was checking my shoulder bag. There was a neat looking box inside of it with a small birthday card attached.

I thought long and hard on what to write on the card last night and decided to go with Thank you for everything, Umi. I originally wanted to write I love you or something similar, but thinking that the card would be read by everyone who attended the party, I decided against it.

As I was double-checking everything, Umi suddenly gave me a call.

{Morning, Maki! I sent you a map, so dont get lost~}

I wont. I mean, her house is close to school.

{Yeah, well, now you know why even though shes a lazyass, she was never late. Back in middle school we had to take the train and because of her, I was late more times than I could count with both hands.}

Im sorry to hear that.

{Well, at least things are better now}

The party will be held at Amami-sans house. Apparently it was a tradition for them to celebrate Umis birthday at her house because it was more suitable to hold a party. This came to me as a surprise because I thought that the party would be held at Umis place.

This would be my first time visiting Amami-sans house.

By the way, Umi, have you notified Amami-sans family that Ill attend the party?

{Yeah, Yuu told her mom about you. It would be the first time that shell bring a boy home, but dont worry, her mom is much more gentle and kind than mine, so Wait, Mom? Where did you come from? No, I was kidding}

You brought that upon yourself, Umi.

Anyway, Amami-sans mom was Amami Eri. She was a retired model and used to frequently appear on the local TV programs. Now, she was a normal housewife.

Since I would be visiting her house, naturally I had to greet her.

{Hello? Maki-kun? This is Sora speaking, sorry to disturb your conversation. I just wanted to say that Ill be looking forward to meeting you again later. Well, I have to teach this girl some manners first}

Um, Sora-san? I think Umi is just too embarrassed to praise you. Thats why she said that I think youre a wonderful person, Sora-san.

{My, thank you. Maki-kun youre the only one who said that to me, you know? Both Umi and Riku are always so mean to me.}

I could hear Umis SoS faintly, but there was nothing I could do about it except to appease Sora-sans wrath a little. After that was done, I hung up.

There was nothing I could do, so Ill just spoil her later to make it up to her.

At noon, I stopped by Umis house and was welcomed by her barrage of complaints. Once she was satisfied, we went to Amami-sans home.

Apparently, there would be five people attending the party.

They were Umi and I as her escort, Nitta-san, Nitori-san and Houjou-san. Umi hasnt told me anything about their relationship in detail, but it seemed like things were going well between her and her two friends now. (T/N: Idk why the author didnt list Yuu too)

Well, that was good and all, but looking at the attendees, you could see that the male to female ratio is quite skewed.

The ratio was one boy to five girls (+ Amami-sans mom). Well, I came here because I was Umis boyfriend, so I had a proper excuse, but I couldnt help but feel awkward about it. Nitori-san and Houjou-san were proper rich young ladies. Their presence gave me so much pressure that I couldnt even muster up the courage to talk to Umi, lest I mess up and embarrass Umi in front of them.

Originally, we tried to invite Nozomu, but he had to go to another prefecture for a joint practice today, so he couldnt come even if he wanted to. Hence, I became the sole male in this party.

Nozomu looked really disappointed about missing this, I hoped that this wouldnt affect his practice.

Maki

Mm?

Your present is in that bag, right?

Mhm, its there I dont know if youll like it or not, but I put a lot of thought into it

I see Im looking forward to it.

Umi and I were walking side by side while holding each others hands firmly. She had been unusually clingy along the way, her PDA had been so excessive that I felt embarrassed by it, but since it was her birthday, I decided to accept everything.

Actually, that was just an excuse. I just wanted to see her smile.

Originally, it took only ten minutes to go to Amami-sans house from Umis, but we tried to savor our time walking together and ended up taking twice the time. Nevertheless, we arrived just in time.

Uh, Umi?

Mm?

Am I seeing things, or is Amami-sans house kinda big?

Really? I mean, its one and a half times bigger than mine, but isnt a house this big, normal?

Along the way, Umi told me that aside from her moms past occupation, the Amamis were a normal, ordinary family.

So, using Umis house as a basis, I imagined that Amami-sans house would be probably a little bigger than hers, yet

Yes, the house itself was only slightly larger than Umis, but it was sitting on a massive plot of land. The garden was spacious and reminded me of a fancy rich familys house from Europe.

Well, if I were only to look at the house, yeah, it would be a stretch to call it a rich familys house, but a garden this big should cost a lot of money to maintain, wouldnt it?

That aside, I guess I could see where Umis judgment of normal came from.

Bark!

Uwah! A-A dog?!

I spaced out while looking at Amami-sans house and failed to notice that a dog crept up on me.

It was a golden retriever, its bark made me yelp, but it didnt seem to be agitated because of it. On the contrary, it seemed to be wagging its tail happily.

Ah, hello, Rocky~ Come here~

Umi approached it and stroked its head. The dog seemed satisfied with the petting before it turned to me and sniffed me.

Um Do you want me to pet you?

Bark!

Uwah!

That bark surprised me. It wasnt a violent bark, but I still felt kinda intimidated. I could tell that it was a friendly dog though.

I could tell, but

U-Umi I

Hm? Whats wrong, Maki?

Im kinda Bad with dogs

Back when I was a kid, I went to my grandparents house and was chased by a huge dog. I fell because of that and injured myself. That incident left me a little traumatized.

It wasnt like I couldnt handle dogs at all. I could still handle small dogs, but the larger the dog was, the more afraid I became.

I havent even set foot inside the house yet, but I already felt like going home.

Ah, Rocky, bad! Sorry, Maki-kun, this dog is friendly but it cant control itself. I told you to not jump at people like that, right, Rocky?

I-Its fine Anyway, Amami-san, Ill be intruding today

Make yourself at home! You two should come inside quickly, everyone else is already here!

Amami-san greeted us with her usual angelic smile and led us inside.