[Third Person Pov]
"Who is she? Are the two of you close?" Nino asked, her curiosity coming out a little sharper than she intended. A bitter expression slowly settled across her face as she glanced in the direction the girl had gone.
"She's just an annoying senior that's obsessed with me," Clark answered bluntly, his face completely deadpan as if the matter wasn't worth even the slightest amount of energy.
"Seriously? Then why is she here?" Nino frowned, her brows knitting together as her expression darkened further.
'Although I can't say I blame her, this guy's chiseled face is a straight up chick magnet,' Nino thought with exaggerated exasperation, shooting Clark another quick glance from the corner of her eye.
Clark merely shrugged in response to her question, slipping his hands into his pockets. "I don't know. Probably for the same reason you're here. She was invited."
"Ah…" Nino let out a small sound of realization, the retort she had been preparing instantly dying in her throat as she remembered that this was a surprise party for Clark. Everyone present had been invited beforehand, including her.
Clark snorted quietly as he noticed the way her face flushed in embarrassment, clearly aware that she had just walked straight into that one. The two of them began heading back toward the rest of the group after the summons from his grandmother.
Just as they rejoined everyone, the lights suddenly shut off.
The room was plunged into complete darkness, and for a brief moment there was nothing but the sound of confused murmurs and shifting footsteps. Then a warm glow appeared from the doorway.
Seiko and Momo stepped into the room together, each of them carefully supporting one side of a large birthday cake covered with lit candles. The flickering flames cast dancing shadows across their faces as they approached Clark.
The moment they appeared, Seiko immediately began clapping her hands along with the others.
"Happy birthday to you!~ Happy birthday to you~ Happy birthday dear Claaaark! Happy birthday to you!"
The entire room joined in merrily, voices overlapping as the candles illuminated Clark's face. In the gentle candlelight, everyone was able to see the faint smile that slowly formed on his lips.
"Go on, birthday boy," Seiko said warmly as she held the cake out toward him. "Blow out your candles and make a wish."
Clark's lips curled upward into a mischievous smirk as he inhaled deeply, taking in an exaggerated amount of air. His chest puffed up dramatically, almost cartoonishly so.
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Momo and Seiko suddenly shouted in frantic panic, their eyes widening in sheer horror as they both lunged forward slightly.
Pure PTSD flashed across their faces.
The reason for their panic was simple. During one of Clark's previous birthdays he had accidentally unlocked his super breath at the exact moment he blew out the candles. The result had been catastrophic. The cake had been launched across the room like a missile, smashing directly into Seiko, while the blast itself had blown out a section of the house.
They had spent an entire month living without a proper roof because of that.
Seeing their terrified expressions, Clark lowered his head slightly and leaned closer to the cake. Instead of the powerful gust they were expecting, he gently blew across the candles with the lightest breath possible.
The flames flickered and went out instantly, thin trails of smoke curling upward from the candle wicks.
Clark glanced up at Seiko with a teasing look in his eyes.
Applause immediately broke out around the room as everyone clapped and cheered.
Seiko, however, simply stared at him with a perfectly straight expression. "You think you're really funny, don't you?"
"Yeah, I do," Clark replied without hesitation, letting out a small chuckle.
"So what did you wish for?" Momo asked curiously as she and Seiko carried the cake over and set it down on the nearby table.
"To have my dignity restored," Clark replied with a long, exaggerated sigh.
"Huh?" Momo blinked in confusion as she looked at him, clearly not following.
"You wouldn't understand," Clark said, shaking his head as if the weight of the world rested on his shoulders.
He picked up the knife and began cutting the cake, working alongside Seiko as the two of them started preparing slices for everyone.
However, before he could hand the first piece out, Momo and Lala quickly scooped small amounts of frosting onto their fingers. With matching grins, they stepped closer and smeared the frosting across Clark's nose and both of his cheeks.
"Har, har, har. You guys are such comedians," Clark said flatly, staring at the two of them with clear irritation as frosting clung to his face.
Meanwhile, Momo and Lala only burst into louder laughter, holding up their frosting-covered fingers like proud troublemakers.
Cake was soon passed around to everyone, slices carefully distributed across the room. One by one they began eating, and almost immediately content expressions appeared on their faces as they savored the rich flavor of the dessert.
"God… I would so lick the frosting off his face," Ichika said casually as she held her spoon near her mouth, her eyes drifting toward Clark in the distance.
"Ichika!" Miku quickly reprimanded, her voice coming out sharper than expected while a faint blush spread across her cheeks.
Komi, who happened to be sitting nearby, nearly choked on her bite of cake. She hurriedly reached for her drink, coughing as she thumped her chest repeatedly to force the dessert down.
"What?" Ichika grinned unapologetically. She gave a small shrug as if she had said nothing strange at all. "You're telling me you wouldn't?"
'I can hear her… what is wrong with that girl,' Clark thought to himself from across the room, quietly sighing as he continued eating his slice.
"That's not the point and you know it," Nino said while rolling her eyes, though the irritation in her voice quickly faltered.
Unfortunately for her, Ichika's words had already planted an image in her mind.
Before she realized it, her imagination began running wild. She pictured herself grabbing Clark by the face, leaning forward, and slowly licking the frosting from his cheek and nose. The vivid mental image caused her entire face to turn a deep shade of red.
She immediately began stabbing aggressively at her slice of cake with her fork.
'Stupid, stupid, stupid! Ichika, does she have no sense of shame?' Nino thought furiously, trying to banish the image from her mind.
Ichika only shrugged again, wearing a smug smile as she glanced around at the surrounding girls.
"You were all thinking it," she said confidently. "I'm just the only one brave enough to say it out loud."
"No one was thinking that!" Haruna, Nino, and Miku all exclaimed at the same time, their denials coming out a little too quickly.
Beside them, Komi nodded her head rapidly in agreement, almost frantically.
"I am now," Lucy chimed in with a cheerful smile.
Lois immediately smacked her on the back of the head.
"Don't encourage that nonsense," Lois scoffed.
After that brief exchange, an awkward silence settled over the group.
Almost instinctively, the girls began glancing at one another. As their eyes moved around the circle, each of them noticed the faint blushes, the embarrassed expressions, and the way their gazes kept drifting toward Clark without meaning to.
A single unsettling realization slowly dawned on all of them.
'Are all the girls here interested in Clark?!'
The atmosphere instantly shifted.
What had been a casual and friendly gathering suddenly felt tense and heavy, like invisible sparks were flying through the air as everyone became painfully aware of the sudden competition surrounding them.
'These skanks… I had my eyes on Clark first!' Nino thought bitterly as an unpleasant feeling tightened in her chest.
'Clark is engaged to Lala… I have no right to hold onto these feelings,' Haruna thought quietly, a bitter smile appearing on her lips as she lowered her gaze.
'I'm the one who knows and understands Clark the most. If anyone should end up with him… it should be me,' Miku thought, a surprising sense of competitiveness rising inside her.
'It's not like I'm in love with Clark or anything,' Ichika mused inwardly while rubbing her chin with a thoughtful smirk, 'but pursuing and dating him would definitely be fun.'
Komi, meanwhile, was trembling slightly where she sat, overwhelmed by the intense atmosphere and the invisible sparks of rivalry crackling all around her.
'He belongs to Lois… but I definitely wouldn't mind having such an attractive brother-in-law,' Lucy thought while feeling the same competitive fire stirring within her.
'I'm certain our relationship is at a higher stage than some of these girls… but what exactly can you even call it?' Lois wondered warily, shaking her head slightly as she tried to organize her thoughts.
"What's with them?" Momo asked through a mouthful of cake, her cheeks puffed out as she chewed.
"Who knows," Clark replied while stuffing another bite into his own mouth. "Maybe they're fighting for more cake."
The two of them stood next to each other, casually observing the strangely tense scene playing out across the room without understanding the true reason behind it.
Across the room, Seiko and Lala exchanged a glance.
Then both of them quietly released a long sigh at the same time.
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