At that moment, back on Earth.
As soon as the message was sent, a short alert tone erupted from Siyeon’s smartphone, audible enough for Mari to hear.
It seemed she didn’t bother to turn off the message notification sound.
Ignoring the noise that was ringing out, Mari, who was wearing Santa’s mask, didn’t stop her fingers on the bed’s upper bunk.
“Mari!”
Siyeon’s startled voice came from the lower bunk.
‘No, why would you say that?!’
Startled alongside her, Mari thought, ‘You shouldn’t come to say that’ and moved her fingers even faster.
[Don’t mention it to anyone around, but can you give me a hint about what you want for Christmas?]
As soon as she sent that message, another notification chimed from Siyeon’s smartphone.
Then, holding her breath until Siyeon checked the message, she opened her mouth nonchalantly after a bit of time.
“What?”
“…Nothing!”
Returning a question with an “It’s nothing!” answer, I let out a sigh of relief internally.
Fortunately, it seemed Siyeon confirmed the message without revealing that it came from Santa.
On this side, where various sound effects had been muted, Siyeon’s message chimed briefly.
[Santa knows, right?]
‘Spelling….’
Setting aside the uncomfortable spelling errors,
I resolved to have her dictate something later and tapped away on my smartphone to reply.
To the children, Santa Claus is a divine being that knows everything.
They think it’s abnormal if Santa doesn’t know what one wants for a gift.
Not a mistake of the omnipotent Santa, but I redirected the blame elsewhere.
[The fairies accidentally forgot Siyeon’s gift!]
[So, can you tell me what gift you want?]
As I sent each message, the number 1 that was next to it disappeared. It meant she was paying attention.
Continuing to send messages, I played the game of getting a response one after another.
No matter how much she wanted to keep it a secret from me, she wouldn’t keep it a secret from Santa.
What could she want for a gift so badly that she wanted to keep it from me?
Feeling a bit dejected by that fact, I lay on my bed, shaking my legs up and down, waiting for the words to fill the empty message window.
The air released with a sound echoed in my ears as my blanket swayed around my legs.
Finally, a small message filled the screen.
[I want a massager.]
‘A massager? What’s that for?’
I thought she would ask for a doll, clothes, toys, or a game console.
But the response was a gift completely unrelated to a child’s imagination.
What could be hurting?
There couldn’t be anything so painful for a superior and energetic child to need a massager.
Anyway, I had to order it well in advance before Christmas to give it to her.
Immediately, I searched for a massager online.
If it was a massager suitable for a small body, it would be like an adult using one hand.
For a child, it would be a massager they could grasp with both hands.
After ordering the delivery to the security office, I switched back to the messenger app.
[Got it. Don’t tell anyone that you talked to Santa, okay?]
[Yes!]
Right after that, the account I had prepared to disguise myself as Santa was deleted.
That very night, I slipped out of the chatroom on Siyeon’s smartphone while she was asleep, completing a flawless plan with no room for error.
While the innocence remains, will I have to prepare excuses for Santa in this manner every year?
‘I’m not confident about that.’
There’s a magical girl, but why isn’t there Santa Claus?
If only there really were a Santa, with no need for these worries—waking up to find gifts by my pillow.
Holding onto such disappointment, I preemptively thought of the excuses Santa would give next year.
With winter break just around the corner, elementary school is busily ordinary again.
Drafting vacation plans that won’t come alongside the summer vacation and one more thing.
The process of sending off one grade and preparing for the next.
“Okay, don’t push and go to the playground slowly—”
With Seola’s announcement, the sound of chairs scraping against the floor echoed.
Our class, holding textbooks in each arm, lined up to go out to the playground.
The textbooks that were only planned to be used during the first year.
A vehicle for collecting used books was parked right in the middle of the playground, and one class at a time tossed their books into it without a second thought, books they had spent a year with.
The Korean book that had transformed into a “starvation” textbook.
The math book that had actually been used as a household account book.
The moral book with the cover corrected to “thief.”
Then there were textbooks with covers that looked clean enough not to be different from new ones.
All of them were tossed without distinction into the mountain of already stacked books.
Whether they would be recycled or burned didn’t really concern anyone.
“Everyone must do well in the second grade, understood?”
“Yeeees—!”
A bright response from the class members, seemingly oblivious to any worries or concerns.
Returning home with light hearts, as if their book bags were empty.
Thus, the second experience of first grade in elementary school came to an end.
If we were to return to school, life in second grade would begin.
With no expectations of anything but longer class times ahead, I absolutely despised it.
Ah, of course, it wasn’t all bad.
If there’s one good thing…
“Waaaaah—!”
Finally escaping from that kid who had taken delight in teasing others relentlessly.
With an incredible scream, I raised my middle finger at the back of the kid escaping from school and walked slowly, without haste, waiting for Siyeon in front of the school gate.
Since the distance between classes was quite far, Siyeon came out a bit late due to the time difference in disposing of her books.
“Did you talk a lot with your friends?”
“Yeah!”
In response to a question that would usually come from parents, Siyeon vigorously nodded and answered.
In fact, this winter break, although labeled as a break, wasn’t really long.
The period that had been forced to be off due to the epidemic had encroached upon the vacation realm.
A short break of less than a month, and perhaps because of that, the amount of homework was even less than in summer.
Although it wasn’t as thin as the emptiness of an empty book, several notices for money for the new grade had already piled up inside the book bag.
In this capitalist world, just breathing leads to costs.
Dressed warmly and wearing the mittens to hold hands outside.
Siyeon looked somehow excited.
She seemed thrilled because of the upcoming Christmas, but no matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t fathom why she needed a massager.
Regardless of our intentions, Siyeon swung our linked arms like the Viking ride in arcs.
So ended the last walk home from first grade, which would never come again.
My true feelings that fit the impression-filled sentence….
It feels like my arms are going to fall off.
“Siyeon, aren’t you going to sleep?”
Ultimately, on December 24th, I was still clueless why Siyeon needed a massager.
I wrapped up the massager received from the security office with a green and red ribbon, clumsily giving it a Christmas vibe, and waited for Siyeon to fall asleep.
“I want to wait for Santa!”
However, Siyeon, firmly expressing her intentions in response to a question.
It seemed she thought Santa would come at midnight, as she kept her eyes wide open even at that late hour.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t come while you’re awake.
“Then I’ll go to sleep first.”
To help Siyeon fall asleep quickly, I turned off all the lights in the house and went upstairs to the upper bunk first.
No matter how tightly children resist sleep, if the lights are turned off and they’re under the covers, they wouldn’t be able to hold out.
With all the lights out and lying on the upper bunk, I fiddled with my smartphone to fight off sleep.
Midnight passed, 1 AM passed.
2 AM passed, nearing 3 AM.
As I peeked over the railing to check the first floor, at last, Siyeon, unable to hold out any longer, had finally fallen asleep.
Quietly, without making a sound, I descended the stairs, walking on tiptoe across the living room floor.
Underneath the computer desk, in a corner.
Cautiously extending my arms, I retrieved the wrapped present.
Although the adults said it was a one-handed massager, it felt quite heavy even for a small body.
I gently placed it, bending my waist and knees.
Not making a sound, after setting it near the lower bunk, I slowly returned to the upper bunk.
Now, I could comfortably sleep, and when I wake up, checking Siyeon’s reaction would mean the year’s business was nearly done.
The small light from the smartphone on the upper bunk turned off, and I slowly closed my eyes.
Because I hadn’t fallen asleep until 3 AM, sleep came easily.
“Mari! Mari!”
“Ugh, what…?”
“Santa Claus brought gifts! What did you get?!”
“Uh, um?”
I was startled and groaned as I was suddenly asked by Siyeon.
My gift?
Only after hearing Siyeon’s words did I realize I had completely forgotten about my own present while concentrating on her gift.
After all, it was something bought with my own money, so I never thought it would be a present for me.
“I forgot to ask for it…”
“Oh no! What should we do?”
“It’s fine, what did you ask for, Siyeon?”
I lightly brushed aside Siyeon’s panic, who was worried about me, and asked what she had wanted, knowing full well.
Once she tore open the wrapping, it would of course be the massager.
I thought I would finally hear the reason for wanting the massager, intending to say something.
“Here!”
Suddenly, Siyeon held out her Christmas gift to me.
In surprise at this unexpected situation, my eyes widened, and I stared back and forth between Siyeon and the massager.
“Huh?”
“It’s for you, you know I’ve been massaging your shoulders every day.”
An overwhelming rush of emotions surged within me, as if water was rising up.
Unexpectedly, the feeling of gratitude can come suddenly.
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.