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As a little girl, Houka loved dress-up. When she found out about Halloween, a holiday where kids dressed up and got free candy, she wanted to celebrate it.
Unfortunately, she could not go trick-or-treating on October 31, as apparently nobody in the whole neighbourhood would have anything to give her. But on October 31 when Makito and Houka got home from school, their mother had already got out the boxes of dress-up clothes. Houka went through many options and ended up wearing a green t-shirt and pants, a green headband with frog eyes on the top, and two pairs of rubbery frog-shaped gloves. In addition to wearing them on her hands, she insisted on wearing a pair on her feet despite how hard they were to move in. Makito wore a "gardener costume" mainly consisting of overalls and a big hat. Urara didn't want to dress up, and Tsubasa and Kai were too little to dress up and eat a lot of candy, but Houka still had fun staying up late to watch movies and eat a lot of candy.
As it got to the end of November, Houka had a question:
"Can we do Halloween again?"
"Halloween is in October!" Her mother laughed. "You can dress up, but you won't get all the candy."
"Hmm. When can we do Halloween again?"
"In October."
"But that's so far away!"
Her mother nodded in sympathy, but they didn't do Halloween in November.
On the morning of December 24, Houka was finishing her breakfast when she heard her parents talking.
"It's Christmas Eve! You don't dress up like it's Halloween on Christmas!" Her father said.
"Halloween!" Houka said, getting up quickly and running over to see what they were talking about.
"But it makes her so happy! And it was fun, wasn't it?"
"Fine, but I'm not dressing up…" her father insisted.
"Oh, come on, you can at least put on a Santa hat."
"Fine, Dear…"
Houka dressed up as a fairy elf, using pink fairy wings and a headband that made her ears look pointy. Unfortunately she couldn't wear her tiara and be a fairy elf princess, but she still wore a princess dress with it.
"Urara, you should be the princess! Here, I'll do it," Houka said, placing the plastic tiara on her head.
"I dunno what to dress up as," Makito said.
"Anything! Maybe you could be Santa. Or an elf. Though I don't know what a Christmas elf looks like exactly."
"Maybe I could do your frog costume from Halloween? The frog gloves should fit."
"Yeah! Okay, Tsubasa, what do you want to dress up as?"
"No."
"No??"
"Don't wanna."
"Come onnn," Houka whined. "It's Christmas Eve and we're all dressing up!"
"Houka, we don't need to all dress up on Christmas Eve…" Makito said.
"But he should! Maybe he could be a reindeer!"
"What's that?"
After much discussion, Tsubasa ended up wearing a red clown nose to be Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, though that was the extent of his costume.
"Kai might not fit any of these costumes."
"Hmmm," Houka mumbled. She picked out a hat (which was too big for Kai) and a toy wand. "Kai, you're a wizard!"
Her mother dressed as Mrs. Claus and her father put on a Santa hat and red coat. Her mother made sure to take plenty of pictures to document it.
And just like that, an Ozu Christmas tradition was born.
The Ozu kids were playing outside on a nice summer day. Houka and Urara were flying kites together as their brothers ran around, trying to catch a frog that had gotten into the garden.
"Got it!" Kai yelled.
"Great! I have an idea," Tsubasa said, whispering something to his younger brother.
"Should I?" Kai mumbled.
"You can do it! You already caught the frog. Come on!"
"What are you gonna do?" Makito asked.
"Don't worry. It'll be funny!" Tsubasa said.
Houka and Urara continued standing still and watching their kites, and moments later Urara dropped her kite, jumping around and screaming.
"What happened?" Houka asked, finally looking over. Kai and Tsubasa laughed as a small frog jumped down Urara's back.
"Mom!!!" Makito yelled, running inside to get her.
"Oh! It's just a tiny frog!" Houka noticed as it jumped onto the ground. "It's okay Urara, look! A frog was on your back!"
Urara was not comforted by this, and Kai and Tsubasa stopped laughing as their mother entered the yard.
"Urara, what happened? It's okay," her mother said.
"There was something slimy on my back-"
"It was a frog," Houka added.
"Tsubasa told Kai to do it!" Makito added.
"Quiet. I'm talking to Urara. Sweetie, the frog is gone now. Want to go inside and make apple pie with me?"
"Okay…"
"Let's go inside. And boys, don't put wild frogs down people's backs."
"I didn't!" Tsubasa argued.
"Well, make sure you don't. Urara, let's go inside."
Houka put the kites away after Urara went inside.
By the time the apple pie was ready, everyone had calmed down enough for the day to go on as normal.
In December, the kids were going through the dress-up bin looking for costumes to wear on Christmas Eve. Everyone was happily looking through costumes when Urara screamed.
"Oh, it's the f…….unny green costume," Houka stopped herself. The word 'frog' had been banned from the household a while ago, and would remain banned until Urara was okay with the word again.
"Oh! I mean, um, oh," Tsubasa mumbled.
"We should probably get rid of it," Makito said.
"I'll put it in my room for now. Nobody will wear it this year. You all find something else," their mother said, taking the costume pieces away.
"Ura-nee, do…the, y'know, the aminal- um, did what I do really still scare you that much?" Kai asked.
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry."
"It's…fine," Urara sighed. "It's Tsubasa's fault anyway."
"No it isn't!" Tsubasa yelled.
"Yes it is! You told him to do it!"
"If you two have this fight again do you think we still get apple pie for it?" Houka asked. This argument had happened a few times over the last few months, with every time being interrupted by apple pie being served. Their mother made apple pie to distract from most arguments, not just ones about the frog incident.
"Sorry for starting it accidentally. We shouldn't fight about it," Urara said, turning back to the costumes. "This year I'm gonna be a mermaid princess for Christmas!"
"Awesome! Here, here's your tiara and here's mine!" Houka said, finding two plastic tiaras. "And I'll be the fairy princess!"
The frog costume was gone after that day. Houka assumed that their mother gave the headband and gloves away, either that year or with other costumes after the kids outgrew them.
At the start of December 2006, when all the children were adults and had been for quite a long time, an old box of costumes came down from the attic.
"Look, my tiara! You kept these?" Houka said, opening the box.
"Of course."
"But you got rid of the cursed f-r-o-g costume, right?" Makito asked.
"Yes, I did get rid of it."
"Onii-chan, I can spell," Urara rolled her eyes.
"What cursed frog costume?" Hikaru asked. Urara jumped.
"It was really cute! I wore it for Halloween once a long time ago. Before Urara was scared of them, of course," Houka said.
"I think only the gloves were 'cursed'. The rest was fine," Makito said.
"What were the gloves like? Are there pictures?"
"Yeah! In a photo album somewhere…"
It took a while to find the exact photo album, but after getting distracted looking through photo albums for hours, they eventually found one labeled Halloween and Christmas, the contents of which were focused on those two holidays.
"There it is!" Houka said, pointing at a picture of herself in the old costume. "What do you think, Urara?"
"Well," Urara looked at the picture. "It's not really cursed. We could probably make it again. The hardest part would be the gloves…"
"And…are those shoes?"
"Well no, because Houka-nee's wearing two pairs of gloves here, right?"
"Well yeah, they're gloves, but one pair was on my feet."
"Who should dress as a frog?" Tsubasa asked. "Like, if we're gonna make a new costume someone needs to wear it."
"Hmm," Urara paused to think.
"Perhaps I should do it? I have literally been a frog, and you liked me then. So you would like if I dressed as one, right?" Hikaru suggested with a grin.
"Hmm…"
"Are you actually considering it?" Hikaru asked a moment later.
"Well, you do need a costume for this year's Christmas party, and since you volunteered…"
The new frog gloves were made differently from the ones in the past, which seemed to be store-bought. Instead, he bought two pairs of green winter gloves and Houka sewed fabric in between the fingers to make webbing.
"You could just use magic…" Hikaru pointed out.
"Nope. Costumes are way better when you make them! Here’s the first glove, try it on."
"Oh," Hikaru said, putting the glove on and moving his fingers. "I suppose it's not bad…"
"Great! I'll get right to work on the next one then."
Hikaru ended up reluctantly wearing the gloves on his feet, though he insisted on not adding anything between the toes because it would be too hard to walk in.
"But it'll be fun! Ah, whatever, it's getting too close to Christmas…"
The main costume ended up being just a green long-sleeved shirt and pants, and after much thought on if a mask would be too scary for Urara, Houka made a headband with big cartoony frog eyes on top.
On the morning of Christmas Eve, Houka set the pieces of the frog costume just outside of his room.
"Houka-nee, I don't know…" Urara mumbled as she put on a princess tiara.
"Huh? But I thought you liked the Princess and the Frog idea?"
"Yeah, but like, frogs are ugly…"
"Was Hikaru ugly when he was a frog?"
"…well, I was really scared of frogs then, so kinda…"
"Come on, frogs are cute! Plus, you got over your fear enough to kiss him when he was a real frog!"
"That's-"
They heard footsteps and stopped talking as Hikaru entered wearing the frog costume, slightly cringing.
"Hi Hikaru!" Houka said. "Look, Urara's a princess! Do you know the story The Princess and the Frog?"
"I don't," Hikaru replied. "You're very pretty," he said, taking her hand to kiss it.
"Uh…" Urara stared at Hikaru, focused on his face.
"Is he handsome?" Houka asked.
"Yeah," Urara said.
"Yay!"
Urara continued to not look at the costume, but focused on Hikaru's face even when he looked away.
"I suppose Urara's still not over what you guys did," she mumbled to Tsubasa and Kai.
"What? The frog thing? That was forever ago!" Kai said.
"Yeah. And I didn't even do anything," Tsubasa mumbled.
"But it was your idea!" Houka said.
"Are you still arguing about the frog incident? That was years ago," Makito interrupted.
"Yeah. But still," Houka dropped her voice to a whisper. "Urara isn't actually looking at Hikaru's costume." She glanced back at Urara and Hikaru, casually walking closer to them.
"Do you like it? Really, you can tell me the truth."
"Uh," Urara hesitated. "Well…"
"Do you not like it-"
"I just really don't like frogs, but you're really handsome!"
"Thank you."
Urara blushed, still focused on Hikaru's face.
"Cutee," Houka said.
"Huh? What?" Urara asked.
"Nothing," Houka smiled. "I'm just glad you finally like frogs."
"I still don't! I literally just said that!"
"Anyway, Hikaru is very handsome as a frog, isn't he?"
Urara pouted, but Hikaru smiled and after a second Urara did too. Houka smiled, glad a frog finally made her sister smile.