"Good morning, Komi! Nice to see you!" Monika greeted Komi cheerfully as they passed each other in the hallway. Komi waved back to her then walked up to her.
"I have something for you."
"Oh? For me?" Monika asked, surprised by this. She watched as Komi reached into her bag and pulled out a set of chocolates neatly wrapped in plastic. She held it out with both hands and Monika took it.
"It's a friendship gift. Happy Valentine's Day!" Komi explained with a pleasant expression.
"Ohh thank you, Komi! I really appreciate it! Did you know that today is my favorite holiday?" She informed her.
"Hm?" Komi's eyes widened a little bit.
"Yeah! It's all centered around the concept of love and appreciation – of course it's my favorite!" Monika giggled and grinned. Even Komi could see that Monika was more cheery than usual.
"I like it a lot too. I thought it would be nice to give all of my friends chocolates today." She explained her intentions today.
"Ah that's so sweet! Well I gotta get going. I'll see you at the club meeting!" Monika gave her a quick wave before continuing on her way.
So throughout the day, Komi made sure to personally deliver all of her friendship chocolates to each of her friends. Once lunch rolled around, she went around to Yuri and Natsuki to give them some too. The exchanges were appreciative and positive...for the most part.
"Hi, Natsuki! Do you have a moment?" Komi asked.
"Huh? Oh yeah, what's up, Komi?" She asked, standing up from her seat.
"This is a friendship chocolate for you. Happy Valentine's Day!" She gave Natsuki her wrap of chocolate. She took it with a smile and looked down at it.
"Aw, thanks. You didn't have to get me anything. Sayori and Yuri already gave me stuff too actually. Thanks." Natsuki said.
"You're welcome. I'm giving friendship chocolates to all my friends."
"Oh really? That's actually really thoughtful of you...uh...all your friends, you said?" Natsuki asked curiously.
"Mhmm." Komi nodded.
"Ah, I see...what about Alex?" Natsuki asked, tilting her head and raising an eyebrow slightly.
"Mm!" Komi flinched in surprise. She did intend to give him a set of friendship chocolates too, but the way that Natsuki was asking her that question made her nervous.
"Yes, I was planning on giving him one too." She answered honestly.
"Ah gotcha...uh...well I guess I shouldn't even say anything since...well..." Natsuki hesitated and glanced down the hallway. From a distance, they could see Alex sitting down next to Tadano...
"Hey man, what's up?" Alex asked as he sat down by him, getting his lunch out of his bag and beginning to eat.
"Oh, Alex! I'm doing okay. How are you?" Tadano asked politely.
"Eh, I'm alright. All this Valentine's Day stuff is getting annoying." He grumbled as he sat back and stretched his legs out, crossing one foot over the other.
"Hm? You don't like Valentine's Day?" He asked Alex curiously, turning to look at him. He observed right away that Alex was visibly irritated. Although he was doing his best to maintain a neutral expression, it just looked like he was scowling.
"I hate it, man. I hate all holidays in general. I always get depressed." He said.
"You do...? But why? You're dating Monika, aren't you?" Tadano pointed out, assuming that he would be fine since he already had his valentine.
"Who said that had anything to do with it?" Alex responded immediately, giving him a look. Tadano quickly saw that he needed to back off the subject.
"Sorry sorry, I didn't mean to offend!"
"You're fine, dude. I just don't wanna talk about it." Alex said, sitting back again.
"I understand. Valentine's Day isn't too great for me either...I haven't gotten anything from anyone." Tadano admitted.
"Hm, lucky you." Alex grumbled.
"Eh?!"
"These are the days where I wish no one bothered me...here, you can have some of my chocolates that Onemine gave me." He offered, reaching into his bag and picking out a few pieces.
"Onemine gave you some?!" Tadano said in surprise.
"Yeah. I don't like chocolate with nuts in it so here, take these." Alex said before dumping the chocolates into Tadano's hand.
"Thanks." He said with a defeated sigh...
The rest of the day went by without incident. Komi had given out nearly all of her chocolates except for three by the end of the day: Sayori, Alex, and Tadano. She wasn't concerned about giving Sayori her chocolates, but she was nervous about Alex and Tadano for totally different reasons.
She would have to make it up to Tadano after school. But as for Alex, she had no idea what she should do.
When she got to the clubroom, the girls were already there. So Komi set her things down and got out her friendship chocolates for Sayori. She walked up to her and, before she could even explain what it was for, Sayori grabbed them excitedly and started hopping in place.
"Oh my gosh you brought me chocolates?! Thank you so much, Komi! You're the bestest ever!" She exclaimed, giving her a big hug. Komi flinched in surprise and patted Sayori on the back.
"They're friendship chocolates. Happy Valentine's Day!" She explained.
"Ohh I see! I love that! Thank you!" Sayori said with a happy grin.
"The chocolates were really good, Komi. Thank you for sharing." Monika said with a smile.
"You're welcome. I'm glad you all liked it." Komi expressed that she was pleased to see them all happy.
"It was very thoughtful of you. I have something prepared for each of you as well for today." Yuri brought up.
"Really? Me too!" Sayori said.
"You already know what I did for us, heheh." Natsuki grinned and chuckled smugly.
"I'm glad that we all had a similar idea then," Monika said with a smile. "Ah, there he is! Hey, Alex!" She greeted him with a happy smile and wave.
"What's up?" Alex replied dryly, swinging his backpack off of his shoulder and tossing it onto the nearest student desk.
"I'm genuinely surprised you came today." Natsuki said.
"Natsuki." Yuri wanted to say something to stop her right away.
"What? I was just gonna say I thought he planned on avoiding us today." She said.
"I considered it," Alex said with a little smile. "But it's whatever." He said with a shrug.
"You sure?" Sayori asked, giving him a concerned look.
"It's not a big deal," Alex replied with a shrug. "I don't wanna get back in the habit of missing club meetings. Can't give Natsuki too much to bother me for." He joked with a dry chuckle.
"Can I talk to you for a moment?" Komi requested after approaching Alex. He looked at her strangely for a moment, unsure of what to make of this.
"Uh...yeah...everything okay?" He asked.
"Mm..." Komi fidgeted nervously. Seeing that she didn't want to speak in front of the others, he slid one foot back and made a motion for the door. So he and Komi exited the classroom to talk outside.
"What's she up to?" Natsuki wondered.
"It's none of our business, I'm sure." Yuri said in response before going to prepare tea for everyone.
"Hm, maybe." Monika hummed.
"What's up, Komi?" Alex asked, sticking his hands in his pockets. Again, he could see her hesitation as she began to write in her notebook again.
"I am conflicted."
"What's bothering you...?" He asked slowly.
Komi looked down at her notebook and started fidgeting. This was taking her awhile to figure out. She spent an extended amount of time writing, erasing, and rewriting her words in her notebook. After a couple minutes, she finally had an answer to his question.
"Natsuki told me that you don't celebrate Valentine's Day or any other holidays for that matter, and that today is a day that bothers you." She started.
"Mhmm. Yeah, that's true? But it is what it is, I'm not here to try to ruin it for the rest of you just because you do." Alex explained respectfully.
"Mhmm," Komi nodded and continued to write. "I prepared a gift to give to you but I don't want to offend you by giving it to you knowing how it will make you feel." She put down a succinct explanation of her thought process.
After reading over her words, Alex made eye contact with her. Komi quickly broke it, looking down at her feet. She seemed to be feeling almost guilty about this whole situation.
"Komi...if you wanna give me the gift you can give me the gift. I'll accept it." He said to reassure her.
"Hm?" She looked up in surprise. "You will?!"
"Of course. I'm not gonna be mean to you and reject it. What did you get me? Some chocolates or something I'm guessing?"
"Mhmm." Komi nodded.
"Go ahead and lay em on me then." He motioned for her to go ahead and give her gift to him.
"Mm!" She flinched in surprise at this. She held up a finger and ran inside to get the chocolates from her bag. She then came back out and offered them to him with both hands outstretched.
"Oh wow that's actually nice. They're all wrapped neatly and everything. Did you do all this yourself?" He asked curiously as he took them.
"Mhmm," She nodded again. She grabbed her notebook again and quickly erased the 'Happy Valentine's Day!' message from the page. She then quickly wrote something in its place before letting him read it.
"These are friendship chocolates. Thank you for being my friend."
"Heh," Alex chuckled and smiled a little more naturally at this. "Thanks, Komi. I appreciate it. You're a pretty good friend yourself, you know." He added, stepping by her and throwing an arm around her shoulders for a quick side hug.
Komi simply blushed at this and looked away. The moment was over as quickly as it had happened, and then the two of them went back into the classroom, where they found that the girls had already laid out their Valentine's Day gifts for everyone.
"Oh good, you came back just in time! We're doing out gift exchanges now!" Monika said cheerfully.
"Oh?" Alex tilted his head. He and Komi both looked curiously to see what they had.
"Me first, me first!" Sayori exclaimed, "I got everybody a snack! Since you guys always get me stuff, I thought it would be funny to get you all a snack I know you like!" She said. She reached into her bag and handed one snack to everyone – they were all labeled with their names written on a small piece of paper and taped to the corresponding item.
"Ahaha, that is funny! Thank you, Sayori!" Monika said with a laugh.
"You're welcome! And here you two are!" Sayori handed some chocolates to Komi and a bottle of soda to Alex.
"Ah, my favorite." He observed.
"Mhmm." Komi bowed her head thankfully.
"Thank you for the tea, Sayori," Yuri said politely. "My gesture may be a bit old-fashioned, but I've written some words for each of you – a short letter of sorts. I would appreciate if you took it home and read it." She said with a bit of embarrassment.
"You don't want us to read em here?" Natsuki asked.
"Please don't..." Yuri blushed at the thought of it. She stood up and handed each member of the club a small sealed envelope with their names all written on it.
"You already know I busted out a new batch of cupcakes! No surprises there, heheh." Natsuki chuckled as she brought over her cupcake tray and set it down on the table.
When she took the lid off of the tray, she revealed that each cupcake had been decorated with white frosting and their names written in red icing with hearts drawn around them.
"Aww Natsuki! That is so cute! Thank you!" Sayori squealed, grabbing her cupcake first.
"Heheh, you're welcome. I'm glad you like it 'cause your name was the hardest to write." Natsuki said to her.
"Eh?! Well then let me take a picture to commemorate your hard work before it gets devoured!" She laughed and took a picture of it with her phone.
"You went all out huh? Little hearts and everything?" Alex pointed out with a chuckle as he took his cupcake.
"W-Well, I did them for everybody, so don't even start..." Natsuki stuttered a little in her defense, but Alex just chuckled at her.
"I'm saying it looks nice." He said in response. She didn't say anything else. She just folded her arms and pouted a little.
"I actually did something similar to you, Komi. But instead of chocolates, I got these!" She said, reaching into her bag and pulling out small plastic bags filled with conversation heart candies, "I thought these fit the theme of the literature club pretty nicely!" She said with a proud smile.
Each person got a bag of heart shaped candy. Like with all of the others' gifts, they were labeled by name. Alex's bag appeared to have some extra however, and there was also a piece of paper taped to the plastic bag.
"What's this?" He asked curiously.
"Something for you to read later." Monika replied with a cheeky smile.
"Yay! Happy Valentine's Day!" Sayori exclaimed with her mouth full since she was already in the middle of scarfing down her cupcake.
"Don't choke, Sayori." Alex shook his head and chuckled...