Short-Short Story: "Osechi Bath" *Weekly Short-Short Note 1/4 Prompt

"This konjac is spicy."
My housemate mutters while picking at the osechi.
Like a snail, they sit cross-legged in the kotatsu, back hunched, reaching their chopsticks toward the tiered food box on the tabletop.
At that goofy sight, a laugh bubbles up in me like a hiccup.
"It's braided konjac, after all. It has chili pepper in it."
I said, stifling my laughter like a puffed-up mochi sighing and deflating.
"If the osechi is spicy, is that a sign that the long year ahead will be heavily spiced?"
This housemate of mine is always blurting out things like this all day long.
"Life is tough, isn't it?"
I find myself replying with a pun.
They pout their lips and look up at me as if to say I got the better of them.
"You're not cute."
"Hehe."
A lazy, relaxed atmosphere, like lukewarm konjac, flows through the room—typical of New Year's.

"By the way, what are we going to do about this mountain of osechi?"
When I bring up the topic I had intentionally set aside, my housemate lets their gaze drift off into space.
In the direction they are looking, there is a mountain of osechi piled up—the result of them accidentally ordering too much with a wrong tap on their screen.
"Shall we try an osechi bath?"
To my housemate's evasive smile, I reply with a grin.
"Go get in it right now."
Representing this tough world, I kicked my housemate's rounded back.

I participated in this project.