“So explain to me again why you’re just sitting in front of the fireplace instead of having out with the others?” Sato cocked his head to the side at the question from Leiko, almost like he needed to make up an answer. He already knew why he didn’t want to go celebrate some old guy that supposedly breaks into their living quarters and leaves presents every year—who obviously wasn’t real— and use it as an excuse to eat, drink, and get gifts from others. There really wasn’t a reason for not attending the party that was happening literally in the other room that would please someone like Leiko Hamada, so he decided to not even bother with telling her his real reasoning.

“I guess I don’t have an explanation to give, Hamada.” He lifted himself from the floor, instead sitting down on the edge of one of the chairs nearby, and gave the girl a smile as warm as the fire before them. “I just had a shitty day today and I don’t really feel like partying around with people.” That, and he never did like the holidays. There wasn’t any traumatic event on Christmas one year, and there was never anything wrong with them at all. He just… didn’t like the holidays. Christmas was just the biggest one and thus it was completely inescapable. His own mother had put up several decorations despite his many protests to it, even going so far as to call it a waste of time.

Leiko gave the boy a disapproving look, obviously calling out his lie. “There’s no way you could’ve had a ‘shitty day’ if you’d been asleep until three, and the only thing you did after that was watch movies until Rokoru dragged you out of bed and over to here, where you then hid away in this study.” Sato giggled to himself a bit. That was an exact description of how he had spent most of his Christmas eve so far. There was no forgetting the feeling of despair one gets when you’re literally dragged out of your house.

“Let it be known that Sato Hashimoto is not a festive person then.” The club president sighed a long sigh before standing up straighter. It was clear to her that there was no way to convince Sato to join the others willingly, so she simply disappeared from the room for a second before returning with Rokoru behind her. Upon noticing the new addition, Sato cursed under his breath as the strong-armed boy ripped him from his seat and into the main room. Leiko merely snickered to herself as she watched it happened; the sight of two third-year guys arguing about attending the party like a father to a child was comical to her. Though, if she didn’t know better, she thought it might be possible to mistake Rokoru as old enough to have a young child of his own… But who’d be the mother? She immediately shook off the thought and returned to her conversation with her friends.

Upon exiting the study, Sato’s eyes were greeted with the sight of various people scattered about the main room, passed out in interesting places and positions. He couldn’t remember who but someone had insisted that everyone crash here since it’d be a hassle getting home late at night in the heavy winter conditions. Sato was completely willing to trudge through the blizzard (his house wasn’t even that far away) but he didn’t want to risk being carried back in by Rokoru and any cohorts Leiko Hamada would hire to keep him there, so he had elected to hide away in the only non-bedroom room that he found to be unlocked, the study from last night. The chairs by the fireplace proved to be a decent place to fall asleep.

Most immediately noticeable was Noboru, who somehow fell asleep while going up the stairs and had ended up sprawled across the stairs to the second floor. The sleeping boy’s body barred the stairs well enough that Sato didn’t even bother attempting to go upstairs and look for people (at least in his current drowsy state), though he was confident that anyone he couldn’t find was up there. After gently prodding Noboru’s face for a bit in a futile attempt to get him to move, Sato jumped down the few steps he had to climb and walked over to where two couches aligned around a table and TV was. On the first, larger couch was Alexai (glass of eggnog still somehow still in his hand and not spilt) with Rui for some reason on top of him. Leiko herself was asleep face-down on the second couch, with a glass still in hand, albeit all the liquid had spilled out onto the hard-wood floor presumably before she long ago due to the state of coagulation the liquid was in.

Perhaps more interesting however, was the fact that Rokoru was sprawled out on the table without a shirt on. He didn’t seem asleep due to the groaning sounds that came from him, but Sato doubted the boy was exactly conscious and instead opted to quietly walk over to the kitchen, strangely but not shockingly finding more people asleep. Kami was asleep leaning against the fridge door, while Ayano was also out like a light by the wall directly opposite of said fridge. Kotori was, however, awake, with a probably fresh cup of coffee in hand. She sluggishly waved at Sato before returning to her hot drink, staring forward for no apparent reason. Sato turned on his heel to walk away, but before he did, the realization that holy shit someone else is awake struck him and he pivoted back to face her. “What the hell happened here last night?” Sato asked, obvious disapproval in his tone.

“Well… It all started when Rokoru recounted his story of playing strip archery, and of how he ended up getting rid of the boxers and continuing after you left, and then it got a little… strange after that. I fortunately was not there to experience the whole ‘show’, since I was helping Kami guard the fridge from people.” She recounted it slowly to the boy, who sighed after she finished talking. After a brief moment of registering the information, Sato opened his mouth to ask where everyone else was, though Kitori pointed up and replied with an “Upstairs.” before he could say it.

Sato nodded to Kitori before waving good-bye and walking off to the front door, pulling on his coat when he got there. He turned around to take one last look at the monster of a “celebration” his peers had taken part in. Rokoru making concerning noises on the table, Alexai and Rui cuddling, Kitori taking an awfully long time to wake up, Noboru blocking the stairs… A feeling of satisfaction spread through him when he thought of how smart he was to avoid taking part in it all as he slammed the door shut behind him.