a/n: have i used this manga panel before?
it was finally new year's eve. all your bags were already packed since you'd be leaving almost immediately after the party. you had spent the last three hours in your hotel room due to hair and wardrobe as your parents wanted all three of you to look your absolute best. you were all supposed to attend some new year's party with your father's important business friends along with your mother's celebrity friends. your parents had informed you there were supposed to be paparazzi there.
"oh ms. haiba, you look absolutely stunning right now." your hairstylist said while she was fixing any loose hairs she might've missed. your outfit was supposed to complement what alisa and your mother were supposed to wear.
outfit reference brought to you by ms. chou tzuyu (if you don't like it, you are more than free to change it (:)
you absolutely loved the monogrammed jacket that was covered with the iconic louis vuitton symbol. you didn't really like over-the-top outfits like alisa and your mother, to you, this was just the right amount of understated and sophistication.
the hairstylist stepped back and admired her work. "okay, i'm just about done here. the makeup artist isn't going to take too long here. you're already beautiful as is." she patted your head lightly, being careful as to not to ruin your hair, and left the dressing room. the makeup artist came in and true to your hairstylist's word, she didn't take long with your look. she wanted to keep your look understated yet still sophisticated, just like your outfit.
the outfits were supposed to be a sponsorship from louis vuitton so you had to some promoting.
you took your phone out and took a mirror selfie of yourself with the outfit, tagging louis vuitton's official instagram account.
"well that should be enough, now to just get this party over with." you stood up from your chair and smoothed your skirt down, exiting your room. lev and alisa were already sitting on the couch waiting for you.
"now how come you always take the longest getting ready n/n?" lev asked you, putting his phone in the pocket of his jacket.
"you can't rush perfection lev, there's a reason they always take a short time for you." you sneered at him. he stuck his tongue out at you, not having a remark for you.
"all right you two, it's ten. we have to go now." alisa put her phone in her purse and opened the door, you and lev walking out and walking into the elevator. you three entered the car your parents sent for you. you looked outside the window, admiring the city lights. you began to wonder how tokyo was celebrating new year's.
the party seemed to have passed you by in a flash. one minute you were taking pictures, putting up the facade that you and your parents were tight-knit. that act didn't last long as when they entered the building, your dad went off to meet with his important business friends and your mom went to talk to her celebrity friends. this left you, alisa, and lev alone.
you spent the rest of the party goofing off with lev, sipping from non-alcoholic cocktails but sneaking some sips from alisa's just for fun. when midnight came, she gave you her glass of champagne so you could experience the feeling of drinking champagne at the stroke of the new year. the champagne left a warm feeling in your stomach, it tasted sweet and bubbly. your parents came up to you three and pressed kisses to both of your cheeks.
"happy new year's sweetie!" they both said to you. you smiled and wished them both a happy new year's. when they moved onto lev and alisa, you pulled your phone out of your purse and texted momo.
you:
happy new year's peach :)
love you so much, here's to many more years with you
moguri🍑:
and a happy new year's to you too n/n
i hope to be best friends until we're all old and ugly :)
you and your siblings left half an hour later after midnight, your flight back to tokyo was at five am. it was only so early because your grandparents wanted to have dinner with you and your siblings, they do this every new year. you didn't complain at all though. they were your grandparents from your mom's side, so you got japanese food and your mom's cultural food. your grandparents looked more like you than they did lev and alisa, your father's parents were back in russia so you rarely ever saw them.
all you knew was you were going to be very sleep-deprived when you arrived back in tokyo.
♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡
true to your thoughts, you arrived back at your house in tokyo at nine in the morning. you didn't even bother unpacking first, you just flopped onto your bed and fell into a deep slumber, hoping not to be woken up.
you were woken up hours later by alisa shaking you awake. when you opened your eyes, you saw a cup of water in her hands.
"okay 'lisa! let's not resort to pouring a cup of water on me to wake me up! i'm up!" you took the cup out of her hands and placed it on your nightstand. you sat up in your bed and rubbed the sleep out of your eyes, grabbing your phone from under your pillow where you had placed it.
"get in the shower bun, we're leaving for our grandparents in two hours. also, wear your kimono. you know how much they love seeing us in our traditional wear." and with that alisa left your room. while you loved how kimonos looked on you, you hated putting them on. especially tying the bow on the back, you never got it right.
you got out of bed and walked to the bathroom. while you were waiting for your shower to warm up, you checked your phone and saw random twitter and instagram notifications, none of them standing out to you. unlike the text message, you had received from akaashi.
kaashi:
happy new year's f/n! i heard you returned to tokyo today, hope you had a safe flight. just wanted to ask when you wanted to meet up <3
you:
i have dinner with my grandparents today but i could meet you after that so around nine or ten also, happy new year's to you too :)
kaashi:
okay sounds great, i'll see you at the park we went to when i essentially kidnapped you :)
you smiled at the smiley face he sent you, placing your phone on the counter. you spent the next hour getting ready. the real difficulty would be when you had to put your kimono on, which usually took you thirty minutes...on a good day anyway.
you were finally getting the hang of putting on the kimono, up until it came to the bow. you knew if you tried to put it on, it would just look all weird and crooked. so you grabbed the piece of fabric and walked to alisa's room.
"'lisaaaa help meeeee! i can't tie this stupid bow!" alisa looked up from her vanity where she was applying her makeup and looked at you with a sympathetic smile like she was expecting your presence.
"yeah sure, come here," she stood up from her chair and walked behind you, and began tying the bow of your kimono. it didn't take long for her to finish tying the bow, as soon as she finished she turned you around and gave you a thumbs-up.
"can you check if lev's ready yet? i want to leave in like fifteen minutes," you gave her a thumbs up and turned to leave her room before you remembered you had to tell her about your planned meetup with akaashi.
"one more thing, i talked to akaashi and i planned to meet up with him today after dinner...is that okay?" you looked down and fiddled with your fingers, your eyes focusing on the dark blue fabric your kimono was made out of. it was supposed to represent a dark winter night with snow falling which is why delicately designed white snowflakes were sewn on.
"yeah sure, i'll drive you to where you're meeting him after dinner. i trust you'll tell me everything that happened, whether it's good news or bad news," she gave you a sneaky wink and you returned the wink. you left her room to go see if lev was ready.
you weren't even close to seeing akaashi yet your heart was still racing from nervousness. you could only hope you made the right decision.
♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡
the hours seemed to pass by in a flash, which only made akaashi's nervousness skyrocket. he had gotten confirmation from you that you'd be meeting him at ten, which gave him more time to gather his thoughts. he was nervous, his thoughts were all mixed up in his head, the urge to bite his nails only grew stronger.
it was a twenty minute walk from his house to the park he told you to meet him at, so he opted to leave his house at 9:30 which gave him an extra ten minutes to collect himself before you arrived. he put on his puffer jacket that was given to him by the boosters of the volleyball team along with the scarf he let you wear awhile ago.
he still remembered how stubborn you were being by refusing to wear the scarf even though you were freezing to death. he only hoped he could have more moments like that with you.
before leaving the house, he grabbed a small purple gift bag that was on his desk. in it were the small love notes that he wrote for you and that you never receieved, the letter he wrote for you, and a small box. depending how the talk would go would decide whether or not akaashi would give you the box or not.
"i'll be back!" he yelled out to his parents whilst slipping his shoes on. he waited for his parents goodbye then left the house, closing the door behind him. he walked to the park in silence, the jacket and scarf keeping him warmer than he expected. it was times like these he was truly grategul for how good the team was othwerise the boosters would not be so generous as to gift the entire volleyball team puffer jackets.
he arrived at the park after fifteen minutes of walking, sitting down at the nearest bench. the cold finally got to him as he started shivering as the cold winter air blew. he put the gift bag down next to him and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jacket while burying his face in his scarf.
the whole time, his heart was racing out of pure nervousness mixed in with fear. he hadn't felt this nervous since the time he spontaneously confessed to you outside your house. he was hoping for an outcome like that to happen again, where it would end off with a kiss shared by the two of you.
he was hoping the letter he wrote made sense, that it didn't sound too cheesy, that you wouldn't cringe when he read it to you. he had gone so far down this overthinking spiral of his, he didn't even notice you appear right in front of him. he only noticed when you waved your hand in front of his face.
he looked up to see you, he was stunned into silence seeing you dressed in your intricately designed kimono. the only way he could describe you was a beautiful viola with snowflakes adorning you.
"hey f/n..."
"yeah...hey akaashi." .
a/n: very sad, we're reaching the end of the book :((. also sorry for irregular updates, i have ib homework and shit to do so...but thank you for 12k mis cariños <33. oh also, y'all fucking with the new momo cover 😫😫? until next time, love you all!