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Chapter 33: Christmas Eve with my Fiancée (2)

TL: lime
ED: Spynine01

A video game that Shiori wanted to play, huh.

I’m a boy, so I like playing video games. Therefore, I have a certain genre of games that I’m accustomed to and enjoy playing too.

There are a wide range of games that exist these days, some of them include RPGs, action games, sports games and a LOT more. But it seems that what Shiori wanted to play was a ‘party’ game.

I have an old party game that I bought a long time ago, but I don’t have any of the latest party games, and when I told her that, she said, “It doesn’t matter if it’s old,” so I decided to plug it in for the first time in a long time.

I used to play this party game with my parents and friends, but I haven’t actually played it for a long time now. Next to me, Shiori was looking at the game’s title screen with a glint in her eye.

“I’ll use this character.”

At the character selection screen, Shiori chose a bipedal pop dragon character.

“I’ll use this one then.”

I’ll choose the old guy with the beard.

“I see… I can’t believe you’re comparing this to your own sexuality… that’s Kojiro for you. I underestimated you.”

“No, I’m not! The “M” in the hat means something else! I’m not an M!”

“Fu-n~.”

“Come on, come on! What stage do you want to play on?”

Next, when we moved to the stage select screen and I asked Shiori, I was a little worried but then she selected “here”.

“You don’t really care about the season, do you?”

The stage Shiori chose was one based on a southern island in an everlasting summer.

“When it’s winter, you want it to be summer soon.”

“When it’s summer, you wish it would hurry up and become winter soon.”

“How profound.”

“Good grief!”

After selecting the stage, the game began..

This party game is an applied version of Sugoroku¹ Sugoroku (雙六 or 双六) (literally ‘double six’) refers to two different forms of a Japanese board game which is similar to western Snakes and Ladders..

When all the players finish rolling the dice, they battle it out in various mini-games and collect money to exchange for stars. [ED: Mario party, the game that ruins friendships.]

The person with the most stars in the end wins the game.

The players were me, Shiori, and two other computers in a four-person battle royale.

It’s the middle of winter in the real world, but our alter egos are running around the virtual world in the everlasting summer.

“――Ah! Kojiro, that’s not fair!”

“Fuhahaha! It’s alright if I win!”

“Ugh…”

We’ve been playing for a few minutes. I decided it was time to take a look at the situation and go for a little trick.

I’m going to show you a very unpopular play against a beginner.

Forgive me, Shiori. The gaming world is very competitive.

“――Whoa! Stop it!”

A few minutes after my relentless attack.

Shiori immediately launched a counterattack.

“Eh―… What should I do? Kojiro has been messing with me for a while now―.”

She said, looking at me happily.

“Please, please have mercy on me!”

“I’ll punish Kojiro for messing with me.”

“Noooooo!!”

The cool-headed and peerless angel was cool-headed and peerless in the virtual world as well.

――After playing for about an hour, the results were announced.

Both the computers took first and second place.

With Shiori in third and me in fourth.

Party games involve a lot of luck, so it’s not always the player who wins in the end. And it has been a while since I’ve played one too.

I chanted these excuses in my mind to deter from my loss.

“It’s fun to play this after so long. It was fun.”

On the surface, I put up a pretty front.

In fact, it was fun even though I was at the bottom in the end.

“It was a heated fight.”

It seemed like she might’ve been a bit agitated, but Shiori said so with satisfaction.

“Ahaha! That’s right. What do you want to do next? Do you want to play again?”

When I asked, Shiori shook her head.

“It was fun, so I’ll just end it there for now.”

“I see.”

We both put the controller on the center table and sat down deep on the sofa.

“I’m going to give a prize to the last place winner, Kojiro.”

She pulled out a package from somewhere and handed it over to me, clearly a Christmas present.

“Eh? Is this perhaps… a present?”

When I asked, Shiori averted her gaze and blushed a little.

“Y-Yeah… Because it’s…C-Christmas Eve…”

I could barely hear her, her voice was small, an almost muffled voice despite being seated right next to me.

Seriously… I’m glad.

I didn’t expect to get a present, so I was really happy.

The first Christmas present I’ve ever gotten from someone other than my parents is from such a beautiful girl…

I’m under the illusion that I’m going to be out of luck in the near future at this rate.

“W-Well, it’s not that big of a deal.”

I wondered if I had looked so hopeful. Shiori tried to lower the bar casually.

“――Well, I got one too.”

I was wondering when I should give her this gift for a while now. I was thinking of leaving it at her bedside, but I thought now would be the perfect time to give it to her.

“Eh!?”

Shiori rolled her eyes in surprise at my gift

“Why are you so surprised? You said it yourself. It’s Christmas Eve.”

“No… I got a present the other day…That’s why――”

“That was for your birthday, right? Birthdays are birthdays. Christmas Eve is Christmas Eve. It’s different, right? Well, it’s not that big of a deal in the end.”

When I handed it to her, she accepted my gift with trepidation.

Even though she hadn’t seen the contents yet, Shiori was looking at the gift wrapping with genuine happiness in her eyes.

“Isn’t it a really big deal?”

Whether she heard my voice or not, she was staring at the gift package.

“――Hey? Shiori?”

When I called her name, “Ah…” she let out a voice that sounded like she had come to her senses.

“What?”

“Since we exchanged our gifts. Why don’t we open them now itself?

She nodded her head at my suggestion and replied, “Sure.”

We said, “Ready!” and took out the present from the package.

The gift that Shiori had given me was a knitted piece of fabric with a black base and a blue line as a point.

The gift that I had given her was a light blue knitted piece of fabric.

What came out of each other’s gift wrapping was a “scarf”.

After looking at our gifts, we stared at each other for a few seconds, and then we both blurted out, “Ahaha!” and burst into laughter.

“We really get along so well!”

“――That’s right. Pfft.”

This is the first time I’ve seen Shiori’s laughing face. The way she laughs is so unique that it makes me want to tease her for it, but I’ll leave it at that for now.

We both laughed for a while before we finally exhaled and stopped. Then Shiori gave me a new, blank expression.

“――Thank you, Kojiro.”

“Hmm?”

When I tilted my head, not knowing what she was thanking me for, Shiori looked at me.

“It was a small dream of mine.”

“A dream?”

She nodded her head and explained to me.

“To do something Christmas-like on Christmas Eve. We’d eat chicken, eat cake, play party games, and give presents――. Not alone, but with someone by my side――”

“You’ve been alone all this time?”

In the past, I might have let it slide, but I decided to go a little further and ask Shiori about it.

She nodded her head in response to my question.

“――But it can’t be helped, you know. My father and mother are both busy with their work. I don’t want to embarrass my mom and dad with my selfishness.”

After she said that, Shiori gave me her first bitter smile.

“――So then I’d say that I’ll just spend some time with my friends but… I don’t know how to make friends…”

“So, Kojiro.” she says, her expression returning back to her face as she looks at me and smiles.

“Thank you for being with me on my birthday and Christmas Eve.”

Because she said such a thing with a fleeting expression that seemed to disappear somewhere, I said “If that was the case”.

“Eh?”

“Then――let’s have a party like this again next year and the year after that. This year’s party was a bit of a disaster, but next year we’ll plan a little further in advance and make it even bigger. Okay?”

Shiori rolled her eyes and said.

“Will you be with me next year?”

“A-Ah. That’s… Um…”

I scratched my cheeks and averted my gaze as I said it, showing the embarrassment I couldn’t hide.

“Well, I am your fiance…”

“――Pfft!”

She blew up spectacularly at my embarrassing line.

“――W-What is it!?”

“U-Um. I-It’s nothing… Pfft―.”

After an annoying laugh, Shiori made a somewhat superior expression.

“I guess I can’t help it. I’ll be with you next year too.”

When she said that, I held the controller to hide my embarrassment.