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Teruhashi Kokomi was starting to regret inviting her friends over for New Year's Eve. Not because they were causing any trouble, of course not, that'd be simple to fix. No, her older brother insisted on sticking around and generally being a nuisance to her friends. His reason? "Oh Kokomi, there are going to be boys!"
Teruhashi sighed quietly into her hands, then turned to see what her brother was doing. Currently, he was sitting behind Nendo and Kaido and all but interrogating the two. 'If Saiki was here, I know for a fact Makoto wouldn't leave him alone. Sorry Kaido and Nendo, you have to take the brunt of his antics today.'
Teruhashi turned back to the girl's group. Aiura had brought her nail kit and insisted on giving all the girls manicures. Teruhashi's was already done, a fade from dark blue at the base of the nail to light blue at the tip. Understated but still made a statement; Teruhashi's favorite.
Makoto suddenly started talking over her should, causing Teruhashi to all but jump. She sighed and rolled her eyes, in her head of course, then turned to Makoto. "Hey, Makoto, I'm going out real quick. I forgot to mail some letters so I want to deliver them real quick."
Teruhashi stopped her brother before he could comment, "I don't need you to come along with me; I'll take Kaido and Nendo." She gestured for the boys to follow her and walked out of the house.
"Who'd you forget to give letters to?" Kaido asked as they stepped outside. "Oh, I didn't, I just wanted to get away from Makoto's overbearingness for a bit. However, I was thinking, since Saiki's house is just a little down that way, we could go check on him since he couldn't make it to the party."
"Well that sounds good. Come on runt, let's go see buddy!" Nendo said with a hard smack to Kaido's back. 'Geez, he still doesn't know how strong he is,' Teruhashi thought, seeing Kaido wince in pain. "I'm not a runt!" Kaido all but squeaked, causing Nendo to laugh and Teruhashi to chuckle. "Come on boys, to the Saikis' house."
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A brisk ten minute walk later and the trio arrived at the Saikis' house. As soon as they rang the doorbell, Saiki's mom opened the door. "Oh, hello there! What brings you three here?" Teruhashi stepped forward a bit and started explaining. "Well, I had invited Saiki to my New Year's Eve party, but her said he couldn't come. Right now there's a lull in the party so I thought I'd come check in on him."
Saiki's mom gave a smile to Teruhashi, but it didn't seem genuinely pleased. "Can you give me a moment?" Saiki's mom closed the door and they could hear her walking back into her house. A few seconds later a scream was heard, 'Sounds like Saiki's dad,' Teruhashi thought, before the door opened again, Saiki and his mom standing in the doorway.
"I'm sorry, Ku-chan could actually come, he just though his homework would take too long. Lucky for you, he's done!" Saiki's mom shoved her son out the door and closed it with a threating, "Have a fun time!" directed towards Saiki. The, now quartet, stood in a bit of awkward silence as Saiki glared daggers at the door. He sighed, resigned to his fate.
"Well, how about we go?" He asked, his mouth still never opening to speak. 'I need to ask him how he got so good at ventriloquy,' Teruhashi thought absent mindedly. The quartet started on their way back to Teruhashi's house, Kaido and Nendo filling the silence with mindless chatter with themselves and Saiki. 'It's nice how they still include him in conversation even though he doesn't talk much.'
Soon, the four were back at the Teruhashi residency. The door opened before Teruhashi could even get her keys out. Makoto stood in the doorframe and glared at the new addition. Teruhashi could practically hear her brother's thoughts; 'Oh how dare this four-eyed freak be here with my precious sister Kokomi!' Teruhashi just pushed past her brother and led the three inside.
However, Makoto stopped Saiki in his tracks. "I'm sorry, my parents said a maximum of 8 people." Teruhashi rolled her eyes, knowing her parents said nothing of the sort. She closed her eyes, breathed deeply and prepared her puppy dog eyes.
"Makoto, but I really want all my friends here...could you please let him in. Quite a few of my friends already couldn't come, so I was very excited when Saiki actually could come. Oh please, big brother?" Teruhashi gave her best puppy dog eyes in a while, knowing Makoto could never stand up to them. Surprisingly, Makoto stood firm.
"No Kokomi. Mom and dad's rules. We already have eight people here could me you and your friends. Teruhashi counted again in her head; her, Makoto, Nendo, Kaido, Aiura, Yumehara, Mera, Imu. Eight people. Teruhashi let out a sigh, bummed her brother wouldn't budge on the subject. She was about to walk inside before Saiki started talking.
"Well the best way to fix this would be to kick you out, Makoto." Saiki 'said', a scarily sweet smile on his face. Teruhashi swore it looked just like his mother's. Makoto glared at Saiki and he glared back. Makoto eventually looked scared, but Teruhashi didn't know why; Saiki hadn't said anything or even changed his expression. Makoto gave a sigh of defeat and ushered Saiki inside, walking himself out to the backyard.
"You almost never want to hang out Saiki, what changed this time to make you so insistent on coming in?" "My mom would have chewed out even if I told her about your brother. She was pretty miffed I tried to skip out already." Saiki said, his blank expression back. "In case your wondering, I just get peopled out easily, that's why I skip out on the hang outs pretty often."
"Oh, now I feel bad. You should have told us; we wouldn't have made you come to as many." "I never hate it when I have to come. I actually enjoy myself sometimes." Saiki gave Teruhashi a look before 'speaking' again, "Don't tell the others; they'd never let me live it down." Teruhashi giggled, before saying, "deal." She led Saiki inside to the living room where all her friends were scattered around the furniture.
"Oh, Kokomi, hope you don't mind, I started a movie..." Yumehara said embarrassed from the couch. "Oh, it's fine Chiyo. Um, turns out Saiki actually could come so he's here now." Teruhashi said, gesturing at the girls to look. They all gave her variations of The Look(tm) which made Teruhashi's face glow red. She grabbed a pillow and threw it at Yumehara, knowing she'd mind the least.
"Anyways, what movie did you guys choose?" Teruhashi asked, taking the spot next to Imu and Mera on the pillow covered floor. "Some romcom I found on the shelf," Yumehara said, scooting over enough on the couch for Saiki to take the spot between Nendo and Kaido. "I wanted to watch a horror, but everyone else voted no."
Yumehara unpaused the movie and the group started watching.
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"Oh come on!" Aiura yelled, throwing her hands up. "What millionaire would marry some rando country bumpkin he. Just. Met?!" Everyone else murmured in agreement. Soon, the movie ended and the millionaire had given up his fortune to stay with the bumpkin. 'Because of course his family would not let him marry the girl instead of, you know, just helping the girl adjust to millionaire life?' Teruhashi sighed, but she had to admit, the movie was fun, even if it was cringe fun.
She turned to Aiura , hearing her mumble to herself. Teruhashi caught the words, "millionaire...stupid....fix it....fanfiction....good ending..." She could only assume her friend was going to write some fix-it fanfiction. Aiura had started a blog where she wrote what she claimed were better ending for all the movies she didn't like how they ended.
"It's nearly midnight; only half an hour 'till." Imu commented, looking at her phone. Kaido suddenly looked very excited. "Anything wrong Kaido?" Yumehara asked. Kaido looked a bit flustered, but gave a headshake and started speaking. "We should write New Year's Resolutions. Do you have any stationary, Teruhashi?" She nodded, then headed up to her room.
'I should probably get a variety of designs, just to make this more special. Maybe some blank ones too...' Teruhashi went through her desk drawers and got a variety of paper and a pack of pens for everyone. She walked it all back down to everyone, who had cleared out a space in the middle for writing.
"Paper, pens, and I'm pretty sure we all have our brains. Time to get to writing." Everyone started going through the pile of paper, picking out pieces they like. Once it was confirmed everyone had grabbed paper and a pen, they started to work on writing down their resolutions.
'What should I write down...I'm already perfect...' Teruhashi chewed at the end of her pen, a look of focus across her countenance. Suddenly, it hit her. 'Aim to become better friends with Saiki and have him open up to me.' She quickly scribbled her resolution down and folded the piece of paper. When she looked up, everyone else had finished or was finishing up.
"It's a minute until midnight!" Mera said excitedly. "Um, if I can, I just want to say I'm happy you guys gave me a chance to be friends with you." Kaido followed up, saying "Yeah, I'm glad you guys are my friends too." Everyone went around, sharing how happy they were to be friends. Suddenly an alarm went off, and Kaido quickly turned it off. "It's officially the new year guys."
Everyone sat in a bit of awkward silence, but Aiura cleared her throat and spoke up. "Group hug everyone?" Everyone slowly nodded, then leaned in for the hug. Teruhashi felt the happiest she had ever been. But, eventually the hug had to end and everyone started cleaning up the living room.
"Girls, we'll be sleeping in here; boys, you'll be sleeping in Makoto's room. Please don't mess anything up in there." They all nodded, then started migrating through the house. Teruhashi trusted they'd find the room. After all, it was labeled. Teruhashi turned back to the girls and helped them sprawl out pillows to make impromptu beds. Teruhashi left and returned shortly after with a stack of blankets from her room.
The girls soon fell asleep, content with what had transpired that evening and happy their friendships were so strong.