Winter Wish
Daiki doesn’t believe in anything called ‘love’. To him, it’s just an expression of gratitude or something you say when you’re bored. It is a simple word that anyone could say in less than a second. ‘I love you’ is a famous cliché and people goes ‘awww’ or ‘aahhh’. Why does anyone need ‘love’ anyways? Isn’t having themselves just enough?
Daiki strut the streets gracefully earning some seductive glances from the girls who passes him. When he was thirteen, he had learned that he was one of the ‘pretty boys’ and he was the ‘prettiest’ in the area. Many girls and boys tried to be his friends, and sometimes more. He gets all the respect that anyone would want. Not that he actually cares about it, he knows he's awesome and all but sometimes he really wants to see someone greater, better than him, if anyone like that ever exists, that is.
It was a cold winter, the scenery was white full of beautiful snow and people seemed to be busy doing their things. Daiki brought his hands together, shivering of the coldness that hung in the air. Christmas Eve, and he’s all alone. How suck is that? Of course he got a lot of invitations from his friends but he turned them all down. He wanted to spend this year's Christmas Eve in a silence, away from the loud crowds.
‘ Christmas is supposed to be magical, right? Where’s my magical?’ Daiki thought.
Daiki stopped by a frozen lake. He used to come here a lot when his dad was alive. His dad died in a battle with cancer two years ago and Daiki was devastated. He still remembers what his father always said, ‘When a snow drops from the sky above; quickly make a wish; if you are lucky, your wish might come true’.
Daiki sat on the nearest bench, thinking his dad’s famous words. He never lied to him.
A snowflake drops from the blue sky.
It never hurts to try, does it?
Another one dropped and was followed by others.
I wish someone could take this pain away from me.
-PANG-
What.The.Hell
“I’M SO SORRY!” A boy bowed at him, repeatedly as Daiki wiped the snow that directly hit his face. “I didn’t mean to hit you. I was just playing with my sister and- DON’T YOU GO ANYWHERE, CHIHIRO!” The boy pointed tauntingly at a fading figure, cursing under his breath.
So much for the quiet Christmas Eve, Daiki thought warily.
Daiki rubbed his eyes as some of the snow dropped to the white ground. He felt someone grab his hands, preventing him to rub his eyes any further.
“Don’t rub it. It would just make it worse. Let me blow it for you.”
Daiki’s sight was hazy at first and he couldn’t really see. His eyes were watery and all he could see was a blurry figure standing infront of him.
“Tissue?” the boy offered and Daiki gladly took it.
”Thank-“ Daiki gasped when he saw the boy for the first time. The boy was pale, his skin was almost as white as the snow, his lip were red and his hair were silky, his dark chocolate eyes were big and radiated high confidence. The boy was wearing a purple jacket and he had a white skull scarf around his neck. His pants were black and he was wearing light blue colored shoes. He looked like an angel. An angel that fell from heaven.
If Daiki was a ‘pretty boy’ then the boy must have been a ‘beautiful boy’. He was way too much better for Daiki’s standard. Daiki opened his mouth but closed it as he had no idea what to say. He never met someone higher rank than him. “Daiki Arioka,” he finally said.
“Yamada Ryosuke,” the other boy introduced himself with a big smile plastered on his face. “I’m new around here. Care to show me around?”
-PANG-
“Maybe next time.” Yamada’s mouth twitched. Daiki was surprised how someone could smile happily at him and glaring at someone else in the same time. “I have to kill my sister first but we’ll meet next time, definitely,” Yamada said while grabbing a handful of snow before turning it to a shape of a ball. “Bye,”
Daiki stared at Yamada who was throwing snowballs to his sister. Yamada Ryosuke. I wonder if I’ll ever meet him ever again.
4 years after that-
“You’re eating too much.” That was the only thing Daiki could say while staring at his bestfriend that was sprawled on the floor, obviously over-dosed by his daily strawberry. Daiki picked all the rubbish from the floor and threw them to the dustbin. Who knew red innocent strawberries could be such a powerful drug?
“Strawberry~” Yamada mumbled. “Want some?” Yamada held a pack of strawberry pocky high for Daiki. “You can only take one though. The rest is mine.”
Daiki sighed. “No, I do not want one. What I want is you to get up and get ready for school.”
“It’s Sunday, Daiki. We don’t have school.”
“We have student body meeting,” Daiki answered nonchalantly. Yamada groaned and dragged his feet to the bathroom. He slammed the door shut, making a dramatic effect.
“Do you want to take bath with me?” A slyly grinning Yamada appeared on the bathroom’s door frame before closing it with a laugh as Daiki threw a pillow at him. ‘Stupid Yamada’ Daiki thought while blushing furiously.
“Isn’t that the famous Chairman of The Student Body Council and the Secretary that almost never show up in any meeting before?” A voice echoed when the two boys stepped in to the meeting room.
“Yes we are. Got a problem with that?” Yamada glared at the innocent members.
“N-no...”
“Then good,” Yamada flashed his sweet smile. “I hope we could all cooperate together in ease,” he said as he sat on a chair. “So what could be the problem that is so hard to solve that took my precious Sunday away from me?” His sinister voice echoed in the room.
All the members shivered at the same time.
Uh-oh. Who knew our Chairman was so scary?
“Students excessive behavior of not listening-“
“Demerits them,” Yamada replied, bored.
“We tried but-“
“Tell them we’ll report to teacher-“
“The teachers don’t seem to care and-“
“Expel them.”
There was a silence in the room.
“I guess we’re all good,” Yamada said, getting up from his chair. “Meeting dismissed and I’m outta he- waaa?” Yamada mumbled as Daiki shoved him back to his chair.
“You’re the president of the student council. Could you at least do your work properly?” Daiki said through gritted teeth.
Yamada looked at him for a second. “No.”
There were soft chuckles from the students in the room, but when Daiki glared at them, the chuckles immediately died down. “Daiki, you’re the vice president, don’t scare them,” Yamada half-mimicked Daiki.
“Go die.”
“Can’t. If I die then you’ll be all lonely and missing me all the time. All the time, I tell you,” Yamada emphasized the last sentence teasingly.
Daiki could feel his blood rush up to his cheeks.
“Awww, isn’t that just cute?” Yamada squealed. He moved his face closer to Daiki's slowly. Daiki could feel his blood rush and could only stay still. Yamada eyes were looking straight at him and when their faces were only inches away Yamada paused and blew air onto Daiki’s face.
SILENCE.
“You,” Daiki pointed tauntingly at Yamada who was laughing hard. “YOU IDIOT!!!”
It didn’t take a long time for the new members to figure out why the chairman and the secretary were always excused from their meeting. With broken chairs and windows, they caused a lot of damage more than a group of delinquents could ever make. And their choice of words weren’t exactly what you could call polite. However, they wondered, who was going to clear up the mess that they left?
"Hey, Daiki, can you lend me some money? Only a few bucks or so? Please?” Yamada’s pleading voice came from behind him.
Daiki sighed and dug out his wallet, grabbed a few coins and dropped them onto Yamada's waiting palm. Yamada grinned widely and hurried to the small hot chocolate stand nearby. Daiki looked around and saw an empty table next to the stand and decided to sit there. The other boy skipped happily to him with a steaming disposable cup in his hands.
"Waa, it's so hot~!" Yamada hissed and shook his hands a little in the cold winter air after placing the cup on the table. Daiki only sent a somewhat disapproving look at his way which Yamada noticed. "What?"
"You just act like nothing happened," Daiki said dully and crossed his arms.
"Well... I don't think anything happened?" Yamada replied innocently. Daiki watched him take a careful sip of the hot chocolate.
"How can you be so...irresponsible? You are the freaking chairman after all, you should do something about it," Daiki demanded angrily and hid his chin behind the thick scarf around his neck as he looked away. Yamada only raised his eyebrows.
"Like, what, start doing something that's good for our school? Pfft," he snorted and went back to his drink. Daiki stared at other boy. There was nothing he could do, couldn’t he? Yamada was just way too clueless about his responsibilities as the chairman of the student council. It would be the same if he just quit the role...
"Oh come on, Daiki, it's not like its a big deal! Here, have some hot chocolate~!" Yamada laughed and stretched over the table, practically shoving the warm cup into Daiki's face. With a swift movement Daiki grabbed the cup and stood up, grinning when Yamada ran after him, yelling something about "giving it back" and "no Christmas presents".
Daiki walked along the crowded street, following a step behind Yamada who was eagerly chatting to himself (actually to Daiki, but as he wasn't really listening). The air was fresh but freezing, making a silvery smoke come out every time someone exhale. Daiki stared aimlessly at the back of Yamada's white winter jacket, his own hands dug deep in his black jacket's pockets. Daiki nearly bumped into Yamada when the said boy paused abruptly.
"You're not listening, are you?" Yamada sighed when he turned around, his eyebrows furrowed into a frustrated frown. The taller boy only shrugged. "Not really."
"Daiki~! What if I just said something that would totally change your life, but you'd never know it because you didn't listen to me?!" Yamada practically whined, a pout forming onto his lips. Daiki looked at him for a second.
"You said something like that?"
"No I didn't! I don't even know anything that could change your life, so there's no way I could said it, right?" Yamada turned his back to Daiki again when he continued walking, missing the way Daiki's disappointed gaze dropped down to the ground with his brows furrowed a little. They walked into a small warm cafe and immediately placed their order.
‘You don't know, huh?’ Daiki thought bitterly.
"Don't you think it's a bit annoying?"
"What is?"
"...You didn't listen to me again."
"..."
"I was just saying," Yamada started and leaned over the table to grab Daiki's cup of hot milk tea and took a sip of it, giving the taller boy a look of "your punishment for not listening to me". They were sitting at a small couple seat which suspiciously looked like a seat where one could bring their date to, obviously. Who knows why Yamada had dragged Daiki here in the first place and chose that particular seat when elsewhere were available. "...that it's a bit annoying when people stare at us when we walk outside."
Daiki only threw a sarcastic "oh really" and look at the other way, as he tried to avoid thinking he had just officially lost his drink. "I guess it's more like a curse than a gift, especially when you’re living here," he mumbled, watching how his tea just got downed into Yamada's throat. "You've got some..." he added and pointed at his upper lip; Yamada hurried to wipe his mouth before turning back to him.
"You say your face is a curse? I think you're right," he joked, earning a glare of daggers as he did so. Daiki crossed his arms onto his chest and leaned back in his seat as he looked out from the window.
"If mine's a curse, then what yours could possibly be...?" he mumbled under his breath.
“Oh come on! What’s with the long face anyway? When was the last time you even smiled? Last Summer? Last winter? I’ll tell you when, it was last ages ago!”
Daiki kept his gaze hard on the window without saying a thing, even though he could tell Yamada was really waiting for an answer. His eyes caught a girl and a boy walking on the other side of the street, but when he saw their entwined hands, his gaze instantly dropped.
"...Daiki?" Yamada asked with a bit careful tone in his voice. The said boy slowly drew his gaze to the other sitting in front of him.
"You know..." Daiki started, shifting on his seat. He hesitated, and changed his mind of what he was going to say. "Christmas is coming. As a present for me, could you at least try to be a little more considerate about others as well?"
Yamada stared at him for a while, his face literally showing off his thoughts of "that's what you were thinking about?!". However, he shrugged in the end and said, "No."
Daiki furrowed his brows. "Why not? If you do that, I'll promise to smile more!"
"Haha, nice try! Even though I do miss your smile, there's no need to! Why? Because I've already got something for you for Christmas, and I know it will make you smile anyway!" Yamada beamed with a wide grin, and stood up. He reached to grab Daiki's hand into his, and pulled him out from the café before Daiki could even think about protesting.
The Christmas Eve was only a week away. Snow had finally fallen only a few days ago, covering all of the rooftops, streets, football fields and parks under the beautiful white snow. Even though the sky was bright and a little blue, everyone seemed to be hoping that the rain wouldn't come before spring and melt all the pretty snow away; that was always a risk, and kids were taking all the fun out of it now that there was snow.
Even Daiki was wishing the snow wouldn't melt. He had pointed out, though, that the autumn had been much colder than before, which would end in giving them a cold Christmas full of snow. But he couldn't help the bit of worry that clouded his mind every time he noticed even the lightest color of grey on any cloud. He wanted there to be snow, it was the secret behind his and Yamada's meeting after all. Though he wasn't quite sure if Yamada even could care less if there was snow or not, as he usually just made sure his clothes and hair would look good in the weather.
There was times when Daiki noticed Yamada looking up to the sky with a bit worried face, and for a couple of times he had caught him checking the forecast more than twice during the day; so unlike him. But he still couldn't make out if he only did it just so he could pick the right kind of clothes for the next day or what.
Yamada was pretty good when it came to lying, but when it was lying to Daiki, he never made it. Daiki could always tell when Yamada was lying. But when he had asked why Yamada checked the forecast so often, all he got was a shrug and the change of the subject. Daiki couldn't really tell what it was about.
"So, what do you want for christmas?" Daiki asked when the two of them stepped out to the cold winter air from the warmth of a café. Yamada licked on his strawberry ice cream happily, and Daiki still wondered how he could eat ice cream during winter.
"I don't want anything," the shorter boy replied, his attention still on the icy object in his bare hand, his warm, dark eyes looking like they could melt it.
"Well, what do you need?" Daiki tried again as he adjusted his scarf higher up to his chin and stuffed his hands deep into the depths of his blue-and-black plaid jacket's pockets. This time Yamada looked at him and laughed lightly.
"I don't need anything either," he said and went back to his ice cream, and paused walking. They stood in the middle of a crowded street, where people paced around with lots and lots of different sized bags. Daiki turned to look at the other boy with a slight pout on his face, and Yamada's face became thoughtful as he stared at his pale red ice cream.
"I don't want you to spend money on something you're going to give me. It'll make my... present seem like something you bought with money..." the brown haired boy muttered and seemed to trail off in the end. Daiki silently watched him stare down at his strawberry ice cream. Yamada's words made him a little suspicious; he had a side like this after all?
"And no... don't give me anything you've gotten for free either," Yamada added and grinned up at Daiki, before looking back down to the object in his hand in hesitation. "Damn it's cold..."
"I told you not to eat ice cream during winter," Daiki reminded him and grabbed the cold object from Yamada's hand, only to dump it to the nearest trash bin. Even though he was freezing, Yamada pouted after his beloved ice cream as he desperately rubbed his palms against each other. Daiki shook his head a bit disapprovingly and grabbed each of Yamada's freezing hands into his warm ones, holding them tightly. He could feel his own cheeks start to burn from this action, and he could swear he noticed a small pink on Yamada's cheeks as well; if it was because of the cold air or if he was blushing... He'd never know.
"This is why you should cover your hands in cold weather," Daiki mumbled, sounding a bit mother-like, and pulled the other boy closer to him.
Daiki didn't really know what to expect when Yamada appeared to the Arioka-household doorstep early in the Christmas Eve. Wasn't Christmas supposed to be spent with your family or something? The time was about 11 o'clock with Daiki gotten up from bed barely half an hour earlier.
"Hey, Dai-chan!" Yamada greeted ever so happily with the widest grin. Daiki stood in the doorway and raised an eyebrow. Dai-chan? Since when had Yamada called him Dai-chan? "It looks like you've just woken up... Your hair is a mess."
Sleepily, the taller boy scratched the back of his head and let Yamada in; his legs were starting to freeze from standing in the doorway.
"Good morning, Auntie~!" Yamada greeted Daiki's mother, who happened to walk by with a wide smile. "I plan to kidnap your son on this lovely morning. I hope you don't mind.”
Daiki laughed warily and quietly made his way upstairs to have a shower; if Yamada arrived this suddenly, and this early, it had to mean they were going somewhere important. He glanced back at Yamada who was talking merrily the Arioka household.
I wonder where he’s taking me?
"Where are we going now?" Daiki asked when he dragged his feet after Yamada, who seemed to be in a really good mood. The shorter boy glanced over his shoulder with a grin and said, "You'll see."
They had been walking around the town for hours now, with Daiki just following Yamada around; he still wasn't very amused that he had to go out so early, but he believed it was already past noon, somewhere around 2 PM.
The winter air was fresh and cold, turning the boys' nosetips a light shade of pink. There were barely anyone out there in the cold, only a few people probably walking home from the last minute present shopping.
Daiki didn't even feel like it being Christmas Eve. It felt just like another snowy day in the middle of another snowy days, and somehow he started missing the time before his father died. When he was a kid, he could've barely waited for Christmas and always made about ten meters long wish lists. Now he just went passively through the day like any other day. He never even asked anything from anyone anymore.
"Let's sit here," Yamada suddenly broke the silence between them, pulling Daiki out from his daze. The brown haired boy cleaned a wooden bench from the snow and sat down to it, pulling Daiki down as well by his arm. Daiki then realized where they were. It was the exact same park with the frozen lake where he used to come with his father, and... where the two of them met for the first time. Daiki hadn't came around more than about once or twice in these past four years.
Yamada looked at him with that happy smile still on his face. "You remember it right? Four years ago," he said when he turned to look at the clear frozen water.
Of course Daiki remembered, how could he not? There was no way he could forget about how he met the most beautiful person he had ever seen.
Daiki sat still on the bench with his eyes resting on the pretty view of the frozen lake with snow covering the trees and the ground, while Yamada stood up. He wondered why he hadn't been here during these years, as it was a really pretty place.
He watched when a pretty girl walked past the bench with a small grey dog by her side. The girl noticed him looking, and smiled shyly when she continued on her way. Daiki let out a deep sigh.
"Oi! Don't distract him, you!" came Yamada's voice from somewhere behind him, a bit angry tone in his voice; the girl seemed to start walking faster. Daiki stood up from the bench and turned to look where the other boy was, and so that he could ask why he yelled at people. But the very second he turned his face, something cold and hard hit square into his face. The next thing he heard was Yamada's loud laugh, and it wasn't so hard anymore to guess what it was that just hit his face.
"Ha, got you!" Yamada said victoriously when he walked up to the taller boy.
"..."
With his other hand Daiki wiped the cold snow off his face. His view was blurry, and he frowned when he only saw a hazy image of Yamada standing before him; the rubbing didn't really help either. Did this seem a bit familiar or something?
"Don’t rub it. It would just make it worse. Let me," Yamada said as he took a step closer. He lifted his hands onto Daiki shoulders, tiptoed a little and pressed his lips against Daiki's for a brief two seconds.
"Merry Christmas, Daiki.”
Daiki strut the streets gracefully earning some seductive glances from the girls who passes him. When he was thirteen, he had learned that he was one of the ‘pretty boys’ and he was the ‘prettiest’ in the area. Many girls and boys tried to be his friends, and sometimes more. He gets all the respect that anyone would want. Not that he actually cares about it, he knows he's awesome and all but sometimes he really wants to see someone greater, better than him, if anyone like that ever exists, that is.
It was a cold winter, the scenery was white full of beautiful snow and people seemed to be busy doing their things. Daiki brought his hands together, shivering of the coldness that hung in the air. Christmas Eve, and he’s all alone. How suck is that? Of course he got a lot of invitations from his friends but he turned them all down. He wanted to spend this year's Christmas Eve in a silence, away from the loud crowds.
‘ Christmas is supposed to be magical, right? Where’s my magical?’ Daiki thought.
Daiki stopped by a frozen lake. He used to come here a lot when his dad was alive. His dad died in a battle with cancer two years ago and Daiki was devastated. He still remembers what his father always said, ‘When a snow drops from the sky above; quickly make a wish; if you are lucky, your wish might come true’.
Daiki sat on the nearest bench, thinking his dad’s famous words. He never lied to him.
A snowflake drops from the blue sky.
It never hurts to try, does it?
Another one dropped and was followed by others.
I wish someone could take this pain away from me.
-PANG-
What.The.Hell
“I’M SO SORRY!” A boy bowed at him, repeatedly as Daiki wiped the snow that directly hit his face. “I didn’t mean to hit you. I was just playing with my sister and- DON’T YOU GO ANYWHERE, CHIHIRO!” The boy pointed tauntingly at a fading figure, cursing under his breath.
So much for the quiet Christmas Eve, Daiki thought warily.
Daiki rubbed his eyes as some of the snow dropped to the white ground. He felt someone grab his hands, preventing him to rub his eyes any further.
“Don’t rub it. It would just make it worse. Let me blow it for you.”
Daiki’s sight was hazy at first and he couldn’t really see. His eyes were watery and all he could see was a blurry figure standing infront of him.
“Tissue?” the boy offered and Daiki gladly took it.
”Thank-“ Daiki gasped when he saw the boy for the first time. The boy was pale, his skin was almost as white as the snow, his lip were red and his hair were silky, his dark chocolate eyes were big and radiated high confidence. The boy was wearing a purple jacket and he had a white skull scarf around his neck. His pants were black and he was wearing light blue colored shoes. He looked like an angel. An angel that fell from heaven.
If Daiki was a ‘pretty boy’ then the boy must have been a ‘beautiful boy’. He was way too much better for Daiki’s standard. Daiki opened his mouth but closed it as he had no idea what to say. He never met someone higher rank than him. “Daiki Arioka,” he finally said.
“Yamada Ryosuke,” the other boy introduced himself with a big smile plastered on his face. “I’m new around here. Care to show me around?”
-PANG-
“Maybe next time.” Yamada’s mouth twitched. Daiki was surprised how someone could smile happily at him and glaring at someone else in the same time. “I have to kill my sister first but we’ll meet next time, definitely,” Yamada said while grabbing a handful of snow before turning it to a shape of a ball. “Bye,”
Daiki stared at Yamada who was throwing snowballs to his sister. Yamada Ryosuke. I wonder if I’ll ever meet him ever again.
4 years after that-
“You’re eating too much.” That was the only thing Daiki could say while staring at his bestfriend that was sprawled on the floor, obviously over-dosed by his daily strawberry. Daiki picked all the rubbish from the floor and threw them to the dustbin. Who knew red innocent strawberries could be such a powerful drug?
“Strawberry~” Yamada mumbled. “Want some?” Yamada held a pack of strawberry pocky high for Daiki. “You can only take one though. The rest is mine.”
Daiki sighed. “No, I do not want one. What I want is you to get up and get ready for school.”
“It’s Sunday, Daiki. We don’t have school.”
“We have student body meeting,” Daiki answered nonchalantly. Yamada groaned and dragged his feet to the bathroom. He slammed the door shut, making a dramatic effect.
“Do you want to take bath with me?” A slyly grinning Yamada appeared on the bathroom’s door frame before closing it with a laugh as Daiki threw a pillow at him. ‘Stupid Yamada’ Daiki thought while blushing furiously.
“Isn’t that the famous Chairman of The Student Body Council and the Secretary that almost never show up in any meeting before?” A voice echoed when the two boys stepped in to the meeting room.
“Yes we are. Got a problem with that?” Yamada glared at the innocent members.
“N-no...”
“Then good,” Yamada flashed his sweet smile. “I hope we could all cooperate together in ease,” he said as he sat on a chair. “So what could be the problem that is so hard to solve that took my precious Sunday away from me?” His sinister voice echoed in the room.
All the members shivered at the same time.
Uh-oh. Who knew our Chairman was so scary?
“Students excessive behavior of not listening-“
“Demerits them,” Yamada replied, bored.
“We tried but-“
“Tell them we’ll report to teacher-“
“The teachers don’t seem to care and-“
“Expel them.”
There was a silence in the room.
“I guess we’re all good,” Yamada said, getting up from his chair. “Meeting dismissed and I’m outta he- waaa?” Yamada mumbled as Daiki shoved him back to his chair.
“You’re the president of the student council. Could you at least do your work properly?” Daiki said through gritted teeth.
Yamada looked at him for a second. “No.”
There were soft chuckles from the students in the room, but when Daiki glared at them, the chuckles immediately died down. “Daiki, you’re the vice president, don’t scare them,” Yamada half-mimicked Daiki.
“Go die.”
“Can’t. If I die then you’ll be all lonely and missing me all the time. All the time, I tell you,” Yamada emphasized the last sentence teasingly.
Daiki could feel his blood rush up to his cheeks.
“Awww, isn’t that just cute?” Yamada squealed. He moved his face closer to Daiki's slowly. Daiki could feel his blood rush and could only stay still. Yamada eyes were looking straight at him and when their faces were only inches away Yamada paused and blew air onto Daiki’s face.
SILENCE.
“You,” Daiki pointed tauntingly at Yamada who was laughing hard. “YOU IDIOT!!!”
It didn’t take a long time for the new members to figure out why the chairman and the secretary were always excused from their meeting. With broken chairs and windows, they caused a lot of damage more than a group of delinquents could ever make. And their choice of words weren’t exactly what you could call polite. However, they wondered, who was going to clear up the mess that they left?
"Hey, Daiki, can you lend me some money? Only a few bucks or so? Please?” Yamada’s pleading voice came from behind him.
Daiki sighed and dug out his wallet, grabbed a few coins and dropped them onto Yamada's waiting palm. Yamada grinned widely and hurried to the small hot chocolate stand nearby. Daiki looked around and saw an empty table next to the stand and decided to sit there. The other boy skipped happily to him with a steaming disposable cup in his hands.
"Waa, it's so hot~!" Yamada hissed and shook his hands a little in the cold winter air after placing the cup on the table. Daiki only sent a somewhat disapproving look at his way which Yamada noticed. "What?"
"You just act like nothing happened," Daiki said dully and crossed his arms.
"Well... I don't think anything happened?" Yamada replied innocently. Daiki watched him take a careful sip of the hot chocolate.
"How can you be so...irresponsible? You are the freaking chairman after all, you should do something about it," Daiki demanded angrily and hid his chin behind the thick scarf around his neck as he looked away. Yamada only raised his eyebrows.
"Like, what, start doing something that's good for our school? Pfft," he snorted and went back to his drink. Daiki stared at other boy. There was nothing he could do, couldn’t he? Yamada was just way too clueless about his responsibilities as the chairman of the student council. It would be the same if he just quit the role...
"Oh come on, Daiki, it's not like its a big deal! Here, have some hot chocolate~!" Yamada laughed and stretched over the table, practically shoving the warm cup into Daiki's face. With a swift movement Daiki grabbed the cup and stood up, grinning when Yamada ran after him, yelling something about "giving it back" and "no Christmas presents".
Daiki walked along the crowded street, following a step behind Yamada who was eagerly chatting to himself (actually to Daiki, but as he wasn't really listening). The air was fresh but freezing, making a silvery smoke come out every time someone exhale. Daiki stared aimlessly at the back of Yamada's white winter jacket, his own hands dug deep in his black jacket's pockets. Daiki nearly bumped into Yamada when the said boy paused abruptly.
"You're not listening, are you?" Yamada sighed when he turned around, his eyebrows furrowed into a frustrated frown. The taller boy only shrugged. "Not really."
"Daiki~! What if I just said something that would totally change your life, but you'd never know it because you didn't listen to me?!" Yamada practically whined, a pout forming onto his lips. Daiki looked at him for a second.
"You said something like that?"
"No I didn't! I don't even know anything that could change your life, so there's no way I could said it, right?" Yamada turned his back to Daiki again when he continued walking, missing the way Daiki's disappointed gaze dropped down to the ground with his brows furrowed a little. They walked into a small warm cafe and immediately placed their order.
‘You don't know, huh?’ Daiki thought bitterly.
"Don't you think it's a bit annoying?"
"What is?"
"...You didn't listen to me again."
"..."
"I was just saying," Yamada started and leaned over the table to grab Daiki's cup of hot milk tea and took a sip of it, giving the taller boy a look of "your punishment for not listening to me". They were sitting at a small couple seat which suspiciously looked like a seat where one could bring their date to, obviously. Who knows why Yamada had dragged Daiki here in the first place and chose that particular seat when elsewhere were available. "...that it's a bit annoying when people stare at us when we walk outside."
Daiki only threw a sarcastic "oh really" and look at the other way, as he tried to avoid thinking he had just officially lost his drink. "I guess it's more like a curse than a gift, especially when you’re living here," he mumbled, watching how his tea just got downed into Yamada's throat. "You've got some..." he added and pointed at his upper lip; Yamada hurried to wipe his mouth before turning back to him.
"You say your face is a curse? I think you're right," he joked, earning a glare of daggers as he did so. Daiki crossed his arms onto his chest and leaned back in his seat as he looked out from the window.
"If mine's a curse, then what yours could possibly be...?" he mumbled under his breath.
“Oh come on! What’s with the long face anyway? When was the last time you even smiled? Last Summer? Last winter? I’ll tell you when, it was last ages ago!”
Daiki kept his gaze hard on the window without saying a thing, even though he could tell Yamada was really waiting for an answer. His eyes caught a girl and a boy walking on the other side of the street, but when he saw their entwined hands, his gaze instantly dropped.
"...Daiki?" Yamada asked with a bit careful tone in his voice. The said boy slowly drew his gaze to the other sitting in front of him.
"You know..." Daiki started, shifting on his seat. He hesitated, and changed his mind of what he was going to say. "Christmas is coming. As a present for me, could you at least try to be a little more considerate about others as well?"
Yamada stared at him for a while, his face literally showing off his thoughts of "that's what you were thinking about?!". However, he shrugged in the end and said, "No."
Daiki furrowed his brows. "Why not? If you do that, I'll promise to smile more!"
"Haha, nice try! Even though I do miss your smile, there's no need to! Why? Because I've already got something for you for Christmas, and I know it will make you smile anyway!" Yamada beamed with a wide grin, and stood up. He reached to grab Daiki's hand into his, and pulled him out from the café before Daiki could even think about protesting.
The Christmas Eve was only a week away. Snow had finally fallen only a few days ago, covering all of the rooftops, streets, football fields and parks under the beautiful white snow. Even though the sky was bright and a little blue, everyone seemed to be hoping that the rain wouldn't come before spring and melt all the pretty snow away; that was always a risk, and kids were taking all the fun out of it now that there was snow.
Even Daiki was wishing the snow wouldn't melt. He had pointed out, though, that the autumn had been much colder than before, which would end in giving them a cold Christmas full of snow. But he couldn't help the bit of worry that clouded his mind every time he noticed even the lightest color of grey on any cloud. He wanted there to be snow, it was the secret behind his and Yamada's meeting after all. Though he wasn't quite sure if Yamada even could care less if there was snow or not, as he usually just made sure his clothes and hair would look good in the weather.
There was times when Daiki noticed Yamada looking up to the sky with a bit worried face, and for a couple of times he had caught him checking the forecast more than twice during the day; so unlike him. But he still couldn't make out if he only did it just so he could pick the right kind of clothes for the next day or what.
Yamada was pretty good when it came to lying, but when it was lying to Daiki, he never made it. Daiki could always tell when Yamada was lying. But when he had asked why Yamada checked the forecast so often, all he got was a shrug and the change of the subject. Daiki couldn't really tell what it was about.
"So, what do you want for christmas?" Daiki asked when the two of them stepped out to the cold winter air from the warmth of a café. Yamada licked on his strawberry ice cream happily, and Daiki still wondered how he could eat ice cream during winter.
"I don't want anything," the shorter boy replied, his attention still on the icy object in his bare hand, his warm, dark eyes looking like they could melt it.
"Well, what do you need?" Daiki tried again as he adjusted his scarf higher up to his chin and stuffed his hands deep into the depths of his blue-and-black plaid jacket's pockets. This time Yamada looked at him and laughed lightly.
"I don't need anything either," he said and went back to his ice cream, and paused walking. They stood in the middle of a crowded street, where people paced around with lots and lots of different sized bags. Daiki turned to look at the other boy with a slight pout on his face, and Yamada's face became thoughtful as he stared at his pale red ice cream.
"I don't want you to spend money on something you're going to give me. It'll make my... present seem like something you bought with money..." the brown haired boy muttered and seemed to trail off in the end. Daiki silently watched him stare down at his strawberry ice cream. Yamada's words made him a little suspicious; he had a side like this after all?
"And no... don't give me anything you've gotten for free either," Yamada added and grinned up at Daiki, before looking back down to the object in his hand in hesitation. "Damn it's cold..."
"I told you not to eat ice cream during winter," Daiki reminded him and grabbed the cold object from Yamada's hand, only to dump it to the nearest trash bin. Even though he was freezing, Yamada pouted after his beloved ice cream as he desperately rubbed his palms against each other. Daiki shook his head a bit disapprovingly and grabbed each of Yamada's freezing hands into his warm ones, holding them tightly. He could feel his own cheeks start to burn from this action, and he could swear he noticed a small pink on Yamada's cheeks as well; if it was because of the cold air or if he was blushing... He'd never know.
"This is why you should cover your hands in cold weather," Daiki mumbled, sounding a bit mother-like, and pulled the other boy closer to him.
Daiki didn't really know what to expect when Yamada appeared to the Arioka-household doorstep early in the Christmas Eve. Wasn't Christmas supposed to be spent with your family or something? The time was about 11 o'clock with Daiki gotten up from bed barely half an hour earlier.
"Hey, Dai-chan!" Yamada greeted ever so happily with the widest grin. Daiki stood in the doorway and raised an eyebrow. Dai-chan? Since when had Yamada called him Dai-chan? "It looks like you've just woken up... Your hair is a mess."
Sleepily, the taller boy scratched the back of his head and let Yamada in; his legs were starting to freeze from standing in the doorway.
"Good morning, Auntie~!" Yamada greeted Daiki's mother, who happened to walk by with a wide smile. "I plan to kidnap your son on this lovely morning. I hope you don't mind.”
Daiki laughed warily and quietly made his way upstairs to have a shower; if Yamada arrived this suddenly, and this early, it had to mean they were going somewhere important. He glanced back at Yamada who was talking merrily the Arioka household.
I wonder where he’s taking me?
"Where are we going now?" Daiki asked when he dragged his feet after Yamada, who seemed to be in a really good mood. The shorter boy glanced over his shoulder with a grin and said, "You'll see."
They had been walking around the town for hours now, with Daiki just following Yamada around; he still wasn't very amused that he had to go out so early, but he believed it was already past noon, somewhere around 2 PM.
The winter air was fresh and cold, turning the boys' nosetips a light shade of pink. There were barely anyone out there in the cold, only a few people probably walking home from the last minute present shopping.
Daiki didn't even feel like it being Christmas Eve. It felt just like another snowy day in the middle of another snowy days, and somehow he started missing the time before his father died. When he was a kid, he could've barely waited for Christmas and always made about ten meters long wish lists. Now he just went passively through the day like any other day. He never even asked anything from anyone anymore.
"Let's sit here," Yamada suddenly broke the silence between them, pulling Daiki out from his daze. The brown haired boy cleaned a wooden bench from the snow and sat down to it, pulling Daiki down as well by his arm. Daiki then realized where they were. It was the exact same park with the frozen lake where he used to come with his father, and... where the two of them met for the first time. Daiki hadn't came around more than about once or twice in these past four years.
Yamada looked at him with that happy smile still on his face. "You remember it right? Four years ago," he said when he turned to look at the clear frozen water.
Of course Daiki remembered, how could he not? There was no way he could forget about how he met the most beautiful person he had ever seen.
Daiki sat still on the bench with his eyes resting on the pretty view of the frozen lake with snow covering the trees and the ground, while Yamada stood up. He wondered why he hadn't been here during these years, as it was a really pretty place.
He watched when a pretty girl walked past the bench with a small grey dog by her side. The girl noticed him looking, and smiled shyly when she continued on her way. Daiki let out a deep sigh.
"Oi! Don't distract him, you!" came Yamada's voice from somewhere behind him, a bit angry tone in his voice; the girl seemed to start walking faster. Daiki stood up from the bench and turned to look where the other boy was, and so that he could ask why he yelled at people. But the very second he turned his face, something cold and hard hit square into his face. The next thing he heard was Yamada's loud laugh, and it wasn't so hard anymore to guess what it was that just hit his face.
"Ha, got you!" Yamada said victoriously when he walked up to the taller boy.
"..."
With his other hand Daiki wiped the cold snow off his face. His view was blurry, and he frowned when he only saw a hazy image of Yamada standing before him; the rubbing didn't really help either. Did this seem a bit familiar or something?
"Don’t rub it. It would just make it worse. Let me," Yamada said as he took a step closer. He lifted his hands onto Daiki shoulders, tiptoed a little and pressed his lips against Daiki's for a brief two seconds.
"Merry Christmas, Daiki.”