Chapter Twenty-Eight
The Christmas Festival
Mizushima Kasumi’s Point of View
“Wearing your scarf already, huh?” I teased as Nanase and I were about to go downtown for the Christmas Festival and meet up with his high school friends.
He gave me his ‘really?’ look before we exited his apartment.
Our arms were entwined as we walked down the streets of Tokyo.
“Neh, where did you plan to meet with Rin and the others?” I asked.
“The sushi shop down in Okinawa Street,” Nanase replied simply. “We’re going to eat there with them.”
“Oh, okay,” I responded just as my stomach growled.
“Hn,” he gave the slightest of smiles as we approached the restaurant.
A light-brown headed man waved his arms at us once we entered the building, “Oi! Nanase! Kasumi! Here!”
Nanase and I headed over to the table where Makoto, Nagisa, and Rei were seated.
“Where’s Rin?” I asked as I tilted my head towards the side.
“He’s coming,” Makoto flashed me his classic grin of his as Nanase and I settled into our seats.
Nagisa wailed drastically beside me as he continued bickering with Rei, “Nooo! Rei can’t have a girlfriend! I thought I was Rei’s girlfriend! Why?!”
Rei sweat-dropped, “U-uh . . .”
Nagisa instantaneously changed his attitude from detachably depressed to boisterously bubbly before he slapped Rei’s back and shouted, “Hahaha! I was joking! You’re such a baka! Baka-baka-baka!”
Rei developed a twitch mark upon his forehead before shouting in return at his irritating friend, “Gr! You’re the idiot here!”
Makoto chuckled at the situation before him as Rin conveniently walked in.
“Rin!” Nagisa stopped punching Rei in his friendly manner of his before dropping poor Rei to the floor and greeting Rin with a hug.
“O-Oi!” Rin stammered slightly at the sudden embrace of his friend.
“You’re here!” Rei was kneeling on the floor, his hands intertwined as he thanked Rin endlessly as the poor guy just stood there confused.
“Guys, sit down,” I sweat-dropped. “Order up and eat. You two are gradually becoming more and more annoying to the other people eating around you.”
“B-but, Kasumi-chan!” Nagisa cried tears down his face dramatically. “I wanna play!”
“Uh, Nagisa,” I deadpanned. “I don’t think you’re a child anymore . . . Say, what major in college were you taking again?”
“The Nagisa course!” he smiled with sparkles in his eyes. “What other course did you think I would take?”
“Um, journalism?” I asked innocently. “Or, uh, nursing?”
“Correct!” Nagisa pointed his pointer finger towards the stars. “Nursing! I will be Japan’s best male nurse in the universe!”
“Whaaa!” my face turned ghastly, flailing my arms in the process, as I slowly swallowed in the new information. “And here I thought I was joking!”
He then pointed his finger at me, saying, “Mwahahahaha! It’s true!”
“Excuse me, but could you please quiet down?” a person in the booth next to us asked politely as we simmered down back into our seats.
A waitress then came by to take our orders, “Konnichiwa! What can I help you all with today?”
Rin ordered first, “The California sushi rolls and the Thai tea please.”
“The salmon sashimi and avocado bubble tea!” Nagisa shouted with delight.
“Onigiri and lavender tea, please,” Makoto ordered his share.
“The tilapia sushi and durian bubble tea,” Rei ordered his.
“Mackerel sushi and water,” Nanase said monotonously.
“Of course you’d choose water,” Makoto sweat-dropped at his friend’s choice out of the many other options he could have chosen.
“I would like the green tea bubble tea and the wasabi salmon sushi please,” I ordered before the waitress left.
“Y-you c-can e-eat w-w-wasabi?!” Makoto freaked, his spine in a rippling wave. “T-too s-spicy . . .”
I chuckled before replying, “Hahaha, I love spicy foods, to be honest.”
Makoto’s eyes became thin lines before they were overrun with tears streaming down his face endlessly.
Everyone except Nanase laughed at Makoto’s reaction.
“Why do you hate wasabi so much?” I asked, tilting my head to the side. “As long as you add the paste in moderation, it shouldn’t be too spicy for you or anything . . .”
Nagisa then began to laugh his head off as he took Makoto’s place of answering, “That would be because I pranked him once in elementary school!”
“Mind telling me the story?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Most definitely,” he smirked evilly before unfolding the lost story.
Flashback
Elementary School Years
“Neh, Makoto!” Nagisa called for his friend. “Come here!”
“Hm?” the brownie asked, walking over to his friend.
“I brought your favorite bento!” the blonde-haired boy shouted with glee, handing his friend his share of lunch.
“Wah! Thanks so much, Nagisa!” he tackled his friend with a bear hug. “Onigiri!”
Nagisa nodded his head happily before turning his head the other direction with a devilish smirk plastered upon his face.
Makoto took one of his five onigiri and took a bite out of it cheerfully before suddenly spitting out the food.
“S-sp-spic-spicy . . .” Makoto sputtered as he cried tears mounting into a river. “Wh-what was in it?”
“Eto . . .” Nagisa ‘pondered.’ “Wasabi?”
“W-wasabi?!” Makoto shouted, aghast.
End of Flashback
“Gosh,” my eyes slightly widened at the scenario. “Harsh.”
“Mwahahahaha,” Nagisa’s eyes lit with fire, horns forming at the two sides of his head.
“Here’s your orders,” the waitress smiled as she set down our dishes.
“Food . . .” Rei’s eyes lit with sparkles as the rest of us, aside from Nanase, sweat-dropped.
“Just shut up and eat, Rei,” I said simply before we dug into our food.
~*~*~*~
After Eating
“Where to now?” Nanase asked simply after we had all finished eating and drinking.
“Why don’t we just walk around?” Rin suggested as if it were the obvious choice. “The fireworks don’t start until later.”
“It is only 11:30 . . . not that much later, but a decent amount,” Rei stated.
“Then it’s decided,” Nagisa responded to the situation bubbly as always. “Let’s go have some fun!”
“I’m not so sure if his definition of fun is the same as ours, but okay,” Makoto whispered to Nanase and I before following Nagisa out of the shop.
I gave a slight chuckle before walking out of the restaurant with Nanase trailing behind me.
Once I took a step outside, there was an immediate wave of radiating neon lights flashing for your attention nearly everywhere you dared to step or look.
“Where do you want to go, Haruka?” I asked my boyfriend (sounds so weird to say/call him that, to be honest) as I looked up at him.
“Wherever you want to go,” he muttered as we simply followed the rest of his group of friends to wherever they were to go.
“Hey, guys,” I caught all of the guys’ attention. “Want to split up and meet for the time being and then meet up by the lake in about . . . fifteen minutes?”
“Sure,” Rin shrugged. “I’m following wherever you go though.”
“Rei, Makoto, and I will surf the seven seas! Hahaha!” Nagisa joked before dragging his two poor friends by the ear to wherever his destination was.
“Well, then,” I deadpanned before continuing. “Walk around like you suggested earlier, Rin?”
“Most definitely,” he gave me his toothy grin of his before Nanase and I followed his lead. “Besides, I needed to catch up with you, Kasumi. Haven’t really talked to you so much since you came here.”
“Hahaha,” I scratched the back of my head. “That’s true.”
“Hn,” Nanase grunted as we continued on to wherever we were going.
“Tokyo’s so big, isn’t it?” I started the conversation, not knowing much what else to do.
“Yeah,” Rin replied. “After this and New Year’s is the end of the world for me. Crash courses of butterfly and backstroke swimming . . . Dang . . . and we still have a year until the Olympics begin too . . .”
“True,” I replied as I entwined Nanase’s hand into mine. “Not much for talking right now, are you, Nanase?”
“No,” he spoke straightforwardly.
“Okay,” I chuckled as Rin and I continued to converse about life and its many ‘struggles.’
“Oi, it’s almost time,” Nanase stated as then Rin and I then stopped talking to go to our meeting spot with the other three.
“Say, what do you plan on doing tomorrow?” I asked Rin as we stood by the railing surrounding the lake.
“Probably swim,” he smiled, looking the full moon above us.
“Nothing fun, eh?” I chuckled as we then head the boom of laughter and begging from the left direction.
“Nagisa! Stop pulling my ear off!” Rei begged his friend to release him from his grasp.
“M-mine t-t-too, please,” Makoto stammered as Nagisa finally let them go.
“Ha!” he pointed his finger accusingly at them. “I, Nagisa, am the supreme ruler of the universe!”
“Uh . . .” Rin and I deadpanned as Nanase just stared at them with that ultimate poker face of his.
“How about we all just watch the fireworks already and be quiet,” Nanase said blankly, and as if on cue, the first of the fireworks were ignited into the air, creating a brilliant impact into the skies as millions of radiating particles illuminated the heavens.
As we all stared at the spectacle with awe, I felt someone wrap his arms around my waist, enveloping me into a hug from behind. The person’s chin then rested at the crevice of my neck.
Nanase then exhaled his momentarily trapped breath as he then continued to stare at the skies.
“Love you, Nanase,” I whispered as I was still looking at the brilliant fireworks.
“So do I,” he said passively, though I knew he truly meant it.
I then kissed his cheek and placed my arms over his before resting my head against his broad shoulders.
Extra Scenario:
Snickering could be heard in the background as Nagisa was struggling to say something through his laughing, “Oh, my gosh! Nanase’s so ro-man-tic! Hahaha!”
Rin then ‘obnoxiously’ joined in the action, saying, “Oh, Kami! Too true! Too true!”
I then became ‘enraged,’ blasting out at the two, “You two just totally ruined the moment!”
“Ahem,” Nanase faked a cough as though the intimate moment never occurred.
“Yup, you totally ruined the moment,” I then began to whack both the tops of their heads whack-the-mole style with that wooden hammer accessory.
“Oi, where did you get that hammer?” Rin wailed as I continued to whack both his and Nagisa’s heads.
“Yeah, yeah! This is child abuse!” Nagisa cried.
“You’re twenty years old! You’re no child!” I shouted as devil horns sprouted from the sides of my heads.
“A bit too far, wouldn’t you say, Nanase?” Makoto slid into the scene from the side, whispering to Nanase.
“Hn,” Nanase simply grunted before returning their attention to the stunning fireworks.