KOF School

Last day and shopping

The last day of school for the year went by without anything significant happening. Even most of the teachers were also in holiday mood, letting the students do their own work or hosted a game of quiz of hangman with them as they awaited the end of the school day. Yashiro was still missing, with no word of his whereabouts known. The authorities even checked with border security and confirmed that he had not left the country and was still prowling within the depths of Japan. Iori just wished that he was fine and in good health, wherever he was.
Rugal even held a small assembly at the end of the day to wish for Yashiro's safety and well-being. Of course, all of the students silently prayed that he would return unharmed, while some were secretly glad that he was gone. After all, he did bully a lot of people.
But most of the students also had other things left on their minds, and that was Christmas and the upcoming. There were just a few days left for them to prepare the celebration and as if that wasn't enough, there was Shogatsu a week after that too. Iori hoped that Yashiro would return by then.
"See you next year!" Was the farewell that everyone bade each other as they parted with their friends.
Even Kay and Zayn said that when leaving, waving cheerfully as they left with the rest of their family and neighbours. Iori waved back at them with a smirk and turned to his sister.
"Are you done with your Christmas shopping?" Iori asked her.
Aiko dismally shook her head. "Nope. What with the band preparation and whatnot, I forgot."
"Same," Iori admitted with a groan. "Wanna go do some shopping tonight?"
Aiko shrugged. "Sure. Wanna go to Takeshita or to the mall?" 
"Takeshita Street will be quite crowded around this time, let's just go to the mall," Iori said. "We can take the bike, tell Dad that we're going to Kay's place or something like that."
"That sounds good," Aiko nodded gleefully. "Tomorrow should be best, Dad would still be at work too."
Iori smirked. "Yes. We'll have time to wrap them up too. Hopefully, this time Uncle or Dad wouldn't walk in on us."
"Preparing for Uncle's birthday was the hardest, especially because of that beer tap explosion," Aiko remarked with a frown. "It had to explode that day, didn't it? It probably wanted Uncle to wander around at the worst moment."
"That beer tap was so mean," Iori added with a frown.

Speaking of Christmas, Kay had plans as well. He and his brothers had already made a plan to steal Seirah's car and make their way to Epiphany Square to do some last-minute shopping.
The first thing they did was get themselves a hot cocoa from Posiden Coffee, which had a new branch open at the mall too, and made their way around.
"What do we get for Mom?" Zayn asked, sipping his warm drink. "We don't even know much of what she likes, still have a lot to know of her."
"Perfume?" Krizalid suggested.
"You and your perfume," Kay rolled his eyes. "We know that's what you're getting for her, how are we supposed to get her the same thing?"
Krizalid frowned. "Fine, then. How about a necklace?"
"Need to find one within budget," Zayn quipped. "Is there any budget jewellery store here?"
Kay looked around and pointed at a brightly lit shop a few lots away. "There. Hopefully it's cheap because I don't have much on me."
"Same..." Zayn nodded in agreement. "Let's just look around first."
They entered and realised that most of the jewellery on sale were actually nice with decent price tags.
Kay took a beautiful necklace off the shelf, a silver one with a nice teardrop-shaped blue gem. "This would look good on her, don't you think?" He showed the jewellery to Zayn.
Zayn nodded. "Yeah. Matches her eye colour. Maybe I'll get one of those for Seirah."
"Not fair, I chose necklace first!" Kay argued.
"So you're getting necklaces for everyone?" Krizalid piped up.
Kay turned to him, a slight look of surprise on his face. "Maybe?"
"Lame..." Krizalid rolled his eyes and shook his head. "How about a bracelet? Add some diversity into your gifts, guys!"
Zayn nodded. "Nice idea."
So he made a beeline towards the bracelet section before his brothers could. There was a nice beaded bracelet that looked expensive with a small price tag. Zayn smirked as he took one of them for his mother, one with frosted glass beads. Then he spotted a nice golden bracelet with rhinestones that would look good on Seirah. He decided to go back to the necklace section and took little pale blue choker with a black circular gem for Isolde since he felt like he needed to get her something as well.
Kay got a pair of blue teardrop earrings for his mother, something that his older brother looked upon in disgust. He didn't care about Krizalid's opinion, he thought it would go well the necklace. He also decided upon a nice ring for Seirah and a cute light blue hair band with snowflakes on it for Kula.
Krizalid just got a necklace and a bracelet too. For some reason, everyone thought that their gift ideas were still far too skimpy.
"Wanna go to the Do-It Shop?" Krizalid suggested when they went over to the counter to pay. "For some reason, I feel like this isn't enough."
He was mildly surprised when his younger brothers actually nodded in agreement. The Do-It Shop, unlike the name suggested, was a lot more than a simple hardware store. From snacks to toys to accessories, everything could be found there.

The brothers exited the Do-It Shop with smirks on their faces.
"Mission accomplished for the ladies," Kay said. "But now for Dad..." he frowned as he thought to himself. 'And you guys too, but I can't really say that...'
"Are there any haberdasheries nearby?" Zayn asked with a slight frown. "One that would sell cheap clothing, anyway."
"We can always go to the department store downstairs," Krizalid suggested. "There's some nice clothes down there too."
"But clothes are boring..." Kay groaned. "Can't we like... go to the drugstore or something?"
Krizalid crossed his arms with a playful frown. "I thought you said that perfume was a lame idea?"
"It's not, especially for Dad who keeps complaining that he doesn't have cologne," Kay reasoned. "Let's just go there."
"At this point, the only thing I can afford is a bottle of shampoo," Zayn sighed. "This is some big budget, you guys."

The Do-It Shop isn't entirely a fantasy since such a shop actually exists in real life.