Soul for a Girlfriend?

Chapter 285 - Christmas Eve - Part 1

I knew exactly what she was referring to when I left the house. Since she has been able to speak her mind about the contract ever since I broke off her curse, she was helping me a lot with Moriko.

Frankly, it was very unnatural to hear about Moriko from Lilith because she has never been so involved with the targets.

It was quite dark outside and the area I used to live in was far from the main city so it was rather silent. With the sound of my footsteps, I was listening to some music on my earphone while looking straight ahead at me in the distance.

I also realised that from the past few months, I have lost the ability to not think about anything. No matter how calm I was or my surroundings were, there hadn't been a single moment when something wasn't going on inside my head.

I recalled something that I saw in a book once.

But a person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except his thoughts. An illusion they reside in and lose touch with reality. And losing touch with reality makes them self destructive by nature.

Thinking a lot wasn't a bad thing, but drowning in the labyrinth of the same thoughts, chattering in the skull, perpetual and compulsive repetition of words was a rather worse state to be in.

The thinking was like every other thing in this world, a boon when done in moderation but a curse if it gets out of hand.

Well it wasn't a big deal since our minds as I always occupied with thoughts but I was becoming way too aware of my habit of overthinking and somehow it felt like my thoughts were slowly starting to devour me.

And, I felt like my thoughts were controlling me.

A good servant, but a poor master.

I again found myself doing the exact thing that I was trying to refrain from doing in my thoughts.

I realised the streets were slowly starting to get busy and crowded the more I was moving towards the main part of the city. The roads were already occupied with cars and the sound of their honking was overwhelming the music from my earphones.

  I continued walking towards the bistro which was next to the supermarket as Gaisen told me to meet with the others there. I noticed the streets being illuminated with tiny lights and all the decorations for Christmas alongside the streets.

All in all, it was quite a lively time of the year.

I finally reached our rendezvous spot and heard the voice of Gaisen approaching me, as he was waving his arm, "There he is, Yo!"

"You're early…" Ts?men said while glancing at me, as I retorted, "You're earlier than me."

"Touché."

"So, what are we going to do?" I asked, stepping to the side of the street, as Gaisen put his arm around my shoulders and answered, "Let's walk around the town a bit and find a good place to eat?"

"Hmm… that sounds good." I nodded, recalled something they were talking about in the group chat and asked, "What about Seryoku reserving a room for us?" 

Ts?men's eyes shifted towards me from his mobile and he laughed, "That bitch suddenly had plans with his old friends…"

"Old school friends..."

"Kizhashi is coming with Reina." Ts?men told Gaisen, as he leaned towards his mobile screen and asked, "Where are they?"

"They said something about being near the metro station."

Only the three of us were standing there, conversing among ourselves. The street was quite busy, so people were passing by now and then, as we were waiting for the remaining people of our party to join us.

"And what about Saki and Kana?" I glanced towards Ts?men as he appeared to be texting them. He had this nervous smile as he opened his mouth, "About them…"

"Don't tell me Kana isn't coming." 

"Well… Kana is on a date with this senior." He replied nonchalantly, as I narrowed my eyes at him, "Da… date?"

"They've been seeing each other for some time now… I think they're going out as well." He replied while continuing to fiddle with his mobile and showing no interest in the matter, as I mumbled under my breath, "You're kidding me… when did this happen?"

I was astonished because this was a rather unexpected development. In the past few months, I've been observing the both of them and it appeared like they were genuinely interested in each other.

Even though they were not aware of it, that's a different matter.

"Meh… I don't know, and who cares?" Ts?men glanced up at me and punched my shoulder playfully, "Let us enjoy ourselves and let her enjoy herself."

I recalled the time when I asked what he thought of Kana and he said that he didn't mind going out with her.

But I wasn't expecting Kana to go on a date with someone on Christmas Eve rather than spending that time with Ts?men. Though it didn't matter to me who she spent her Christmas Eve with.

I was just a bit surprised.

Maybe my intuition regarding them was incorrect.

Though the fact that there was nothing going on between them was clear but then again they shared a few moments when it appeared like there was a strange tension between them and I'm sure they felt it as well.

"Well… true." Gaisen laughed even though I glanced at him and it looked like a rather forced laugh to mediate the predicament from escalating further, as I whispered in his ear, "You knew about this?"

"I didn't… he suddenly told me as well."

"I think he didn't…"

"What are you two whispering to each other?" Ts?men asked us as we looked at him with an awkward smile and replied in unison, "Ah, nothing!"

"You two are acting weird.. Is everything alright?" He narrowed his eyes at us but they shifted to something behind us as he waved his arm. Ah, there they are…"