âMerry Christmas⊠hey, it arrived before I could send itâŠâ
Of course, I tried to send a message to Shiho, but I was having trouble operating this and her message arrived first.
âMerry Christmas! Sleep properly and stay warm so you donât catch a cold, okay? Santa Claus doesnât come to bad children. Donât wait for Santa to come, no matter how much you are looking forward to receiving presents. Santa Claus only comes to good children who sleep soundly.â
⊠Shiho is still amazing that she can type such a long text in an instant.
Reading her smiling text, I send her a message as well.
She would sulk if I didnât reply right away, so I typed the message a little hastily.
âMerry Christmas. Shiho, donât stay up late and be a good girl, okay? Otherwise, Santa wonât come.â
I hit the âsendâ button and put my phone down on the bedside table.
Itâs a very simple message, but just chatting with her like this makes me happy, which is a strange thing.
In the pitch-dark room, I wait for her reply.
I was somewhat tired, and if Iâm not careful, I might fall asleep. âŠI was afraid that if I closed my eyes, I would be lured into a dream world in the blink of an eye, so I dared to keep my eyes open and wait.
âŠâŠHey?
For Shiho, the reply is late.
Perhaps she fell asleep? I was a little puzzled because usually I get a reply within a few seconds.
(Waiting for Santa to comeâŠ)
As expected of a high school student, I donât think thatâs possible, but come to think of it, Iâve never asked Shiho if she âbelieves in Santa Clausâ.
I wouldnât be surprised if she still believes.
(It would be cute if she was excited and sleeping or something)
I wonder if she stayed up late and went to bed because Santa wouldnât come if she didnât behave well.
My cheeks relaxed at the adorable thought of her like that.
(Finally, we are back to our normal routine.)
Then, I should reflect on how happy I am to be back to my normal relationship with Shiho.
Just today, we have finished the second semester and are now on winter break. I finally got a break from the midterm exams, which I also finished without incident.
Since the beginning of December, my relationship with Shiho has been a little awkward, but just the other day we finally started to communicate as usual.
A lot really happened during the second semester.
I was especially troubled by the incident with Kurumiawa-san, and although that incident has not been cleared up, I am still glad that my relationship with Shiho has returned to normal.
(Itâs as if nothing ever happened.)
Just until last week, I couldnât even look at Shihoâs face properly because of my guilt.
Even though we had crossed paths so much, after a short time, our relationship returned to normal. While Iâm happy about that â Iâm still stuck somewhere in the back of my mind about how it ended.
As a result â there was no change at all in the relationship between me and Shiho.
When Kurumizawa-san first appeared on the scene, I thought that Shiho and I had put some leverage into our romantic comedy, but when I opened the ⊠lid, I found that was not the case at all.
There was a little bit of misunderstanding, but thatâs all there was.
After that event, in a normal story, it would be natural for there to be a change in the relationship. However, there was no change between me and her.
It may be the same as the saying, âWhen it rains, the ground hardensâ.
The same is true of stories, where it is standard practice for the hero and heroine to become closer after the case is solved.
Or, they get to be even worse off.
There are âchangesâ, both good and bad, which become the âmountainsâ and âvalleysâ of the story. The ups and downs are what move the readerâs emotions and lead to a pleasant after-reading feeling, or what is called âcatharsisâ.
Therefore, a story with small ups and downs is considered a âbad storyâ by the public.
In other words, the story in which I was the main character closed as a bad story, so it may be natural that there is no change in my relationship with Shiho.
(⊠Really, is that so?)
However, I canât help but get caught up.
Before the mid-term test started, I saw âShihoâs unknown side that i donât knowâ at the back of the school building, and it really bothers me.
(Though nothing changed for me.)
Mob characters, as usual, were âmob charactersâ and were tossed around in the story.
On the other hand, what happened to ⊠her?
(I just donât know⊠has there been a change in Shiho?)
At first glance, there appears to be no change in the relationship.
But that is only a superficial difference, and if you look at the content of the relationship, ⊠it may actually be quite, quite different.
Because, unlike me, she is the âmain heroineâ.
She has the power to move the story, which means â her change is the starting point to encourage the story and lead to a result.
If that is the case, it is not surprising that there is a change in Shiho.
(There is a âShihoâ I donât know.)
For me, Shiho Shimotsuki is a girl whom I âloveâ, âadorableâ, and âcuteâ. She may be a bit âclumsyâ and âlove-heavyâ in some aspects, but she is a âlovelyâ girl all the same.
But maybe thatâs not all there is to her.
If there is a âShihoâ that I still donât know, I want to know it.
ââThus, Part 3 ended as a waste.
What kind of romantic comedy will be created in the future between me, who is just a mob character, and Shiho, the main heroine?
Only the god of romantic comedies knows the answer to that question.
âI hope Kotaro and Shihoâs romantic comedy wonât be cancelled.â
Maryâs words are still etched in my mind.
I donât think thatâs possible, but ⊠I just couldnât forget those words.