Day 7: The Friendship Intervention

"What are you doing?" Yamato glanced over Sora's shoulder to see what she was writing down so enthusiastically.
"I'm just sending a text to Taichi to make sure he doesn't forget about his math assignment tomorrow."
"How do you even know he has a math assignment to hand in?"
"Because he told me?" Sora looked at Yamato with the most obvious expression and knew right away he didn't believe a word she had said.
"Sora."
"Okay, I heard him saying it to a classmate."
"Sora." Yamato repeated and looked at her with intensity.
"Alright, fine." She rolled her eyes. "I keep track of some of their activities to make sure they won't forget about it."
"Their? Who?"
"You know… they."
"Eh… no, I don't. Them who?"
"All of… us." The last word came out so low it was almost inaudible to him, but he was still able to hear it.
"Us as in all of the Chosen Children?"
Sora bit her lower lip and looked down. She knew she was about to get lectured for this action.
"Why would you do that?"
"In my defense, I'm just trying to help them out. I don't want them to get in trouble because of school."
"They are perfectly able to know when their own works are due on their own."
"I know, I know." Sora said apologetically. "I promise I'm not going to do that anymore."
"I thought you only did this to me… and Takeru, sometimes."
"At first, yes. But then I got to like doing this and one thing led to another and… Well, I'm here right now."
"What about you?"
"What?" She looked at him with surprise.
"What about you?" Yamato repeated. "You are always checking on other people, but when are you going to prioritize yourself?"
"I do prioritize myself… when I'm checking on other people."
"That's not prioritizing yourself at all."
"But I feel useful that way."
"That's still not giving yourself a priority."
"I promise to do that as soon as Taichi finishes his assignment and hand it over."
"Somehow I don't believe you."
"I swear."
"Are you going to keep it?"
"Yes, absolutely!" She said rather desperately and held his forearm. "You can trust me, I never broke any promise to you before."
"That is true." He had to admit she had a point there. He sighed, defeated. "Okay, as soon as he gives his assignment to his teacher then."
"It's a deal!" She Sora exclaimed happily and stood on her toes to kiss her boyfriend on the cheek before going to her classroom. "I promise I won't let you down."

.

Jou was riding his bike home after school when he spotted Yamato walking out of a hairdresser and checked something on his phone, sighing deeply and scratching the back of his head.
"Yamato?"
"Jou, hey." He looked up at his friend as he approached him.
"Where you getting your hair fixed?"
"Sort of. I was scheduling a time for a haircut and manicure also."
"That's nice, it's good to change sometimes. I didn't know you were into painting your nails."
"I'm not. These are for Sora." Yamato looked at him and saw his confused expression. "She hasn't been taking care of herself that much lately."
"I see. She does that sometimes."
"Yeah, she promised me she would prioritize herself, but I don't think she will go through with this. At least, not entirely. So I thought maybe I could surprise her with a special weekend with getting her nails and hair done and a massage session, you know? Things like that."
"I see. So you wanted to do something yourself in case she didn't follow through with her promise."
"That's right. Besides, everything that's happened lately got her a little more stressed than usual. I mean, it got all of us like that, but it affected her more than us this time. So I also want her to have a relaxing weekend and take her mind away of these thoughts."
"That's a very nice thing to do. She will be very happy with you and what you did for her."
"That's what I hope." He paused for some seconds. "I'm afraid she will be angry with me."
"She could never get angry at you, especially at something so special you did to her. She will love it, I'm sure." Jou reassured him. "So what do you have in your list?"
"So far only hair and nails." Yamato looked down at the list on his phone. "I was thinking maybe a day in a SPA too. Planning these things is so hard. I never did this before, so I have no idea what to include."
"Let me see." He grabbed his friend's cellphone. "SPA is a good idea. There are some cool things there."
"Have you been to a SPA before?" The blonde asked him with an eyebrow raised.
"No." Jou said quickly, but he knew his blushing gave him away completely. "That's what intern women in the hospital say sometimes."
"Right." Yamato nodded and took his phone back from his hand. "So we have hair, nail and SPA. What else should we include?"
"I think she would love to have the best date ever to end her special weekend."
"Probably." He went quite as he typed 'take her to the best date I can give her' on his cellphone and then pressed his hand on his face tightly. "I'm such a terrible boyfriend because I can't think of anything else to do for her."
"Don't worry, we are going to figure something out though. I'm sure she will be pleased and happy with anything she gets."
"That's true." Yamato nodded. "But Jou, I don't want to drag you into his. You already have so much to do."
"Don't be silly." Jou smiled at him. "I want to do this. Besides, I also think she needs to take a break from everything from time to time. Come on, I know the perfect SPA place in Odaiba."

.

Sora was doing a school assignment in her laptop when Yamato walked in with Jou with quite a few bags from some stores. She had a confused look in her face.
"Hey there." Yamato greeted her with a smile as he put the bags on her couch. Jou followed him suit.
"Hey." She said in a low tone as she made her way to her living room. "Hi, Jou."
"Hello, Sora. How are you?"
"I'm good, thanks." She smiled warmly at him. "What are these for?"
"These are for you."
"For me? Why?"
"It's just a something we wanted to buy to you."
"Something? There are so many clothes around here." Sora stated still shocked with the quantity of bags and then started going through them. She took out a plain dark blue dress from one of the bags and looked at it with a smile. "I like this one a lot."
"I'm glad you do."
"Eh… Yamato?"
"Yes?"
"Are there events we need to attend to coming up? That's the only reason for so many clothes."
"No, there aren't any new events as far as I know. But you're the one who's always controlling these things, so…"
"I think I got it now." She put her dress back in the bag. "This is about the promise I made you about the other day, isn't it? You think I'm not going to follow through with it."
"Sora, I…" Yamato said nervously. "I…"
"There is more to it, right?"
"Don't be angry at him, Sora." Jou stepped in to support his friend. "Yamato meant well. He just wants you to take care of yourself too."
"I know, I just think this is maybe a little too much. I mean…" She turned her focus to the bags in her couch again. "Look at this."
"It's not even half of what you deserve."
"It's good to be spoiled sometimes."
"I suppose so." She sat down on the empty space that weren't taken by the bags. "Okay, so since obviously there's more to it, what else did you get?"
"Well, Yamato scheduled a time for you at a manicure and hairdresser and then we went to a SPA nearby to book a relaxing massage session for you."
"I could use a massage session. I really need it at the moment."
"Awesome."
"There's one condition though."
"I knew it was too good to be true." Jou rolled his eyes.
"Shoot."
"I want you two to go with me."
"What?"
"That's right. I want you to have the same relaxing massage as me."
"But Sora, this was supposed to be about you." Yamato protested.
"Yamato's right. We can go another time together, but this one is only about you."
"Deal."

.

Sora left her house at about 9 a.m that Saturday morning to have her nails done. She had received a text message from Yamato not too long ago with the address she was supposed to go to. She was still a little unsure about the whole thing, but deep down she knew both Yamato and Jou were only looking for her. And she also knew she needed it, and she probably would only do it when she had absolutely no choice but to do it.

.

As soon as she stopped in front of the hairdresser, she noticed it was one of the most expensive places for these things in Odaiba. Sora couldn't help but laugh, thinking how Yamato didn't have a clue on prices for such things and look for cheaper places. But then again, she treasured his attitude a lot and knew he meant well, so she pushed the door open and walked in.

The whole place was extremely neat and impeccable. It was definitely worth the price. The staff was pretty nice and friendly and made her feel at home. First she got her hair cut, but not too much as she wanted it to grow a little longer that time.
"I don't think I've seen you here before." The manicure said after she finished getting Sora's nails ready for the nail polisher.
"Yeah, it's not usual for me to get my nails painted."
"That's a shame, you have such beautiful fingers and nails. Every color would look great in them."
"Thanks." Sora smiled kindly at her.
"So, what color are you going to choose?"
"Hmmm." She looked through the nail polishers on a shelf. "I think maybe a light pink one. I'm not sure how I feel about bright or dark tones."
"How about red? It would absolutely look amazing on you!"
"Eh… I don't know. There's a possibility I might have a date with my boyfriend at night and will probably wear a dark blue dress, so maybe a light blue tone?"
"Light blue would be great too, but why don't you try dark blue?" The manicure suggested. "It would match your dress perfectly."
"Alright, why not?"

When Sora left the hairdresser, she couldn't stop looking at her nails. The manicure was right, dark tones looked great on her. She let out a smile before she pulled her phone out of her pocket being really careful not to ruin her newly finished nails to send Yamato a massage, only to be surprised by finding out he had sent a new one to her.

Hey, baby! I hope I'm not too late, but I'm sending you the address from the SPA. How did things go at the hairdresser? Are you still there?"
Hi, baby. You're right on time, I just left there. Things were great there, and I really can't wait to show you the result. I'm positive you will adore my nails. I won't send you a picture because I want it to be a surprise. So you'll have to wait until tonight to see it.

Eventually, she slid her phone back into her pocket and made her way to the SPA Jou had booked for her, which wasn't very far from where she was now.

.

As soon as she walked in, she was absolutely in awe with everything in there and she knew right away Jou had chosen that place. The SPA had a sort of fancy vibe, with lots of red decoration, which contrasted perfectly with the dark tones from the floor. The other end of the place led to a beautiful and large garden with at least a dozen trees and some flowers in some parts of it. Sora was amazed by the scenario and couldn't look away for a while.

There was a very large balcony in the reception where costumers could choose the color and size of their robes and bands before going to their massage room. Sora thought for a moment, but eventually ended up choosing a classic white robe with a red band.
"Here you go." The man handed her the robe and the band. "Your room is number 7, on the left. There was a dressing room right over there where you can leave your clothes and get them back late. You can knock on the door when you are ready."
"Great, thank you!" Sora grabbed it with a smile and then headed to dressing room to change.

The room was rather large and lighter than the reception she was previously on, with some white tones in the walls and decorations. It was very cozy too, Sora noticed, and there was a gurney almost in the middle of the room with a white sheet over it.
"Good morning."
"Good morning. You must be Sora, right?"
"That's right." Sora offered her a smile.
"I'm Naomi. Is it your first time here?"
"It is."
"I see. Well, so first we are going to start by putting some heated stones on your back. They will help you relax before we move on the massage."
"Great."
"You can hang your robe here and lie on the gurney face down."
"Alright." Sora did as she said and felt her covering her butt and legs with a thicker sheet.

About two hours or so after, Sora found herself back in the dressing room of the SPA changing into her own clothes. Even though she had just finished her massage session, she could already feel herself more relaxed and light too. She made a mental note to thank Yamato and Jou for such a great Saturday; she didn't realize she needed it that much.

.

Sora arrived back to her apartment feeling very exhausted and considered cancelling her date with Yamato that night because of that. But then she thought he did all of this for her and wanted to make it up for him. So she went through the bags he and Jou had bought the day before and picked up the fancy blue dress, putting on a hanger and hanging it on her wardrobe door.

When Sora walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a light pink towel and with another one wrapped around her hair, she took one look at herself on the mirror as she removed the towel around her hair and let it down. She then gave a genuine smile towards her reflection while she thought about everything that happened that day and the day before and how she felt grateful for having such two amazing people around her. She couldn't help but feel lucky she had the best friends in the world.

"Hey." Yamato said softly, leaned against her doorframe.
"Hey there." Sora gave him what he thought was the most beautiful smile of hers he's ever seen in his life. "I thought we were only going to be meeting in a couple of hours."
"We were." He approached her and stopped right behind her chair, placing his hands on her shoulders. "But I couldn't wait until then to see you. How was your day?"
She closed her eyes for a moment; the events still playing on her mind. "It was the most amazing day ever."