Chapter 4

Saturday, December 14

The morning sun shown through the curtains that hung in Mei's bedroom. As was usual on a Saturday Mei slept in a bit longer, despite having worked an extra two hours at the Bakery Farm followed by some extra exam studying the evening before. The light managed to find a break in the curtains and a sunbeam crossed her eyes. Her brain adjusted to this and started to respond, waking her up in the process.

She rolled over to get the sun out of her eyes and lay in bed for a bit longer, slowly fluttering her eyes open and closed as the rest of her body started to wake up. Finally pushing the grogginess aside, Mei pushed herself into a sitting position and turned to look at her clock. 9:15; she'd slept in longer than she'd thought.

Mei pushed her legs off the bed and forced herself to stand up. She walked over to her dresser, picked out a few pieces of clothing and headed to the bathroom. On her way she quickly checked in her mom's bedroom. She wasn't there and wasn't anywhere else in the apartment so she must have gone out already and wouldn't be back until that afternoon, if not later in the evening.

Moving into the bathroom, Mei got undressed and hopped in the shower. With the warm water waking her up the rest of the way, Mei took her time washing her body. As she lathered her hair with shampoo, she thought about the day ahead. It was the day everyone was going Christmas shopping. She wasn't exactly looking forward to it, especially since she never liked looking forward to Christmas in general. Yet the idea of spending time with her friends managed to outweigh her dislikes, but only just.

The thought of Christmas brought her mind back to her father. She tried to shake the thoughts from her head. She didn't like thinking about it. Yes, she loved her father and missed him terribly, but being reminded of that horrible day three years ago was too much for her.

Don't think about it Mei, she said to herself as she shook her head and pushed her face under the streams of water. She had mentally trained herself to push bad memories aside whenever she started to think about them. She knew spending too much time thinking about bad memories would start to make her become negative on the outside. And she definitely didn't want people picking up on any negative aura coming off of her.

She instead started to think about Yamato as she turned to let the water rinse away the last of the shampoo. She felt bad about not telling him about her father right away; and even more embarrassed that her mother had been the one to say anything. She knew she could trust him beyond a shadow of a doubt; he'd proven it time and again. But this was something that she'd never told anyone up until she talked to Aiko about it earlier that week. And even then it was before Yamato found out, so why was it such a big deal to tell him at all? Was she afraid that he'd look at her differently after she told him?

No, that was stupid. Yamato would never push her away just because of this. But maybe she was afraid of just the opposite. She knew that when dealing with the passing of someone, people often acted differently towards you as a way to compensate. That and it was common courtesy and respect. Yet she had never really had anyone to share her emotional pain with outside of her mother. Yamato was always a loving and caring person, and she had noticed the change in his attitude over the past week. It wasn't a bad thing; it was good that he cared so much about her and wanted to be there for her. But she just felt so exposed.

Her father's death was her one true weak spot. She was afraid of people knowing her weaknesses and taking advantage of them; people had done that in the past. But as she was slowly learning, she had to get over those fears and let people know what was going on. Yes, there was the risk of getting hurt, but if you didn't expose yourself at times, you would never find out who to trust when the time came.

She turned off the water, picked up a towel and began to dry off. "You worry too much, Mei," she finally said. She decided right then and there that today would be different. She decided that she was going to put a good foot forward and have a fun day with her friends and boyfriend.

She got dressed and headed to the kitchen. She looked at the clock and, seeing that it was almost 9:45, decided to find some breakfast. As she rummaged through the fridge trying to find any decent leftovers the doorbell rang. That was weird; people didn't usually come by this early in the morning. She headed over to the intercom and pressed the button. "Who is it?" she asked.

"It's Yamato," came the reply.

Crap, Mei thought. What's he doing here this early? We weren't supposed to meet up until this afternoon. I'm not even ready for anyone to see me, especially like this. She was only wearing a white spaghetti strap tank top without a bra and a pair of short, pink gym shorts, which combined left little to the imagination. "Uhh… j-just a minute," she said before running back to her bedroom for some decent clothes.

She quickly shucked her gym shorts, replacing them with a pair of sweatpants and threw a dark t-shirt over her tank top. A quick spray of perfume and she headed back to the door, quickly smoothing her still damp hair on the way. She took a deep breath before finally opening the door.

She was startled when she heard a girlish "Surprise!" and a young girl with light brown hair jumped up at Mei, nearly making her fall backwards with a sudden hug.

Mei recovered from her start quickly enough to recognize who it was. "Nagi-san! I wasn't expecting to see you!" she said as she returned the hug.

"She wanted to come see you after I told her about what's been going on," Yamato explained. "Also, I couldn't get a hold of you this morning so I came over to make sure you were okay."

Mei suddenly remembered that she hadn't turned her phone on yet. "Yeah, I just woke up. I had a long night at the bakery yesterday."

"Are you all right Mei-san?" the young girl asked. "Big Brother said you weren't feeling good."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Mei said, "Especially now that you're here."

Nagi smiled brightly at the older girl that she looked up to so much. "I brought you something," she said as she took off her backpack. Reaching inside, she retrieved a food container and handed it to Mei.

"What is it?" Mei asked as she opened it up.

"It's that cake that I made the first time we met. I remembered how much you liked it so I made another."

"That's so sweet of you," Mei said with a slight blush. "Thank you." She gave Nagi another hug.

"I'll go put it in the kitchen for you," Nagi said before heading off.

"She was up all night making that," Yamato said with a smile. "I know she puts her heart into everything she makes, but this time she tried extra hard."

"She's a sweetheart," Mei said as she watched Nagi placed the cake in the fridge. As she closed the door, Marshmallow straddled up alongside her and meowed. Mei smiled as Nagi gave the white cat a belly rub. "But I take it that's not the only reason you came here."

"Well like I said I couldn't get a hold of you so I came to check on you."

"I forgot to turn my phone on. I only got out of the shower a few minutes before you got here. I haven't even had breakfast yet."

"Well, you wanna get a bite to eat before we head to the train station?"

"Sure, if you don't mind waiting while I get changed."

"Not at all. And it's my treat too so don't worry."

"Isn't it supposed to be your treat?" Mei said with a smile before heading off to her bedroom. Mei had finally allowed Yamato to front the entire bill whenever they went on a date a few months prior; another step in their relationship. But Mei still teased him about it. Although, the fact that she was the one making the jokes about it managed to surprise her. She guessed she was changing more than she thought.

Today, she opted for a black and white checkered blouse, a tan, thigh-high skirt and black woolen silk pants. She quickly brushed her hair and put on a little bit of lip gloss before heading back out to the living room to put on her brown coat and some black boots.

The three made their way to a restaurant just across the street from the station. Since it was already 10:45 by the time they got there, breakfast was already over and lunch was now being served. Mei got a shrimp rice omelet and some miso soup, while Yamato and Nagi opted for ramen and dumplings. As they ate they chatted about various things, mostly Nagi asking Mei more about her childhood.

"So what did you usually do with your family for Christmas when you were my age?" Nagi asked.

At the sound of that, Yamato stopped eating and immediately made eye contact with Mei. He knew this was a sensitive topic for her and wanted to make sure she was all right talking about it. He gave her that all too familiar look that asked if she was all right with it. Her return look and slight nod was all he needed to see.

"It wasn't anything glamorous," she began. "Most times we would go to my grandparents in the north during the holidays and would spend Christmas and New Years there. They always had a beautiful tree that we decorated and everyone had their own unique ornaments to put on the tree. On Christmas Eve, we would have a huge breakfast and then open presents. The rest of the day I would usually play with my new toys and my parents and grandparents would socialize or we'd all play games as a family.

"My mom and grandmother would always be cooking food throughout the time we were there and we'd usually go to a party with my grandparents some evenings. There was always dancing and great food. Moving into New Years, we would always go to the local temple where there were festivities. My mother, grandmother and I were always dressed in Yukatas and went around enjoying the festive atmosphere. The local temple always had a huge fireworks display right at midnight. That was always my favorite part of New Years; that and getting to spend it with my family."

Mei paused for a moment and a sad smile came to her face as the thoughts of her family brought back the memory of her father. Talking about her childhood brought back many of the memories she had with him. But she reminded herself that she would keep things positive and quickly spoke up before her silence lingered on too long. "Anyways, what about you guys? Does your family have any traditions for Christmas?"

"Not really." Yamato replied. "Most of the time it's just spending time at the house. We'll have a nice dinner and exchange presents, things like that. We'll occasionally have family come over or we'll go see some of our family. Nothing too big."

The conversation shifted as they continued eating. But all the while, the wheels in Yamato's head were turning. He couldn't stop thinking about Mei and her father. He knew there had to be something he could do to help Mei with all this, but what was it?

They finished eating and Yamato paid the bill before the three headed over to the train station. The trip across town didn't take too long and they were soon at the mall. The station was built into the mall complex and it was just a quick walk across the courtyard to the fountain where everyone had agreed to meet up. Asami and Kenji were already there waiting for them.

"We were kind of expecting you guys to come a bit later," Asami said.

"Yeah, well things took a slightly different turn this morning," Yamato replied.

They spent the time chatting and making plans while they waited for everyone else to arrive. Aiko and Masashi showed up ten minutes later with Kai following right after them. He seemed to be looking around anxiously for someone. "Looking for Megumi-chan?" Asami asked him.

"Yeah. We were supposed to meet up here for that date, but I don't see her."

"Maybe she decided to not show up," Kenji said. "She seemed ticked that she lost to you so it would be understandable."

"I don't think she'd be one to break a deal like that," Aiko countered. "She may not like it but she agreed to it; and in front of a large crowd no less. She'll show up."

Kai agreed with her but was still nervous for some reason. In the meantime Asami went over how the day would go. "Since we're all couples here, I was thinking that the guys and girls would go in separate groups first so we can buy our partners gifts. We'll meet up at the food court around 1:30 for lunch and then get back to shopping with our partners for the remainder of the day. We can exchange bags beforehand that way no one can see what we're getting the other person. Sound good?"

Everyone seemed to be in agreement with the plan. However, Nagi whispered something into Yamato's ear. When she was done, he smiled at his sister, nodded and then spoke up. "Nagi wants me to take her to a specific store first. When we're done I'll meet up with the girls so that she can go with them, and then I'll meet up with you guys," he said motioning towards Kenji and Masashi.

"Sounds good," Kenji said. "We'll see you all at lunch." And with that, everyone headed off. Kai on the other hand stayed where he was, waiting for Megumi to arrive as butterflies started to fill his stomach.