Have I mentioned that there is a time skip to their days in high school? (Unless you already noticed in chapter 8)

"Valentine's Day... Chocolate... Lover..." Takane looked over to Haruka, who was drawing.

She immediately slammed her head onto her desk causing Headphone Actor do have a deeply traced squiggly line over her face.

"T-Takane?! Is something wrong?!" Haruka grabbed an eraser to erase the line.

What the heck am I thinking?! she thought.

"You want to make chocolate?" Ayano asked while tying on her apron.

"Yeah, sure, why not!" Takane started grumbling.

"Who are you giving it to?" Ayano got a few molds and Meiji chocolate bars from her backpack.

Takane jolted while tying on her apron, "Uh... for friends...?"

"Okay, I thought you would give them to Haruka tho-"

She slammed her head onto the counter.

Ayano stood there for a while blinking a bit, "T-Takane...? C-Can you help get the other materials...?"

"Sure..." Takane slowly got up and walked to the cabinets across from the stoves.

"So... are you giving your chocolate to Shintaro-"

Now it was Ayano's turn to slam her head onto the counter.

She quickly got up sweating a bit, "N-No! I-I'm doing the same as you!"

"I guess we're pretty alike, huh?" Takane grabbed 2 ice packs and gave one to Ayano.

"Th-Thanks..."

"Eh?! They're making chocolate?!" Haruka asked.

"My daughter told me herself!" Kenjirou said.

Shintaro sat at Takane's desk reading a book.

"Shintaro, do you want to come?" Haruka turned to Shintaro.

"No."

"Why?"

"No."

"Are you even listening?"

"..."

Shintaro put the book closer to his face, hiding it a bit with it, while Haruka sweated a bit and smiled.

"Then, you turn the knob and chop up the chocolate while the water is heating up..." Ayano handed Takane a knife and a chopping board along with a Meiji chocolate bar.

The two chopped up the chocolate and putted it into a bowl and placed it on top of the hot water.

"You can let it melt for a bit..." Ayano said.

Takane and Ayano watched it melt for a bit.

"I think it's good to stir now," Ayano gave Takane a wooden spoon and she stirred the chocolate while Ayano heard the door open.

Ayano turned around to the door, which was opened with Haruka and Kenjirou watching the girls make chocolate.

"Shoo, shoo!" Ayano shooed them away with her hand and the teo closed the door and left.

"Waagh!" Takane screamed.

Ayano walked back to Takane to see that the chocolate somehow exploded a bit over the stove.

Some of it got onto Takane's nose and Ayano giggled a bit.

"Eh?! How are you not interested?!" Haruka asked.

"I'm just not." Shintaro murmured as he put his book down. "Unlike you guys..."

Shintaro slowly stood up and pointed to Haruka with his pointer finger.

"I'm not someone that's a glutton!" Haruka got stabbed with an imaginary arrow that had the word glutton on it.

He then pointed to Kenjirou with the same finger that pointed at Haruka.

"And I'm not someone that would stalk my own daughter, if I even have one when I grow up!" Kenjirou had an imaginary 100 ton concrete block fall onto his head with the word stalker on it.

"Sh-Shintaro... that's pretty mean...!" Haruka murmured while sweating a bit and raising his hand up a bit.

"Stalker... but I don't even stalk my own daughter... that much..." Kenjirou murmured in a corner.

"G-Guys?" Ayano was confused at what happened in the classroom, "We brought chocolate...?"

"Chocolate?!" Kenjirou and Haruka immediately got out from their slump.

*Munch, munch, munch*

Ayano and Takane stared intensely at the boys to see if their chocolate was bad or not.

"As expected from my daughter!" Kenjirou said while taking his last bite of his chocolate.

"This is delicious, Takane!" Haruka said while munching on Takane's "friend" chocolate.

Shintaro took a bite out of Ayano's chocolate, then one from Takane's.

"W-Well, Shintaro?" Ayano asked.

He swallowed.

"... meh."

Ayano felt like her world fell while Takane grabbed Haruka's cheek.

"YOU WERE JUST TRYING TO FLATTER ME WEREN'T YOU?!"

"N-No! I was being honest!" Haruka yelped.

"At least..."

Everyone stopped and looked at Shintaro.

"At least these meet the expectations of chocolate consumers..."

Ayano brightened up.

"I can't believe a jerk like you could actually, sorta, compliment our cooking skills..." Takane lets go of Haruka's cheek.

"Are those..." Shintaro pointed to her bag which was sorta lumpy.

Ayano smiled while taking out 3 chocolates that were in boxes.

"Yep! For my beloved family!"

She held up a purple box with a green ribbon, "This one's for Kido!"

She then held up a green box with a yellow ribbon, "This one's for Seto!"

Finally, she held up a black box with a white ribbon, "And this one's for Kano!"

Since she took out the chocolates she left her bag open and there was one more chocolate in a red box and white ribbon.

"You forgot-" Shintaro then noticed that the ribbon was made of a lab coat, like the one her mother used to wear.

"Is something wrong?" Ayano asked while putting the boxes back in her back pack and closing it.

"... Nothing." Shintaro sat down and picked up his book and started reading again.

"JEEZ! FINISH YOUR SENTENCE!" Takane usually got angry whenever he doesn't finish his sentences.

"Shut up, your annoying," he murmured.

"ANNOYING?! I'LL SHOW YOU ANNOYING!" Takane picked up the rare specimen, which Kenjirou brought back to the classroom, and was about to chuck it at Shintaro when Kenjirou, Ayano, and Haruka ran over to restrict her.

Kenjriou holding her down, Ayano trying to take the rare specimen out of her hands, and Haruka trying to calm her down.

"What would you understand..." Shintaro murmured, using the book to cover his mouth, "You don't even remember that unbeatable heat... the same like everyone else who was killed in Kur- no- his hands..."