Soul for a Girlfriend?

Chapter 286 - Christmas Eve - Part 2

I and Gaisen were discussing what Ts?men said with each in a low tone so as to not let him overhear us but he suddenly called us out and it freaked us out,"You two are acting weird, is everything alright?" 

"Ah, there they are…" He narrowed his eyes at us but they shifted to something behind us as he waved his arm and asked, "Where have you guys been?"

Both of us turned around and noticed Koi and Reina standing behind us, as Reina was panting and trying to speak between breaths, "I took this wrong turn and then got lost…"

"Then Koi helped me out." She pointed at Koi who was standing there with a subtle smile on her face but it faded away when her eyes met with mine.

"You and your poor sense of direction." Gaisen chuckled as she glared at him and said, "You're saying that as if… never mind, you're actually correct."

"Alright let's get moving guys!" She said and started marching away as Ts?men laughed awkwardly while looking at us and we all followed her.

We were walking around for a while talking among ourselves. Everyone was laughing and it seemed like they were enjoying themselves a lot. I couldn't help but feel this slight smile form on my face.

"How come you're free? Don't you have plans with your girlfriend?" Suddenly Reina looked back at me, and asked as Ts?men wrapped his arm around my shoulders and replied while laughing, "Bruh ditched her girl just to hang with us boys!"

"Man of culture, right there!" Gaisen joined in as we shared a peal of laughter, and I replied to her in a plain tone, "She already had plans so…"

"Ah… plans on Christmas Eve without her boyfriend?" Reina raised her eyebrows as I nodded, "I mean she is out with her friends so I obviously wouldn't wanna tag along with her."

"Ah what about Saki? Why didn't she come?" I asked, changing the topic. But from the expression on Reina's face, I could tell that she caught on my tone and decided to not pry further about it.

As perceptive as I remember.

"Well, she said something about going out with her family." Ts?men at Reina for affirmation as she nodded.

"Why don't we check out the Christmas Tree near Central Avenue?" Reina asked as Ts?men looked at her for a moment and nodded, "That's a great idea. We'll move towards the restaurant from there."

"Yeah, it'll be closed from there as well." Gaisen nodded as he was the one who arranged the restaurant for us. Reina smiles proudly, resting her hands on her waist, "See… I'm not that bad with directions!"

"Aight, then…" They laughed, and we started walking towards Central Avenue.

We were closing in towards the tree and I could already see it because it was quite tall and bright. The lights were rather blurry at that distance, but it appeared like upside-down ice cream with RGB lights glowing from it.

(A/N: Saishi has been stressed, so he has been playing way too many games, and RGB is all that is stuck in his mind)

We were standing in front of the tree as it was huge and illuminated with a tonne of tiny little bulbs of different colours. And since the bulbs were warped around the branches, it looked like the lights were coming from within the leaves themselves.

I glanced around and saw Koi standing next to me, staring at the tree in awe, with her mouth hanging open. She was so immersed in the tree that she wasn't aware of the distance between the two of us.

She was standing so close to me that I could see the reflection of the tree in her eyes. The fragrance of the perfume she was wearing tingled my nose, and it was making me way too conscious of her, as I decided to step away from her.

  I glanced around and noticed everyone was taking photographs and that reminded me that we didn't take any pictures of us together as I said, "Hey, why don't you guys take a picture of yourselves together?"

"Ah, I completely forgot about it…." Ts?men said, as I looked at them and pointed towards the tree, "Aight, then, stand near the tree…"

"But who'll take the picture?" Reina asked, as I took out my mobile and replied, "Don't worry, I'm taking the picture and will send it in the group chat."

"You dipshit… come here!"

Everyone stared at me with a look of disbelief as Gaisen and Reina pulled me towards them and I found myself squished between them and heard them laughing while Ts?men took a picture of us.

That felt nice.

We spent the rest of the evening in a restaurant near the station, as it was a rather popular place to eat and had a reasonable price range. The restaurant was also decorated aesthetically to match the Christmas theme.

The chairs had red cushions and a small Santa figurine could be seen on the table which had a rather big head that was wobbling from time to time. The servers were also wearing Santa hats and the whole theme was pleasant.

It was 8 in the evening and we were done with everything. We were standing outside the restaurant and, as expected, the streets had got even busier than they were when we started moving.

We were discussing how great the food was and the little Santa figure Koi found adorable. She really wanted to take that home and we're laughing at that. Gaisen was standing a bit farther from us, talking over his mobile.

I realised that I had more fun spending the evening with my friends rather than Shiraishi.

"Hey, Saishi!" I heard Gaisen call me as I turned towards him and noticed him gesturing to me, "Come here for a moment…"

"What?' I asked as his tone was rather low and unnatural, as he pointed his index finger somewhere and asked with a nervous look on his face, "Isn't that your girlfriend?"

"Which one?" I asked, following the direction he was pointing towards, "That one, across the street… in front of the hotel."

"Ah shit…" Is what left my mouth as gazed into the distance.