Prequel of Baking Cookies For Everyone But You. Hope you enjoy and merry early Christmas!

"Aargh!" Sakuma shouted in frustration as he exited the 36th shop of the day. Today was the day before Christmas, and he was almost out of time. He was trying to find a gift for a special someone, but having no luck at all. So far in the past week, he had hit 175 shops already. Those shops ranged from candy, flowers, clothes, jewelry, technology gadgets, books, hair accessories, and Christmas trinkets.

Yes, you guessed it. Sakuma had no idea what to give a girl at all. And yet he still insists that it must be the perfect gift.

He had even considered asking Genda, who had a long history of past relationships but always seemed available whenever he met him. But Sakuma decided not to because not even one of those girls lasted him six months, so how much of an expert on girls' feelings was Genda?

Who he wanted to ask was Kidou, genius playmaker. Kidou always knew how to solve every problem. But the only thing preventing him from doing just so was well, the person he was going to give the present to was Otonashi Haruna, manager of Raimon and Kidou's sister.

He had always felt protective around her. Kidou had trusted him with Haruna when he gave her a duplicate of Haruna's house key after Desuta captured her, so Sakuma always had the feeling that he needed to protect her. But the more he got to know her, the more he fell in love with her.

Haruna always made him happy. From the way she smiles and laugh to the way she talks, Haruna always radiated innocence and purity. And that was the exact same reason why Kidou did not let any boys who made a move on her stay on this world without a glimpse of death.

In other words, if Sakuma asked Kidou what present a girl would like, Kidou would ask who it was for. Then the truth that it was for his sister would come out and Kidou would no longer leave his trust with Sakuma. Heck, Kidou might even put him in a "Death Zone". That was the students of Teikoku Gakuen's slang for "the target that Kidou would torture and show hell to for a week".

Walking along on the streets, Sakuma saw a familiar head stand out from the rest. It was almost completely bald, the only tuff of hair being a mohawk with white highlights resembling a skunk. Before he could duck out of the way, the other boy also saw him.

Walking over with a smirk, he said, "Well, well, what do we have here. Looking for wild penguins in the snow?"

"Fudou," the cyan haired teen seethed, venom dripping from his voice. He still hadn't completely forgiven Fudou, and the half bald just had to show up at the worst time possible.

"No need to get angry," the other boy said, "What are you doing here anyway? Penguins live in the south pole."

"Do you have to say something insulting at the end of everything?" Sakuma asked, rolling his single eye not covered by the eyepatch.

"Stating that penguins live in the south pole is just fact. But like I asked, what are you doing here?"

Sakuma didn't respond. After studying his expression, Fudou asked, "You're looking for a present for someone special, eh?"

Sakuma's eyes, or in his case, eye, widened at the green eyed boy's remark. How did he know? As if able to read his mind, Fudou continued, "I can see it on your face. Plus what idiot does gift shopping on the last day?"

Anger flickered in Sakuma. "You're gift shopping on the last day too, am I right?"

Fudou's confident expression faltered. Then he quickly regained composure and replied, "At least I already bought a present. Judging on how you're looking right now, you still haven't got one right?"

Fudou expected the other boy to give some snarky remark, but instead, Sakuma just sighed, "Yeah..."

"Well, to give a clueless someone like you some advice, girl's like jewelry and cute tiny things," Fudou said as he walked away with a wave.

Sakuma blinked. This was Fudou. Giving advice. And sounding almost like he cared. Was this really was the Fudou he knew, the one who being mean came like second nature? Ack, no time to worry about that. It was almost past the time that Haruna was going to be home alone. Earlier, Aki had told him that she and Natsumi were going to be gone for 45 minutes. It was already 5 minutes into the time since Aki and Natsumi had left to give him the perfect chance. He still needed to get the gift wrapped and then run to the Otonashi house, which will take about 10 minutes on its own. And on top of that, he still hadn't found the perfect present yet.

When he turned his head and looked into a Tiffany shop, he suddenly got it. The perfect gift.

Entering the shop, he bought a small empty gift box (and earning a strange look from the owner). After that, he rushed to a trinket shop to get a music box. Then he ran home as fast as he could to make the pefect gift.

Hehe. Haruna knows who Aki likes and refuses to tell Aki who she likes herself but the green haired manager found out anyway~