Ding-dong!

MC jumped from his position in front of the stove. "She's here," he muttered to himself as he approached the door. His heartbeat quickened with each step he took, but once he got to the entrance, he did not fling the door open. While he was increasingly excited to see Monika tonight, he felt more anxious than passionate about everything.

"Just tell her your concerns," he muttered to himself, pacing back and forth. "Tell her your concerns openly and honestly, and just try to work something out with her."

He repeated the mantra, or words more or less to that effect, a few times over. Then, running a hand through his hair, he sighed and finally opened the door.

There was Monika, clad in a white sundress that hugged her figure ever so slightly. She gazed into his eyes and flashed him her typically warm smile. MC thought it a tad odd that she had chosen a sundress for a nightly dinner, but it looked too good on her to warrant any complaint. Besides, they were in the privacy of his own home, so why should he care what she wore to their date.

"Happy Valentine's Day," she greeted with a giggle. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pecked him on the cheek. "You look good enough to eat, if I do say so myself."

MC's complexion became redder than a rare steak. "M-Monika," he chuckled. He cleared his throat and tried to play it off with humor. "I do look scrumptious, but wait until you see what I've got cooked for us. I'm sure you'll love it more than you'll love me."

"Impossible!" Monika exclaimed in a mock dramatic manner. Then, she laughed sweetly. "I'm sure it will be great."

She set her handbag down on MC's couch, unzipped it, and dug out a little heart-shaped box. "I got you something, something I think you'll really love," she remarked. Hope and wonder twinkled in her eyes. "Something to show you how much I appreciate all the trouble you've went through just for me."

"Do you really think any of this was trouble?" MC questioned. "After all, you've deserved something like this for a long time, now."

Monika shrugged. "What I deserve no longer matters to me. I'm just glad I have you, that's all. You're the best boyfriend in the whole world!"

"Somehow, I don't think that's a hard title to acquire. You know, with me being the only boy in the club and all."

"You know what I mean," Monika giggled.

MC reached for the gift, but Monika delicately pushed his hand away. Still grinning, she wiggled a finger playfully in front of his face. "Uh uh uh! Wait until after dinner, kay?"

MC swallowed. He just hoped everything would go well with dinner in the first place. "That's fine, then."

Returning to the kitchen, MC found he had arrived just in time. Just as he skidded to a halt in front of the oven, the timer went off. Reaching down, MC pulled open the oven door to find a fresh, golden brown vegetarian ham.

"Hope it's as good as the real thing," he hummed to himself as he slid on the oven mitts. Pulling it out, he carried it over to the countertop.

Monika peered in. She sniffed, and if her subsequent hum of pleasure was any indication, she was quite pleased. "Need any help?"

MC shook his head. "No thanks, I got it. How many slices do you want?"

"Two should do just fine," she supposed before disappearing back into the living room again.

Unfamiliar with the finer aspects of cooking, it took MC a few minutes to get the ham prepared exactly how he wanted. By the time he finished, however, he felt as though he had done a pretty good job. Everything was set up exactly how he wanted it to go. All that remained was to talk about the whole shebang that was Monika's oversharing.

Ten minutes after the ham was sliced and ready to go, MC had two delectable ham sandwiches ready for consumption. He exited the kitchen to find Monika sitting at the table. Like cooking, preparing for such a fancy dinner in general was something new to MC. Still, it looked like a good job. The table was shrouded in a dark crimson tablecloth, and while it was perhaps a somewhat generic choice, it definitely helped set up a romantic mood. It had also been moved next to the window. Two unlit candles sat in the windowsill. Once MC set his and Monika's plates down, he pulled a lighter out of his pocket, lit the candles, and flicked the nearest light switch. The dining room was plunged into near-darkness. The minimal amount of light coming from the candles granted Monika's expression an air of mystery that made her all the more tantalizing to him.

She smiled, and it was only a little less brighter than the candlelight. "MC, you didn't have to go through all of this trouble just for me. I'm glad you did, though."

MC took his seat across from her. "You deserve it. Besides, when you asked for a sandwich for your Valentine's dinner, I knew that something had to be done to make it a little more special.

Monika glanced down at her food. "Baked vegetarian ham on toasted rye. You don't do things halfway, do you?"

"Not anymore," MC boasted.

One hand reached across the table. It took MC a moment to realize Monika wanted him to take it, and take it he did. Instead of chowing down, they simply sat there for a moment, staring into each other's eyes and smiling at just how lucky they were to have each other. However, it wasn't to last. Eventually, MC remembered what he had planned to do, and his smile visibly failed.

Cocking her head in confusion, Monika also frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"Do you mind if I talk to you about something? It's been on my mind for the past week or so, and I wanna have an honest conversation about it."

Monika nodded. "Of course. You can always talk to me, you know?"

While he believed her wholeheartedly, MC found it hard to look her in the eye. "It's about something Sayori told me."

Monika didn't take the hint. "Go on..."

MC locked eyes with her. The stare was intense, as if he were regarding her with suspicion. "She told me that you told her we slept together."

Monika nodded. "Yes, and?"

"That's the problem," MC clarified. "Monika, why did you tell her that? Couldn't you have asked me first, at least? I don't want the whole world to know we do those kinds of things."

Monika blinked. Her eyebrow furrowed, but she shook her head and adopted one of her trademark sweet smiles. "Why not? I figured that they'd speculate even if we didn't tell them. In fact, I'm kinda surprised you haven't been bragging about it to them."

MC wrinkled his face in disgust. "What, no! Why would I do that? Why are you even accusing me of doing that in the first place? I thought this was supposed to be a little secret we kept to ourselves."

Monika's eyes flickered to the candles. "Well, like it or not, the cat's out of the bag now. And anyway, it's probably best that they know, anyway. After all, doesn't it show that our relationship has proceeded to a deeper, more intimate, and more interconnected level? Now, can we just drop this? Please?"

"I don't like it," MC asserted. His frown deepened. "I don't like my private life being exposed to the entire literature club. I know you didn't have any bad intentions behind it, but could you maybe refrain from doing this kind of thing in the future?"

Had Monika chosen to apologize and promise then and there, it would have likely ended. Instead, she shrugged. Her attempted smile vanished; her face adopted a more serious expression. "It's just as much my business as it is yours, but-"

"Exactly!" MC interrupted, gesturing wildly at himself. "It's my business as well as yours!"

"Please let me finish," Monika replied with a hint of annoyance in her tone. She no longer felt like trying to hide her frustration. "Look, if it makes you feel any better, I won't do it again, but I won't apologize for simply letting them know how happy you make me feel."

MC gesticulated at something only he must have seen. "Monika, don't you understand how this is a breach of privacy? You can't just go around telling the others about the intimacy of our private life! It's creepy."

Monika's brow furrowed. "MC, you're overreacting-"

"How am I overreacting?" MC interrupted, cocking his head inquisitively. "Monika, how would you like it if I blabbed about your secret to the rest of the club?"

Monika's eyes widened. "That's different, and you better not!"

"Maybe it is different, but it's the principle of the thing that bothers me."

"It's not as if I went into exquisite detail," Monika defended. "I only told them that we had sex, not what kind of sex we were doing."

MC was silent for a moment. "I can't believe you're defending this!

"I can't believe you're getting worked up about it to this degree! Are you insecure about yourself or something? What are you not telling me here?"

Lunging forward, MC found himself consumed by sudden rage. "I can't believe I went through all this trouble to invite you on a date, make you dinner, and have an honest conversation with you, only to find you acting like a. . . like a stubborn bitch about this!"

Monika gasped.

At once, MC slapped a mouth over his hand in shock. Of course, it was too late to keep that under wraps, now. His anger melted away, leaving behind only horror. Monika sat there, unmoving, unable to even formulate a sentence. She merely winced, and MC thought he saw the beginnings of tears in her eyes.

Instead of crying, however, Monika managed to harden her expression into a fierce scowl. She rose from her seat, slamming a fist onto the table in the process. "Alright, you know what!? You know what!?" she repeated, her tone a sloppy concoction of fury and hurt. "I'm leaving!"

After a moment's hesitation, she started for the door. MC sprang up and dashed after her. "Monika, I'm sorry," he offered. He tried to grab her hand with his, but she pulled herself away. "We don't have to talk about this today if you don't want to. Let's just sit back down and enjoy the nig-"

"No," Monika replied firmly, looking away. "I can't believe you. . . nevermind."

"I didn't mean it, I swear," MC promised.

Monika spun around and shot MC a glare that bored into the deepest recesses of his soul. "Then why did you say it!?"

Whether from shame or fecklessness, MC found out that he couldn't quite meet that gaze. "I. . . I don't know."

"I would've expected something like that from Natsuki, maybe, but not from you," Monika continued. "You. . ."

She sniffled, but wiped the tears away herself. "You have no right to call me out on something so minor and then treat me like garbage over it!"

"It's not minor to me," MC defended, regaining some stubborn drive to hold his ground regarding the privacy concern. "I just wish you would have told me about it before-"

"Before what? Before you called me a bitch on our Valentine's date?"

"Monika, please!" MC exclaimed. "I'm trying to work with you here."

To call the silence that followed excruciatingly uncomfortable would have been an understatement. Monika seemed to be chewing on MC's words, her eyes occasionally flickering from left to right. Finally, angrily, she shook her head. "I'm going home. Goodbye, MC."

Wordlessly, MC watched her walk over to the couch, snatch her heart-shaped gift, and continue towards the front door. With a twinge of bitterness, he assumed it too late to change the outcome of this while fiasco. However, that did not prevent him from trying to have the last word:

"So, this is it?" he remarked. "You're just gonna throw our lovely night away over this? I've apologized for what I've said; what more do you want from me?"

Monika turned the knob on the front door. "I want the MC that loved and cared for me back."

There was no anger in her tone anymore, only despair. She did not even look at him as she opened the door. "Goodbye, MC. I guess I'll see you at the club Monday."

"Monika, I don't want you to go."

But she was already closing the door behind her. The silence that followed that final click of the doorknob was inarticulably soul-crushing. For what seemed like eternity, but was probably only ten minutes or so, MC couldn't summon the will to do anything, not even think. He merely wallowed in his own pity.

Finally, he turned his attention to the table. His dinner was still piping hot, and yet all traces of hunger were long-gone. Not even bothering to put the food away for later, he started up the stairs. Despair and disappointment tugged at his heart.

"I'm such an idiot," he muttered quietly to himself. "Why did I even bring this up tonight of all nights?"

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

"Shut up, brain."