“Valentine’s Day is coming up, isn’t it,” she observed.
“Valentine’s?” I repeated robotically, after a slight pause.
“Why are you reacting like you’ve never heard that term before?”
No, I know. Of course I know. I definitely know about Valentine’s; it’s the perfect opportunity to collect in-game items.
As with most other things, I experienced real-life stuff purely through game events, so I honestly had no idea what Valentine’s Day was actually like.
“I see, I’ll be with you next year, so Valentine’s Day will finally have something to do with me,” I let out.
“Um, I’m pretty sure we already talked about how we’ll get to do Valentine’s Day together...”
“Nanami, I need to tell you something: To be honest, anything that had nothing to do with me before I met you will mean nothing to me even if I hear the name,” I said.
“Why do you sound so oddly proud of that?” Nanami asked, looking at me with pity in her eyes for some reason. What was I supposed to do? The phrase “Valentine’s Day” really, truly didn’t ring a bell with me.
“But it must have had something to do with you. I mean, didn’t you get chocolates from your classmates and stuff?” Nanami asked.
“Nanami, I’ll tell you something else: There are people in this world who can’t even get chocolates from their classmates.”
Like me, for example. Besides, I had zero interest in real-life Valentine’s Day. I guess my mom gave me chocolate, but she gave some to my dad too, so that doesn’t really count.
“You didn’t even get chocolates from your classmates?” Nanami mumbled.
“Well, I don’t really recall stuff from elementary school, but...no, not as far as I can remember. My classmates never really noticed me anyway.”
I don’t think I’ve ever gotten chocolate from anyone, ever. At least I don’t think so. I can’t even remember if my own mom actually gave me chocolate. Is Nanami gonna think that I’m pathetic, yet again? When I looked over at Nanami, though, I found her drinking her hot chocolate with a smile on her face. Even her eyes seemed to be twinkling with joy.
“I see. You’ve never gotten chocolate before,” she murmured once more, as if to confirm it out loud. She glanced at me from the side, her lips still attached to her cup.
At first I couldn’t tell what she was doing, but when I saw her looking at me, I realized—belatedly—what she was trying to say.
Does the fact I’ve never gotten chocolate from anyone before actually make Nanami happy? Is she excited that she’ll be the first?
I thought she might say it herself, but because she didn’t seem to be speaking up...
“Nanami, are you...happy that I’ve never gotten chocolates from anyone before?” I asked.
“—?!”
Oh no, her drink went down the wrong pipe. Nanami started coughing, and I rubbed her back gently. Wait, should I have not asked that?
It was a bit late for me to think that, though, given that I had already asked. But maybe I could have phrased it better—I made it sound like Nanami had a mean streak in her.
“Sorry, I said that kind of weird,” I admitted. “Are you happy that you’ll be my first—”
“Don’t say it like that either! That sounds bad too, you know?!” Nanami shouted.
Oh, that’s not okay either? I tilted my head, failing to understand why Nanami was turning beet red. We thus proceeded to sip our hot chocolates in silence.
“Mmm...it’s sweet,” Nanami murmured, her soft voice heartfelt.
“Yeah, sweet and warm. Super tasty,” I agreed.
Since it was cold outside, our drinks were cooling down rapidly, yet as we continued to enjoy them we could still feel their warmth.
We both finished our drinks around the same time, so I took Nanami’s empty cup and went to toss it along with mine at the designated garbage spot in the venue.
I had actually wanted to walk around with a warm drink in my hand while looking at the illuminated structure, but it seemed you weren’t allowed to take food items outside of the vendor area.
What a bummer. I walked back to where Nanami was, but... Huh? Where’s Nanami? But it’s only been a few seconds, though?! I know she’s not a little kid like Yuki-chan, but could she actually have gotten lost?! Or did someone hit on her...?!
Just as I was about to punch myself for having dared take my eyes off of her, though, my field of vision was suddenly obscured by darkness. For a moment, I had the illusion that I had been suddenly transported somewhere else—to a place darker than the night, where the lights that had been all around us couldn’t reach, but...
“Guess who!”
“Huh?” I let out.
I heard a familiar voice call out from behind me, while at the same time the sound of a phone camera going off echoed close by.
Soon after, whatever had been blocking my vision moved away. I turned around and saw Nanami.
It seemed she had covered my eyes and played a classic guessing game on me.
“What are you doing?” I asked, still mildly disoriented.
“I wanted to get a photo of me covering your eyes,” Nanami replied casually.
I couldn’t begin to understand why she’d want that, but it seemed she just liked getting interesting photos.
“What next, Nanami-chan? Do you want a few more?” someone asked.
“Hmm, yeah, that’d be great. And then I can get some photos of you too,” Nanami responded.
It was Shirishizu-san’s voice that also came from behind me. She was wearing a fur coat on top and a pair of skinny jeans on the bottom, with very little skin showing.
Next to her stood Teshikaga-kun, who bowed to me as soon as I noticed him. He was wearing a very long coat that covered up most of his body, along with a scarf around his neck. He was completely covered, unlike Shirishizu-san, who had her coat open in the front, so maybe he was just more sensitive to the cold.
“Short time no see, you two. Merry Christmas. Are you here to see the lights?” Shirishizu-san asked.
“It’s nice to get to see you again so soon, master. Kotoha said she wanted to come see the holiday lights, so we decided to drop by. We haven’t done this in a while,” Teshikaga-kun also said.
I see. So they’ve been here together before? I wonder if they’re retracing their steps from a past date or something. But wait, didn’t they say they were close when they were in middle school? Does that mean they went on a date to see the holiday lights when they were middle schoolers? Isn’t that, like, kind of amazing? Maybe I should start calling Teshikaga-kun “master” instead.
“Here, I’ll get a photo of the two of you too,” I offered. “We should capture lots of memories like these.”
“Thank you?” Teshikaga-kun replied, slightly bewildered.
I had the sudden urge to do something for them, but the only thing I could do right now was take their picture.
After that we went on to take a range of photos in front of the holiday lights. Once we had taken the usual ones we even started messing around and taking photos of me and Teshikaga-kun too.
Apparently Shirishizu-san and Teshikaga-kun had started at the tail end of the venue and were walking back toward the beginning—in other words, the opposite of where we were going. Since we were heading in different directions, we’d have to part ways here. We were both on dates, after all.
Except, as we were saying bye...
“See you later, you two. We’re going to a hotel now,” Shirishizu-san announced, her eyes narrowed and sly as usual.
“No, we’re not. Stop trying to tell people things that haven’t even happened yet,” Teshikaga-kun interjected.
“You’re such a wuss,” Shirishizu-san mumbled.
Shirishizu-san had left us a bombshell, but it seemed like Teshikaga-kun, unfortunately, seemed to be taking most of the damage.
As a fellow wuss, I know how he feels... Actually, I feel like Shirishizu-san should maybe be a bit more modest. This class rep is getting out of control.
Teshikaga-kun managed to recover, though, slowly taking Shirishizu-san’s hand and intertwining their fingers together. Shirishizu-san let him, watching happily.
Now holding hands, the two of them once again said “Merry Christmas” to us before walking off with a bounce in their step. Even seeing them from the back, we could tell that they were giddy. They seemed truly happy to be together.
Once we saw them off, we also began walking back through the illuminated path, but then...
“D-Do you think...they’re really going?” Nanami asked.
“I-I don’t think so... Yeah, no, they’re definitely not,” I managed to reply.
Shirishizu-san’s bombshell, it turned out, had exploded with a time lag. Actually, this seemed less a bomb and more like poison, seeping into Nanami with a slight delay.
That dang narrow-eyed class rep... That was totally unnecessary. Though maybe unnecessary is not the right word.
“Well, uh, anyhow! Let’s not think about that today... Let’s go see the lights instead!” I exclaimed.
“Y-Yeah, you’re right! That’s what we’re here for anyway! Seeing the decorations!” Nanami joined in.
Hyping each other up did a lot to dispel most of the remaining awkwardness between us. But we were still slightly nervous; a topic we’d said we wouldn’t think about until later was now lingering in our minds.
Though fortunately, all inappropriate thoughts were wiped away by the next illuminated structure we encountered.
“Wow, what is that? That’s amazing,” I murmured.
“That’s so pretty... It has so many different colors,” Nanami whispered.
We had been in this location yesterday, but back then we hadn’t quite grasped what was in front of us. Now, with everything lit up, we saw it perfectly.
The decoration was of a flower.
The center was made up of a rather large light that shone consistently in white. Around it were smaller lights shaped into multiple petals, each one changing shape depending on the angle from which you looked at it. If you looked at a single petal from the front, it appeared like a normal flower; from a different angle, though, petals came together in the shape of wings.