February
When I was six I walked home with a shoebox filled with Valentine's chocolate from my classmates. With a proud smile, I liked to peek in the box and look at the pink and red foil-covered tokens of love. The everyday greetings, lunch invitations, game playing...all the pleasantries from each person condensed into the same taste of milk chocolate.
Then I walked past that garden.
A woman opened a heart shaped package of chocolate a man gave her. I thought that she must have really loved sweets because her hands flew to her mouth, as if trying to catch her breath from flying away on wings of disbelief. Or maybe she really hated them because there were tears sparkling in her eyes.
The man knelt and picked up what was inside the box: a ring. He looked up as if asking a question and after the slightest nod he jumped up to embrace the woman.
They spun—him holding her by the waist, turning in circles.
At that moment, they looked beautiful. It was as if the two of them danced in a world of their own—a secret world a thousand times sweeter than the chocolate in my boxes.
Then I knew what love truly was.
And that was when I decided that I wanted to experience it, even if for a moment.
"Well...um...Hitsugaya-sempai! I-I...I've always liked you since I was in middle school...so...please...will you go out with me?"
"Please go out with me."
Ah, now's not the time to think about that. He shakes away the image a girl lying in the snow and focuses on the present. Right now, a curly haired blonde bowed before him. The dyed, golden curls hid some of her flushed face. For some reason, he is reminded that he really dislikes unnatural hairstyles.
"Um...Sorry, but—
"I understand!" The girl quickly interjects. "Of course...you wouldn't accept my feelings. I-I just wanted you to know—
She turns and rushes to her friends hiding behind the door to the staircase. From her voice that just turned extremely high-pitched towards the end of the sentence, he guesses that she is crying.
How bothersome. He looks up at the sky. He really would enjoy the school building roof more if he weren't called up here so much.
"Confession number...oh, I lost count."
"Shut up." He replies to the Karin's familiar cynical teasing.
"It's still a week 'til Valentine's and they're already starting. Honestly, I don't get what they see in you."
He turns to her and she looks away, as if caught in a lie. Maybe he noticed the red that crept up her face. "Cool and mysterious...hah, my ass. They should come up with some real qualities." She muttered but seemed uncharacteristically flustered.
Flicking her in the forehead he smirks and walks towards the staircase for afterschool soccer practice. Before completely leaving, he stands halfway down the staircase and calls out:
"I'm taller than you. That's a quality."
"Shut up!" She yells after him. After watching his broad shoulders disappear from view she sighs and quietly murmurs to herself, "I already know that."
Will you do me a favor?"
"Please go out with me."
Frustrated, Toushiro places his sweat-damped forehead on his cold gym locker. Even in practice the words would not leave him alone; it was bothersome enough for him to miss easy goal shots. Never has a girl been able to do that. Not even Karin, who gave him a concussion once from kicking him in the head (that was freshmen year; she discovered that he was suddenly taller and he decided to tease her about it for the first time). Why is this girl—whose name he didn't even know—so different?
"I'm dying."
She could've lied. That would make him an idiot. But something makes him unable to dismiss her confession as a cheap trick. If it even was a confession. She never mentioned having feelings for him like all the other girls who have confessed.
He decides that there is definitely something unsettling about her. As he leaves the locker room and says a few words to his teammates before exiting the school building, he feels relieved about the fact that their meeting would be their first and last. After all, he and the girl have nothing in common. Soon enough, he'll forget.
"Hitsugaya-kun!"
It was the same, cheery, yet somehow ethereal voice.
He turns to his left. No one.
But on his right is a girl in a Karakura high school uniform. Natural brown hair. Equally earthy brown eyes.
He can not hold back his surprise, "You attend this school?"
She shows absolutely no sign of being insulted. With joyful acceptance of her anonymity, she replies, "I've been here since my freshman year."
He is silent. The dark seems to consume her and soon enough it's almost as if he is talking to himself.
"Ne Hitsugaya-kun, what type of chocolate do you like?"
"Oi, what type of question is that?"
She skips in front of him and smiles excitedly, "Well, Valentine's Day is in a week, you know! And I want to give you chocolates. So I figured I'd ask you so you actually like them!"
"I get enough chocolates already."
"But I've never made chocolates. And I really want to be able to make some."
Before I die...
He can hear the unspoken words. Staring at her animated expression he replies, "Make them for someone else."
"But I asked you out. So I'm making them for you."
"Oi, I didn't say that I would—
"I'm dying."
He stops. He wonders if saying no would make him heartless. But he barely knows this girl. She is hardly his type, if he even has a defined "type". Something about her was oddly transient, odd enough to put him off.
Her eyes are dark brown but have a reflective property in them. The thoughts in his icy, turquoise eyes can be seen through hers. As if she reads his discomfort, she breaks away from his stare and walks ahead of him.
"I know we're not going out yet! I want to have the experience of trying to win someone's heart too!"
"I don't even know your name, jesus." He mutters, irritated at this girl's forwardness.
"So? What type of chocolate do you like?"
"White." He finally mumbles.
He is unsure if his nearly inaudible response passes her ears. But he is certain it did when she turns and gives him that characteristic effervescent, yet somehow diaphanous smile.
"My name is Hinamori Momo."
Her finger swipes off the creamy white glop off her cheek and pops it into her mouth. It is really sweet. Much sweeter than classic, children's milk chocolate.
With one arm holding a mixing bowl and the other hand with a spoon, she giggles. Usually in the shoujo manga she reads, girls make chocolate together. But, in a large kitchen that can only belong to a wealthy family with a joyful scherzo of classical music filling the empty space around her, she finds herself having fun anyway.
She finds it somewhat funny how Toushiro told her he likes white chocolate. Over the years, she was aware that all the other girls have given him dark chocolate. It was not a laughable assumption. In fact, it made sense. A seemingly sophisticated, mature guy like him...sweet things didn't suit his image. But white chocolate?
She samples her mix again and smiles.
It's almost like he's a little boy inside.
She hums and pours her chocolate into the mold while recalling how one shoujo manga character said that homemade chocolates taste wonderful because they contain the true feelings of the maker. Staring at the chocolate, she wonders what Toushiro will taste.
She sighs. Perhaps she has been too reckless in all this.
Toushiro. Silvery hair just mussed enough to be considered casual yet groomed. Eyes blue-green, remnant of arctic seas. He reminds her of snow. Of ice. Of cold. Of winter.
She likes summer.
But for some reason her heart that night told her him. And she promised to follow through her resolution.
So she shrugs it off and places the chocolates in the freezer, along with the conviviality of her first chocolate-making experience with them.
"He carries a sack of candies, as if he is Santa Claus...Only he is the receiver and is too greedy to share his gifts!"
An arm wraps around his shoulder.
"C'mon Toushiro! Leave some girls for the rest of us!" Abarai Renji whines.
Irritated, Toushiro shakes away his firey, long haired friend's arm. "My day has been tiring enough. The last thing I need is an idiot's complaining."
"Renji's just upset with the crop this year." His blonde friend Kira explains.
"Well anyone would be pissed off at this guy. Just look at his book bag!" Renji tries to attack him again.
Toushiro side steps and dumps his bag's contents on his friend's red head. The pile of chocolate boxes, love letters, and other miscellaneous trinkets forms a pile heavy enough to push Renji's head into the ground.
"Merry Christmas." Toushiro says casually.
Kira stifles a laugh, "That's harsh. Don't you care about the feelings all your fangirls poured into those?"
"It's always dark. I hate bitter things."
"Hey, these are white!" Renji calls out, his voice muffled from the chocolate stuffed in his mouth.
"What?" Toushiro uncharacteristically grabs the flower-shaped box from him.
That's right. Unlike the rest of the chocolates, not only were these white, but they were placed in his mailbox. She didn't even have the decency to show up at classes today, if she even was in any of his classes—her curious demeanor, however friendly, made her almost transparent.
Oi...who puts Valentine's chocolates in a daisy shaped box?
Some reason, he feels ticked off. She asked him to go out with her, yet cannot even properly put her chocolates in a normal, heart-shaped case. He sighs. He is aware that she deserves a person to help her out with her quest in romance. But this is too troublesome.
It can not be him.
"Hey, I'm going ahead." He raises a hand in farewell and walks away.
Hinamori Momo.
Karin told him that the girl moved here sometime in their later middle school years. But she rarely comes to classes and is not known to have joined any clubs. Actually, most people have forgotten that she exists.
Almost like a ghost...
He arrives before a large building, surrounded by an elaborate, lattice fence. That's right. The Hinamori family was one of the wealthiest families in town. He rings the bell outside the gate.
"Yes?" A man's voice buzzes from the speaker.
"Um...I'm a class mate of Hinamori-san. I...have something I need to return to her."
"Just one moment."
The gate opens and a middle aged man who introduces himself as Hinamori Momo's father greets him at the door. Toushiro bows, holding the case of candies as he says, "Hitsugaya Toushiro. Is, uh, Hinamori-san home?"
"I'm sorry, she's been at the hospital all day today."
"Oh...That's all right, I'll just, talk to her tomorrow then. It's not a rush. Sorry." He is about to bow and walk away when the man calls out.
"Wait. Are those...did Momo make those?"
Toushiro looks at the chocolates in his hands. The guilt starts to catch up with him and the silence is enough for the father to figure the truth.
"Hitsugaya-kun. The reason why Momo gone from school so much nowadays..."
"She told me." It is atypically rude of him to cut off an adult, but he does not need to hear again.
"Then..."
Toushiro watches as the grown, tired-looking man bows deeply.
"Please, Hitsugaya-kun. Please accept her feelings just for now. Please."
The old voice pleads. The guilt overwhelms. He is trapped.
But can't she find someone else?
Finally, the father's voice cracks in desperation. Slowly, he speaks. "Even though we are a wealthy family, my wife and I work long hours to support the treatments Momo has underwent. We still need to support our other children in boarding school too. Momo needs someone with her..."
That's your problem isn't it? Don't get me involved...
"...I will be willing to pay for my daughter's happiness...I will be willing to pay...$15,000."
She takes her bento box out from underneath her desk and slips past the congregating friends unnoticed. There are several gregarious calls of "Hey, what's up!" or "Wasn't that class awful?" or "I'm starving, let's go get bread!" surrounding her in sound, yet she feels miles away physically from everyone else. Sometimes she is convinced that she can walk right through people.
Her head knocks into something.
"Ah, Hitsugaya-kun." She shows surprise in her still-water eyes. Then she remembers to smile.
"Can we talk?"
She watches his eyes carefully observing his surroundings for any curious onlookers as he leads her to an empty stairwell, one of the ones no one ever uses.
He looks nervous. Rubbing the back of his neck, avoiding her eyes (the latter was normal for most people though).
Tilting her head, she chirps: "Hitsugaya-kun?"
"I'll...do it."
"I'll go out with you."
A/N: I've never been able to enjoy Valentine's Day to its fullest extent. This is probably because I am constantly obstructed from my locker by this couple (who I don't even know so they must be older than me) in a makeout session as if the last period in which they don't see each other for 90 minutes is an eternity. On a particular day in February (I think you can guess which day), they take even longer to part. Since I don't have the nerve to awkwardly interrupt, I just patiently wait. I find it funny how after three years they don't even notice the girl standing there (then, of course, the guy has a different girl on him every year or half-year, so I can't blame the girl as much).
Anyways...Other than Valentine's Day, I don't find much significant about February. I used to have winter break but it's more like a winter "day" off from school since the school board is stupid.
Right. Rambling. Review as always please!
