A Late Birthday Surprise

Today my day didn’t start nice because, aside from the fact that I have to wake way earlier than usual, I also need to finish the group project I started yesterday. I was really worried that I may not finish it in time, but eventually I got some much-needed help, plus it got much better when some of our professors didn’t came in our class. It's not that I don't want to have classes anymore, it's just our schedule was supposedly packed today, like there’s no room to breathe easy, so I’m really thankful that they didn’t come in for now. Anyway, I spend those free time doing some note taking and also continuing the anime series I started yesterday. Time passed quickly, and it’s almost lunch again, so I decided to just eat my lunch early. Usually, we eat together with my friends at our go-to eatery at the back of our campus, but earlier, I felt really sleepy—perhaps because I woke up early.

I didn’t notice anything odd, but something caught my attention that noon. I saw a set of thread in my friend’s bag, and since I have no clue that they’re planning something, I dismissed that as another of her occasional purchases. But it turns out that was a major clue to something that they’ve been planning for today—something that I thought they wouldn’t do anymore since it’s way past it. My birthday was almost a couple of weeks ago, so I didn’t expect that they would do something like a surprise celebration. They already greeted me the day after my birthday, so I thought that’s it. Yet that afternoon, it happened!

They asked me if I would join them on the boardwalk to eat some street food, and since we have no class tomorrow, I agreed with them. I honestly didn’t expect anything special to happen today, much less at that moment. We mostly eat at the boardwalk after our classes, so that felt like a normal eating invitation for me. Yet the moment I was about to take a bite of my first tempura slice, I heard a group of people singing a happy birthday song.

I thought it was just from the group of friends nearby, but the singing got closer to us, and when I turned my head, I saw them bringing a cupcake with a happy birthday in it. I was dumbfounded for a moment because I didn’t know how to react. I haven’t experienced getting surprised like that, so I was clueless on what to feel.

I was about to react when suddenly it rained all of a sudden. The rain just poured out of nowhere and because of that my reaction got delayed. We hastily looked for a place to stay, and even though the weather was gloomy, my friends made it sure that our mood wouldn’t. After finding a rain free eating place—in the food court, we settle down and started our mini celebration.

Food and drinks were laid down and we consumed them while chatting happily. Aside that I was able to celebrate again my birthday, I also feel happy about the fact that the mini celebration made us gather together. Our eating/chatting lasted for almost an hour before we decided to went out of the food court. The rain already stopped and the sky was in its beautiful pink hue. My day may have started unpleasantly, yet I’m thankful it concluded better than I ever hoped it to be.