Chapter XXXII: 'Tis the Season, Part 1
A snowflake falls to the ground, children making snowmen, colorful lights across the buildings terraces, extravagantly sparkling shining evergreen trees, and people dressed up as Santa Claus, get your socks and gift wrappers ready, it's the start of the holiday seasons. At this time Kota got out of the hospital. Most of his classmates didn't know about this but just his friends and he's ready again to hangout with them again.
At the school, the homeroom teacher comes in and tells them that prior to the week of Christmas is their Christmas party. The teacher then leaves them to discuss about the different food and activities they needed to do. Most of them suggests street food, and some are pastries. Asahi and Enmei also suggests Takoyaki which they will bring. They all agree on all of these. After this, the class president gets a sheet of paper and cut it to little bits and distributes them to each student. They write their names and put it into a box. Each has a turn to pull out something from the box whom they will exchange their gift. Kota pulls up the piece of paper, and as soon as he opens it, his eyes become wide and is eventually shock.
While waiting for Asahi at the canteen, Kota, Tengen, Akiko, and Hanako talk about presents.
"Hey, what will you give me on Christmas?", asks Hanako to Tengen. He replies,
"-Secret-". She also asks Kota,
"What about you Kota?"
"Idk, maybe random", he replies.
Akiko then asks him,
"What about me?"
"Well, it's secret. I don't want to spoil the surprise", he responds. She adds,
"I hope it isn't something that I can put a hole in it with my sword."
Everyone gets shocked.
"Which I'll be bringing on the party."
Again, the gang gets surprised with this until Hanako realizes,
"Oh! The fire hashira's sword, now I get it."
The gang sighs of relief from hearing this.
"Btw, to whom you'll exchange gift with?", Akiko asks Kota.
"Nah, it's secret", he says.
"Really, you can't even tell me?", she asks.
"Nah, maybe you'll get jealous", he replies back.
"Oh, so you think I'm gonna be jealous huh? I'm not that jealous type, biz. I'm ok with it", she says. She adds,
"It's alright though, I don't want to spoil the fun out of it."
As Asahi shows up, the gang is already finished with their lunch. Glad for him, he only bought black iced tea.
On the day of the party, the students bring their own contribution to school. Kota walks through the corridor, carrying a lot of paper bags and a tray of sticky rice cake. Asahi and a small girl passes by. Although he sees Kota handling a heavy load, he doesn't help him at all. He just greets him and walks away. As he stands in front of the classroom, he wonders where his classmates are. As he enters the classroom, neon lights, and a disco ball illuminate and dominate the room with large speakers.
"Speaking of the devil", says Tengen.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS!", Tengen, Enmei, Gin, and Hanako greet him.
"Hey, where's Akiko?"¸ he asks.
"Oh, she's not here yet"¸ Hanako answers. She looks at a large paper bag and asks,
"Is that her present, I take it?"
"Oh yah, it is", Kota responds.
He then flashbacks five days ago when he was hanging out with Hanako and Tengen. He asks,
"Regarding Akiko, what do you think she would like for Christmas?"
"Excuse me? You've been with her for a long time. Surely you might already have a hint or clue on what she like or her favorites", she says back to him.
"Huh? How the hell would I know? The only thing that I know she like is anime but I need to give her something more special than anime merch", he responds.
"You do have a point though", she says while Kota nods.
"So what do you think?", Tengen intervenes.
"A sketchpad, maybe", Kota says back but Hanako says,
"I think she already has a lot of sketchpads."
As they walk into the department store, and in the lights and electronics aisle,
"Hey, does she like something like this?", Kota as he points at the LED light.
"Honestly, she doesn't have one of those so maybe, yeah", Hanako answers.
Tengen picks up a heart-shaped LED tunnel light and says,
"Damn, this looks so deep, deeper than your mom hahaha."
Instead of laughing, they just look at him and say,
"What so funny?
Tengen turns to stone hearing this.
"We're just kidding, sheesh", says Kota.
After buying the gift, he says to them,
"Actually, there're also two gifts that I'm gonna give her. But I'm not telling you since it's private. I want to give her something memorable, and something useful that it would deepen my connection with her to be honest."
At home, he wraps up the gift in a large paper bag.
"Here are the others", as his mother puts down a lot of wrapped paper bags with gift tags.
She then looks suspicious at the bag he's wrapping and walks away. He then snaps back to reality. Akiko arrives but he's not yet ready to give them yet since he'd planned on giving them after their party buffet. The students indulge playing different parlor games, laughing and enjoying the moment. From top to bottom, the arms they throw, a flinching grab goes unto the bottle. Of course, this is not what it looks like but it's about the newly invented game for the party with a twist. Charades with a twist and a guessing game that exercise one's general knowledge. After this, they prepare their presents as the exchange gift begins.
In a flashback, most of the students got their gifts via online shopping. Back to the present, Tengen steps in front to receive his gift. When he is about to give his gift, he hands out nothing and apologizes since his present will be late. Although the receiver is annoyed with this, he tells him that he is just ok with that. As Kota steps up, he is going to reveal the name of the person whom he'll be receiving hist gift.
"I would rather receive a Fly-High wallet than anything else", whispers Akiko to Hanako while Kota is in front.
Out of the blues, he says,
"The person that I got, is wonderful. She may be silent but deep inside, she is strong. May I call on Chisai-san."
Surprised, Akiko goes in front to get her gift. Since the present is long and hard, all she can say is,
"Umm, thanks??" The others then continue to exchange gifts with the others.
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