“Oh, a Christmas party?!”

 

 

Takade-san screamed as we waited for the train to arrive. She began bouncing from one side of Saya-san to the other.

“Yep, it was Mae-chan’s idea. Obviously, it would be the western version of it. So, if you two would like to come, that would be great."

I turned to Saya-san, who seemed to be in deep thought.

“You can even ask your sister, Saya-san.”

The witch clapped her hands.

“I will have Risa-chan bring the fried chicken.”

She announced, not looking at me. Saya-san was acting strange again, so I stepped to the side, slightly away from her. She must have caught my hesitation as she turned with a tilt of her head, causing that ponytail of hers to dangle in the cold day's wind. Eerily, she approached me, causing me to back up more.

“What, don’t you have fried chicken for Christmas in your family, Madoka-san?”

“Ah… yeah. That’s how Mae-chan and I used to do it when we were kids.”

Takade-san clapped her hands too. Her eyes were full of stars and rainbows. She was overjoyed with the prospect of a party that she couldn't put anything into words. It was just expressions of joy and happiness. It was like watching fireworks as she jumped up and down.

“Onee-san! Onee-san!”

 

 

In the distance, Higashi Sakura-san was rushing up to me. In her hand was her phone to her chest. Saya-san and Takade-san waved at her as she approached.

“Oh, hey Higashi-san. I’d like to introduce you to my friends, Saitou Saya-san and Takade Saki-san.”

The raven-haired girl looked over at them and gave them a slight bow.

“Hello…”

Saya-san and Takade-san waved at her. The witch approached the middle school girl.

“Hello, it’s nice to meet you Higashi-san. I’ve been watching you for almost a year now, you know?”

Takade-san pushed Saya-san’s shoulder. All the joy left her eyes as she furrowed her brow and stopped on one foot.

“Senpai! What about me?”

“Oh, what about you, Saki-chan?”

“A-Am I too old?! Is that why you’ve been watching Higashi-san?!”

Saya-san giggled and took Saki-chan’s hand.

“You’re so silly. Come here so I can pet your head.”

I had to move the conversation away from the two weirdos. Saya-san wrapped her arms around Saki-chan and began petting her head like a puppy. I could see Higashi-san was a tad mortified by the idea of Saya-san being a stalker as she watched her with prejudice.  

“How is your morning going, Higashi-san?”

I attempted to make her focus on me.

“I-It’s fine, Onee-san… I forgot to get your phone number the other day so we could chat about fashion and stuff.”

She held her phone closer to her chest. I could see she was eager, and so not to make her wait, I brought mine out too. This girl seemed to be very outgoing, as I assumed yesterday. I guess we just clicked when it came to our likes in fashion.

“There you go.”

I heard the ping on her phone.

“Hey… I have a question. Do you mind me asking, Nakagawa-san?”

The train came into the station, and she looked away slightly. Her cheeks were a bit red as she asked. We embarked on the journey to our schools as we stepped into the warm train.

“What’s your question?”

I assumed it would be about fashion so I was mentally preparing myself for a catalog question or the like. But to my surprise, she brought up something else.

“Well, I’m sure you have someone special in your life. So, I was curious about where I should bring someone on Christmas?"

She exhaled deeply as if this had been in her chest, hiding until the perfect time to release her question. I could see the tension on her face lessen as she looked at me with the ocean blue eyes.

“I’ve looked up places online, but nothing really clicked with me. There's someone at school that I wanted to ask out for a while now, but I don't know where to take them."

Higashi-san rambled on.

“Eh?”

I was put on my backfoot. It seemed Higashi-san might have created a narrative about me while we were separated that simply wasn’t true. The most I had in the idea of romance was Mari-san and Risa-san at this point. Sadly, I wouldn’t consider either of them as a girlfriend yet either. My romantic life… has been more of a roller-coaster.

I closed my eyes and thought about it, though. When Risa-san took me out, she brought me to plenty of places where we could just take and enjoy each other’s company.

"Well, if you have someone you want to be with, it's only natural to find places where you both could just talk."

I put a finger to my lip.

“It’s likely a lot of big places will be sold out by this time.”

“Yeah…”

Dejected, she put her head down. I didn't want to ruin her dreams, though, so I came up with a few suggestions.

“Maybe you two can go see the lights near the shopping district. You can also just walk the streets of Hiroshima and see all the displays together. You’ll have more fun if you’re less formal about the date.”

That’s the only advice I could give the starstruck girl. She nodded and crossed her arms.

“Not making it formal… yeah.”

She turned back to me.

"Listen… I've been building up the courage to ask this person out all year. They don't seem to have anyone they're going out with…."

She slapped her face and turned back to me.

“Your fashion tips have given me so much courage, Nakagawa-san! I’ll tell you how everything goes.”

This Higashi-san was a force to be reckoned with. Her stop came, and she waved as she exited the train. I turned to see Saya-san and Takeda-san watching my interaction from afar. When I walked over, they both began to giggle.

“It’s strange, that girl… she’s never been that lively for the time that I’ve been watching her.”

Take-san pushed her shoulder.

“Stop, Senpai! That sounds creepy.”

Saya-san shrugged.

"What I'm trying to say is for a long time, she looked miserable. There were times that I wanted to approach her and start a conversation, but that glare in her eyes always showed me that she… wasn't the friendliest of people."

“What changed then?”

I asked.

"Dunno.”

She crossed her arms.

“But something tells me… that she doesn’t have a lot of friends.”

‘How did you come to that conclusion?”

"Being psychic, of course."

I wasn’t even going to humor her as I turned around.

“Onee-chan!”

A certain firey-haired girl scared the heck out of me, and I think she did it on purpose. It was Sora-chan, and she was standing right behind me when I turned around.

 

 

“Geez, Sora-chan!”

“Hehe! I didn’t know we rode the same train now.”

She gave me a hug and I gave her one back. This new normal was starting to grow on me.