Volume 3 - Me, Her, and a Pair of Wings
Chapter 12
After that incident, neither Chinatsu nor I, nor even Sakurai-san or Satou-kun, spoke of it again. Even on the day of the closing ceremony, no rumors had spread. Occasionally, I would notice Sakurai-san glancing meaningfully at Chinatsu when she was on her phone, or Satou-kun smiling at us when we passed each other in the hallway. It was a relief; had any rumors started, both Chinatsu and I might have developed trust issues.
"Hey, you have plans over the winter break?"
Though I usually left as soon as the bell rang, today was a half-day, so I wasn’t in a rush. I stayed in my seat to organize my belongings. During this time, I overheard the voices of Chinatsu and her group. Perhaps I was more aware of conversations involving Chinatsu, so their voices naturally caught my attention.
"Yeah, my mom's getting out of the hospital, so I figured I'd love to go somewhere and hang out. I know you guys have club activities, so I'll adjust my schedule to yours."
"I want to go karaoke and go shopping! Ah, what should we do on Christmas though?"
I found myself reacting slightly to the mention of Christmas. It would be our first Christmas as a couple, and actually our first romantic holiday event. But we hadn't made any plans yet because we were waiting on the results of Suzuka-san's medical tests to confirm her discharge date. We decided to plan something together after her discharge, as our living arrangements made any attempts of giving the other surprises difficult.
I had looked into reservations, but most places were booked. I thought maybe we could have a serious go at cooking a meal together. As for a gift, I hadn't decided yet. Choosing a present for someone who would be happy with anything made it even harder to decide.
"...I might have plans for Christmas."
"Yep, I figured you’d say that, Chinatsu! Back when you mentioned you had someone special, it meant you have a boyfriend, right? What’s he like? Will you introduce him to us?"
Todo-san asked while lowering her voice a bit. However, I heard her clearly because I had a good hearing. I remember Chinatsu telling me that she had mentioned having someone important to her to a friend, without specifying who, to avoid starting rumors.
"I’d like to introduce him if given a chance, but he’s shy, and we just want to be alone for now. I’ll introduce him properly when the time is right, so please don’t pry too much."
"Now, now, Saki-chan. Rena-chan and I aren't available that day either since she had plans for a christmas party already, and my family has plans too. Let’s just do something before or after Christmas, or maybe around new year? Saki-chan, when's your club practice break?"
Sakurai-san spoke over Chinatsu's words, and Hojoin Rena nodded in agreement.
Their discussion about plans for the holidays was getting lively as they began deciding when and where to do what. I sent Chinatsu a message asking her to let me know if she needed lunch and then got up from my seat.
◇◆
Chinatsu messaged that she would have lunch with her friends and came back in the evening. I spent the day working on my computer and searching on the net for stuff. But a moment later, I was holding my phone on the other hand while thinking of a reply.
"I'm home! Sorry, I ended up talking a lot with them and came back late! I checked my messages—apparently, Mom’s results were good, and she’s getting discharged tomorrow morning!"
"Welcome back, Chinatsu. Yeah, I got a message too. Your mom thanked me for looking after you and invited me to celebrate her recovery."
"...Ah, right. It seemed already normal for my mom to contact you directly, huh. She didn’t write anything unnecessary, did she?"
".....”
"Let me see, just your messages with my mom."
Seeing my usual inability to lie or hide things, Chinatsu reached out her hand. After a moment of hesitation, I gave in to the pressure and opened the message from Suzuka-san, then handed my phone to her.
(Suzuka) Thank you for taking care of Chinatsu. Thanks to you, I’m getting discharged safely.
(Hajime) Ah, congratulations! This calls for a celebration for your recovery, then.
(Suzuka) Thanks, I have to go back to work the day after tomorrow, so how about the three of us go out to eat somewhere tomorrow? I know this doesn’t make up for everything, but I’d like to treat you to something delicious. It's been a while since I've had anything other than hospital food.
(Hajime) Thank you, I’ll gladly accept.
(Suzuka) By the way, how’s living together? My daughter hasn't grown tired of you yet, has she?
(Suzuka) I want to ask more, but considering tonight is your last night living together, I shouldn't intrude too much.
(Suzuka) By the way, what are your plans for Christmas? If you need, I can stay at the office. Actually, I have a lot of work piled up, so maybe I should let you two keep living together for a bit longer.
While I was still wondering how to reply, Suzuka-san had already sent quite a few messages. Chinatsu, with a slightly exasperated look in her eyes, said, "I'll just have a little chat on the phone," and went upstairs. Despite everything that had happened, it was very heartening to see their mother-daughter relationship improving.
Later that evening, Chinatsu and I sat in front of the computer, discussing Christmas and winter break plans.
"Actually, I remembered something a while ago and looked it up."
I said as I showed Chinatsu a few emails and websites.
"This is? Some of these places somehow look incredibly fancy... I’ve honestly never been to such high-end places before."
"Same. They require formal attire, so it’s just a reference... Remember when I mentioned things like stocks when I was talking about my uncle? From him, a few shareholder perks for dinner courses exclusive around this season arrived. I thought, since we have them, we might as well use them."
"Really? Where? I want to see."
"Here. I contacted them, and apparently, someone had canceled their reservation. They said we could book the course at the shareholder discount rate if we want… Normally, this kind of thing should be left as a surprise and smoothly escort you, but considering the dress code and the location being in the downtown area, I wanted to decide together with you, including other plans."
My voice trailed off as I spoke.
"....."
Chinatsu went silent so I turned to see her reaction, but she suddenly hugged me from behind, resting her head on my neck. The soft sensation against my back made me nervous.
"Chinatsu?"
When I said that, Chinatsu rubbed her forehead against my neck and said, it makes me feel a little uneasy, you know? Her voice had a slight hint of affection, so it assured me that my Christmas suggestion hadn’t upset her.
"I feel like you said something similar before."
"It’s because you’re making me feel very happy. I was worried that if we started living together so soon after dating, you might hate me if I showed you my weird sides… But we've been living together so smoothly, or rather it’s actually been very comforting.”
"Yeah."
“Yukko might have found out about us, but knowing they had their own circumstances too. I started thinking that we were on the same boat. And honestly, it made me feel a bit more at ease.”
"Yeah."
"That’s why, what do you call it? Backlash? I sometimes worry that maybe… bad things will happen to balance out the happiness."
Chinatsu’s grip tightened, as if she were afraid I might disappear. I gently reached back to pat her head.
"I understand why you might feel that way. But, think about it. Maybe the happiness we’re feeling right now is making up for our bad past. So, you don’t need to worry about it. I’m sure.”
"Yeah, thanks. You’re right. Positive thinking, positive thinking!”
Then, as if pulling herself together, she stood up and moved her chair next to mine, so that we were sitting close together, looking at the screen. While I was busy typing in the reservation details, Chinatsu suddenly murmured.
"...I just thought of this suddenly, but speaking of bad things, we haven’t had a fight yet, right?”
"Do you want to?"
"Not really, but it's hard to imagine. For example, what would you do if you got really mad at me? I just can't picture it. I mean, I can see myself being selfish, but I can't imagine you getting angry.”
"...Hmm, let’s see. Let’s say your game’s saved data is on my console."
"That's something that would definitely hurt. I'd cry if you deleted it."
"Instead of deleting it, maybe I'd just advance one chapter ahead.”
"...That’s even worse! Now I really don't want to have a fight with you!”
"Haha. Let’s just get along well, alright?”
As we made such an exchange, we finalized our plans for Christmas. During the day, we'd go shopping at places Chinatsu wanted to visit, then we'd head to a spot with beautiful Christmas lights—A place I had found when I searched for ‘first Christmas date spots with girlfriend,’ which Chinatsu had teased me when she saw my search history.—Finally, we'd have a dinner course at the hotel I mentioned earlier. It was an ambitious plan.
I felt both nervous and excited since we made the plans together. It was my first time spending such a Christmas, and I was sure Chinatsu felt the same. We tried to hold onto this indescribable happiness, hoping it wouldn't fade away. We didn't do anything special and spent the day as we normally would.
Thus, the last night of our short cohabitation passed peacefully.
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Bonus Chapter (6/10)
