Metanoia

by xoavshleyyy

(n.) the journey of changing one's mind, heart, self, or way of life.

23. 2006

Chapter Twenty One.

2006.

Note: For anyone who doesn't know, Christmas Eve is seen as a romantic day in Japan, and on Christmas, eating KFC is very popular.

---

December 23, 2005.

"Oh my God!" Asami's mouth gapes open, "Can you believe Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie might actually be a thing?! Men these days!" she shakes her head, grabbing some popcorn from the bowl beside her, before flipping to the next page.

"It was so obvious," Shoko rolls her eyes while filing her nails, "Didn't they go to Kenya together? Not to mention, you don't just freaking divorce Brad Pitt unless he's cheated on you."

"Hey, don't go blaming Jen," Utahime, who was currently flipping through the DVD folder filled with pirated movies, butts in on their conversation.

Meanwhile, in the background, the Black Eyed Peas play on Asami's pink, Hello-Kitty themed boombox. Tonight, the girls of Jujutsu High were throwing themselves a mini-sleepover party, which included things like gossiping, manicures, karaoke, movie watching, and other stereotypical teenage girl activities.

"I never said I was blaming Jen," Shoko sets her nail filer down, her full attention now on Utahime, "All I'm saying is that the signs point to Brad Pitt cheating. I mean, seriously, have you seen Mr. and Mrs. Smith? Unless those two were method acting, then I really doubt everything we saw on screen was a part of the script," she scoffs, making her friends laugh.

"Shoko may not be blaming Jennifer, but I am," Mei Mei, who had been updating her MySpace profile, suddenly joins in on the conversation, shutting her laptop in the process.

Chuckling at the young girls' confused reactions, Mei Mei shakes her head before explaining the reasoning behind her words, "Not to say it's our job or anything, but I believe that as women, we should always keep a man, not only on his toes, but on a leash," she says with a playful smile forming on her lips, "If he cheated on her, it's because she loosened it," she adds, causing an awkward silence to fill the room.

Feeling her eye twitch, Asami sends Shoko a look that relayed the message of, "Who invited her again?"

Eying Utahime, Shoko gives the red head an apologetic look.

'Oh right…' Asami internally sighs.

You see, it wasn't that Asami didn't like Mei Mei, in fact, they usually got along just fine. But for some reason, as of recently, the young girl found herself getting irked with her "upperclassmen" more often than usual. The reason for this was that….

"But enough about celebrity gossip. Let's talk about more juicier things," the recently promoted grade one sorcerer looks toward Asami's direction, "Such as your new relationship with Satoru. A catch like that has to have some interesting stories to tell, am I right?"

Mei Mei had no problem telling Asami just how … "handsome" … she found Satoru to be, even before the two officially became a thing. Don't get it twisted, Mei Mei was by no means trying to interfere with their relationship. As a matter of fact, the young woman actually quite respected it, in her own weird way.

But Mei Mei was also an open woman, meaning she wasn't going to filter her own thoughts for the sake of someone else's feelings. Especially not when it came to someone she found to be attractive. Those around her were always quick to learn that, unless she was being paid, she was going to say and do what she wanted.

At the end of the day, that's just how she was. No ifs, ands, or buts.

"Come on," Mei Mei pressures the young girl to speak, "A little birdy told me you two couldn't keep your hands off each other this past month," she smirks, wanting to know more details.

Realizing that Mei Mei's statement was quite literal, Asami begins to recall seeing a number of crows around her and Satoru. As a result, her cheeks tinge pink, "T-That's not true," she stutters, quickly denying the accusation.

"Yeah it is," Shoko scoffs, turning her attention to Mei Mei and Utahime, "Just be thankful that you don't have to share classes with them. You should've seen them their first week back as a couple, they kept slobbering all over each other like Suguru and I weren't right there in front of them."

Asami's jaw hits the ground, "Nuh uh!" she crosses her arms, offended by Shoko's complaints, "Liar!" she dramatically pouts.

Shoko rolls her eyes, "Asami," she gives her friend a knowing look, "Come on."

The red head begrudgingly avoids eye contact, knowing deep down that there was some truth to Shoko's words.

Yes, it was true that Satoru and Asami were quite … affectionate … in the beginning of their relationship, but to say they were slobbering all over each other was an exaggeration! And even if they did happen to show a little too much PDA, by now it had completely died down, as their honeymoon stage had worn off that very same week.

"I still don't get how you can kiss a repulsive asshat like him," Utahime places a hand to her temple, hoping that whatever trance Satoru had on her friend would wear off soon. And to think, at some point Asami once hated the idiot more than she did. Now look at her!

"Hey," the red head softly chuckles, choosing not to take Utahime's comment too seriously, "I know he can be a bit … overwhelming …. sometimes, but he's a sweet guy, you know?"

The three girls look at Asami in disbelief, the sound of imaginary crickets filling the room, "Satoru …. sweet?" one of them says, wanting to make sure they heard her correctly.

Asami furrows her brows, "Yeah …" she says it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh what has he done to you…" Utahime says with wide eyes, making Shoko and Mei Mei laugh.

"So …" Mei Mei lies on Shoko's bed with her legs crossed, resting her head on top of her palm, as she inches closer towards Asami, "Have you guys done it yet?" she asks without shame.

Asami tilts her head in confusion, "Done what?"

Mei Mei teasingly chuckles, "You know… it."

Asami continues to stare at Mei Mei in uncertainty, genuinely confused as to what she was talking about, "..."

"Come on, don't act dense," the pale-blue haired woman pouts while playing with her ponytail.

"Mei Mei," Utahime sighs, already used to the woman's odd perversions, "Are you forgetting we're still in high school? Not to mention, Asami's just in her first year."

Mei Mei rolls her eyes, "Mm, I didn't let high school stop me from having a little fun," she laughs, recalling her memories from her first year at Jujutsu High.

Though she was still technically a "student" of the school, Mei Mei was a fourth year, meaning she wasn't exactly a high school student anymore.

At Jujutsu High, being a fourth year student meant that you were now in transition to becoming a fully fledged sorcerer, almost like an internship. You were given a handful of solo missions while still occasionally being accompanied by a more experienced sorcerer.

In about three months, Mei Mei would no longer be considered a student, but a full-time working employee of the school. This was something that the young woman was of course looking forward to, as it meant that she could finally get paid for exorcising curses.

"What are you two talking about?" Asami furrows her brows, feeling out of the loop.

"I'm asking you if he's popped your cherry," Mei Mei responds before Utahime can stop her, "You know, the good old thing called se—"

"Mei Mei!" Utahime yells out, but by then Asami's face was already beet red.

"S-Sex?" Asami stares at Mei Mei with wide eyes. Hell, even Shoko was shocked.

Meanwhile, the word repeats in Asami's mind over and over again. Though she knew what it was, the thought of actually doing it was something that had never even crossed her mind. Hell, she wasn't even sixteen yet! At least, not for a couple of more days... but still!

At the end of the day, Asami and her classmates were freshmen! Freshman who more often than not, lived their lives as practical adults, but freshman nonetheless!

Quietly gulping, Asami feels as if the room was steaming hot.

Mei Mei, on the other hand, nods to the red head's prior question, "Well, you two are boyfriend and girlfriend, aren't you?"

"W-Well yeah I guess, but…"

Mei Mei frowns, "What do you mean by "I guess?" I thought you two were an official thing?"

"Well technically," Asami pauses, hesitant to continue, "He hasn't officially asked me out," she reveals, causing a collective gasp to escape from the teenage girls' lips.

"Wait what?!" they all yell in shock, acting as if it was the end of the world.

"W-What?" Asami finds herself backed up against a wall, now being interrogated by her friends.

"What do you mean he hasn't asked you out?!" Shoko stares at Asami with angry eyes, "I thought you said he confessed!? Don't tell me you've been making out with someone who hasn't even bothered to ask you to be his girlfriend!?"

Asami remains silent, causing the healer to facepalm herself.

"That sick bastard…." Utahime mutters to herself.

"I thought confessing and asking someone out was the same thing!" the young girl tries to defend herself, but her friends aren't having it.

"The leash Asami. You can't loosen the leash," Mei Mei says, as if Asami was supposed to know what any of that meant.

"Actually, now that I think about it, the leash was never tied to begin with," Mei Mei corrects herself, placing a finger to her chin.

Asami scoffs, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you've been letting Gojou get away with the bare minimum!" Utahime explains, throwing her arms in the air.

"Bare minimum? What are you guys even talking about? I mean seriously, listen to yourselves!" Asami tries to laugh everything off, but sadly, the girls' weren't laughing along with her.

"Asami, I need you to start asking yourself these questions. What has Satoru done for me since the start of our relationship? What has he bought me? What kind of dates has he taken me on?" Shoko dramatically places her hands on top of Asami's shoulders, treating her as if she was someone in desperate need of an intervention.

Asking herself those exact same questions, Asami tries her best to stay optimistic.

'What has Satoru done for me since the start of our relationship? Well he's definitely made me laugh! Not to mention he's always helping me carry my bags!'

"Bare minimum," the words repeat in Asami's mind, and soon a frown appears on her face.

'What has he bought me? Well who says he has to buy me anything! I can pay for my own things! Then again … it would be nice to be spoiled here and there…'

Asami's eyebrows knit together.

'What kind of dates has he taken me on? Now that I think about it, the only date we've ever really gone on are easy, grade four missions. Everything else has always been either planned or initiated by me…"

Asami lets out a frustrated huff of air, officially angry with not only herself, but Satoru!

"I can't believe this…" Asami quietly whispers to herself, "I need to tie the leash…"

"You need to tie the leash," Mei Mei repeats after her, having officially brainwashed the girl.

"Tie the leash ….. tie the leash …. tie the leash," Utahime slowly begins to chant, standing up on Shoko's bed.

"Tie the leash, tie the leash, tie the leash!" the girls all begin to follow her lead, jumping in circles as they shout, "TIE THE LEASH! TIE THE LEASH! TIE THE LEASH!"

---

Meanwhile …

"Damn it!" Suguru throws his controller onto the couch, rolling his eyes when he sees his upperclassman, Shoji, obnoxiously dance in celebration of his win.

"Satoru, you're up next!" Shoji calls for the infamous first year, preparing the next game of Dead or Alive 4.

"..."

Suguru and Shoji turn around, wondering why they weren't getting a response from the usually loud infinity-user.

"Earth to Satoru?" Shoji waves his hand in front of a zoned out Satoru, causing him to snap out of the state.

"Hm?" Satoru looks up from his position.

"It's your turn," Shoji points at the TV before looking back at him, "Something on your mind?"

"Ha, he's thinking about Asami," Suguru playfully scoffs while shaking his head, making Satoru frown.

"And how do you know that?" Satoru asks, glaring at his best friend.

"Because that's your, I'm thinking about Asami, face," Suguru pouts when saying her name, purposely teasing Satoru.

"No it's not," Satoru says in a defensive tone, clearly offended.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what'd you do now?" Suguru asks, still wanting to help his best friend out.

Sighing, Satoru runs a hand through his hair before answering, "I didn't do anything, but I've sorta been feeling bad recently."

Shoji and Suguru's eyebrows raise in curiosity, motioning at the infinity user to continue.

"Well as you guys know, Asami and I have been dating for about three weeks now…" he explains, his friends nodding in response, "In those three weeks, I've done several clay face masks with her, I've received baked goods every Friday from her, and I've been taken to places that are surprisingly really fun. All in all, I've basically been treated like um…"

"A king?" Shoji narrows his eyes at Satoru, wondering what the hell he possibly had to complain about.

Satoru chuckles, "Well, I wouldn't say that," he scratches the back of his neck, "Anyways, I've noticed that Asami's always the one planning things and taking me out on new adventures, and well …. I feel like I sorta need to step my game up, don't you think?"

"Huh?" Shoji stares at him as if he was a crazy man, but Satoru continues to blabber on.

"I was hoping to spend Christmas Eve with her, so I was thinking of taking her out to some fancy restaurant as a way to make up for everything. I —"

"Wait, wait, wait," Shoji interrupts, convinced that the boy had gone insane, "So you're telling me that Asami isn't mad at you for anything?" he asks, wanting to make sure he was hearing everything correctly.

Satoru nods.

"So then why are you trying to make life harder for yourself?" Shoji chuckles.

"..."

Shoji shakes his head, "Look Satoru, I have a lot of experiencewith girls, especially in the relationship department, if you know what I mean," he winks at his underclassman, "And let me tell you, the less you can do, the better. Trust me, it'll make your life a lot easier."

"But—" Satoru sighs in frustration, unsure of whether he should listen to him or not, "Suguru, what do you think?" he turns to his best friend for advice, choosing to trust his sense of judgement.

Suguru, who had remained silent this whole time, places a finger to his chin, almost as if to say he was in deep thought, "Hmm," he hums, assessing the whole situation, "I do agree that if she's not outwardly saying it's a problem, then why make your life harder, but…"

Suguru exhales deeply, "If you don't do something soon, you run the risk of getting her upset, so….." he shrugs, "I say you just ask her how she feels about everything."

Satoru scoffs, "Like that's easy."

"It should be," Suguru chuckles, "After all, she is your girlfriend," he adds.

"Yeah, but—"

"But what?"

Satoru grunts in frustration, too embarrassed to say what he was thinking, which was, 'I'm not like you.'

Unlike Suguru, Satoru wasn't good at asking people, let alone Asami, how they felt. Empathy for others was something that did not come easy to him, meaning more often than not, he needed physical cues and direct words in order to understand what others were thinking and feeling.

And even then, he still sucked at comforting people. In fact, he was the type of person that if he were to see someone cry in front of him, rather than comfort them, his first reaction would be to scoot away. At the end of the day, he just wasn't good at that stuff, and never would be. That's just how he was.

"Nothing," Satoru mutters before turning to his second-grade upperclassman, "Shoji," he calls him.

"Hm?" the buff, beach-blonde teenager hums in response.

"So … what were you saying about less is better?"

Suguru shakes his head, "The blind leading the blind," he mumbles to himself before pressing single player on the game.

"You two have barely been together for three weeks, meaning it's wayyyy too early for you to be taking her out to fancy restaurants and celebrating Christmas Eve with her. If you do that, you'll only scare her off, so it's important you keep things simple for now," Shoji advises his underclassman.

"As for you feeling bad, like I said, if she hasn't brought it up as an issue, then why make your life harder by stressing about it? The best relationships are the ones where you get to sit back and relax."

"Sit back and relax huh…" Satoru repeats after him. Soon, an imaginary devil who looks just like him, appears on his right shoulder.

"Come on! It's Asami we're talking about! She's a cool girl, remember?" the devil says, "She doesn't want some grandiose date! As long as she's with you, she's more than happy!"

Satoru sighs, and as soon as he does, the angel counterpart appears on his left shoulder.

"Don't listen to him! DON'T! Like he said, this is ASAMI we're talking about! Not your friend Asami, but your GIRLFRIEND!" they throw their arms in the air, "Girls want dates! They want to be spoiled! If not, she's going to realize she's much better off with some Hollywood hunk!"

"He's exaggerating," the devil rolls his eyes,"Just listen to Shoji, alright? The man has experience with this kind of stuff while you, Mr. I didn't have my first kiss until a couple of weeks ago, don't."

Satoru furrows his eyebrows, "Hey," he accidentally says out loud.

"What?" Shoji mistakenly assumes that Satoru is talking to him.

"Oh," Satoru awkwardly chuckles while scratching the back of his neck, "It's nothing," he smiles, mentally muting the angel that was screaming at him.

"So …. less is better?" Shoji asks, patiently waiting for the infinity user to agree.

And slowly, but surely, Satoru nods, "...less is better."

---

The Next Day.

December 24, 2005.

Christmas Eve.

Knock. Knock.

"Come in," Masamichi, who currently had piles of paperwork stacked in front of him, doesn't bother to look up at the door. With winter break coming up, the deadlines for several reports were now upon him.

Timidly entering the room, Asami shyly waves at her, seemingly stressed out, sensei, "Hello," she bows, now standing in front of him.

"What happened now?" he asks while signing his signature, giving her a quick glance of acknowledgement.

The red head gulps, "I can't visit my favorite sensei?" she nervously laughs, giving him an awkward smile.

Sighing, Masamichi looks up at the girl, "Sit," he motions at the chair before quickly returning back to his work.

Slowly sitting on the chair across from him, Asami quietly observes the man's office, smiling when she spots a tiny framed photo of her and her friends on one of the bookshelves behind him.

A tense silence fills the air.

"What are your plans for winter break?" he suddenly asks out of nowhere.

Turning her attention back to him, Asami finds herself slightly taken back by the question, as Masamichi wasn't one to make small talk.

"Oh I'm um … I'm going to go and visit my parents," she twiddles her thumbs, "And you, Masamichi-sensei?"

Scribbling something down, the man takes a couple of seconds to respond, "Venue searching," is all he says.

"Venue searching?" Asami tilts her head in confusion, wondering what exactly he meant by that. It isn't until she spots the framed photo of his fiancee that she quickly remembers.

"Ah! Your wedding," she beams in excitement, "Do you guys have a set date yet?"

"Summer of next year," he pauses for a moment, a small smile appearing on his face as he glances at the picture of his fiance, "So I suggest you wear something that won't make you sweat," he adds.

As a result, Asami laughs, "Noted," she says, a comfortable silence then follows.

Taking a deep breath in, Asami closes her eyes, as she reminds herself what she originally came here for.

"Masamichi-sensei…"

"Hm?"

"Is it possible for us to live normal lives?"

The scribbling comes to a sudden stop.

Setting his pen down, Masamichi looks up at his student, who was currently staring at him with what could only be described as a … hopeful …. expression.

"You mean as jujutsu sorcerers?" he asks, wanting more clarification on the question.

Asami nods, "Yeah … like can we just quit one day and go on about our lives like nothing's ever happened? Is …." she gulps, "Is it possible?"

And for a small moment, Masamichi remains silent, trying to think of the best, and most honest way to answer the question.

"It…" he sighs before continuing, "... depends on the person."

Asami blinks in surprise.

"Throughout my years here, I've seen a handful of people quit and work nine to five jobs where their lives are almost never at risk. And even after years of working in those fields, they always come back. That's because once you see a curse, you'll always see them until the day you die."

The red head remains silent.

"You'll see them torment people and make their lives a living hell, unable to do anything about it because once you exorcise one, you'll want to exorcise another. It means you have to be a selfish person. A person who lives only for themselves, and not for others. In the end, it all depends on the will of the person, and just how far they're willing to go to forget."

"B-But why? Why us? Why me? I mean I don't get it, were we just randomly chosen for this? When we first met, you said that having cursed energy wasn't any kind of blessing, and at the time I didn't question it, but now…" Asami suddenly gets up from her seat, "Now I'm beginning to question everything Masamichi-sensei. And I mean everything. I don't—"

"Asami," he interrupts her, a genuine look of worry now on his face, "Are you okay? Is there something I should know about?" he asks.

'Yeah, my mother is hiding something from me, and I don't know what it is. But for some reason, my gut feeling is telling me that it has something to do with this world of ours,' is what she wants to say.

Asami ultimately shakes her head, "It's nothing. I just …. I just need to know why."

"Most, if not all, sorcerers have some kind of familial lineage that connects them with Heian period shamans. I shouldn't be telling you this, but when you first enrolled, the school had me look into your lineage. Turns out, you're one of the very few shamans who have no connection with the Heian period."

Asami feels her stomach drop, not wanting to believe what she was thinking.

Mistaking the frown on her face to be one stemming from sadness, Masamichi tries to comfort the girl, "If it makes you feel better, I also don't have any jujutsu familial lineage."

"N-No it's not that," Asami stutters, beginning to feel overwhelmed, "I think I should get going Masamichi-sensei. I have to pack, and well, you have to finish all that paperwork," she feigns a laugh, politely bowing before making her way out the door.

Staring at the door, Masamichi sighs before returning back to his work, hoping that whatever it is that was bothering Asami, would be resolved soon.

Meanwhile, Asami stands outside Masamichi's office, feeling as if she'd been left with more questions than answers. Then again, how could she expect any answers when she herself didn't know what she was looking for.

'Family lineage, huh?' Asami scoffs, running a hand through her hair, feeling as if the whole world was spinning.

Ever since that mission…

Ever since that damn dream of hers ….

Something had changed.

It was almost as if a new fear had been unlocked. A fear that her mother wasn't the person she knew her to be, that behind that comforting smile were secrets and lies.

If what she "dreamt" of was real, then there was a chance that the rabbit hole was a lot deeper than what it seemed. And so the question soon becomes ….

Did her mom know? For all these years that Asami cried over those curses, did her mom see them and just do nothing? Was she really that … selfish?

Asami frantically shakes her head, refusing to believe that her mother would do something like that, 'No …. No way… I would've sensed cursed energy from her by now….'

Exhaling deeply, Asami tries to calm herself down. She was overthinking things and she knew it.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Asami quickly pulls out her flip phone, eyes widening when she sees the caller ID. 'What are the chances…' she quickly places the phone to her ear, "Mom?"

"Asami!" her mother greets her with a cheerful tone in her voice, "How are you?" she asks.

"I'm um … I'm good," Asami steps away from Masamichi's door, "Is something wrong?" she immediately questions her, beginning to feel her heart thump out of its chest.

Misaki softly chuckles, "No, of course not! Your dad just wanted me to remind you that he'll be picking you up at the train station tomorrow when you arrive, so no need for you to take a taxi," she explains.

"Oh… I see …." Asami tries her best to maintain a relaxed front, but for some reason, deep down, she was panicking. This was her mother for God's sake, and yet somehow she felt like she was on the phone with a stranger.

Meanwhile, Misaki rambles about their holiday schedule, "I've been thinking of making us some gravy to go with the fried chicken for Christmas, but I wasn't sure if you'd like it or not. Same goes for your birthday. Speaking of which, I still need to go buy your cake. What flavor do you want this year? Chocolate or van—"

"Mom," Asami interrupts her.

"...Yes?"

'Wait Asami. Just wait. If you do this now, you won't be able to see her reaction. Stop being impatient,' the tiny voice in her head tells her, but sadly, she couldn't wait anymore. She needed answers … now.

"I've been meaning to talk to you about something," she says, unsure of what she was expecting.

"Ah, yes! You had sent me that text a couple of weeks ago. I thought you'd want to talk in person though…"

Asami gulps. Perhaps this was her sign to back down, a sign to wait…

'No….' she shakes her head, adamant on getting her answers. It was now or never.

"I have um...… I have a school project," she says, deciding to lie her way into asking the question, "It's about family trees, and well …. I already know dad's, so now I need yours."

"Oh …family tree, huh? You made it seem like it was the end of the world! A part of me thought you were going to come here with some really bad news, if you know what I mean. Something along the lines of….." she suddenly lowers her voice, almost as if hiding from someone, "...teen pregnancy."

Asami chokes on her own spit, "W-What? I'm not…." Asami looks around, making sure that no one was around her to hear, "...pregnant. What made you think that?!"

Misaki sighs in relief before explaining, "Well sweetie, you are out there by yourself! And I was once your age too, meaning I know what it's like to have crushes and stuff! In fact, I bet you have a boyfriend right now!"

"..."

"I knew it!"

Asami could picture her mother smiling behind the phone line.

"What's his name? What does he look like? How did he ask you out? Where did you two meet? Oh I knew I should've had the boy talk with you before you left!" Misaki scolds herself, "Asami, listen to me okay? Though I still think you're too young to be doing that stuff, I need you to know that if you do, make sure you use prot—"

"MOM!" Asami yells, her face now red as a tomato, "Can we go back to the main topic please!?" she says, unable to believe what her mother was about to say. What the hell was up with everyone wanting to know about her non-existent sex life?! Seriously!

"Oh, right!" Misaki nervously giggles, realizing that perhaps she'd gotten too carried away, "Family tree? Well—"

"And I'm not talking about the circus family. I meanyour real family… you know, the people who raised you…" Asami interrupts her before she can presumably lie, but to her surprise, Misaki laughs.

"I know what family is Asami," Misaki chuckles, "Hmm, well where do I start? If I'm being honest, I don't know too much about my grandparents, nor do I know anything about my great-grandparents," she begins to hum, trying to think of something interesting to say.

"What I do know is that supposedly one side of my family is from Hokkaido. Something about us being part Ainu. I'm just not sure if it's from my mother or father's side," she explains.

'Ainu? That would explain her tanish complexion…' Asami thinks to herself, shocked at how casual her mother was being. The last time Asami asked her mother about family lineage, she was punished with washing the dishes. This uncanny difference only led Asami to ask herself, what the hell had changed?

"My mother passed away when I was about …. Thirteen? No, maybe fourteen? Mmmm," Misaki sighs, frustrated at her lack of good memory, "Either way, I believe she had about two siblings, but she never really talked about them, nor did I ever meet them. Meaning if I have any cousins on that side, I certainly don't know them."

Asami feels her hands get clammy, "And what about…"

"Your grandfather?" Misaki completes for her, unaware of how nervous her daughter was, "Oh, what a grumpy old man he is!" she chuckles.

"Is? Or was?" Asami awkwardly asks, knowing that whatever answer she received wouldn't make her heart pound any less.

"Is," she answers, "I just haven't talked to him for who knows how long!"

"Wait … so you're saying I've had a grandpa this whole time? And you've never bothered to introduce him to me?" Asami says in a hurt voice, a million questions now running through her mind.

"..."

"Why? I just don't get—"

"Asami," her mother exhales deeply, her tone shifting to one of faint sadness, "Your grandpa and I just don't get along that well, okay?"

The young girl feels her heart drop to her stomach, 'Just like in my dream…'

"Look, I'm sorry for always avoiding the topic, but you have to understand that—"

"And what about your brother?" Asami interrupts her, knowing that with this question, she'd be able to confirm everything.

"Hm?" Misaki hums, "Brother?"

Asami's eyebrows knit together, "Yeah, don't you have a brother?" she asks in a confronting voice, ready to tell her mother about her supposed "dream".

"A brother?" Misaki asks for a second time, wanting to confirm that she heard her daughter correctly.

"Yes, a brother," Asami repeats, expecting to hear some kind of falter in her tone. So imagine her surprise when she in fact hears her mother…. laugh.

"Oh, I wish! Maybe then, your grandpa wouldn't have had such a short temper!" she giggles, "A part of me always did believe that he originally wanted a son…" she lightheartedly admits, now pondering over the idea of having a brother.

'What the….' Asami finds herself at a loss for words, unsure if she was relieved or disappointed, 'She has to be lying…. right?'

"Then again, I was a bit of a spoiled brat growing up, so I don't know if I would've been able to handle sharing the spotlight. Not to mention, I probably would've had to share my room with them," Misaki continues to ramble on, wondering how different her childhood would've been had she grown up with a younger sibling.

Carefully listening to her mother speak, Asami expects to hear some kind of stutter. She expects her to fumble with her words. She expects her to deflect from the topic at hand. And most importantly, Asami expects to hear her mother lie.

Something Misaki simply wasn't doing.

At least from what Asami could tell.

That's because even if she was lying, for some reason, there was something in the way her mother spoke that made it seem like she was telling the truth. Almost as if she truly believed in what she was saying.

"Well anyways, that's about it in terms of my family tree. I know it's a little boring," Misaki softly chuckles, "I also know that I shouldn't have been secretive about it, so for that I apologize."

"It's," Asami pauses while taking a deep breath, "It's fine," she ultimately says.

"No, it's not. I shouldn't have let the problems I have with your grandfather get in the way of you getting to know him. It was selfish of me," her mother's voice begins to shake, "I really am sorry Asami."

"Mom," Asami sighs, now feeling guilty for putting her in such a position.

"So," Misaki sniffles in order to suck up any forming tears, "If you want, we can call him tomorrow after you arrive from the train station. I'm sure that he'd love to talk to you," she says with a sincere tone in her voice.

And it's at her words that Asami can't help but slightly smile, "Yeah, I'd like that," she says, curious to know what her grandfather was like, "By the way, what's his name?" she asks, wanting to know her mother's maiden name.

"His name is I—"

"Boo!" someone yells behind Asami, causing her to not only jump in surprise, but also drop her phone.

Placing a hand to her chest, Asami turns to see a grinning Satoru, "Oh my God, you scared me," she says, trying to catch her breath.

"I got you good, didn't I?" he laughs.

"Yes, you did," she rudely huffs while picking up her phone off the ground, quickly wiping off any dirt before placing it back onto her ear, "My bad, what did you say?"

Unaware that she had been on the phone, Satoru immediately frowns, a wave of guilt now washing over him, "I'm sorry," he silently mouths, ultimately getting ignored by Asami.

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the line, Asami's mother is freaking out, "Is that your boyfriend I hear?!"

"No, it's—" Asami sighs when she notices the sullen look on Satoru's face. Feeling bad for her little outburst, Asami gently grabs his hand before intertwining it with her own, giving him a soft look of forgiveness, "Yes it is," she says.

Meanwhile, Satoru smiles like an idiot while patiently waiting for her phone call to end, resembling a child who was trying to be on their best behavior.

"Are you planning on introducing us? Pass the phone to him! Can he hear me? Hellooo! Young man, if you can hear me, you better not break my daug—"

"I'll um," Asami quickly interrupts her mother, "I'll see you tomorrow, okay? Something came up, so I gotta go," she lies, wanting to save herself from the potential embarrassment of having her mother ramble on about her to Satoru.

"Asami—"

"Bye!" she shuts her phone, thus ending the conversation. Turning to face Satoru, Asami lets out a deep exhale, feeling an incoming headache.

"Sorry for the scare, your hair was blocking the view of your phone," he quickly begins to apologize once more, "and well I got a little too excited and—"

Asami shakes her head, mumbling, "It's fine," before wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her head into his chest. Letting out a frustrated groan, the redhead takes a deep breath in, immediately comforted by the scent of his cologne.

"Is something wrong?" he asks with genuine concern, gently running a hand along the back of her head while wrapping his other arm around her shoulder, pulling her into a hug, "You know you can tell me…."

"It's nothing really," she sighs, the high levels of stress still evident on her face.

Knowing all she needed was a push, Satoru asks another question, "Sooooo, who were ya on the phone with?"

"My mom," Asami mutters with a blatant bitterness. She couldn't help it, she was still confused as to whether to believe her mother or not. Not only that, but she just found out that she had a long-lost grandfather for God's sake!

"Ah, so something is definitely wrong," Satoru lightheartedly jokes around, laughing when he hears his girlfriend let out an annoyed grunt into his uniform.

"Did something happen?"

Pulling her head away from his chest, Asami lowers her shoulders, "Family drama," is all she says, but it was enough for Satoru to understand that it must've been a complicated situation.

"I see," he hums, giving her a soft kiss to the forehead, "Well I'm sure that whatever it is, it'll be resolved in no time," he gives her a sparkly grin before squeezing her nose, causing her to squirm in pain.

"Hey," she frowns, "You're going to break my nose one of these days doing that," she complains, pouting her lips.

"Sorryyyy," he teases her, puckering his lips while closing his eyes, "Forgive me?"

Rolling her eyes, Asami gets on her tippy toes. Due to their height difference, she also had to crane her neck in order to kiss him.

Expecting a kiss on the lips, Satoru makes a funny face when he instead receives a kiss on the cheek, "Oh come on!"

Asami shrugs, a small smirk on her face, "Anyways," she changes the topic before he can complain any more, "What are you even doing here? Shouldn't you be packing for winter break?"

The tall boy shrugs, "Ehh that can wait, it's not like I'm in any rush to go home," he says before grabbing a rolled up piece of paper from his back pocket, "Besides, I had to drop this off to Masamichi," he unfolds what looks to be an essay.

"Why Curtains are Important, an essay by Gojo Satoru," Asami reads the title out loud, unable to contain her laughter, "Ah, I forgot he assigned you this," she says, recalling Masamichi's punishment for the boy after he had yet again, forgotten to summon a curtain during a mission.

It was a lesson that, even after a year's worth of instruction, had yet to go through Satoru's head.

Hell, even now, Asami was quite certain that despite writing this ten page essay, he would probably still forget here and there. That's because Satoru often liked to act impulsively, resulting in him forgetting and ignoring basic procedures.

"Tch, can you believe I stayed up till two finishing this," Satoru dramatically waves the stack of papers around, causing Asami to roll her eyes.

"Well maybe if you didn't wait till the last minute to write it, then you wouldn't have had to stay up," she scolds him, recalling that he had been given two months to complete the assignment.

"Mhmm," he pouts, choosing to ignore her comments, "Well what about you? What are you going to do right now?"

"Well I already finished with most of my packing so," Asami yawns, "I think I'm just going to go back to my dorm and take a n—" her eyes suddenly widen, "I mean, do nothing," she corrects herself, "Nothing at all. Nada. Gonna be bored and alone. Wide awake!"

Raising a brow, Satoru awkwardly chuckles, confused by his girlfriend's sudden change in demeanor, "I see…."

What he didn't know was that in Asami's mind, the words "Tie the leash," were now being repeated over and over, as she had just remembered her conversation with the girls from the prior night. She was giving him one last chance. One last chance to prove himself.

Not only that, but today was Christmas Eve, the most popular romantic day in Japan. No way did he not have anything planned …. right?

"Mhmm," she hums, giving Satoru a fake close-eyed smile, "So I'll definitely be free," she adds, making her intentions more than obvious.

"Oh, nice," Satoru smiles at her while secretly gulping, 'Damn, I have to think fast! Maybe I shouldn't have cancelled those dinner reservations….' he thinks to himself.

Meanwhile, the angel and devil versions of himself appear on his shoulders once more.

"It's not too late to take her out, Satoru! I'm sure there's at least one restaurant that's still taking walk-ins!" the angel yells at him, hoping to guide him to the light.

The devil, on the other hand, rolls their eyes, "The girl just wants to spend some time with you before leaving. Where are you getting that she wants to go out to some fancy restaurant? Stop complicating everything, and remember what Shoji said, less is better," they remind him.

Staring at Satoru with doe-eyes, Asami "patiently" waits for him to say something, knowing that on the inside, she was slowly dying for an answer, "Earth to Satoru…"

POOF!

The devil and angel disappear.

Awkwardly clearing his throat, Satoru returns to reality, "Oh well um…" he looks around, trying to think of something, "If you want, we can go to the mall? Maybe we can even get those pizza pretzels you love so much from the food court," he says, causing Asami's jaw to internally hit the ground.

"T-The mall?" she stares at him with wide eyes, trying to wrap her mind around what he just said.

It was funny, really. If it had been any other day prior to the girls' sleepover, then Asami would've been more than ecstatic to go to the mall, as she had an undying love for the pizza pretzels. But due to her recent "brainwashing", all she could see was red.

"Yeah!" Satoru grins while giving himself a mental high five, mistaking Asami's shock for excitement.

"The mall…" Asami repeats, still stuck on the location.

Satoru proudly nods, unaware of the trouble he is now in, "So, what do you say?" he asks.

Feeling her eye twitch, Asami somehow manages to maintain her composure, "Sounds good," she says, forcing herself to smile.

"Then I'll see you in a bit, alright?" he leans down to give her a quick kiss to the lips, completely oblivious to her bubbling anger.

---

2 hours later.

Horrible.

This was horrible.

Taking a bite out of her pizza pretzel, Asami tries her best to keep herself calm, cool, and collected. Thing is, it was hard to do that when there were a number of screaming, unsupervised brats running all around her. Not to mention, the whole food court smelled like mustard and corn dogs due to the grand opening of a brand new food-stand.

'I cannot believe this is his definition of a date!' Asamisecretly glares at Satoru while watching him eat his extra-sugary cinnamon pretzel.

God, did she just want to go off on him.

Feeling her stare, Satoru looks up, "Something wrong?" he asks, immediately noticing that her pretzel was half eaten. Usually by now, she'd be in line ordering a second one.

Quickly fixing her stare, Asami blinks in slight surprise, "O-Oh um…"

'Yes, you idiot! You were supposed to take me out to a fancy restaurant, not some lousy freaking mall! Bare minimum much?! Oh my God! Is this how the rest of our relationship is going to be!?'

Clenching her jaw, Asami sees this as her chance to go off on him. Preparing to say something, the young girl clears her throat, "Well…"

She suddenly closes her mouth shut.

'Wait ….. if I get mad at him, will he think I'm needy? No, right? I have every right to be mad …. I think. Then again, I don't want to look like an uptight tsundere. From what I've heard, guys hate that stuff….. DAMN IT!" she internally curses at herself.

Gulping, Asami awkwardly smiles, "Everything's just fine," she forces herself to say, unable to voice out her annoyance.

Perhaps back then, when they weren't a thing, she would've been quick to tell him off. In fact, she wouldn't have even thought twice about it. But now….

Well now she was his so-called "girlfriend".

In her mind, that meant she couldn't get as angry with him anymore because things had … changed.

She didn't want to be painted as the bitchy girlfriend, nor did she want to hurt his feelings. It was like there was this new standard she now had to hold herself to. Almost like a distinct pressure, so to speak.

A pressure to be perfect.

And if that meant sucking up her annoyance, then so be it.

All in all, Asami was simply scared. Though she had her first kiss years before she enrolled into the school, this was technically her first real relationship, meaning she was just as clueless and inexperienced as Satoru. She didn't want her brash attitude to mess things up. Not yet at least.

"Well, I'm gonna get in line for a second cinnamon pretzel," Satoru awkwardly gets up from his seat, "Do you want me to order you a second one as well?" he points at Asami's pizza pretzel.

Asami politely shakes her head, "I'm fine, thank you though," she gives him a tiny smile, "I'll just wait for you here."

Nodding, Satoru quickly makes his way to the pretzel-stand line. And as he stands behind a tall, slightly chubby man, Satoru uses the opportunity to carefully observe Asami from afar.

Nothing about her behavior said that she was angry, but for some reason Satoru felt uneasy. Though she'd been smiling and laughing at his corny jokes these past two hours, something about it all felt a little too fake. There was definitely something bothering her, he just didn't know what.

But if I ask her what's wrong one more time, there's a chance she'll really get upset…' Satoru dwells to himself, knowing that Asami didn't like being relentlessly nagged. Of course, most of the time that didn't exactly stop him from nagging her even more, but dealing with an upset Asami was not on his list of things to do for today.

'Wait…' Satoru furrows his brows.

Since when was he scared to deal with an upset Asami? This was Asami for God's sake! Their whole relationship started off with him getting her upset! In fact, he was used to her being upset! At least, back then he was ….

Fact is, they were no longer the rivals they once were, nor were they the idiots who had massive crushes on each other. They were together as a couple, meaning things were now …. different.

It meant that getting on Asami's nerves wasn't something Satoru should intentionally do anymore, and if anything, should actively avoid. If he got her upset, that could lead her to ….

Satoru shakes his head. He had to stop overthinking things so much. If Asami said everything was fine, then who was he to question that.

Plus, even if something did happen to be wrong, it's not like he would know how to fix it. If anything, with the blunt mouth he had, he'd probably only make things worse.

"...if she hasn't brought it up as an issue, then why make your life harder by stressing about it? The best relationships are the ones where you get to sit back and relax."

"Sit back and relax," Satoru whispers to himself, remembering Shoji's advice.

Ordering his cinnamon pretzel, Satoru swiftly makes his way back to Asami, who was currently playing a game of Tetris on her flip phone, "Let's go?" he asks.

Looking up from her phone, Asami glances at him before turning her attention to the tiny bag in his hand, "Oh …" a subtle look of disappointment appears on her face, "... you didn't get my text…."

Satoru immediately frowns, "What text?" he quickly pulls out his phone to check his inbox, only to be met with the message of "NO SERVICE."

"I ended up changing my mind about the pizza pretzel, but um," Asami takes a deep breath in, "It's fine, I shouldn't eat so much greasy food anyway," she softly chuckles.

"My bad, my phone service sucks here. If you want though, I can go buy you one right now," he frantically offers, ready to run back to the pretzel stand.

Asami shakes her head, "Like I said, it's fine. Next time, I'll just have to walk over there myself," she says, unaware of how passive-aggressive she was being.

"The line doesn't look too long, let me just—"

"Satoru, I don't want the—"

"I'll go, don't worry—"

"Satoru—"

Unable to complete their sentences, the two continuously talk over each other. That is until ….

"It's fine!" Asami accidentally yells out, causing a tense silence to fill the air around them. In fact, the whole mall had gone silent. Hell, even the kids who'd been running around them had stopped their game of tag.

With all eyes now on them, Asami nervously laughs, realizing just how loud she'd been, "It's fine … babe," she repeats her words from before, but this time with a softer tone to her voice.

Getting on her tippy toes, the red-head gives her boyfriend a quick peck to the lips, "Come on, let's go," she says, gently tugging at his hand.

Gulping, Satoru nods, deciding it was best to follow her lead and stay quiet. If only the poor boy knew that in this case, silence was deadly.

---

December 25, 2005.

Christmas Day.

10:00AM

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Groaning in annoyance, Asami forces herself to reach out for the alarm clock before quickly shutting it off. Loudly yawning, she stretches her arms over her head, cracking her knuckles in the process. Knowing she had a busy day ahead of her, the redhead quickly rolls out of bed, opening her curtain windows in the process. And it's only then that she sees ….

'Snow?' she blinks in surprise, immediately rubbing her eyes as a way to make sure that she wasn't seeing things.

The reason for this was that snow in Tokyo was quite rare, usually occurring about three to four times a year. Even then, it usually took place during the months of January and February, as that's when the city was at its coldest. And so for it to be snowing on Christmas day was in fact….

"A Christmas miracle," Asami softly chuckles to herself, opening her window and allowing one of the snowflakes to land on top of her palm, "Too bad I won't be here to see it for long," she sighs, as her train was scheduled to leave at five.

Gently placing the snowflake on top of her window sill, the young girl grabs her morning essentials before heading towards the bathroom, knowing she still had some packing to do.

And as she opens the door to her room, Asami is surprised to see Shoko exiting her room as well. The only difference was that Shoko was dressed and ready to go. Beside her, was a small bag of luggage.

Tilting her head in confusion, Asami frowns, "Leaving already?" she asks, "I thought you were going to leave later tonight."

Shoko sighs, "I was supposed to, but my parents insisted on me taking the train right now. Something about a potential snow storm," she scoffs.

"Do your parents not realize that snow in Tokyo almost never reaches past an inch or two," the red head chuckles.

"That's what I said!" she throws her arms in the air, clearly in a grumpy mood, "And then they call me all last minute, waking me up," she groans, removing her extra eye crust, "I hadn't even packed yet!"

Gulping, Asami nervously laughs as a response, realizing that seeing Shoko this …. grouchy …. was something quite rare. More rare than seeing snow in Tokyo.

"Well…um…." she tries to think of something comforting to say, "… I hope you enjoy your trip back home?"

Shoko rolls her eyes, not at Asami, but at the idea of going home, "Tch, more like two weeks of no smoking," she complains.

"Hey, those two weeks will go by in the blink of an eye. Trust me," Asami says.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Shoko playfully waves her hand around, "Anyways, I should get—Ah, wait! I almost forgot," she suddenly snaps her fingers, quickly unlocking her door and re-entering her room.

Grabbing a small card from her drawer, Shoko hands the sparkle-covered item to her next-door neighbor, "Happy early birthday," she says, giving Asami a small genuine smile.

Slowly opening the birthday card, Asami shakes her head, "Shoko, you didn't have to—OH MY GOD!"

CHA. CHING.

Dollar signs suddenly appear in Asami's eyes, "You didn't!" she pulls out a 45,000 yen gift card to one of Japan's largest and most high-end department stores, Mitsukoshi Isetan.

And though the amount may not seem like much, for a teenage girl like Asami, who was used to getting 4,000 to 5,000 yen allowances by the school, to be given this amount of money at once was like a godsend.

"But we did," Shoko smugly crosses her arms.

Asami momentarily stops her childish celebration in order to ask, "Who's we?"

"The girls and I," Shoko answers, "We all put in fifteen thousand," she adds, causing Asami's eyes to widen.

"Even Mei Mei?!" the redhead asks, unable to believe that the greedy sorceress would put in her own money.

"Even Mei Mei," Shoko laughs.

"Wow," Asami stares at the card in wonder, "T-Thank you!" she grins, already imagining what she'd spend the money on.

"You deserve it. Besides, I'd like to see Satoru top that," Shoko makes the mistake of mentioning the white-haired shaman, who was currently in the hot seat since yesterday afternoon.

As a result, Asami rolls her eyes in annoyance, "Tch, don't even get me started on him," she begins to rant, "Did I tell you about him taking me to the mall yesterday? I mean, seriously!"

Shoko shakes her head, "What an idiot," she sighs before pulling the handle to her luggage, "Well, I should get going. If not, I'll be late and get scolded by my father," she says, as her father was the stricter parent when compared to her mother.

Thanking Shoko once more, Asami waves goodbye to her friend, "Merry Christmas, and have a Happy New Year!"

---

1:00PM

"Well, that's the last of it," Suguru closes the trunk of the auxiliary manager's car, having just placed his luggage inside, "Now off to the airport," he exhales deeply, patting any excess snow off his shoulders.

Tightly hugging herself, Asami's teeth chatter as she tries to keep herself warm, "Hey, at least you won't be in this cold weather," she says, trying to make light of the stressful situation that was, and always is, Haneda Airport.

"You're right, he'll be in even colder weather," Satoru remarks, referring to the airport's automatic air conditioning, "Then again, you have no one to blame but yourself," he mockingly scoffs, "Who the hell books a flight on Christmas day?"

Sighing, Asami hears the imaginary wrestling bell go off, knowing that a comment like that would only incite an argument, "Satoru—

"Don't worry Asami," Suguru raises a single hand as a way to reassure her, "I'm not going to let a scrooge like him ruin my holiday spirit," he says, choosing to ignore his best friend's insulting question.

Rolling his eyes, Satoru crosses his arms, "Humbug," he mutters, deciding to play the part. As a result, his two classmates softly chuckle to themselves.

"Come on, how bad can a couple of weeks with your clan be?" Suguru teases him, "You're acting like it's the end of the world."

"Tch, easy for you to say," Satoru huffs, "While you're enjoying your mother's homemade food, I'll be stuck with a bunch of old men who smell," he complains, dreading the idea of going home for two weeks. He dreaded it so much that, despite his chauffeur picking him up at four, he hadn't even bothered packing yet.

"Well, it's nice to know that you'll miss us," Suguru laughs before noticing that the auxiliary manager was patiently waiting for him despite shivering to death.

"Anyways, I should get going now, but before I do that …." he suddenly pulls out a tiny bag from his pocket and hands it to Asami, "Happy early birthday!"

Pleasantly surprised, Asami smiles, "Thank you Suguru!" she says, staring at the bag in wonder.

"Open it," he says, making a swift motion with his hand.

Nodding, Asami slowly begins to unwrap the bag. Behind her, Satoru nosily stretches his neck out, trying to catch a glimpse of the gift. Luckily, his height worked to his advantage.

"Oh," Asami feigns a chuckle when she sees the content of the bag, "Candy …?"

Suguru smirks, "Yeah, you know ….. So you can keep the dog tamed," he glances at his best friend, making sure he was leaving with the last laugh.

Covering her mouth with her hand, Asami struggles to stifle her laugh.

Meanwhile, Satoru growls, "Ha ha ha, very fucking funny," he says, but before he can insult Suguru back, the curse-manipulation user was already in the car, sticking both his middle finger and tongue out.

"Bye!" Asami excitedly waves to the car, watching as it becomes smaller and smaller, until soon, it was no longer within eyesight.

---

3:50 PM

"What did I tell you about packing at the last minute, Satoru?" Masamichi scolds the teenage boy, knowing he had to get going soon, as he had a dinner party to attend with his fiance.

"The auxiliary manager is going to be outside at any second, and I don't see a single bag of lugga—"

With his attention remaining on the TV in front of him, the young boy interrupts his sensei by smugly placing a large duffle bag on top of the lounge table.

Taking a deep breath in, Masamichi knows that his fiance is carefully observing him from behind, wanting to see if he'd been incorporating her advice on controlling his temper.

"That is hardly enough clothes to last you two weeks," he says with gritted teeth, knowing exactly what his first-year student was trying to pull on him.

Satoru shrugs, "I can always buy more clothes, orrrrr," he playfully sings, "I can come back early from winter break and spend the rest of the week here—"

Masamichi sighs, "Satoru, we've discussed this already. Campus is going to be closed," he says for the hundredth time this week, "And it's against school policy for you to stay here. I know you dread the idea of going back home, but there's not much I can do about that. I think you're forgetting that I'm not the principal of the school."

"Tch," Satoru huffs while crossing his arms, "You could be," he mutters.

Balling his fist in annoyance, Masamichi prepares to argue with the boy, "Sato—"

"Wow, the snow sure is getting heavy," his fiance, who was currently staring out the lounge window, cuts in before he can start, "I think a snow storm might be brewing," she adds, clearly in disbelief.

Scoffing, Satoru gets up from the couch, wanting to see for himself, "A snow storm in Tokyo? Yeah ri—Woah!" he blinks in surprise, shocked at how much snow was falling from the sky. In fact, by now it was quite difficult to see out the window, as the forming edges of ice were now causing the windows to frost up.

Picking up the remote to the TV, Masamichi changes the channel to the local news station, frowning when he sees the large text that reads, "WARNING: RARE TOKYO SNOW STORM PREDICTED TO GROW STRONGER."

Turning to his student, Masamichi asks, "Where's Asami?"

But before Satoru could answer, the sound of luggage being pulled down the stairs could be heard from the lounge, "I'm here!" Asami excitedly comes down, unaware of the bad news she was about to receive.

Meanwhile, Masamichi's phone rings, a sign that the auxiliary manager in charge of taking Satoru home, was already outside. Feeling an incoming headache, Masamichi decides to tackle one problem at a time.

"Satoru, your chauffeur's outside. Start heading out now before the snowstorm gets any worse," he instructs.

"Snow storm?" Asami furrows her brows, looking visibly confused.

Still clinging onto the tiny hope that his sensei would change his mind, Satoru tries to convince him one last time, "Masamichi, come on! Plea—"

"Go," Masamichi interrupts him with nothing but a strict firmness in his voice, "Now."

Childishly groaning, Satoru yanks his duffel bag off the table before loudly stomping his way over to Asami, wanting to say goodbye before leaving, "Tch, looks like I really am going back …" he makes air quotation marks with his fingers, "home."

And despite being secretly mad at him, Asami still tries her best to comfort him, "You'll be fine," she says, accidentally delivering the words with a slight attitude. Something which, unknowingly to her, doesn't go unnoticed by Satoru.

Knowing there wasn't much he could do right now, Satoru chooses to say nothing. That's not to say that he wasn't aware of her … strange … behavior. In fact, ever since Suguru left, it seemed that she'd been avoiding him, rambling about how she needed to finish packing. And when he offered her help, rather than accept his offer, she ran off to her room and practically slammed the door in his face.

"Well, I guess I should get going then," Satoru sighs, slinging his back over his shoulder, "By the way, I know you'll probably be busy doing a whole bunch of holiday festivities, but pleaseeeee text me when you can," he begs, knowing he'd be dying of boredom back at home.

Feeling somewhat bad for him, Asami quietly nods, "I'll try and text you throughout the day, but I'll probably be more responsive during the night. If you're lucky I might even call you," she playfully adds, giving him a tiny smile.

"Babe, you're the best," Satoru grins, thinking that everything was just fine between the two, while being completely unaware that her little playful moment with him was just that …. A moment.

Leaning down for a kiss, the white haired boy expects to place a chaste kiss to her lips. So imagine his surprise when he instead feels her very warm cheek, Asami having turned her head at the very last second.

Blinking in surprise, a visible look of both hurt and confusion appears on his face. Especially when she doesn't laugh or tease him in any way like she usually would.

Gulping, Asami awkwardly pats him on the chest as if he was a friend, "I'll see you in two weeks, alright?" she avoids eye contact with him, knowing that it'd only make her feel more guilty.

'What the…' Satoru's features twist as he begins to second-guess himself, wondering if he had done something wrong.

"Satoru," Masamichi calls out to the young boy, who was still in clear disbelief over what happened.

Bringing himself back to reality, Satoru is reminded of the chauffeur that was waiting outside for him, "Oh …. right…" he fixes his duffel bag, feigning an awkward chuckle. Turning to Asami, he departs with a, "Let me know when you arrive in Okayama."

"Will do," she says, watching him as he seemingly exits the lounge.

With Satoru now gone, Masamichi finally brings his attention to Asami, whose original train time conflicted with the brewing snow storm, "It looks like I'm going to have to drop you off at the train station right now and buy you a new ticket for 4:30," he explains, knowing time was now of the essence.

"If I don't, then there's a chance you won't be making it back home for Christmas," he adds.

Nervously nodding, Asami pulls the handle to her luggage, "Well I'm already packed and ready, so it's not a problem for us to get going right—"

"Yaga, you're going to want to hear this," Masamichi's fiance turns up the volume to the TV, a look of worry now on her face.

"Breaking News: JR Company has announced that, as of now, any departing Tokyo bullet trains have been cancelled. Due to an overwhelming amount of ice, the rails now pose a risk for safe travel. JR Company has not released any statement on when their bullet trains will be set to travel again," the news anchor announces.

Feeling her heart drop, Asami stares at the TV in shock, "No…"

"Drivers are also cautioned to drive as carefully and responsibly as they can. High beams should be on, and please be aware of any slippery roads…."

Sighing, Masamichi places a hand to his temple, "Damn it," he mutters to himself.

"B-But—" Asami tries to process what she'd just heard, unable to accept the fact that going home this Christmas just wasn't going to happen.

"I'm sorry Asami," Masamichi's fiance immediately tries to comfort the young girl, but by then she was already in a state of panic.

"So now what?!" Asami frantically asks, turning to her sensei, "I'm just supposed to stay here all by myself for Christmas?!"

Masamichi shakes his head, "No, of course not," he says.

"If you'd like, you can always spend it with us!" his fiance offers, "Just that this dinner party of ours is mandatory, but we'll only be there for an hour or two. From there we'll pick you up," she explains, giving the young girl a warm smile.

And though she was thankful for the offer, Asami couldn't help but feel like she'd be intruding, "Thank you, but it's fine actually," she feigns a soft chuckle, "I was just being dramatic, that's all."

Masamichi's fiance frowns, "Are you sure? My family welcomes anyone with open arms, I promise. We even have a pajama theme this year, meaning you'll be extra comfy," she says, trying to convince the young girl to come along with them, as she understood her timidness.

"I'm okay, really," Asami shakes her head, "I'll just go back home tomorrow, it's no big deal. I just need to call my mom," she adds, wanting to reassure them.

"Mmm," Masamichi mumbles, still unconvinced, "Either way I still can't have you here by yourself. It's against school policy and—"

"Then it's a good thing I'm still here because I'm staying too!" a familiar voice interrupts, the sound of a bag hitting the floor immediately following afterwards.

Turning around, the three come to face a childishly grinning Satoru, who had been lingering outside the lounge for God knows how long.

Staring at her boyfriend in shock, Asami tries to fight the giddy feeling in her heart, reminding herself that she was still mad at him.

Meanwhile, Masamichi feels a vein pop out of his forehead, immediately scolding the boy for not being well on his way to his clan headquarters, "What the hell did you tell the auxiliary manager? Don't tell me they already left," he runs to the window, sighing in defeat when he sees an empty driveway.

"Satoru!" Masamichi prepares to punish his young student, having finally reached his limit. But before he could yell anything, his fiance tugs at his hand, whispering something into his ear.

"Yaga, just let him stay," she says, feeling sympathy for the boy, "Don't force him to go somewhere he doesn't want to be at," she adds, as she knew that the only reason Satoru was willing to walk out that door earlier was because even though it often didn't seem like it, he did in fact respect his sensei.

Closing his eyes, Masamichi exhales deeply as the image of a six year old Satoru appears in his mind. Due to all of the commotion surrounding Satoru's birth, Masamichi, just like every other sorcerer at the time, had gone to visit the young boy at some point.

But rather than be amazed at the sight of the six eyes, all Masamichi could remember was thinking just how miserable the young boy looked, a permanent scowl etched on his face. It wasn't until years later, when Satoru enrolled into the school, that Masamichi would finally see the sight of a smiling Satoru. That's because as long as he was at Jujutsu High, Gojou Satoru was at his happiest.

"Fine, you can stay here for winter break," Masamichi stubbornly mutters, rolling his eyes when he sees Satoru childishly jump up and down in celebration.

"THANK YOU MASAMICHI-SENSEI!" the tall boy jumps onto the buff man before comedically wrapping him in a hug.

Pushing him off, Masamichi scowls while pointing his index finger at him, "But just know that you're in charge of your basic necessities such as food. And if you break anything, it's coming out of your own pocket. You got it?"

Satoru eagerly nods his head yes as a response.

Meanwhile, Masamichi's fiance claps her hands together, "Well if you're staying, then that means you and Asami can spend Christmas with us without feeling too alienated!" she says, desperate to not have them spend Christmas by themselves.

Turning his attention to Asami, Satoru gives her a, "What do you say?" look.

Unable to hide the small smile on her face, Asami slowly nods, "Yeah, that sounds good," she says.

"Great! Then we'll pick you guys up at around hmmm," Masamichi's fiance glances at the clock, "Eight or nine? Depending on traffic we might get here a little later," she begins to ramble, forgetting that she and Masamichi were running extremely late.

"Come on, we have to get going," he reminds her, dreading the idea of having to make small talk with his co-workers and future in-laws all night. Not to mention both social events were back-to-back.

"Ah, you're right," she nervously laughs, "Well you two have fun for now! But not too much, if you know what I mean," she playfully winks, causing the two teens to go beet red.

And though he wasn't a father of any kind, Masamichi sure felt like one as he glared at Satoru, "Don't do nothing stupid," he growls, causing Satoru to nervously scratch the back of his neck.

And with that, Masamichi and his fiance head towards their car, leaving the teens to themselves. From there, an awkward silence fills the room.

"So…." Satoru turns his attention to Asami, trying his best to decipher her mood, "What do you want to do?"

Tempted to roll her eyes, Asami internally scoffs, 'Of course it's up to me,' she thinks to herself, feeling triggered by his simple question.

Ultimately forcing a smile onto her face, Asami answers his question by saying, "Well I'm going to change into my pajamas and call my mom. From there, I'll probably watch a Christmas movie," she innocently blinks at him, deciding to be secretly petty by adding, "You're always welcome to join."

Feeling his right eye twitch, Satoru clenches his jaw. By now, he was beginning to get fed up with his girlfriend's indirect attitude, having confirmed that she was upset with him. But what bothered him most was that rather than confront him, she was choosing petty tactics and putting on a fake smile for him.

Still hurt over her simple little action from earlier, Satoru ultimately decides that…

'Two can play that game,' he secretly narrows his eyes at her before plastering a close-eyed smile onto his face, "I would love to."

"Great," Asami forces herself to say, "I'll be right back then."

"Mhmm, I'll be right here waiting… babe," he says with an underlying spitefulness, resulting in a faint scoff coming out of Asami's lips.

Staring at her boyfriend, Asami feels the corner of her lip twitch when she sees the subtle smirk on his face, 'Oh it's on…' she scowls, as the two had now officially begun their game of "Who was going to pop first."

And perhaps to any other person, they'd think that this was an obvious sign of trouble, that with this, their relationship would soon go down the drain. In reality, this scene right now was the epitome of their relationship. A relationship which started off with petty exchanges like this. In the end, this was what they needed, as it was a sign that things were going to be just fine between the two.

---

"I knew you leaving at 5 wasn't a good idea," Asami's mother sighs over the phone, having just received the news that Asami wasn't going to be making it back home for Christmas, "I'm so sorry sweetie."

"It's fine mom, I'll just arrive in Okayama tomorrow. It's just a one day difference," Asami nonchalantly admits.

"I know, but Christmas is a day meant to be spent with family," Misaki says before yelling, "Tsuyoshi, what did I tell you about eating all of the KFC!"

Giggling, Asami shakes her head, "I see dad isn't too sad about my missing presence," she jokes around.

Misaki exhales deeply, "You know him, he loves his Christmas KFC."

"Tell Asami I'll buy her a bucket of her own tomorrow," Asami hears a muffled voice in the background say.

"Did you hear him?" Misaki asks, softly chuckling as she stares at her husband of over fifteen years.

"I heard him alright," Asami laughs, "Tell him that as long as he saves me a piece of cake, I won't be too mad."

"Will do," Misaki says, "Well, as long as you're not spending Christmas alone then I guess I shouldn't worry too much. What time is your sensei and his fiance supposed to pick you up again?"

"They're supposed to pick us—I mean, me," Asami quickly corrects herself, crossing her fingers as she prays that her mother didn't catch her slip up.

"..."

Asami quietly exhales in relief, "They're supposed to pick me up at around eight, but depending on traffic and such, they might pick me up at 9."

"Alright then. I'll call you then, okay? Just to make sure everything's okay."

"Yeah, that's fine," Asami nods her head despite being alone in her room.

An awkward silence then follows.

Though things may have seemed fine between the two, there was still a certain tension in the air. Asami knew that it had to do with her recent revelations, she just wasn't sure how to feel about it all.

A part of her was happy, if not excited, to know that somewhere out there, she had a family member by blood. And not just any family member, but a grandpa. A grandpa who probably had a long list of old stories to tell her and corny jokes that would probably get a laugh or two out of her. And even if he did have the so-called temper that her mother described, it wouldn't matter because no matter what, he was still her grandpa.

But then there was the other part of Asami…. the part of her that was in fact …. scared.

Scared of rejection and desertion. What would this new familial relationship bring her? How would it change things? What if her grandpa viewed her as a pester to his everyday life?

Either way, she just couldn't bring herself to be angry about it, nor could she blame her mother's reason for hiding this from her. In fact, Asami would've probably done the same. That's because at the end of the day, no one wants to give up their perfect life. No one wants to see how deep the rabbit hole goes. And most importantly, no one wants to take the red pill.

"Asami…. are you there?" her mother's voice brings her back to reality.

Gulping, Asami feigns a soft chuckle, "Yeah, I just zoned out a bit. Well I'm gonna go watch a movie now so… Merry Christmas Mom," she says with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Merry Christmas to you too Asami," Misaki says in return, unaware of her daughter's inner turmoil, "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow then. Bye," Asami clicks on the end call button, exhaling deeply as she runs a hand through her hair.

Knowing she had a tough decision to make, Asami chooses to push the problem away, as she had a movie night to attend.

---

"No Zero, down boy. My what a brilliant nose you have. The better to light my way! To the head of the team, Zero! We're off!

"Wait Jack, no!"

"Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha"

"Goodbye Jack, my dearest Jack. Oh how I hope my premonition is wrong….."

"Ugh!" Asami rolls her eyes. Despite knowing how the Nightmare before Christmas ends, she still found herself getting frustrated with the actions of Jack Skellington, "Why can't he just listen to Sally!"

"Because he wants to celebrate and manage Christmas, remember?" Satoru sarcastically responds with, still bitter at the fact that Asami wasn't cuddling with him.

You see, in these past three weeks, Satoru had learned a lot about his love language. And for someone who wasn't used to physical touch, the boy had definitely grown to love it, finding himself constantly turning his infinity off just so he could wrap an arm around Asami or hug her from behind whenever they were alone.

And just like how he loved giving physical acts of love, he also liked being on the receiving end of it. He especially loved it when Asami would softly stroke his hair, using the tips of her fingers to curl around his white strands of hair.

Not to mention, he was also someone who liked giving acts of service as a way to show his affection. In return, he enjoyed Asami's words of affirmation, feeling his stomach do flips whenever she'd praise him.

All in all, Gojo Satoru had learned that he was quite the clingy person. And so the fact that he wasn't feeling the warmth of Asami's arms wrapped around him on this chilly night, bothered him to the extreme.

"Well obviously I know that," Asami says while secretly shooting her boyfriend a glare, "I just think it's selfish of him, that's all."

"How is it selfish?" Satoru tries his best to suppress an eye roll. Thankfully it was dark, meaning even if he did roll his eyes, it wasn't like Asami could see him all that well.

"Because he's not listening to the girl who likes him," Asami's voice begins to rise, "She's clearly telling him that everything's going to be a disaster, but noooo," the red head throws her arms in the air, "He just doesn't want to listen."

"Well you can't really blame him for wanting to change things up a bit. I mean the guy has to celebrate Halloween every year," Satoru pettily chooses to defend Jack, as he subconsciously knew that there were several similarities in both his and the skeleton's character.

"If I were him, I'd do the same," he adds.

"Shocker," Asami mumbles, resulting in Satoru furrowing his eyebrows.

"Hm?"

Knowing she was treading on thin ice, Asami bites her tongue, "Nothing … babe," she scoots closer to him.

Staring at her in suspicion, Satoru clenches his jaw before attempting to wrap his arm around her shoulders. At the same time, he also mutters, "Whatever, you do you," causing Asami to instinctively shove his arm away.

And with that, the pot finally boils over.

"Sorry? Didn't realize I couldn't wrap a simple arm around you anymore," Satoru scoffs, clearly offended by his girlfriend's action.

Choosing to ignore his complaints, Asami focuses on his words from before, "Yeah, well what the hell was that supposed to mean? You do you," she mimics him.

Unable to contain their annoyance for any longer, the two simultaneously get up from their seats and say, "What's wrong with you? Me? No, you!" they both glare at each other, unaware that there was this big, grey blob of confusion on both parts.

"You're the one who's been acting weird since this morning!" Satoru throws his arms in the air, "I mean seriously! You've practically been running away from me as if I've got some kind of virus!"

"No I haven't!" Asami defensively yells.

"Yes, you have! You've also been putting on this fake smile for me, forcing yourself to be affectionate with me, as if I'm not going to notice your weird behavior from the get go!"

The red head crosses her arms, "Tch, didn't realize I couldn't be affectionate with my own boyfriend without it being questioned. Because you are my boyfriend …. RIGHT?" she mockingly asks.

"Huh? Why wouldn't I be?" he immediately questions her, clearly taken back by the question.

"Because…." Asami gulps as she avoids eye contact, suddenly feeling embarrassed by the reason for her anger, "Because you haven't officially asked me out!" she finally admits.

Feeling his eyes bulge out of their sockets, Satoru stares at Asami with his mouth gaped open, "That's why you've been mad?! B-But," Satoru begins to stutter, something which was as rare as a red diamond, "But I thought we established the status of our relationship that night! You know?! The night where we confessed and kissed—"

"I know, but they said I needed to get you on a leash! And that by you not asking me out, I never had you in one to begin with!" Asami yells in panic, her face now red.

"LEASH?!"

"It's a long story! Point is, we could be the next Brad and Jennifer if I'm not careful!"

Satoru stares at Asami as if she were crazy, "W-What are you talking about?! AND WHO THE HELL IS THEY!"

Asami gulps once more, looking down at the floor as she quietly confesses, "Shoko, Utahime, and Mei Mei…"

"And what are you doing listening to them for relationship advice?!" Satoru throws his arms in the air, feeling his blood boil as he makes a mental note to enact revenge on the three girls.

"W-Well…." Asami tries to remember her thought process at the time of their conversation.

"I'm waiting," Satoru crosses his arms while impatiently tapping his foot against the floor.

"I don't know!" Asami frowns, "They just seemed like they knew what they were talking about! And I mean, it's not like they didn't make any points."

"If you don't mind, I'd really like to hear these points," he says in a mocking tone.

Asami's expression then changes from sorrowful to scornful, "Well first of all, you haven't taken me out on any dates! I'm always the one planning everything, you know? And sometimes it'd be nice if I received the same amount of effort I put in."

"Exactly! You just said it yourself, you plan everything! And I mean everything," he repeats, wanting to make sure she understood the connotation behind his words, "Everytime I try to bring something up, you quickly shut me down because you always say that you already have something better planned for us to do."

Asami remains silent for a moment.

"That's not true…" she pouts.

Softly chuckling at his girlfriend's childlike expression, Satoru gives her a knowing look, "Babe…"

Choosing to stand her ground, Asami stubbornly avoids eye contact, "Anyways, not to say I want you to buy me everything, but sometimes it'd also be nice if I was spoiled here and there," she feels a faint blush appear on her cheeks, "Like the other girls I always see at the mall with their boyfriends…"

And it's at her confession that Satoru laughs while shaking his head, "Because you never let me! You always hand your debit card before I even get the chance to pay. Not to mention, I'm too busy carrying your heavy loads of bags to even try and pull out my wallet," he teases her, grabbing her hands in the process.

Allowing him to do so, Asami begins to realize just how foolish she was being, now feeling ashamed by her behavior.

"Asami, why didn't you just tell me you were upset from the beginning?" Satoru softly asks, no longer upset, "I know I can do a lot of things, but I can't read minds," he lightheartedly jokes around.

"I know, but…" Asami sighs, "I just didn't want to be seen as the bitchy girlfriend. You know…. the one who's always uptight about everything and gets mad over the tiniest of things…."

Satoru snickers to himself before giving Asami a closed eyed smile, "But babe, that's just how always you are!"

The sound of glass breaking could then be heard as Asami's jaw hits the floor, "SO YOU THINK I'M A BITCH?"

Satoru's face immediately goes blue in horror, "N-NO! OF COURSE NOT!" he quickly reassures her, knowing he was in extremely hot water.

"I just meant that you're usually very um …." he tries to think of a replacement word, "... vocal …. about your feelings. It's always been one of your most notable traits, and I don't think you should change that just because we're in a relationship."

"But—"

"But nothing, Asami," Satoru sighs, "Damn, I knew I should've kept those dinner reservations," he quietly mumbles to himself, not expecting Asami to hear him.

Knitting her eyebrows together, Asami tilts her head in confusion, "Dinner reservations? Did you cancel them? Wait…." she frowns, beginning to connect the dots.

Gulping, Satoru blinks at her, 'Uh oh….'

"So instead of taking me to a restaurant, you took me to some flimsy mall on Christmas Eve because…..?" she waits for an explanation, the tables now turning on him.

Nervously scratching the back of his neck, Satoru feigns a chuckle, "Well um… it's funny actually…" he tries to think of something on the spot, but sadly, Asami was already onto him.

"Don't. Lie," the red head says with gritted teeth.

Knowing there was no escaping this, the infinity user decides to come clean, "Well because I'm such a good boyfriend, I sorta already had that feeling that I needed to step my game up in terms of effort and stuff," he compliments himself, desperately trying to make himself seem like the good guy in this messy situation.

"So…." he attempts to get himself out of the situation one last time, "Have I ever told you how pretty you are babe? And how cute and sweet—"

"Satoru," Asami glares at him, her patience running thin, "Get on with it."

Dropping his shoulders in defeat, Satoru feels his fingers get clammy, "So I ended up taking advice from Shoji…."

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Asami stares at her boyfriend in shock, her blood pressure immediately rising as the image of that beach-blonde moron appears in her mind.

"He said that it was too early in our relationship for me to be taking you out on Christmas Eve and that I'd only scare you off if I did," Satoru explains, realizing just how idiotic it was of him to take the advice at face value, "He also said that doing less was better and that as long as you weren't complaining, I shouldn't make life harder for myself."

Seeing nothing but red, Asami tries to wrap her mind around what she'd just been told, "And you listened to him?!"

Satoru shamefully nods his head yes.

"Why would you do that?!"

With his cheeks tinged pink, Satoru finds himself regretting not wearing his sunglasses, as he was now awkwardly avoiding eye contact, "Because …." he lowers his voice, "...He has more experience in relationships than me…" he quietly admits, hoping Asami wouldn't be able to hear him.

Shaking her head, Asami sighs, "Exactly! That dude has had like ten girlfriends in the past six months," she snorts, "Have you ever bothered to ask yourself why? It's because he doesn't know what the hell he's doing."

"I realize that now," Satoru bitterly pouts, "Isn't that all that matters?"

"Mmhmm I guess," Asami mumbles, as there was now something else that was bothering her.

"Besides, if you knew I was mad, why didn't you just confront me like you usually do?" Asami asks, recalling the number of times Satoru would purposely annoy her just to get her to admit what was bothering her. That was of course, back when they were just friends.

"Well technically speaking, it wasn't until I took you to the mall that I began to suspect your underlying anger," he truthfully explains, "And it wasn't until like two hours ago that I confirmed it."

"That doesn't answer my question Satoru," Asami says, knowing he was purposely trying to avoid giving an answer.

Childishly rolling his eyes, Satoru feels as if he's been cornered, "I didn't want to get you upset, okay? I was scared…" he frustratingly admits, tired of all the back and forth arguing.

"Scared?" Asami raises a brow, "Why would you be scared?"

"Because," he throws his arms in the air, expecting her to understand his one word explanation.

"I'm waiting," Asami throws his words from earlier right back at him, even mimicking his stance.

"Because if I got you upset then maybe…" he sighs, as vocalizing his feelings wasn't something he was really good at. In fact, he usually found himself despising it, "Then maybe…"

"I'd break up with you?"

Silence.

Feeling her heart warm, Asami immediately drops her cold demeanor as she stares at her boyfriend with a heartfelt smile on her face, "Satoru," she says in a babyish tone.

Stubbornly crossing his arms, Satoru turns his head away, knowing he was red from embarrassment, "I've seen it in movies all the time! You get the girl upset and bam … she dumps you!"

"So you thought avoiding it would be best?" she teases him.

Side-eyeing her, Satoru sees the playful smile on Asami's face before shyly nodding, realizing that she was no longer mad at him.

And though she still felt a little overwhelmed by this whirlwind of miscommunication, Asami couldn't help but find her boyfriend's naive behavior to be endearing to her.

Slumping themselves back down onto the couch, the two of them simultaneously let out a sigh before softly chuckling to themselves.

"Look at us," Asami shakes her head, "Already letting them get into our heads, for a relationship that isn't even theirs to begin with," she says, referring to their friends.

"So … what now?" Satoru asks.

"Well…." Asami pauses, turning to face her boyfriend, "If I'm being honest…"

Satoru gulps, expecting to hear the words, "I want to break up," come out of her mouth.

"Before all this, I actually really liked how things were going between us," she sheepishly admits, "What about you?"

Exhaling in relief, Satoru quickly nods his head, "I did too."

Laughing at the childlike expression on his face, Asami gives her boyfriend a grin of her own.

"I really did have plans to take you out though," he adds, wanting to make sure that she understood what his original intentions were.

"I believe you," she says, as she had complete trust in him, "You just let that moron get into your head, just like how I let Shoko, Utahime, and Mei Mei get into mine. Not only that, but we let this problem snowball itself into something much bigger, all because we were too scared of being our complete selves."

Raising a brow, Satoru stares at Asami in confusion, wondering what she meant by that last statement.

"I mean think about it, this whole dilemma could've been quickly resolved had we just been our complete selves. But since we were so caught up in trying to please one another, we just let everything build up until it was too late," she explains.

"So how do we fix that?" Satoru asks, wanting to make sure that an argument like this would never happen again.

Asami shrugs, "By letting ourselves just be us," she says, referring to their natural dynamic, "And not letting the pressure of an official relationship dictate our decision making. Sounds good?"

"Sounds perfect," he whispers into her ear while placing an arm around her shoulder, the two having come to a mutual consensus that they didn't need a label defining their relationship, as they worked best without one.

That's because in the end, they weren't boyfriend and girlfriend. They were Satoru and Asami. Two teens who often liked to bicker and argue, but at the end of the day, still deeply cared for one another. It was a serene balance. It was their relationship. Not anyone else's.

"By the way," Asami lifts her head from the crook of Satoru's neck, turning her full attention towards him, "I'm really sorry for how I treated you while I was mad. I know I probably hurt you…" she apologizes, genuinely regretful over her childish actions.

Satoru gives her a tiny smile, "It's fine," he says, deciding he had an apology of his own to make, "I'm sorry for taking you to a lousy mall for Christmas Eve."

Giggling to herself, Asami accepts his apology by wrapping her arms around his waist and snuggling her head into his chest, smiles forming on their faces as they listen to Jack and Sally sing to each other.

"I'd like to join you by your side, where we can gaze into the stars…. And sit together, now and forever, for it is plain, as anyone can see, we're simply meant to be."

---

8:30PM

"Careful Asami, careful Asami, Asami careful, careful Asami, careful Asami—"

"Satoru!" Asami quietly hisses at him while tightly holding onto the tweezers of the Operation board game they were currently playing, "I need complete silence," she says with gritted teeth.

Scratching the back of his neck, Satoru nervously laughs, "Oh right…"

Taking a deep breath in, Asami prepares to take out the patient's funny bone, a piece which was worth 22,000 yen.

"You got this Asami," she whispers to herself for reassurance, gently clamping the tips of the tweezers onto the tiny item, "I got it," she smiles, preparing to pull it out until….

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

Yelping, Asami jumps in complete surprise as the whole building begins to slightly shake. As a result, the operation alarm goes off, thus signalling her loss.

Immediately clenching her fist in anger, Asami angrily flips the board game as she allows her competitive nature to get the best of her. Getting up from the floor, the red head grumpily stomps her way out the lounge as she prepares to give whoever it was outside the building an earful.

"Asami, it's just a game," Satoru laughs at his girlfriend's tantrum while following closely behind her imaginary trail of fire, "Not to mention, it's probably Masamichi at the door, ready to pick us—"

The couple come to a sudden halt, furrowing their eyebrows when they sense the cursed energy outside the building. Opening the door, the two tilt their heads in confusion when they see a grumpy, snow covered….

"Suguru?" they both simultaneously ask.

Quickly stepping inside, Suguru shakes off any remaining snow that covers him, scowling at his friends as he takes off his shoes, "I've been knocking and calling you two for like ten minutes now!" he says, thus explaining why the whole building shook, as he had to use his own cursed energy to grab their attention.

Glancing at their phones, Satoru and Asami nervously chuckle when they see the number of missed call notifications they had, realizing they had been too enwrapped in their game of Operation.

Choosing to ignore his best friend, Satoru rudely asks, "What the hell are you doing here anyway? Shouldn't you be on a plane headed to—"

"It got cancelled," Suguru curtly interrupts, clearly in a sour mood, "Don't you see there's a raging snow storm," he dramatically points at the window while still shivering from the cold.

Rolling his eyes, Satoru prepares to make a snide comment of his own, "No fucking—"

"Shh!" Asami lifts a single finger, signalling to the boys that they needed to be quiet, "Do you guys hear that?"

Staring at her with skeptical eyes, the boys decide to listen to her and focus their hearing on some kind of commotion going on outside.

"2,000 YEN?! I told you the trip was going to be 15,000 MINIMUM!" a man yells outside, as the sound of his loud taxi engine could also be heard.

Opening the door, Asami tries to get a good look at the driveway, the snow making it quite difficult, "Is that…." she squints her eyes, "...Shoko?"

Slamming the car door, the healer steps out of the taxi while also pulling out her luggage, "My bad, I must've misheard you! I could've sworn you said 2,000…" she lies, purposely playing dumb as she scrummages through her wallet.

"I also have ummmm ….. A 3,000 yen coupon to a local ramen shop!" she offers the flimsy piece of paper to him.

Taking what he can get, the middle-aged man rudely snatches the coupon away from her hands while muttering a string of incoherent curses, knowing there wasn't much he could do except call the cops. And even then, it was Christmas night, meaning there was much more money to make picking up other strangers than wasting his time trying to hassle a stupid teen.

Watching the man step on his pedal, Shoko turns to see her friends waiting for her at the door, a surprised smile appearing on her face, "If it isn't Asami and the two losers!"

Scowling at their classmate, Suguru and Satoru mutter insults of their own under their breath.

"What happened?" Asami helps her friend remove her puffy jacket, "I thought you left early for the sole reason of avoiding this snow storm!"

"I did, but halfway through the trip, my train ran into some technical difficulties," she explains, "And after about three hours of waiting for the train to fix itself, we were told we'd have to wait for the next layover, so," Shoko shrugs, "I took that as a sign that maybe going back home just wasn't meant to be."

Asami stares at Shoko as if she were crazy, "And so you took a taxi back?!"

Shoko casually nods, tossing some of the candies she bought to Satoru, "Yup," she pops the p, "I'm assuming you three all ran into your own dilemmas as well then, right?"

Satoru playfully smirks,"Mmm, I guess you could say that."

"So we're all just stuck here for Christmas?" Suguru asks, still in a slight state of distress, as he was actually sort of looking forward to seeing his parents.

"Looks like it," Shoko sighs.

"Well actually, Masamichi-sensei and his fiance wanted us to—"

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

Opening the door one last time, the four teens awkwardly smile at their sensei and his fiance, who were clearly in shock to see all four of them together.

"Surprise," Asami breaks the silence by giving them the jazz hands, knowing they were about to answer a long list of questions.

But it seemed that whatever dinner party Masamichi had attended, had clearly worn him out, as all he did was sigh and say, "If you're not in your pajamas already, change into them and get in the car."

---

9:30PM

"Last gift everyone! From aunty Naoko to Yori," Masamichi's fiance announces, currently in charge of distributing all the gifts under the Christmas Tree.

Watching from their little corner near the fireplace, the four teens can't help but smile at the sight of a little girl receiving a brand new Harajuku-themed doll. Though they didn't personally know her, they could sense the pure joy radiating off of her.

"Cute," Satoru whispers under his breath, catching Asami, who currently had her head leaned against his shoulder, by slight surprise.

"I didn't think you had a soft spot for kids," she says quietly enough for only them to hear, her attention now on him.

"Tch, I don't," he scowls, quickly denying the claim.

But Asami is able to see through his tough-guy act, squeezing his hand in a way that said, "You don't have to lie to me."

Looking down at her, Satoru stubbornly pouts when he sees the knowing look in her eyes, "Mm, I wouldn't say it's a soft spot…." he glances at the little girl, who was now happily playing with her doll.

Unable to fight the warm fuzzy feeling in his heart, Satoru simply scoffs, "Then again, if I didn't have one, that'd only make me look like more of an asshole, don't you think?"

Giggling at his response, Asami knows that this was his way of saying that, albeit small, he did have some kind of compassion for kids.

"You're right, it would," she teases him, giving him a chaste kiss on the cheek before turning her attention back to the gift exchange.

"Oh! I think there might be another gift here," Masamichi's fiance loudly announces, grabbing everyone's attention as she reaches out to the far end of the tree.

She then pulls out a tiny box that was wrapped in a unique way. One could describe it as having a very …. boyish …. touch to it, as whoever wrapped it, clearly didn't have much experience in the gift-wrapping department.

Reading the small tag on the box, a warm smile appears on the woman's face as she turns to the direction of a certain redhead, "Asami, I think this might be for you," she says with a gentle voice.

Raising her eyebrows in confusion, Asami blinks in surprise, "Me?"

Masamichi's fiance nods, reading the tag out loud, "From Satoru. To the girl whose smile never fails to make my days shine just a little brighter. Merry Christmas and Happy Early Birthday."

Feeling her heart flutter, Asami turns to her boyfriend, "When did you—"

Satoru playfully shrugs, motioning at her to go and open her gift.

Hesitantly getting up from her seat, Asami feels a blush creep onto her cheeks as she knows all eyes are now on her. Grabbing the gift from Masamichi's fiance, the young girl gently unwraps the taped up paper, revealing a small velvet box.

Eyes widening, Asami momentarily feels a sense of panic wash over her, thinking 'No way….' to herself.

But as she opens the box, any sense of panic immediately vanishes. That's because inside the box are a sparkling pair of ruby-red earrings, more specifically, garnet-diamonds.

Soon enough, the room is filled with a number of "Oohs" and "Awws", every woman in the room either swooning over the piece of jewelry or sending glares to their husbands.

Covering her mouth with a hand, Asami finds herself at a complete loss for words, fighting back tears as she stares at the earrings in front of her, recognizing them to be her birthstone.

"You like them?" Satoru startles his girlfriend from behind.

Grinning from ear to ear, Asami immediately throws her arms around him, thus giving him the answer he was looking for.

"I'll take that as a yes," he chuckles, gently squeezing her waist in return as the two find themselves embracing in front of everyone.

Softly smiling, the adults of the Christmas gathering find themselves admiring the sight of young love, reminiscing the days when they were teens.

Pulling away from the hug, Asami stares at the earrings once more, "T-These must've cost you a fortune!" she exclaims, studying the precise cut of the diamonds, "I mean seriously! W-What made you think of getting these? When did you get them? Where?" she rambles on, clearly still in a state of shock.

Feeling smug, Satoru relishes Asami's childlike reaction, "Let's just say I've had these earrings for quite a while now," he admits, recalling the day he originally wanted to give them to her, and just how much of a shit-show it was.

"I just needed the perfect opportunity to give them to you, and well … What better day than Christmas?"

"Aren't you a romantic," Suguru says from behind, teasing his best friend. Beside him, stood Shoko, who was the one who advised Suguru into getting garnet earrings over pearls.

Shooting him a glare, Satoru mutters a quick, "Shut up."

At the same time, Shoko makes a motion with her hands, "Well? What are you waiting for Asami? Put 'em on!"

"Oh, right!" Asami laughs. Tucking her hair behind her ears, the red head carefully takes the earrings out of their case before placing them on, "So…" she secures them with their earring backs, "How do they look?" she grins.

Blinking in surprise, Suguru whispers, "How much did you spend on those again?" to his best friend. The reason for this was that the only source of light in the room came from the dimly lit fireplace, and yet Asami's earrings still somehow managed to sparkle brightly. It was enough to tell Suguru that the earrings were quite expensive.

Scratching the back of his neck, Satoru simply feigns a laugh, "Umm, you don't want to know."

"They look so cute!" Shoko smiles, "Come on, you needa see them," she leads Asami to a nearby mirror.

Walking over to a mirror in the hallway, Asami faintly gasps when she catches sight of herself, failing to hide her giddiness, "Oh my God," she fawns over the earrings once more, convinced that she'd never get tired of seeing them.

Smiling at the sight of his happy girlfriend, Satoru gives himself a well deserved pat on the back, as he knew this was a gift she'd wear for years to come.

---

10:20 PM

"Well I've actually been thinking of cutting my hair for a while now. New year, new me kind of thing," Suguru, who was currently discussing his future plans for winter break, ponders on the idea of cutting his long locks of hair, "What do you guys think?"

Carefully studying her classmate, Shoko tries to picture Suguru with hair like Satoru's, immediately shaking her head as a response, "Nuh uh."

"What?" Suguru frowns, somewhat offended by the quickness of her answer.

"I just think long hair suits you that's all," she casually shrugs, "Plus it helps you and that whole rocker thing you have going on," she adds.

"Rocker?"

Shoko chuckles, "Ah, my bad. Emo," she corrects herself, making the rest of her friends laugh.

"Hey!" Suguru glares at her, "I'm not emo!" he yells, resulting in him receiving a scoff from his next-door neighbor.

"Yeah because playing My Chemical Romance at two in the morning is soooo not an emo thing to do," Satoru gives a knowing look to his best friend, his words dripping with nothing but sarcasm.

Sending him a death stare, Suguru prepares to defend himself, "That's not tr—"

"Not to mention, you have those big earrings of yours," Asami points out, only further irritating Suguru.

"They're called gauges," he seethes, "And they don't make me emo!"

"Yes, they do," Satoru rolls his eyes, "Get them any bigger and I'll be able to put my hand through them."

"Tch, you're a little too young to be sounding like a parent already, don't you think?" Suguru scoffs, "Then again…"

And as their voices fade into oblivion, Asami quietly laughs to herself as she watches them go back and forth with each other, shaking her head when she sees the satisfied smile on Shoko's face, who knew she was the cause of this ruckus.

Feeling the warmth of the fireplace, Asami thinks about how stressed she'd been this week at the thought of going home, versus how at peace she felt in this current moment. It was the kind of peace she often found herself feeling whenever she was around her friends, laughing at the idiotic moment like these where everything just felt … right.

Resting her head against Satoru's shoulder, Asami slightly turns her head, staring at her boyfriend with a hooded gaze as she maps his face, wanting to memorize the details she liked the most.

Feeling a pair of eyes on him, Satoru takes a moment to glance down at her, giving her a small comforting smile while gently squeezing the thigh he'd been resting his hand on. From there, he quickly returns to his argument with Suguru, truly unaware of just how much he meant to Asami.

Preparing to bury her head further into the crook of his neck, Asami furrows her eyebrows when she feels something vibrate. Pulling out her phone, a look of sudden realization appears on her face when she sees the Caller ID.

"Hello?"

And perhaps it was due to their own nosiness, but as soon as Suguru and Satoru hear those words, their argument quickly comes to an end.

"Asami, I've been calling you for like the past hour now, is everything okay?" the voice on the phone asks in a worrisome tone.

Knitting his eyebrows together, Satoru gives Asami a look that says, "Who is it?"

Sighing, Asami quietly mouths, "Mom."

Making an, "Ahh," face, Satoru quickly relays the message to his friends, everyone nodding their head in understanding.

"Yeah," the red head quickly reassures her mother, "I was just too busy watching the gift exchange and giving a helping hand with everything that I must've forgotten to check my phone," she says.

"I see," Misaki feigns a chuckle, "So I take it that everything's gone well then?"

"Yeah, surprisingly it has," Asami chuckles, "And well…" Asami glances at her friends, deciding she was going to be completely honest, "A couple of my classmates had to come back due to the storm, so it's not like I'm here by myself."

"Oh…" Misaki remains silent for a moment, "That's good. I'm sure it must've been as inconvenient for their family as it was for us, but as long as you guys aren't spending Christmas by yourselves, am I right?"

"Right…"

"Well as long as you're having fun then I guess that's all that matters," Misaki prepares to say her goodbye, "Merry Christmas Asami and I'll see you tomor—"

"Mom," Asami isn't sure what comes over her, but as soon as she says those words, she knew she was making the decision of a lifetime, "About that…"

"What happened?"

Gulping, Asami takes a deep breath in before continuing, "I was actually hoping I could stay here for winter break. In Tokyo," she says, causing her friends to stare at her with wide eyes.

Silence.

Asami nervously bites her lip, "Mom?"

"B-But why?" Misaki's voice begins to shake, "If this is about you taking a train, your father and I are more than happy to go and pick—"

Asami closes her eyes out of guilt, "No it's not—"

"We can always buy you a plane ticket if you'd like, I'm sure prices—"

"No, it's just—"

"Asami, if this….." Misaki's voice breaks, her voice falling to a whisper, "If this is about your grandfather—"

"Mom!" Asami accidentally says a little too loud, trying her best to keep her composure as she knew all eyes were on her, "Mom," she repeats, this time in a softer tone, "This isn't about that."

"Then what is it about? I just don't understand why you wouldn't want to come home," Misaki's voice begins to rise, denial now turning into anger.

"Because…." Asami pauses, knowing that if she wanted to spare her mother's feelings then she was going to have to lie, "I just … I have a lot of tests coming up after winter break and I really want to focus on studying for them. Not only that, but it's just two weeks worth of break. And after doing a lot of thinking, I think I'd prefer going to Okayama during the summer when I know I can be there for a while longer."

"B-But," Misaki tries to wrap her mind around what she'd just been told, "Can we at least go and visit?"

"I…" Asamis sighs, "I don't know. I'm going to be really busy and I wouldn't want you guys coming all the way over here before the circus season starts. Especially because there's always a lot of preparation to do."

"You know that doesn't matter for us Asami," Asami's mother sniffles, a sign that she was crying, "You do know that … right?"

Turning away from her friends, Asami secretly wipes a single falling tear, "I do," is what she says, but sadly, that just didn't matter.

That's because right now, at this very moment, Asami was making a decision. She was making the decision that whatever or whoever her mom was, she didn't want to know. Not now and perhaps not ever. She wanted the image of her loving mother to remain the same. And if that meant not going home for a while, if that meant not seeing her parents …. then so be it.

"I—No, you need to talk to your dad," Misaki says, calling her husband and frantically explaining everything to him.

Hearing different mumbles and yells in the background, Asami begins to ask herself if perhaps she had made the wrong choice. Unable to stop the racing feeling in her heart, Asami shakes her head, knowing there was no going back.

"Hello? Asami?" she hears her father's voice.

"Dad?"

Tsuyoshi softly chuckles, "Hey kiddo," he says, the nickname never failing to make Asami smile.

"Hey dad," Asami greets him with a soft voice, truly her daddy's little girl.

"Now, what I have told you about leaving me with an angry mom," he jokes around, recalling the days where Asami and Misaki would occasionally argue, leaving him to pick up the pieces on both ends.

"She's angry?" Asami asks, guilt beginning to seep through the cracks.

Tsuoyshi sighs, "She's … hurt."

"But can you really blame her? She is a mother after all," he maintains a lighthearted tone, as it wasn't in his nature to ever be angry.

"I know," Asami quietly whispers, knowing there wasn't much she could say.

"So what's this about you wanting to stay in Tokyo for winter break? Just a couple of months ago you were ready to move back home, and now you don't want to come back. Make up your mind, will you?" he laughs.

Feeling her mood brighten, Asami laughs along with him, "I know, I just can't help it though. I guess I really am a moody person," she pokes fun at herself.

Beside her, Satoru jokingly whispers, "Tell me about it," to himself, resulting in him receiving a "playful" hit to the shoulder.

"Like I told mom, I want to go home during summer break when I know I'll be there for a longer time. Not only that, but I have a lot of tests coming up and I really want to focus on studying," she explains, knowing she was lying through her teeth.

Silence.

A silence that said her father also knew she was lying.

"I see…." he sighs, "Well, your mom seems quite adamant on picking you up now. In fact, I think she might be packing her bags in the other room," he chuckles, "And as her husband, I know that the best decision would be for me to agree with her…"

Asami tries to keep her disappointment at bay, already knowing what she was about to hear next.

"But as your father, I'm not going to do something you don't want us to, nor am I going to force you to do anything you simply don't want to," he says, taking her by complete surprise.

"W-What?"

"And so in the end, it's your decision Asami. We won't be mad, and though we'll be a little hurt, I promise you that we'll be just fine," he whispers. And though she couldn't see him, Asami could picture the comforting smile on his face. The smile which never failed to remind her that things were always going to be okay no matter what.

"I…" a small sad smile appears on Asami's face, "I want to stay here for winter break dad. That's my decision."

Asami was taking the blue pill. She was choosing to leave wonderland. And whether she'd regret that decision in the future, that just didn't matter right now. That's because in this current moment, life was perfect for her.

Asami was happy.

And she was going to relish every single second of it because if there was one thing she had learned in this past year, it's that nothing in life is promised except death.

"Okay then," Tsuyoshi says, respecting his daughter's decision, "I'll talk to your mother tonight, alright?"

"Alright. Thanks dad. B—"

"Wait," he stops her before she can click.

"Hm?"

"Before you hang up, I just have one request for you."

"What is it?" she asks, genuinely curious to know what he could possibly request of her.

"I know you said you'll be busy, but just don't get too busy for us, alright? An occasional phone call would still be nice," he softly chuckles, but Asami could hear the underlying fear in his voice.

"Don't worry, I won't. I'll try and call whenever I can, okay?" she reassures him.

"Perfect," he laughs, "Merry Christmas Asami and Happy Early Birthday kiddo."

"Thanks dad, bye," she hangs up, feeling a weight come off her shoulders as she turns to her friends.

"So you're really staying for winter break?!" Satoru immediately asks, excitedly inching towards her face as he waits for an answer.

"Yes, I am," Asami happily nods.

"But why? I mean you seemed so excited to go back home and well, we don't actually have any test coming up ….…. do we!?" Satoru's eyes comically widen, now panicking at the thought of taking a test he was unprepared for.

Laughing at his childishness, Asami shakes her head, "No we don't," she answers, "And as for me wanting to stay well … I just felt like it," she shrugs, giving him a playful smile, "Or do you want me to go back to Okayama?"

Satoru vigorously shakes his head, "Nuh uh, I'm taking you on a date! Plus I wanna do the face masks we did last time," he admits, making the redhead laugh.

"Sounds perfect then," Asami wraps her arms around his waist, ready to call it a night until…

"Wait, if you're staying that means I am too," Shoko announces, taking her classmates by surprise.

"Hm?" Asami hums, wanting to make sure she didn't mishear her.

"Yeah I mean, why not? I already didn't want to go home to begin with, so with you staying, I now have the perfect excuse," she casually explains, ready to call her parents and drop the news.

Unable to hide her excitement, Asami claps her hands, "That's great! That means we can all spend New Years together, right?"

Shoko nods before turning to Suguru,"What about you? Are you still going home?" she asks.

Expecting him to say no, the three teens are surprised when their classmate actually ends up nodding his head yes, "I am," he says.

"Wait what?" Asami frowns, acting as if saying no was supposed to be the most obvious answer in the world.

"Oh come on, don't you want to spend New Years with us?" Satoru jumps in on the conversation, knowing all his best friend needed was a bit of a push.

Suguru scowls, "No, I don't," he answers, "I'd much rather spend it with my family back at home, eating food that doesn't come from a cafeteria and isn't take-out."

Asami pouts, "But we are your family!" she says, "We're your sorcerer family," she wiggles her eyebrows up and down, clearly proud of her statement.

Suguru playfully rolls his eyes, "Tch, I guess," he scoffs.

"Plus, who knows when you are going to get to spend new years with your friends again? You have the rest of your life to spend it with your parents!" Satoru adds, knowing he was close to convincing him.

Taking a deep breath, Suguru takes a moment to think to himself, feeling the corners of his lips twitch as he pictures his two week break in Tokyo. Knowing he'd probably end up getting bored by the third day back at home, Suguru ultimately sighs, having come to a decision.

"Fine," he says, his friends grinning in response, "But first, what the hell are we doing for New Years?" he asks, wanting to make sure they had some kind of plan for the night.

Proudly smiling, Satoru wraps an arm around Asami, "I think I have something planned…"

---

December 31, 2005.

11:50 PM.

"Five minutes everyone, I repeat, five more minutes until the new year. Make sure you have your sky lanterns lit and ready to go!" the showrunner announces through his megaphone, watching as people begin to finish up writing their New Year resolutions.

"Gah, this is so hard," Asami sticks her tongue out while trying to think of something to write on her lantern, "What did you guys write?" she turns to her friends, who by now were lighting up their sky lanterns.

"Utahime has been trying to get me to stop smoking. so I put down that I'm going to try and limit myself to one cigarette a week," Shoko says.

Meanwhile, Suguru responds with, "I put down that I want to have a total of 1,000 curses by the end of the year, meaning I have to ingest about…." he places a finger to his chin, trying to do the mental math, "384 curses."

Asami feels her eyes widen, "Woah," she laughs, deciding to do some mental math of her own, "If you go at that rate, in ten years time you'll have around 4,500 curses in your possession," she says.

Suguru casually shrugs, "Perhaps, who knows though," he says, shuddering at the thought of having to swallow that many curses.

From there, Asami turns to her boyfriend, "What about you?" she nudges him, trying to get a glimpse at what he was writing as he seemed to be quite focused.

"Give me a quick second," Satoru quickly scribbles down his final couple of words before looking up at his friends and clearing his throat, "My new year resolution is…."

He purposely pauses as a way to build up anticipation. As a result, his friends expect to hear something about training or making some kind of advancement in his cursed techniques.

"... to unlock Gallantmon and Zudomon on Digimon Rumble Arena 2!"

Their jaws comedically drop to the floor as Satoru begins to ramble on about how difficult some of the levels to the game were. Honestly, the three teens had no one but themselves to blame for their disappointment, as they should've known better than to think Satoru would actually take the concept of a new years resolution seriously.

Shaking their heads, the three teens laugh as the event coordinator announces, "Five more minutes everyone, five more minutes!"

Squirming in panic, Asami quickly tries to jot something down on her lantern, "Gah, I can't think of anything!"

"Asami, it's not that serious," Satoru laughs, "Most people forget about their resolutions by January second."

"I know, I know, but still," she pouts before snapping her fingers in excitement, "Ah, I got it!" she quickly writes down her idea.

Raising his brows in curiosity, Satoru asks, "Well, what is it?"

Excitedly showing him the inner part of her lantern, Asami announces, "I'm going to try and master my cursed techniques by the end of the year!"

Endeared by her enthusiasm, Satoru frowns when he remembers a certain technique of hers, the one that she hadn't talked about since the night at the ball. Knowing he'd have to ask at some point, Satoru sighs, "Wait, even—"

"Even that one," Asami interrupts him before he can continue, a soft chuckle escaping from her lips, "Especially that one," she adds.

"But I thought you were against using it…." Satoru gulps, feeling as if he was walking on eggshells, "Especially after the situation with …. you know...

Asami casually shrugs, "I know, but I guess I've just learned to accept it, that's all. Plus, if it's the technique I'm stuck with, then I might as well learn how to control it rather than fear it, am I right?"

Satoru happily nods, "You're completely right," he says.

"Besides, once I get my techniques down, I can probably start working on my domain," she says, truly an exemplary student, "Something you should get to working on as well," she nudges her boyfriend.

Satoru childishly rolls his eyes while sighing, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll get around to it soon, I just need to find the time," he lies.

"What are you talking about? You have all the time in the world," Suguru scoffs as the image of Satoru napping in the lounge appears in his mind.

Satoru scowls, "Tch, how about you worry about your own—"

"One minute everyone! Get ready to let go of your lanterns!" the event coordinator announces, everyone quickly getting into position as the countdown begins.

Quickly lighting her lantern, Asami holds the outer rim as it begins to inflate with hot air, thinking about what a year it's been. To think that just a couple of months ago she was performing at the circus, oblivious to the world of curses. And now she was exorcising those very same curses, surrounded by friends who she couldn't be more grateful for, creating memories like these that would last a lifetime.

Glancing at her classmates, Asami smiles when she catches them all staring at one another, perhaps thinking the very same thing she was.

"10….9….8…..7…."

Everyone begins to count down, ready to give their final farewell to 2005.

"...6…..5…..4…."

Taking a deep breath, Asami feels her fingers get clammy as she prepares to let go of her sky lantern, ready to see the night sky fill with yellow.

"3….2…..1…. HAPPY NEW YEARS!"

Letting go of their lanterns, a faint collective gasp could be heard as everyone watched their lanterns slowly begin to float into the sky, nothing but complete awe on their faces, as it was now officially 2006.

And as people begin to welcome the new year with a hug or kiss, Asami continues to stare at the sky in blissful wonder, "Woah," she whispers to herself, tugging at her boyfriend's sleeve as she excitedly points at one of the lanterns in the sky.

"Stunning, huh?" he chuckles, his attention not on the breathtaking sky above him, but the pretty girl next to him.

Vigorously nodding, Asami grins, wishing she had brought a camera along with her, "Extrem—"

But before she can finish her sentence, Satoru was already pulling her in for a kiss of his own, his fingers gently curling around the nape of her neck as he takes her by complete surprise.

Melting into the kiss, Asami softly wraps her arms around his waist, giggling in between the pecks of kisses he gives to her lips before pulling away.

"Happy Birthday Asami," Satoru gives her a small boop to the nose, for the first time, making her laugh as a result, "Oh and happy new year," he adds, a childish smile now on his face.

"You know, if I'm being honest, I completely forgot about that," Asami chuckles, too enamored by the lantern show to even bother remembering that tonight was her birthday. Not only was it now 2006, but she was also officially 16 as well.

Greeted by her friends, Asami thanks them for their personal birthday wishes.

From there, the four teens stare up into the sky once more, for some odd reason, feeling quite sentimental, "So, what do you guys think the year is going to bring us?" Suguru asks.

Satoru shrugs while casually wrapping an arm around Asami, "Who knows."

"Let's just hope it isn't something too crazy," Asami laughs.

"Eh, I doubt it," Shoko yawns, "Anyways, do you guys think I'm allowed to light a cigarette around here or…." she asks, a tell-tale sign that she was throwing her new year's resolution completely out the window.

Sharing looks of disbelief with each other, the three special grade shamans stare at Shoko in shocked silence.

Frowning, Shoko pouts in confusion, "What?"

Asami purposely coughs, her eyes pointing at the sky.

Furrowing her brows, Shoko takes a couple of seconds to connect the dots, but when she does, her cheeks immediately redden in embarrassment, "Oh …um right…" she awkwardly smiles, comedically tossing out the cigarette in her hand from behind.

Feeling the corners of their lips twitch, the four teens break into sudden fits of giggles, clutching onto their stomachs as the world around them falls into a silence, oblivious to what was to come.

---

A/N:

(Warning: Pretty long! Like extremely. I answer some potential questions that may or may not inevitably arise with this chapter.)

And so, it's officially 2006! The year of the star vessel arc … woohoo! LOL.

Last chapter I felt like the jump in Asami and Gojo's relationship was perhaps a little too much, and so for this chapter I definitely wanted to highlight that Asami and Gojo will still occasionally clash and butt heads. That's because at the end of the day, they started off as enemies, meaning there are flaws in their personalities that the two will still occasionally get annoyed with. I definitely didn't want to make the mistake of just throwing all of their bantering and friendship out the window. Not only that, but I also wanted to focus on the transitional problems that come with a relationship that has its roots in being an old rivalry turned friendship.

This chapter also sort of hints at future problems that the couple will face. Asami and Gojo are complicated characters, so I guess it only makes sense that they'll have complicated problems.

(Warning: Possible Spoilers?)

In teenage Gojo's case, it's that he doesn't believe he's good at identifying people's feelings, leading him to avoid comforting and asking others what they feel. I know that from the reader's perspective, we've seen him multiple times ask Asami how she feels and comfort her, but in his eyes, Gojo truly believes he's not good at any of that stuff. I don't want to say that Gojo is a perfectionist, but I do think he's someone who's simply used to being perfect at everything he does all the time. And so for him to be in his first relationship, and not be the perfect guy, will bring some kind of insecurities out of him, as well as make him doubt himself.

As for Asami, well …. We've seen her character flaws in the past, so it's safe to assume that those will carry on over to this relationship. For example, when Gojo scared her and she got all bitchy about it. Luckily, she identified her rudeness, but later on she still avoided his kiss out of pettiness so there's that LOL. I can honestly write an essay on her flaws. LOL, not me hating on my own OC.

Next topic: PDA/ Love Language.

As to what kind of couple Gojo and Asami will be, that's still something I'm trying to get a good grasp of. Gojo, in my personal opinion, is someone whose love language seems like it'd be a mix of physical touch, small/sincere acts of service, gift giving, and quality time.

This is because :

1. Gojo is probably someone who was deprived of physical touch as a child

2. His infinite technique would make it ironic that he actually romantically likes physical touch

3. Gojo is rich

The reason I exclude words of affirmation is that he seems like someone who'd prefer being on the receiving end rather than being the one to give, as it'd make him feel validated and remind him that he's doing a good job being a "good" person. Not only that, but Gojo just seems like someone who's better at expressing his feelings through actions than in words (small acts of service).

As for Asami, I see the teenage version of herself having a love language that also revolves all around all five love languages with an emphasis on physical touch, quality time, and giving words of affirmation. I think the three best words to describe her would be: sweet, naive, and affectionate.

All in all, I see Asami and Gojo being a laid-back couple who are intimate in private (Gojo being clingy and touchy) , and jokingly affectionate in public here and there, especially when it comes to wanting to annoy their friends on purpose. And even then, they'll still be immersed in whatever conversation their friends are having.

I don't see them being a couple of massive PDA, I think the most PDA-like thing they'll do in public is probably an occasional kiss to the cheek and/or peck when saying goodbye. The kiss for New Years is one of those rare things they'll do in front of people, but a hug will always be more likely (Christmas Party).

Rather than that, I picture them being the kind of couple who will still act like their usual selves in public (aka bickering with each other) while having/doing small distinct acts that make it clear that they're a couple of some sort.

So for example, even though teenage Gojo doesn't look like someone who likes being physically intimate, you'll always find him having some kind of small touch/connection with Asami, whether it's an arm wrapped around her shoulder, a hand to the thigh, tousling her hair, little pecks to the cheek or hair, playing with her hand, hugs from behind, etc. For Gojo, as long as he's connected to Asami in any way, shape, or form, then he's a happy man. And the same goes for Asami. For them it all comes natural, something they do without thinking, almost like it's second nature.

It's all those little affectionate/intimate moments that will casually be out there, that really make them a special couple.

P.S You'll still find Gojo and Asami referring to each other as their boyfriend and girlfriend.

Next Topic: Utahime & Mei Mei

It seems that Utahime is 31 in present-day JJK, and considering Shoko and Gojo are set to turn 29 in 2018, that means Utahime is two years older than them, making her a third year when the gang were first-years. As for Mei Mei, her age is unknown but based on the fact that she had to go on the mission with Utahime in chapter 65, I decided to make her just a year older with the excuse that working sorcerers have to accompany fourth-years to missions.

Also, I hope I made it clear that Mei Mei is by no means trying to steal Gojo from Asami, nor will that ever be a conflict in the story.

Yes, she is a weirdo, but I've never really liked the whole "an evil female character is desperately trying to steal the OC's man trop" in stories. Idk why but it's always left a sour taste in my mouth and just doesn't feel right. That's why I always made it clear that Suki (the waitress) was never some kind of vindictive bitch and was actually a very sweet girl.

All in all, what I'm trying to say is that for Mei Mei, money is the only important thing on her mind. Everything else is just for her own personal fun.

Next Topic: Asami's Mother.

As for this topic, what I will say is that … go back and read her appearances throughout the story and ask yourselves, does this sound like someone who's lying/hiding something? Or do they really believe what's coming out of their mouth?

Asami's mother, in this chapter, was genuinely telling the truth when she said she didn't have a brother. That's all I shall say.

If you've read all this, thanks! Feel free to leave a review, scream at me, cry with me, and more! I swear I won't get offended, unless you come at me really meanly … which luckily none of you guys have! So once again, thanks!