My Secret Santa [✔️]

/ F O U R T E E N T H / / C H A P T E R /

"Sydney, what the fuck is going on?" Karina locks the door to Sabrina's room. "Did I skip a chapter these last few weeks?" She folds her arms with her head tilting.

"You saw it too?" Nobara joins in with a giggle.

"Saw what?" I am itching to know. It's probably then speculating something between Satoru and I but what exactly did they is what concerns me.

"You and Satoru flirting. I saw it all, Syd," Sabrina smirks as she unbuttons her blouse inside the room.

"Since when do I flirt and you wouldn't notice? Especially you Sabrina," I fixate on her.

"So the banter between the both of you means nothing?"

"Bickering should not be considered the metric for flirting," I attempt to make a point knowing that I am lying. "You assumed that I had a crush on Yuuji just because we enjoy insulting each other. I'm like the last one between all of us to flirt without with one of our friends. We all know how it turned out for Florance."

Florance was a long time friend that expressed romantic sentiments for Megumi to which we all saw as the perfect ship at the time. They were both quiet natured beings but become very expressive around close friends. Megumi revealed that he wasn't in the right mental space to have someone in his life. Although she understood where he was coming from, she still wanted more. She tried to pretend that nothing had actually happened like we all did but eventually reality hits.

She couldn't help wanting to spend as much time as possible with him while he wanted to reduce their contact hours. He eventually decided to put his foot down and asked to put a distance between their friendship. Ultimately, she couldn't bare his decision and decided to stop hanging out with us. That same year, we all decided to never date anyone from our friend group unless it was obvious that the feelings are reciprocal.

"But what about me?" Karina steps in. "I've been dating Kento for years and he's been in our friend since the beginning."

"That's because you brought into the friend group whilst you were both dating each other," I counterattack her argument. "Look, I admit that I do have a crush on him, but you know how I am when I have a crush," I say as I walk to my bag and grab my pyjamas.

"We know, but this one is different. I think he likes you too," Karina observes as she wipes off her makeup by the vanity.

"What makes you say that?" I muffle while undressing myself. I would love for it to be my reality but I also know that I can be very delusional with the signs men give me. Their signs aren't even good enough signs to begin with. I try to convince myself that the bare minimum, that is human decency, is a sign that he potentially cares for me. And they're all well aware of this.

"So first off," Nobara begins while already being in her pyjamas and went straight inside the bed sheets of the bed Sabrina and her will reside in. "He complimented your dress when we first arrived at the restaurant."

They were not wrong. We had decided to go to a well known restaurant found at the capital for our transitional Christmas Eve dinner. I wore a red wine coloured ruffle maxi dress with a slit on the left side of my leg. I wore my usual Dior kitten heals alongside my silver purse and jewellery. I finished the look off with a natural, cat eye glam with my curly hair loose. It's the only time of the year I allow my curls to be well defined and free. 

Satoru did compliment me after greeting each other just like he did to the rest. What did sent him apart from the others was that he offered to take my pictures for me as he apparently knew how 'properly' take photos for social media. I kindly refused as I would've been a nervous wreck in front of him and I wouldn't have been able to pose as comfortably as I usually do.

"Yuuji and Megumi complimented me as well. Does that mean they also have a crush on me?"

"Butch, I wasn't finished talking," she rolls her eyes at me. "He also wanted to sit facing you. I overheard him asking Saige to sit next to Sabrina so that he could face you," Nobara continues.

I can neither confirm nor deny but it's likely the latter. He did sit in front of me and we did talk quite frequently. The issue here is that our conversation was very much about random, trivial topics. Romance never came up. Knowing this, it would be delusional of me to assume that him sitting next to me was because he took a liking to me. The reason could be that he has an easier time conversing with me in comparison to the others that are not Kento.

"If he liked me, he would've sat next to me to talk with me, not just stare at me," I disagree.

Anyone else would agree. I, for example, would never want to sit in front of someone when I could be closer to them by sitting beside them. The close proximity, to me, would indicate a connection that could be perceived as romantic.

"What about when we went to the bar and he offered you a drink?" Karina aggressively asks. I can tell they are frustrated with my responses. They see it as denial instead of the truth.

After dinner, we decided to go to the bar club we always go to for special occasions. Downstairs was where the bar was located whilst upstairs was reserved for the club. It was Satoru's first time there and he wasn't sure what to think of the place. Due to Kento's preoccupation with Karina, he asked me what kind of drink would I advise to take. I joked around and said that he should take the gin he took when we first met. He responded by saying that I should be careful of my wording as someone may perceive that as a flirting tactic. Feeling bold, I told him that those were my exact intentions. Not taking me seriously, he offers me a drink and told me that we shall see what the night has in store for us.

"Megumi did the same thing two years ago and did he like me? No. He even had a girlfriend at the time. And besides, if he saw any one of you without a drink, he would've offered one as well," I continue to lie. Telling them the truth would just get my hopes up. I know he has confessed to me in the past but feelings can change over time. I am not willing to take a risk of being rejected by man I see being a good fit for our group dynamic.