In a moment of complete and utter randomness. Basically, if you don't get this, Marui and Niou played a series of awful tricks on poor little Akaya, who's trying to prepare a party for someone.

Marui and Niou watched in bemusement as Akaya scurried from one end of the clubhouse to the other.

"Planning another prank on him?" Jackal commented, walking by.

Niou grinned. "Maybe," he said. "Don't give it away."

Jackal frowned. "He was really upset over the last prank," he warned. "That history project took hours to remake. You two should give him a break."

Marui gave Jackal a friendly punch in the arm. "Don't be a fun spoiler," he complained. "It was just a harmless joke."

"I had to help him remake it," Jackal said flatly. "My blisters have blisters."

Niou waved the thought away. "That prank wasn't big enough. Akaya seems pretty happy, if you ask me. We obviously haven't done anything serious yet."

"Yukimura's going to be awfully upset with you."

"He'll understand," Marui assured.

"Akaya's been really stressed, lately. Do you really want to do this to him? You two have played at least ten pranks on him in the last week. You owe him."

But Marui and Niou were already back discussing pranks. Jackal frowned and walked over to Yagyuu and Yanagi, muttering something to them quickly before going back to tennis practice.

Niou and Marui continued staring at Akaya. "He seems excited about something," Niou said. "Just dandy."

"You know, I saw him carrying balloons earlier," Marui commented. "Blue, yellow, green, and orange ones. It's kind of odd; you'd think he was about to celebrate someone birthday, with the way he's been running around all day."

"If it's a party, let's help ruin it," Niou replied, grinning wickedly.

The two of them watched in thoughtful silence while Akaya darted from the clubroom doors and toward the RikkaiDai music department.

Yagyuu and Yanagi were discussing physics when Akaya almost ran over the both of them in his attempts to reach the music department in record time. "What the . . ." Yanagi sputtered, his eyes opening for a brief moment in surprise. Then he noticed the colored balloons attached to the clubhouse, and smiled.

"I see someone is very excited for a certain somebody's birthday," he said pleasantly.

Yagyuu looked at the balloons and nodded slowly. "Yes, I suppose Akaya would be the most excited about this, out of all of us. It's quite amazing how he's managed to remember someone's birthday, other than his own."

"But then, Akaya quite worships him," Yanagi pointed out. "He's become a role model of sorts for Akaya."

"There is that," Yagyuu agreed. "Have you seen his performance level recently? He's improved greatly."

Marui and Niou averted their eyes from Akaya and toward Yanagi and Yagyuu. "What are they talking about?" Marui asked, confused. "Whose birthday is it?"

Yanagi and Yagyuu continued their conversation as though they hadn't heard a word Marui said.

"Yukimura is very proud of him," Yanagi stated. "They've been practicing together, actually. "It's been well for him. I'm sure Yukimura will be pleased that Akaya remembered his birthday."

"But I don't think Akaya could pull it off alone, especially with what Niou-kun and Marui-kun pulled yesterday." Yagyuu glanced at them, acknowledging their presence for the first time. "He was extremely upset, as I'm sure you're aware."

Niou put an arm behind his head sheepishly, while Marui grinned weakly. "It was in fun," he insisted.

"Not for Akaya. And you're planning on ruining this party of his, too? It'll be incredibly hard to do it on his own."

Yanagi nodded. "I agree. If only he had some sort of help . . ." The two of them turned to stare at Akaya, who was desperately dragging an enormous case with him into the clubroom with one hand, and holding half a dozen green, blue, orange, and yellow balloons with the other.

"Oh, shoot," Marui exclaimed. "It's Mura's birthday, isn't it?"

"What?" Niou asked, annoyed. "No. Yukimura's birthday is tomorrow. March fifth."

"But you heard them talking; he was like, "Yukimura will be happy that Akaya remembered his birthday," or something."

"But that can't be," Niou argued. "His birthday is tomorrow."

At that moment, Yukimura glided past them, giving them a sharp glance. "You haven't forgotten a certain someone's birthday, have you?" His eyes were blue daggers, and his perpetual smile seemed to say, If you've forgotten then I might just have to beat you to a pulp on the tennis courts.

Marui gulped nervously. "Not at all, Mura! We'll make sure we . . . uh . . . help Akaya prepare your party as best as we can," he said hastily.

Niou seemed reluctant. "Sure," he added offhandedly, then, when Yukimura was smiling and out of earshot, said to Marui, "Something's off. I know Yukimura's birthday is on the fifth. There's no way I'm wrong."

"Yukimura himself said it's today," Marui hissed. "I don't know about you, but I'm not going to incur the wrath of the child of God over some stupid, stubborn, egoistic mistake!"

"Fine, fine, we'll help," Niou grumbled. "Man, Yukimura's going to be mad at us for a week for forgetting his birthday. But this can't be right, I know it's March fifth . . ."

Yagyuu and Yanagi watched in smug satisfaction as Niou and Marui assisted Akaya in the party set-ups. "It's about time they helped Akaya," Yanagi said. "That prank they pulled was extremely inconsiderate."

Yagyuu nodded in agreement. "And to think they were planning on ruining this one, too," Yagyuu added. "Good for Akaya. He deserves the help; he's been trying to do it by himself all day long . . ."

Jackal approached them again, twirling his racquet, pleased that he'd won his match. He glanced at Niou and Marui, then at the smug, smiling faces of Yanagi and Yagyuu, and got the picture. He let out a sharp laugh. "Think we should tell Marui and Niou that it's actually Vivaldi's 332nd birthday, and not Yukimura's?"

The two of them shook their heads 'no' simultaneously. "Let them sweat this one out," Yagyuu said wisely. "If not for Akaya's benefit, then for our own amusement. It's nice to be the trickster, for once."

Vivaldi wrote a bunch of bassoon concertos, hence the "Akaya looks up to him," and "He's a role model for Akaya" thing.