Editing MaruMA:Doujinshi5:Story2 (section)

===Who's the friend that was born today?===
By Takabayashi Tomo


On July 29, when I bought the cake at "HOME" that I took to my parents place as a present, I was asked "What would you like the birthday plate to say?"... For a second, I thought of writing something really embarrassing, but since I'm a grown up I stopped myself.

But do they usually write birthday plates for Cozy Corner's<ref>Cozy Corner, a famous pastry shop found all over Japan.</ref> chocolate cakes...?

Also, in 'birthday plates' you are supposed to use formal words.

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Let's finish summer homework during the morning, while it's still cold!

That's the promise they make at elementary schools. But since there are very few "Eco-families" lately, kids can do their homework in their cool rooms  even in the afternoons while using the air conditioner.

Not even housewives want to be in a hot living room, and that's why they set the air conditioner's temperature at 25C and watch their soap operas or movies. If they can put up with the stuff that the idols say, even the kids can watch TV there.

What I mean is that you can stay up all night during summer vacations, and go to sleep at dawn. Then you can use the early hours of the morning to sleep, and then at about 11 you wake up to the sound cicadas with sweat running down your face.

"This is the type of schedule that I believe to be suitable for a summer break."

"Live and let live."

"That doesn't mean that.... well... I think that going for a run at 5 am is too much. Ah, it's hot. It's before 7am, what's the temperature in this room!?

My mom turned on the plasma TV in the living room, to check the time and temperature. Then, she picked up the gray remote that was on the table, aimed it 45 degrees upward and was about to click the button when...

"Yuu-chan, mom is going to turn on the air conditioner."

"Wait! Wait until I get into the ofuro and go to the second floor."

"Ah... no Yuu-chan ! There's something wrong with you, there's something wrong with you for sure. Shou-chan even wants the cold air conditioner in his room. The living room is so hot, why don't you let me turn the air conditioner on? Even though it's summer, you go out to sweat early in the morning. How is it possible that even at 2pm, the warmest time of the day, you won't turn on the air conditioner? Yuu-chan, isn't your body temperature measure off?"

"Don't say that. Cold temperatures are bad for athletes. What I do is fine, when it gets really hot in the afternoon you can always take a nap.  That's how you should really spend the summer. Spanish people call it beista, no, I mean 'siesta'.

I take a wheat tea bottle from the fridge, as I look at the bright new TV that was recently purchased with the 'bonus' money.  

(TV) "July 31st, today is the birthday of these friends of the show!"

"Really, you would do anything for baseball. It be nice if there was a Koshien for grass lot baseball teams."

(TV) "...... internationally..... his glasses are a trademark..."

By the way, only recently I went somewhere with Specs-kun from junior high, to fill up for a date who cancelled on him. Since that day was my birthday, the tickets were like a birthday present.

"Mu... ra....ta...Ke....n.... the Kenja (Sage), Happy Birthday!"

Mmmh..... Muraken was also born in July....? WAIT WHAT!? Murata Ken? Did the TV just say Murata Ken!? Yes, just now, the pretty TV announcer read my mind. On the screen you can see the names of the TV show's 'friends' whose birthdays are today.

You can send a letter to the show for your own birthday, or for the birthday of people you know, and the letters will be read on this segment. Which means that one of his parents sent a letter to the morning show. No, I can't believe something like that happened. Then, a friend of 'Muraken' sent a letter to the show. 

".... Even if he goes to an elite school, his friends wouldn't call him 'Kenja' (Sage)....."

Which means that the only possible answer is that he sent it himself.

I can't believe this Muraken! How can you send your own birthday letter to the show! How could you say that about yourself! If it was only the letter, it wouldn't be so bad, but to say that glasses are your trademark or calling yourself a Sage, it's too embarrassing! That's sad, that's too sad, Murata Ken!

But even if he knew it was too sad, it didn't mean he could disregard the fact. 

I felt like I ended up paying the price of the tickets for the place we had gone to the day before yesterday (although for me it felt like many months had gone by). But if that was my birthday present and I don't give something back it would be disrespectful.

So after my shower I ran towards the second floor, and entered the dirty room of the university student who's part of some suspicious CIRCLES. 

"Aniki (older brother)"

"Call me oniichan"

This guy has been playing too many porn games....... The man who calls himself "The successor of Ishihara Shintaro<ref>A governor of Tokyo </ref>" was sleeping  with a towel around his legs. And the air conditioner was on. Stop that already, you enemy of the planet!

"Wake up Shouri! I have something to ask you "

"Uwah, it's bright! It's hot! It hurts! The sunlight is burning me."

I opened the window and curtains, and welcomed the summer morning breeze.

"Hey, tell me, my senpai in life. What should I give my friend for his birthday?"

"What? What are you talking about so early in the morning?"

"Again, I'm talking about a present for my friend's birthday. I mean, if it was a girl you can find that info in a magazine, but I don't have any magazines where it says what to give a male friend for their birthday."

"Usually, you don't give anything to male friends. But I mean, clearly all of your friends are baseball otakus, so why not give them the latest Dokaben manga?"

"Are you saying that on purpose, since you know I don't like Dokaben? Besides he doesn't like baseball, he likes soccer."

"Ah, soccer? That's probably because we had the World Cup here last year. Then you could just get him some Beckham goods. Everyone is still talking about Beckham all the time."

"Don't fall asleep, Shouri! Aniki! O, oniichan~"

"Okay"

I wish he wouldn't make me call him oniichan just so that he would stay awake. Shouri, still wrapped in his towel, opened his eyes and sat on the bed.

"Hey, what did you do!? Don't turn off the air conditioner! Ah, well, Beckham's popularity has been rising lately. Did you know that even if all of his teammembers went to Roppongi, he was the only one who respected the restriction not to go out?"

"Ah, he's the type who goes to sleep at 9pm. Yeah, I get that."

"And the following morning, the only one who arrived for breakfast on time was Beckham-sama, did you know that?"

"Yeah, eating properly in the morning is important for me too. Yep, it's the way athletes should behave.... it's hot. No I mean, no, I can't! Murata is a fan of someone from the German team. Beckham doesn't look German."

"What? Germany? A guy from Germany (doitsu no doitsu)"... that's something he learned from dad.

"Indeed, there was  someone who was very energetic (力), no I mean... with Ka(カ) in their names, uh... Cu...cu....cu...cu curve?<ref>Murata likes Oliver Khan. The kanji for energetic/power looks like this 力. The katakana 'ka' for Khan looks like this カ . But curve ('ka-bu' in Japanese) and carp (ka-pu in Japanese) also contain カ, so as Yuuri and Shouri think of the name Khan, they say those words.</ref>"

"Oniichan, you don't remember a player like that, right?"

"Uh... then it should be cu(カ), cu(カ), cu(カ)... carp? Ah, no, no, that's the team from Hiroshima<ref>He's thinking of "Hiroshima Toyo Carp", a baseball team in Hiroshima.</ref>. Kakakaka...."  ((カ)(カ)(カ)(カ))







"So what do you think? I want to meet you today, so hurry up and come dashing."

By the time I got home after getting the item I went looking, it was evening. Murata appeared on his bike, smiling bitterly while looking at me, who was running, covered in sweat. Does this guy know what dashing means?

"Well, whatever. At any point Murata, Congratulations on you birthday. I didn't know that your birthday was two days after mine. No, but really, I was thinking long and hard what to get you, and I didn't have a lot of money, so I could only get you this. Here."

"..... Karl....  what is this? Uwah, something came out. It's the weird character that's popular now. It's a strap and a towel of Mr. Pitch<ref>This http://www.sports-ws.com/img/item/FG6JO01/FG6JO010.jpg</ref>."

"Well, you see, my older brother said that you would like this. But actually I only see a tamaboko table with mold on it."

"Well, I'd gladly accept this , but you know what Shibuya?"

"Yes?"

"My birthday has already passed."

"What?"

My mouth was so wide open that a grasshopper could bite my tongue.

"But this morning, on TV, they talked about a Murataken. Someone with glasses, who was very smart.... a sage (kenja)"

"I was watching that too but, Shibuya, didn't you get me mixed up with Harry Potter?"

"Harry Potter? Ah... but someone said Murata Ken...."

"But say, wasn't "Nomura Takeshi-kun", a 4 year old boy?" 

WHAT!?

Harry Potter from England, and Nomura Takeshi-kun from Katsushika-Ku (tokyo), Happy Birthday on July 31st.





Who's the friend that was born today?■





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