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Festive lights filled the mall with a sense of winter wonder. The cheery sound of holiday music echoed through the bustling crowds of the green and red hall. Many among the crowd carried colorful bags of varying shapes and sizes containing their gifts for the coming Christmas Eve.
Within that crowd were Mizuki and Ena, fresh off of their trip to a colorfully decorated clothing store. Despite shopping at the Christmas sale together for over an hour, both had left without a single bag to show for their difficult delve through the crowded shop. Somehow, the shopping hadn’t resulted in any purchases.
“I’m telling you, though, you’d rock that sweater,” Mizuki said.
“And I’m telling you I’d look like a silly blob,” Ena said. “The last thing I want for Christmas is for Akito to be laughing at me.”
Mizuki sighed, though she tried to not let the air leak out loudly enough to draw Ena’s attention. Shopping for Ena had been more difficult than usual this year. Usually a surface level gift from their shared interest in fashion was enough, but this year was different. The gift this time had to be something special; something to remember.
The strong desire for the gift to mean something probably came from how much things had changed between the two since they’d started hanging out together. They’d always been close enough to be called friends, but the secret distance between the two that had stopped Mizuki from wanting more before had vanished entirely since the previous year’s Christmas.
Coming up with a gift was difficult, but Mizuki still thought she was right about the sweater. Ena would look really cute in that oversized, bulky bundle of cloth, even if she hated it. The hue of red would even match her adorable angry blush whenever she was pressured to put it on!
But clearly the sweater wasn’t in the cards as a future gift. Mizuki needed to find something else for Ena.
“Red and green don’t even look good together. They completely clash with each other,” Ena continued. “And those tree prints were barely even trees!”
“Maybe that’s because it’s supposed to look like it was hand-knitted? I mean, it is supposed to be a Christmas sweater, after all.”
“But it wasn’t. There were three others just like it!”
The two continued walking through the crowded mall, without much of a goal other than the vague “buy something for Christmas” in their mind. The holiday rush was in full effect, and the two girls were just another part of the flowing jumble of people. Unless something caught their eyes, they’d mostly planned to walk and talk.
And then Mizuki’s eyes were caught by the giant, shiny image of a golden pickle plastered against the glass of an overly decorated Christmas ornament shop. It was the super lucky, limited time pickle ornament she’d seen talked about all over social media the past few weeks.
She’d forgotten they were being sold today! They were only sold one day a year!
“Ena, we have to go get that pickle!” Mizuki shouted excitedly, interrupting Ena’s extended rant about color theory.
“A pickle?” Ena looked confused. Then she turned to see what Mizuki was looking at and her confusion only grew. “Why are they advertising a giant pickle... ornament?”
“It’s not just any pickle. It’s a super ultra lucky pickle! A golden pickle! They only sell a thousand every year and they say whoever puts one on their tree will have the best Christmas ever!”
Ena began to mumble something about how none of that even made any sense, but Mizuki wasn’t listening. Without even checking for confirmation, she took Ena’s hand and began to guide her to the doors.
“Come on! We have to get one before they run out!” Mizuki said.
Unsteadily, Ena stumbled along with Mizuki’s lead. “W-wait! Hold on, you don’t have to pull me!”
The two continued through the door, greeted by Christmas decorations of all sorts and sizes. Signs of shining golden pickles adorned the walkway to the register in the center of the store, acting as a guide to Mizuki’s single focus.
Sure enough, there were other people leaving with bags that must have contained the pickle. Mizuki counted no less than five other people leaving the desk who’d been honored with the golden pickle in the time she’d spent convincing Ena to tag along. Somewhere along the way, Ena had let go of Mizuki’s grip to wander off, but Mizuki’s eye was too focused on the prize to look for Ena right now.
The shelves behind the register were worryingly empty, but maybe there was still hope. Maybe there were extra pickles stocked in the back of the store. There was a limited stock but it definitely wasn’t possible for the store to toss all thousand ornaments on a single shelf.
There was only one way to find out.
“Excuse me,” Mizuki initiated with the cashier. “Do you still have any lucky pickles?”
The employee at the counter looked stressed from a long day at work as he fiddled with something under his desk, but he jumped a bit at the question. He looked up pleadingly as though he dreaded hearing those words.
That wasn’t a good sign.
“I’m sorry, but we just sold our last one.” He pulled out a sign with a frowny face and a message saying the pickles were out of stock. No eye contact was made as he set up the disappointing sign for the next customers.
“Oh...”
Disappointment. Just like last year.
This year hurt more. Last year she’d been way off getting it, without even stepping foot in the store before they were out of stock. This year she’d been so close. If she’d come by the shop just a few minutes earlier she might have been able to run home and show her mom the lucky pickle she’d been talking about. They could have even put it on top of their family tree together.
Nervous laughter was all she could conjure in front of the clearly anxious employee.
“That’s a shame... Well, thank you anyways!” Mizuki smiled at the clerk and turned to leave.
As soon as she turned, though, she couldn’t stop the frown from sneaking onto her face.
Maybe next year.
While Mizuki had been busy at the counter, Ena had found herself wandering around the hanging novelty ornaments. A beautiful pink butterfly ornament shone in her hands.
“Come on, Ena. Let’s go,” Mizuki said.
Though she tried to retain her usual cheery voice, her words came out more strained than expected. The disappointment she wanted to keep hidden leaked out against her will. Ena would definitely pick up on that.
Ena turned, butterfly still in hand. “They were all out, huh?”
“Yeah...” Mizuki sighed. “Maybe next year, right?”
“And you were so excited about it, too...”
Clearly unsure of what else to say, Ena stared down at the pink ornament in her hand. Her fingers rubbed thoughtfully along glittery wings until her eyes lit up. She lifted the butterfly to Mizuki.
“I know it’s not the same, but what if I bought this ornament for you instead?” Ena said. “It reminds me of you, so it must be lucky.”
Despite being weighed down by the loss of her pickle, Mizuki couldn’t help but smile at Ena’s attempt to cheer her up. Even though Ena had turned to hide her face, Mizuki was sure she was trying to hide what was definitely a very cute, very flustered expression.
How could Mizuki turn Ena’s offer down when she was accidentally being so cute?
“Alright, I’ll take you up on the lucky butterfly,” Mizuki said, stifling a giggle. “Let’s take it back to the check-out counter.”
Without much of a line at the register to hold them over, the two purchased the butterfly ornament. As it was intended as a gift, Ena paid for the slightly overpriced trinket. She even agreed to the extra charge to have the fragile ornament gift wrapped by the store clerk. With a beautifully wrapped gift in hand, the two headed for the door without the pickle they had come for.
Even though she had not gotten the lucky golden pickle she’d come for, Mizuki was super satisfied with how the trip to the Christmas store went. With a gift in hand and a smile on her face, she headed for the busy halls outside the store with Ena in tow.
As they neared the store’s exit, Mizuki could faintly make out heated words being exchanged just outside. The heated exchange between two girls sounded like there was an argument brewing outside the store.
"I’m telling you, it’s actually lucky!”
“And I’m telling you, your story was pure coincidence. It’s not actually lucky. It’s just a marketing scheme, and you feel for it.”
“It’s not! And you fell for it too!”
As Mizuki and Ena turned the corner to head for the mall exit, they found the argument directly in their path. The two girls arguing looked to be about the same age as them. Their hair colors contrasted each other very obviously, with one of the girls having modest brown hair, and the other bright pink hair.
“Well, I only bought it to get you to stop pestering me about the pickle,” the brown haired girl said. Her face carried a more simmering, less expressive anger than the pink haired girl, who blurted out quite the noise at her companion’s admission.
“Haaah?!”
In their prickly debate, the two had taken up a good portion of the crowded hall, causing much of the traffic to filter around them. Neither seemed to notice how much space they were taking up in the busy hall.
Mizuki and Ena exchanged glances. The confused expression on Ena’s face felt like a question: Did they want to take another route to avoid their argument?
As the two turned to go the other way, Mizuki heard something that made her turn around:
“In fact, I think I might go and return it.”
The words sounded like the jingling of joyous bells to Mizuki. Were they arguing about the ultra-rare golden pickle? They both had one? And one of them didn’t want theirs?
“No, don’t return it! That’s bad luck!”
As if the question in Mizuki’s head had been aired for the world to hear, the brown haired girl pulled out the pickle-shaped object covered in golden encrusted wrapping. Her brow furrowed slightly at the poor pickle ornament, as if it had done something terrible to ruin her day.
It was the golden pickle! In the two years since the Christmas store had started selling them, Mizuki had never actually gotten to see one! All of her exposure had been from the hype online, so she’d only ever seen them on videos or in pictures. Even in the store everyone leaving had them in their bags!
“Ah! Is that the super limited edition golden pickle?!” Mizuki blurted out to the two arguing strangers without thinking. “You actually managed to get one of the 1000 made?!”
Mizuki immediately realized her impulsive mistake as the two who’d been arguing turned to the stranger who’d just interrupted them. Hiding her embarrassment behind a nervous laugh, she shifted course.
“Sorry, for interrupting. I haven’t introduced myself. My name is Akiyama Mizuki. What’s yours?” Mizuki said.
“That’s quite alright, Akiyama-san. You aren’t interrupting anything important. My name is Nagasaki Soyo. It’s nice to meet you,” Soyo replied. All of the simmering anger from earlier was gone from her face.
The pink haired stranger scoffed at her companion’s comment without a reply of her own. With a sigh, she replied, “And I’m Chihaya Anon. It’s nice to meet you!”
“It’s nice to meet both of you!” Mizuki said. “I was just shopping with Ena over here.”
Then Mizuki turned to Ena and motioned for her to also come and introduce herself. From the way Ena hesitated to even step forward to join in, it was clear that she wasn’t very comfortable with just randomly talking to some strangers in the middle of the mall.
Reluctantly, Ena introduced herself, “Hello. My name’s Shinonome Ena. It’s nice to meet you.”
Both Anon and Soyo nodded and returned Ena’s greeting.
“I’m surprised you actually managed to get one of those lucky pickles. By the time we got to the front desk, the last one had already sold out!” Mizuki said. “It is kind of my fault though... I forgot that they were going to start selling them today.”
“Aww, that’s a real shame,” Anon said. “They’re even supposed to be extra lucky this year...”
“Really?!” Mizuki said.
Anon nodded excitedly. “Yeah! These ones are coated with a golden sand only found deep in the sea! They said the golden pickle will help you deepen your relationship with your friends, and even grant you lucky new encounters!”
With her words clearly directed towards more than one person, Anon nudged Soyo with her elbow with the last part of her sales pitch. A sigh and an irritated glare from Soyo was all the subtle hint earned her.
The soles of Mizuki’s feet bounced at the description as she imagined the glossy gold pickle from last year’s video’s covered in glittering sea sand. Even if she wouldn’t be able to have a pickle of her own, she still wanted to at least see how it looked.
“Oh! Have you seen what it looks like under the wrapper yet?!”
Soyo fiddled with the crinkled gold foil for a moment then looked up at Mizuki with a smile.
“I can give you my ornament, Akiyama-san. If you’d like,” she said.
The sudden turn wasn’t what Mizuki was expecting. Even though Mizuki had overheard Soyo talking about returning the pickle, she didn’t expect that she’d immediately try to give it away. The ornament was still something she’d willingly bought, even if she was doubting if she really wanted it.
“Really?! Are you sure?!”
Anon, on the other hand, immediately took offense at Soyo’s words. “Soyo! No! You can’t, it’s lucky!”
“Well, then the luck is better used by someone who actually wants it, right?” Soyo smiled as she held the pickle package towards Mizuki.
Flabbergasted, Mizuki took the offered package into her hands and stared at it. Even though her heart had fluttered under the weight of excitement, she couldn’t shake the feeling that it was wrong to receive the pickle so easily.
“T-thank you... Thank you!” Mizuki said.
A long tired sigh from Anon signaled her passionate burst of anger had come to an end. Though she didn’t look too happy about it, she’d accepted defeat from her side of the argument.
“At least that’s better for your luck than returning it...” Anon muttered. “I’m glad at least this way someone else can appreciate the lucky pickle.”
The gold foil felt cold to the touch as Mizuki ran her hand along the ornament, thinking about what to do next. Happy as she was, she felt guilty about directly benefiting from their argument, which she’d only coincidentally stumbled on.
Her mind went to a possible trade to make up for the inconvenience, but she couldn’t come up with anything on her that was worth as much as the pickle ornament she’d so kindly received.
There was the butterfly ornament Ena had bought for her, but that wasn’t something she was willing to just give away. It was from Ena. Even if she’d been forced to trade something for the pickle ornament, she wouldn’t have considered the butterfly they’d bonded over to be an option. The gift from Ena was worth more than any lucky pickle.
“I’m not sure how I can repay you,” Mizuki said. “I don’t have anything to give...
Soyo smiled. “You can consider it a gift. It’s the holiday season, after all.”
The smile felt so earnest that Mizuki couldn’t help but return it. Even though she still wasn’t sure she deserved such a sudden gift from a stranger, the feeling of joy she wanted to feel that’d been weighed down by her doubt earlier began to gush out.
“Thank you! Both of you! Thank you so much! Oh, this makes me so happy! I can’t wait to show mom!” Mizuki excitedly brandished the golden pickle up to the sky.
“I’m glad you’re happy,” Soyo said with a giggle, her hand moving to cover her mouth.
“Ena, look, I got the lucky pickle!” Excitedly, Mizuki turned to show the pickle to Ena.
Even though she’d tried to bring her into the conversation, Ena had been pretty quiet the entire time. It made sense, the conversation was mostly about Mizuki and the pickle, and Ena wasn’t exactly enthralled by the novelty Christmas ornament. Hopefully Ena hadn’t run off to another store all on her own.
Sure enough, Ena was still there, but she didn’t have the judging eyes Mizuki expected to see. Instead, she stared directly into Mizuki’s eyes with the gentle smile she only reserved for Mizuki during special occasions. The warmth from Ena’s smile heated Mizuki up more than any winter clothing.
“Well then, we’ll be going. You two have a Merry Christmas!” Soyo called off to Mizuki. She and Anon began to head for the nearby escalator with a wave.
“Ah! Bye! Thank you for the gift, and Merry Christmas to you too!” Mizuki hollered back.
As the pink and the brown faded off down the escalator, Mizuki swore she could hear the two starting to bicker again about the pickle as soon as they were out of earshot. She carefully stowed the packaged pickle ornament into her bag next to the butterfly ornament Ena had gifted her.
“They were nice,” Ena said, finally breaking her silence.
Mizuki cracked a nervous smile, “Yeah, but they seemed kind of tense. Do you think they’re friends?”
“Well, yeah, you have to be pretty close with someone to argue like that and still walk away together,” Ena said.
Mizuki smirked and looked at Ena. “I guess I should know that better than anyone.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“Ahahaha! Nothing, nothing.”
Ena squinted at Mizuki, then began to walk off in the direction of the mall's exit. Bothered as the prickly porcupine tried to act, Mizuki didn’t hesitate to prance on alongside her as the two dived into the busy mall crowd together.
“So, did you still want to check out the other stores?” Ena spoke over the bustle of the crowd, acting as if the earlier jab from Mizuki hadn’t happened.
“I kind of want to rush home and drop off my lucky ornaments as soon as I can,” Mizuki said, holding up her bag. “The last thing I want to do is lose them or break them!”
As much as Mizuki wanted to go and find a gift for Ena to return the favor, she wasn’t lying about wanting to rush home to drop off what she’d already gotten. There’d already been two close calls in the busy crowd where she was worried for the fragile glass ornaments.
The rest of Mizuki’s shopping for Ena’s present would have to be done alone. Hopefully, she would be able to come up with a gift for Ena just as good as the butterfly she’d received.
The bittersweet smile on Ena’s face spoke volumes about how she felt about Mizuki’s response, but she nodded. “Okay… We’re still going to meet up on Christmas day, right?”
“Yeah! I’ve been waiting all month for that!” Mizuki said.
As if flowing along with the current of the crowd had sped up their movement, the two arrived at the mall exit in no time at all. The festive lights shone as guiding lights, leading the way to the exit.
“Well… I’ll see you tomorrow?” Ena said.
“I’m sure dinner will be great!” Mizuki replied as she waved goodbye. “See you then!”
“See you tomorrow, Mizuki.”
Mizuki headed out with only a single bag to show for all the time she’d spent trawling along the busy mall halls, but what she’d left held more weight than any new clothes or accessory ever could. They carried memories and gifts of what she’d experienced and the people she got to meet.
It was so exciting to finally have the ultra lucky golden pickle ornament, and she was super excited to finally be able to show it to her family, but Mizuki was more excited about the other ornament she had in her bag. The butterfly, wherever it was going to sit on the tree each year, would act as a constant reminder of how lucky she was to have Ena. Mizuki was going to be full of luck next year!
Whether the novelty Christmas ornaments were actually lucky or not, one thing was for sure:
Mizuki was the luckiest girl in the whole world.