Episode 37: Happy Birthday…
A certain night.
Yuno had drifted off to sleep around ten.
Once I’d confirmed her breathing had settled into a steady rhythm, I slipped quietly out of bed.
I was careful even with the sound of my own footsteps on the floor.
My purpose: just one thing.
To make a cake.
The whole thing had started from the smallest, most throwaway conversation.
Yuno had mentioned her birthday once, in passing, quite a while back now.
She herself had probably forgotten she’d ever said it.
But for some reason, it had stayed lodged in the back of my mind, ever since. Remembering and doing nothing about it felt wrong, out of character for me as that thought was — and a cake was what I’d landed on.
Tomorrow was Yuno’s birthday.
The day she turned twenty.
I had never once made a cake in my life.
Quietly buying ingredients I wasn’t familiar with, and hiding them at the back of the fridge, had taken real effort.
“Right.”
I rolled up my sleeves and lined the ingredients up in the kitchen.
— I can do this.
All I had to do was follow the measurements exactly.
Numbers are my strong suit. This shouldn’t be a match for me. There was no way it wouldn’t go according to plan.
With that confidence, I searched online and decided on a chiffon cake.
I’d deliberately picked a beginner’s recipe, so it should have been easy.
Sifted the flour, beat the eggs, combined everything in the bowl.
Exactly to measure. Faithful to the recipe.
Poured it into the tin, into the oven.
When the timer rang and I took it out… it hadn’t risen at all.
…A failure.
A deep sigh escaped me.
Biting back something close to a tongue-click, I started over from the beginning.
The second attempt, I burned.
By the third, I was simply stubborn about it.
The word “easy” had vanished from my head somewhere along the way. I prayed to whatever god might be listening for success.
I left the third cake to the oven, and exhaustion caught up with me — I slumped forward onto the table.
And just like that, my consciousness slowly dissolved away.
＊＊＊
Morning. I woke with a start, face still against the table.
A blanket’s weight on my shoulders.
At some point, Yuno must have draped it over me.
“Morning.”
“…Morning.”
Yuno peeked lightly at my face, then quietly opened the oven door.
“A cake?”
She tilted her head slightly, peering in, puzzled.
“…What’s this cake for?”
Ah——
I scrambled up and rushed to the cake, and sure enough, it was burnt.
The third attempt, also a failure. I held my head in my hands, a sigh leaking out of me.
“It’s a failure. …You don’t have to eat it.”
I answered, eyes sliding away on reflex, and Yuno tilted her head again, blank.
“Why are you baking a cake at all?”
“…Why, you ask. Today is… your, birthday, …after all.”
I dropped the words, looking down, quiet. My voice trailed off smaller and smaller as I went.
Stealing a sideways glance, Yuno’s eyes had gone round. Her ears were slowly reddening.
For a while she stayed silent, staring at the burnt chiffon cake. Then, gently, she pulled off a small piece with her fingers.
“Wai—, that definitely doesn’t taste good.”
Before I could stop her, her small mouth was already moving, chewing. Slowly, slowly, as if savouring it.
Eventually Yuno’s eyes narrowed, soft, and she smiled. The face turned toward me was a gentle smile.
“…It’s good.”
“Liar.”
“No. Out of every cake I’ve ever eaten, this is the best one. Thank you, Reina.”
“No, really, don’t worry about it. You don’t need to be considerate.”
“No.”
Yuno lowered her eyes gently and shook her head, slow.
“I haven’t really had my birthday celebrated much. And since I started getting picked up by people… I never even told anyone, not once.”
She gave a loose, easy laugh, then a small pause followed.
“That someone remembered, and I even got to eat cake. I’m happy.”
Something deep in my chest gave a sharp, stinging ache.
No, that’s not —
If only I’d managed to make something more presentable.
I should have prepared a present too.
I hated myself, thoroughly, for my own lack of thoughtfulness.
She was smiling, and yet her eyes were wet, her lips trembling faintly. Some kind of expression that looked, somehow, like she might start crying at any moment.
“Next year… I’ll make it better.”
“Next year, huh… Hehe. I’ll look forward to it.”
Yuno narrowed her eyes and smiled.
That smile looked mischievous, and at the same time fragile, fleeting — and something in my chest tightened, caught.
Before I knew it, I’d reached out and pulled her in.
And let the words drop, quietly.
“Happy birthday.”
I’d meant to say it out loud, but it came out hoarse, almost nothing but breath. Yuno gripped the back of my shirt, tight, in her fist.
That grip — I felt it, achingly dear to me.
More than anything, I wished that next year, on this same day, we could spend this same kind of time together, just the two of us.
And at the same time, a feeling rose up, simmering: if it meant protecting this happiness, I would do anything at all.