Chapter Text
Many people with communication disorders have a disposition which does not allow them to join their friends when they see them with someone whom they don’t know.
And the emotion they feel…
Is something that others might call jealousy.
—————
The atmosphere in the cell became quiet. “I probably shouldn’t have asked…” thought Yamai, just previously asking how Sakura had even got into juvie in the first place.
Sakura began to speak. “Hehe, do you want to know?”
“Yes! It’s been bugging me, you don’t look or seem like you would of done anything illegal.”
“It’s pretty simple really, did some petty crimes like vandalism, but they were really not happy with me refusing to apologise! I mean, it's stupid, I was just making the wall prettier, you know? Only got 3 months though!”
“Oh. Only 3 months? That’s… I don’t really know.”
Sakura played another card. “I win! That was fun!”
Unlike usual, Yamai didn’t react with rage, she was too lost in her own thoughts to care.
—————
Two weeks after the pizza party, things had been going pretty normal for Onemine. She was now going back to school and walking around school with crutches was only a bit of a nuisance.
One thing she did miss was cooking and helping around the house, as crutches made it difficult to do so. This put more work on Onemine’s mother which frustrated her.
“Sorry, Kaede-chan, I can’t make our bentos anymore, you can have half of mine that my mother made, though,” Onemine said, sitting at a table with Otori and the rest of her friends.
“It’s alrighttt, and yes please!”
Onemine smiled.
“Hey can I have som-“ Najimi started before noticing everyone staring at them. “I’ll take that as a no.”
—————
Onemine was now home and sat on her bed reading. Her phone on the side table pinged.
It was from Najimi, in the group chat. “Hey guys, do you want to go shopping with me for Christmas presents? ( ^ω^ )” Onemine read.
Najimi quickly followed up with another message. “Whenever you guys are free”
‘Okay, sure!’
Komi, Tadano, Otori and Nakanaka had similar responses. Nananaka insisted she was extremely busy and was only open tomorrow, so they decided on the next day, at 12 PM.
‘Ok, see you then!’
Onemine placed her phone down, checking the date. “I didn’t even realise, it’s only two weeks until Christmas! Went by fast…”
—————
Tomorrow, 11:55 AM
“Thanks mum, for driving me,” Onemine said, inside the car with her mother, who had agreed to drive her to the mall.
“Yeah no worries, text me when you want me to come pick you up,” she smiled.
“Love you mum,” Onemine said, getting out of the car.
“Love you too, Nene!
Onemine shuffled towards the entrance of the mall from the car park, getting a notification from her phone. ‘Hey guys, meet up at the clothes store, we’re already here!’ from Najimi.
‘Ok, see you when I get there!’ Onemine replied.
—————
“Hey, Onemine-san!” Najimi exclaimed, running up to her outside the clothing store.
“Hi guys!” Onemine waved, everybody else here except Nakanaka.
“Helloooo Nene-chan!” Otori stated.
Komi sprung up, doing a small wave.
“Hi, Onemine-san, how are you?” Tadano asked.
“Yeah, I’m good, my legs slightly better according to the hospital, how about you?”
“Oh that’s good! And I’m alright, thanks,” Tadano replied.
“Where’s Nakanaka-san?” Onemine asked.
“Oh, she said she’ll be late,” Najimi chimed. “but we can start without her, and just meet up when she gets here.”
—————
“Ok, where do you guys want to go first?,” shrugged Najimi as they were wandering about the building.
“You don’t have any idea on what where we’re going, right?” Tadano replied.
“Yeah,” Najimi replied nonchalantly, stopping walking.
“Well, we’ve got to buy presents for our families, and then for each other as well. And then other things as well if you want,” Tadano stated.
“I have annnn idea!” Otori exclaimed softly. “How about we do Secret Santaaaa?”
“Um, what’s that?” said Onemine. Komi tilted her head, confused.
“It’s something I saw in a book once. It’s like a gift exchange where everyone gets a randommm person to gift to and you pick from names from a hat or somethinggg,” Otori explained slowly.
“That sounds interesting,” stated Tadano.
“Yeah, let’s do that!” Najimi exclaimed. “Hehe, Otori-san’s parents are rich so she has a ton of money, I’ll rig it so she’s the one to get me a gift!”
—————
Najimi had offered to go get a box, some paper and a pen from a nearby department store for really cheap. Ripping the paper into six pieces, they wrote everybody’s name on one, including Nakanaka. Folding them over so you couldn’t see the name, they then dumped the pieces in the box, finally shaking it up.
“Komi-san, you can go first!” Najimi said cheerfully, holding the box out. Reaching into it, Komi pulled a piece of paper and unfolded it.
“Tadano…” Komi thought, blushing.
“Ok, one of them has a slightly different curve, that’s my one, I’ll just have to make sure Otori-san grabs that one!” Najimi giggled in her head.
“Onemine-san, you can go next!”
Reaching her hand in the box was a tiny bit difficult because of her crutches, but she pulled a piece of paper out with ‘Nakanaka’ on it. “Ok, sure!”
“Tadano-kun!” Najimi exclaimed. He grabbed another piece of paper with ‘Onemine’ on it. “Oh, ok, that’s good, I can do that.”
Najimi stifled a giggle. “Ok, Otori’s next, just got to ‘accidentally’ drop it and give her Komi’s one-“
“Osana-kun, I know you’re planning something, give me the box,“ Tadano stated.
Najimi tried to defend themself but Tadano wouldn’t have it and took the box. “Curse you, Tadano! Why can you tell what I’m thinking so easily?!”
Tadano went through Otori and then Najimi, with them pulling ‘Komi’ and ‘Otori’ respectively.
“Wrong way round! Otori was meant to gift me! Who knows, she might still have my name?” Najimi thought, regaining a bit of their hope.
Not soon after, Nakanaka appeared. “Hello, thy has arrived.“
“Oh, hello Nakanaka-san, we’re doing Secret Santa!” said Otori, explaining it to the chuunibyou.
After explaining it, Nakanaka instantly started talking semi-aggressively at Najimi. “You said thy were waiting at the clothing market! I, Arvot Les Primavera, have been looking for you bastards for like 15 minutes! I was a couple minutes late and you guys left me to rot in the dark abyss!”
Tadano, Najimi and Onemine had a blank expression on their faces. Komi looked questionably.
Tadano perked up. “Nakanaka-san, we walked twenty metres from the clothes shop, look,” she said, pointing behind them.
“Oh.”
Nakanak’s face went red with embarrassment. “I walked in a loop around for the store… They were right behind me the entire time.”
Onemine chuckled. “Anyway, you can have the last name in the box.”
“Appreciated!” Nakanaka boasted, pulling out Najimi’s paper.
SECRET SANTA GIFT CHART
Tadano -> Onemine
Komi -> Tadano
Onemine -> Nakanaka
Najimi -> Otori
Otori -> Komi
Nakanaka -> Najimi
—————
Onemine and Otori’s Shopping
The group of friends set off on their own, Otori asking to go with Onemine and just buy the gifts without each other looking.
“Ok, do you have any idea on what you want to buy?” Onemine asked her friend, holding her hand.
“Um, sort of!” Otori said in her song like voice.
“Ok!” Onemine replied, beginning to walk to wherever Otori wanted to buy from. Meanwhile, Onemine thought about what to buy Nakanaka. “Huh, what does she like…?”
They didn’t have to walk far until stopping outside a school supply store. Otori walked inside, Onemine looked the other way, hoping that Otori didn’t get lost in the minute they were in the shop.
Grabbing a fancy notebook off one of the shelves, Otori placed it and some coins from her purse on the counter.
“That will be 2000 yen! And do you want a bag?” the cashier said nicely.
“Ok~! And yes please.”
Placing the notebook in her bag, Otori made her way out the store, walking about 10 metres until Onemine caught on that Otori had disappeared and ran towards her.
“Nearly lost you!” Onemine laughed.
“My bad~”
“Ok, now I need to buy something, what does Nakanaka-san like? She likes the same sort of stuff I did in middle school, I’ll just go back to the same place I used to get stuff from…”
The two of them made their way about the building, talking about random things and Christmas in general. Reaching where she vaguely remembered it being, Onemine looked about and saw it. The pop culture store.
“Oh, you’re shopping here~? Didn’t you use to go here a lot, Nene-chan?”
“Yeah, I did. I’m gonna go inside, don’t get lost, ok?” Onemine chuckled, hobbling into the shop.
“Ok~!”
“What to get…”
Looking around, the abundance of choice making it very difficult to choose. All sorts of random accessories that ranged from 1000 yen to 100,000 yen.
“Wait, figurine from JuJu’s? Nakanaka-san definitely likes that anime, I know that for sure, and I remember seeing figures like this in her room… I can’t remember which ones she has and doesn’t have!”
Onemine ending up just picking Kackyon, since she vaguely remembered not seeing it.
“Ok, I’ll try and see before Christmas if Nakanaka-san has this one already…”
—————
Tadano’s Shopping
“Ok, Onemine-san… what to get?”
Tadano walked around, thinking about ideas. “You’re not meant to get something too expensive, but also you want to get something nice… Hmm?”
Tadano passed by a jewellery store. “That could work, assuming it’s not too expensive."
He began to check out different pieces of jewellery. Picking up a bracelet, Tadano thought, “This one looks really nice, but that price…”
Continuing to search, eventually finding simple silver necklace. 'This… is good!'
Walking out the store, Tadano noticed a huge cat plushie in the window of a nearby store.
—————
Komi’s Shopping
This was Komi’s first time shopping for gifts for friends, and it was for Tadano at that! Holding her hands close to her chest, Komi scurried around the shopping centre, particularly some Christmas stalls. Scented candles, a vase, a Santa doll that jiggled up and down, it even played music!
She was stuck between these items. 'Maybe Shousuke would know?'
Texting her little brother, Komi waited for a response while waying her options. Soon after, ‘none of them?’. Komi frowned. Looking around the same stall some more, she picked up a scarf. It was soft with a deep purple colour. Komi’s eyes flashed up, excitedly buying it without asking her brother for advice again “He might just say no again. I think Tadano might like it..”
—————
Nakanaka and Najimi’s Shopping
Holiday music played faintly in the background as Najimi and Nakanaka walked toward the same reject shop. Nakanaka glared at Najimi.
“Back off. This is my store, reserved for thy ashenveil's,” Nakanaka snarled.
Najimi giggled. “Pft, whatever you say.”
Slightly embarrassed, Nakanaka swiftly made her way to the back of the store, away from Najimi. The chuunibyou scanned the shelves before spotting a hoodie. It was neon blue, with a graphic wolf growling from the front. She picked it up and headed to the counter.
There was some old man at the front of the line bickering with the retail worker, so Nakanaka ended up waiting behind Najimi.
Najimi was buying a ¥500 box of a dozen macarons… and had already started eating one.
Nakanaka stared deadpan at Najimi.
“What? They're good! Bargain, too,” Najimi said with their mouth full.
Nakanaka’s face was mostly obscured by her eye patch and bangs, but a concerned look was still discernible.
“That’s your gift… and you’re eating it.”
Najimi bit into another macaron. The shell shattered into brittle pieces.
“Those look stale,” Nakanaka muttered. “Thou disgusts me.”
“Don’t act like you’ve got the pinnacle of gifts either! I mean, what even is that?” Najimi pointed at the hoodie clutched in Nakanaka’s hands, then made a fake puking gesture.
Nakanaka quickly hid the hoodie behind her back.
‘Shit. Too late to put it back. Fine. Just consider it punishment for their puny attempts at gifting,’ hissed her inner monologue.
Carefully considering her response, Nakanaka fumbled over her words and only managed to mumble, “I… thought it looked alright—”
Najimi burst out laughing, interrupting her as she imagined Komi or Tadano wearing the hoodie in public.
“You do you, Nakanaka-san!” they cackled.
‘I feel less bad about giving thou a trite gift now.’