Picking a Birthday Gift as a Loner
After Lee Narin’s birthday slipped by almost without anyone noticing, the next morning finally dawned.
But from the moment the sun came up, Yu Somi gathered all of us together and opened her mouth with a grave expression.
"I stand before everyone gathered here today to denounce the dreadful crime I learned of last night..."
"Is this a mafia game?"
"Ahem! Ian. No unnecessary commentary!"
"..."
"Cough... What I bring before you all today is this: this young lady here, Lee Narin, committed the shocking offense of planning to spend her birthday alone without telling her friends!"
With dramatic, theatrical solemnity, Somi announced that Narin’s birthday had been yesterday.
Of course, everyone had already been told, because I had called every one of them myself, so nobody reacted with much surprise.
Still, Somi seemed determined to see through the concept she’d chosen, and kept up her exaggerated tone without a hint of shame.
"So I hereby strongly demand that this weekend we hold a birthday party at Narin’s house!"
To me, it sounded like a perfectly reasonable idea.
After all, Narin herself had said she didn’t especially enjoy being alone at home.
That was why I’d suggested yesterday that she invite her friends over.
But if you really thought about it, being alone in a house with only one friend you’d known for a short while could easily get awkward once the conversation dried up, and that might have made things even more uncomfortable.
If several of us went to Narin’s house together, though, there’d at least be less risk of that miserable silence that comes when nobody has anything left to say.
So I decided to throw my support behind Somi’s proposal for now.
...That said, when I looked at Narin herself, her eyes were slightly wide and she seemed genuinely flustered.
Apparently, the idea of having a birthday party at her house had not been discussed with her in advance...
As that thought crossed my mind, Song Changwon, who had been dragged here simply because he was connected to Narin, seemed to have arrived at the same conclusion and voiced a skeptical opinion to Somi.
"A birthday party? That might be fine. But is Narin okay with it? If she didn’t mention her birthday because she wanted to spend it quietly by herself, we could end up causing trouble."
Honestly, his words were perfectly sensible.
I did know Narin didn’t like being alone at home, but even so, this was the kind of thing that was hard to push through without hearing the person involved out first.
However, Somi immediately fired back at Changwon.
"What are you talking about? A friend's birthday obviously exists for their friends, doesn’t it? If it’s a day for a friend, what are you supposed to do if you don’t call the friends?"
"...?"
Changwon was left speechless.
He was probably trying to make sense of what Somi had just said.
I understood. I wasn’t entirely sure what the hell she was talking about either.
Then Han Sia joined in and agreed with Somi’s opinion as well.
"I’m in favor. I wanted to see for myself where Narin lives, and if we investigate the house, it’ll be easier to figure out what she’s up to."
"...There’s something deeply suspicious about the way you said that. Are you really coming to a party?"
"Heh... I merely thought I’d like to learn more about my friend in detail."
Han Sia still seemed to be keeping an eye on the faction Narin belonged to, and on the reason she had transferred here.
Still... while I appreciated that she was helping push things toward holding the birthday party, wasn’t it a problem if the actual birthday girl ended up resenting it?
Somi was the same, but if this kept going, it was starting to sound like we were barging into someone’s house just because we disliked them and causing a scene there.
...
So I decided to say something that might catch Narin’s interest.
"If we go to this birthday party, let’s each prepare a gift. Think of it as both a birthday present and a housewarming gift. If there’s anything you want, say it without holding back."
"A birthday present..."
As soon as I brought up gifts, the wariness that had been building in Narin’s face eased a little.
At this rate, it seemed I wouldn’t have to worry about Narin herself derailing the party before it even happened.
But setting her guard down was one thing; actually having something she wanted to receive right away was another.
"I thought about it, but there’s nothing my house really needs anymore. And if I pile up too many consumables, that becomes a problem too..."
Hm... Narin seemed to have less of a materialistic streak than I’d expected.
If it were me, I’d probably ask for the gift to come with the receipt and then return anything useless for cash.
Then Somi, who had been listening to us, brightened as if she’d had a brilliant idea.
"Then let’s play a simple game!"
"A game?"
"Yep! We’ll each pick out a present, then give it to Narin without telling her who prepared which one! And then Narin picks the one she likes best... and the person who gave that gift gets some kind of reward in return!"
At Somi’s words, Narin’s eyes lit up.
"Oh... that sounds kind of fun. I’d like to try guessing who picked which gift, too."
"Right? And as for the reward... how about making it a request, anything at all, as long as it’s within what Narin is willing to agree to?"
To that, Changwon surprisingly reacted.
He had been looking indifferent just a moment ago, but after hearing Somi’s suggestion, he seemed to have changed his mind.
"Depending on the content of the reward, I imagine I’d become quite motivated to choose a present. That’s not bad."
Changwon seemed more interested in the favor he could ask of Narin than in the game itself...
Had there been something he’d wanted to ask her for a while now?
"Good. Then this Saturday, we’ll hold a birthday party and a housewarming party at Narin’s house. That’s okay with you, right, Narin?"
"Yeah. I’m looking forward to it."
After that, we spent a little while discussing the details of the birthday party before going back to our own classes.
Even though Narin was the guest of honor, it would have been too much for her to handle all the preparations on her own, since she lived alone.
So we decided that Narin would prepare the decorations and little items to use at the party herself, while everyone would split the cost of things like delivery food for the day.
***
That afternoon after school, I went into the commercial district with Han Sia to pick out Narin’s birthday present.
Originally, Somi had been supposed to meet up with us too, but something came up and she said she couldn’t make it because she had to go to a relative’s funeral home.
Even so, Sia and I weren’t exactly free either.
It was still a weekday, after all, so Sia had academy classes and I had a part-time job on the schedule, which meant we didn’t have much time to spend choosing a gift.
Maybe that was why, once we arrived in the shopping district, Sia asked me,
"Have you decided what kind of birthday present you’re getting? We don’t have much time, so I figured we should at least know what we’re buying beforehand... but I still haven’t decided."
"I don’t know if my opinion will help, but I’m thinking of getting her something for self-defense. She seems pretty wary in general because she lives alone as a girl, and she also seemed unexpectedly interested in martial arts and that kind of thing. A Samdanbong would probably be a good fit, don’t you think?"
I was confident in my choice.
The Samdanbong was reasonably priced, durable, easy to store since it could be collapsed when not in use, and practical because it was a safety item.
But after hearing me out, Han Sia looked at me with a cold gaze and said,
"Even so, a Samdanbong as a birthday gift for a girl? I’ll decide what a good gift for my birthday is, so don’t go choosing whatever you want."
"That bad, huh..."
I thought it was a pretty decent gift.
Having a way to fight back against an intruder would, by itself, be reassuring.
But what mattered wasn’t Sia’s opinion; it was Narin’s reaction.
For all I knew, Narin might actually like a Samdanbong, so I didn’t change my mind and bought one at a self-defense shop.
.
.
.
Han Sia, who still hadn’t picked out Narin’s birthday gift, kept circling around the shopping district over and over.
For that matter, I’d assumed Sia didn’t particularly like Narin, so I figured she’d just choose something suitable and be done with it.
But seeing her agonize like this over a birthday present made it clear that Sia didn’t actually hate Narin either.
Eventually, the place where her steps came to a stop was a claw machine shop.
"A claw machine? You can buy stuffed animals at the supermarket too..."
"Those are too small. What I want is a stuffed animal big enough for Narin to wrap both arms around. Even if I ordered something like that online, it probably wouldn’t arrive in time, so I have no choice but to win it here."
Sia’s eyes were fixed on a huge bear plush displayed inside the claw machine, which used a prize recommendation system.
So I looked at the display case along with her, and the bear she was targeting was black, with a size just a little larger than Narin herself when she sat down.
Honestly... imagining Narin, whose skin and hair were both so white, hugging a huge black bear like that made me smile without meaning to.
Still, machines like this had a notorious reputation for having absurdly low odds, to the point that you’d wonder whether anything could actually be won at all.
And the giant bear Sia was after was, in fact, the first-prize item in this machine.
To be blunt, given how claw machines work, with no way to know whether a prize is even in there until someone has spent enough money to empty the entire machine, I thought it was wrong to throw money at one for the sake of giving a friend a birthday present.
So I tried to talk her out of it several times, but Sia’s resolve was already far too firm to stop.
"I know perfectly well that the odds of a decent prize coming out of one of these machines are absurdly low. But then all I have to do is force the machine to spit out every capsule inside until I get the first-prize item. And if I empty every capsule and there still isn’t a winner, then I’ll just report the claw-machine operator."
Honestly, a bear like that looked like something you could probably buy online for under fifty thousand won, but... I guess a rich girl’s sense of money really was different from that of ordinary people.
Before she even started, Han Sia had already gone to an ATM and withdrawn one hundred thousand won in cash.
And so began the deathmatch between me and her and the claw machine.
---