“Achoo!”
A cute sneeze echoed around the room as Fuyuka, rather embarrassed, tried to muffle her subsequent sniffs. She had spent quite some time on the veranda wearing nothing but her loungewear to protect her from the cold, so it made sense that she had caught a chill. Even Asahi himself had let out a loud sneeze just a moment ago. He regretted not wearing a jacket. In his defense, they hadn’t really had time to bundle up with how enthusiastically Fuyuka had rushed him outside. There was no use crying over spilled milk at this point, though.
“Here, this should warm you up a bit,” he said as he approached Fuyuka with a cup of hot milk in each hand. He sat down next to her on the sofa.
“Thank you very much,” she thanked him as she accepted it.
“So why did you return exactly? I thought we were done for the night once we did the dishes,” he asked.
“Ah... well...”
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to talk about it. I won’t force you.”
“No, that’s not the case here... Could you wait for me again, please?” she requested as she stood up and made her way toward the entrance once more.
Asahi relaxed on the sofa, wrapping his hands around the steamy cup of hot milk in an attempt to seek warmth. He wasn’t sure why she had returned, but it was obvious that it wasn’t simply because of the snow. There must have been another reason—perhaps she had remembered something. As he pondered her motives, the pitter-patter of footsteps indicated that she was approaching him again.
“Could you close your eyes for me?” she pleaded.
“Like this?” he asked, complying with her request.
“Yes. Don’t open them until I tell you that you’re allowed to do so.”
Asahi had a flash of déjà-vu. Hinami had asked him to do the same once, then proceeded to flick her finger against his forehead. Of course, Fuyuka and Hinami were the epitome of polar opposites. He was probably safe from any unwarranted mischief... was what he tried assuring himself.
Asahi’s consciousness was thrown into a sea of darkness. His senses were now heightened, sensitive to the most miniscule of movements, and all too aware of Fuyuka’s close proximity. He had to fight the urge to open his eyes and see what she was planning. Before long, he felt a small, unfamiliar weight being placed on his lap.
“You can open your eyes now,” she said.
“What’s this?” he questioned. He examined the long, slender, rectangular box in front of him. It was neatly wrapped up in paper and adorned with festive red and green stripes. There was no real point to him asking—he had a good idea what it was.
“It’s your Christmas present. Merry Christmas.”
“Figured as much. God, sorry, I didn’t get you anything...” he groaned.
“Don’t worry about it. It was just a little something I was intending on doing for a while,” she explained with a faint, bashful smile and her head hung low.
“Can I open it?”
“Of course. I hope you like it...” she said with a troubled expression.
With her permission, he went ahead and undid the wrapping around the box. What emerged from underneath was something that Asahi never would have expected. It was a familiar-looking mechanical pencil; a spitting image of the high quality, elegant design that Asahi loved so much. The only difference was that this one had a black and silver metallic finish, as opposed to Asahi’s old pencil.
“This is the limited edition one, right? It’s pretty heavy on the wallet, I’ve heard,” he commented. This particular version of the pencil was a limited edition made to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the company that made it. As one could imagine, it was in high demand. It was so popular, in fact, that Asahi had completely given up on ever getting one. He had even tried searching for it on the internet once, but each listing had a hefty aftermarket price to go along with it. With Asahi’s frugal lifestyle, it was certainly well out of his budget.
Regardless of all the troubles he had faced trying to acquire it in the past, the mechanical pencil now sat in front of him. It sparkled proudly in a way particular to brand-new items.
“I saw how upset you were when your previous one broke right before the final exams, so I figured you’d be happy if I bought you this limited edition model...” Fuyuka explained hesitantly.
“It makes me happy that you care, but this must’ve cost a pretty penny. Are you really okay with giving me this?”
“Of course,” the little Santa assured him. “You’ve given me so much, so I wanted to give back, too... even if it’s only a little.”
“Have I really given you anything?” he asked suspiciously.
“Yes, more than you could imagine,” she said with a nod. Her cheeks were fully flushed.
Asahi racked his brain, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember a single time where he had presented Fuyuka with a gift himself. If anything, he was the one that had received the brooch she had oh-so-vehemently forced upon him. He had taken her to his parents’ restaurant, although that was more of a generous gift from his parents rather than him.
Whatever the case, it seemed that Fuyuka had her own feelings on the matter. While Asahi was still bewildered at the discrepancies in both of their memories, he had no reason to refuse her gift.
“Thank you. I’ll make sure to take good care of it,” he expressed his gratitude and was met by Fuyuka’s gentle smile. Has winter always been this hot?
Asahi didn’t understand why his heart was beating so rapidly, nor why his body felt especially warm. He noticed that his heart had started to quiver more and more often recently, particularly when he spent time with Fuyuka. The way it had just skipped a beat by meeting her eyes and seeing her smile only attested to that fact.
He averted his eyes and caught sight of the steam rising from their mugs. The vapor rose and flitted about in the air, dancing and intertwining together as the frigid draft of the winter night blew the two around.