Chapter 11: Meeting the brothers (part I)

"WOOHOO!" Delin shouted loudly as she was, literally, skipping through the hallway with her hands in the air. "Winter is HEERRRREEE!"

"Um… Delin…" I said as I walked behind her with a rather funny look. "You might have to… keep that down…"

"What can you say to blame me, Konna?" She turned her head around to face me, grinning ear to ear. "We've got the whole winter break, and Christmas is almost here as well! Man, I love this time of year!"

Yeah, I really couldn't blame her for acting this way. Our teacher just said that our winter break would be next week, and Christmas was just around the corner. My other classmates were very excited about this too and some of them already had their own plans.

Speaking of plans… "Hey Delin, ya going back to Manchester, right?"

"Uh huh." She nodded as she finally slowed down, letting me catch up with me. "My family is very eager to see me, especially my mom and dad. Damn, I can't count how many mails and phone calls I received from them throughout the year."

I chuckled heartedly. "I'm sure they'd really like to see you again during Christmas."

"You're right, but…" She looked over me with a little sadness on her face. "What about you, Konna? You… have no family or relative…"

"Nah, I'll be fine." I smiled, waving my hand. "Maybe I'll hang out with the ones who will still be here."

"Are you sure you won't feel lonely, now that I'm heading back to Manchester…?"

"I told you, I'll do just fine!"

"You always say that… How about I return back here early-"

"No no no! Don't do that!" I said. "You should spend as much time as you can with your family! Family is very important."

"Konna…" Delin said quietly as the train stopped behind us, door opening and tons of people coming out from it. She hugged me tightly. "Take care. I'll miss you."

"Geez, you act as if I'll disappear forever." I chuckled, patting her back. "I keep telling you, but I'll be fine on my own. Spending Christmas alone isn't that bad. You should go or else you'll miss the train. Oh, and say hello to your family for me, alright?"

"Alright."

She smiled and walked into the train. Sitting beside a window, she spotted me who was still standing there. She waved and I waved back at her.

"Goodbye, Konna!"

"Bye Delin!"

I kept waving until the train was out of my sight. Sighing, I headed back to my house among the crowd around me. I understood why Delin felt so bad for me. No family, no relative, no loved ones to spend Christmas with… Just me and myself during winter. Honestly, when I was younger after losing everyone I loved, seeing other people spending time with their closed ones made me feel very lonely, crave for warmth, love and care from others… But after years, I was soon used to lonesome, so now being alone wasn't so bad to me anymore.

Reaching home, I went straight to my room and plopped onto my bed, not bothering to change into something more comfortable than jeans and a thick sweater. I was kind of felt relieved that I was still in the beginning of winter break. College was quite tough. It was 9 in the evening, and I had no homework, so I guessed I would read some books and slept.

A few hours passed and I felt very tired, my eyelids were starting to feel heavy. Well, time for bed. Changing into my pajama, I then lied back onto my bed and pulled the blanket over my body, drowning into the warmth of it. Thinking of waking up tomorrow whenever I liked in the kind of weather was so relieved. Gosh, I bet you know the feelings of having to wake up early on a freezing cold morning while you still crave to stay in your warm bed.

Just after closing my eyes, I felt a presence beside me. Looking over, I nearly jumped out of my bed when I saw a freaking tall figure looming over me.

"What the heck, Slender?!" I exclaimed. "When- no, HOW did you get here?!"

"Teleporting."

Okay, I forgot about that.

"You scared hell out of me!"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry, but… Help me!"

"W- wha-?" I asked in confusion.

"No joking! Really!" He said, panicking. "I really need your help here!"

Staring at him blankly, I burst into laughter.

"Hahahaha! W- what the- Hahaha!"

"What's so funny?"

"T- This is the first time t- haha- that I've seen you b- hahaha- begging me f- for help like that." I said, trying to speak properly between my laugh.

"I'm serious, Konna! This is real serious!"

Finally managing to calm down, I wiped the tears out of the corners of my eyes. "O- Okay… What's the problem here?"

"Well…" He sighed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "My brothers are coming next week."

"Your… brothers?" I said, surprised that he had siblings.

"Yeah…" He sighed again. "They said that they came to spend with me something called… 'Christmas'."

"Oh, that's great- Wait…" I said, eyeing him for a while. "You don't know what Christmas is?"

"Yep, not a fucking clue."

"Hmm… so that's why you're confused about your brothers' visit." I said, smiling. "You see, Christmas is a holiday which observed on December 25. This holiday exists to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and is observed by Christians and many non-Christians as well. On this day, people reunited with their family to celebrate and children believe that they got presents from a man called 'Santa Clause', which is actually their parents who put presents inside their socks hung in the house, mostly by their bedside."

"That's it…?"

"Um… yeah, that's it." I said, not sure what he wanted to know.

"Just to reunite and get presents, the hell?!" He said, annoyed. "This makes no sense!"

"But… aren't you happy that you're finally seeing your brothers?"

"Of course not, they're annoying." He grunted. "I try to avoid them as much as I can, actually."

So I could try something to make Christmas more enjoyable… "Oh, I know!"

"What?"

"I'll come and spend Christmas with you guys!"

He nearly froze in his place. "… What the fuck, Konna?"

"Oh come on, I'm your friend now! And you should at least know the joy of Christmas!" I smiled brightly. "I will make sure that you have the best Christmas you'd ever have!"

"But- No…"

"Please?"

"Konna, no-"

"Pleeeeease?"

I used my puppy-eyes attack, and it was surely making a great effect on him.

"Urg… Okay."

"Yes!" I exclaimed happily. "Then I'll pack up my things and come to your place tomorrow, alright?"

He didn't answer me, but groaned instead.

"What did I do to deserve this?"

To be continued…

Hi there guys. So... I notice that the chapters are getting very crappy lately and I'm almost always unsatisfied with how they came out. What do you think? Write them in your review so I can see it.

Anyway, thank you for reading. I'll see you again soon.