Summer's Promise
Chapter 13: "To Unknown Sender-san."
"Merry Christmas!"
Luka's family greeted each other before enjoying their Christmas Eve dinner. Luka's mother prepared American cooking for the main course while Luka, who had been studying how to cook Japanese sweets during her free time, prepared the dessert.
While eating their scrumptious meals, they talked about how their life had been after moving to Japan and how they hoped the future would be. They took turns talking about the people they've met and new things they've tried.
"This is pretty good," Luka's Japanese mother served as the critique for the first Japanese sweets that the pink-haired girl had ever made.
"What is it called?" the twins asked, also stuffing their mouths with the soft and small confectionary.
"Dango," Luka replied with a big smile on her face.
The family finished their desserts and made their way to the living room to watch an American Christmas movie, which was also a part of their family tradition. When the hour-and-a-half-long movie finished, the family gathered in front of their Christmas tree, forming an arch. The children were each handed one present from under the tree and the children handed one present for each of their parents. A part of Luka's family's tradition during Christmas Eve was to open one present, then they open the rest of the gifts on Christmas Day.
The two excited twins violently opened their gifts while Luka carefully undid hers.
"Wow!" the twins gasped upon the revelation of their gifts.
Len got his first laptop and Rin got her own touchscreen music player. Luka opened hers and received a pink touchscreen cellphone, making her siblings feel a little jealous.
"Don't worry, you two. You'll get your own on your first year in senior high school," their mother comforted before she opened her own gift.
Luka knitted a scarf for her mom, which was what she opened first. Len and Rin combined their saved allowances to buy their dad the gift he just opened, which was an electric shaver.
The family hugged each other and gave thanks for what they received, excited for Christmas morning when they would get to open the rest of their gifts. Then, while their parents relaxed and watched TV, the children prepared the cookies and milk for 'Santa,' which was another tradition in their family. While waiting for the cookies to finish, the twins took turns taking a bath in the bathroom in the first floor while Luka took a bath in her own bathroom. When the oven's timer went off, Luka, who was the first to finish bathing, took out the cookie sheet and placed them on the table. Before greeting each other goodnight, the twins placed the plateful of cookies and Luka laid the glass of milk beside it.
"Merry Christmas," they all greeted again before separating to their own rooms.
As soon as Luka made it upstairs in her room, she got on her computer and logged in on her social network account. She messaged her friends from America and greeted them with a smile on her face. Despite what had happened before, the pink-haired girl still didn't want to admit what hurts; she didn't want to accept what was going to hurt her.
Before she clicked the power button on her desk's lamp, she noticed a sticky note that was posted on one of the notebooks that laid on her desk. Pulling it off, Luka realized that it was the note that Gakupo wrote his number on, just in case of emergency.
Her heart began to beat faster as she got up and sat down on her bed, the note still between her index finger and thumb. She couldn't understand why she felt that way because she was already aware that she had become more comfortable around the boy with long purple hair.
"Why is it…that I feel as if…I want to message him?" she thought, gulping down right after.
Without her permission, Luka's body moved and picked up her new cellphone from her desk, turning it on. Since it had already been set up by her father, all she had to do was to customize it to her own liking.
"Why did I get up?! It's not like I'm actually going to message him?!" she shut her eyes in frustration, clenching the phone in her left hand.
Crashing her body on her bed, Luka tossed and turned, the note and phone still in her hand. After situating herself on her bed, she stretched her arm up to the ceiling and looked at the phone and the pink sticky note with the number she was dying to dial. Luka savored the silence to think about what she was going to do with the number she had attained the pink phone that wanted to be used.
"That's it!" she shot up, sitting on her bed.
"I'll just greet him 'Merry Christmas!' Yeah! Yeah! That's reasonable," she thought to herself.
Touching the screen, she reached the 'text message' category on her mobile device and filled the 'recipient' box with the noted number. After pressing enter, she began to type the message in anxiety, which was clearly shown by her shaking fingers.
"Calm down, me! It's already 11 at night! I'm sure he won't see it until morning!" patting her face, Luka reasoned with herself.
Ten minutes had already passed since Luka finished typing the message she wanted to send. Her courage was yet to be gathered, the pink-haired girl still staring at the screen. Clenching her fist and gritting her teeth, she finally hit the 'send' button and watched as her phone gave her the notification that the text message had been successfully delivered.
"Ah! You're an idiot, Luka!" she screamed in her head as she shoved her face on her pillow.
"Baka-Luka!"
Gakupo spent his Christmas Eve playing the new game with his younger brother, Ryuto. The two already opened the presents they received from their parents and had no patience to wait and play it on the actual Christmas Day. While their parents enjoyed each other's company, drinking in their own room and saying sweet things to each other, Gakupo bonded with his brother through the game.
"Gakupo-nii, why didn't you spend your Christmas Eve with your girlfriend?" the little boy asked, still pressing the buttons on his controller with a determined look on his face.
Gakupo wasn't fazed by his question since his parents would ask him about his nonexistent girlfriend, too.
"I don't have one," he replied.
"What about Gumi-nee, then?"
"What about her?"
Their characters continued to fight in the game with Ryuto almost beating Gakupo. Despite being only in elementary school, the younger kid had been as good as his older brother when it came to games.
"Isn't she your girlfriend?" the fifth-grader asked with eyes still on the TV.
"No. Like I said, I don't have one," Gakupo calmly replied.
"Even though you're so popular, you!" the green-haired young boy thought, remembering the times he saw his older brother surrounded by crowds of girls.
After an hour or two, the younger Kamui finally got tired and fell asleep while he waited for his brother to return from the bathroom. Picking him up, Gakupo laid Ryuto on his bed and properly placed the gaming console back on his brother's shelf.
"Merry Christmas, Ryuto," the purple-haired boy quietly greeted before he turned off the lights and went to his own bedroom.
Grabbing a white t-shirt, sweatpants, and boxers, Gakupo made his way to the bathroom and took a hot bath. After scrubbing and rinsing his body, also washing his hair, Gakupo dipped his body in the warm and refreshing water.
He enjoyed the silence that surrounded him even though he could faintly hear the sound of his parents' merrymaking. Though he was tired, Gakupo still had a soft and gentle smile on his face, grateful for another Christmas spent with his family. As he closed his eyes, Ryuto's questions popped up in Gakupo's head, bothering him for the first time.
"Girlfriend, huh," he thought, opening his eyes.
When he finished getting dressed, Gakupo took a bottle of Vocari Sweat* from their refrigerator and gulped half of the content down on his way to his room. Placing the bottle down, he rubbed his damp head again with the towel that hung around his neck, droplets of water scattering around. Once again, he grabbed the bottle of beverage from his desk along with his cellphone. After guzzling the rest of the drink, Gakupo threw the empty bottle across the room to his trash bin, making it.
"Yes!" he smiled with the little self-satisfaction he received.
With one hand under his head and his back comfortable on the warm bed, Gakupo laid in bed, holding onto his phone.
"Why am I holding onto this?" he thought, shutting his eyes.
"It's not like I'm going to get a message out of nowhere."
Just as he finished his thought, his smartphone vibrated and the LED light began to flicker. His eyes also opened quickly, surprised of what just happened.
"Huh?" he thought when he received a message from an unnamed number.
Upon opening the text message, Gakupo knew right away who it was even though the message didn't include who the sender was at all.
"M-m-m-merry Christmas, K-K-Kamui-kun! I j-j-j-j-just received a p-p-phone f-f-for Christmas, you see," he read with a small beam on his face.
"B-but yeah! G-g-good n-n-night."
No matter how hard he tried to suppress his laugh, he ended up letting some out.
"Just as expected from you," Gakupo quietly spoke, thinking about the sender.
"You'd stutter even in your text message."
With a small beam on his face, the purple-haired teen replied to the 'unknown' sender.
"To Unknown Sender-san," verbally reading and typing, Gakupo still had an involuntary smile on his face.
"Merry Christmas to you, too. I hope you can come and meet me outside your house tomorrow. I'd like to take you somewhere for Christmas," he continued, typing faster.
Before he could hit send, the purple-haired jester included a postscript to tease the person who would be receiving his reply.
"P.S. Don't forget to tell people who you are when you text them, Megurine-san," Gakupo softly laughed as he also added a winking face emoticon.
Luka's entire face turned red after receiving the reply from the very first person she messaged with her new phone. Her aqua-blue eyes were as wide as an owl's with a glimmering hint of excitement.
"Tomorrow?!" she thought, her heart racing in panic.
Luka curled up in a ball under her warm blanket while she clenched her phone close to her chest.
"I can't believe that just happened!"
Author's note:
dango- a Japanese dumpling and sweet made from mochiko (rice flour), related to mochi
baka- stupid
*Vocari Sweat is obviously a parody of Pocari Sweat XD (Mayumi-chan: I'm actually glad it sounded pretty alright (and kind of punny). Hehe. XD)
Hello, minna-san! Mayumi Selnia here! Well, I wanted to update this story as soon as I received your reviews! I'm so glad you still support me despite being gone for so long *sobs sobs* Okay, well, obviously, it's still summer and this chapter was on Christmas. This chapter was going to get posted around the same time as Christmas of 2013, but again, I was busy and didn't have time. Gomenasai! DX Also, Gakupo's little brother is Ryuto, a Vocaloid that was also developed by the same people that developed Gakupo. Ryuto is supposedly characterized as a child, so I respected that by making him an elementary school kid, though the person that he was based on (like the summary said, this story is based on a true story, after all) was in middle school. Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. School's starting soon, but I will try and keep updating as much as I can! Don't forget to review! :3 -Mayumi Selnia-chan