The Child of Tennis - Yukimura

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACKAL! It's been a long thirteen years of knowing you and I've always been grateful to have you as a friend. Thanks for sticking around for so long!

Happy Birthday, Bunta! It's been great knowing you so far; thank you for being such a good friend to me. I shall see you at your party today, with something nice, hopefully. Have a great day :)

In other words, I told Minoru about what went happened between myself and my father...I was expecting disapproval, but she asked why I hadn't hit him more. Good to know it's a family thing, and not just me. She keeps pestering me to bring her study books so she can finish reading up on engineering. I don't know whether to do it or not. It's not as strenuous as doing something physical is, but I have a feeling that she'll sleep less when she has her studying materials around her. Honestly, you'd think she enjoyed studying >>;

-Seiichi

Thank you for your wellwishes! My presents from fans has filled my garden and house! It's rather humbling and overwhelming to behold. Thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart. Minoru is appreciating the fact that she can eat all of my chocolate and I can't, so the fans made her happy too >>;

I got another huge surprise, this morning, however. My mother showed up on the doorstep of my house after nearly...four years of not really seeing her in person. To say I was surprised, would be something of an understatement. She looked okay, but as messy and unorganized as ever. I was sort of curious, as to why she'd remembered my birthday this year, but turns out she was only just replying to my message about Minoru's illness. Again, this mixed feeling between laughing and crying, considering I sent that message two and a half months ago. Why does she do this to me?

And she gets talkative when she's drunk, apparently. She started talking about why she had gotten so distant all of a sudden, when I was a kid. An explanation I would have liked a few years ago, frankly. And, it was perhaps a huge shock to discover that my father had been something of a womanizer and had been cheating on her behind her back with several women. In fact, he'd actually managed to have a kid with one of them, when I was two years old. Guess who's winning best parenting award? :D That's right, not this guy.

But I grew less impressed with her, if that's even possible, because when one of your partners is a shitty parent, you're not supposed to mimic his actions. You're supposed to pick up his slack or stay the same, not neglect the kids even more. I swear, if I ever have kids, the only way I'll drive them insane is over too much affection and trying to train them to take over the world.

Anyway, she knew the identity of our half-brother and figured out when I was seven...but didn't bother to mention this to me, yet again. Do I have to get her drunk every time I want important information? "Happy birthday, you have a half-sibling, who've you've actually been aware of for most of your life." Brilliant tact. But in any case, Dan-kun! We're half-siblings :) Hi~ I'm assuming you were as clueless as I was?

Not quite sure what to make of this, but I'm going to look on the bright side and hit my father so hard when I next see him that he's going to hit a wall :D That ought to cheer me up a bit.

-Faithfully yours, Seiichi

Well, not really your birthday, but the closest we can do it on a non-leap year. I hope your present makes it through the mail~

[ooc: It's a book of not-so-famous paintings by famous artists. And a new set of paintbrushes, with really nice quality.]

I just realized that Echizen's birthday is Christmas Eve. I can't help but think that having your birthday on that day must be a little difficult, since it would always be about Christmas and not your birthday. And he grew up in America, where Christmas is more of a big deal....

I thought it would be nice to have a small (surprise) party for him on the 23rd. Unless you're too tired out from Atobe's party, of course. But just something small and more informal.

-Seiichi