Warming a Frozen Heart

Attraction

CHAPTER 8

Attraction

-Kyousuke-

"You ready?" I asked JC. We were assigned to buy the decorations, while the three offered to buy the Christmas tree. JC nodded and we went out to go to the town.

While I was passing by a store, I felt JC tugging at my sleeve. "What? You like something?"

"No, I... I just want to look over there." She pointed to a novelty shop at the opposite street. "Can I?"

She totally sounds like a child right now. "Okay. I'll be here getting the things. Stay there."

JC ran off while I went inside the store. After getting enough decorations, I went to the direction JC went at. I saw her standing by a shop window, looking at something. "Hey, we need to go..." I was cut off when I realized she was eyeing a certain object. Narrowing my eyes to look at it without her noticing me, I saw a necklace hanging by the other trinkets. It was very simple-- the string was made of thinly cut leather and the pendant is a medium-sized musical note found at the start of a composition. It had a rusted gold color, making it look like a vintage. "Um... JC?"

"Huh?" she asked, a little startled. "Oh, you. You finished getting them?"

"Yeah." I was nervous to bring up the question 'Does that mean something to you?' because probably she would just avoid answering. We went back in comfortable silence and found the three setting up their small tree there. "You got the decorations?"

"Yup. Let's get started." After we set up the tree, Miss Nina proposed an idea of us exchanging gifts. We all agreed and she proceeded to write everyone's name on paper and let us pick one. No one was allowed to reveal the name of the one they drew from Miss Nina except for the teacher herself, so we ended up joking about other things. I noticed JC being quieter than usual (and less scary than normal) but I thought she was just probably unused to this kind of noise. On another hand, the one I got to pick was her. I already knew what to give her, though.

***

"Guys! Merry Christmas!" Miss Nina cheered. "It's time to get the gifts!" We all scrambled under the Christmas tree like children to get our gifts, except for JC. "Hey, want me to get it for you?"

"No. I'll just get it when everyone's done."

I slid away from the others and sat next to her. "When all is said and done, you would still sit there and not get yours, am I right?"

"Fine, I'll get it." When we all got our presents, we first checked who it was from. My teacher fished out her record a few days back and read out the names. "So, first, Luke. You got Erin, and JC picked your name. Margaret, you got Kyousuke, and Erin got your name. Erin, you got Margaret, and got picked by me. Kyousuke, you got JC, and Margaret picked your name. JC, you got Luke, and Kyousuke got your name. I got gifts from everyone, teehee. Clear?" Everyone cheered at this and proceeded to open the gifts.

"Wow, JC, you knew what I was wishing for?!" Luke exclaimed happily, waving a disk in the air. "It's the newest game in town! Where did you get it?"

"Online shopping," she muttered. Meh, she's to lazy to even go outside to look for it.

Luke recieved a game disk, Margaret recieved perfume, Miss Nina recieved several gifts from us, Erin got a laptop case, I got a really expensive wristwatch, and JC got what she was looking at-- the pendant. She was just plain staring at it, not paying attention to everyone. "Hey," I said softly, nudging her. "Is there something wrong?"

"Nothing." She didn't remove her eyes off the necklace. "Nothing at all."

"Well, that's good. You--" I was cut off when Margaret gave me a little push. "Hey, did I pick the right watch?"

"Yeah. It's really cool. But it's so expensive. I hope it didn't bother you."

"It didn't. After all, Christmas is giving to your loved ones, right?"

I nodded in agreement. It seemed like the 'loved ones' part irked JC because I noticed her look up at Margaret and stare daggers at her.

"IT'S EATING TIME!" Miss Nina hollered. We all silenced her, since a few people were probably asleep in the other rooms. We ate heartily, laughing and sharing stories. JC barely touched her food and was just holding on to the necklace. Luke finally noticed and asked me, "Hey, something bothering her? Grumpy Cat looks down."

"I gave her a necklace, which is the one she was staring at back when we were in town. Did it make her that way?"

"What necklace? The one with the note-like pendant?"

"Yes...?"

Luke sighed. "It belonged to her even before it got into a shop. Remember what I told you about her mother? Before JC reached the age of being forced into the trade, her mother often sang to her and let her borrow that necklace whenever she felt down. However, when her mother committed suicide in front of JC by standing in the highway, the necklace was threw off her neck when the ambulance men performed first aid. JC tried looking for it, but it was never found. Then, when my mom adopted her and brought her around town everyday to ease her, she saw that in a shop. Everytime she gets out of here, she would ask the person she's with to let her go there. She's been like, monitoring that necklace for about... four years or so."

I looked at JC, who was still looking at the gift. "It belongs to her now."

"You know, expect a really dramatic 'thank you' later from her when we leave."

After eating, the others left after cleaning up the mess. JC retired to her bed, but refused to stop looking at the necklace. I sat beside her and said, "I know. Luke told me."

"Thank you. Just... thank you. It's all I have left of my mom."

I sighed. "Wanna go get some food?"

She finally looked up at me, her mouth agape. "What?"

I smiled at my victory of changing the mood. "I mean, you didn't eat earlier. Plus, a little midnight snack won't hurt, right?"

She returned my smile and set the necklace down on the desk beside her bed. "I guess so."

While we ate, I thought of her. It's really hard to know who she is and what happened in her past, and I salute Luke and Erin to be able to know about her. But it's fine by me if I only get to know her piece by piece, fragment by fragment. After all, the past is in the past and should never be brought up again. We just gotta focus on making the best of the present.