Four years ago when he was still in high school Loke was a hopeless romantic who watched episodes of his favorite soap operas at the lunch table, read romance novels on a regular basis, and on occasion talked his friends into watching a heavily disguised romance movie. Yes, yes he was a total comic book nerd with a man crush on various spandex wearing muscle men but there was always a more feminine side to him. And when he was sixteen he finally got to put his romance side to the test when the love of his life agreed to go on a date with him. After years of pining after the gorgeous raven haired girl, trying to impress her enough for a chance, she said yes to a date, on Valentine's Day. What could possibly have been better?
There was a new sappy romance movie coming out that she wanted to see, he really, really wanted to go see it but the looks people gave him for going to see 'girly' movies alone made him uncomfortable. So he'd pulled out all the stops, done every cliché associated with the day, roses, expensive chocolate, reservation at a nice restaurant, dressed up nice, and after a lot of begging was being lent A.J.'s car for the day. It all seemed to be going so well, they excitedly talked about the movie over dinner, had a lot of similar interests despite the differences in their lifestyles, it was like a date out of a movie. Only his didn't have the fairytale ending where he got the girl. In fact that Monday when they were back at school she acted like none of it had happened. Except that everyone knew every word he'd said to her. All the sappy words that came out of his mouth, a few secrets he knew shouldn't have been said, his love for 'girly' things, it all made for a miserable rest of the year. Things were written on his locker, notes left in it, people called him names…He stopped openly enjoying his novels, putting other book covers on them or keeping them safely tucked away in his room.
Today was Valentine's Day, he was now twenty, and regretting his choice of valentine. What had been going through his mind when he asked her was a mystery, it had just sort of happened. She was visiting Tootie, snacking on something she found in the pantry, and he'd gone over to get back the textbook he lent his ex-stalker. He was single, she was single, it wasn't like either of them were going to ask/be asked before the fateful holiday so some part of him thought that was enough reason to ask her to be his valentine. Yeah he wasn't the most romantic guy anymore but he still tried, giving her a rose. But now that she was in his shared apartment with him, he really wished he'd thought this through better..