Doki Doki Literature Club (Christmas Episode)

Please read the Doki Doki Literature Club (Beach Episode) before you read this and of course finish the game before you read this.

	Many months passed after our trip to the beach. The summer seemed to pass much quicker than I wished it had. During that time, Yuri and I had talked over the phone a lot and during the final week before school started up, she came over to my house so we could finish our summer homework together. Although, it was pretty much just Yuri helping me with my work.
	Summer break had ended and I returned to my normal routine of walking with Sayori to school, except for the first week I had to go and wake her up because she was still not used to getting up on time. We resumed club activities and around midway through the year, Yuri and I finished Portrait of Markov and started on another book,「this book is about a young man who had everything taken from him so he sets out on a quest for revenge.」
	School progressed on and on and finally winter break was in sights. We all sit in the clubroom, either reading or chatting. “We should have a Christmas party!” Sayori announces. We all look up from what we are doing. “Huh?” We all question her in response.

“Well, I mean Christmas is a time where everyone should be together, right?”
We all look around at each other. I mean, I guess it’s not a bad idea. “Sorry for asking,” Natsuki speaks up, her face is red but also sad, “What is Christmas? I’ve heard of it but never celebrated it before.” We all look down, knowing her past living conditions.

“Christmas is a time for everyone to be together and to be surrounded by friends and family. Where we give presents to each other and eat good food!” Sayori says. She trots over to the sad Natsuki and hugs her, rubbing her cheek on her head.
「 I really want to say, “Actually, Christmas is holiday created by the Christian religion that celebrates the birth of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. However, those damn American capitalist pigs have corrupted the true meaning of Christmas and turned it into a way to make more money. Heresy I say! Down with the czar! Down with the bourgeoisie!” But I really feel like that would just kill the mood. 」
	Leave it to Sayori to lighten the mood. “I guess I wouldn’t be opposed to it.” I scratch the back of my head. I normally don’t have plans other than just being with my family. Yuri and Monika both nod in agreement.

“Great, then let’s have it at ____’s house!” Sayori announces.
“Wait, why my house?” I ask.
“Ehehe~ well…” Sayori taps her fingers together.
“I see, you just don’t want to have to worry about setting everything up and cleaning afterwards, is that it?” I say. Sayori panics.
“N-no, it’s umm...yeah! You always have a lot of decorations up for Christmas and I think it would really set the atmosphere.” Sayori tries to avoid eye contact with me.
“I haven’t even set up decorations yet, so how do you know I’ll do it again this year?”
I try my hardest to not have it at my house. Part of it is because all the work but the other part is explaining to my parents why a bunch of girls are showing up and trying to make sure my parents don’t jump to any bizarre conclusions.

“I can help set them up if you’d like.” Yuri raises her hand.
“I appreciate it, but now’s not the time.” I reply.
“S-sorry.” Yuri looks down, embarrassed.
“I-i-it’s okay.” I let out a long sigh.
	It was looking like there was no way out of this. “Okay, everyone! We’ll discuss this further in tomorrow’s club meeting, but let’s not forget that tests are coming up next week and if we want to do this, we are going to have to study hard so we don’t have to make up any tests.” We all sigh with worry.
	We all leave the school together and go our separate ways. I walk with Sayori and Yuri the same path as we always walk. A cold blast of wind pierces our coats. “BRRR!” We all  shiver.

“Looks like it’s gonna be a cold winter, maybe we’ll get snow.” Sayori giggles.
“Snow, huh? I can’t really remember the last time it snowed here.” I sigh, my breath visible in the cold air.
“I guess we can only hope.” Yuri smiles, but shivers once again.
	When we get to the corner, we part ways with Yuri. Sayori and I head own own way. “See ya tomorrow!” Sayori waves from her front door. I step inside my warm house and take off my shoes and coat. I walk over to the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee and when I walk over, I see a note sitting on the table with an envelope underneath. I pick it up:

Dear _____,

We are leaving on a sudden business trip and we won’t be back until after the holidays. We left you enough money until we get back. Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

Love,
Mother and Father

Also-

Ding Dong~

I set the note down, “Coming!” I call out and walk over to the front door. I open the door, “Who is-”
“Yo, Aniki.”
	Before me was a young girl, a year younger than me. Long dark brown hair with a side ponytail, a flat stare and golden eyes: my little sister. “H-Hibiki? I thought you didn’t come back until the 25th.” I say, “American schools let out earlier than schools here.” She says, “Also, can we go inside, it’s freezing out here.” We step inside.
 “Coffee?” I ask going to brew myself some. “Why not.” She replies. Hibiki had been studying abroad in the United States for the past year.

“So are you done with school then?” I ask, leaning up on the counter.
“Yeah, I’m pretty much off of school until the start of next school year.” She gloats.
“Right, right, but you should still keep up with your studies, regardless.” I say pouring the coffee.
“Whatever you say, ____.” She sighs.
	I hand her a mug and I take a sip from mine. “So, anything interesting happen? Or have you just been shut in your room playing video games and watching anime?” She smirked. That last part kinda pissed me off.
“I managed to join a club this year.”
“I swear, if it’s the anime club-”
“It’s not the anime club!” What’s she got against my hobbies?
I let out a sigh, “I joined the literature club.”
“Since when was there a literature club? And more importantly, when did you have any interest in literature?”
“You can blame Sayori for that… and the cupcakes.” I mutter the last part.
“How is she doing by the way?”
	I hesitate, “A lot has happened while you were away.” “Well, time is was I got.” She sits up. I explain everything that happened since joining the literature club. From meeting the girls to the trip to the beach. However, I leave out all the other events with Monika and Sayori.

“Well you’ve definitely had your hands full.” She says with sympathy, which is rare coming from her.
“So, you’ve got a girlfriend now, I take it?” She asks with a smug look.
	I nearly spit out my coffee as I’m drinking the last of it. I set my empty mug down by the sink. “I gotta get my homework done for tomorrow. Feel free to do whatever. I’ll be down in a bit to make dinner.” I dodge the question and I climb the stairs up to my room and sit down at my desk. I turn on the light and I look over at the trophy and the picture from our trip to the beach. That felt like it happened just yesterday even though it’s already been months.
	Time passes and I hear a knock on my door. “Come in.” I say, not looking up from my work. “It got pretty late so I decided to make dinner.” I turn around and Hibiki had a tray with food on it. “Sorry about that, completely lost track of time.” I trying to laugh it off.

“Just take the tray back downstairs, I’ll clean it in the morning. Good night.” She says, leaving my room.
	I rub my eyes and look at my clock, “Already nine, I should finish up soon.” I work through the last set of questions and put my books in my bag for tomorrow. I eat my now cold dinner and take the tray downstairs.
	Returning to my room I decide to play some video games before going to bed and I end up staying up until two in the morning.

Beep Beep Beep

“Nnnng…morning already?”
	I open my eyes and turn the alarm off on my phone. I roll out of bed and listlessly get ready for school. I walk downstairs to a quiet house, “I guess Hibiki’s still asleep.” I prepare breakfast for myself and her. I look at the time, “Crap, I’m going to be late.” I scarf down my food and leave my plate by the sink.
	I run outside, putting my coat on as I step out into the freezing morning air. “____!” Sayori waves to me. She’s standing out in front of my gate, “Jeez, you coulda come in so you didn’t have to freeze out here!” I say approaching her. “Don’t worry, you’ll warm me up! Ehehe~” Sayori holds onto my arm and huddles close to me, “Eh-!” I stammer, “L-Let’s get going, we’re running late.”
	We arrive to our classrooms and the bell rings. The day passes and it’s time for our club meeting. I enter and Natsuki is the only one in there, “Yo, Natsuki.” I set my bag down at my usual desk. “Do you know where everyone is?” Natsuki asks. I shake my head.

“Well, I figured that…” Natsuki stands up and walks to the closet.
“We could continue reading more Parfait Girls.” Natsuki returns with a copy, hiding her face behind the book in a cute way.
	We had started reading it together before summer break. Since testing rolled around then we never had the chance to continue and since we’ve been doing our own things since after the break.

“I guess now that we have some time where it’s just the two of us, we can continue where we left off.” I say and she drags a chair over to my desk.
	We open up to page one and begin. Ever so often Natsuki would let out a giggle during the funny parts. Sometimes I forget how cute she is, when she’s not talking down to me of course. The door swings open. “Sorry I’m late- Huh? Where is everybody?” Monika says, looking at Natsuki and I.


“They haven’t said anything to-” Natsuki gets cut off by the opening of the door once again.
“Sorry we’re late!” Yuri and Sayori say in unison.
	I stand up and Natsuki puts a bookmarker in the manga and takes it back to the closet. “Okay, everyone! Now that we’re all here, let’s get to discussing on what we’re doing for the Christmas party.” Monika announces. We all sit in the desks at the front while Monika walks up to the chalkboard.

“Food!” Sayori says.
“Well yeah, what kinda food?” I cut in.
“Ummm…” I can’t tell if Sayori is trying to decide what food from a list of many or what, but I leave her to her own devices for now.
“I can make the desserts.” Natsuki volunteers. Monika writes it up on the board.
“I can order a pizza for us.” I blurt out.
“Ehh- I guess that can work…” Monika writes that up on the board as well.
I feel somewhat insulted by that. Not all of us can prepare an extravagant meal!
“I-I can bring drinks.” Yuri says.
“I got it!” Sayori jumps out of her chair. “We can have pies and a turkey and a cake-”
“Sayori, sorry to burst your bubble, but this isn’t that elegant of a party.” Natsuki says.
“Oh, I guess so…” Sayori looks a bit disheartened.
“As long as it’s nothing too complicated, I can try to help you make something.” I say to cheer Sayori up.
“Ehehe~ Thank you, ____!” Sayori’s eyes light up again.
“We could also do a Secret Santa.” I suggest.
“How does that work?” Natsuki raises her hand.
“Pretty simple, we all draw the names of our club members from a hat and we give them a present.” Monika explains, “Here, I’ll write down each of your names.” She walks over to her bag and tears out a piece of paper from her notebook and writes our names down. She folds them all up and shakes them around in her hands.
She walks over to Sayori first, then Natsuki, then Yuri, then me and Monika opens the last one for herself. I open up my paper and read the name to myself: Monika. I do a double take. In the most probable chance that this is just coincidence, I won’t call her out for it since it would ruin the game. Now the problem is that I have no idea on what to get her.

“Well that seems like most of it, I can bring paper plates and shit like that.” Monika says, setting the chalk down.
“And with that, our club meeting is over. With exams coming up this’ll be our last club meeting until after the break. Okay, everyone! Let’s have a good end to the year.” Monika brings the club meeting to a close.
“If I think of anything else, I’ll text all of you.” I say standing up from my desk, stretching.
Everyone nods.
“Sounds like a plan, well let’s waste no time getting ready!” Natsuki stands up, unusually enthused.
“Yes, but don’t forget about your studies, Natsuki.” Yuri says as she gets up from her desk.
“I know, I know.” Natsuki pouts.
“I could help you study, i-if you would like to that it.” Yuri offers.
“I don’t-! Er- S-Sure… I guess.” Natsuki grumbles with her face red.
Both of them have grown much closer since I joined, but they still argue sometimes regardless.
“Well, Sayori, Yuri? Ready to head home.” I make my way to the exit. Yuri and Sayori follow.
	We wave goodbye to Monika and Natsuki. We exit the school and walk home. “Hey, ____, I was wondering…” Yuri turns to me, blushing. “Hm?” I look over to her. “Well you said that you had not put up decorations for Christmas yet, and I-I was wondering if I could come over and help set them up.” Yuri is avoiding eye contact of of embarrassment.
	“Y-Yeah, sure!” I take Yuri’s offer. Surprisingly, after summer break, we rarely spent any time together outside of the club. When we did go out, it would be to the local bookstore. A nice quiet place that had a small cafe attached to it. Nice place, but that’s a story for another time.

“Great! I can’t wait!” Yuri smiles happily. “Sayoi, do you want to help?” Yuri offers.
“Oh- umm, I’ll have to pass. I got to make sure I pass my finals.” Sayori says.
Yuri looks a bit down. “Oh, I’m sorry-”
“NoNoNo! Don’t worry about it!” Sayori tries to cheer Yuri up, to some avail.
	With this situation coming to a close, I get a text. I check my phone and it’s my sister telling me she’d be out tonight visiting her friends tonight. At least I didn’t have to worry about explaining who my sister is to my friends is multiple times. We head on home.
	We part ways with Sayori and Yuri and I walk into my house. “Okay, I got the decorations in the storage room, mind giving me a hand?” I say as we take off our shoes. “Sure!” We enter the storage room, it’s very tight on space so Yuri waits in the doorway. I hand her boxes of decorations and she sets them out in the hallway. The boxes are full of lights and decorations and a small fake tree. The last box was one full of ribbons and garlands but it was high up on the top shelf.

“Rrrg, come- on-” I struggles to reach it.
“Do you need help?” Yuri steps into the room pushing me against the shelf.
“Yuri- umm-” I stammer as she is pressing against me but she doesn’t seem to notice.
“Don’t worry I almost got it- Kya!”
	The box slips out of her hands and off the shelf. It falls straight on my head and the contents spill out onto Yuri.
I rub my forehead and I open my eyes. “Ummm, Yuri?” Before me is a cheap tasteless fanservice scene you find in sub-par anime and visual novels.
Yuri is tangled up in ribbons and garlands every which way. Thank you Visual Novel Gods!

“Uwa! _______!” Yuri is in a panic but the more she moves the more she gets tangled up.
“Hold still, I'll help you.” I start removing the ribbons.
“Kya-! Where are you touching!”
Look, I'm not saying I don’t like this situation. I do, a lot in fact. But what whatever happens happens.
“Okay these are a lot more tight than they looked.” I continue my work.
“...” Yuri is too flustered to make a coherent sentence and so she lays there.
“All right, that should do it.” I take off the last ribbon and she slowly stands up.
Yuri's face is still as red as the ribbons that bound her. “S-S-Sorry...Th-Thank you.” Yuri buries her face in her hands. “Don’t worry about it, but I guess that’s easier said than done.” The last part I mutter to myself. I clean up the mess and neatly put everything back in place. “Okay let’s get started.” I say. “Okay.” Yuri collects herself.
As soon as we started working, Yuri seemed to forget about everything that happened. We started with the outside lights, stringing them across the front fence. We set up a wreath on the front gate and move onto the inside decorations. We set up stockings over the fireplace, setting both a garland and lights on the mantle. From there we move onto setting up the tree. We wrap it in lights and ribbons, hanging decorations on the branches. We wrap the rail on the staircase with a garland and decide that should do it.

“Thank you for the help, Yuri, I probably wouldn’t have had the motivation to do it myself.”
“It was nothing, I’m glad I could help.” Yuri smiles.
“Well, ehehe…” I stumble over my words.
“I think I should be going now, I have to make sure I’m back before dinner or my parents might start to worry.” Yuri bows apologetically.
	We walk outside, “Want me to walk you home? It’s starting to get dark out.” I offer. She shakes her head, “I’ll be fine, but thank you, _____.” We hug each other and she walks off.
	I walk back inside, looking at all our hard work. “Well, I better start on dinner before Hibiki gets back.”
	I figure it would be better to get Monika’s gift rather than putting it off until the last minute. I put on my coat and head out to the mall. I have no clue where to start so I aimlessly walk around.
“Hmmm… Gaahh! I don’t know what to do.”
“Is that…?” I enter a shop I’m passing by and I see a familiar pink head pop up from an aisle.
“Natsuki?” I pop my head over the parallel aisle.
“Gyah, ____! You scared me.” Natsuki collects herself.
“Ahaha- what are you doing here?” We walk out of the store.
“I assume you are doing Secret Santa shopping?” I ask. Natsuki nods.
“Who do you have, if you don’t mind me asking.” Natsuki asks.
“Monika, but I still have no idea what to get her.” I sigh. “How about you?”
“I got Sayori and I’m in the same boat of not knowing what to get.” Natsuki grumbles.
“Well, let’s work together on this and we’re bound to think of something.” I suggest. Natsuki agrees.
	We continue walking through the crowds of Christmas shoppers.

“Anything come to mind for Sayori?” Natsuki asks.
“Hmm… she likes sweets… and cute things…” For as long as I’ve known her, I’ve never really made an effort to get to actually know her. Maybe had I done that… she wouldn’t have...
“Sweets, huh?” Natsuki starts thinking.
“I guess… oh!” Natsuki stops at a clothing store and runs over the one of the jewelry cases.
Natsuki pours over the necklaces and bracelets in the case. I look over her shoulder, most of them seem inexpensive and like something you would give to a friend. Natsuki asks the clerk to take one out and she shows it to me. It’s a small pink and gold cupcake pendant on a necklace. I wait for Natsuki as she buys it and we reconvene.

“Now for Monika.” I put my hand up to my chin.
“She practices piano, maybe you could get her a practice book?” Natsuki suggests.
“Hmmm… I would agree but considering she already created her own song must mean she already has all the stuff she needs to practice.” I counter.
“I guess so.” We both think.
“Oh. I could get her another ribbon. You know how she always wears that white one for her ponytail. I could get her a new one.” I say and so we head off to find a store that sells ribbons.
	We finally find one. I walk in and look at the selection. “Hmmm… Which one, which one?” I look back and forth. I’m torn between one that is emerald green to match her eyes or another white one that music notes on it.
	I end up going with the music notes.
	The day before the party, Sayori calls me up,
“Hey, ____, wanna help me make something for the party?”
“Yeah, sure, I need a break from studying I guess. What were you planning on though?”
“Umm, green bean-”
“No, nobody likes that.”
“You meanie, then what would you make?”
“I don’t know, bread pudding? You can never have too many desserts?”
“Hmm, I guess that sounds good, I’ll go to the store and buy the stuff-”
“Just come over to my house, I should have the ingredients.”
“Okay!”
And so Sayori was at my house, conveniently when Hibiki was out of the house again. “Okay, Sayori,” I turn to her as I set the ingredients on the counter, “I’m not going to be making this by myself while you sit and watch. I’m here to make sure you don’t burn the house down.” I let out a laugh at the end to emphasize the exaggeration. Sayori puffs out her cheeks, “I’m not that bad of a cook.” I pat her on the head. “Don’t worry about it, let’s get started.” Sayori smiles cheerily.
We work in tandem, I read out the recipe and she follows, mostly.
“Now add sugar and- No! Sayori that’s salt not sugar!” I stop her from pouring.
“S-Sorry!”
I let out a sigh, “It’s fine.”
	It somehow goes well, I tell her to leave it in her fridge and not touch it. I clean up the mess she made and fix up a quick dinner of cup noodles and get back to studying.
	Exams go by rather painfully, but we all still pass nonetheless. I head on home as fast as possible. “Yo, Aniki, you’re back early.” Hibiki tilts her head back from the couch. “Oh right, my friends are coming over for a Christmas party.” I pull out my phone and order a couple pizzas for later. “Oh those girls from the literature club you’re in? Cool.” She returns to being on her phone. I continue cleaning up stuff that doesn’t really need to be cleaned up. I put on some Christmas music [ https://youtu.be/seFX-e3VDyE ] on the speakers-

Ding Dong

I run to the door. I open it up to see Monika, Natsuki, Yuri, and Sayori standing on the front porch each carrying what they were going to bring, “Hey, everyone.” I don’t know why I was feeling nervous, I mean they all came over to study before, I guess there are just somethings you can’t explain.

“Are those them?” Hibiki asks popping her head around the corner.
“Umm… who’s that?” Monika asks with a nervous smile
“Ohohoho~ and here I thought Yuri was your girlfriend.” Natsuki chimes in.
“____!” Yuri got up in my face.
“Hibiki? It’s been so long!” Sayori pushes past all of us, shoving her dish in my hands, and jumps onto Hibiki with a big hug.
“Sayori? It’s been forever!” Hibiki and Sayori started chatting away.
“Well, this is Hibiki, my little sister who has been studying abroad.” I introduce her to my clubmates.
Yuri sighs in relief.
“I made you worried there for a second, Yuri.” Natsuki smiles smugly.
“I don’t remember seeing her in the character files.” Monika mutters to herself. “I’m glad she wasn’t here earlier, who knows what weirdo would’ve tried to go down her route, I shouldn’t judge though.”
“Well, it’s freezing out here, why don’t you all come inside.”
	I direct everyone inside and they set their stuff down on the counter and their Secret Santa presents under the tree. “Well let’s get this started!” I call out and everyone cheers.
I take out a deck of cards and we all sit on the living room floor.

“Okay, ever heard of the game BS?” Hibiki says, we all shake our heads.
“It’s a game that some of my friends in America taught me. We deal out all the cards to everyone and we place the cards face down in the center starting with Ace upto King then it restarts. If at anytime you think that someone placed a card down and lied about what card they put down you call ‘BS’ and they have to take all the cards in the pile, but if they told the truth then whoever called them out has to take everything and if no one calls you out then you can say something like ‘peanut butter’ or whatever. Whoever has zero cards first is the winner. The person left of the dealer, who is me, will start by saying ‘One Ace’ unless they have multiple then they ‘Two Aces’ or whatever.”
“Seems easy enough to follow.” I say.
“Let’s make this interesting. How about the winner gets to who whatever they want to the losers.” Monika announces with a devilish grin.
“EH!” Yuri, Sayori, Natsuki and I turn to her.
“Hehehe- sounds like fun!” Hibiki is fired up.
	Hibiki deals out the cards. Natsuki is the one to start, then Sayori, then Monika, then me then Yuri, then Hibiki.

“One Ace.” Natsuki places down her card.
“One Two.” Sayori places her card down.
“Two Threes.” Monika places two cards.
I look at my hand. No fours. “One four.” There is a pause.
“One five.” Yuri places her card down.
“Peanut butter.” I say triumphantly.
“Tch. We already got the first lie in, I won’t let it slip by me next time.” Natsuki says.
“One six.” Hibiki says.
“One seve-” “BS!” Hibiki cuts off Natsuki.
“Ghe-! How? Ugh fine.” Natsuki takes all the cards.
	We continue on.
“One eight.” I set down my lie. Sweat rolls down my face and everyone is staring straight at me. I swallow, my eyes darting back and forth.
“B-BS.” Yuri calls me out. “S-Sorry” I take the giant stack of cards.
	Well that is a strategy, a chode strategy that is. Take all the cards so you have fours of certain numbers. After what seemed like an hour, the game was coming to a close. “One Ace! I win!” Hibiki slams down her last card. “Hehehe~ let’s see what the punishment is going to be.” I completely forgot about Monika’s proposal. Hibiki walks over to the closet and pulls out a box has was Twister in it. I glare at my little sister who is cackling.

“____ is going to have to play this with all his friends.” Hibiki’s grin is ear to ear.
“B-B-But…” Yuri panics.
“Seems like fun to me.” Monika nods.
“M-M-Monika! Are you serious?!” Natsuki turn to Monika.
“Hibiki!” Sayori is shaking my little sister by the shoulders.
“Look, let’s get this over with-” “But winner still decides what the losers do.” Monika cuts me off.
“Uhg, fine.” Natsuki stands up and helps set up the mat.
	As everyone gets ready I turn to my sister and give her a thumbs up who returns the gesture. We each take a side, Natsuki and Sayori sharing one of the sides. Hibiki spins the wheel.

“Left Foot, Red!” And so it begins.
“Right Hand, Yellow!” Hibiki calls out.
“Left Hand, Blue!” Hibiki calls out again.
“Hey, Sayori, stop leaning on my head!” I yell out from underneath her.
“Sorry! It’s a lot more difficult than I thought.” She apologizes.
“Less chatting, more moving! Right Hand, Green!”
Time passes and somehow, no one has fallen, yet.
“Yuri! Get your boobs out of my face!” Natsuki yells from across the mat.
“S-Sorry!” Yuri says, losing her balance, brining both of them down.
It’s down to Monika, Sayori and I. “Left Foot, Green!” Sayori and I are tangled up, and my back is stretching in a direction it shouldn’t. Monika is less tangled up, but still having a hard time.
“____, give up so I can win!” Monika says from atop Sayori who is on top of me.”
“Like I’ll let you win that easily-!” “Right Foot, Yellow!”
“AAAARRRGG!!!” I let out a warcry as I move. Sayori couldn’t make it and she fell and slid off of me. Monika, in turn, was above me now.
“Left Foot, Blue!” Hibiki is relentless, not giving us a chance to rest.
“Come on, Monika, just give it up! I think both of us don’t want to be in this situation any longer!” I crane my neck up so I can look at her.
“Fufufu~ Are you sure, you looked pretty happy that we got to play this.” Monika grins.
“Sh-Sh-Shut up!” I get flustered and start losing my balance.
“Left Foot, Green!” Monika loses her footing but regains it in the nick-of-time.
“Left Hand, Blue!” I slip on the mat and tumble to the ground.
“Looks like I win, _____!” Monika stands up and looks down at me. “Now what do I get to do for this punishment game.” I crawl back and put my left hand up in front of me, “Please have mercy.” My voice cracks as I see a devilish gleam in Monika’s eyes.
“You have to flip a coin, heads you walk away scott free, tails and you kiss yours truly.” Monika puts her hand to her lips. “W-W-Wait, you can’t do that Monika!” Sayori flails her arms. “I won, so I get to decide.” Monika says pulling out a fifty yen coin. She tosses it to me and I catch it in one hand. She would have to know that heads is slightly heavier so that’s why she went with tails.

“I believe in the 49%!” I flip the coin and catch it out of the air.
“Well?” Monika says and everyone is looking anxiously.
	I open my hand, “Oh man, I really thought I had that one.” I took a sigh of relief and the heads-side was facing up. The doorbell rings and the pizzas arrived. I carried the pizzas to the kitchen where I set out the paper plates and napkins and Yuri set out the drinks for everyone to grab.
	As the night goes on we continue to play card games and whatnot. “Well, it’s time to open up presents!” Sayori announces and we all distribute presents accordingly.

“Here ya go, Sayori!” Natsuki hands her a small box
“Um, Natsuki, I got you a present. I-I hope you like it.” Yuri is a bit timid as she hands her gift over.
“____, here! Ehehe~” Sayori hands me a present.
“Yuri, this is for you.” Monika hands a box over to Yuri.
“And I got this for you.” I hand Monika my gift.
“And this is for you, Aniki.” Hibiki hands me a present.
“And for you as well.” I hand Hibiki her present.
“Okay, on three we open! One, two, three!” Sayori says and we all open our gifts.
	Sayori opens her gift from Natsuki, “Thank you Natsuki! It’s so cute!” Sayori tackle hugs Natsuki, “I knew you’d like it.” Natsuki sits up and continues to unwrap Yuri’s gift to her. Natsuki’s eyes light up, “Thank you, Yuri! I can’t believe you got this limited edition Minori figure from Parfait Girls! How did you get it?” “The bookstore I frequent was having a promotion and the owner set one aside for me for being a usual customer.” Yuri turns to Monika, “Thank you for this pen, but I feel like I’ve seen it before.” “Ahaha~ Must be a coincidence.” Monika laughs nervously. I look over to them and see the pen in Yuri’s hand. “That’s my pen! I’ve been looking for that for a week now!”
I open up Sayori’s gift to me first. It’s a small, square box with a ribbon. After taking off the wrapping, I take off the lid. In it was a photo of us as kids, playing in the park together. Brings back some good memories. I smile warmly towards Sayori who is is chatting away with everyone else. Monika opens up my gift, “Aww, _____, thank you!” Monika pulls out the ribbon in her hair and replaces it with the new one I gave her. “Ooo, that looks really good on you, Monika.” Sayori says, staring in awe. “Ahaha~ thanks!” Monika smiles at the compliment. I open up Hibiki’s present for me and it’s a scarf and I look over at her who is just now opening my present to her, also a scarf… the same scarf. We both laugh.

“Hey, everyone!” Natsuki directs us to the window.
	Outside, snow is falling down and pilling on the ground. “Looks like it’ll be a White Christmas.” I say. “How about I make some tea?” Yuri offers and I take her up on that. As we sit by the crackling fire in the fireplace, Yuri brings us cups of hot tea. “What a relaxing way to end this party.” I take a sip from my tea. After a while, everyone but myself had fallen asleep, snuggled under blankets. I started nodding off as well and so I fell asleep without a care in the world.

Merry Christmas, everybody.