It was the early morning of the 25th of December 2020 in Tokyo. The sun began to rise, heating the frosty winter air. As the sun rose, so did the people of Japan, and Zoe. She awoke to her unusually silent apartment, and the faint sound of laughter next door, followed by loud shushing. The shushing was expected; the wood walls allowed noises to be heard easily, and no one appreciated rowdiness, especially at such an early time.
Zoe yawned, brushing her brown hair out of her face. The sun's rays hit her face through the gaps in the curtains. It wasn’t like her to wake up at such a time. She got up and rested her feet on the chill wooden floors. The Japanese sure love wood. She thought.
Zoe grabbed her phone and looked at the date. It was Christmas. She brightened up, rubbing her hazel eyes to check again.
Christmas was a delight - the only day she looked forward to waking up early in the year. Her family would play Mariah Carey songs at the crack of dawn (maybe it was her muscle memory telling her to get up early on this date), and the smell of freshly baked cookies would always be wafting throughout the house. Her little brothers would be running around the house in thick sweaters knitted by their grandmother. Their running made loud thuds that echoed throughout the household. Madeline, or Maddy as Zoe liked to call her older sister, would be dragged away from her computer to help set the breakfast table. She would grumble loudly only to be shut up by a glare from their father.
Their father was a middle-aged 57-year-old man who had messy light brown hair and the same coloured eyes to match. His genes were more dominant than his wife’s; all four of their children had brown hair and not the smooth black hair their mother possessed. The children’s mother was a spirited 55-year-old woman passionate about holidays. She had long black hair and black eyes and wore thick black glasses. She would usually let her hair down in the mornings. But Christmas morning was the only morning she tied her hair into a messy bun since she had to fill a whole table with yummy baked and fried goods.
The table often consisted of pancakes, cookies, French toast, sausages, eggs, and, on rare occasions, muffins. Placed beside the empty plates were cups filled with eggnog and cranberry punch. Punch was always for the kids since their grandmother loved to spike the eggnog with rum.
Zoe looked at her table placed in the middle of the apartment. There were unopened snacks, such as chocolate bars and potato chips. She thinks there are cream puffs in the fridge and cup noodles in the kitchen cabinet above it. Well, that’s her breakfast.
While she could go to the convenience store just across her apartment building, she didn't want to when it was three degrees outside. Outside her window, the girl could see a few people in winter coats waiting for the traffic lights to turn in their favour so they could walk. She looked at her thick jacket hanging beside the fridge, contemplating for a second whether to go outside to get a healthy breakfast.
Nope. Cup noodles work just fine. She decided, finally getting up from her bed after waiting for the pins and needles in her legs to wear off.
Her kitchen was simple: a single stove between a fridge and sink, with cabinets above and below all three appliances. Thick green tinsel draped the top cabinets with low, droopy U’s and had small ornaments hung on them. If Zoe had to be honest, she found them annoying; it was a struggle to open the cabinet doors without risking tearing the decor, but her roommate insisted on decorating the apartment to make it seem not dead.
Her roommate was a Japanese senior student studying at Zoe’s university. Zoe was originally going to rent an apartment despite its expensive fees, but stumbled upon her roommate’s flyer, looking for a roommate to share an apartment with. It was convenient and useful. Not only were the rental fees split equally between the two, it was within walking distance of their school. The senior was nice, introducing and welcoming Zoe to the school in as much comprehensible English as she could speak.
Zoe would have loved to spend the day with her roommate, but she left last night to take a 6-hour train ride to Fukuoka, where her family lived, to celebrate the holiday with them.
Ah, well. Zoe thought, pouring water into the kettle. I hope she has fun.
Click.
She switched the ‘on’ button on the kettle, and a loud hum followed suit. While waiting for the water to boil, she started to open the cup noodle packaging and poured all the seasonings and little chopped-up vegetables into the uncooked noodles.
Zoe opened the cabinet above the sink and brought out a can of cocoa, a rectangular container with the label ‘sugar’ on it, a fork and spoon, and a grey mug with the initial ‘Z’ engraved on it. She used the spoon to scoop out three tablespoons of cocoa and one tablespoon of sugar.
Ding!
Was the loud sound the kettle made when the water finished boiling, startling Zoe and causing her to spill some sugar. She mentally cursed and dusted the wasted sugar into the sink.
While pouring the hot water into her mug and noodles, a notification popped up on her phone. It was from a contact named: mom. Zoe smiled. With her phone, mug balanced on its flat surface, and cup noodles in her other hand, she quickly walked over to the table in the middle of the apartment and placed all three items on it, proudly praising herself for bringing all three in one go.
She opened the message sent by her mum and it read:
Mum:
Zoe, do call us when you’re free. We’re all missing you.
And Zoe did, immediately hitting the FaceTime button beside her mother’s contact. She saw her messy hair while waiting for her mother to pick up, and quickly brushed a hand through it to make herself presentable. Her mother’s face soon appeared, squinting at the screen, before brightening up at who she saw.
“Daughter!”
“Hi, mum.”
“Was that Zoe?” Zoe could tell that it was her father by his deep voice. “Put the phone on the table. KIDS!”
As the phone was set on a table, Zoe could tell it was the living room by seeing the huge sofa and Christmas tree behind it, noticing it was decorated with a lot more handmade ornaments this year. She giggled as her brothers ran into view, wearing their newly sewed tacky sweaters, and crashing onto the sofa, both grinning widely as they greeted Zoe. Their older sister could be seen begrudgingly walking over to the sofa and slumping on it, giving a half-hearted ‘hey’ before pulling out her phone and texting god knows who. Maybe her new boyfriend, but before Zoe could even ask, her mother and father came into view, helping her grandmother sit down on the couch.
“Zoe, how are you settling into your new school?” Her grandmother asked once she was comfortable. When she did, a flurry of questions followed. Most were questions about her current lifestyle. Her brothers stood out when they shouted ‘Merry Christmas’.
“I’m doing well.” Zoe finally answered after her family quietened down. “School is alright, not too stressful. I’ve made friends and you already know, but I’m sharing an apartment with a senior, a female, of course.” She quickly added.
“That’s great, honey.” Was her mother’s response. “And Merry Christmas.”
A flood of ‘Merry Christmas’ came from each of her family members. Zoe just kept smiling, and wished them back. “Sorry I couldn’t fly over to celebrate with you guys.”
“Zoe, that isn’t your fault.” Her father spoke. “The lockdown forbids anyone from flying in and out of the country.”
“Yeah, but I still miss you guys.” Zoe replied, fidgeting with the handle of her mug. This was her very first Christmas without her family, and while she thought she could handle it, seeing her family brought back memories of all the amazing Christmas celebrations they had. “I really wish I could’ve been with you all.”
“Darling, we miss you too. When you get back, we’re going to celebrate everything we missed. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.” Her mother excitedly said, already planning what to bake. Zoe smiled. “Yeah, that sounds awesome.”
As the family caught up with each other, chatting about incidents that happened over on their side, Zoe took sips of her extremely bitter cocoa and ate her noodles. Her mother did lecture her about eating more healthy foods, but Zoe just smiled and nodded, letting it go in through one ear and coming out through the other.
Zoe laughed when her brothers rambled about their annoying school projects. She gave her mother some advice about decorations in the house when she asked for opinions. And she gossiped with her elder sister, who was in fact texting her new boyfriend, about relationships
Unfortunately, the call eventually had to end. While Zoe could sit the whole day talking to her family, they had events planned. The family reluctantly parted ways, bidding farewell.
In her apartment, Zoe sighed and stretched her arms. She had been sitting there for - maybe two hours? Her back felt super stiff. She got up to throw away her empty cup noodles and wash her used mug, utensils and plate. Sometime during the call, she had taken out the cream puffs from the fridge to eat.
While washing, she thought about what to do for the day. It was around 9 o’clock, and she had no school since it was the winter holidays. Binge anime and eat the snacks on the table? Nah, the day was too good for her to do that. The weather forecast said it wasn’t going to rain, which was the perfect day to go outdoors.
Zoe suddenly gasped. “I can do some homework.” She quickly dried her hands on a towel and went to pack her computer, some books and a pencil case in her laptop bag. Yes, on a lovely day like this, she wanted to go out and do homework. Her defence was: it’s too cold outside for her to like to do anything and doing homework in a warm and spacious cafe was way better than doing it in her small apartment.
Zoe changed into a long-sleeved black shirt, wore pastel green-coloured loose pants and slipped on her coat, white sneakers and bag. She took a quick look in the mirror, called herself ‘cute’ and set off to her favourite cafe.
At the cafe, she ordered her usual winter drink: a hot mint-chocolate. Her friends all gave her a weird look when she first brought them to the cafe, but she liked mint and nothing could change that. Zoe paid, and went to take a window seat.
It took Zoe about five minutes to fully set up her homework layout. A computer with its charger and headphones plugged in, in front of her textbook which had her pencil case on its left. The right side of her book was left for her hand to move the mouse and occasionally write on her textbook. Once her setup was complete, she heard the waiter call out the name which she asked to be put on the cup: Sasuke. Now, why Sasuke? She was in Japan and it was an anime name, so if she doesn’t hear it being called, she can tell the cup is hers by people suddenly turning around in shock or curiosity.
As Zoe sat back down, she looked out the window and came to the realisation that Christmas for the first time, felt like a normal day. She shrugged, sipped her hot drink and worked like she normally did.
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