Everyone's Here

"Happy birthday!" Everyone shouted as the birthday girl made her entrance. Even though Akiba already knew what was to come, she still feigned surprise for their sake. Especially since even if it wasn't a surprise, their hark work was very much appreciated.

The location where they set this party up was at a recently set up ice rink. Decked out with everything you'd expect for both the holiday season, and someone's special day.

Arata himself was unsure of how he'd enjoy this event. As he had never gone ice skating before. Though surely there was more to do than just that, especially given how many people were here for the party.

And there were a lot. Seriously, the only person that Arata knew that wasn't here was his older sister, Ayami. Aside from the students at school, there were also their families here as well. Including some that he had never met before. It certainly explained why he didn't see his mother at home. As both her and his dad were here helping with decorating the place. Something that was kept a secret to him as well.

"Mom, I didn't think you'd be here before me." He said to her, starting up some conversations before the main event truly started. "Actually, I didn't think you knew about this at all."

"It's a funny story..." She laughed. While he was out and about, his friends were struggling to take care of everything. They knew they needed more help, but where could they get it from? As it would turn out, though not surprising, the parents were more than happy to help out. "...Good thing that it's Friday. Otherwise, I'm not so sure how we'd all be able to be here." She finished off her story to him.

"Even dad?" Arata was confused. Shouldn't his father be off on a trip for the weekend? However, he should never underestimate how capable he is at convincing his boss of things. After all, she's also the mother of one of the other attendees here at the party. So after some work, he was able to delay some of their plans.

Bad for business? Definitely. But he'll find a way to make up for that later.

Beyond just the parents. The elderly also found themselves invited to the party. Again, simply because they also had relatives attending.

There were also all the children running around. Surely because of Yuriko's younger sister being here. Honestly, Arata was astounding that they were able to pull something off like this. Yet at the same time, thought they might've went overboard with all the invites. This may have been a birthday and Christmas party. That didn't mean people who didn't have any relationship with the birthday girl needed to be here.

Then again, looking over Akiba. Chatting it up with some of the guests. It appeared that she didn't care at all. If anything, she was enjoying it more because of it.

"I guess the more really is the merrier." He said to himself, rejoining to the crowd.

However, as to be expected given the number of people here. A lot of those people are be planning to do certain things. Especially when romance might be on the table.

"Fufufu." Matsu chuckled to herself. This was part of her plan all along. She wasn't lying when she felt that going to Akiba's birthday was her the girl herself. But Arata being here was certainly a motivating factor.

"It's kind of scary when you get like that." Yumeho commented on her friend's demeanor. With the cold of winter atop of them. It was challenging to maintain the whole idea of gardening. Not that they weren't trying, but rather something else was going to be taking the wheel from here on out.

"I see you've got yourself an idea." Karino grinned at the thought of running through a fun plan.

"Hehe." Matsu turned to her friends with a dumb looking smile. "Nope." Everyone else just hung their heads in disappointment from hearing that. What's the point in trying to get his attention, if she was such an airhead at it?

"That's fine, I've been growing one of these." Hanaka produced a mistletoe from her bag. "You know, to get into the holiday spirit." Though there was more to her motivation than just that.

"Ooh." Matsu took it from her to take a closer look. "So this is his favorite flower?"

"Are you not aware?" Hanaka shouldn't really be surprised at her friend's lack of knowledge. But she would've expected Matsu to at least know things related to plants. So she told her about the tradition relating to mistletoe around Christmas time. Where you have to kiss the person you're with, if you find yourselves standing under one.

"K-kiss?!" That reaction wasn't what they were hoping from her. Especially since she already kissed him before. Now that Hanaka thought about it, their relationship never evolved past that. She knew that Arata was aware of Matsu's feelings, yet he hadn't made a move. He also hadn't rejected her, if that was his intention either. So where did he stand with her? What did she mean to him?

"Come on, it can't be that hard." Karino grabbed her shoulders from behind. "I bet when you do it again, he'll be like, 'Oh, Matsu's such a great kisser. She's clearly the girl for me!'" The other's just looked at her like she was the dumbest person in the world.

The gardening club are not the only ones scheming. Or at least, talking about Arata. Hifumi, the young librarian girl was sitting, not with the other kids her age. But with the elderly group that was just talking about things they were looking forward to doing here.

"Hifumi." Hine said. "Shouldn't you be spending more time with the others? I can't imagine all us old folk are that interesting." It wasn't that she thought her and all of the elderly were boring, but she felt her granddaughter should be spending her time with people her age.

"It's fine, I'm not really into parties anyway." She responded, keeping her eyes on her phone. That was the truth, but mostly because she never felt like there was anything she could say to people that was both interesting to both her and them. But there's more to it than just that.

"That's disappointing to hear." She said. "I thought you'd be happier with Arata here now."

"It doesn't matter anymore." She said in return to that statement. "He's already rejected me. I don't know why I cared so much before." Not that she stopped caring about him. More so that after thinking about it, after seeing him on his date. She felt like she had no chance with the other girls vying for him.

"Sounds to me that you still care now." Hine could tell how she felt about him. Even before she know about the connection between the two. When Hine would hear her talk about this boy she had a crush on. It sounded like she was really in love.

But when she heard about how he rejected her at first. She realized that she went about it all wrong. Especially knowing now, who it was.

"It might sound like an unfair advantage, but I am your grandmother after all." She said. "I know that boy well, so perhaps he might be willing to reconsider. Just from that simple fact." Of course, she knew that nothing in life was guaranteed. As she said to Arata back then. He needs to be the one to decide for himself, how he really feels. If only that was a lesson that truly stuck with him.

"…" Hifumi didn't say anything in return. Mulling over the words she heard. Her grandmother was fairly wise, so perhaps she might not be wrong here.

"There you are." It was Ichiri who approached them before she could say a word. "Come on, don't just sit around. There's too much going on to just sit back and watch." She attempted to pull on her arm, with little success.

"She ain't wrong." Monju spoke up. "Go on, don't just live your life sitting down." though she sounded rude about it, the old lady had a point. For a moment, Hifumi looked over to her grandmother, who simply nodded in response.

"Okay, I'll go." She got up, much to the enjoyment of everyone around.

"Cool. I was worried I'd have to drag you out of the seat." She grinned, hands behind her back.

"Don't worry." Gouzaburou had a proud smile on his face. "I've taught you well, so I'm sure she'd been no trouble."

"Aw come on, I'm nowhere near as good at you." She became bashful from the praise. "Now come on, let's go see what everyone's up to." Ichiri led Hifumi to where the action was at.

Now the stage was set. With all the people ready to play their parts. This was going to be a party that Arata wasn't going to soon forget.