Chapter 1:
How I Met Santa
ALL THE LIGHTS SHINING IN THE CITY REMINDED me, whether I liked it or not, that it was Christmas season. I side-eyed the red, green, and yellow lights and heaved a sigh.
Couples surrounded me. I cursed myself for wandering through a part of town so favored by them. Although I’d turned down Ayaka’s mixer invitation, seeing couples everywhere made me wonder if I should just accept.
I’d feel a sense of affinity when I occasionally saw groups of men, but when I heard one of them talking about “checking out a French restaurant because my girl likes them,” I was immediately plunged back into my bad mood.
My ex and I had spent last Christmas together, so I felt even more out of place among the festivities.
Amid the commotion, a girl in bright-red attire thrust a flyer in my direction. “Excuse me! Umm, here, please take this!”
I reflexively swatted her arm away—forgive me for the lame excuse, but I was just so annoyed to be there.
That threw her off balance, sending flyers…well, flying. “Eep!” she cried.
“Whoa, I’m sorry!” I frantically grabbed up the scattered papers, but unfortunately, a group of students happened to pass through and stepped on half of them. “Sorry. Jeez, I’m really sorry. I’ll pay you back.” I didn’t know how much they would cost, but I scrambled for the wallet in my back pocket.
When she saw that, the girl in red suddenly panicked.
She was dressed up just like Santa. Man, part-time work must be rough, I thought to myself despite knowing absolutely nothing about her. Ayaka and I were just talking about Santa, and speak of the devil, here she was.
“N-no, it’s okay! I’m sorry for coming at you so hard out of nowhere.”
“I’ll go with you. Better if I help you explain.” I stood up to give her the ones I’d picked up.
The girl looked hesitant, as if unsure about my suggestion.
However, my mind was mostly occupied by a different thought: This girl was drop-dead cute. Add in the Santa outfit, and she popped out from the scenery as if she’d come from another world.
Passersby shot her sidelong glances, confirming her otherworldly cuteness.
Judging by her gently curling dark-brown hair and light makeup, she was probably a university student like me. When I saw myself reflected in her big irises, I frantically returned to picking up flyers.
“Thank you for helping me out,” she said.
“I-it’s no problem. Was my fault anyway.”
“Honestly, my boss is strict, so I really do appreciate your offer. But there’s still an hour until I’m done here, so are you sure…?”
“I just freed up my day, actually. I have an hour to kill.”
The girl in the Santa outfit bowed deeply. “Okay, umm… I’ll see you later. Do you know somewhere around here I can take a break?”
“Yeah, there’s a university nearby, and they have a sort of park that you can sit in. I’ll be waiting in the café named Rita’s on the first floor of the shopping mall next to it.”
“The university right over there?” she confirmed. That was only one that fit the description, so I nodded. A spark of friendliness emerged on her face. “Umm, my name is Shinohara Mayu.”
“Hasegawa Yuuta. Okay… See ya.”
“Oh, okay! Gotcha. Meet you at Rita’s, then?”
After that, I said goodbye—strikingly awkwardly, compared with when I left Ayaka—and headed toward the shopping mall where couples loved to gather.
As I looked upon the Christmas-colored decorations all over the place, I noticed the slightest bounce in my step.
✦ ✦ ✦
“She’s late.”
In Rita’s, the café in the festively decorated shopping mall, I sat at a counter alone and waited for the girl in the Santa outfit.
I rolled up a sleeve and checked the time on my watch. Forty minutes had passed since our planned meeting time.
When you think about it, I guess it makes sense.
No matter how much I defended her, all I could really do was apologize alongside her. Even though I’d panicked and pulled out my wallet, I doubted any company would really demand compensation for some dropped flyers.
I looked at my watch one last time and stood up. Then, I gulped down the rest of my cold coffee and left the café.
Be real. Apologizing together? C’mon, man, I grumbled mentally as I trudged through the bustling mall.
It was an amateur womanizer’s pick-up play. She was probably icked out. I mean, I would be if I was her. And that much was fine, sure, but wasn’t it a little mean for her to leave me waiting that long?
While I thought about it, a couple holding hands walked right toward me. They were so focused on each other that I didn’t even register to them. In the end, I’d passed right between them, severing their connection.
“Sorry.” I bowed in apology.
The high schoolers didn’t even turn to look at me. They just intertwined their fingers back together.
I heaved another sigh. Self-pity always came long before anger ever could.
Those kids would probably spend Christmas together too. Probably splurge at a nice restaurant, even though they don’t have much money.
I reached into my jeans pocket, grabbed my earbuds, and put them in. I cranked the volume way up to cut off the voices around me.
Being alone wasn’t all that bad in itself, but Christmas was just so painful for single people like me.
I decided to just go home and read manga or something. That’d make for a fine Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Just as I decided that, though, there was a timid tap on my shoulder.
I turned and saw an unfamiliar girl—no, it was the girl who was wearing a Santa outfit before. Except now, she was wearing a beige coat. I couldn’t tell when she was wearing the Santa outfit, but when I looked at her now, I could see that she was younger than me.
“Huh? What’s up?” I asked her.
“Oh, um… I’m the girl from earlier.”
“Sorry. I figured you weren’t coming, so I decided to leave.” Feeling guilty for leaving the place we’d arranged to meet, I looked away and asked, “Should we go now?”
Even if she had been forty minutes late, maybe I should’ve kept waiting for her.
“No. I took care of it.”
“Oh?”
“In more than one way, in fact.”
“Hmm?”
“I quit,” the girl declared.
“What?!”
She quit being Santa, just like that? All because I ran into her? I shuddered in horror at what I’d caused.
“I mean, I was planning to quit soon either way,” she shrugged. “I am a little bummed that I can’t wear the outfit anymore, though.”
“Y-you’re okay with this?”
“Obviously.” The girl pouted. Apparently, the polite impression I had of her was just her work persona. “I gave you my name, right? Shinohara Mayu. Maybe use it for once.”