KOF School

Mysterious

With Christmas over, now they had something else in their hands.
Shogatsu!
At least, that was the case for most, unlike the Nanakases who had a little something going on before that as well.
Yashiro was still unaware of whatever his parents were planning for his birthday, let alone the fact that his friends had something up their own sleeves as well. Of course, he was still completely oblivious to all of that, even continuing his musician job at the cafe.
Masaomi was surprised when he appeared, without his disguise, and proceeded to start playing on stage. He was so confused about why Yashiro was there when another guy worked there.
"I'm just filling in for him," Yashiro answered when the management asked him. "Shiroya's my friend, he's unwell so I'm here for him."
Masaomi didn't think so. For starters, Yashiro was just as good at playing the guitar as this 'Shiroya' was. Secondly, he had the same kind of body language, the same way of holding the guitar, and the same way of playing it. He even had the same stature and build, how was that not suspicious?
Just as Yashiro stepped off the stage, Masaomi pulled him aside.
"Don't think you can fool me with that act, Shiroya," Masaomi squinted his eyes at him. "Just because you reshuffled the characters of your name, that doesn't hide what you've done."
Yashiro sighed, defeated. "Uncle. Nothing that you don't know. I just needed a way to get an earning last week and this seemed like a good choice. Please don't tell anyone."
Masaomi nodded. "Fine. Does anyone else know about this?"
"Your children do," Yashiro shrugged. "They caught me when they came here the other day."
"Those two..." Masaomi sighed, realising that a lot had been happening behind his back. "Never mind, you get home. It's the holidays, after all."
Yashiro bowed and ran off. Masaomi frowned and grabbed his bass to get on stage, meaning to confront Iori and Aiko about this later.

"You knew where that Yashiro boy was the whole time he was missing last week?" Masaomi demanded as soon as he barged into the house and spotted his family watching TV in the living room. "And you guys snuck around behind me."
"Me?" Kazuhiro pointed to himself in surprise.
Masaomi groaned. "Not you, Hiro." He turned to Iori and Aiko, who sat with their mouths full of leftover Christmas snacks. "You! You knew that Yashiro was fine the whole time, right?"
Iori swallowed his mouthful of food. "What?"
"Iori... I just spoke to that boy today, it turns out that he's the Shiroya that's been replacing the original guitarist. And he also told me that you knew. You and Aiko both."
"He still comes to the cafe?" Iori asked in surprise. "That guy!"
"Iori!" Masaomi reminded.
"Fine, remember how he was staring at us when we came over the other day?" Iori sighed. "We spotted him tagging the wall behind the cafe."
"Yeah, the cafe hired him to make a mural," Masaomi nodded. "How did you know it was him?"
Aiko nudged her brother. "Niisan thought he was a vandal and took a video of him. Yashiro saw us and confronted us, but he didn't recognise us since we wore helmets and told us to delete the video but Niisan said no. Then he pointed out that he was actually hired to paint the wall and Niisan was like 'Oh' and then he called Yashiro out for staring at us on stage, Yashiro started running, and we chased him, and yeah. Niisan somehow found out and Yashiro told us what happened."
"So... did he run away because of you, then?" Kazuhiro piped up, giving him a knowing look.
Iori shook his head. "No. It's because the fight with his mother had a continuation that day. So yeah, that was his breaking point and he ran away and stayed in that Chris boy's house for a week."
"Who is this Chris?" Masaomi asked.
"That boy, Yashiro's friend that spoke to us the other day with that red-hair girl," Iori said. "They're best friends. Yashiro took cover there and went undercover to travel around and work in your cafe."
Masaomi shook his head, speechless. "So much has been happening... he was right under my nose for an entire week and I didn't know." He eyed them with a look of betrayal. "But you two did."
"And they even went to see Yashiro's mother," Kazuhiro added. "It was the same day, wasn't it?"
"Yeah..." Aiko nodded. "We didn't know to tell you. But Yashiro's back, I think his relationship with his mother improved too."
Masaomi nodded. "Yeah... he actually seemed happier today than he was the other day. You guys should be detectives one day."
The teenagers grinned sheepishly.

Yashiro sat himself down in front of the TV, listening to some music as he worked on his manuscript. The front door suddenly opened and Yoshiro stepped in, carrying a large red cake box. He stopped short when he spotted Yashiro on the couch, looking at him, but just grinned as he made his way to the kitchen. Yoshiro brought the cake in front of him in an effort to hide it from his view even when the damage was already done. Yashiro sighed and shook his head, going right back to his manuscript as if he hadn't seen anything. Nope, not at all.
He soon decided to make his way up to his room since it was getting a bit too much, his parents discussing rather loudly about what to do for his birthday, all the while peeking into the living room to make sure that he wasn't listening. Of course, they bought Yashiro's act of not hearing anything, which was true, but he still knew that something was up.
And he definitely knew the subject of their discussion too.
So he turned the TV off and quietly made his up to his room, deciding to give his friends a video call instead.

"It's Yashiro!" Shermie panicked when she saw his ID on her phone. "And he's video-calling us!"
Chris panicked too. "Oh no! And he doesn't know that I'm here!"
"You answer your phone in the living room, I'll be up in my room," Shermie said, running up the stairs to go to her room. "I'll close the door so that he won't hear you."
Chris nodded and raced off to one of the living room couches, answering the call from Yashiro. Instantly, Yashiro's face filled the screen.
"Hi!" Chris cheerfully greeted.
"Where's Shermie?" Yashiro asked.
Shermie answered at once, lying on her bed with a smile. "Yashiro! Hi!"
"What's up?" Chris asked. "Any news?"
"Yeah, my parents are very unsuccessfully hiding things from me," Yashiro sighed. "It's for my birthday, I can already smell it."
"Oh," Chris nodded. "Yeah, it's coming up, isn't it?"
"Yeah, too bad I'll be flying off to France then," Shermie added, nodding.
"Oh... now that's a shame," Yashiro sighed. "But at least, Chris would be here, right?"
"I... I would?" Chris said, surprised that the subject of the matter suddenly landed on him. He smiled finally decided on smiling sheepishly. "But I'm not sure. My dad said that we might go back to Sweden."
Yashiro looked downhearted, realising that both of his friends were going to abandon him on his birthday. "Well, okay then. But you guys better bring me some European snacks. Okay?"
"Yeah, sure thing," Chris nodded. "Just name it, I'll get it for you."
Yashiro started complaining about how his parents were up to something behind his back.
"I'm not blaming them, but it's just so awkward to be there while they're unsuccessfully discussing a surprise. It's like they think of it as some sort of top-secret mission."
"That actually sounds kinda fun," Shermie grinned, sitting up. "Enjoy."
Just then, Shermie's living room clock rang. It was the unmistakable Westminster chime that Yashiro always heard whenever he visited her home.
But it came from Chris's end.
"Chris, are you at Shermie's?" Yashiro asked, leaning closer to his tablet screen, much to the others' dismay.
Chris gulped. "No?"
"Don't lie, since when you have a musical clock?"
"My family just got one... for Christmas!"
"Then why are your cushion covers the same as Shermie's too?"
Yashiro was surprised when both of his friends immediately ended the call, leaving him to stare at his tablet.