Adachi to Shimamura - Volume 2 - Chapter 5.1

Chapter 5 Christmas Ongoing: Shimamura’s Thoughts

I sat in my seat and stared as Adachi rushed out of the classroom the second the lunch break began, leaving her books scattered on her desk. Was everything really okay with her? The way she walked really gave the impression that she didn't have a destination in mind. Did it have something to do with our Christmas plans? There was a chance. While I had thought about chasing after her, that possibility caused me to reconsider, and I ultimately decided against it. 
Adachi had been acting like that ever since she came over to my place and we agreed to go somewhere on Christmas. It was almost like her mind was too busy celebrating to pay attention to what her body was doing. There were times when she'd randomly start grinning, sometimes in the middle of class. There really was only one word to describe how it looked from an outside perspective: Strange. 
Perhaps the delinquent Adachi—the one with a blank expression and a cold tone—had fled somewhere with the arrival of winter. Then again, I had to wonder if the mental image I used to have of her had in any way been based in reality. Trust me, I knew how that felt. Far too often people wrongly assumed that I exclusively got my clothes from Shimamura—the store. 
Based on the fact that she still hadn't returned, I could assume that Adachi had gone either to the canteen or the cafeteria. I was just thinking about what I should do myself when a rare sight caught my attention: Nagafuji, standing by herself. In most cases, Hino was with her, but nope, not this time. Not to say that those two were glued together or anything, because they certainly weren't. Readjusting her glasses, Nagafuji turned my way. Looking at her this way, I noticed that she was quite tall as well. I felt a little jealous. 
"Have you happened to have seen Hino?" 
"If you don't know where she is, then there's no way that I do." 
"Yes, that's true", Nagafuji affirmed. Though I had meant my sentence as a joke, Nagafuji's tone made it sound like she'd taken it completely seriously. Well, not that she was wrong; I rarely spent time with her and Hino, and even when I did, it was seldom for all that long. 
"I needed to wipe my glasses, and by the time I put them back on, I'd lost sight of her." 
It was really difficult for me to judge whether that was supposed to be a joke or not. That's how it always was with Nagafuji; trying to analyse her statements consistently led to mental fatigue. Hino was pretty much the same. Perhaps friendship was something that took priority over the feelings of the majority. 
"Did you bring lunch today?" 
"Nope. Thought I'd go to the cafeteria." 
"Well, maybe that's where Hino went then." 
"Ooh", Nagafuji exclaimed in awe and clapped her hands. To be fair, there weren't that many places for a student to go during lunch break. Even Nagafuji should've been able to reach that conclusion if she'd taken a moment to think about it. Was there really nothing going on in her head? Her glasses seemed pretty useless if that was the case. On the other hand, she had gotten pretty good grades on the exams. I wondered, how did that work? 
"Are you going too, Shimamura?" 
"No, I'm leaning more towards the canteen today. Anyway, we can walk some of the way together." 
I took out my wallet out my bag and exited the classroom alongside Nagafuji. It was quite rare for us to be walking side by side. 
Whereas the difference in height between us caused me to naturally tilt my head slightly upwards, Nagafuji's head barely moved. Her eyes were also pointing straight ahead, so much so that I couldn't help but grow a little worried. If she tried walking like this outside, she'd probably get run over by a car, wouldn't she? Well, I suppose that it wasn't really a problem considering that Hino was always with her. Come to think of it, what was that club she supposedly attended? I couldn't really imagine Nagafuji communicating smoothly with anyone other than Hino, even if the two us did manage to reach mutual understanding on things surprisingly often. 
...Oh, right. Maybe I should try asking Nagafuji? In a way, I felt that she'd answer me more honestly than Hino would. 
"Will you be doing something on Christmas?" 
As it seemed a little unfair to leave everything to Adachi, I'd decided to come up with some things for us to do myself. 
That was why I had asked Nagafuji; I'd thought that maybe I could use her as a reference. Speaking of whom, her eyes had now turned towards me. 
"I'm going to eat chicken curry." 
That really wasn't the answer I'd been expecting. Not even close. 
"Hmm, is that so?" 
Could we go to a curry place? Or make curry together, perhaps? No, wait. That felt wrong. 
"Anything else? Like, for example, are you and Hino goi—Wait, no. You would've said so if you were." 
I quickly brushed off my question. Why had I even asked her that? Did going somewhere with Adachi really bother me so much that I needed to feel validated by someone else holding a similar custom? 
"Hino?" Nagafuji stared at me, blinking in surprise. "What about her?" 
"It's nothing. Just forget about it." 
"Oh, really? Hino... Hmm... Hino, Hino..." 
Paying absolutely no attention to what I was saying, Nagafuji began pondering about something by herself. What that something was, I had no idea, other than that it had to do with Hino. Her arms were folded, and her head rested tilted slightly to the side. 
"It kinda feels like Hino's always at our house." 
"Sure, okay." 
"Speaking of her, I think we used to exchange Christmas presents when we were little", she suddenly added to her answer. Turns out, Nagafuji also had a strange side to her. 
"Presents? Hmm, I see." 
That might not be a bad idea. Giving her a present myself, that was; exchanging them would require coordinating the whole thing with her beforehand, which—given how Adachi was acting at the moment—wasn't something that I really felt like doing. The gift I'd give her could act as a topic of conversation, and possibly liven up the mood a little. That was my goal. 
I was quickly faced with another problem, however: What did Adachi want? What did she like? 
It would've been simple to just ask her, but that kinda felt boring. 
Plus, though it seemed extremely unlikely that she'd do so, it would be pretty awkward if she were to say that she wanted an expensive pair of shoes or something. 
With thoughts like those filling my head, I walked down the stairs and through the hallway before finding myself in front of the school canteen. A small sales area had been set up in the corner of the building, all run by a single old lady. The walls inside were painted white, though the lights did cause them to appear slightly yellow. It was the colour of the crates they used to bring in the bread for school meals. 
The line here wasn't nearly as long as the one at the cafeteria. After waiting a few moments for the handful of customers who'd come before me to finish their purchases, I was able to take my time choosing what I'd buy. 
"Oh? They sell these here?" Nagafuji asked while staring curiously at the list of items that were for sale. 
"You've never bought them before?" 
"I don't think I've ever been here before. I usually bring lunch from home, and when I don't, I go to the cafeteria." 
"I see." 
Personally, I came here quite regularly. It had also been like that during my days of skipping class on the second floor of the gym; this had always been my preferred place to come buy lunch. Believe it or not, I'd actually become acquainted with the lady who ran the store thanks to that. She'd greet me with a smile, and I'd bow my head. 
Anyway, after thinking about it for a while, I ended up randomly picking something from the sweet pastry section. 
Speaking of which... 
"I'm not trying to criticize you, Nagafuji, but..." 
"Yeah?" 
"Why are you buying pastries?" 
I pointed at Nagafuji—now holding up the bag she'd been handed by the store lady with a carton of milk, an anpan roll, and an egg sandwich inside it. 
It seemed that she'd completely forgotten about her plans to go to the cafeteria. Her eyes moved towards the bottom of the bag. 
"Right, that's how it was." 
She shook the bag, and the items inside shook with it. 
"Also, it's pretty strange that you'd come here with me in the first place." 
"You should've told me." 
That really was the kind of thing I wanted her to realise by herself without someone else having to tell her. Although, I suppose that might have been too much to ask of Nagafuji. 
"Well then, gotta go", she stated before turning around and setting off towards the cafeteria. I quickly called to her. 
"Hey, umm. If you're free after school, would you mind going shopping with me?" 
This seemed as good of an opportunity as any to invite her. Mere seconds after my question had reached her ears, Nagafuji nodded. 
"Sure, I don't mind. What are you buying, though? Something delicious?" 
Had she accepted my invitation under the assumption that she'd get to eat something? I wasn't against buying Adachi food as a gift, although I did wonder, did she have a favourite? 
"I need to buy a Christmas present, but since I don't really know much about that stuff, I thought I'd ask you." 
Seeing how Nagafuji had a history of exchanging gifts with Hino, she might be able to help me pick a good present for Adachi. Personality-wise, she also seemed like the kind of person who could simply walk in and pick something without thinking too hard about it. 
A part of me was afraid that, if I were to try choosing the present by myself, I wouldn't be able to decide in time for Christmas. 
"Who is the present for? ...For me!?" 
You could tell that she was overjoyed from the way she pointed towards herself. 
"No, not for you", I stated bluntly, crushing her dreams. "It's for A—for my little sister." 
I decided to lie at the last second. It felt like Nagafuji might get the wrong idea if I told her that it was for Adachi, and I didn't really need that right now. 
"Hm?" She tilted her head. "You have a little sister, Shimamura?" 
"Yep, I do. A small one." 
I also have another one that's taller than me. I decided not to say that part. 
"Hino's small too." 
"Huh? Yeah, she is." 
Nagafuji nodded to herself, seeming satisfied. I kinda wanted to ask her if there was a point to her saying that. 
"Anyway, see you after school." 
With that, I parted ways with her and returned to the classroom. 
I found myself thinking about that expression, "little sister", on my way there. Hmm... Adachi, a little sister. I wasn't really sure how to feel about it. 
She had called me "Big Sis", so I suppose there was that. 
Really, the only discrepancy that remained was her being taller than me rather than shorter. So, no problems? Maybe. 

Thinking about it, this might have actually been the first time I spent time with Nagafuji without Hino being there. I'd done it with Hino before, like that time we went fishing together, but never the other way around. Turns out, between needing to participate in club activities and having to tend their family store, she lived quite a busy life. 
"You're so busy that by the time school ended, you'd forgotten that you'd agreed to go shopping with me?" 
"No, it's because I forgot to write it on my palm", Nagafuji said while shaking her hand in the air with a blank expression on her face. Oh, I should explain—I had caught her about to leave school without me. 
We eventually made our way to the mall's parking lot. Really, it was at times like these that I found myself missing Adachi's bike. Maybe I should save up some money and buy a cheap one for myself? 
"Nagafuji, you've never considered learning how to ride a bike?" 
"No need to. Hino has one." 
"I see." 
I suppose that made sense. 
We walked past the smoking area and entered the building. I suggested that we walk a lap around the mall as we thought about what to get, followed by a quick glance to make sure that Nagafuji still remembered what we were here to buy. 
"I know that it's late to be asking this, but Hino didn't come along? I thought that she might." 
"She said that she had something else. Or wait, was I the one who said that to her?" Nagafuji pondered to herself while tilting her head. She reacted the same way whenever I asked her something, and I kinda got the feeling that my questions always gave her a hard time. Anyhow, it seemed that she'd remembered our plans well enough to talk about them to Hino. I wonder, what had ultimately led to her forgetting? It was pretty interesting to think about. 
We walked past the wine store by the entrance without as much as looking at it, but the bread shop that came after it, that one caught Nagafuji's attention. It was pretty ominous, the way she continued walking forwards with her head turned towards it. 
"Wouldn't pastries do?" 
"No, they would not." 
I pushed Nagafuji's shoulders to make her walk faster. I needed to get her eyes off the sweet potato buns. 
I was reminded of the last time I'd gone there as we walked past the tea shop next. Hino had been with me, and so had Nagafuji. Though I'd been told that there were heavy drinkers in her family, the sheer amount of tea Hino had ended up walking away with still managed to shock me. And it wasn't just the volume; all added up, the total price went well beyond 10000 yen. 
With thoughts like those appearing in my head and then fading away, we made our way towards the aisle. There, I saw a Christmas tree. Its colourful decorations were bombastic and oozed with splendour, and looking at them, I could feel myself getting nostalgic. Whenever I'd seen one as a child, I'd always wanted to climb up it. Yes, I'd loved the heights back then. 
Everything looked different from up there, and I'd often found myself searching for such places. Perhaps I'd been yearning for a way to reach a new world, a world different from the one I lived in? Thinking back to what an adventurous child I had been, it really felt like I was observing a resident of some distant world. I wonder, would the old me have viewed the current me the same way? 
It'd been so long that I couldn't remember anymore, but my journey to this distant world likely hadn't been without its fair share of painful experiences. 
If it had been the current me doing that, then... I probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere. 
"Now then, have you come up with somewhere we should go?" I asked Nagafuji. It felt pretty pointless just walking around randomly without a destination. 
"Hmm, let's see", Nagafuji mumbled before glancing over at the nearby store windows. The way she spun her head was quite exaggerated. "Maybe she wants a boomerang?" 
"Huh?" 
What kind of a suggestion was that? Had she suddenly awakened as a hunter? Also, where had she seen one of those? 
It was all electronics and phone stores around us. 
"Kids love those things, I think. Although, I guess it might snap in half if you start throwing it around during the winter." 
"Oh, right... Yeah." 
She'd meant it as a present for my little sister. In that case, it might not have been a bad choice. Still, was it really a suitable present for Adachi? Who knows, maybe she'd develop a hobby out of throwing it at birds. 
"I think we should aim for something a bit more on the practical side. My sister is very mature for her age, you see." 
"Practical, huh?" 
Was that a word in Nagafuji's lexicon? The fact that she'd randomly suggested a boomerang made me think not. 
"What about buying a dozen or so croquettes from our store?" 
"Oh, wow. You're quite the salesman, aren't you?" 
While croquettes definitely scored full points as far as practicality was concerned, they'd be cold by the time I got home. Wait, was that really the most relevant problem here? 
"Hmm..." Nagafuji mumbled as she scratched her head and began walking forwards. I quickly followed after her. It was starting to become clear to me that I might have chosen the wrong person to ask for help. Still walking, her eyes turned to the right. They were selling kitchen knives and cutting boards there, including a board shaped like a fish. Nagafuji stared at it, hard. 
"Maybe a fishing rod?" 
"I think that's more something that Hino would like", I stated, rejecting her suggestion. She'd really said that just because the cutting board made her think of fishing, hadn't she? 
Next, Nagafuji's eyes turned to the left. The sweets store there immediately caught her attention. 
"What about a box of roly-poly cakes?" 
"Those are more New Year's than they are Christmas, I think." 
"Yeah, they are." 
Nagafuji continued walking forward. She didn't commit at all to her suggestions, huh? The two stores that appeared next were a cleaning shop and a foot therapy place (that for some reason had a picture of a bear painted outside it). Nagafuji's eyes turned towards the former. 
"What about a washing machine?" 
Wait a second. 
"You're just naming random stuff that catches your attention, aren't you?" 
"Yeah?" 
She didn't even try to hide it. Instead, she pointed at her glasses, almost as if to say that I could trust her eyesight. 
"Like they say, even the crappiest shooter will hit the target with enough shots. If I keep naming stuff, we should land on something good eventually. It's like, brainstorming. You throw all your ideas into a pile and then pick out the good ones. That's kinda what I'm trying to do." 
Her long-winded explanation really drove the point home. Still, even though this was a lot coming from Nagafuji, and I did appreciate that, the fact remained that she was missing a core step: You were meant to actually think about the ideas after you'd thrown them out there, and I just couldn't imagine her doing that. 
Call it a sneaking suspicion, but I was convinced that the moment a new idea popped into her head, she forgot all about the last one. 
She was like a character from a comedy show. 
"You said that you used to exchange presents with Hino, right? What were those like?" 
Maybe that was the one question that I'd needed to ask her all this time? 
"I gave her a sales license." 
"..." 
A license to sell what? A license that applied where? 
It was the kind of present that came with a whole pile of questions. Asking them all one by one seemed pretty tiresome, though, and I decided not to. 
"And Hino gave you?" 
"People's Honour Award." 
"Umm... How old were you when you did this again?" 
"Seniors." 
Why had I even bothered to ask? The relationship between those two went way over my head. 
We continued going from store to store, with Nagafuji listing out random items as she saw them. Then, when I thought that we had gone through pretty much the entire first floor, I found myself standing in front of a store called "ZiZé". It was a fashion store, with all sorts of clothes, shoes, and other such items placed in the window. I considered walking in, but after thinking about it for a moment, decided not to. It felt like too much. Christmas presents were ultimately just gifts for a friend, meaning that they needed to be something that could be received without hesitation. That's what I thought. 
I conveyed that opinion to Nagafuji, and she nodded back to me. There probably wasn't any particular meaning to it. 
Anyway, we'd looked around again, meaning that it was about time that... 
"A boomerang might be the answer after all." 
There it was. 
"Back to that, huh?" 
She always went back to the boomerang. If this was a joke, I wasn't laughing. 
"Boomerang, boomerang", Nagafuji began singing while turning her hand as if throwing one. 
"I'm starting to feel like you'd like to have one of those." 
"That's also true", she stated before tapping her large chest. Whether she was proud or sarcastic, I couldn't tell. "You can trust me. I'm the kind of person who understands kids." 
"I kinda doubt kids can understand you, though." 
"I always eat my curry mild. That's a kid thing, right?" 
"I think you meant to say, that's the only kind of curry you can eat." 
"Boo—mer—ang!" 
My remark had gone unnoticed. Nagafuji continued moving her arms around, and was now even twisting her hips. Her expressionless face really felt out of place. 
"If you went with a boomerang, it'd also let you and your little sister play together." 
"Yeah, I suppose." 
I went ahead and imagined myself throwing a boomerang with Adachi at the park. Hmm... 
There we'd be, silently tossing it back and forth. It seemed surprisingly fun, honestly. 
"You could go to the park to toss and catch it." 
"Are you sure you're not thinking of a frisbee?" 
"Maybe. Anyway, why don't we go test it out? I'll buy one and let you play with it. Then you'll know." 
"When did you switch careers from selling meat into selling boomerangs?" 
With a delighted look on her face, Nagafuji grabbed my hand and guided me to the escalator. I decided to just let it happen. 
While I did have my doubts regarding whether or not that was the kind of thing that was sold anywhere, as it turned out, there were some on sale in the sports store that Nagafuji ended up dragging me to up on the third floor. The way she picked one to buy without any hesitation caused me to think that she'd already been eyeing them. 
The boomerang was shaped like the letter V, exactly what I had imagined when I'd heard the name. It was yellow, and made of plastic. Anyway, while in the store, I could feel the man behind the counter staring at us suspiciously; I suppose it was quite strange for two high school girls to walk in and then buy just a boomerang. 
Then again, in forty—or maybe even sixty—percent of cases, those sorts of stares were aimed towards Nagafuji's chest. 
Despite her general appearance giving off the impression that she was quite the simple person, the frown that always formed on her face seemed to imply that even Nagafuji was sensitive to those stares, at least to some extent. I could definitely sympathize with her: Being well off came with its own set of problems. A set of problems I was planning to tackle in the future, mind you! Anyway, while I was busy trying to show off for no reason, Nagafuji finished paying and received the boomerang from the man. At last, she'd obtained it. We exited the store, and she immediately pulled the boomerang out of the bag. 
Were we really going to be walking around the mall with her holding it in her hand? Hmm... 
"Now, let's go test it out right away." 
"I kinda feel like I already have enough to make a decision... Hey!" 
Completely ignoring my excuses, Nagafuji grabbed my arm and pulled me. Though I did fight back initially, seeing how happy she looked swinging the boomerang around, I eventually gave up. Sometimes, you couldn't go against the flow. That was how this world worked. Still, it was quite impressive for Nagafuji to be able to single-handedly create such a flow. 
We exited the mall, walked through the parking lot, and soon found ourselves at a nearby fountain plaza behind a gyuudon place. The fountain was still spraying out water despite it being winter, which might have been the reason why there weren't any children around. Regardless, this was a pretty good place for throwing the boomerang around; there were hardly any trees, just some random statues. Had there been a lot of trees, the only outcome I could imagine resulting from that was the boomerang flying into one and either getting stuck or breaking. 
Nagafuji handed her bag to me and got ready to throw the boomerang. Holding it vertically instead of horizontally, she brought it back, its tip almost touching her wrist. She then tossed it into the distance. 
The boomerang flew effortlessly all the way to the centre of the plaza. The path it took was perfectly smooth, almost as if it was gliding upwind. There was no roughness to it, no sudden turns or twists. After soaring through the air for a while, the boomerang eventually reached its limit. It then turned around and—having at some point flipped to be aligned horizontally—began making its way back, like a loyal companion of some kind. 
My eyes were overwhelmed, and so were my ears. 
I could hear the flying object whizzing louder and louder as it slowly approached us. 
I was left amazed. The boomerang had been completely silent when it left Nagafuji's hand, but on the way back, not so much. Whiz, whiz, whiz, was the sound its blades made as it rapidly approached us, drawing a beautiful curve behind it. 
Almost as if responding to the sound, Nagafuji crouched down and stuck out both of her arms. She then proceeded to catch the boomerang by clapping her hands around it, almost like how you'd catch a sword. Then, as if nothing had happened, she stood up and stroked it. 
"Good. It's the kind that comes back." 
"Aren't they all like that?" 
"There are some badly made ones too. Here you go." 
I handed her the bag, and she gave me the boomerang. I stared at it. There it was; a single boomerang, shaped like the letter V. 
I'd gone to buy a Christmas present, and this was that I had walked away with. Why? 
"You shouldn't throw it with all you have since it's your first time. You're not wearing any safety goggles, either." 
"Don't worry. I'm not quite that daring." 
I pulled the boomerang back, imitating the way Nagafuji had held it. Then, complying with her warning, I tossed it weakly. The throw wasn't a failure, however, and the toy flew forwards for a while before turning around and returning. I hadn't had any sort of expectations when I'd tossed it, and so, I found myself paralysed as I stared at it speeding back towards me. I ended up instinctively ducking down and covering my head with my hands out of the fear that I might get hit. As a result, the boomerang swooshed right past me, ultimately reaching the corner of the park before landing. I ran to it, picked it up, brushed the sand off it, and tossed it again. This time, with the expectation that it would fly. 

While its trajectory was undeniably less sharp than when Nagafuji had thrown it, the boomerang still travelled quite the distance. The way it returned—giving the illusion of it stopping completely and switching the direction it rotated—plus the sound it made, merged with my own heartbeat. 
I stuck my hands out this time in order to catch it, but unfortunately, to no avail; the boomerang simply bounced off my fingers and fell to the ground. 
It seemed that, just like with throwing it, catching it also required practice. 
"This might actually be pretty fun." 
That was how I honestly felt after seeing it return to me. Still, as I was a little bummed about not having been able to catch it, I decided to try one more time. This time, I threw it even slower than I had previously, almost as if I was making it swim through the air. I'd also aimed slightly upwards, which might have been in part why—much to my surprise—it didn't end up flying all that far. 
In the end, the boomerang lacked the speed necessary to make it back to me, and instead, landed on the ground before me. Turns out, it mattered a great deal what angle you threw it at. 
Really, this was fun. 
"So, what do you think?" Nagafuji suddenly asked me, her hands resting on my shoulders. When had she gotten there? 
"I thought that it might suck, but it really doesn't." 
"Hooray!" she yelled monotonously while simultaneously hugging me. I quickly tore her off me. 
Still, a boomerang, huh? Unlike a food gift that would be gone after she ate it, a toy such as this one allowed her to play with it whenever she felt like it, giving it value in a practical sense. Wait, no. That didn't sound right. 
I felt like I was both being tricked and making a mistake at the same time. 
The sky had cleared up, and as a result, I could see that the sun was now starting to set. Its rays painted the distant horizon orange. It had been a while since the last time I'd come face to face with this kind of a scene, even though it was one that I'd often viewed with my friends when I'd been younger. Each time the boomerang blended into the sky and then returned, it was like regaining a lost memory. 
Nostalgia pressing against my back, I gripped the boomerang. 
I then released it towards the sky, as if I was myself soaring through the air. 

I showed the boomerang I'd bought to my little sister after returning home. 
"What do you think?" 
"What's that?" 
Instead of an answer, I was met with another question. This was hopeless. 
"Yeah, I wonder. What is it?" I asked before making the sound of a timer running out with my mouth. My sister placed her hand against her chin and thought about it hard. She examined the boomerang from all angles, until at last slamming the imaginary answer button in front of her. 
"I know. It's a hanger that's missing the top part!" 
That was her final answer. Just a little bit off. 

After all that, it was finally time. Christmas was here. 
I'd never seen snow falling on the 25th of December. I stared at the sky, at the weather that didn't at all match the occasion. Certain dates being special really was just something humans had made up, wasn't it? 
Regardless, there was no way that I was going to let the weather get the better of me. Though it did come with its fair share of problems, today, I would be one of the people throwing themselves into that flow, that whirlpool. It was just before noon when I finished my preparations, fixed my hair one last time, and headed to the kitchen to let Mom know that I was leaving. Conveniently, my sister also happened to be there, eating lunch. 
"I'm going out for a bit." 
"Sure. With your boyfriend?" 
"I keep telling you, I don't have one", I refuted, shaking my hand sideways as emphasis. Just how many times was she going to ask me that? 
"What, what?" my sister swung her head back and forth, demanding an explanation. She looked at me, then Mom, all the while busy munching her food. 
"I'm going out with a friend for a bit." 
"Whaaat?" 
The look on her face made it clear that she wasn't satisfied. She sprung up from her chair and marched next to me. 
"You're still going to be eating dinner at home, right?" 
I answered Mom with a small nod. 
"I intend to. I'll text you if I happen to change plans, but it most likely won't happen." 
"Hey, tell me. Where are you going? Tell me!" 
It was my little sister who spoke this time. Her question was followed by a series of kicks aimed towards my legs. Outside the house, she always behaved like a good girl, but when dealing with me, she was ruthless. I smacked her forehead before looking down, and saw that she was puffing her cheeks. Her lips were also pouted. 
"Oh, you want me to tell you?" I asked in a smarmy way, mimicking her words. 
"Tell me! Tell me now!" she yelled while swinging her hands above her head, almost like she was waving away a cloud of mist or something. Continuing to ignore her demands, I pushed my arms under hers and lifted her up high in the air. She'd gotten quite heavy, hadn't she? Her kicking and struggling probably also played a part in it feeling that way. 
"You haven't lost all of your cuteness yet, huh?" 
"Let me down!" 
Her short legs frantically kicked back and forth, unable to find the floor. It was there that I noticed that she wasn't wearing socks. It took quite a bit of mental fortitude to go barefoot during the winter. What a strong kid she was. 
Now then, I had things to do. 
"I'll be back before dinner, so don't eat the cake without me, okay?" 
The way I treated her like a child after letting her down caused her to stick her tongue out at me. Treating her like a child? She was a child. I patted the head of my pouting sister once before heading towards the front door. Turns out, despite acting like a brat a lot of the time, she hadn't yet stopped adoring me. It felt pretty nice knowing that. Still, I had to wonder, would the same be true in three years' time? What about four? 
Regardless, it really helped having something to cheer me up right now, because going outside while it was this cold was almost certainly going to have the opposite effect. It was like having a pocket heater in my heart, protecting me from the cold and its tendency to get me down. I found myself sighing instinctively as I took my shoes and put them on. 
In the end, I hadn't managed to come up with anything for me and Adachi to do. What waited me from here on was completely up in the air. 
Had Adachi thought up anything? Or had she thought about it too much and ended up with something weird? 
Out of those two, I had to say that I was more worried about the latter. 
"Anyway..." 
I was going to be eating dinner at home. As such, if we were going for lunch, fried chicken would be a pass from me. That might not have been a lot to go by, but it was all I had as I left the house. For everything else, we'd have to see how it turned out. 
Now then, Christmas. Christmas...