Valentine's Day was always a big day at the office.
It was the worldwide day of love, and in Japan, the day women bought and gave chocolates to the objects of their affection...or in the workplace, their coworkers, as well.

Every year, Haida waited for this day, hoping the long lived scene in his head would finally play out:
Retsuko would come in, holding a box of chocolates, catch his eye, and rush over to him calling his name-
"Happy Valentine's Day, Haida," she'd say, a little shyly, presenting him with the box of candies. "I wanted to say...I...I..."

"You're tail is wagging," Fenneko's deadpan voice woke Haida from his daydream. The blushing hyena jumped a little, getting control over his excited, fanned out tail hitting his friend in the face.

"Sorry. Just a special day."
He mumbled.

"Not for you," Fenneko sneered, giving him her typical cold ha ha ha.
Haida blushed deeper in annoyance.
"Oh yeah? Well what about you? Spending the big day alone playing on your phone again?"

"I don't need to waste my money on some lame, over commercialized candy selling scheme," Fenneko retorted, clacking at her keyboard. "Besides, for your information, I do have a date tonight."

Haida rolled his eyes. "Oh, yeah. Hanging out with your virtual boyfriend?"
Fenneko turned bright red.
"S-shut up!" She didn't want to admit it, but the fox had an evening set with a Pallas Cat down in the sales department.

"Sorry I'm late!" Retsuko came scrambling in, a bag in her arms and looking a little out of breath.
Haida's tail started wagging again.

"Calendar! Good to see you!"
Ton's face smiled with the hopeful expectation of a big bar of appreciation chocolate.

"Oh! Yes of course, sir! The pleasure is all mine! Happy Valentine's Day!" Retsuko handed her boss some chocolate to add to the collection already heaped on his desk.
"Thank you!" Ton grinned, "How very sweet. Now get to work!"

"You're so popular, sir!" Komiya said, laughing and dying a little inside.
"It's just my sensual charm. Ladies love it. It's something you can't emulate Komiya, so don't even try it."
"...Yes sir."

"Hey, Retsuko!" Haida waved the red panda over as she approached. "H-how you doin'?" Maybe just a little nudge, ask her if she had something for him...

Retsuko groaned a little.
"Let's just say I'm already sick of this Valentine's business."
That stopped the hyena in his tracks.
"Oh, r-really?"

"First thing when I enter the building, I get Anai in my face demanding why I haven't emailed him back confirming that his favorite chocolates are Caramel Butter Crunch Turtles and to get him a extra large bag with no nuts, and then why I wasn't walking into work with said bag of Caramel Butter Turtles ready for him. I told him my email must have redirected it to the spam folder, and well you can guess how that went! He went off until Manager Buffalo caught me and started talking about his first wife and their first Valentine's Day, how she won him over with a homemade chocolate truffle, how sad it is people don't put the effort they did in back in the day, and then they both started going off, demanding sweets from me, so I ran and hid the bag under my arms-"

"Ok, ok, we get it," Fenneko said.

"I- I'm sorry, Retsuko. That's rough."
Haida said, shaking his head. Operation failure.

"And then I ran into Tsunoda." Retsuko groaned, putting her head on the desk.

As if summoned, Tsunoda's adorable voice called out.
"Happy Valentine's Day!"

All the men in the accounting office seemed to come alive as she pranced around, giggling and handing out sweets, and all the women turned sourfaced and started mumbling mean things under their breath.
One thing was for certain, with Tsunoda, the guys were always especially desperate for a piece of her.
"Hi, Ookami! Hi, Haida!" She giggled, placing the smallest little crumbs of chocolate at their desks.
But small or not, the guys ate them up, and they would be sure to return the gift tenfold on White Day.
"Hiii, Mr. Ton!"
The gazelle stopped in front of the desk and placed a much larger candy bar down for the hog honcho.
"...and Mr. Komiya!"
She bat her eyelashes at the meerkat, making him go beet red before handing him another very small chocolate.
For a moment, Komiya looked a little surprised, blushing deeper, but he quickly recovered and thanked her.

"Oh...Haida. Before I forget."
Retsuko took out a little tray of squashed, melted chocolate pieces.
"These are the ones I was saving for accounting, but they got all crushed when I was hiding the bag from Anai..."

Haida's blush returned, tail wagging again. "Retsuko...are you..."

"You and Fenneko can have them if you want. Otherwise I'll just throw them out." Retsuko finished. She wouldn't say it aloud, but Valentine's Day still felt like poking an open wound whenever Retsuko thought about Tadano. The two of them had had the closest thing to a real relationship she'd ever had, and in many ways, the panda still loved him.

Haida's face fell."Oh. Ok. Thanks."
"Hahahhaha."
Haida gave Fenneko one more annoyed look before taking a bite of the melted chocolates. They were runny and misshapen, but it was still a gift from Retsuko.
"Th-thanks, Retsuko. Happy Valentine's Day."

Retsuko smiled. "Would you be down for karaoke later?"
Haida grinned. "I'm always down for karaoke."

At the end of the long day, everyone went about their business.
Whether it be to go somewhere special with a loved one, or go straight home and treat themselves to some good r&r, the day was over and everyone had places to go.

Tsunoda finished packing her things and briefly stopped by the accounting office as Komiya finished cleaning off the Director's desk.
"Hey sweetie," she said cheerfully, "Ready for our date?"
"I've been waiting all week!" Komiya said, putting his arm around her. "Hey, thanks for the chocolate. On Ton's schedule I don't get lunch, so it was nice to get something to eat this week." He kissed her on the cheek and she giggled.
"Silly, that was just for show," she said, grabbing something from her coat pocket. "Now that everyone is gone, I can give you your real present! Didn't want anyone getting jealous, you know?"
Unwrapping the box she handed him a cute little chocolate eclair. "Did the decorating all by myself! Do you like it?"
Komiya's eyes sparkled and his tail brushed up with happiness.
"I LOVE it!" he said, embracing his girlfriend. But they both knew what the words really meant.
"Just you wait until you see what I'm planning for you...!"

"So what kind of songs you down for singing?" Haida asked, joining Retsuko in the padded room.

Retsuko usually went to karaoke with Washimi and Gori, so this was going to be a bit of a new experience. However, she was learning to trust Haida as a friend. Maybe more.
"Let's thrash on some stupid love songs," Retsuko said, getting her vocal cords ready for some metal.
She liked that Haida didn't judge her for her love of death metal. In fact, his punk and her metal went together in perfect harmony.
"Valentine's Day...what a stupid holiday. Thank God it's done and over with, right Haida?" She said, looking over at him.

Haida grinned, giving Retsuko a look of mixed emotions.
"Heh. Yeah. Right."