WINTER

Anneliese was woken up by the ringing of her phone.

"Hello?" she groggily answered it.

"Ah, mon cheri~ Good morning! Did I wake you?" the French voice asked on the other line—Francis' voice.

"Good morning, Francis," she replied. "And yes, you quite woke me. But it's alright."

"Sorry, for waking you up, mon cheri. But I'll make it up to you! Our school is holding a school festival right now! And I want us to have fun there! Let's have a date, mon cheri! Also, I want you to meet my other friends, too!"

She softly laughed at his excited voice. "Okay, okay. When are we going?"

"Today! I'm outside your house by the way! I'll be waiting for you to go out, mon papillon~"

And he hung up. Her face reddened as she looked outside her window. There he was, by his dark violet Porsche. When he spotted her looking outside, he sent her a sweet flying kiss and waved. And she blushed harder. She just nodded and held out her wrist while her pointing to it with her index finger, telling him that she'll be there in a minute.

And she hurriedly took a bath and dressed up.

Arthur decided to find out why Anneliese was unable to bother him. And since she was just living next door, instead of sneaking out at dawn and walk around town until night, he decided to stay home and watched intently from his window. He watched and waited for her to go out until a rather expensive car parked just outside her house. Its driver—or rather—its owner walked out. He took out his phone and called someone. He examined the guy and clearly recognized who it was. It was none other than Francis Bonnefroy. The bloody git who dared to flirt with his favorite cousin, Michelle! And that 'frog' was the only one who always get on his nerves since Francis was the one who always insult him about his eyebrows and also—the worst of all—he insulted Arthur's cooking! And that was unforgiveable!

He was about to go down there and to interrogate him as to why he was there when Anneliese went out of the door, smiling sweetly at Francis. Instantly, Arthur's thick brows knitted together. Why in the bloody hell was she smiling at him? And the next scene stabbed him painfully in the heart. Anneliese walked up to Francis only to be pulled not in a loving embrace but in a passionate kiss!

His face was crestfallen. His eyes were practically flaring. And all he wanted to do was to get down there fast. And he did.

"Anneliese!" he called, composing his self back to his 'cool' gangster self.

The couple looked at him in surprise and as soon Francis recognized him, he went in front of Anneliese.

"What are you doing here, wanker?" Arthur gritted his teeth, preventing his self from punching the French man square on the face.

"I'm visiting my girlfriend," Francis calmly answered. "What about you? What is a gangster like you doing here, monsieur bushy brows?"

"I live here, you git! And what the hell did you say? Girlfriend?"

"Arthur, that's enough," Anneliese smoothly said, making the two males face her. "You, too, Francis."

And the both males' eyes widened. "You know this guy?!" they both asked in unison. And they glared at each other.

"Yes," Anneliese sighed. 'Here my lost in the stupid bet goes…' "Arthur, this is my boyfriend, Francis. Francis, this is Arthur, my best friend. And can you both explain to me why are you glaring each other's head off?"

"Because this git here is not a good man, Annie! This wanker here is nothing but a God damn flirt!"

"Well this monsieur here is rather irritating me with his caterpillar brows. Ohohohohon~ especially his cooking!"

"Why you-!"

"ENOUGH!" Anneliese pushed Arthur back to prevent him from hitting her boyfriend. "I lost our bet, okay? I lost because now I have a boyfriend. Fine, I admit now that I'm a girl. Aren't you happy that you won? So just go on with your daily walk, I'll just catch up with you later, 'kay?"

And with that she took Francis' hand which made Francis grin. He then led her to his car and they drove away, leaving an angry (and broken hearted) Arthur.

"Damn it all!" he muttered as he began to walk away.

At the school festival, Anneliese enjoyed herself. She met Francis' other friends, Antonio, a cheerful Spanish man who kept on smiling at anyone, and Gilbert, a German—er—Prussian (since he insisted) who kept talking on how awesome he was that he won the heart of his girl. Also she met other two girls, Leyka, who seemed to be always by Antonio's side though Anneliese couldn't help to notice that she kept spacing out (maybe she was thinking about something) and later she found out that Leyka was avoiding the guy she liked after being rejected, and also, she met Dea, Gilbert's girlfriend, who she heard a gangster princess but seriously, when she had gotten close to her, Dea was nothing but a sweet friend.

And it kind of reminded her of Arthur. Arthur who was also a gangster was nothing but a sweet guy at times. He just rarely showed it. But if he would show it, he would only show it to her. He was always giving her gifts every birthday and every Christmas. He was always giving her flowers every Valentine. And he would always surprise her with the little things she didn't expect.

'Wait a sec, why am I thinking about him again?' Anneliese mentally slapped herself. It was true. She noticed that throughout this past year, she was always thinking of him. Everything she saw, hear, and smell, it always reminded her of him. But she just reasoned that it was just because he was her best friend and that thinking hobby would go away once she had a boyfriend. But now, she had a boyfriend, and instead of thinking about Francis, she found herself thinking more and more about Arthur. And she was constantly asking herself as to why she was always thinking of him.

Trying to push the thoughts aside, she tried her best to enjoy the festival. She tried so hard to enjoy it with her boyfriend.

A Christmas party was held in Anneliese's and Arthur's school and every student was required to attend. And that Christmas party was dated on the exact date of the White Day.

So here he was, leaning on the wall while all the other students were having fun. If he wasn't really pissed off about the fact the Anneliese's boyfriend was the frog, he would've sneaked out with her as usual and they would just take their nightly walk and would watch the moon and stars above the sky. Actually, before they had that bet, he was looking forward for this day. He had been saving a little tale to tell her so that he could give the necklace he was hiding in his pocket—the necklace that he so wanted to give to the girl he loved. Yes, now he knew what he felt for her. HE loved her and he was a fool to realize that by the time she had Francis. He never imagined that someone leaving him would bring him this much pain, every time he saw her going out of the house and riding on that stupid Porsche.

He sighed. He really was stupid. He was stupid for pushing her away back then. If only he realized that he loved her earlier, maybe it was him who was with her. Maybe it was him who was holding her. Maybe it was him who was making her smile. Maybe it was him who was kissing her tenderly. But above all, maybe it was him whom she would love so dear.

"Here"

He lifted his eyes from the ground and saw Anneliese standing in front of him. She was holding out a gift to him. And what was that on her face? Was that a blush?

"What?" he asked.

"I said here, take it. It's for you," she simply said.

He looked down to the gift and took it absentmindedly.

She leaned on the wall beside him. "What do you want me to do now? I lost the bet. And…I can't be your girlfriend because…you know it already."

Pain rose from his heart again upon thinking that she was already taken. Then he forced to act cool. "I can just wait for you to break up with him," he forced a smirk.

"Heh. I don't know about that."

Another pang of pain came. So she didn't want to break up with Francis, huh?

"Hey, Annie…"

"Hm?"

"Let's sneak out. I hate it in here. It's so loud."

She let out a chortle of laugh flew from her lips. "You're right. Let's go." And without thinking, she took his hand to his surprise and led him outside.

They walked and walked until they were in an empty street a few blocks away from the school. When they stopped, that was when Anneliese realized her bold actions and released Arthur's hand.

"Hehe, Sorry about that," she sheepishly smiled as she looked at him.

"Hn."

"So what do you want to do?" she asked him.

"Let's take a walk," he simply said.

But that quite surprise her. Because every time she would ask that all he would answer was to leave him alone as he would take a walk. But now, he was actually inviting her to walk with him. So she just stood there as he began walking. When he noticed that she wasn't following, he turned back.

"Are you coming or not?" he asked with one of his thick brows raised.

She just smiled and quickly skipped by his side.

"Hey, Annie," he called out of blue as they walked.

"Hm?"

"I have a story to tell."

"What is it?"

"Have you heard of the Snowflake's Tale?" he looked at her and saw her shook her head. "It was a story about how a snowflake was created. Long ago, in a town where there was always winter, there were two children: a boy and a girl. They held a promise for each other to be by each other's side no matter what. Then they started to grow up. They were always together. Even though they were starting to forget about their childhood toys and mischief, they would never forget about their promise for each other. Until eventually, they fell in love with each other and their childhood promise became their promise of eternity.

Since both of them loved the snow so much, they would always climb the snow mountain where their town was. And every night, they would lie down on the snow near or rather just a few feet below the mountaintop and watch the stars. Then they started to compare their love to the snow and the stars. They said that their love was as pure as snow and as bright as the stars.

Until one night as they lay on the same spot where they would always lay, an avalanche occurred and they had no time to escape it. So, both of them just accepted their fate. But instead of crying to be spared, they just both smiled at each other and whispered their love to each other one last time. And they jumped off. The avalanche reached them as they fall holding each other tightly. A snow fairy saw them. It saw the purest love in them that it took pity of them and instead of letting them die it changed them into something that would last forever like their love.

The snow fairy turned them into snow. But not just any other snow. It turned them into a snow crystal shaped like a bright star. And that particular snow crystal is now called snowflake.

They were turned into snowflake that would always be the symbol of the love as pure as snow and as bright as a star."

They were silent for a while.

"That is…" Anneliese finally spoke up, "That is a quite sad but very touching tale, Arthur."

"I know," he stopped walking as well as she did. "That's why I'm saving it for you to tell."

She smiled at him. "Thank you, Arthur."

"By the way, here's my gift," he reached into his pocket and took out a silver gold necklace with a silver snowflake pendant. "I always wanted to give this to you." And he clasped it around her neck gently.

"Arthur…thank you…" Anneliese said. She didn't know why but she felt so happy at this moment. As if she didn't want this moment to last. All she wanted was to be with Arthur. And that was when reality hit her.

She loved him.