153 Intermission

The advent of winter break really didn't mean much to me as most of the day I spent holing out in my house in general. In the morning, I would wake up, brush my teeth, and then get on with life in general. Sometimes I would watch television or simply watch shows that're streamed from the many major video playing sites on the internet in my room. Occasionally, I would also play video games to pass time, and by the way, the game that Muria had bought for me as a birthday gift was a great game.

As for Loriana, it would appear that her research had gradually came to a close and would most definitely be finished before the end of the year. Therefore, she'll be able to spend more time at home than the half year that had just passed. According to her, the research topic is a confidential one that relates to national security, therefore, even I cannot know about it. Whatever the case maybe for the research topic, all that it related to me personally was that Loriana was able to come home a lot earlier than before as she does not have to teach any classes and any work on her research that she does takes place early in the day so she'll often be home by three in the afternoon. Once it's all finished, she should be able to enjoy at least a week weeks of her winter break in peace and serenity.

Before I knew it, half of the break has passed, and in these two weeks, I never left my house to meet up with the others. We kept in contact through our group chat, although for me it was mostly me reading what they sent and never actually sending anything in there. Apparently, everybody has been doing their own thing lately. Noah had passed his retake exam of Physics and was finally able to enjoy himself. As for Zaksus, he had made it to the finals of the Winter League Tournament and will be playing the final match the day before New Year's Eve. Irina seemed to be extremely busy with her occupation as I would occasionally see her on the many variety or game shows on television. Apparently, she's also filming a drama series at the moment as well. As for Muria, I occasionally see her when I go out to buy some snacks from the convenience store or something like that, but we didn't talk much. However, it would appear that she was extremely happy to be able to spend so much time with Mura. I guess she just loves her older sister a ton. Oh and... apparently Loyd and Luna's dating now? I don't know the specifics but Loyd just sent that message into the group chat that Saturday the two went out.

When I saw that message that they sent as well as a picture of the two of them standing happily together, I don't know exactly how to describe the feeling that I had. That night, after seeing that notification pop up on my phone, I simply calmly set my phone back down on my computer desk, moved the curtains out of the way from the doors, and looked out the sliding glass door and at the outside city with its vibrant lights that was filtered with snowfall. I was surprisingly calm, but for some reason there was still a bitterness deep down within me that I just seemed to be able to ignore now. Maybe it's because I'm so used to that feeling that it has become numb for me and no longer holds as great of an effect. Time is the best medicine because after being pained by something, one would just get used to the pain and live life with it. This bitterness is nothing else. I can handle it. All I have to do is toss it deep down in the abyss of my heart and keep it concealed from myself then. In this prison cell of mine, there's none of that to be seen.

The time for Christmas soon came by, and other than simple messages in the group chat, there really weren't any major events planned for the upcoming Christmas holiday. Everybody just wanted to be with family and the only person who was bored and lonely enough to contact me was Noah, who begged me to come down to his floor or allow himself to come up to my floor so that he can escape being alone with Emilia. Since I had nothing much to do, I declined him. I didn't want to deal with certain things as much as he does , and I wasn't really in the mood for any of that celebration stuff or casual conversation anyways. Everything just appeared so bland and boring to me with the only colors I see being the illuminations from the beautiful nighttime city outside of my bedroom.

That is the basic rundown of winter break for me so far. There hasn't been really major pleasant surprises in life for me recently and everything just seemed to have went back to the way it was before I had this app installed on my phone. Come to think of it, it really has been a while since I've had missions sent by the Socialization app. It might be because I have angels monitoring me closely, but... I guess the real major factor is the ongoing mission on it that requires me to spend time with Luna. However, I feel like that mission can be ended now since she hasn't contacted me since the last time we talked at the front of our school gates.

It was two days before Christmas when I decided at around an hour afternoon that I was going to take a walk around the city. With that thought decided, I stalled a bit before leaving my house as my main intent was to see the beautiful lights that are used to decorate the streets. Around holiday season, especially near the end of the year, on the busier streets there's often lights put up on the trees that lined the sidewalk. In addition, the many stores all have Christmas themed decorations in their stores as well so it's actually quite fun to go out and simply observe the decorations. Besides, there's often sales going on around this time so I would like to see if there were things that I wanted to buy that was cheap.

Since it wasn't nighttime yet, I laid down on the couch and covered myself with the warm, downy bed cover that we used on the couch. It was extremely comfortable laying here on the couch while watching the television programs that were being played, and this comfortable feeling was simply added to by the cozy warmth of the bed covers.

Loriana won't home for the night and would not be eating dinner at home as there was a team dinner that she must attend which will basically be the research team's version of a Christmas dinner. At the moment though, she was sitting on the couch and allowed me to rest my head on her lap as a pillow for the moment since she'll soon have to prepare herself for her team dinner that she'll have to attend.

"Please don't drink any alcohol," I sighed and reminded her once again as I recalled the last time she had a team dinner.

"I won't," she responded, smiling as she stroked my hair. "I promise."

I stared at her with great skepticism, but I guess the best I can do is to trust her on the issue. Besides, if anything comes up, Cheral and Yerith, her coworker friends, would most definitely use her phone to contact me. I just hope they don't let Markus do the task of escorting her home because Loriana is practically helpless when intoxicated and if anyone has any foul thoughts, then they would most definitely succeed.

The time soon came for Loriana to leave for her team dinner, which left me alone in the house as she drove off with her car and onto the streets of Palisia. Since the sun was setting, I decided that it was time that I should head out as well. Therefore, after putting on my winter coat and muffler scarf, I exited my house and locked the door behind me.

Like I had expected, the city of Palisia was bustling with activity as the night had merely started to fall on the world and there were still some sunlight left that will surely vanish in a few more minutes. However, despite that, the city streets were brightly illuminated as the millions of residents in Palisia left their homes to spend time out with their friends, family, or significant other as they were all influenced by the festive holiday spirit. The beautiful light decorations put out on the streets and on the store fronts really did help add onto the atmosphere as well since everywhere you went there were signs of Christmas.

I had visited a shopping center to see if there were any video games on sale in one of the stores located in the mall, and when I was riding the outdoors escalators back up to street level from the circular plaza that was made into the ground and at a slightly lower elevation than street level, I saw the tall Christmas tree with its many lights and decorations shining in the not-so-dark night as the many lights of the city provided bright illuminations to it all.

Many couples were sitting about or just walking to their destinations, and this reminded me of one bad thing about the holiday season. I guess it's natural and human nature that people would want to spend such joyful times with people they value, but whenever it is the holiday season, it would appear that the number of dating couples out on the street just increases drastically, almost as if they were intentionally making a point and sending a message to the many single folks of Palisia.

Whatever the case may be, none of that is my business as I am unable to control any aspect of that. What I can control is my hunger, which was the reason why I decided to walk around and see if there're any restaurants serving food that was fit for my mood at the time. Therefore, as I walked on the sidewalk of the busy city streets, I was on my phone in search of someplace nice to eat while also skillfully dodging any of the incoming pedestrian traffic.

I actually like it when I have tasks like this to focus on. It's because when I have something that I can devote the entirety of my mind onto, this often times will allow me to be too occupied to think about anything else that might ruin my mood. Recently, there's been plenty of incidents or ideas like that that will ruin my mood...

As I walked, bright beams of light from the headlights of cars driving on the main road passed by me. Their bright lights made it so that the screen on my phone would occasionally be difficult to see as their lights shined on it, but often times that annoyance will vanish after a split second as they drove by. However, for one instant, it didn't.

I looked over my shoulder and saw that the vehicle the lights belonged to were parked on the side of the road with its emergency blinkers on. Then, the vehicle windows slowly lowered so as to reveal the occupants of the vehicle.

"Alevian?" Irina smiled as she peeked out through the opened windows from the backseat of her vehicle and at me.