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The sound of faint holiday music can be heard throughout the outlets. Twinkling white lights frame the rims of the shops, and stockings hang from the columns bordering the street. A large pine tree decorated with ornaments and tinsel in the middle of the plaza signifies the joyous time of year.
It’s a beautiful scenery, but Ena can’t focus on that while holding the hands of the person walking alongside her.
It hasn’t been long since they started doing this. They grabbed each other's hands without realizing it one day, and neither of them hated it once it sunk in. So they kept doing it, to Ena’s dismay.
Ena has a lot of feelings for Mizuki. Good ones, of course, but if asked to put her feelings into words, she would fail. Not like she was good at pinpointing her emotions in the first place. All she knows is that she likes them. A lot. More than a group member, more than a friend, and engaging in such intimate contact certainly does not help. She doesn’t think she can keep the lock on her heart for much longer.
So today’s the day. She will go shopping with Mizuki, and then hopefully Ena will be in a good enough mood to let some things off her chest.
…Except every single store is closed on Christmas Day, come to find out. Total killjoy.
“Of course everything’s closed, it’s Christmas!” Ena barks at Mizuki. She puts her gloved hands on her hips to emphasize her annoyance. The artist is wearing a brown sweater and a tan skirt that reaches to the middle of her thighs. Her outfit is complemented by a similarly colored beret and white stockings.
“Eh? Why are you blaming me?” Mizuki asks, confused. “You begged me to come, Enanan.”
“You suggested we wear matching outfits, so you could’ve checked!” Ena retorts. Mizuki looks down at their complementary outfit, twirling their pink skirt.
“So it’s both our bad then.” They tease. “C’mon, let’s go take some pics, I know you wanna!” The editor takes their friend by the hand once again and drags her along. They're right, she does want to.
There’s a sense of comfort in the two of them being the only ones occupying the space, yet refusing to stray far from the other. It feels like they’re in their own little world. It’s them against the universe, and Ena doesn’t mind being with Mizuki like this for eternity. Though, after today, she’ll determine if that’s even a possibility.
Mizuki peeks over Ena’s shoulder at the set of pictures they just took together. They beam at the sight of a particular photo of the two hugging each other’s waist. “Ooh, you should post this one, your followers would think we’re a couple. I wanna see their reactions~.”
“Yeah, a couple of besties.” She instinctively retaliates.
Well, she just fucked that up for herself.
Mizuki interprets it differently, however. “I should’ve seen that coming from you.” They manage to get out between laughs. As pathetic as she feels for saying that, Ena can’t help but smile too, and nudges their shoulders as a sign to move onto the next spot.
Ena plots an idea to redeem herself after her terrible fuckup. The first step of her master plan is asking Mizuki if they want pictures alone in front of the fake, leafless blue tree wrapped in lights that they passed a few minutes before. Of course, Mizuki doesn’t decline.
“Make sure you’re getting allll of my good angles!” they call out to their photographer as she begins taking pictures.
“Yeah, yeah,” Ena shrugs off.
The second and final step of her master plan is to overwhelm Mizuki with compliments when looking back at the photos in an attempt to make them flustered. But when Mizuki starts rambling about the smallest of details in every photo the two scroll through, Ena realizes that this master plan of hers was an absolute bust from the get-go.
“This one isn’t cute! I told you to get my good angles.”
“You should’ve told me to fix my hair, look at those baby hairs!”
“My stockings are sooo uneven.”
And so on.
Ena locks her phone. Today was such a bad idea, she thinks to herself. It's just one thing after another. “I’ll just send them to you later and you can complain about them then.” She storms ahead. Mizuki trails behind her.
Why did she think she could get Mizuki Akiyama out of all people to blush in the first place? Does she even know them?
“I’m just teasing you, Enanan, relax.” They call out in their usual tone of voice.
Pitiful Ena. She’s stupid. She’s so, so, so stupid.
“Ena, alright, I’m sorry. You’re the best photographer ever, okay?” They call out again, this time with more desperation.
Ena stops dead in her tracks adjacent to one of the vacant shops. She can’t force herself to turn around. “That isn’t what this is about.”
The other stands a few feet away from the brown-haired girl. “‘Kay, then… what is it?”
“I…”
Here it comes.
“I don’t know how you do it, Mizuki. How you can walk around having these heavy feelings that plague you, that eat you up alive... it seems like a breeze for you! I don’t know how you do it because I sure as hell am struggling over here. How can you just walk around, grabbing my hand, saying all these things like us being a couple and stuff, and then turn around and pretend nothing ever happened! I just don’t get it! How can you do these things and be as great as you are and not expect me to fall in love with you?”
Ah…
Her body jolts in the opposite direction. There Mizuki stands, solemnly looking down at their pink shoes. She definitely said something wrong.
“Say something, please.” A tear flows down her cheeks.
And they do, in a different way. They look up at the girl in front of them, and their words manifest into a tight hug. Ena stands with her arms out, not really processing.
“You’re really stupid, Enanan.” They mutter into her ear.
It hits. Ena wraps her arms around their back.
“I-I know…” she manages to get out between repressed sobs, tears sinking into Mizuki’s sweater. “I’m sorry… I probably hurt your feelings by saying all that, even if you tell me I didn’t. I didn’t mean any of it, I promise, I’m so sorry…” She grips Mizuki tighter, as if to prevent them from leaving her grasp.
They lift their hand to stroke her hair, attempting to soothe the girl. “Even the part where you said you love me?”
Ena is quiet for a moment. “W-well, that part’s true, I guess.”
Mizuki giggles to themself. They take the initiative to break the hug with a smile planted on their face–the same soft, bittersweet smile that Ena has come all too familiar with.
“I guess we really are similar, huh.” They whisper.
Ena blinks, wiping her tears from her cheeks. “Eh? Does that mean-”
She is interrupted by the other’s lips crashing into hers. Ena sharply inhales; her blood rushes down to her feet, and her heart starts to furiously pound. The lock has been broken, and she’s panicking. However, Mizuki gently cups her face with their hands as a way to comfort her… a way to reassure her that everything is okay, and inviting her to do the same. Ena soon melts into the kiss, copying their action.
The emotions that the girl is experiencing are indescribable, and despite being so bad at recognizing her feelings, she knows she certainly feels warm. It’s like dripping honey, or like a hug from a teddy bear, or like the smell of a vanilla candle, as if any of those correlate. The tingling in her body overrides the bitter cold of the winter air. The moment is so sweet, so tender, and so destined to happen that she’s shocked why this didn’t happen sooner. She feels as if Mizuki’s lips were made for her own, despite how corny that may sound.
Still, Ena is Ena, and if it was anyone else, the artist would have stopped them immediately. But this is Mizuki we’re talking about here, and if this is how they choose to express their feelings, she has no room to stop that process.
The duo slowly pulls away. Ena’s eyes flutter open. She is, quite literally, left speechless.
It’s a good thing that Mizuki is good at breaking the silence. “Sorry, I kinda jumped the ball there, ahaha.” They rub the back of their neck.
“N-no, it’s fine…” Ena looks away, slightly embarrassed about her outburst from a few minutes ago as well as whatever the hell just happened.
“Well, you know what they say,” they begin trotting away in the opposite direction. “When under the mistletoe, you have no choice but to kiss.”
Ena’s eyes move to glance above where both of them just stood. Mistletoe is indeed dangling over her head. “Where’d that come from?!”
Mizuki pretends to ponder on that question with an audible hmmm sound. “Perhaps Aphrodite brought it down just for us?”
Typical Mizuki. If Ena wasn’t red already, then she looked like a tomato by now. “Ugh… you…!” She begins stomping towards the editor.
“Teehee.” They get out before being relentlessly chased around the outlets as flakes of snow begin to fall from the sky.
Any worry, doubt, or anxiety that Ena carried with her that day melted away in an instant, like an icicle on a sunny day.
Perhaps it truly is the most wonderful time of year.