(Sunday, 10:00AM; House; Akihito's PoV)

Today is a big day. It's the day I buy my first ever gift for Monika. Getting out of bed, I get ready for the day. I brush my teeth, and take a nice shower.

Once I'm done, I head to my bedroom to pick out my clothes for the day. It's not too chilly, so some jeans and a hoodie should work for today. Once I'm dressed, I head downstairs for a quick breakfast.

I settle for a simple protein bar, as I'm not that hungry at the moment. I grab my phone, keys, and most importantly, my wallet, and then head straight towards the mall.

Once I reach the mall, I go to one of the directories to see where the jewelry store is. It seems to be just down the hall. I start my trek there.

Compared to the rest of the mall, which is packed with gift shoppers, the jewelry store is fairly calm and quiet. Browsing around the store, I don't seem to find the ring Monika was looking at. I head to the front counter to ask the guy at the front about the ring.

Aki: "Excuse me, I'm looking for a ring I saw a few days ago, but they don't seem to be here."

Store Clerk: "Oh! Do you happen to know what the ring looks like?"

Aki: "Yes, it's the one on display at the front of the store. The golden one with an emerald, to be specific."

Store Clerk: "Oh yes, marvelous choice. Let me look around to see if we have that here."

Aki: "Thank you. Shall I wait here?"

Store Clerk: "Yes please. I will return in a few minutes."

The clerk then goes in an "employees only" area, most likely where they keep other jewelry. A few minutes later, the clerk comes back with a small box. He then opens it up to show me the contents inside.

Store Clerk: "Is this the ring you are looking for?"

Aki: "Yes! Thank you so much!"

Store Clerk: "Alright, that will be $49.99. How would you like to pay?"

Aki: "Cash, if that's okay."

Store Clerk: "Very well."

I pull out my wallet, and take out the fifty dollars, plus another five dollar bill. I then hand it to the clerk. He places the money in the cash register, and pulls out the change.

Store Clerk: "Your change, sir."

Aki: "Oh, please keep it as a tip."

Store Clerk: "Thank you, sir. Would you like me to wrap the gift for you?"

Aki: "Yes please."

The clerk then gets some wrapping paper and begins to wrap the ring box.

Store Clerk: "If it's not too personal, who is this ring for?"

Aki: "My girlfriend."

Store Clerk: "Ooh, planning on proposing?"

Aki: "Heh, I wish. I'm still too young for that though."

Store Clerk: "Well nevertheless, this is a very good gift."

Aki: "Thank you."

The clerk then finishes wrapping the ring box, and hands it to me.

Store Clerk: "Here you go."

Aki: "Thanks. Merry Christmas!"

Store Clerk: "Merry Christmas to you too as well."

I then leave the store. Well, my plan for the day is done. Time to leave! As I'm about to leave, I see someone familiar. Wait, is that… Yuri? I walk closer to get a better look. Sure enough, it's her. She seems to be looking at something in the bookstore's front display. I walk up to her.

Aki: "Hey Yuri!"

Yuri: "AH! O-oh, it's just you Aki."

Okay, that caught me off guard.

Aki: "S-sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

Yuri: "No no, I shouldn't get scared easily like that."

Aki: "Well, you can't really control that, can you?"

Yuri: "Ahaha, I guess not."

That seemed to have calmed her down.

Aki: "Anyways, what're you doing here?"

Yuri: "I was getting a gift for the Secret Santa, I must've gotten distracted looking at the bookstore…"

Aki: "Hey it's okay, it happens to all of us."

Yuri: "W-what are you doing here?"

Aki: "Actually, I was just about to head out."

Yuri: "Oh?"

Aki: "I just finished my Secret Santa shopping. Say… do you want to shop together if you haven't already gotten your gift?"

Yuri: "B-but isn't that against the rules?"

Aki: "It's not illegal if you don't get caught."

Yuri: "E-excuse me?!"

Note to self, don't be sarcastic around Yuri alone.

Aki: "Sorry, it was a joke. To answer your question, we can shop together as long as we don't have each other."

Yuri: "O-okay… that would be nice…"

Aki: "Great! By the way, who do you have?"

Yuri: "Oh, I have Natsuki. And you?"

Aki: "I had Monika."

Yuri: "Very ironic, considering that you two are in a relationship."

Aki: "Heh, I guess so. Anyways, what did you have in mind?"

Yuri: "What do you mean?"

Aki: "What do you plan on getting for Natsuki?"

Yuri: "I'm not so sure…"

Aki: "Hmm… okay. Let's start with this. What are her interests that you know of?"

Yuri: "Well, I know that she has an interest in manga, but I don't know what to get her. I don't know her favorite genres or what she has already read."

Aki: "Alright… do you know what else she likes?"

Yuri: "She also has an interest in cooking, maybe I can get something related to that?"

Aki: "That's a good start!"

Yuri: "She did say that she wanted to learn more recipes… maybe I could get her a cookbook? Oh yes, that's perfect!"

Aki: "See? That wasn't so hard! Now we just need to find where we can get one."

Yuri: "They should have a few in this bookstore."

Aki: "Really?"

Yuri: "These stores have more than literature books, Aki."

Aki: "Huh, you learn something new everyday. Well, let's check inside, shall we?"

Yuri and I enter the bookstore. I have never been to this bookstore before. In fact, this is probably the first bookstore I've been to my entire life.

Yuri: "They normally wouldn't set the cookbooks in the main shelves, as those are for literature books. But I don't know where else they would keep them."

Aki: "Wait right here, I'll be right back."

I then try to find a librarian that works here. I soon find one at the front desk.

Aki: "Excuse me, do you sell cookbooks here?"

Librarian: "Yes, they will be towards the wall over there."

She then points to one of the faraway walls in the bookstore.

Librarian: "There won't be a wide selection though."

Aki: "That's fine, thank you!"

I then go back to where I left Yuri. What the hell? Where is she? I swear I told her to stay here. I can't call out to her, or call her phone because that would cause too much disruption. Wait, does that rule apply to bookstores? Ah, that doesn't matter right now. I sift through the store, searching for Yuri. Eventually, I find her looking at one of the bookshelves.

Aki: "Yuri, I told you to wait where I left you!"

Yuri: "M-my apologies, I must've gotten carried away…"

Aki: "Eh, it's fine. I shouldn't get too worked up about this. The cookbooks are over there against the wall."

I then point to the area where the librarian told me where the cookbooks were.

Yuri: "O-okay…"

We head over to the section, and there's only like five cookbooks there.

Yuri: "Oh dear… there doesn't seem to be many options."

Aki: "It's fine, I don't think she'd care that much as long as the cookbook serves its intended purpose."

Yuri: "Ahaha, okay then. How does this one look?"

Aki: "One hundred recipes, eh? Yeah, that's perfect."

Yuri: "Alright. Shall we check out?"

Aki: "Hold on, there was this one book you kept on looking at in the store front and the bookshelf. What about that one?"

Yuri: "Oh! It's a new release and the next addition to one of the series I'm reading. I've already ordered the book online, I was just surprised that it is here already."

Aki: "Huh, that's cool. Alright then, I won't ask any more questions. Shall we head out?"

Yuri: "Yes, but we need to pay first."

Aki: "Oh yeah, you're right. I'll wait outside and you can pay. Is that okay?"

Yuri: "Sure, I will join you in a moment."

I head outside the bookstore and wait for Yuri. A few minutes later she comes out.

Aki: "All done?"

Yuri: "Yep. Um, may I ask a question?"

Aki: "Sure."

Yuri: "What did you get for Monika?"

Aki: "Oh, I got her a simple ring. When we both came here yesterday, she was looking at it, but didn't admit to wanting it. She probably thought it was too expensive."

Yuri: "Was it expensive?"

Aki: "Not that much, I think it was fifty dollars."

Yuri: "Oh, may I see it?"

Aki: "It's already wrapped, and I wouldn't want to undo the wrapping, you know."

Yuri: "Ah, I understand."

Aki: "But you can see it at the party."

Yuri: "Okay…"

An awkward silence ensues. To be honest, I've never been in a situation like this, with just me and Yuri. I don't even know her that well to do some small talk. Luckily, Yuri is the first to speak up.

Yuri: "I should get going, it was a pleasure to see you, Aki."

Aki: "Nice seeing you too, Yuri. See ya tomorrow."

Yuri: "You too."

With that, Yuri leaves the mall. Once again, I'm left alone. I should probably go home as well, as I don't have anything to do here.

The walk back is really relaxing. It's not extremely cold, just a little breezy. Once I reach home, I put the ring upstairs in my room.

Now is the perfect time to put Christmas decorations around the house. I take the string lights and decorate the exterior of my house. I use a ladder and place the string lights on the outline of my roof. My house isn't that tall, so it's not that hard to get all the spots.

Once I'm done with that, I take the ladder and head inside. Now to decorate the Christmas tree. I take the tree from the attic and set it up in the living room. I then take the ornaments that Monika and I bought yesterday, and hang them around the tree.

Phew, that was a good amount of work. Now the house is nicely decorated for Christmas and the party. Honestly I don't know why I didn't do this earlier, but at least I did before Christmas. Tomorrow will be a big day, because tomorrow is the Christmas party.