"NICO-CHAN!!!" 

Immediately Maki ran towards Nico and hugged her very tight. Nico was surprised she did this. She never thought how overjoyed Maki was to see her.

"H-Hey! M-Maki-chan!! You're hugging me too tight! I'm still sick you know! I don't want you to get sick too!"

"Where have you been...", Maki whispered.

"Huh?", said Nico

"Where were you all this time, Nico-chan!!?", said Maki with a loud voice.

"Ahh...well...it's a long story...sorry..."

"Sorry?! You scared me when you called me a while ago. I never thought you were sick. Then you set this all up just for me. Do you think it's easy to say sorry after all that just happened?!!"

Then Maki realized she's lost control and felt like she's insulting Nico. She backed away for a bit, took a deep breath and replied calmly.

"Ahh......s-sorry Nico-chan. I did not really mean those..."

"It's alright Maki-chan.", said Nico as she held Maki's hands with her hands. She coughed for a bit afterwards.

"I understand *cough*. I know how hard it is to understand what's going on. I'm going to explain...". Nico began explaining to Maki what happened, and how she found out about her birthday.

-----

"Nico...did you...did you found out it was my birthday today?..."

"*cough*Y-yeah...actually you're mom told me."

"!! M-my mom?!" Maki thought about it and it does make sense. Also considering what happened many days ago(A/N *referring to Pages 1 and 2*) when she heard Nico's voice, it was possible that her mom called Nico using her phone and she left it open. That did not cross Maki's mind at the time.

"Yeah her. I was surprised too, I never expected her to call me many days ago. She was asking me if I could celebrate your birthday for her, since she won't be around on this day. She thought me doing all this would be a good present for you."

"Hang on. Why did my mom chose you then?"

"Isn't it obvious, Maki-chan!? You're my best friend!"

"Ahh, what?!! I never..."

"Well...I guess...I guess that was what you're mom thought. I mean *cough* she was saying how much you loved me!" Maki blushed and felt awkward hearing that.

"Eh?! What are you talking about Nico-chan!? I said no such thing!", said Maki as she tried to make an excuse.

"Hmph! Are you telling me your mom lied? She was saying how much you adored me and how I was such a good friend to you!"

"Seriously Maki-chan. You could have just told me that you want to be my apprentice! I'd love to teach you my idol skills or even my Nico Nico Nii!"

Maki blushed even more. So much that she turned away to not let Nico see her red face and how embarassed she is. Nico knows this and teased her.

"Aww...Maki-chan. Don't hide it! I know you really want to...*cough**cough**cough*"

"NICO!' Maki quickly turned back and held Nico after she started coughing again.

"*cough**cough*S-sorry*cough*could you get me some water...*cough*"

Maki quickly went to the kitchen to get Nico some water. She made sure the water was warm thinking cold water won't do her any good. Once she gave Nico her drink, Nico took out a medicine she bought and placed it on her mouth, then she dranked the water swallowing the medicine in the process.

Maki stared at Nico as she drank. She thought: "Strange...why does Nico look so cute drinking...eh!?...what am I thinking?!" and blushed just thinking about it. After Nico drank, she continued where she left off.

"Okay...now let me continue. I told the other girls that it was your birthday, Maki-chan. They were so excited about it. They all had weird ideas on how to celebrate your birthday, but I told them to keep quiet to surprise you."

"What were you planning to do then?"

"I was planning to do a live show!"

"A live show?"

"Yep! I wanted to celebrate your birthday by showing you how good I - I mean we - are with being idols. After that, we'd have a party. I had them say "u's will just have practice today" as a cover for you not to find out about it."

"I also thought of it kinda as our "thank you" when they told me that you joined u's even though, initially you didn't want to."

Maki was happy that some things were now clear to her. But being a tsundere (inexpressive), she responded:

"I have my own reasons, Nico-chan."

Hearing this, Nico could not help thinking what if Maki could just change and start being more open with herself.

"Sigh...anyway as you now know, I got sick so I wasn't able to practice for that performance. I was forced to quickly change plans so I told everyone to keep all the party stuffs away. Meanwhile I decided to come here at your house instead. It was really hard for me to do that, since I was sick and all."

"Then what about the call a while ago, Nico-chan?" Maki was still disturbed how Nico called her.

"You called me first right? That got me a bit nevous so I did not answer, since I felt you already found out what had been going on. I went to your house then I called you because I check you out. But I guess I wasn't able to speak properly..."

"What happened then?! I heard a crashing sound when you hanged up."

"I just hit my head on the piano's roof which made me drop my phone by accident. Sorry about that." Hearing that, Maki was confused at what that meant.

"Huh? Hang on...how on earth did you hit you're head on my piano?

"I thought you're piano broke so I was checking what was inside it, Maki-chan." Maki investigated the piano's interior. She found no damage inside it.

"What are you talking about? Everything is alright inside it, there's nothing there you need to fix."

"Eh?! Really? That's strange, how come one of the keys I pressed sounded a little off!?"

"Probably your problem Nico. You might have just pressed the wrong key."

"No way! That's not true! It may not look like it but I know how to play a piano, Maki-chan! I've attended a lot of lessons before!"

"Oh really?" Maki responded like she isn't convinced. Though she was really impressed that Nico played the piano with the "Happy Birthday" song, Maki felt that Nico's claims seemed unbelievable.

"Yeah, sure I do! Want me to play another song?"

"Yeah, since you asked for it."

Nico sat on the piano and started playing a song. As she pressed the keys, Nico sang: "Aishiteru Banzai...koko de yokatta..." Maki's eyes opened wide as she heard Nico play one of her songs.

"No way...how did...?" Maki thought as she heard and saw Nico actually playing the piano. The tone was great, everything was stable. For a moment, Maki looked at Nico imagining herself playing the piano instead.

Then...when reaching the chorus...TUNG!!! BUM! BUM!!!...

What the...!?

Nico started pressing the wrong keys and started singing out of tone, like she did not knew the lyrics. The once stable melody was now ruined and sounded off.

Maki could not bear it. Her joy quickly turned into annoyance as she said:

"NICO-CHAN!! CUT IT OUT!!"

"Eeeek!!" Nico panicked.

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A/N: I published two pages this time :) Thank you guys for your support! <3 Stay tuned for the ending, almost there! :)