Some well-wishes.

Shuichi swiped open his phone and finally noticed the backlog of messages and notifications that had built up during the morning.

“Oh shoot; I was so busy worrying about being fired that I didn’t notice my parents were calling me,” Shuichi silently chastised himself. “I hope they’re not mad at me for not answering.”

Shuichi tried to call them, but it went to voicemail.

“I guess they must be busy… I’ll have to call back when I get home tonight.” Shuichi sighed and switched from his missed-calls to his text messages. There, he found a long line of happy birthday wishes from his friends and acquaintances. He was flattered and grateful to see them all, of course, but he couldn’t help but feel even more like an idiot for not realizing it was his birthday earlier. The most recent message seemed to be from Rantaro, so he opened it first.

“Hey there Shuichi! I saw on your messenger profile that it’s your birthday today, so I just wanted to wish you a good one. I’m stuck here at Okama right now, but I left a little something in your apartment mailbox. Let me know what you think when you get a chance!” The message read.

“Thank you, Rantaro! I’ll let you know when I check it out, but that might be a while since coworker’s got some special plans for me after work apparently.” Shuichi wrote back. It was a short message, but Rantaro was a pretty relaxed sort of person, so he probably wouldn’t mind waiting some extra time until Shuichi could inspect whatever he’d been gifted.

The next message was from Sayaka, and it seemed to have an attachment. “Hi Shuichi!!” It began cheerfully. “I bet you’re wondering how I knew it was your birthday today. Welllll… you probably already know how!” Shuichi chuckled, marveling at the idol’s intuition. He wondered if perhaps she’d gotten his birthday out of another one of his friends somehow, since he knew actually guessing it would have been impossible. “Anyway, I hope you’re having a great time, and to celebrate, I worked with Pitch to do a cover of one of our old singles. It’s a little rough since we whipped it up on short notice, but I think you’ll still love it!”

Not wanting to keep her waiting, Shuichi dug into his pocket and grabbed a tangled pair of headphones, which he kept around in case he needed to listen to something without disturbing his coworkers. Soon he was swept up in the sounds of rock and roll. Pitch’s signature screams rang out over the instrumental, with Yuki’s strong melodic voice somehow complementing the piece, though her tone seemed to be wavering, especially during the more energetic parts of the song. After the song ended, he sent his reply.

“That sounded pretty great, even for a rough cut! It’s amazing how different you sounded compared to your normal voice, though! It’s no wonder that no one has figured out that Yuki and Kuro are the same person yet,” Shuichi wrote. “How do you even do that?”

Sayaka’s response was almost immediate. “Oh, that’s simple; practice! Lots and lots of practice! It’s good to know that, even after all these years, I’m still able to pull off that voice! Pitch wasn’t quite as impressed, but her ears are a lot more picky than most.”

“Well, I guess you can’t please everyone,” Shuichi sent back. “Regardless, thank you so much for the gift. And it’s great to hear that you and Pitch are doing music together again too!”

“You’re welcome!” Sayaka texted back proudly. “Oh, and I hope you don’t mind, but I told the rest of Snow white that it was your birthday too, and they insisted that they give you a gift as well. You may want to be somewhere private before you look at it, though.”

Sayaka then sent a picture of the idols that Shuichi had sex with a few nights before, each of them smiling and winking at the camera as they sat naked in a bathtub together, soap and water just barely covering the more intimate areas of their bodies. Ivory was posing as though she were blowing him a kiss, her eyes playful. Glimmer and Andromeda, meanwhile, were suspiciously reaching one of their hands towards each other’s groin while winking at the camera, though the bubbles conveniently hid what was likely taking place. Last but not least, Swan daintily held a champagne glass while beaming a huge smile, her legs crossed in a relaxed manner. Shuichi didn’t have to imagine what any of the girls looked like underneath the water, though, and he blushed as he was reminded of how intimately he had gotten to know each of their curves.

“Wow… I had no idea that they were that close to each other,” Shuichi replied. “Tell them I said thanks for that, okay? It honestly feels like too much of an honor to have something like that on my phone.”

“Of course, Shuichi! Have a great rest of your birthday!” Sayaka wrote before hitting send one last time.

The next message Shuichi looked at was from Rantaro’s sister, Marisa.

“Heya Shuichi!!!! I was looking through some of your old photos on your social media, and I saw that it was your birthday today. So, congratulations on the birth! I hope you’re having fun and making tons of memories. <3” Marisa texted.

“Thanks for the message Marisa.” Shuichi texted back.

“You’re welcome!” she texted back with a gif of a puppy falling over bashfully. “Did your girlfriend give you a special gift? Or will that happen later tonight?”

“Ah, no; I’m afraid not,” Shuichi answered. “I should’ve told you about it sooner, but I got caught up with a lot of things on Sunday. Things between Ruruka and I… didn’t work out. It’s complicated, but it’s probably for the best that we stopped seeing each other.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that Shuichi.” Marisa texted instantly. “It sucks that it didn’t work out in the end, but you shouldn’t be down about it either. Personally, I think she messed up in the end by not sticking with you. Her loss. Plus, there’s plenty of fish in the sea; I’m sure you’ll find someone who fits you eventually.”

“Thanks for the encouragement Marisa.” Shuichi replied back. “But right now, I think it’s probably for the best if I don’t worry about that kind of stuff right now. I’d rather just let romance happen if it happens, you know?”

“Oh, I’ve got you! That’s a good idea for saving yourself some stress,” Marisa texted back. “Though, if you ever feel really lonely, I could probably hook you up with one of my sisters if you want!”

“I’ll, uh… keep that in mind,” Shuichi replied, wondering which one she could have meant.

“Oh, I just remembered, I have a special surprise for you!” Marisa then sent an attachment that was an image of something. When Shuichi clicked to open the photo, it was revealed to be Marisa modeling for a photo shoot. She was out on a pier or dock, wearing a striking red dress that stood against the bluish-gray skies behind her. A second image soon followed, a slightly different angle with the breeze fluttering her dress behind her as she stared out at the open sea.

“What do you think? I wanted you to be the first person to see it before it gets released to the magazine next week.”

“You look amazing Marisa!” Shuichi replied. “I’m sure the magazine is going to be more than satisfied with it.”

“Aw, thank you! That’s very flattering. You wouldn’t mind if I send you more of these types of photos every now and again?” Marisa asked.

“Sure, I wouldn’t mind,” Shuichi answered.

“Good! Perhaps I might even share with you some really exclusive photos just for you one day as well,” she added. “Heh, just kidding! Man, I wish I could have seen the look on your face when I sent that one.”

“Y-yeah, you definitely got me good,” Shuichi texted, though part of him couldn’t help but wonder if she was really kidding or not.

“And before I go, I just want to say that you need to text me when you see what Rantaro and I both got for you! You’re going to absolutely love it, I’m sure!”

Shuichi agreed and closed out of the conversation. He looked through the rest of his messages, but he found that most of the other well-wishes were from people who had attended his party earlier, so he marked all those as read.

But before putting his phone away, Shuichi decided that he had one more person in mind that he wanted to text. He scrolled through his contact list and found “Kae”. Nervously, he began typing her a message, subconsciously reminding himself to be careful not to call her by her real name - as far as she knew, that was still a secret.

“Hey there Kae. I know that things didn’t exactly go the smoothest last time we talked, but I just… wanted to see if we’re still on good terms. I’d hate to leave things on such an awkward note, you know?” Shuichi hesitated, wondering if he should have waited longer. It had only been a few days since she said she didn’t want to be romantically involved with him, after all.

Building his resolve, however, he found the courage to press “send.”

After a nail-biting few minutes, the reply came in. “It’s good to hear from you again, Shuichi! Of course things are still fine between us. Like I said before, I think you’re a really great friend, but these kinds of things take time; it might be a while before we’re ready for anything else. I’d be more than willing to hang out again sometime if you’d like, though! We could even bring Komaru along too; she still talks about you sometimes at work, so I can tell she’d be happy to see you again.”

The black-haired boy sighed in relief and wiped the sweat that had gathered on his forehead. Kaede turning him down was one thing, but losing her friendship at this point was something he didn’t even want to think about.

Getting back to typing, he informed her, “Oh yeah, I just wanted to mention that it’s my birthday today, and my coworkers all held a little party for me at the office. It was a lot of fun, and I even got a new watch out of it.”

His phone buzzed moments later. “Awwwww, happy birthday! I wish you’d told me sooner, I could have gotten you a gift or something!” Shuichi couldn’t see Kaede pouting, but the cute cat emoji she sent did a good job of filling in the blank for him.

“Yeah, well, I would have mentioned it earlier if I hadn’t… kinda forgotten about itt,” Shuichi admitted. “I know that sounds crazy, but it’s just been such a long time since anyone treated my birthday like it was a big deal. The last time I had a party was when I was eighteen, I think.”

“Seriously?!” Kaede sent Shuichi an ascii image of a gasping face. “Geez, I’m sorry to hear that. But at least you finally got another party today, right? And your coworkers must be super nice if they went out of the way to do that for you.”

“Yeah, they definitely are,” Shuichi replied. “Though, sometimes I wonder if they care about me a bit too much.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’re just exaggerating!” Kaede insisted. “Anyways, I should probably get going. I need to meet up with another client soon and I need to finish getting ready. I’ll talk to you again later though! Take care of yourself and enjoy the rest of your birthday, okay?”

“Sure thing, Kae. And thank you. I hope to see you again soon!” With that final message sent, he opened up his group messages with Maki and Mukuro. He had barely laid a finger on the screen, however, when he heard someone walking up to his desk.

“And what do you think you’re doing?” Haruka asked as she stood behind Shuichi, her arms crossed and her foot tapping. “Just because we threw a party for you doesn’t mean you can goof-off all day on your phone, you know.”

“Er, well, I’m actually a bit ahead of my work right now, Mrs. Nakamura. You can take a look yourself if you’d like.” Shuichi moved out of the way of his computer to show the completed reports. “So I just decided to take a bit of a break, is all.”

“Hmph… so you are.” Haruka huffed as if she was disappointed that she didn’t get to scold him further. “But you still shouldn’t be on your phone so much at work - it makes you look unprofessional.”

Haruka then stormed out of the cubicle with a blush, leaving Shuichi alone until Korekiyo walked in a moment later.

“Keheheh… I must say, I am quite impressed, Mr. Saihara,” she said with her usual creepy laugh. “I didn’t expect you to handle that situation quite so calmly. The Shuichi I knew just a year ago would have cowered at the thought of being confronted by a superior like that - let alone one what was also a woman.”

“I… guess I’m not quite the same person I was back then,” pausing a moment to wonder if his past self from even a month ago would recognize the person he was today.

“Yes, I must agree… you’re much smoother, fitter, more confident… assertive.” Korekiyo laughed some more. “Some may even go as far to say that you’ve started to become more… dominant around the office as well.”

“Uh…” Shuichi began to sweat. He did not like the way that the taller woman was looking at him. “Was there something that I could help you with, Ms. Shinguji?”

“Oh, no; I just heard you say that you were finished with your work early and I came to verify that myself.” Korekiyo looked past Shuichi and read the reports on his computer. “It seems that you were not exaggerating, though, which is good. I do know that the finance department will be releasing something for you to do soon, however, and it may take the rest of the day to finish.”

“Thank you, Ms. Shinguji. I’ll get ready to work on it right away,” Shuichi replied, turning back to his computer.

“Now, I didn’t say that they’d be releasing it right now, did I?” the head of human resources asked. “You still have some time; time that I would not mind if you spent it running some errands if you need to. For example, I would recommend stopping by a bank or ATM if you’re low on cash before leaving with Mr. Momota this afternoon. Trust me when I say that you’ll be needing it.”

“Huh? But I thought he was the one getting a gift for me, not the other way around,” said Shuichi.

“Indeed, but what he is getting you is less of an object and more of an… opportunity,” Korekiyo explained. “Ah, how I wish that I could attend the event with you myself, but I’m afraid due to my gender and higher station that I was not invited. As Mr. Momota explained in his own special way, this is to be a male bonding experience.” Korekiyo laughed again and turned to leave. “I am sure that you’ll enjoy yourself, though. Mr. Momota is often wrong about a lot of things, but I believe that this gift will fit you perfectly~”

“Okay, I'll be sure to make a quick stop by my bank and be back as soon as I can.” Shuichi turned off his computer and gathered up his things before heading toward the stairwell that led to the exit. But, before he could get there, he noticed Margaret staring at him with a blush from a nearby water cooler.

“Oh, hello there Ms. Kayano; it’s nice to see you again,” Shuichi greeted with his bag hanging from his shoulder. “Is there something bothering you? You look a little bit… distressed.”

“I-it’s nothing, really; I’m fine.” Margaret replied, looking away. “It’s just… can you really not remember the last time you played that card game when you were younger.”

“Not really… though I do seem to recall having a lot of fun with the person I played them with,” Shuichi answered. “Huh, now that I mention it, I can’t quite remember who I played it with either… but I swear it’s on the tip of my tongue.”

Margaret’s eyes widened in anticipation as Shuichi closed his and placed a hand to his chin in deep thought.

“Hmm… Oh well; I suppose it doesn’t really matter in the end,” Shuichi concluded, giving up. “It was still a very nice gift though, Margaret. Even if it was small, I want you to know that I really appreciated it.”

“O-oh. You’re welcome, Mr. Saihara. I hope you’ll be able to get some use out of them.” Margaret’s shoulders subtly sunk. “I’ll see you around the office, okay? If you ever want to chat or… hang out, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Of course - I’ll keep that in mind for the future,” Shuichi assured her, turning back toward the exit. “See you later.”

With that, Shuichi left the building and went for his car, depositing his gifts in the trunk before driving to the bank - he wasn’t quite sure what he needed it for yet, but he already knew that if this was one of Kaito’s plans that things would probably get pretty crazy very soon.

Little did he know just how true that prediction would be...