It was still only 10:00 p.m. Before long, the couples of the world would be making their moves.
I opened social media for the first time in a while, and posts from high school and university friends littered my timeline. At this time of year, I always wanted to make fun of them.
For example, one post read, “Christmas outfit date today! But I don’t know if I look good!” Why post in the first place, then?
Another one said, “This Christmas tree is huge!” but there was no tree in the image. It was just a couple. Show us the tree, damn it.
I normally paid no mind to posts like these, but today, they actually did bother me. Was it just because it was Christmas? I didn’t want to admit it, but part of me was green with envy.
If I kept doomscrolling forever, my heart would just get darker and darker.
Fine. One more refresh, and then I’m turning it off.
As I did, my eyes lingered on a post: “I think today’s going to be a very special one! ♪”
The post itself was normal and inoffensive as can be, but the user’s profile picture was horrifyingly familiar. It was my ex, with her light-brown-dyed hair. Her name: Aisaka Reina.
Reina cheated on me a month ago. The sting of our breakup was still fresh for me. I’d gotten over it to an extent, but seeing her face still made my heart hurt.
“Tch…” Nobody was here with me, but I still felt the need to click my tongue to hide the pain. Just the words “very special,” coming from her, made me imagine so many things.
There had been signs of her losing interest in me as our one-year anniversary approached. The first was that she’d reply to my LINE messages less frequently. She’d refuse most of my invitations to take her out on dates, and she’d even cancel some at the last minute.
But the dates we did go on were fun, and she’d upload pics from them to social media, so I thought I had a chance to turn things around.
And then she cheated on me.
“Aaargh, no more remembering things!”
Ruminating wouldn’t help me at this point. After a whole bunch of moping following the breakup, I’d decided I would get over it and stop dwelling. If I kept on going as I was, I wouldn’t be able to face Ayaka—especially not when she was trying her hardest to make me feel better.
I stretched in place, hoping to reset my mood a little. My back cracked pleasantly.
When you’re feeling iffy, the best remedy is to get moving.
Speaking of… Did Shinohara get home okay?
She’d said yesterday that she wanted to get revenge on her boyfriend before she broke up with him. Crazy that it already happened. And on Christmas, of all days. Seeing how prideful Motosaka was, it must’ve hurt pretty bad to argue like that in public only to get dumped right after.
Worse, things tend to get messy when couples break up. Japanese people generally liked to keep things on the down-low in social situations, but that didn’t really apply to break-ups. Mutually agreeing to call it off and eventually being friends in the end… That didn’t seem likely coming from Shinohara and Motosaka.
Before I knew it, I’d opened Shinohara’s LINE page and pressed the call button. The familiar call tone sounded unnatural now.
The screen went dark without her answering. It’d been almost an hour since we left, so she should have been home by now.
I started to get a bad feeling, but if I couldn’t contact her, then there wasn’t much I could do. I didn’t know where she lived after all, and it was more than likely that I was just imagining things. I’d lose this unease by morning, no doubt.
I let out a big yawn and flipped the switch to heat up a bath.
As I did, my phone rang. I picked up and heard Shinohara’s voice.
“Senpai? What’s up?”
“Oh, Shinohara! Thank goodness.” I breathed a sigh of relief.
This prompted a giggle from the other end of the call. “Aww, did you call me just because you were worried?”
“Mm, well… I mean, he seemed like a handful. You two left early, so I was a little anxious.”
“Ah ha ha! Not much happened, really,” she replied cheerfully. “Actually, I was just thinking of calling you. I did a double take when I saw you were calling.”
“Huh, what a coincidence. What were you going to call for?” I asked.
She answered, guilt audible in her voice. “I wanted to apologize…for getting you involved and all.”
“Huh?”
“Umm, just like today and stuff. I made things awkward and all, when it really shouldn’t have been your business in the first place…”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. It was already nosediving before you got there.” I’d go as far as to say that she fixed everything by coming. Way better than being forced to listen to that guy forever, at least.
“Sure. But in the end, I was his girlfriend…”
“Oh, you broke up after all?”
“Well, yeah.” Her answer sounded incomplete somehow, but I didn’t press her. She could explain more if she wanted. “Going out with someone just because you personally feel like doing couple stuff isn’t great, right? If you go all the way back, it’s my fault for dating him for such a dumb reason.”
She seemed a little depressed about the situation, so I figured I’d give her my take. “That’s kinda how it works though, right? I’d say fewer and fewer couples get together because they have genuine, mutual feelings for each other.”
Maybe it was more common in middle and high school, I’d grant. If couples could only be formed by two people mutually in love, I’d say more than half of the couples in university would vanish into thin air.
I’m certain that a majority of them choose to start relationships because they want to go to couples’ events, even if many of them wouldn’t admit it.
It honestly made me happy to hear her sharing something so close to her heart.
“No wonder you’re older than me,” she murmured.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“No, it’s just that you’re good at comforting people. I thought you’d say something like, ‘Yep, you made your bed, now lay in it.’” She sounded as if I’d said something unusual.
“You understand that you bear some fault, but you’re talking to me about it to help sort out your feelings. Why would I kick you when you’re down?”
“Whoooa,” she said, stunned. “Yeah… You’re totally mature. You have my respect.”
“Uh, what? The sudden flattery is making me uncomfortable here.”
“Hey, don’t be mean. I might not look like it, but I don’t just respect anyone.”
“If someone who doesn’t respect people does respect me, that’s probably a bad thing. How about you respect Ayaka instead? You know each other, right?”
After a moment’s pause, Shinohara answered, “Ayaka, huh? I guess. I’ll think about it.”
From there, we chatted for a good half hour or so. There weren’t many people who I’d keep chatting to once we were done with whatever we were actually talking about, save for Ayaka.
We talked a lot about stuff on social media. It was funny how we agreed on so many things.
“Whew… I should go take my bath soon,” she finally said.
“Yeah. I gotta get to bed too.”
“Okay. Good night. Lemme make this up to you soon, okay?”
“Sure.”
“And thank you for today.” With that, she hung up.
Before I knew it, we were in the exact opposite positions. It was so funny that I couldn’t help but laugh.
More importantly, though the stuff with her boyfriend was over by now, she’d promised to make plans with me again.
“Soon, huh?” I murmured to myself. I looked out the window and felt the dry winter air.
I guess my encounter with Santa is going to change more than just my Christmas.
That thought made the familiar scenery outside seem more vivid than ever.
I still had plenty of time left at university. I’d spent all of middle and high school in clubs and studying for exams, so I never had any free time. University life came as a surprising, but comfortable, breath of fresh air.