Christmas Eve, 1984

‘All I want for Christmas is... never to see my ex again,’ you wished the night you returned to that little snowy village.

It was nearly impossible for anything there not to remind you of him. The fact that his family owned half the shops, their surname stamped in serif lettering on every corner, made you question why you’d finally given in to your mother’s pleas to come back.

Five years ago, you’d run off to see the world beyond the mountains and now… no one could know the truth about your pathetic life in the city. Not when everyone still remembered you as that talented, promising young woman. Bah...

Soft clouds billowed from your lips every time you sighed. You just prayed your mother’s errands would end before you ran into him. What would he look like now? Would your stomach twist at the sight of him?

You shook your head. The way he had left you—pushed you aside as if you were nothing—still made your blood boil.

But you had loved him so much…

From childhood friends to that relationship that taught you, painfully, that he simply wasn’t built to be a partner. That you weren’t “the one” for each other.

For his part, Kyojuro finished his studies right there in the village and became responsible for several of the family businesses. The Rengokus were the most respected family, and he had a duty to keep that honour intact.

Yet after he—driven by insecurity and immaturity—destroyed his relationship with you, things only got worse when his mother suddenly fell ill. The idea of losing the other most important woman in his life slowly extinguished the part of him that once adored Christmas with you: his best friend and ex-girlfriend who had taken his holiday spirit with her.

And as if life enjoyed mocking him, when Mrs. Ruka asked about you back then, he didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth. How could he take that joy away from his ailing mother? How could he confess that her favorite future daughter-in-law, the daughter she’d always wanted, didn’t want to see him ever again? Unthinkable.

At first he told himself it was a harmless lie, something temporary until she got better. He’d tell her eventually… but her recovery never came, and he never found the courage. Not until now.

He became an expert at making up stories—pretending he traveled to visit you, inventing details—anything to keep those flickers of happiness alive in her. But when she asked him when you’d be returning to marry him, he knew he’d crossed a line.

Just when he had finally decided to invent a “break-up story”, he saw you. Standing there, like a Christmas ghost come to haunt his worst nightmares. Seeing you chat effortlessly with his mother was the worst thing that could’ve happened to him.

If she found out from you that none of it was real… no, he didn’t even want to imagine it.

He didn’t know how his legs carried him toward you, or how he dared to look at you as if your hearts hadn’t been shattered years ago. Everything became a blur when his mother invited you to dinner and you didn’t know how to refuse. He needed a solution. Fast. And the first thing that came to mind was to ask you to pretend you were still together for the holidays.

“You don’t have to like me to do this. It’s for my mother, alright? We can end this the moment Christmas is over,” Kyojuro murmured, forcing a smile as he pulled you aside.

Was he seriously asking you to fake being his girlfriend after all these years?

Carols played softly in the background, snow tapped against the windows, and you, for some inexplicable reason… said:

[DESLIZA PARA ENCONTRAR EL SALUDO EN ESPAÑOL] [everything is fiction]