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Trust in the Mizusawa High Karuta Club to actually include a mistletoe in their christmas celebration-slash-reunion. It’s kind of sneaky, Taichi thinks, to scatter that troublesome fake plant all over the place in the hopes of catching two people under it. They aren’t lovestruck teenagers anymor. They all have grown past that point the moment they graduated high school, but lately it’s starting to feel like they’re back in the Mizusawa High Club Room, talking about things that are pretty much too immature for them at this point.
It’s Tsukuba who triumphantly announced the strategic placement of the mistletoes all over the room. Taichi tried to find them the moment Tsukuba grinned slyly at all of them, but to no avail did he succeed. The boy’s got tricks, alright, and it feels like there’s some ulterior motive here that Taichi really doesn’t want to take part in.
Chihaya is here and she’s oblivious as ever. She thinks that the mistletoes are all for Komano and Kanada instead.
Oh Chihaya, always quick to notice everything that involves her teammates but never the ones that involve her. The confidence that she’s not the main target for this elaborate scheme is overwhelmingly high that it almost makes Taichi want to laugh.
As opposed to telling Chihaya, he opts for avoiding the mistletoes all by himself instead.
Everyone in the room had been karuta players at some point in their lives, yet Taichi knows that out of all of them, it’s him who has the most precise memory. One that would prove to be useful once people start to come upon the mistletoe branches scattered all over the room.
It had been Nishida and Tsukuba to get caught in one for the first time, something that brought entertainment for everyone in the room. In the end, it had been settled that the two boys would kiss each other on the cheek.
With a dedication to committing every single location of the found mistletoes to his memory, Taichi crosses out the doorway leading to the kitchen where the mistletoe is very artfully concealed beneath a wall clock. One would have to take a few seconds to realize that there’s a mistletoe right there as only a small part of it is peeking out from the clock.
If it weren’t for Hanano who paid attention to the time, no one would have been able to point out the mistletoe at all.
According to Tsukuba, there are a total of five mistletoe branches. This leaves four that they are yet to find — four more that could possibly drive him and Chihaya into a situation that they’re both not exactly ready for.
Memories of their first kiss storm Taichi’s mind, and he wills it away almost as soon as it comes. He doesn’t want to think about that right now when he’s supposed to be celebrating Christmas with everyone he holds dear. His feelings that have since been turned down shouldn’t come to bother him today of all days.
Plus, he’d already fixed whatever strain that confession had placed on his friendship with Chihaya. They’re okay now, both within arm’s reach again — maybe even closer than he’d care to admit. He doesn’t want to ruin this by going back to the very event that caused a rift between the two of them.
He’s looking at her now. She’s laughing, filled with mirth and youth that he couldn’t help but to smile at the sight. It’s his favorite Chihaya, the one so very happy when she’s with the rest of her friends. The one who shines when surrounded by the people she holds dearest to her heart.
Chihaya may never notice it, but the way she draws her strength from other people while simultaneously handing it over to them will always amaze Taichi. He’d never met anyone as selfless as Chihaya whose greed is mostly for the people around her rather than herself, whose dream has always been something bigger than her — one that would reach the people around her, even the very ones who weren’t exactly rooting for her.
It’s so easy to be swept into Chihaya’s tide like that. Before Taichi even knows it, their eyes are meeting for the first time and she’s smiling radiantly at him.
He clears his throat and tears his eyes away from her — but not without a smile.
The next sprigs of mistletoe are discovered a few moments after they’d finished eating Christmas dinner. First it’s Hanano who got caught underneath with Nishida, and next is Kanade and Komano. The latter brought delight to Chihaya who thought that since the two finally got to kiss, the whole mistletoe fiasco would be over.
“Well since Kana-chan and Tsukue-kun finally kissed, the mission mistletoe should be over right?” She asks with a clear conviction that sends Tsukuba laughing.
Taichi would have laughed if he didn’t know that this is all a deliberately planned set-up from the beginning in order to get him and Chihaya to move closer. Like they’re trying to get a very loud message across to him and him only: What are you waiting for?
There’s nothing to wait for, but just like before, Chihaya’s feelings are still impossible to read. He could drive opponents into faulting, read the flow of a karuta match, and determine what makes geniuses the way they are. Despite all of that, Chihaya’s feelings are a huge blur to him.
Sure Taichi knows her like the back of his hand, even more than herself probably, but that’s not enough to deduce whether or not his feelings would be returned this time around.
“She’d grown since then, though, don’t you think?” Kanade had asked him a few days ago when he met up with her. “I’m sure she has a better grasp of her feelings now, especially after her dream of being the Queen of Karuta came true. She has more time to think about normal things now.”
It feels assuring, almost, but Taichi doesn’t want to ride on the high of Kanade’s words.
As for the mistletoe sprigs, there are only two left. All three positions of the discovered mistletoe sprigs embedded carefully into his memory.
He’d done a great job of avoiding them too. Never falling into step with anyone, only standing up when everyone else is seated, making sure that he’s never within the same vicinity of anyone when he’s in suspicious territory.
For what it’s worth, he had to hand it to Tsukuba though, the guy really did place all of those mistletoe sprigs strategically in hard to find places.
While the rest of his peers are laughing, Taichi slips outside, making his way to the front porch of the Tsukuba household armed with only his jacket. It’s a good winter night, a Christmas so peaceful that it would be a crime if anything were to disrupt the balance of this night. It’s also a night that forces upon him a reflection of the things that have changed over the past few months.
Chihaya becoming the Queen like she always wanted. Arata being the Meijin too. The strain on their friendship mended by time. Everyone else moving forward with the rest of their lives in their own pacing.
Somehow, everything falls into place in the end.
He doesn’t hear the door open and close, but he does hear her when she says his name in the usual gentle manner. It’s one thing that never changed despite the tribulations their friendship had gone through; the way she calls him.
It always brings his heart to a full stop, only to be revived once with a beating louder than it had ever been.
She takes a seat next to him, and places his scarf around his neck with a pout. “It’s cold out here. You should’ve stayed inside.”
“What are you doing here, Chihaya? The others might be looking for you.” He looks back at the door, but there’s no sound whatsoever that indicates any form of intrusion between them.
Chihaya simply waves him off with a smile. “Don’t worry about it! They’re all busy talking about university and all. I just…” She falters for a moment, fidgets with her fingers before clearing her throat, “I wanted to give you your present.”
“You couldn’t wait until everyone else is doing the same thing?” There’s warmth in his chest.
“Well… I mean… I want to give it to you where no one would like… overreact to it or anything.”
Anticipation sets his veins alight. He just hopes that this is not another accumulation of his horrible luck.
But try as he might to think of this situation as something borne out of his consistent misfortunes, the red on Chihaya’s cheeks and her fumbling for the gift wrapped present from inside her jacket all says otherwise.
In her hands is a tiny box wrapped in a Daddy Bear gift-wrap, typical Chihaya. He takes it gently, their fingers brushing in the process which makes her tuck her chin into her left shoulder.
He wonders why she’s flustered, but he doesn’t ask. Instead, he opens the present in front of her with a heart whose screaming only contains her name.
The gift-wrap uncovers a velvet box and his heart races even more. At this point in time, it’s impossible to attribute this moment to his misfortune or any other horrible thing in existence.
Inside the box is a locket shaped like a karuta card. Taichi chuckles, even with her presents, Chihaya has karuta in mind. Maybe at some point in his past, he would despise the way this locket looks, would probably feel his stomach sinking at the thought of looking at a karuta card like this — but times are different now.
Although his love for karuta is not as deep as Chihaya’s or Arata’s, it’s still there, lingering with the memories he’d built along with Chihaya and the rest of his friends.
“A karuta card, huh?” He looks at her.
“Shut up and look at the card and open it.” She huffs out with a blush on her cheeks.
The first two syllables of the poem are written delicately on the locket. Tachi.
“I always knew you were a big softy, Chihaya. I didn’t realize you were this much of a softy though.” He laughs before opening the locket.
Her choice of a present truly is remarkable, though. The locket opens on the white part of the karuta card, the frame being the border or the green part. It’s endearing, really, to be given a present reminiscent not only of her greatest love (karuta), but also their friendship.
The photo in the locket is one taken during their first day of establishing the karuta club.
“Merry Christmas, Taichi.” Her voice is softer, but he doesn’t need her extraordinary hearing to know what she said. His heart could hear it. His heart could probably hear her even if she’s a thousand miles away.
“Merry Christmas, Chihaya.” He keeps his gaze on her while warmth fills him up inside. Everything may have changed, but Chihaya is still Chihaya — genuine and capable of bringing happiness to others.
Chihaya’s eyes darted upwards, and a soft gasp escaped her lips.
“Mistletoe.”
So this is where Tsukuba placed one of the last two.
Taichi doesn’t wait anymore, doesn’t give into the cowardly instincts holding him down. He kisses her, and it’s nothing like the kiss they shared a year ago because she kisses him back this time. Her arms are slung over his shoulders and his hands are on her waist and on the back of her neck.
It feels like an eclipse in the best way possible. A collision of the moon and sun after a long anticipation — but the difference is that Taichi is sure this time that this collision will stay that way. That they will never have to be apart from each other anymore.
“I chose a locket because I want to be the closest to your heart, Taichi.”
“Oh Chihaya, you’re already in my heart. You always have been.”