There were two reasons he didn't want to take this offering from the girl before him. For one, this thing that was alleged to be chocolate seemed to be alive, which was, sadly, about what was to be expected when the women in his life cooked any sort of food. The second was that he had just gotten back from a Valentine's date with his girlfriend.

Valentine's Day should have been simple. Just a nice, romantic, admittedly chilly afternoon at the seaside after school. Just Yu and his girlfriend. Yosuke knew what Yu was planning (but not with whom) simply so he could keep Teddie from trying to tag along. And to be fair, the date had gone off without a hitch. It was what came before and after that was the problem.

Before the date, naturally, he'd had to turn down Rise. Rise had shown an interest in Yu since he'd first protected her in the battles with her and Teddie's Shadows. Yu himself had never seen her as anything more than a friend. But Rise was tenacious. Call it a result of her years as an idol making her somewhat entitled, or her having naturally possessive tendencies, but Rise had persisted and it was almost admirable. But even though he and his girlfriend had opted to keep their relationship just between them, he had let the matter with Rise go unresolved for far too long. At a certain point, he had simply given up trying to stop her, and had thus grown complacent.

She took the rejection surprisingly well. She even wished him and his secret girlfriend luck on a romantic afternoon. He felt guilty for letting things go on this long, but he still managed to have a good time at the beach. Then, he returned home after seeing his date off.

Yu found Marie waiting outside the Dojima residence. Despite the cold weather, she was dressed in her usual attire and barely seemed to notice the cold, if at all. She was holding a strange red object in her hand as she waited. After chastising him for being late, she forced the strange object into his hands and accused it of being chocolate. He went along with it while trying to decide how best to let her down sensitively. After all, he wasn't sure Marie even knew the full significance of giving chocolate on this day and this could all be a simple misunderstanding. Then she warned that if it melted, it would run away, and his brain began dedicating all of its processing power to trying to decipher precisely what on God's green Earth had been placed into his hands.

Fortunately, before Marie could push things any further, crunchy footsteps in the snow approached from behind her.

"I knew I'd find you here, Marie-chan."

Marie turned around and Yu looked past her to find Rise approaching them.

"Rise? What are you doing here?"

"Trying to stop Marie-chan from doing something horrible to you."

"Horrible? What, are you jealous that I'm expressing my feelings to him?"

"Not at all. ...Okay, maybe a little. But that's not the reason. Yu-senpai already has someone in his heart. I don't know who it is, but I have to accept that and let him be happy with them. That's why I didn't give him my chocolates today. If I did, it'd be like I was trying to force my feelings onto him. That would make things awkward and difficult for him and he doesn't deserve that kind of treatment. I love Senpai with all my heart, and loving someone sometimes means you have to put their happiness with someone else before your own happiness with them. Do you see what I'm saying, Marie-chan?"

Marie remained silent with her head down. Yu had spent enough time with Marie to know this meant she was battling against her brain for understanding and perhaps agreeing with Rise's assertions. Rise was about to ask again, but Yu held up a hand to stop her, wanting to allow Marie the chance to make her decision without feeling pressured.

Marie sighed deeply. "I suppose you're right... I wouldn't want someone I wasn't interested in to do that to me." She slowly took the package back from Yu without resistance.

"Right? I'm glad you see things the same way."

Although the situation seemed to have been resolved, Yu couldn't help but feel guilty. If he hadn't kept the specifics of his relationship a secret up to now, things likely wouldn't have gotten to this point. As such, it was his obligation to make it up to them in even the smallest of ways.

"I think I need to tell you both the truth," he said. "It's only fair that you both know who it is that I'm dating, but please keep this just between us."

Both girls leaned in and Yu whispered the name of the girl he liked.

"Oh, wow," Rise said in awe. "But I guess that makes sense. I'm sure that could work out. Actually, now that I think about it, that's a super cute pairing!"

"I... see... So, she's the one..."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell any of you earlier. We kinda wanted to keep it just between us."

"Normally, I'd say it's okay, but you knew we both liked you, Senpai, so you should've said something sooner."

"You're right. I'm sorry." Yu bowed deeply.

"I'll forgive you. But only if yooouuu... Ah! If you treat her the way I would want to be treated by you. If you do that, I can let this one slide."

"R-Right. I'll do that."

"Alright then!"

"What am I gonna do with this chocolate now?" Marie mumbled off to the side.

"Did you make that yourself?" Rise asked, looking over the other girl's shoulder at the enigmatic package she had been prevented from passing on to Yu.

"Y-Yeah. I did the best I could, y'know... over there. But now-"

"Trade ya!" Rise suddenly nabbed the package from Marie's hand and replaced it with her own.

"Wha- Hey!"

"Ooh, it looks like a real heart! Very avant-garde."

"Give it back!"

"Why? It's not like you're giving this to Senpai now, right?"

"W-Well... no, but-"

"Then, we'll be sisters in rejection. I'll take yours and you take mine. Better than going home with our own chocolates and eating them alone, right?"

"S-Sure. Alright." Despite the aforementioned 'rejection' still weighing heavily upon her, Marie cracked a smile at Rise. "Okay. Let's do that then."

"Awesome!" Rise cheered. "You're gonna love the duran and habanero I put in mine. Alright then, to commemorate this moment, let's each take a bit on three. One."

"Two."

"W-Wait!"

"Three!"

Both girls awoke some time later in the Dojima family living room with Yu and Nanako watching over them. Despite everything, both complimented each other's cooking and Yu was left to worry about the states of their palates. And the influence they might have on Nanako's...