Chapter 27: How to Spend Christmas

“Hey Amane, can we hold a Christmas party at your place?”

“No.”

The sudden proposal was rejected, and Chitose puffed her cheeks massively.

Christmas Eve was about to come…but it was not an event related to him Amane, who was living alone and away from his family. Chitose and Itsuki wanted to spend it together with Amane, and invited him along.

So Chitose came running over to Amane and Itsuki’s classroom during noon break with this idea, but puffed her cheeks with Amane responded so,

“But you’ll be alone anyway, so what’s the prob…ah, a girlfriend maybe?”

“No no no no such person exists.”

“Then it’s fine. Or do you hate it?”

“Well, if you don’t like it, we’re fine with that, Amane.”

So they asked, but they were showing concern for their friend in their own way.

Or another reason was that they wanted a place where they could freely fawn about.

But their apologetic looks left him a little sorry, and he did not hate that idea anyway.

The reason why he did not want to was that it would be embarrassing to see their unusually intense skinship at his own place, and he would need to spend much effort explaining to Mahiru.

To put it a little more extreme, he would have to tell Mahiru not to show up at his house before they left, and he would have to erase all traces of her existence in the house.

“Not that I don’t want to…right right, 24th? We’ll split before night, so you can just go around making out and such. Just don’t overdo it in my house.”

He was not intending to refuse them outright, so he promised. Chitose’s face broke into a grin.

“Guess we have no choice. This will be a compromise.”

“Who do you think you are?”

Chitose was getting a little too carried away, and so Amane pinched his cheek, “Owwieee Ikkkunnnn, Amane is buullllyyinngggg~” she started begging for help in a slurred manner.

“Come on Amane, stop bullying Chii. Only I get to pinch her cheek.”

“Yes yes, just pinch her for me.”

“Leave it to me!”

“Don’t leave it to himー!”

He thought this would be a good chance for them to make out, so he gave Itsuki the chance to pinch her. And as expected, they ended up pinching and fooling around.

While being pinched, Chitose was really grinning away, and Amane merely shrugged at this sight.

“…Can I go back now?”

He said that, but they were in their own classroom, and he wanted to pull his own distance from them.

“No can do. We need to plan our stuff. Got to prepare cake and food!”

“I can’t do that.”

Of course, Amane could not make any food appropriate for Christmas.

Mahiru probably could make a few dishes as usual, but he could not simply go to her for help.

Amane waved his hand, insisting that he could not do it, but for some reason, Chitose stared at him.

“What?”

“It’s like, you can’t cook, but how are you so healthy?”

“Don’t sweat the little details.”

“Well Chii, Amane has his own issues too.”

“Ehh, you know something too, Ikkun?”

“He said he’ll tell me later.”

“I didn’t say that.”

Don’t make promises like that. He glared at Itsuki, but the latter merely laughed out loud.

A good thing about Itsuki was that he would not press matters, a bad thing is that he could come up with the most outlandish things like an instant inspiration.

“Goodness…well, we can order a take out for lunch, though we need to book in advance.”

Amane ignored the probing look as he came up with a realistic proposal.

Of course, it was without saying that Amane could not bake a cake, and could not cook, so he could only suggest food that was already cooked.

“Ah, then I want pizza! Let’s go to my usual place to order cake. Should be able to order in advance!”

“We’re not eating chicken?”

“But you prefer pizza, Ikkun.”

“Well of course, you understand me after all, Chii.”

“Eheheー”

They said on their own that they wanted to order pizza, but Amane himself did not dislike that idea, and he too found it fitting for a party.

At this rate, it was likely they would be ordering pizza from the shop Amane and Itsuki usually ordered from.

But once he heard of pizza, he suddenly thought of Mahiru.

The sight of her munching it down like a little animal was truly adorable, for it was because he usually saw her eating elegantly.

He recalled the moment when he tried to feed cake to her days ago, and felt his cheeks searing somewhat.

I’m never doing that again.

It would be impossible to do such a shameless act of feeding each other again. They were not the lovey-dovey couple like Itsuki and Chitose, and probably would not have the chance to do so again.

“…Amane, what’s wrong?”

“Ah, nothing, nothing at all. I’ll leave the cake preorder to you.”

For a moment, Amane was lost in his own thoughts, and a surprised Chitose leaned over at him worriedly. He hurriedly purged that notion from his mind, and reverted back to his usual expression.

“Yay~! Let’s order pizza too~!!”

Chitose let out an excited squeal, and hearing that, Amane decided to ask Mahiru for her Christmas plans.