Um…wow…One day, I check the poll that's linked in my profile, and there's six votes. Then, I check a few days later, and there's sixteen. Hm. Interesting how Níu-Năi's winning even though he hasn't done all that much. Poor Xue, though D: Last I checked, she was losing more than everyone else.
I've been recruited as a scanner for the extras included in the new Kang Zeng Bang reprint volumes. While this is great, I still encourage all of you to keep buying the manga, and, if you can spare the money, buy the reprints as well. They're beautiful, with glossy, high-quality paper used for each page, beautiful covers featuring the characters as well as special clear-plastic covers with pictures of the featured character's oversoul on it. What I also love about them is that Takei took the time to go back and redraw some of the panels from the earlier chapters. For instance, Ren's bangs and hair wisps have been made longer, and some panels of him are COMPLETELY redrawn, making him look less boxy and more like his appearance later in the series. My favorite addition? Ren now sparkles when he's in his blazer. That's right - SPARKLES. Jun, on the other hand? Complete redraw. The whole page in which she makes her appearance is redrawn since her hair had a slightly different style at this time. Other panels where the differences could be spotted are redrawn as well. It's really exciting! So, if you can spare the money, buy the reprints. You won't regret it! I'll now end the Text Wall of Certain Doom.
Notes: Sarcasm isn't widely used in Japan. As such, if you use sarcasm with someone who's Japanese, they most likely will think you're serious.
I talk about yen a couple times, so just use this really quick way to convert yen to dollars – take the amount of yen and divide it by 100. Using this method, 2000 yen would become 20 USD, 30000 yen would become 300 USD, and so on and so forth. I'm not going to try to predict inflation, so I'll use a recent conversion rate, which, at the time of writing is about 104 yen for every American dollar (Dollar signs don't even work here anymore. What a rip).
A Gift of Love – Chapter Seventy-Seven: Echo of a Romantic
February 11, 2025
"Seta! You better get your butt in gear or you're going to be late!" Rong called into her son's room. She sighed and turned back to HoroHoro. "Every single morning, honestly…"
There was a rush of wind as Seta ran past her on his way out the door. Frowning, Rong grabbed a breakfast bar that was on the counter.
"What have I told you about leaving without breakfast?" she yelled, tossing the bar at him. It hit him squarely in the back of his head, causing him to fall over.
"Ye-Yes, Mom…" he said in a dazed voice.
Rong smiled, suddenly peppy. "Alright! Come enjoy the breakfast filled with your mother's love!"
He looked back at her his eyes wide. "Mom, you're scaring me."
She glared at him, obviously annoyed. "Get in the chair," she commanded, pointing to it.
He obeyed, scrambling before she went after him again. While this had been going on, his father had been calmly reading the newspaper while enjoying his rice.
"Every single morning," he murmured.
Seta looked down at his breakfast. "If I'm so late, why are you making me eat breakfast?"
"Oh, you're not late," Rong said calmly as she began eating her own food.
He looked around frantically. "B-But it's almost eight!" he cried.
"Look at your cell phone."
"My cell…phone…?" He took it out of his pocket. The display said it was seven thirty. He looked around again. "But all these clocks say it's seven fifty-five!"
"Oh, I turned them ahead so you'd think you were late and rush around. This way, we get to eat breakfast together."
"Mom…you're so…"
"-beautiful? Intelligent? Overall amazing?"
"…evil…"
Her eye twitched. "Why, thank you…"
"Haha! That's what you get when you fish for compliments!" her husband jeered. Rong raised her spatula like she was going to hit him and he cowered. She lowered it and sighed.
"I'm so outnumbered…I want Xue back."
"She's coming back tomorrow, so no worries."
There was silence. Seta looked at his food, then up to face his parents.
"Um…Mom…Dad…since we're going to be away on…that day, I'm going to go to…um…see Senpai today after school, so I might not be home for a while."
His parents looked at each other, then averted the other's gaze, glancing in opposite directions. Finally HoroHoro looked up, trying to smile.
"Just make sure you're back before it's dark out, alright?"
He nodded. "Okay, Dad."
For the past four years, Seta had taken to visiting the grave of a student who he had looked up to like a mentor, especially in the area of romance. It had been because of this person that he had finally been able to feel confident enough to even think about confessing his feelings. Everything he knew about how to make women feel special and loved had come from him. This, supplemented by his father's teachings of how women should be treated ("…with respect, even when they're throwing their shoes at you."), had made him into the sensitive hopeless romantic he was.
There was a thump next to him, and Seta looked to his left to see that Rong had set his bento for the day on the table. Then she slowly put a smaller one on top of it. He blinked at it, HoroHoro glancing at it as well. Rong herself looked down at it, then swiftly turned and went over to the sink, grabbing the dirty breakfast plates along the way.
"Mom?" Seta thought aloud, wondering what she had meant by giving him an extra box. She didn't reply, busying herself by rigorously washing the dishes.
He hesitantly accepted the extra bento and left after a quick good bye to his parents. After he was gone, Rong shut off the water and leaned over the sink in thought. HoroHoro came up behind her, rubbing her shoulder.
"At least this year Xue's away, so we don't have to worry about her remembering what happened."
She nodded. "But Seta knows what happened, why he's gone."
Xue never accompanied Seta to his senpai's grave, despite the fact that she had, in fact, been closer to him than her brother was. Each year, their parents struggled with him going to visit the grave without her knowing. She didn't grasp what was going on. She was just the bouncy, dorky, almost ditsy daughter who had served as the tie that had brought her parents together so many years ago. They didn't want to have anything happen that could jeopardize her bubbly personality and constant giggling.
"Hey, it'll be alright," he said as he continued his ministrations. "There's no chance of her remembering him while she's away. No one she's with knows about her like that. Don't worry."
She sighed, then turned around to hug him. "I'll try."
Seta bolted down the street toward his high school. Despite his mother's best intentions, the breakfast had made him late, meaning that he was once again at the mercy of the class bell.
Please don't ring…Please don't ring…PLEASE DON'T RING!
But of course, the large clock at the front of the school struck eight and the bell began to chime. He ran as fast as he possibly could toward the gates, which were now beginning to close as they always did when school started. This way, they could keep track of chronically tardy students since they needed to use the intercom next to the gate in order to get the security guard to open it for them. The gate clinked shut just as he got there.
"NO!" He pounded on it in anguish. After sighing, he slipped his schoolbag through the bars, and then took a few steps backwards. With a running start, he jumped and grabbed hold of the decorative iron curves that graced the barrier. When he was close enough, he jumped down managed to run into the school before the door closed.
Running down the empty hall, he found that it was inevitable that he would again have to face the wrath of his teacher, but he knew that he couldn't blame his mother. She had tried to help him and he didn't fully take advantage of it. He knew it was his own fault.
He skidded to a halt and pressed himself against the wall. The classroom door was closed, but that didn't mean his teacher was in there yet; he still had a chance. Slowly, he opened the door and looked around the room. No teacher. With a sigh of relief, he walked toward his desk.
The door slammed shut behind him. "Late again, Usui?"
He froze as his classmates giggled. Robotically, he turned to see his English teacher, Ms. Cross, smiling at him with silent annoyance. She was a young American teacher who had come to the school as part an exchange program to provide a richer and more effective learning experience. While pleasant, she seemed to almost enjoy berating him in front of his peers.
He smiled nervously. "Y-Yeah…sorry. I tried today, I really did!"
She looked at him doubtfully. "If you 'tried so hard', then why are you still late?"
"Well…um…" He looked at his feet. "My mom wanted me to eat breakfast with her and my dad."
Squeals of adoration escaped some of the female students. To be late for school so he could spend time with his family! What a noble cause!
"Come on, Ms. Cross, don't punish Seta! He was just trying to spend time with his family!"
"Yeah! And you shouldn't go to school without having breakfast anyway!"
"He looks really sorry!"
Their teacher played with the ends of her strawberry blonde ponytail. "Can we can a boy's opinion?"
"SPANK HIM!" cried one. Seta cringed.
"Itou, you know I don't approve of corporal punishment. Anyone else?"
"Make him do my homework!"
"Rejected. Next?"
This went on and on, each suggestion even more outrageous and self-serving than the last. "Rejected." She sighed. "Boys, those were all awful, most of them only benefiting yourselves. Congratulations, you all fail at life."
The boys erupted into cries of anguish and displeasure, some of them challenging the statement. Finally, the American sighed.
"Oh, that's right, sarcasm." She looked up. "HEY!" Silence. "None of you are failing my class. Not even Usui with his excessive tardiness. That was sarcasm. You know, that thing were I say something and I sound like I'm serious but I'm really making fun of you?"
They stared at her. She had tried to explain this concept to them before, but few had understood. After a while, some of them nodded. She turned to Seta, now playing with the silver necklace chain around her neck.
"I have a punishment for you." She opened the door and shooed him out, following him and closing the door. They walked a few steps before she turned to him.
Seta stared at the ground. "What's my punishment, Ms. Cross?"
She smirked. "Usui Seta, as punishment for your continued tardiness, you…"
He shut his eyes, hoping it wasn't too painful.
"…have to get me a headband like yours."
He looked up. His red hair, slightly spiked the way his father's was and going to his left side, was held in place by a red and black circlet made of cloth. His mother refused to give him "hers", so he had to wait until Xue was able to make one for him. He wore it everywhere, needless to say, although some of his teachers forced him to remove it during class. Ms. Cross, however, had never been one of these teachers, and now he knew why.
"What?"
She was starry-eyed and hopeful. "I-I've always wanted one, and now you've been late so much that I can give you a punishment like this! I'm really excited!"
"Um…are you doing that sarcasm thing again?"
"No, no, of course not! I honestly would like a headband like yours. I really like the design. You made it yourself, right?"
"M-My sister did…"
"Oh, well, it doesn't matter! Just give me one soon, okay?"
"O-Okay…"
"A pink one!"
"I'll…try…"
"Yay! This is so cool! A real Ainu headband just for moi!" she cried, hopping up and down with childish glee. She stopped and looked over her shoulder to see her student staring at her, a disturbed expression on his face. "Don't look at me like that! I just want something cool to go with my winter jacket!"
"Still…Ms. Cross…"
She straightened and cleared her throat, once again playing with her hair. "You may go return to the classroom now," she said, her voice once again serious. The class was dead silent as they watched them return, the teacher going to her desk.
"I hope you all learn from Usui's mistakes. You don't want to find yourselves with a punishment worse than his."
"Yes, Ms. Cross," her students replied in unison.
Seta sighed, thinking about how he would going to ask his sister to make him a headband.
"Good." Up until this point, she had been speaking Japanese. Since class had begun, she quickly switched to her native tongue. "Now, take out your books and turn them to page 285. Here we will be discussing words that have to do with fairy tales. First, the word 'princess'. Can anyone think of a Japanese word that this sounds like?"
"Purinsesu!" a few students yelled out.
"Right, it's what we call a 'cognate' in English. This means that the two words sound alike. So, as long as you can remember 'purinsesu' instead of another word that could mean 'princess', such as 'hime' or 'oujo', it will be an easy word to remember. Now, everyone, repeat it. 'Princess'."
"Purinsesu."
"No, you're saying it in Japanese. Say it in English. 'Princess'."
"Purinsesu."
"Stop pronouncing the 'u' at the beginning and end. I'm an American, so conform to me, dammit!" The class laughed and she smirked. "One more time; 'Princess'."
The class was silent. Most were tongue tied.
"Preenseess!" Seta said in an unintentionally loud voice. The class laughed. Their teacher sighed.
"…C-Close enough." She knew that she wasn't going to be able to get them to say it perfectly in one day. "Can anyone use it in a sentence?" A girl raised her hand. "Okay, Sumiko, let's hear it."
The girl took a deep breath. "I think Seta's pun…puny…" She looked up. "How do you say 'bachi' in English?"
Her teacher blinked. "Punishment…"
"Oh yeah! I think Seta's punishment is to dress like a princess," she said, Engrish abound.
Silence. Then the fangirls squealed.
"That would be SO CUTE!"
"Oh my gosh, yes! I wanna see it!"
"PLEASE tell me that's the punishment!"
"I call being the prince!"
"No! I'M going to be the prince!"
They continued to fight as Seta looked at them. Xue had gotten him to dress up like a girl when he was little, which he in part blamed his sensitivity on, but the idea of wearing a dress when he was almost seventeen wasn't all that enticing.
Ms. Cross clapped her hands. "Alright, ha-ha, yes, it's funny. Now be quiet." She turned to the Ainu. "Would you be interested in changing your punishment?"
Seta slammed his head onto his desk. "Never," he mumbled. If Lien found out, she'd never want to go out with me.
Finally, when school was over, Seta picked up the small bento and started on his way toward the shrine. As he passed a drug store, he stopped to buy some soap and a rag to clean the gravestone with. An old man on the corner asked him if he needed some flowers "for his girlfriend", so he accepted and bought a small bouquet of white chrysanthemums as an offering.
When he arrived, he was the only one there, not that he surprised by it. Despite his outgoing personality, Senpai had been promptly forgotten about after even the girl he loved seemed to forget about him. Without the need to console her, their classmate was treated like he had moved away.
But Seta never forgot. He hadn't been there when Senpai died, but the whole thing had an effect on him. It hadn't been since his best friend's apparent death that he had to deal with the feelings of suddenly realizing you'll never talk to someone ever again. He had been upset for a while, crying even, but once he had snapped out of it, he visited his senpai's empty apartment and found a notebook with a note on top.
"Sorry I couldn't teach you how to woo that girl you like before this. Hopefully this'll teach you a little more. I'll be rooting for ya."
The fact that he had taken the time to write a note to him beforehand had disturbed him greatly, but eventually he was able to accept Senpai's gift and try to learn something from the various notes the boy had written. Despite it being a gift, Seta had ripped the last few pages out and burned them, not wanting to deal with the words contained within its pages.
As he walked up the stone steps, Seta could see the medium sized grave come into view. Another grave belonging to his father was next to it. All he could muster was a sad smile. His mentor's will to live had vanished when his father was killed. He had clung to the girl he loved, but when she suddenly distanced herself from him, the loneliness had been too much for him to take.
"I'm here, Senpai…" he said quietly. Silently, he took off his headband, seemingly as a show of respect. He knelt down and set the bento on the small altar, opening the cloth covering it. Then he set a pair of chopsticks on it. "Mom made this for you. It's kinda amazing how she still remembers your favorite foods." He took out his own bento and opened it to reveal that half of it had been saved. "I know it's not a good idea to eat here, but I want to keep you company for a while, you know? I mean, I don't know how many other people come see you, so I don't want you to get lonely."
Usually, one would expect that, at this time, the deceased boy's spirit would appear and pretend to eat the bento with his kōhai, but this wasn't the case. Even mere hours after his death, no one in the family was able to find his spirit. It had bothered him because he had wanted to make sure that the boy who was like an older brother to him would safely make it to the afterlife and be able to rest in peace. During these four years, Xue had claimed that she would sometimes feel something in the middle of the night, but their parents had told her it was just a rogue spirit out to play some tricks on her. Senpai's spirit never truly appeared.
He finished the bento. "I'll just leave yours there…maybe you'll come get it at some point…"
Then he set to work on washing the gravestone. It got so dirty every year, and he was sure that he was the only one who visited him. It didn't surprise him, though, considering the circumstances of his death.
"I hope you're not upset that Xue never comes..." he said as he took out a toothbrush and began removing dirt from the kanji engraved upon the stone. "Mom and Dad are just protective of her. They don't want her to get sad by reminding her that you're gone."
He stopped to scrub some especially stubborn grime. Once it was gone, he wiped his forehead and stared at the ground.
"They took away her yearbook, pictures, letters…deleted your number from her phone, deleted emails…It was…kind of sad. It felt like they were erasing you from her life, like you never existed. I didn't like it, but if my parents thought that it would make sure that Xue could continue being her happy self, then, I guess I understand.
"She'll mention you once in a while; saying that she tried to send you a letter and it never got to you. It's sad, but she thinks you moved away." His fist clenched. "Part of me wishes I could just tell her the truth. It's not fair for you to be treated like this." His face softened. "But I don't want her to cry again. That was too much to take. I hated that more…sorry…"
He sighed and sat back, cross-legged. "Last time I talked to Ren, he said some guy's transferred into their class from Japan, and he's after Lien. I'm...nervous about losing to him. I want to be able to make her happy, but I don't want to force her away from this guy if she's already developed feelings for him." He shook his head sadly. "I'm pathetic, right? You didn't teach me to be like this..."
"Listen, if there's a girl you want, go after her with all the love and sincerity you have. Give her all you've got. If she doesn't feel the same, be sad for a day, then move on. It's not worth being sad over a girl who doesn't love you. Just love with no regrets."
"I...I love her. I know I do. It's not some puppy love anymore, like when I was a kid. I honestly want to have her with me day and night. I want to be able to look at her smile and touch her hair and smell that lotus shampoo she uses whenever I want to. She's...special. I...don't want anyone else to have her but me."
He looked away, not used to having such selfish desires. Seta was the goody-goody. The angel. The selfless guy that would probably help his friend hook up with a girl in his class, even if he himself was pursuing her.
"I'm leaving for her house in a couple days, and I want to get her something, but I don't know what. It's a twelve hour plane ride, so I don't think any flowers I got would be fresh by that point." He groaned and leaned his head on his fist.
"Okay, this is what I got her: We all know girls like stuffed animals for White Day, right?"
"R-Right!"
"So find out what her favorite animal is, and then get her a stuffed animal of it! Then put some chocolate in its arms, attach some original poetry or a heartfelt letter, and then, voila! Most girls go for it, trust me!"
Seta lightly pounded his forehead with his fist. "Lien's favorite animal…Lien's favorite animal…" His eyes flew open. "THAT'S IT!" He quickly gathered his things and stood, leaving the flowers and bento box in front of the grave. He stood up and bowed. "Thank you, Senpai! Sorry for leaving so soon! I'll come again when I'm back from Lien's house!"
He dashed down the street, getting yelled at by elders and others that he pushed by and ran around. Finally, he skidded in front of a toy store and rushed in and up to the counter, where there were thankfully no waiting customers.
Seta slammed his right palm on the finished wood, his head down as he panted. The two female employees behind the registers were shaking and holding each other, obviously scared by the boy's passion.
"C-Can we help you find something, sir?"
After a few more pants he looked up at them, fire burning in his eyes. They cringed.
"I NEED THE BIGGEST, SOFTEST, FLUFFIEST, HIGHEST QUALITY LEMUR YOU HAVE!" he said in a triumphant voice.
They stared at him, then one of the girls used a shaking hand to point him to the opposite side of the store. "T-They'd be over there!"
"Thank you," he said before running off to find the perfect primate to adopt.
He walked up to the wall of plushies that stretched across the back of the store. He stared at it, slight intimidation apparent in his eyes.
"This must be what Auntie Pin-Mei's room looked like when she was little…"
Surprisingly, there were quite a few choices for lemurs - something he hadn't planned on. He touched all of them, not really knowing what he was testing for. Being a boy, he hadn't held a stuffed animal since he was a toddler. Frustrated, he shoved them back into their cubby holes and folded his arms, tapping his foot.
Now what do I do? I can't tell what a good stuffed animal feels like!
A hand reached up and took one of the lemurs. He glanced over to see Rong squeezing it, then tug on the tail before putting it back and taking another one.
"M-Mom? What are you doing here?"
She was silent for a moment, murmuring to herself about materials and the amount of cotton used. After another inspection, she shook her head and put it back.
"Did you see me come in?"
She was taking another one. "No," she replied in an airy voice. "I heard you."
He blushed. "W-Was I really that loud?"
"Yes. People on the streets stopped and looked at the store. Some turned around so they could stay away from it."
He hung his head. "Sorry…I was just excited…"
"Here."
Seta looked up to see his mother holding out one of the lemurs to him. He took it, immediately able to feel the difference from the others. "It's really soft!"
She smiled at him. "That company's one of the best in the business. Some of the others use lead and sweatshops, so they're dangerous and break easily. The thread and materials in this one are all high quality. It'll last as long as Ren's little plush tiger." She cackled to herself.
Her son stared at her. "How do you know so much?"
She gave a light chuckle. "I used to buy stuffed animals for Pin-Mei all the time when she was little. After twelve years, you begin to develop an expertise for quality and value. I must have bought her over five hundred since she was two." She looked away for a moment. "I guess I still haven't forgotten those days."
He smiled brightly as he held the toy. "Thanks, Mom!" He seemed about ready to lunge and hug her, but noticed a few girls from his class looking at him and giggling. He stayed where he was.
Rong narrowed her eyes. "I just helped you out. Hug me or I'll rip that poor lemur in half."
He cringed. "Y-Yes, Mom…" He put the lemur on a pile next to him and hugged her. From over her shoulder, he could see that the girls now had on touched faces of adoration, quiet "aww"s being cooed at each other. He didn't care really. He made a promise when he was younger to ignore what his classmates, especially the female ones, thought of him.
They finally parted. Rong smiled at him as he took the lemur from the pile again and held it close to him, as if to make sure no obsessed lemur fan would try to rip it from his loving hands.
"It's for Lien, isn't it?"
He squeezed the plush body. "Yeah…"
"I'm sure she'll love it, considering how she's already like her mother in some respects. But why a lemur?"
"It's her favorite animal," he replied quietly.
She laughed and touched her forehead. "I should have known. At least half of Pin-Mei's collection was panda bears."
He held it out in front of him and smiled at it, then brought it close to him again. "I better go pay for this."
"Uh, I think I should," she said quickly.
"Why?"
"You've probably scared the clerks so bad that they don't want to have the misfortune of waiting on you." She held out her hand. "Just give me the money, I'll do it."
He blushed out of embarrassment of his previous actions, then went into his school bag and took out his wallet. He handed her the lemur and three thousand yen. "It's…expensive."
"Quality IS expensive. It's like expecting to be able to pay two thousand yen for DVD." She walked up and bought it, then handed her son the decorative bag that it came in. He looked inside, smiled, then closed it again.
"What do I do now?" he asked.
"What do you mean, 'What do I do now'? Either make or go buy some chocolate, then make a mix tape or a poem or something and give it to her. It's not that hard, really." He just stared at her. Rong shook her head and put her hand on her brow. "Just as clueless as your dad. Took him FOREVER to figure out how to be romantic. Even Ren was better at setting the mood than he was." She grabbed his arm and pulled him out onto the sidewalk as they started for home.
"Do you...really think she'll like this?" he asked slowly after an extended silence.
"I think we're at a point where you know her better than I do. I can read people pretty well still, but that doesn't mean I know what will make them happy. Personally, I think she'll be happy at just the thought."
"R-Really?"
"If what you say about her and Ren not having any friends at school is true, I think she'll be happy to get something. Even if she doesn't see it as romantic, I think you'll get a hug out of it at the very least."
"Thanks...I feel better now."
She nodded with a smile. "Good."
They walked in silence for a few minutes. Her eyes kept shifting over to him, knowing that his mind was still racing.
"M-Mom..."
"What is it?"
"I-If Uncle Ren says I can be engaged to Lien when we go there, will you let me go through with the ritual?"
She tensed. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
He stepped in front of her. "Yes, you do! I talked about it before! If I become Lien's fiancé, I want to go through the ritual you did for Auntie Pin-Mei after she was born! I want to prove to the Tao family that I'm serious about her! I don't want to be with anyone else but her!"
Rong looked at the sidewalk sadly. "It's...very painful. Extremely painful. If you cry, they'll think of you as a disgrace. You can't even whimper. If you go through with it, Seta, be prepared for the worst kind of pain imaginable. No anesthetic, nothing to numb it."
He nodded. "I know that. I just want them to know that I plan on protecting her for the rest of my life."
She touched her arm. "If that's really what you want...I'll see if I can convince them. I can't guarantee anything, though. I'm not part of the family anymore. I'm not in the records or anything. I'll see if my bro- I mean...the head of the family will allow it."
He bowed slightly. "Thank you."
When he got in, Seta put the lemur next to his bed and picked up a calling card on his nightstand. He hadn't called Lien in a while. He was expecting a happy conversation and possibly give her a hint that he had gotten her something.
But that wasn't the case. Mere minutes into the conversation, she was crying. Things weren't going well at home. Ren had done something to betray her trust. Her parents were fighting. She was lonely.
Seta clenched his fist. Where the hell is that other guy if she's so depressed? HE'S there, HE should be taking care of her right now. That bastard...
"Don't worry," he said finally. "We'll be there within a few days. I'll bet my parents can at least help your parents sort out what's going on, and I'll help you and Ren." He paused. "And…well…I mean…If you want me to, I'll hold you and you can tell me about everything that's bothering you. I promise I'll listen."
"Thank you…Thank you so much…I know I'll feel better once you and everyone else gets here. I'm so lucky to have a friend like you," she whispered, her voice raspy from crying.
"D…Don't mention it…"
He listened to her sniffles for a few minutes, then couldn't keep quiet anymore.
"Are you...making chocolate for anyone this year?"
She was silent for a moment. "I'm not sure...I can't really get in the mood right now..."
"I understand..."
"B-But if I do, I'll make sure you get some!"
He closed his eyes with a smile. "Thank you. Your chocolate last year was wonderful."
"Oh, you suck-up. It tasted like panda poo and you know it!"
"It was...um...delicious...poo?"
She burst out laughing, and he could hear the phone being moved around. He guessed that she was sitting somewhere and had put the phone down to hold her sides, which made him feel at ease. When she got on the phone again, she was still trying to calm down.
"You...You're amazing, Seta, you know that?"
"T-Thank you..."
"Alright, even though I didn't plan on making any chocolate, I'll make sure I make some for you, okay?"
"Okay, I promise I'll eat all of it!"
"It's your funeral!"
They laughed, then Seta looked at the shopping bag from the toy store.
"Hey...Lien...I got you something, since I know you don't have White Day in China. So...um...I really hope you like it."
There was silence. "You...got me something?"
"Yeah. I wanted to make sure you got something on a day where you're supposed to feel special. Because you deserve it."
"Seta..."
"And...I..." He tugged on the black collar of his school uniform, then unbuttoned it. His room had suddenly become unusually hot. "When I see you, I...I want to tell you something."
"You can't tell me now?"
"N-No...It'll ruin it unless we do it face-to-face."
She paused. "Alright." She giggled. "You going to announce your undying love for me or something?"
He froze. She was laughing. He brushed it off. "Maybe I am," he replied, trying to sound mysterious.
"Ahaha...You're so cute, Seta. Don't ever change. I love you just the way you are." She laughed again.
"Just as long as you don't either. I love your personality too much for you to change."
Even just saying it like that, I feel so relieved.
When he got off the phone, he sat down at his desk with a pen and a piece of paper. It was time to write the poem his senpai had been talking about.
"Okay, so, to write a love poem, think about how you felt when you first saw her. Think about what she looks and smells like, and what she reminds you of. Tell her about the kinds of feelings she makes you experience, and how no one else can make you feel the way she does. Even if it just ends up being a letter, don't hold back. Tell her how much she means to you. Without using those three words, make that poem say 'I love you'."
He tapped his pen on the desk. "Well, she has that shampoo...And with how yellow her eyes are, she kind of reminds me of a cat...a kitten, maybe? And she's so cute when she sleeps...and I love her laugh...She's...beautiful..."
He took to leaning on his fist, grinning as he daydreamed about her.
She's flawed...she oversleeps, she's clumsy, she gets overly excited, she forgets to do homework, she's so dependent on her dad and Ren sometimes, she can sometimes be oblivious...
She's flawed...but that's why she's so perfect to me.
February 12, 2025
"Yeah, it'll be ready. I'm almost done with it. No problem, I'm glad I could help. Yeah, see you then."
HoroHoro hung up the phone. He held up the snowboard he was glazing and looked at it. Satisfied, he put it on a rack near the sales counter. As he did so, beeping horns and screeching tires could be heard from outside. He blinked, trying to get a glimpse of what was going on.
Someone was jumping on cars, rolling over them, and dodging them as she made her way across the street. His eyes widened as she burst into the store.
"Rong? Is there a reason why you're causing car pile-ups outside? 'Because I feel like it', isn't an acceptable answer."
"This isn't a joke!" she yelled, her face red, her voice exhausted due to her running. She put her hand on the counter for support. "I'm way too old for this..."
"Um, so why are you disrupting traffic again?"
She looked up at him. "Close the store."
"What? Why?"
"We have a bigger problem. I'll say more once you close the store."
"Rong, I'm sure whatever's going on is important to you, but I can't just close randomly during the day. It's not fair to the customers."
She straightened, a fierce look in her eyes. "I'm telling you to close the store! I'll explain once everyone's gone!"
"Why can't you tell me the reason now?"
"Because it's really private, and I don't want these humans to panic!"
He folded his arms. "Rong, I'm not closing the store. We're going to lose a lot of revenue, and plus this guy's coming to pick up his board and..."
Rong clenched her fists, her eyes not visible to him.
"...I'm sure whatever it is can wait until tonight..."
Without warning, Rong grabbed the nearest snowboard, holding it vertically, and, with a wild look in her eyes, slammed it down on the counter between her and her husband. The board snapped in half. Glass flew everywhere, cutting her arms and face.
He stared at her with wide eyes. She was panting and holding one of the broken halves of the board in the hands. Angrily, she hurled it past him, hitting the framed picture of an Olympic snowboarder from their country's team. He flinched, covering his head with his hands. Once the glass stopped falling, he looked at her. She was still breathing hard. He still couldn't see her eyes.
"NOW WILL YOU FUCKING LISTEN TO ME?-!" she screamed in a voice he hadn't heard her use in years.
"R-Rong..."
She looked up at him, tears streaming down her face.
"XUE MIGHT DIE!"