In other words, it was a Santa costume.
There wasn’t a terribly complicated reason I was wearing a Santa costume. Not at all. I just ended up giving in to peer pressure.
Actually, when I was helping to decorate the venue, the girls already had the costumes ready to go. They said that guys could wear them if they wanted to. Or rather, they wanted us to wear them, so that they could see us in them.
And because of that pressure I ended up putting it on. Though I guess it worked out okay, since Nanami seemed to enjoy it.
In any case, everyone seemed to be having a great time. The excitement in the air was more charged than usual. Everyone was doing as they pleased, eating and drinking as they chatted among themselves. Except...
“Nanami, can I ask you something?” I said.
“Sure. What’s up?” she said as she turned to me.
“What are you supposed to do at a Christmas party?”
“You’re asking me that now?!”
I seemed to have shocked her. I mean, it was all well and good that I was here, but...having already toasted to this glorious holiday, I suddenly realized that I didn’t know what else I was supposed to do. Or what one actually did at events like this.
At a school festival, we did festival activities. At the sports festival, we played sports. And on the class trip, we went on the trip itself.
I knew that was how I’d enjoyed all the other events, but when I thought about Christmas, I couldn’t help wondering what thing I was supposed to be enjoying, exactly.
And once the question had settled in my mind, it was game over: Just what am I supposed to be doing right now?
“Oh, you know—you eat food, drink drinks, and chat with people,” Nanami suggested.
“Yeah, but...don’t you think you can do that any day? Like, what makes a Christmas event a Christmas event?” I asked.
“You know, I’ve never actually thought about it before,” Nanami agreed with a wry smile. I knew that I was being annoying, but once you started thinking about a question like that, didn’t it occupy your mind and not leave until it was answered?
“Now that you mention it, Christmas is kind of interesting, isn’t it? It’s not native to Japan at all, but at least for something like Halloween, there’s trick-or-treating and stuff,” Nanami remarked.
“Exactly. Christmas is about Santa and fried chicken and cake here, right? I can’t help but wonder, though...what’s the actual ritual associated with it?”
“Are you not having fun right now, Yoshin?” Nanami asked, concerned.
“Oh, no, I am. Really! It’s my first time getting together with people for Christmas, so I’m definitely having a good time. I guess I just can’t help thinking about it...but I probably shouldn’t have said anything so suddenly.”
Yeah, I should probably just keep my mouth shut.
“Though it’s actually the first Christmas I’ve gotten together with so many people too,” Nanami remarked.
“Wait, really? I had no idea,” I returned.
“Well, you know, ’cause Hatsumi and them all go on their own dates on Christmas, and the other girls in the class end up hanging out with the guys too. So I didn’t really spend time with people on Christmas either.”
The unexpected reveal surprised me, but considering Nanami’s social circles, what she said made perfect sense.
“That’s why I usually spent Christmas with my family or went somewhere with Saya,” she continued. “All of Saya’s friends seemed to go out on dates too.”
“So is Saya-chan also not the type to go out on dates?”
“She thinks guys her age are too immature and bratty. Though that’s probably because she had Oto-nii and other older guys around her all the time,” Nanami explained.
I feel like Saya-chan would be pretty popular, though. Besides, isn’t comparing middle school guys to Soichiro-san kind of cruel? He’s a professional wrestler who’s also super handsome. Compared to him, middle schoolers are barely more than just little kids. And at that age games are probably more interesting than anything else. At least for me.
“So what’s Saya-chan up to today?” I asked. “Is she with your parents?”
“She’s got a date,” Nanami replied.
A date?! Saya-chan is going on a date?! Wait, so what was that whole thing about middle school guys just now? Why is she going on a date with a middle school guy when she thinks they’re all too immature?
“She said she was going on a date with a girl that she became friends with pretty recently. I’ve met her too. She’s super different from Saya, but really cute,” Nanami explained.
“Oh, I see. I thought you meant something else, but I feel a lot better now.”
“Better? You mean you feel relieved as her brother-in-law?” Nanami teased.
Not really. It’s just that Saya-chan seems like the type to get carried away, so the idea of her going on a date with a guy for Christmas worries me.
“Though she said she wanted to stay over with her new friend and come home the next morning, and she got into a huge fight with our dad over it,” Nanami went on. “Guess where she was trying to go.”
“Huh? Was it somewhere questionable?” I asked.
“She wanted to have a girls’ night in at a love hotel! How does that even make sense?!” she hollered.
I nearly spit out my drink. The idea concerned me as much as the idea of her going on a date with a guy. Actually, thinking about it that way, didn’t Saya-chan seem more like the shady guy in this situation?
“Uh, yeah, I can totally see why Genichiro-san would be upset. I mean, I probably would’ve stopped her too,” I said.
“Right? I have no idea what she was thinking. I haven’t even gone with you to one of those yet...”
“Huh?”
“Huh? Uh...”
Nanami’s use of the word “yet” had me speechless. Neither one of us seemed able to go on after that; we just looked at each other and then returned to sipping our drinks without saying anything.
The silence turned somewhat awkward, though, so I had to find a way to restart the conversation. Gosh, what can we possibly talk about after that...?
“W-Well, I guess here, Christmas is all about going on dates and spending time with your partner, right? So if you’re just trying to spend time with someone, that might not actually be a bad spot to choose,” I declared.
Just what in the world was I trying to say? I shouldn’t have said anything about Christmas when I actually had no idea about it myself. But even though I really didn’t know much about it, I still thought of Christmas as a time when couples seemed more giddy than usual, so my observation probably wasn’t too far off.
Is it the same overseas? The conversation seemed to have returned to its starting point: Was it up to each and every person how to spend and enjoy Christmas, then?
“Th-That’s true. Right, yeah. I guess a place like that is fine, if you want to be alone...”
Nanami paused mid-sentence. Then she glanced at me, her eyes filled with the tiniest bit of expectation and bewilderment.
Did I say something funny? Actually, I’ve probably only said something funny.
“Do you...wanna go someplace like that too?” Nanami finally asked.
“Huh? Huh...?!”
Nanami was being vague, but she was probably talking about love hotels. Why could she say it so clearly earlier but not now? Maybe it was just the usual—you only get embarrassed by something after realizing how embarrassing it actually is. I guess I couldn’t bring myself to say “love hotel” out loud either.
“Um, what...made you think that?” I squeaked.
“Well, because...our date’s tomorrow, right? And it’ll be just the two of us,” Nanami began. “And since we’ll be together into the night, I just wondered...if you wanted to go somewhere like that too.”
I see. I mean, yeah, we were going on a date tomorrow, and yeah, we’d even promised each other we would stay out at night to enjoy the cityscape and all the holiday decorations. Apparently the park we went to earlier today would be lit up in the evening, so we made plans to stay out until fairly late.
Also, according to the map, there was a neighborhood a little ways away from the park with places like that. Okay, fine, maybe it was quite a ways away from the park, but still.
To be honest, I couldn’t stop myself from doing research about it—even though we probably couldn’t go there anyway.
No, wait. Right now, Nanami was asking me whether I wanted to go to a place like that. It wasn’t about ability; it was just about desire.
In that case, there was only one answer.
“Well, yeah, I do think...that I want to go,” I murmured.
I sounded pathetic, speaking so quietly I was barely above a whisper by the end. But what was even the correct response to a question like that? If I said no, Nanami would definitely get mad.
In fact, was there any guy who would say that he didn’t want to go to a place like that with his girlfriend? That itself seemed unlikely. But actually saying out loud that I did want to go seemed like harassment to me.
“Good,” Nanami finally whispered.
“Is it...?”
“Well, because, if I could...I’d like to go with you too. And...I guess I wonder if it’s different from our hotel in Hawaii and stuff...”
“Um...do you mean that as just a genuine sleepover? Or are you talking about all the other stuff too?”
Oh, shoot. I just said something I totally didn’t need to. I was just curious, but...I definitely harassed her with that last comment, didn’t I? But wait, is that what’s really going on? Isn’t this a case where I’m being sexually harassed by Nanami...?
After a very long pause, Nanami murmured, “All the other stuff too.”
Thank goodness no one was around us in that moment. Otofuke-san and Kamoenai-san were on the other side of the room talking to some people, while Teshikaga-kun and Shirishizu-san were making their way around the room to check that the party was progressing smoothly.
Maybe the other people in class were giving us space, too, because no one had come near us. I mentally said a word of thanks for our party venue being so large.
Nanami had worked up her courage. The only way for me to respond now was...
“I want...”
“Hey! Bingo’s gonna start soon! Come get your cards!”
My response was drowned out by the completely inopportune announcement.
Dammit, why do I always have such terrible timing?!