“Yooo!”
“Whassup!”
“Morns!”
A trio of male students came in at once, filling the remaining slots of the mixer. They were all good-looking dudes—Ayaka’s hand-selected, most eligible bachelors.
If only they said hello like normal people, they might’ve made a good first impression. I can understand the first two, but what does “morns” mean? Is that slang for “good morning”? Saying the whole thing hardly takes up any more time. Besides, it’s the evening.
“Evening, guys!” Ayaka greeted them with a big smile.
Seeing that, I grinned inwardly.
She’d always had lots of friends since high school. Regardless of gender, everyone loved her. Her attitude right now, her outward goodness, was the reason for that.
People would notice her rougher edges as they got closer to her, but to the men here, she’d managed to keep up her façade as an affable good girl.
“Heyo, Ayaka! Thanks for inviting us today.”
“Oh no, thank you for stopping by on such short notice! It’s great to have you here, Motosaka-kun.”
“Bah, c’mon. You know I’ll go anywhere you ask me to.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere, my friend!” Ayaka giggled. As someone who knew her true nature, I was tempted to laugh right along with her.
As the mixer began, everyone started conversing excitedly. For a supposedly slapped-together group of people, the men were all talkative, and the women were all pretty. Conversation, even if it was just small talk, was sure to be abundant.
Though I hadn’t really wanted to attend, I managed to have fun for the hour. We were all assigned seats facing someone of the opposite gender. The girl I was paired with also happened to like manga, so we chatted a lot about that.
Motosaka, who was seated across from Ayaka, was the only one who seemed more interested in wooing his tablemate than having a conversation.
“Gosh, I wish I had a girlfriend like you, Ayaka-chan,” he fawned.
“You’re a good guy. I’m sure she’s right around the corner!” she replied, awkwardly.
“I dunno… I mean, right now, I’d be happy just being with you, you know?”
“Jeez, come on!”
“Ah ha ha!” Motosaka slapped the table and faked laughter.
It was a classic move—shooting your shot but disguising it as a joke. I didn’t have that much romantic experience, but I’d seen a lifetime’s worth of men going after Ayaka. She’d always say she wanted a boyfriend in one breath and then repel her frivolous suitors in the next.
Sadly, those were the exact kinds of men that tended to approach her, lured in by her beauty. It wasn’t as true in high school, but it had become much more apparent since we entered university.
Once upon a time, I’d noticed that she still befriended those same guys despite them not being her type. So I’d asked her, “Why are you so friendly with everyone?”
Her answer? “Doesn’t hurt to make friends.”
From where I stood, it seemed like she was asking for a lot of unnecessary trouble, but maybe she could deal with it before anything became serious. I’d never probed that much, though, so I didn’t know for sure.
Anyway… This Motosaka guy. He’d been gulping down drinks ever since the mixer began, and he was starting to get louder for it. This place wasn’t a cheap izakaya, so it made our group stand out a little.
Before long, he started trying to steer his conversations with the girls to lewd topics. Even Ayaka started to get visibly frustrated.
“Motosaka-kun, you’re getting a little loud. Also, I don’t know if you should be asking strangers about that stuff…”
“Aww, why not? I’m just speaking for all the dudes here! These are the questions everyone else is too afraid to ask,” Motosaka protested, loud as ever. He apparently had anointed himself the representative of all men, so we ought to be grateful that he’d finally broached the topic of sex for the rest of us.
The two other guys looked at each other and chuckled. It seemed like they were willing to let him make his own bed.
“You’re making them uncomfortable, though,” I spoke up.
His face wrinkled in anger. “Why the heck are you all being downers?”
“It’s not that. Look, everyone’s uncomfortable.”
“Yeah, because you’re being a wet blanket, man.”
“Obviously not.”
“You sure about that?” Motosaka glared at me, not bothering to hide his displeasure. “This is how all the mixers I’ve gone to have been. Isn’t this normal?”
Ayaka spoke up again. “Some of them might be like that, but…”
I could almost read her mind. She wanted to say, This one isn’t, and if you could read the room, that would be obvious.
But to a guy who desperately lacked any social awareness, he was immune. “See? It’s fine. Anyway, as I was saying…” he said, trying to wrestle back control of the conversation.
The girls sitting next to Ayaka had grinned nervously the whole time, but they were visibly gloomy now.
Judging from the state of things, she’d called people that she didn’t know that well.
On the other hand, she was the one who’d invited Motosaka. With that fact hovering over us, she looked up in determination and prepared to speak. But before she could, she was interrupted by a voice far too bubbly for the situation.
“Oh, wow. Senpai, it’s you!” The spirited voice belonged to none other than Shinohara, the girl who’d quit being Santa the other day. “Good evening, Hasegawa-senpai!”
Her eyes sparkled as she ran over.
Her jaw-dropping beauty naturally captured everyone’s attention. She stood out even among a mixer full of pretty girls. Even Ayaka, the only one who could rival her, was stunned into speechlessness by her sudden arrival.
Confused by her timing, I stood up from my seat by the aisle to greet her. “H-hey. Fancy meeting you here.”
“Wow, it’s been a whole day since I saw you!” She was acting way differently from yesterday. Much too sweet. I didn’t remember her ever treating me like this, and I doubted she was the kind of person to act like that in front of others in the first place.
How’d she get here, anyway? I hadn’t told her where the mixer was happening.
As I sat in my confusion, someone spoke up unexpectedly. “Whoa, Mayu, what do you think you’re doing?” It was Motosaka.
He hadn’t flinched when Ayaka and I warned him about his behavior, but Shinohara’s appearance made him go pale in no time.
His panic, the way he used her given name… The pieces clicked into place.
When Shinohara noticed him, her voice was much colder than it had been moments ago. “Oh, you’re here.”
“Yeah, heh. What are you doing here, Mayu?”
“Does it matter? It’s a coincidence, Yuudou-senpai.” She shot him a cold glare, but coming from such a cute face, it wasn’t very scary at all. Then, she glanced at the girls’ side of the table and sighed. “Looks like you’re enjoying yourself. Again.”
“Mayu, let me be clear here. We’re having a Christmas party, all right?”
“Oh, a party, is it? Doesn’t look like that to me.”
“You know full well I learned my lesson from the other day.” Motosaka put his palm on her head, but she swatted it away.
Now that I knew what was going on between them, I spoke up. “Another mixer, right?” If he’d acted like a normal person, maybe I would’ve kept my mouth shut, but I was in no mood to protect this guy. “You were just telling us. All the other mixers you’ve been to, you make dirty jokes and stuff with the girls, right? Don’t backtrack now.”
“Y-you…” Motosaka glared at me, incredulous.
I pretended to be oblivious and stared back at him as if I had no idea why he was angry.
Shinohara shook her head, acting fed up. “I knew it. I just knew it. I’m supposed to be your girlfriend or whatever, Yuudou, so please don’t embarrass me.”
“I-It’s not true! He’s just making a stupid joke!” Motosaka clicked his tongue at me and turned to face Shinohara. “Hell, what are you doing with that guy?! You told me you don’t have many guy friends!”
“Always one to put yourself above others… By the way, you’re annoying everyone else. Keep your voice down.” Shinohara put a finger to her lips to shush him, worried about the scene he was making. She immediately made the man fall silent in a way we couldn’t before. What she’d said yesterday seemed true—he’d cheated, but he really did still love her to a fault. “As for my relationship with Hasegawa, we just spent Christmas Eve together. That’s all.”
“Pfft!” I couldn’t help but laugh. While I tried to speak up and correct her, her gaze stopped me cold.
Her eyes were saying, Just play along, please.
You’d better buy me dinner.
When he heard about yesterday, Motosaka’s face turned even paler. “What in the… That’s cheating too, isn’t it… You think it’s okay for a woman to cheat?”
“Oh, so it’s okay for a man to, then?”
“But women can’t…” He rebelled quietly, but it was clear to everyone here who was winning this argument.
Ayaka clapped her hands twice. “Okay, that’s enough for today. Let’s get together again when the time is right, yeah?” The faces of the girls sitting next to her lit up.
Our host had given up on calming Motosaka and instead opted to escape.
“Ugh… Ayaka-chan, I came because you invited me, but this group… Meh. Call me another time, okay?” He said it loudly for all to hear, stomped over to the register, and paid for his orders.
I’m amazed he thinks he’ll get invited again.
“Let’s go, Mayu,” Motosaka called out as he left. Surprisingly, she followed him without hesitation.
As she left, she turned and waved, “See you later, Senpai!”
Confused, I timidly raised my hand back. The sight of her brushing off his hand had stuck with me.
“Sorry this had to happen on Christmas, everyone…” Ayaka was sad—a rare sight—as she paid.
Everyone else consoled her. Meanwhile, I made for the door first.
Jingle. That Christmasy bell sound rang out a little sadder this time.