Happy New Year!

after what happened during Christmas I wanted to take a rest for the rest of the winter holiday but that wasn't possible

"this is the place right?"

Makoto who was looking at his phone to confirm nodded to my question

"I didn't expect Hiragi-senpai to be rich..."

the house we're standing before is bigger than my house twice or more, but still it's not that much compared to Emma's

"should we press here? there's a lot of buttons damn"

we struggled to find the bell and because we're both awkward none of us wanted to take the risk of pressing the wrong one

"should we just wait until Chi-senpai or Emma arrive?"

I asked after about five minutes of searching

"yeah I guess so..."

as I was searching for a place to sit and wait I heard the gate behind me so I turned around

a muscular man with black dead eyes was looking at me, he's about two meters tall and everything about him feels dangerous

"I want to go home..." whispered Makoto

honestly I'm considering it too, but it's kinda rude if we started running after standing here forva while

"Ara?"

a young woman appeared from behind the man, she's definitely a relative to Hiragi-senpai they have the same face but this woman's face looks more...human? I don't know how to describe the difference exactly but she doesn't have the dead expression Hiragi-senpai always has

"are you Hikari's friends?"

"ah yes, I'm Tsukasa Makoto in the same club as her"

"Oh so you're the one! I'm really glad I finally met you!"

"did Hira- Hikari-senpai talk about me?"

Makoto seems to be confused because as far as he knows, Hiragi-senpai isn't the type to talk a lot

in response the woman smiled and answered

"I was there during the culture festival"

they continued to talk after it but I couldn't focus on their conversation because the man was looking directly at me

"I'm Sawano Aru...your daughter always takes care of me"

I'm not sure that he's the father but I said it unconsciously, if it turned out to be wrong I'm gonna die from embarrassment

"..."

he didn't answer me at all but continued looking at me

"hey darling stop looking at him like that you're scaring him!"

thank you very much! I don't know what I would have done without your help!

"I see, excuse me that wasn't my intention"

the man finally spoke, but his expression didn't change at all, he's definitely Hiragi-senpai's father

"you can go inside, Hikari has been waiting for you since yesterday. she might not show her emotions but she's very happy that's she's going to celebrate her birthday with friends"

Oh right I almost forgot the reason we're here in the first place, December 31st is Hiragi-senpai's birthday so Chi-senpai wanted to have a party together and enjoy the new year together. so we decided to do it here...

"thank you for having us"

the morher clapped her hands together and then said with a smile

"oh right, we're going to spend the night outside so you can sleep here if you want"

based on the father's reaction he wasn't told about this until now, but he can't refuse it now

after saying goodbye to the parents we finally entered the house

"her parents are weird..."

Makoto said it without thinking but he couldn't be more right, leaving the father aside her mother isn't even a human she's hiding her long ears with magic but that won't work with me, she's without a doubt an elf

so Hiragi-senpai is a half elf? that makes a lot of sense but still...

"isn't everyone around me strange?"

"well, weird people attract each other...I'm normal though"

"are we stand users? and you're not normal! apologize to all the virgins in the world!"

"I'm virgin too you know?wait, why are you looking at me like this?!"

even if every girl make contact with him falls in love he still can't get a girlfriend, that kinda sucks

"what did you do during Christmas?"

I'm not that interested but since I have the opportunity to ask I will.

"a lot of things happened..."

surprisingly he doesn't want to talk about it, did something bad happen?

we were walking through a little garden with a lot of flowers and trees, I guess it's this big because elfs need nature to exist now that I think about it the house itself isn't exactly big, the only different thing is the garden

after walking a little we finally reached the actual house

"the door is open so we probably should just...enter?"

we walked inside after taking our shoes off, the design of the house is pretty much simple western design

even though we entered nobody responded so I decided to open the door of the biggest visible room

"excuse me..."

"Happy Birthday!"

four girls appeared from nowhere and shouted the moment we entered the house

"..."

with a satisfied smile Hiragi-senpai senpai said while looking at our confused faces

"the surprise party was a success as I thought"

irs rare to see her smile so I don't want to ruin it but I guess that's they surprised the wrong person...

"this is the first time I tried to surprise someone like this!" said Suzuki while jumping happily

damn she's so cute, even Emma started jumping with her.

"I can understand why would those three make such a mistake but..."

I looked at Chi-senpai but she avoided my eyes, she's sweating so she knew this is the wrong meaning of a "surprise party" but still went with them.

anyway they really did well decorating this room. I didn't expect Hiragi-senpai to go this far but that's warmed my heart

"Wow, ddid you buy this cake? it looks expensive"

unlike me Makoto was admiring the big cake in the middle of the room

"I baked it with my mother, she did most of the job"

even if her mother did most of the job it still feels weird to make a cake for your own birthday...

"anyway, since everyone's here should we start?"said Chi-senpai as she tried to enter whole face in the cake

while everyone was fighting to stop Chi-senpai I got closer to Emma and whispered in her ear

"is it really okay for you to come? it's not even a weem since the last incident.."

"don't worry I am used to it!"

"..."

I hate the fact that she's saying such a sad thing with a bright smile.

"you shouldn't get used to things like this.."

she didn't hear me because everyone was so loud, well I can't do anything about it for now.

"Hey Arucchi don't take the first bite!"

"too late!"

we enjoyed our time together fighting and eating, I don't remember any birthday party but I'm sure that even if I remembered it, there's no party that I enjoyed more than this

hours has passed before I noticed

"it's already 7pm, it's your time to shine Arucchi!"

I can't believe we're actually having another sleepover this soon, well I don't mind it since I'm really enjoying it today

"where's the kitchen?"

I asked Hiragi-senpai to show me the way so I can show them my food's superiority!

"I'll help you"

"you're the birthday girl! I'm gonna take care of it so just here and relax!"

"that's right Hikari-chan! let Arucchi do it and let's play something"

"if that's the case..."

Hiragi-senpai senpai opened a shelf and grabbed a box from it, she used it to cover her face while saying

"I want to try this..."

in the box was written "the game of life"

"my mother bought it a long time ago but I didn't have anyone to play it with.."

"that's good! start playing without me, I'll join you later!"

***

"did something happen...?"

I decided to go with a Pizza since it's a birthday party but when I returned the mood wasn't that of a party at all.

they were playing a game, but no one qas having fun

I got closer to Hiragi-senpai to ask her about the reason , but before I could ask Makoto started reading the card he got

"you're getting closer to your partner you decided to have another baby"

"That's the fifth one!"Emma shouted as she started hitting him "you are doing it on purpose! I knew it you are just a pervert! stay away from me!"

"I don't have anything to do about it! and you are the one who married me in the first place!"

"huh? why would I chose someone like you! you did something to change my roll right? right?!"

Oh, I see what happened. it's the first time I see Emma this angry I wonder what did Makoto do to her to turn her into this monster?

"next is my turn!"

Chi-senpai tried to stop them from fighting so she started her turn

"you got involved in an affair with the player on your left, you had a secret baby"

"you're cheating now! is it not enough to humiliate me by marrying you! you're cheating on me too!" Emma got really angry as Chi-senpai tried to stop her

I read the box of the game, yeah it's not a game for a child to play...

"I will g-go next"

now it's Suzuki's turn, I wasn't here for most of the game so I don't know exactly what was happening to her

"you fought with the biggest man in the prison and won, you're now the leader...I win you son of a bitch! take it! Yahooo"

"?"

am I the only one who's confused? what's is this game even about! and why is Suzuki so happy?

"as expected from Suzuki Haru, you are a worthy opponent "

Hiragi-senpai took the dice and threw it confidentially

"you won the elections and started your project to end poverty, throw another dice"

"wow the scale got a lot bigger this time"

after she started reading the new card after throwing the dice

"you successfully killed all poor people in the country thus solving the problem of poverty"

"?"

"I think it's my win"

"..."

Hiragi-senpai looks happy so....yeah let's say she won

"won't you join us in the next round Sawano Aru?"

"n-no...the food is ready! we should start eating!"

"the food right! I was getting hungry too!"

since everyone said that they want to eat Hiragi-senpai gave up and put the game away

oh right there's something I was going to ask

"where are we sleeping?"

even if it's a big house it doesn't have as many empty rooms for us to sleep

Chi-senpai nodded as she staffed food into her mouth, then after some minutes if waiting her to swallow

"there's two rooms right? the boys gonna sleep together and the girls are going to be together"

"..."

"why are you all looking at me? you thought that I'm gonna say something stupid right? I also can be normal sometimes!"

well what she said was a part of the reason, but unfortunately I don't think that will we work since Emma has an objection

"um...I don't want to ruin it but....I need to sleep in the same room as Aru"

it's one of the conditions her father put so she can spend the night here, I can understand why would he want that but it's hard to explain for the rest...

"yeah that's okay, then is it three three?"

Chi-senpai accepted faster than I thought, maybe because she's focusing on the food and just giving us the bare minimum of attention

"No, I don't want to spend a night this close to a pervert"

Emma once again refused the simple solution, if it's like this...

***

after deciding our sleep order we all gathered in the living room to watch the count down of the new year

"3....2....1... Happy New Year!"

Chi-senpai jumped in excitement, her phone started vibrating as a lot of messages came to her

"I'll be under your care for another year senpai"said Suzuki as she bowed

"don't be like that Haru-chan! leave the formalities and come here I'll hug you until you suffocate"

"thank you everyone..."

I heard a low voice coming from Hiragi-senpai, when I turned around she was on the sofa putting her head on Makoto's shoulder sleeping as little girl

"shhh"

you don't have to tell me, she put a lot of effort in this party...but damn, it's really weird when you see the ice queen this defenseless, she started to change a lot lately

"well, since everyone's exhausted let's just go to sleep, Makocchi pleasearry our princess" said Chi-senpai after clapping

I walked into the room that had only two beds, I'm gonna take the one closer to the window while Chi-senpai and Emma are gonna share the other one.

"I didn't share bed with someone before, I'm really excited to try!"

"you can try sleeping with Aru if you want, it's another great experience"

no even if you say it it's weird to just sleep together like this, and Boss would probably kill me

even though she was talking only now Chi-senpai entered a deep sleep the moment her head touched the pillow

"she's a fast sleeper, huh? I thought she won't sleep until morning"

Emma started touching her cheeks to make sure she's a sleep, or just because she enjoyed the feeling

"aren't you scared?"

this is the first time she slept in her friend's house, I can see why would she be happy but still....it should be a little scary

"No not at at all, I feel the safest around you"

"..."

damn that's really embarrassing even if it's actually true

"you can't say things like that, even I could misunderstand the meaning"

she was already a sleep when I looked at her, *sigh* I'm just gonna sleep too..

another year finished and a new one started, but I know that I won't forget the last one this time.