Chapter – 34…
The Clumsy Scarf and Her Blessing…
One week remained until Christmas Eve.
My fingertips were covered in band-aids. After school, the newspaper club room had completely transformed into my secret knitting workshop.
“…I told you, it goes like this!”
The gentle voice of the older sister from the video, “Easy Knitting for Beginners: How to Make a Scarf,” rang hollowly from my smartphone. In front of me lay a tangled ball of midnight-blue yarn, countless times knitted and unraveled.
(Will I really make it in time…?)
Thinking of Rei-kun’s happy, glowing face, I picked up the tangled yarn once more and began to wrestle with it.
That was when it happened.
“…You’re really clumsy, aren’t you.”
The calm yet familiar voice made me flinch.
When I turned around, Nishikawa Reina was standing in the doorway, arms crossed.
“N-Nishikawa-san! W-When did you get here…!?”
Flustered, I hid my half-finished, far-from-perfect scarf behind my back.
But her eyes weren’t fooled.
“That color… it’s his, isn’t it? Is this a Christmas present?”
There was no trace of the sharpness that had once lingered in her voice. Instead, there was a faint, wistful sadness, like she was reminiscing.
I nodded, and she let out a long breath.
Then, stepping into the room, she stared out at the winter-bare landscape and began to speak quietly.
“…I’ve knitted one before, too. Back in middle school.”
“Eh…?”
“For his birthday. But I never ended up giving it to him.”
She laughed softly, almost self-mockingly.
“Back then, he wouldn’t accept anyone’s gift. No, it wasn’t even that—no one dared enter his territory. He guarded himself with thick walls of ice.”
Slowly, she turned her gaze toward me.
Her eyes were surprisingly gentle.
“But if it’s a present from you, he’ll accept it.”
“…”
“Sure, he might tease you, saying ‘What is this? How clumsy!’ But he’ll also be incredibly, incredibly happy. He’ll wear it every day, treasuring it.”
It was her own vision of the future.
And it was her complete white flag toward me.
“…How do you know?”
“You can see it if you watch him. How he acts only around you.”
Reina’s expression held a hint of regret, but also a certain clarity.
“In the end, it’s your win, Saeki. You’ve melted the thick ice around his heart.”
Finally, she glanced at the scarf hidden behind my back.
“Just… make sure you finish it properly. If you give him a lopsided scarf, it’ll become one of Seiryo High’s Seven Mysteries.”
It was Reina—awkward, yet kind—offering me her cheer.
Left alone in the club room, I kept replaying her words in my mind.
She, too, seemed to be putting a closure on her own love and moving forward.
I picked up the unfinished scarf again.
The stitches were still uneven and clumsy.
But each loop held my overflowing “I like you.”
My warm feelings for him were tightly woven into every stitch.
Just a little more until Christmas Eve.
My one-and-only love story in the world.
I gripped the knitting needles once more, awkwardly, but determined.
