Drama CD 1: Secret Before Christmas SAGA

## Secret Before Christmas SAGA

**Secret Before Christmas SAGA** (**ナイショ・ビフォア・クリスマス**, *SAGA Naisho bifoa kurisumasu sāga*) is the first drama CD of the series, released on March 26, 2021. This Drama CD counts as a Christmas special with Franchouchou.

## Synopsis

A comedy located between the first season and Revenge, where we are told that Lily believes in Santa Claus and Sakura and the others will do everything to cheer her up.

## Plot

The Drama CD takes place three days after Arpino live. Begins with Sakura gushing to Ai (much to Ai’s annoyance). Ai also points out that Sakura went to bed with her makeup still on, to which Sakura becomes excited because she sees Ai being concerned about her. Saki wakes up shortly after, and Ai notes that she also has her makeup on.

Franchouchou then have breakfast together. Sakura then notices that Kotaro isn’t in the mansion. Lily says he left some money in the kitchen and gave instructions for “those who forgot to remove their makeup” to be responsible for buying ingredients.

Lily then remarks that since Kotaro isn’t in the mansion, he might not be up for a “party”. When Sakura and Saki ask what the party is for, Lily tells them today is actually Christmas Eve.

The girls then share about what they used to do during Christmas while they were still alive. While Sakura and Saki shared how fun it was for them every year, Ai remarked that it was usually a busy period for Iron Frill as they would go for recordings and commercial shoots, while Junko once appeared on TV with a pro wrestler. Lily also shared that she would have a Christmas party every year with Pappy. She shared that while she was asleep, “Santa” would always come and leave her “the present she wanted most”. While Lily and Ai try to explain who is Santa Claus, Sakura suddenly tells Ai, Saki, Junko, and Tae to “help with washing the dishes”.

Sakura brings the rest to the mansion’s dance lesson room (with the dirty dishes). Sakura tells them that because Santa visited Lily every year, Lily must still believe that Santa is real (since she most likely died and resurrected before learning the truth about Santa Claus). Ai realizes that because Lily is now a zombie, this will be the first time “Santa” will be unable to visit her. Saki then proposes to “summon” Santa to the mansion and asks Junko to “break a hole in the roof” to create a chimney. Sakura tells Saki that breaking the roof is impossible (although Junko says she can do it).

Sakura, Ai, and Junko then realize that Saki herself has not yet learned the truth about Santa Claus. (Saki remarks that Santa never visited her because her house didn’t have a chimney, and she wasn’t a good girl). While Sakura and Junko try to approach the situation tactfully, Ai blurts out that Santa doesn’t exist. At first, Saki asks if Santa won’t even visit Saga, and starts becoming aggressive (towards Sakura). Ai decides to “take responsibility”, and tells Saki the truth. As Lily and Yugiri continue discussing Christmas, they are interrupted by Saki’s shout of disbelief. Yugiri then tells Lily that she will bake the Christmas cake, and Lily offers to help.

Saki is forced to finally accept that Santa isn’t real, lamenting that everyone in her gang used to talk about Santa and how they needed to behave themselves one day. While Ai starts to feel bad about breaking the truth to Saki, Saki remarks that it’s weird that Santa doesn’t exist yet zombies do. Saki realizes that Lily cannot go through the same “rude awakening” she experienced moments before. (Meanwhile, as Sakura thinks about the existence of zombies, she starts to consider that Santa might be real after all until Saki snaps her out of it).

The girls finally hatch a plan to act as “Santa” for Lily. As they think about what Lily would like, Sakura notes that Lily likes reading magazines about construction machines, while Junko says that Lily likes dolls. Sakura also takes the opportunity to ask Ai what she would like as a present, but quickly becomes “stalker-ish” until Saki puts a stop to it.

Realizing that Lily’s interests are too broad, Saki, Ai, and Junko try to ask Lily one by one what she normally gets for Christmas. Saki goes first, but struggles to ask Lily head-on and fails. Ai goes next and tries to start a conversation about how she is excited for Santa’s visit. When Lily asks if Santa also visited Ai, Ai says “yes”, and Lily becomes so excited that she asks what did Ai do while waiting for Santa and what she received from him; Lily’s cuteness ends up bringing Ai to tears, and Ai fails as well. Junko goes last, but due to her introversion, she fails to say a single word at all.

When the others remark about how they might need Yugiri’s help to get information, Sakura tries to get their attention (Ai fails to catch on and says everyone has already tried and Tae is already asleep). When Sakura tries to tell them that she can get the information, everyone remarks that she’s too obvious. Lily then enters the room just as Sakura is about to try, narrowly missing out on their discussion. Lily notes how each of them approached her one by one, and Sakura nervously lies by saying they were “playing a game” where each person must greet Lily one by one.

The girls then decide to present Lily a bag containing more than one present (to which Ai remarks it sounds more like a “New Year’s” present). Sakura and Saki will go into town to purchase a present, while Ai and Junko will make a present out of what they can find within the mansion. Tae also offers to help. Meanwhile, as Yugiri and Lily make the cake together, Yugiri tells Lily that they should set aside a portion for Santa. Lily suddenly tells Yugiri that she “doesn’t need to worry about that”.

Sakura buys Lily a Japanese language textbook (considering Lily died at such a young age and was unable to further her education). However, the girls point out that she bought the wrong textbook (as the cover page reads “Rakugo” instead of “Japanese language”). Saki buys Lily a Christmas card with Santa's “Autograph”, but the text is written in kanji — while the word is pronounced as “San-Ta”, the meaning of the word turns out weird. Junko used the scraps in the mansion to build a mini Christmas tree (with full-functioning lights and a star modeled after Lily's own star).

As the girls marvel at the ornate model, Sakura asks if she can borrow the model to take a closer look, but she trips… and promptly breaks it. Junko tells them she can repair it, but Ai says there's no time. (Saki remarks that Lily might like it better if she can rebuild it like a plastic model). Ai tried making a plush mascot for Lily, but the result is less “cutesy” and more of \*nightmare-fuel\*. Ai is upset that the rest of the girls don't think her mascot is cute and is about to keep the mascot for herself when Tae also presents a (half-chewed) dried squid meant for Lily (Ai notes that dried squid is “important” to Tae).

With Lily and Yugiri finished with the cake, the rest of the girls salvage what they have, and agree to rendezvous at night after Lily goes to bed from the party.

The next morning, Lily and Yugiri wake up to find the bag by Lily's side. Yugiri tells Lily that she was relieved that “Santa” came to visit after all.
Lily opens the bag to find Sakura's Rakugo textbook, Junko's broken Christmas tree, Saki's kanji card, Ai's creepy mascot, and Tae’s dried squid. Yugiri asks if that was what Lily wanted after all, to which Lily cheerfully denies, yet remarks that she is still delighted about her present. It is revealed that as they were baking together, Lily suspected that Santa might not come at all since she came to the mansion without telling him. Yugiri says that since “Santa” really did appear, they should have at least prepared some leftover cake for him. Lily says it’s okay because her “Santa” already enjoyed the cake last night and that was the “gift she always wanted”.

## Features

### Appearances

* Kotaro Tatsumi
* Franchouchou
	+ Sakura Minamoto
	+ Saki Nikaido
	+ Ai Mizuno
	+ Junko Konno
	+ Yugiri
	+ Lily Hoshikawa
	+ Tae Yamada

### Locations

* Saga Prefecture
	+ Franchouchou Mansion
* Netherlands (mentioned)

## Trivia

* Both Ai and Junko had Christmas songs. In Ai's case, she had a very tight schedule in terms of songs and commercials. Junko also had a song together with a professional wrestler.
* The Drama CD takes place 3 days after the Arpino event, so Sakura is especially excited to be together with Ai.
* Despite their remarkable maturity, both Lily and Saki still believed in Santa. Although in the case of Saki, she mentions that she never had gifts because she was never a good girl, an illusion that was broken by Ai when she told her the truth.
* The gifts that the girls bought for Lily were the following:
	+ A Japanese comedy book that Sakura bought accidentally, which she would later use to inspire her performance as Rakugo in episode 17.
	+ A board “signed” by Santa that was bought and signed by Saki.
	+ A Christmas tree made using scrap metal found by Junko.
	+ A gingerbread pet figure for Lily made by Ai. But the result is less “cheesy” and more of a demonic abomination.
	+ Squid tentacles given by Tae.