Stormy Summer

A White Christmas

First off: I'm sorry this is so late. A lot's been going on these past few weeks, and I could go on about explaining why this story slipped my mind, but I won't.

Second off: This Chapter is basically summing up a lot of events. We're nearing the end (hopefully before the end of this year).

Before I knew what was happening, Bokuto had covered my eyes, his voice panicky as he told me not to look. Instinctively, I reached up to pull his hands away, but he just pushed against my face harder, making me lose the little balance I had in this small space.

I would have protested, but the sharp pain that went over my face, centering on my nose and chin, had me rendered speechless.

And to top it all off, I still couldn't see clearly, my vision slightly blurry from the pain.

I could barely make out where Bokuto would be as I saw his grey hair somewhere in front of my face.

"What was that for?" I asked, still holding my nose as the pain subsided.

At least there was no nosebleed.

But Bokuto didn't answer. He was frozen in place, staring at me. As he kept silent, I finally realized the position we were currently in, and I could almost feel my brain short-circuiting.

My eyes glanced over his face to his hair that was still up, "It looks nice," I say without realizing it.

"No, it doesn't," I hear him mumble as he quickly sits up again, fumbling with his hair. In the dim light, it almost looked as though he was blushing quite brightly.

I was about to say something else when I got startled by lightning striking somewhere to our left. The loud boom and the following sizzling sound had me jumping in fright.

Bokuto startled, too, but was distracted with laughter at my expense, as I glared at him from under the hands holding the bump I could feel forming on top of my head.

I couldn't hold that glare for long, though, as his laughter soon swept over me, too.

"Don't tell anyone," was the last thing he told me that night before we separated.

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The next days turned into weeks. And those weeks quickly turned into months, as Bokuto's training intensified, more and more matches following the approach of the spring nationals.

We tried to attend as much of both training and official matches that Bokuto's team had over the next few months.

Soon, Summer break was followed by Bokuto's birthday and Halloween, which was a lot crazier than either of us imagined. Both events were spent similarly. The only difference was the number of people swarming through the streets of Tokyo on the latter.

The streets in Tokyo were so filled that we constantly had to make sure that Anna didn't get lost, and Charlie didn't get trampled on by drunk Japanese people.

And here I thought that Halloween couldn't be any crazier outside of America - the land of Halloween.

At least we managed to get some sweets on that day. Apparently, Halloween is something fundamentally different in Japan.

That night ended with us fighting our way onto a train back home.

After Halloween, the days made a mad scramble toward winter and Christmas.

The closer it got, the more and more nervous I got as I realized how little presents I had gathered up until that point.

It wasn't until a few days to Christmas day that I finished gathering all the presents I needed.

For Bokuto, I got a new Volleyball. A specific one that I had seen him stare at in wonderment while we walked down that sidewalks in Tokyo.

Since the coach forbid the team from practicing over winter break, we all went out more often during that time. Bokuto seemed significantly more restless than he did before during that time.

Akaashi said it was because of all the excess energy that'd normally go into playing volleyball.

Kuro said he's just an idiot who needs to calm down.

The highlight of the year was definitely the first snow on Christmas night. We were all scattered between the shopping centers and the huge, decorated Christmas tree in the middle of Tokyo.

I could hear the sound of children's squealing mix with the sound of Charlie and Rose's laughter. It was soon joined by Anna's squeak and Kenma's groan in protest as Kuro decided to initiate a snowball fight.

We had quickly formed two teams.

Kuro, Kenma, Anna, Rose.

Bokuto, Akaashi, Charlie, and I.

How Kuro got Kenma and Akaashi to play along, I have no idea.

Perhaps he threatened them.

Though I doubt Akaashi would care about something like that.

Thinking back on it, it's a miracle none of us got sick from being soaked head to toe in snow, while new snow kept falling from the sky.

It wasn't long before New Years followed, which we spend together as well, visiting a local shrine, which took longer than anticipated, but was entirely worth it just for the experience itself.

We also found out that Charlie's next year held nothing but bad luck, though Kuro tried reassuring her that she was lucky to get such bad luck.

My future read moderate luck over-all.

Anna, naturally, probably picked the only one that read great luck in every category. Kuro jokingly offered her his hot cocoa in exchange for her luck, and, for a short moment, it looked as though she was almost considering it.

Almost.

We hung them all up while Rose took pictures of us through every step of the way.

It almost feels like the only time I saw her without her camera ever since our summer break, was when we were either in school or on Halloween. Though Halloween was mostly because Kuro told her that bringing it would be a terrible idea.

And, as we already established, he was under-exaggerating.

It seemed like it was only in the blink of an eye that our last few months in this country begun.

Next update: 1st November 2020