Saori shook her head. "Oh, don't say that. You bring in so much life into a party. A lot of us missed you. And also, thank you for the Christmas present. You know I always wanted an apron like that," she chuckled. "Remind me to make some takoyaki for you later. I don't want you to miss out on it."

There was a pause while Saori drank her own glass of champagne. "You got sent back home for a bit, didn't you? Something similar happened to me a while ago too. Don't worry, I'm not going press for details if you don't want to talk about it."