Chapter 190

"Yeah."

"I don't know much about the Upper Stance, though."

"Don't tell such a ridiculous lie."

"..."

She scowled.

The way the bridge of her nose wrinkled slightly was cute.

Twisting her lips in dissatisfaction, she spoke.

"Fine. Take your stance."

Unable to ignore me when I said I wanted to practice, she finally agreed to the request.

At the end of the day, the President was still the President.

A true leader who couldn't stand by and ignore a marginalized club member... I was touched.

Even if she was only doing it half-reluctantly, who cared? As long as she looked after me, that was enough.

"Merry Christmas."

When I arrived to pick up Miyuki, Midori greeted me with a bright smile and a Christmas wish.

Glancing at her still-voluptuous gift bags, I stepped out of the car and bowed.

"Merry Christmas. Have a great holiday, ma'am."

"Thank you. Are you planning to stay out late today?"

At those words, Miyuki nudged Midori in the ribs.

"Mom...! Why would you ask something like that right to his face?!"

"What's wrong with it? I'm just asking if you're staying out late since it's Christmas. You aren't getting any weird ideas, are you?"

Looking at her, Midori's mischievous streak was just as bad as Kanna's.

I suddenly found myself curious about Midori's school days.

Had she been insanely popular?

Wataru normally looked like a kind, gentle man, but given the dignified weight beneath that exterior, he must have been well above average in his youth.

Or at least possessed some exceptional trait.

One thing was certain: Wataru was absolutely not someone in a position like Tetsuya's.

If he had been, he never would have managed to marry Midori. That went without saying.

Wearing a bright smile, I stopped Miyuki from bickering with her mother and spoke.

"If you want me to send her home early, ma'am, I will."

"No. Take your time and have fun."

It sounded like she was putting a lot of emphasis on 'take your time,' or was I just imagining things?

"I will, then. Thank you."

"Make sure you take things nice and slow. Got it?"

I wasn't imagining things.

When a married woman was this seductive, it gave me wicked thoughts... I had to hold myself back.

"Understood."

After wrapping up our rather meaningful conversation, I had Miyuki get in the car and headed for the Academy. Then—

"Huh?"

As Miyuki stepped out of the car, she tilted her head back with a surprised gasp. I followed her gaze up to the sky.

"It's snowing?"

Just as she said, a few thick snowflakes were drifting down.

What started as five or six flakes quickly turned into a heavy snowfall, painting our surroundings a stark white.

"Oh?"

"Wow...!"

The snow poured down so suddenly and heavily that the excited exclamations of other students and teachers echoed loudly around us.

As long as it didn't lose momentum, a thick layer would likely pile up by the time club activities ended.

"Look at this, Matsuda-kun."

Miyuki held out her hand, showing me a large snowflake that had landed squarely in the center of her palm.

Staring at the snowflake as her body heat melted it away, I spoke.

"It's pretty."

"Yeah. I hope it snows like this in the evening, too."

"It will."

"Did you check the forecast?"

"No."

"Then how can you be so sure?"

Because a white Christmas was the default setting whenever a rom-com protagonist celebrated the holiday. That was how I could be so sure.

"I just know."

Saying that, I gently set her warm winter gloves on top of her light brown hair.

Miyuki slipped her slender fingers into the gloves and asked, "You're being really sentimental today, huh?"

"Does it look that way?"

"Yeah. Let's go in."

Suppressing the urge to pounce on her brightly smiling lips, I crossed the campus with her.

When the Student Council president called out to Miyuki from afar, I scowled.

"Miyuki! Perfect timing. Could you come over here for a second?"

Why was he trying to interrupt our cozy moment together?

I wanted to force him to his knees and spray milky-white seed juice all over those round glasses of his.

"Ah, yes! I'm coming! Matsuda-kun, head in first. And don't eat all of these by yourself."

Miyuki pressed the gummy bears she was holding into my hand.

Sighing inwardly, I pointed at her bag.

"Give me your bag, then."

"Okay. Thanks."

Slipping off her bag and handing it to me, Miyuki scurried over to the Student Council president.

I slung her bag over my chest and trudged forward, then grinned when I saw Chinami and Renka walking through the school gates.

"Oh!? Junior! Merry Christmas!"

Spotting me, Chinami waved both hands wildly.

Her energy was through the roof—probably because of the snow.

Beside her, Renka kept her face expressionless, but I could spot the flush of excitement hidden underneath.

She was playing it cool, but it seemed she loved the heavy snow just as much.

Wearing a pleased smile, I approached Chinami and Renka.

"Merry Christmas. You too, President."

Maybe she didn't want to show a sour reaction on such a good day?

Renka nodded and returned the greeting in a fairly calm tone.

"Merry Christmas."

"Let's get along well in the New Year, too."

"It's not the New Year yet, though?"

"It's just a figure of speech."

"What's with the bag on your chest?"

"This? It's Miyuki's."

"You're good at running errands, aren't you?"

"Think what you want. Master, you look like you're in a fantastic mood."

Chinami brushed the snow out of her hair.

"How could I not be in a good mood when it's suddenly snowing? If enough snow piles up by the time club activities start, let's make a snowman."

"Sure. Let's drag the President into it too."

"Shall we? Close friend, would you like to come up to the hill thirty minutes before club activities end? We can take a picture together once it's done. How about it?"

Perhaps unable to refuse Chinami's innocent eyes, Renka offered an awkward smile.

"I'd love to. I'll be there."

Then she shot me a glare for slyly dragging her into it.

It wasn't a scary look in the slightest. If anything, it only made my desire to train her surge wildly.

Shrugging off Renka's glare, I exchanged a few more words with Chinami before heading to my classroom.

This day had finally come.

Looking purely at the calendar, it had taken a long time, but it felt incredibly short in hindsight.

My goal for today was to ensure Miyuki and Chinami had a good time.

In the afternoon, in the evening, and late into the night.

"What are you doing? Trying to build an igloo?"

Renka threw out the puzzled question from behind me as I shaped the snow into a block.

I looked back at her with a puzzled expression and replied.

"No. I'm making a snowman's head."

"You think a snowman's head is square?"

"It could be."

"No, it couldn't."

"Yes, it could. Isn't that right, Master?"

I aimed the question at Chinami—who was busy rolling a round body over to us—in a tone that practically begged for her agreement. She nodded vigorously.

"Snowmen need to have their own unique personalities, too. While we're at it, we should make the body blocky as well."

Renka let out a dumbfounded scoff.

"Even the body?"

"Yes. Let's make an entirely angular snowman. Like a block of tofu."

"I want a round snowman. Snowmen are supposed to be round."

What was with this weird stubbornness?

Was she just nitpicking because she didn't like the snowman head I'd made?

I was going to hold onto this grudge.

Gently patting the grumbling Renka's back to soothe her, Chinami spoke.

"Then we can just finish this one and build a new snowman afterward. The coach told us to take it easy today, so we have plenty of time. Right?"

"...That's true, but... if a snowman is square, it's going to look hideous..."

"It won't be hideous if we make the face look good. As a special privilege, I'll leave the entire facial design to you, close friend."

"Hah... How am I supposed to salvage this... I feel sorry for the snowman..."

She seemed to be taking jabs at me on purpose... but I would let it slide.

Having finished the head, I debated packing a snowball and throwing it at Renka, but ultimately decided against it.

If she had been wearing thick layers, I would have tried it, but seeing as she only had her Training Uniform on, I spared her.

"Junior, could you grab some fallen branches from up there? Just don't break them off the trees."

Agreeing readily to Chinami's polite request, I climbed the hill, brushing accumulated snow off the ground to search for branches.

Looking down from above, I saw quite a few other club members outside.

Tetsuya wasn't there. With the tournament approaching, he was probably inside, pouring all his focus into practice.

It was refreshing to have no obstacles. Such a peaceful atmosphere.

I hoped we could carry this atmosphere straight into the night—and even into the early hours of the morning.

By the time I came back down with the branches, the snowman's once-round body had been transformed into a rectangle.

And Renka was diligently drawing on eyes, having placed the head I'd made right on top of the body.

With her lips twitching, no less.

For all her complaining, it seemed Renka was enjoying building the snowman just as much.

"Shall we take a picture with junior Matsuda once it's finished?"

"A picture? Do we have to?"

"We worked so hard to make it; we can't just leave it as a memory."

"I guess? Okay."

"But the snowman's eyes are so sharp. And the way one side of its mouth is slightly raised makes it look incredibly insidious."

"An insidious guy made the head, so I'm just drawing a face to match."

"Uh-oh...! Close friend...!"

"It's a joke."

Seeing her chattering away with Chinami in the middle of a pure white snowfield gave off a deeply girlish vibe.

Suppressing the sudden urge to quickly conquer Renka, I walked toward them.

Even if it wasn't a public holiday, there was no doubt it was a special day. The streets were radiant with the colorful lights of various Christmas trees set up outside the stores.

Having finished eating with Miyuki at a nice restaurant, I walked arm-in-arm with her, taking in the sights.

"Do you have a tree at your place?"

"Us? No."

"You didn't decorate one?"

"Right. Usually, I go to the playground with my family, but..."

"Why the playground?"

"The people in our neighborhood put a big Christmas tree there and decorate it together."

"Since you're hanging out with me today, I guess you can't go."

"Right."

"Are they still doing it right now?"

"They should be. Why? Want to go see it?"

Why the hell would I go there?

There was sure to be some nuclear waste there that I didn't even want to look at or think about.

"No."

"So firm? It's fun, though..."

Next year, the five of us—me, Miyuki, Chinami, Renka, and Hiyori—could just do it on our own.

Picturing that brilliant future, I unlinked my arm from Miyuki's, wrapped it around her shoulders, and pulled her close.

"Let's find a good bar and head inside."

"Is Senior Nanase still a long way off?"

"Yeah. It'll still be a while."

"Really? Then let's go somewhere that sells skewers."

"You want to eat yakitori?"

"Yeah."

"I figured you would."

"What made you think that?"

"You were looking for skewer places on your Cell Phone while we were waiting earlier."

"You saw that?"

"Of course. Over your shoulder."

Pulling Miyuki's beige scarf up tight just below her lips, I found a dimly lit bar that sold skewers and we stepped inside.

I wondered if we'd have to wait since it was Christmas, but fortunately, a four-person corner table was open.

We quickly claimed the spot and looked over the menu, ordering yakitori along with a few other snacks.

As we were picking out our drinks, Miyuki put on a beaming smile and asked, "Can I get a highball?"