“You’re being cold to me, even after we made such passionate love.”
“You were the one who was doing all the loving! And you’re just casually calling me by my first name!” she retorted, her face flushed.
“You should call me by my name, too.”
“Absolutely not.”
Mizuno buried his face in a pillow, shouting “Waaah!” and pretending to cry, peeking at her from the side.
Wakana sighed. She felt he had been a little strange yesterday, but he was back to his usual boisterous self. Her eyes drifted around the room. Warm light filled the space. It felt as if there was no one else there but them. She looked at Mizuno, who was still peeking at her every few seconds. It was just the two of them here.
“Well, there’s a place nearby that serves breakfast, so let’s go.”
“Okay! And then when we get back, we’ll do it again! Right?!”
“You’re so crude.”
They got dressed and left the room together, standing in the elevator lobby. The air was chilly, and she pulled her jacket tighter. Mizuno, with a big grin, tried to hug her to warm her up, but she pushed him away. It was a holiday, so she figured the elevator would be slow to arrive, but the light indicating its arrival lit up.
Her jacket pocket vibrated. As she pulled out her phone, they stepped into the open elevator. At this time, it was usually crowded, but they were the only ones inside. It’s strange, she thought, especially for a holiday. Mizuno brought his lips close to her ear, and Wakana squirmed.
“Stop it, Mizuno-kun.”
“I love you, Wakana-san. I’m so happy right now.”
The doors closed, and the elevator began to move. She glanced at him, and Mizuno was smirking with narrowed eyes.
“Don’t smirk. It’ll be embarrassing if someone gets on.”
“No one’s coming.”
Gooo-n, gooo-n, the elevator hummed. Her phone vibrated again, and Wakana looked at the screen.
Hey, I have the most annoying thing to tell you.
She replied, asking what was wrong. She looked up briefly and saw that it was strange that the elevator was empty, since it was a holiday.
I saw Matsuzaki-kun and Kanai-san going home together yesterday, and when I secretly asked Kanai-san afterward, she told me they’ve been dating! Since the company get-together six months ago, and she was bragging about it being their first Christmas together!
“Hmm,” Wakana thought. Matsuzaki and Kanai were her coworkers. She realized the last time she had seen them was at the get-together six months ago. She hadn’t known they were dating, but as she thought about it, she remembered it was Matsuzaki who had suggested going to the “haunted spot.” And he had been the one to drive. Her phone vibrated again.
Also, that place we went to in the summer wasn’t a haunted spot at all! It was just a normal mountain! Matsuzaki-kun took us there to set the mood because he wanted to confess to Kanai-san. I got scared for nothing.
Wakana read the message. The mountain was not a haunted spot. She read the sentence again.
(But… then… what was in my room?)
In that instant, the words she had heard in the bathroom, “It’s Santa, so it’s okay,” flashed in her mind. She had heard those words before. That’s right, it was when she was a child. On Christmas Eve, she had pretended to sleep, wrapped in her blanket with a bug-catching net, and her blanket had been pulled to confirm she was asleep. When she had jumped out, she saw her flustered grandfather, who said those exact words to her. Her kind grandfather, with his strong but slightly droopy eyes that gave him a gentle look. In her memory, his eyes overlapped with the eyes of the shadow caught on the flypaper yesterday.
Yesterday, she was too terrified to think, but she felt like those eyes had been trying to tell her something. Now that she thought about it, how did the spirits in her room know her name? It was as if they had known her for a very long time.
“Mizuno-kun… About, you know, what happened yesterday…”
Saying that, Wakana looked up from her phone. In the small, sealed box meant only for the two of them, Mizuno was looking down at her,grinning the entire time.
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