Ome Quartet of Snow Country

Chapter 119 Christmas Tree

After dragging the pine tree to a suitable place and putting it down, Naruse rubbed the bit of peeled bark on his hands, and shook his arm again.

"It's quite heavy..."

"After all, it is two meters high, and the branches and leaves are completely preserved, not removed." Shangzi looked at his hand, and then at the vice president of the student union who followed, "What does Yoshioka-senpai want for the Christmas tree?" ?"

"There are no special requirements, as long as the final product is a Christmas tree."

"Okay." Shangzi smiled, "Leave it to us."

Yoshioka-senpai nodded and left quickly. The repair department surrounded the pine trees on the ground and started planning.

"This height should be about the same?"

"Ah."

"The branches and leaves on this side are a little dense, just cut some off and coordinate with the other side."

"Is it very dense? Well...you can't see it on the ground, so let's stand up and have a look."

In the process of design and planning, Naruse basically did not speak, and was only responsible for contributing.

Holding up the pine tree, he looked at the other side of the gymnasium. Haixing was standing next to a few girls, watching them weave colorful ropes.

She came here with Hikaru Takikawa, and she helped out somehow, but judging by her expression, she really enjoyed it.

"...What do you think Naruse?"

When he came back to his senses, the seniors around him were all looking at him.

"what?"

"Do you need to cut off some of the branches and leaves here?"

"It's fine." He looked at the pine tree in his hand, "If it doesn't bother you, you can actually find some pine branches to cover it, so that the branches and leaves of the whole tree become denser and look better."

"That's a good idea...but the pine branches are hard to find, aren't they?"

"Ask someone from the student union."

For Tsugako's first Christmas party, several people held an attitude of striving for perfection, discussed it, and finally Shangzi put forward the demand to the student union.

"Pine branches? No problem, of course it can be satisfied. But we don't have time to go there now, so we can only trouble the repair department to buy pine branches by themselves, and all expenses will be reimbursed by our student union... Ah, as long as it is not too much .”

People from the student union gave the address and contact information of the shop where they bought the pine trees. After finding out that it was not far away, the two senior girls decided to go and have a look for themselves.

The rest of the people continued to surround the pine tree, planning their next move.

"Speaking of which, how will this tree be erected at that time, can't it be supported all the time?"

"Just get a base."

"Did you pour the cement yourself?"

"Wow, that's too troublesome...I'll use wooden boards to make a frame, and then I can stuff some heavy objects like stones into it, and it should be able to support it."

The Christmas tree is one of the most important decorations at the party, but it is also independent and does not affect other parts in progress. The members of the restoration department planned and designed calmly, and their ideas gradually took shape.

“Wrap delicate strings of lights around the branches, decorate with glittery cardboard cutouts of flowers and birds, and hang cute stuffed animals like Santa Claus, reindeer, or snowflakes. Well… and, finally, on the tree’s At the top, a star comes out around a glowing filament."

When Takikawa Hikari passing by asked, Naruse explained their design in this way.

"It's so complicated, it's really hard work."

"So the workload is not small." Naruse said.

In the plan of the members of the restoration department, even the light strings have to be painted with different colors for the small bulbs after they are bought.

"They've gone back to the club room to make decorations now." Naruse gestured to the pine tree on the ground with his eyes, "I'm waiting for the other two seniors to come back and make some preliminary decorations. Hmm..."

"What's wrong?" Takikawa Hikari noticed that he hesitated to speak.

"The power of light is not bad."

"Well, do you want to compare?"

"That's not what I mean...do you have time now?"

"There's nothing to do now, let's talk."

"I want you to go to the restoration department and help me get the base of this thing. Senior sister Xiaochuan should have done almost the same. Or you can help me look after the tree here, and I will move it by myself. " Naruse said.

"I'll go." Takigawa Hikaru was more willing to move around, and readily agreed.

Watching her leave the gymnasium, Naruse breathed out a breath of cold air, then stomped his feet, turned around the pine trees on the ground, and moved his chilled body.

There were people coming and going around, and after the cultural festival, the gymnasium became busy again for a long time due to the celebration.

"—Is this the Christmas tree for the party?"

Naruse was startled, and quickly turned his head, "Yes."

"Um……"

Starfish stared at the pine tree, rolling his eyes, as if hesitating how to comment.

"I haven't started decorating yet, this is not the final look."

"Oh!" She seemed relieved.

Naruse smiled, "Are you looking forward to it?"

"Yeah." Starfish nodded.

He glanced at the place where she stayed before, "Haixing was helping there just now?"

"I just helped to move a little things... There is nothing that needs me now."

Naruse thought for a while, "There will be some pine branches coming over later, if Starfish is okay, please help me pretend."

"Eh... okay."

She immediately agreed, and then looked down at the pine tree on the ground again.

Naruse looked at her from the side, and looked away before she noticed.

After Song Qianqiu returned to Tokyo, Hai Xing hadn't been to his house, and the communication between the two hadn't been interrupted because of this. They could chat with each other normally while waiting for the bus to school or on the way home from school.

After the formal reconciliation that night, the two have become more and more like just friends.

Hai Xing squatted down, touched the mottled bark, and suddenly raised his head: "How do we connect the branches?"

"Use wire and barbed wire, just hang it up." Naruse said, "Fix the roots of the branches so they won't fall."

While the two were talking, Hikaru Takikawa returned to the gymnasium carrying a Christmas tree base made of spliced ​​wooden boards.

"It's not very heavy, but Ogawa-senpai moves really fast."

"Sisters are very good at carpentry, and they always move quickly after they have specific ideas." Naruse took the wooden base and tried it, and it was indeed not too heavy.

The base is hollow for placing heavy objects, and the top has a square hole about the thickness of a pine tree trunk.

"Senior sister said that after the Christmas tree was put in, it was stuck with these two boards." Hikari Takikawa pushed a movable board, "It's so clever."

Starfish leaned over, and Naruse also squatted down to take a look.

After waiting for more than 20 minutes, he received a message from Shangzi, asking him to go to the school gate to help bring in the pine branches.

When I went to the school gate, the two senior sisters almost bought back the branches and leaves of most of the trees.

"Too many."

"It doesn't cost much, I can't help but ask for a little more..."

It took a while to drag the pine branches back to the gymnasium, and Takikawa Hikaru and Haixing who went to the playground to move the stones also came back.

Naruse lifted the Christmas tree, inserted it into the base filled with stones, fixed it, and then began to wind the barbed wire around the tree.

"Put the branch into the hole of the barbed wire, and hang it." He explained the method to Haixing, "If it can't hang, fix it with a thin wire."

Starfish nodded while trying, "I see."

The two seniors looked at the two of them from the side, and then looked at each other again.

"Who is this……"

"The starfish of class E of the first year."

Naruse lowered his head and handed a thin wire to Hai Xing, "It used to be my step-sister, so I came to help today. Shang Zi also knows her."

(End of this chapter)