Get your own Free Home PageAkari and Shiho are on their way home. They feel relaxed as they have just finished the exams. Akari looks forward to the winter holiday but Shiho reminds her of an very important event before it; Christmas. A big beautiful Christmas tree in a shop window catches their eye. Shiho wishes for a nice hunk who will give her a present with love under such a tree but Akari thinks she is a little too greedy.
OPNext day Shiho asks if Hiroyuki wants to enjoy themselves together after school but he is going to play basketball with his classmate to prepare for the interclass games. His unusual enthusiasm makes her wonder why. Akari, who happens to come across, knows the anser; the top scorer of the games will get his lunch paid by his classmates for a week. Half appalled, Shiho asks her to go home together but Akari is also busy. There is a meeting of her cookery club from now.
Shiho consequently walks home alone and comes before the Christmas tree. Seeing many couples passing by, she cannot help feeling rather lonely. Then a girl calls her name. She is Sayuri, Shiho's friend of her junior high days, and they haven't seen each other since the graduation. Sayuri is with her boyfriend, which surprises her. He was in the same junior high but Shiho doesn't remember him as such a nice-looking guy. They are going to reserve a cafe for a Christmas party.
The word "café" reminds Shiho of one. She comes to a building whose basement used to be the café but it has been changed to a live house. It was the café where they had a party after the school festival.
That night Shiho calls Akari up and tells the story. The café was where they had a party after the school festival when they were freshmen at junior high. Shiho became friends with Hiroyuki and Masashi. After talking about dear old days, Shiho suggests her to have a party there on Christmas Eve.
Next day Akari tell Hiroyuki and Masashi about the plan. Shiho will take the lead and they will help her. After school Shiho comes to the gymnasium, where Hiroyuki and his classmates are playing basketball. He immediately finds her and give her a warm welcome, "Hey, we don't need a spy." Shiho wants to talk about the party plan and Hiroyuki tells her to wait for a while until their practice is over. As she watches him playing basketball, her thoughts go back to the party after the school festival. Akari and Shiho had been mere classmates but the festival brought them very close. The party was also the occasion on which she became friends with Hiroyuki and Masashi. She at first thought Hiroyuki was odd but gradually found out they had something common in their spirit. Their friendly exchange of cynical comments started then and there.
Her thoughts get suddenly disrupted by a warning voice of Masashi. The loose basketball hits her in the face and the worried boys gather around her. Hiroyuki also comes with usual sarcastic comment. Although Shiho defiantly talks back as usual at first, when he brings his face very close to hers to have a good look of the scar, she blushes and turns away. Even when Hiroyuki hands her bag, which she dropped, with an apology, she cannot look at his face. Yet as soon as he goes back to play the game, her eyes keenly follow him.
Eye CatcherAkari, Masashi and Hiroyuki invite their friends to the Christmas party and all of them happily accept their invitation. Shiho comes to Akari's classroom when she is talking with Hiroyuki about the guest. Seeing them chatting casually, Shiho cannot go into the room.
At the lunch break, a match of the interclass games is held at the gymnasium. While Akari cheers Hiroyuki, Shiho watches him with an almost painful look on her face. After the game, Akari suggests her to go shopping for the party next Sunday together but, after a little hesitation, Shiho tells her she will be all right by herself.
Shiho is lying on the bed in her room. She seems to have realised the new feeling in herself about Hiroyuki.
Next day Shiho cleans her classroom after school with two other classmates. She let them leave earlier as they want to go somewhere. Left alone in the room, she sits on the floor. Then Lemmy passes by and finds her. Lemmy thinks she is in her pensive mood but she declares that being pensive is not her character. Lemmy disagrees. She thinks Shiho is as feminine as others and suspects she is in love. Shiho denies it straight away but Lemmy continues to talk about love. "Sometime you don't realise you're in love with someone... especially when he is too close to you. By the time you do realise, he has gone beyond your reach" [This may sounds too bold but Lemmy is talking about love in general and her foreign accent makes the tone much lighter].
On her way home Shiho reconsiders Lemmy's words, "gone beyond your reach." She seems to have come to a certain conclusion, "Yes, she is right."
Next morning a intercom call wakes Hiroyuki up as usual. But, to his surprise, it is not Akari but Shiho. She has come here to fetch him to go shopping for the party. Hiroyuki senses she is not her usual self but follows her in her shopping tour in the town. Masashi happens to see them.
Next morning Masashi asks if it was really Hiroyuki and Shiho. Hiroyuki is a little angry, "Why didn't you come to us? I had a hard time, helping her shopping." The news is a surprise to Akari, too.
In the mean time, Shiho is alone on the top of the school building. She tries to deny her own feeling, "there's no way I'm in love with such a man..."
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