Chapter 130 - Present (1/2)

Present

TL: Daemon

ED: PuffyPyjamas

X-day is close. X-day, not in the Christmas sense, but X-day referring to a specific day.

Well, December is coming close, so it might be fine to call it Christmas.

Anyways, I made some calculations while looking at my own passbook.

I’ve worked at the HRG company for 3 days a week, so I have a good amount of money compared to most other high school students. The hourly wage of a telephone operator was relatively high.

“Last month, it came in on the 25th… so the balance would be…”

Hmmm. I see.

What should I do for her?

I thought of Hiiragi-chan’s face as I made my consideration… I have been worrying about what I should do for her, but it feels like she would be happy with whatever I do.

“Nii-san!”

“Uwah!? That was dangerous. I almost fell off the chair.”

Sana was standing at the entrance of the room, loosely crossing her arms.

“I called you multiple times, and you would respond!”

“And? What is it?”

“We’re meeting. Today. The home economics club. Kana-chan should be coming pretty soon.”

Aaah… That’s why she’s wearing normal clothes to go out rather than loungewear inside the house.

“What do you mean by meeting?”

“We talked about it yesterday. You weren’t even listening… A birthday party, for Sensei… and you.”

Oh yeah, they did mention that. Hiiragi-chan and I have the same birthday, so they wanted to celebrate.

That’s right, on the coming day of December 2nd, it’s a big event——Hiiragi-chan’s birthday. Mine as well.

Next week Friday is the second, so we ended up deciding to do it after school that day.

“Now that I’m at this age, when you mention a birthday party… it doesn’t really get me excited…”

“Why are you saying something an old man would say? If we were to decide who this for, it would obviously be more for Sensei than you, Nii-san.”

Well, if we’re having the main celebration be for Hiiragi-chan, then I whole-heartedly agree.

When Sana’s cell phone rang, she picked up the call and left the room. It seems that Kanata has arrived. Sana, who descended rom the second floor, guided Kanata and brought her to my room.

“… Seiji-kun, sorry for the intrusion.”

Kanata bowed at the entrance.

“Yeah. Welcome… Hey, Sana, why are we in my room.”

“Isn’t it fine?”

“Well, I guess yours would be pretty messy.”

“Hmph.”

She threw a cushion at me.

“Such nice siblings.”

Kanata muttered.

“What are we doing for this meeting? Are we going to go buy a present or order a cake or something?”

“Well, I guess so.”

“… Are we going to buy separate gifts, or pool together and buy one?”

“Sana doesn’t have an idea of what to buy alone … Also, Sana doesn’t have much funds… so buying together would be better.”

Kanata nodded.

“… Let’s do that. I also don’t know what to buy.”

That would be the safest way.

“Sana, didn’t you say that you saved up a bit?”

“Anything’s fine, right? In terms of budget, Sana is about 2000 yen as the limit…”

“My limit is about one-hundred thousand.

Sana made an exasperated expression.

“What do you mean 100 thousand. It’s way too much and to be honestly pretty creepy…”

“Sorry. There’s just that much difference in fighting power. Compared to the allowance of a JK NEET that just plays around after school, I, who has a job after school, just has that much more power.”

She made an expression of disdain when I showed her a smug face.

“A JK NEET. A student’s real job is to study. There’s no need to do a part-time job.”

“You’re probably neglecting your studies anyways.”

“Do all working people just act like they’re the greatest?”

This girl, she seriously said something that a NEET would say.

“…Saa-chan.”

“What?”

“…Working people are the greatest. That’s the correct answer.”

There was a certain weight in Kanata’s words, which were spoken firmly.

“Ugugu…”

“…However, 100 thousand is still going overboard. Including Saa-chan’s budget, let’s leave it at 2000 yen.”

Three people at 2000 yen each would give a total of 6000 yen. Having that would probably allow us to buy something good.

“Let’s do that. Secretly picking a present like this might be okay, but it feels like we’re leaving Sensei as the odd one out, so it kind of feels bad.”

“It’s fine. Sensei is probably busy. That’s why it’s a surprise.”

“She would probably be pretty happy about that I guess.”

“…We did tell her about Friday already, so maybe she’ll even make a cake.”

Aah… It really does seem like she would make one. She would probably make something on the level of a wedding cake.