Well it was here, Valentine’s day. Day that have always made Izumo so anxious, so irritated by everyone, especially people who tend to whine how they were too shy to give out chocolate or cookies to a people they liked about. That was just too pathetic, and in some level she was that she didn’t need to take part of this stupidity… until this year! It was completely different!
For some reason she decided to bake some cookies, after ruining a patch of self made chocolate which actually made her quite sad. She did make a whole lot of them, and did give all of her cram school classmates a small bag of cookies during the school day, except for one person. That one smug faced, pink headed dork who she just couldn’t give his bag of cookies. Just because Izumo was about to give him more cookies than for the other classmates, she never got an occasion to give him this present. Sure there’s another reason that she was denying. And if Shima were wondering why didn’t he get any, he could only hear “Sorry, I made bit too little of these and I ran out before I could give you any” .. Sure it was a lie but Izumo could say it out loud casually, even thought internally she really, REALLY wanted to give this present for him.
Anyhow, school had ended some hours ago and Izumo, like a sneaky almost ninja she was, had sneaked in boys dormitory and was now standing behind this one door. She felt all so nervous, it took hell of a lot of time for her to gather courage to give a knock on the door. She wasn’t even sure if Shima was at home or not, but she’d always leave this package here at the door and run away.. Run away? That was something Izumo wanted to do now, flee and nevere come ba-… but then the door opened.
“A-….” and Izumo didn’t know what to say as she hid the present behind her back. Izumo knew this was the only chance she’d get to do this before it was too late and she’d have to wait until next year. “-……. I forgot to-.. give you-.. this” she said with a shy tone as she offered the bag of cookies at Shima with slightly shivering hands. “Just take it-… I did have few extra cookies back at the dorm and-.. it would have been unfair to let you without a Valentine’s present” and here it was, a normal Izumo who tend to hide her embarrassment behind her tsundere like actions.
Valentines had always been a day he enjoyed. Despite his general attitude towards life in its entirety, Renzou had always been one of the more popular guys -- he wasn’t too shabby looking and his outgoing personality easily made him stand out as a person to gift chocolate to. Giri choco and tomo choco he got many of each and every valentine’s but somehow the true extravagant chocolates always went to someone else. So while it was a day of joy, it also served as a day of crushing disappointment.
But not today! Today was going to be different. He could feel it in his very essence. Going through normal classes, he received various chocolates from his classmates, from his female friends, all to let him know that they were thinking of him but weren’t interested like that. But that was okay! Because he still had one person left to give him chocolate.
And thus lessons came to an end.
“ Hey, wait a sec. Isn’t there somethin’ wrong here? ”
Head resting on his table, Renzou’s eyes appeared as if the spirit had left him, the last shimmer of hope wrested out of him as Izumo had given first Rin, then Yukio, Koneko, even Takara and Bon a nice wrapped package and then wandered straight out the door. What was this? Was this some kind of divine retribution? He couldn’t quite understand it.
In a daze he left the classroom, in a daze he went back to his dorm room shared with Konekomaru, in a daze he sat down on the bed, in a daze he spread out all the chocolates he had got from all the other girls and in a daze he simply stared at the colourful wrappings. In a daze he registered the knock on the door, and in a daze he opened the door. How could this have happened? This was not at all what he had anticipated. In a daze he laid eyes on the figure of Izumo out of his dorm room, and unable to quite comprehend what was currently happening, he could do nothing but stare at her with a vacant expression.
And then something was handed forth towards him. Blinking once, blinking twice Renzou beheld a small package beautifully wrapped up. As his fingers locked around the bag, it was as if life returned to his entire body and eyes almost sparkled and wet in surprise.
“ Izumoooo! I thought ya’d forgotten all about me! Don’t toy with a guy’s heart like that again, ‘kay? I seriously thought I wasn’t gonna get anythin’ from ya! ”