7

“Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, but the very next day, you gave it away…” belted out the blues pleadingly, incessantly.

Alone she sat in Starbucks on 25th December 2007, listlessly stirring her rapidly cooling Café Latte as her eyes roamed the crowds, the smiling faces, and the happy couples. In envy, in tiredness, in… helplessness at her own situation, at the melancholic feelings she tried so hard to suppress.

“At least some people are happy,” she thought, trying her best (and failing) to look on the bright side.

Christmas Day, alone, amidst a sea of foreign faces.

“There are many things worse than losing the one you love,” rang the voice of one of her classmates, Ryo, from the previous night’s Bounenkai.

But what about their dreams, their plans, and their promises to one another?

“Face it, you’ll love more than one person in your lifetime!”

No! That couldn’t be – no, she’d always believed that there was only space in her heart for one. Him. Her first love.

Her true love.

“You’ll never know when it is true love; and only when everything’s over do you realize, with a sickening jolt, that it wasn’t.” said another friend of hers, in an uncharacteristically serious tone.

Then does that make it “true” while it lasted? Or was it never “true” because it fell apart?

“It takes two hands to clap, and if one walks away…” she trailed off, mid-sentence, blinking defiantly as her vision abruptly blurred and swam in front of her very eyes.

Face burning in shame, she hurriedly pushed back her chair and made a move to head for the washroom, when suddenly, she heard a shocked gasp, and felt someone collide into her from behind.

Something flew from a tray, and in a split second, she felt a freezing cold, damp and sticky sensation on her hair and back. Along with a blob of sweet-smelling something that was quickly making its slimy way down her beloved new dress.

Stunned, she pulled her gaze upwards, but all that her shocked mind could register was the sight of the bright red and green banner that hung on the wall in front of her.

“Starbucks wishes you a Merry Christmas!” it screamed in large, happy letters.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and let out a shriek of incredulity.