After spending a wonderful Christmas Eve, Sawahara went straight to the Student Council room early the next morning. He would probably be handling paperwork here all day.
In fact, Student Council duty shifts were entirely arranged by the Student Council President himself. In other words, he did not actually need to spend the entire day on duty in the Student Council room; he could arrange to patrol or do something else instead.
The only reason he was on duty here was that he wanted to avoid some trouble.
But sometimes, trouble was not something one could avoid just by trying to hide from it.
Knock, knock, knock—
Someone knocked on the Student Council room door. Was someone really coming to the Student Council for help on Christmas?
"Come in."
Sawahara spoke as he flipped through the documents in his hands. They concerned the budgets for next semester's clubs.
"Merry Christmas, Sawahara-kun." Ichinose pushed open the door, carrying a cherry-pink gift bag in her hand. "This is a present for you."
"Merry Christmas, Ichinose." Sawahara greeted her with a smile and held out both hands to accept the gift.
"Why did you suddenly come to the Student Council room? Is something wrong? On a day like this, the students in your class shouldn't have let you be alone, right?" Sawahara was full of surprise at Ichinose's appearance. As the core of Class C, the beloved little angel Ichinose, she should have been spending the holiday with her classmates at a time like this.
"That's exactly why." Ichinose sat down beside Sawahara as she answered his question. "It's nice for everyone to celebrate together, but people probably have friends they want to spend the holiday with alone, too."
After all, it was a holiday like Christmas. There would inevitably be dates and