He goes about the rest of his day.

When Shuichi managed to get back to his friends’ table, he managed to get most of the lipstick on his face off, but it was still clear to anyone that looked at him - even Gonta - that he had been pretty busy.

“Oh, there you are, Shuichi! It’s good to see you again!” Makoto greeted, his face a little bit flushed from the beer he’d been drinking. “What took you so long!”

“Heh, I don’t think you really need to ask that question, do you?” Kaito asked, a stripper with bright green hair currently giving him a lapdance.

“Aw, man! Seriously? Talk about one lucky bastard!” Kazuichi grumbled. “So, which one did you get to do it with? The blonde? The cowgirl? All three? Did you get to do anything really kinky?”

“W-well, we, uh… we may have-” Shuichi began to stammer, only for Kaito to cut him off.

“Hey, man; don’t be like that! You know a real man never kisses and tells!” Kaito scolded playfully.

“I know, I know, but can you blame me for being curious?” Kazuichi groaned. “Oh, by the way, they saved some of the cake from earlier if you want it and, you know… don’t mind it tasting like stripper.”

“Uh, that’s fine; I think I’ll be fine without it,” Shuichi answered. “A-anyways, thanks for taking me here, guys but… I think I’ve had enough for tonight. Is it okay if I head home to relax now?”

“Don’t worry, it’s fine! If you’re done for the night, that’s your decision to make, man!” Kaito replied. “Besides, I’m sure we can still have plenty of fun on our own anyway! Right guys?”

“Whoo, oh yeah! Totally!” Kazuichi cheered. “Hey, bartender! Do you think we could get another round of drinks over here?”

“Coming right up,” Hiroko replied as she began carrying a tray from across the room. Along the way, she passed Shuichi on his way to the exit and paused for a moment. “Hey, hold on a moment! Your name’s Shuichi, right?” she spoke up over the music. “You didn’t happen to see Lisa at all when you were, did you?”

“Huh? You mean the nurse stripper?” Shuichi asked, stopping in his tracks. “No… why do you ask?”

“Ah.” Hiroko’s lips seemed to roll an invisible cigarette between them as her eyelids subtly drooped. “No reason, hun. Have a safe drive home, okay? The rain has let up, but the roads are still slick.”

“Uh… alright. You have a good night too.” With that, Shuichi waved Hiroko and his friends goodbye and left the strip club behind to catch a bus back to his office parking lot, blissfully unaware of the lives that he had altered that night.

Once he retrieved his car and drove back home, Shuichi found the presents that Rantaro and Marisa had left for him outside his apartment door: a vintage vinyl record player with a few copies of Rantaro’s favorite albums, and some bags full of trendy clothes.

“Happy birthday, Shuichi,” said Rantaro’s handwritten note. “This old thing had been collecting dust in the music shop for a while, so I hope you can put it to good use. My sisters all want you to know that they send their love as well, and they hope to see you again soon.”

“Ah… that was sweet of them.” Shuichi smiled and brought all his new gifts into his apartment. “I still can’t believe that I somehow forgot about my birthday… I’m going to have to make sure that never happens again.”

With that, Shuichi began cooking up his dinner for the night and called his parents, apologizing profusely for not answering their call to him earlier. He made sure to chat with them as long as he could, even as he ate, until it finally came time to shower and head out to Kokai Park to meet up with Maki and Mukuro.

At the park, he found the two girls exactly where they always were, though instead of chatting they seemed to be in the middle of squaring off with one another, pacing around in a circle in battle stances as they each searched for weaknesses.

“Uh… am I interrupting something?” Shuichi asked awkwardly.

“Ah! My apologies, Shuichi.” Mukuro turned to Shuichi and bowed. “You aren’t interrupting anything; just a friendly sparring match is all.”

“Phew… for a second I thought you girls went back to square one there for a second.” Shuichi put down his gym bag and quickly glanced around for any signs of the bags he accidentally left in the park the night before. Naturally, the bags were nowhere to be seen. “So, how were your days? Did you manage to find the laundry room okay?”

“Yeah, it wasn’t that difficult,” Maki replied. “We also met a neighbor of yours while we were there; calls herself ‘Tendou’ and says that you met at some maid restaurant.”

“Oh yeah; she’s a pretty nice woman, even if she can be a little strange at times,” Shuichi replied as he began to stretch. “Did anything else exciting happen while I was gone?”

“Not really; though I did manage to finally pawn off that orgy statue of yours. The customer I found was… more than willing to take it.” Maki reached into one of her pockets and took out a small stack of bills. “Here’s the money that got me.”

“Oh, no, you can keep it! It’s the least I can do to pay you back for cleaning up my apartment earlier,” Shuichi said, putting up his hands. “And, besides… money’s actually not much of a problem for me right now.”

“Alright… if you say so.” Maki put the cash back into her pocket. “I still have your key, though; any chance that you’d like that back?”

“No; you can keep that too,” Shuichi replied. “You never know when you might want to drop by and, besides; I only need one key, right?”

“Yeah… I guess so.” Maki nodded and gave Shuichi a quick bow of respect. “I promise not to use this lightly.”

“So, how was your day, Shuichi?” Mukuro cut in as Maki began stretching as well. “You already look pretty exhausted, and we haven’t even started working out yet. Did something happen today while you were out?”

“Well, I guess you could say that.” Shuichi laughed nervously. “Today ended up being a bit more exciting than I expected it to be… though, I really should have seen it coming. I mean, it did turn out to be my birthday.”

“Wait… are you being serious right now?” Mukuro froze in her stretches. “It’s your birthday today?”

“Yeah, I am; there was a surprise party at the office and everything,” Shuichi replied, deciding to leave out the bits about the strip club for now.

“Well, why didn’t you tell us about it this morning then?” Maki asked, pouting at Shuichi. “If we knew, then we would have gotten you a present, you idiot.”

“I-I’m sorry, but I… might have actually forgotten what today actually was,” Shuichi admitted, nearly embarrassed out of his shoes. “It’d just been so long since I had a proper celebration that I just thought today was a normal day. You girls don’t have to get me anything, though, really; I already got enough from my coworkers already.”

“Well, your birthday still isn’t over, right? That means we can still do something.” Mukuro put her things back into her bag before helping her friends put their things away as well. “Come on, I know just the place nearby we can go.”

“Th-this isn’t necessary, honestly,” Shuichi tried to insist, but Mukuro refused to listen and kept guiding him by the hand.

“You really should have thought of that before for not telling us about your birthday earlier,” Maki said, hopping into Shuichi’s car. “So, where do you plan on taking us, Mukuro?”

“Oh, just a place that my sisters and I go whenever we have our shared birthday together,” Mukuro replied, casually stealing Shuichi’s keys as she got into the front seat and turned the convertible on. “Trust me; no place does birthdays better than this one.”

“Ah… not this again…” Shuichi thought to himself as he let out a long sigh and the car pulled out of the parking lot. “Oh well… I might as well let them have this; it’s not like I have the energy to exercise anyway. And it’s not like she’s going to take me somewhere even more outrageous than a strip club, right?”