“Wow, all the changing colors are making me dizzy,” I muttered.
Yellow, red, blue, purple, white... Flowers impossible to see in real life were now shading even the surrounding snow a multitude of different colors. The clouds, the people...even the air seemed to be bathed in the color of these lights, everything changing from one color to the next like the passing of the seasons.
All around the illuminations stood couples and groups of friends who were taking selfies in front of the decorations. I had never seen an actual light show—until now, I had never known how beautiful it really was.
When Nanami—giddy from the brilliant sights—set off running, the colors of the lights turned blue. And slowly, everything around us turned to that singular color.
Once everything was dyed blue, it was like we had somehow teleported somewhere deep under the sea. On a purely visual level, of course. But regardless, it was pretty cool to be able to feel like we were underwater in the middle of winter.
“So beautiful...”
Trite, but it was the only thing I could think to say. I knew it wasn’t an interesting observation at all, and of course, what I was describing as beautiful was none other than Nanami.
Nanami’s face was lit in blue—she seemed to me like a mermaid, swimming gracefully in the winter ocean. And in the midst of all those lights, I saw Nanami beckoning me over.
Like an insect drawn to a flame, my instincts similarly guided me to her. Though I would’ve gone to her eventually, even if she hadn’t called me.
“Over here, this way,” she said.
“Like this?”
Nanami held up her phone in preparation for a selfie. I leaned in closer to her and looked into her phone, where on the screen our faces were close together.
It had been a while since I’d seen a selfie screen like this. This was a good opportunity to objectively evaluate the distance between me and Nanami.
Maybe it would be better...for us to grow a little bit closer.
I inched closer toward her, my cheek brushing up against hers. Nanami’s cheek felt chilly, and for a moment I thought that our faces might actually get stuck together.
I heard the shutter sound go off on Nanami’s phone, and she checked the new image with a smile on her face.
“Aren’t your cheeks cold, Nanami?” I asked.
“Then warm them up for me,” she returned, bringing both my hands up to her cheeks without missing a beat. Right now I was wearing the gloves that Nanami had given me, so my hands should have been fairly warm. The heat from the hot chocolate earlier...was probably gone by now. Still, there must have been a bit of warmth left on them.
“How is it?” I asked.
“Mmm...it’s warm,” she murmured.
Even through the gloves Nanami’s hands felt warm and very comforting. Since we couldn’t stay that way forever, though, I eventually let go of her face.
The lights from the flower illumination had gone off. I had assumed that they always stayed on, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.
Since we’d managed to see most of the colors in the rotation, we decided to move on in the path...only to find that a long line had formed in front of the flower structure. What’s going on? I thought, until I noticed a sign indicating an opportunity for a free photo.
“Should we get in line? It looks like they have a professional here to take photos,” I suggested.
“You’re right, plus it’s free! That’s so cool. Aren’t they being too generous?” Nanami commented.
“Yeah, I wonder. Maybe because it’s a public event? But let’s try it if it’s free; I like free.”
We both suddenly sounded both extremely frugal and domestic, but it seemed our conversation about the hot chocolate earlier still had a hold on our minds. Though it was true that I would need money in the future—even more so if I was going to eventually live by myself. But why would Nanami start suddenly saying stuff like that too?
“Hey, Nanami—why are you worrying about needing money?”
“Oh, that? It’s not a big deal, really...”
I ended up asking her the question later while we were standing in line. Nanami, though, scratched her cheek, looking slightly embarrassed.
“It’s just that I spent a lot while I was in Hawaii, so I wanted to get my finances back in shape; and if I’m gonna live by myself, I figured I’ll need to tighten things where I can,” Nanami explained.
Ah, that went for me too. When we were in Hawaii I had been pretty lax about my spending. I think I was even like that after we got back. Fortunately, I’d been able to hold back on spending too much on in-game purchases and things, but when it came to spending money for and with Nanami, I seemed to have zero restraint whatsoever. Having a third party around who could rein me in was something I was super grateful for.
“So, if I ever seem like I’m about to go down the wrong path, please stop me,” Nanami pleaded.
“Why are you talking like some heroine whose descent into darkness has been foreshadowed?” I asked.
“Please, you’re the only one who can stop me...”
“Wow, now you even sound like a character with super high stats. I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop you.”
Actually, it was kind of cool to hear Nanami say stuff like this. She did mention hearing this kind of stuff from Peach-san and Shirishizu-san, now that I thought about it. Were those two just really good at bringing out Nanami’s true potential? Or was Nanami simply the type to be easily influenced? Maybe she was too much of the easy heroine. Or maybe I should just assume that it was both.
“And besides,” Nanami began, fidgeting a bit.
I wondered what was wrong; after all, there seemed nothing weird about being mindful about our spending. I quickly realized, though, that Nanami’s current behavior was one she usually displayed when she was thinking too far ahead and heading in a direction she really didn’t need to go in. I started to get a little scared. What outrageous thing was she going to say now?
“If we think about this more in the long term,” she said finally, “if we don’t save up, it’ll be harder when we have kids.”
“Yup, you really skipped a bunch of steps there,” I muttered.
We hadn’t even done anything close to having kids, and yet she’d gone and flown way past that step to talk about actually having them. I had to admit, I was not expecting her to have gone that far ahead already.
As I stood there with my mouth hanging open, Nanami waved both her hands in a panic and shouted, “Oh, but it’s not like that! It’s just...you know, you need money to raise kids! Or, it’s just that I saw something that talked about stuff like that!”
“Yeah, but that’s less changing lanes than speeding down the exact same road,” I murmured, smiling awkwardly at Nanami’s words that were exactly like that. She’d probably gotten our past conversations about living on our own mixed up with that new element of having kids. And seeing a discussion about raising children, she must have made a mental leap. Yeah, Nanami was easily influenced—and now that I was starting to realize just how much, I was getting worried.
I hoped, though, that she was only that easily swayed when it came to stuff related to me.
“Well, even though we don’t know what’s coming up, money will be important no matter what,” I remarked.
“Yes, exactly,” Nanami agreed. “That’s why I was thinking I should try to get a part-time job this winter break.”
“Are you gonna do the ring girl thing again?” I asked.
“I can only do that when there are matches. But maybe I can try to ask Hatsumi and Ayumi to hook me up with something.”
So Nanami was trying to work more too. I was thinking of increasing my hours at my job during winter break, so maybe...
“Do you wanna try asking the owner at my restaurant?” I suggested. “Maybe you could work there.”
“Huh? Wait, really?”
“I mean, you came to pick me up today, and you’ve stopped by other times too, right? I just thought it might be better for us to work at the same place.”
I’d only thought of it on a whim, but it would be nice if Nanami and I worked together. Though there were problems with that, too, and I didn’t know if the owner would give the okay to begin with. Sharing the same job as your girlfriend seemed to come with its own set of problems.
“Honestly, that’d be super great. If we worked together then I wouldn’t have to worry about a lot of things,” Nanami murmured.
“Then I’ll try asking next time,” I said.
“Yeah, thank you. But I’ll look for a job, too, just in case it doesn’t work out.”
“Didn’t you mention before that you wanted to try tutoring?” I asked.
If the tutee happened to be a guy, I would worry that he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on his studies for a lot of different reasons; if Nanami wanted to do it, though, then I wasn’t going to stop her.
“I was thinking of tutoring only after I got into university. I should take care of my own entrance exams before I worry about other people’s studies,” Nanami muttered.
Entrance exams...that’s right. Having been brought back to reality, both our shoulders drooped. Once the new year hits I’ll really have to start thinking about that...
As I was telling myself that, our turn came up in line. In a fit of determination, I exclaimed, “You know what, I’m gonna think about entrance exams later! Right now, I’ve gotta give Christmas everything I’ve got!”
“That’s right! Let’s take pictures! Should we ask them to take a photo of us kissing?!” Nanami also shouted.
“Since there’s people around, let’s not!”
To reset our minds, we stood next to each other to have our picture taken.
I thought I heard someone say “Yoshin is a wuss too,” but I just assumed that I imagined it.