The time seemed to fly on by and before anyone realized it, today was Valentine’s day. Of course people were going to be in a stir about how Rinse would go about this day. Presumably, most people assumed that she would get things started with it. However, it seemed more likely that she was going to save it for the end of the day.

“You know, everyone’s going to be pretty distracted about your chocolates all day.” Ishi commented as he peered over to the black bag she was holding. It seemed that even what she made was kept secret, but he felt it was mainly because she was lying about being able to make chocolates. Those were probably just store bought, though surely high quality considering the money she earned working.

“I understand.” She sounded very tense to him. Seeing as the girl never appeared to be unnerved over performing in front of hundreds of people live, what she was going to do today must’ve taken a lot of courage. “I’m just waiting for the right time to do it, that’s all.” It made sense to him that she’d be full of hesitation. Perhaps she might even think about backing out, but there might be one problem preventing her from doing so.

“Everyone might be a little disappointed if you don’t give it away.” He reminded her that she wasn’t forced by anyone to do this. “But they’ll forget about it in a couple of days and we’ll go just go on fawning over you.”

“True… But what about what you said that day?” She turned it around on him. Ishi was the one who told her to chose the boy she truly liked. Not to just do it out of obligation if she really wanted to feel the holiday’s spirit to its fullest. “I worked really hard on this last night, so I don’t intend to give up so easily.”

“It’s also really nice that Ishi said what he did back then too.” Otoya entered the conversation. “That means the person you give that to is someone you really care deeply about.” Of course, that would really get the boy’s most excited over the prospect of. No matter how long of a shot it was, most of them were secretly hoping that it’d be them.

“That part surprised me the most.” Said Ishi. After all those dumb things they did when she first came here. Such as when he had to come up with stupid games to try and please the people who wanted be to closer to her. The boy never would’ve expected in a million years that she’d actually fall in love with anyone during school.

And so they tried to go about the rest of their day as normally as possible. Another thing that Ishi noticed as they went on was the lack of girls giving away chocolates to any of the boys. That was strange, since the previous years he could remember a lot of that happening during their breaks. It hit him to realize that they were also waiting for Rinse to finally give hers away first.

It would be pretty hard, understandably, to have the boy you like get chocolates from the school’s idol. At that point, there would be practically zero chance of winning in that love triangle. Yet at the same time, they might also be afraid of giving it to the boy first, only to have their chance snatched away when Rinse rolled around.

“We got an issue brewing here.” Ishi stated to her as he spotted his cousin coming up to their classroom during the lunch break. At this point, they were halfway through the day without getting any hints from her. People were beginning to get a little antsy about who her pick was going to be that they began to ask while they were eating lunch.

His cousin’s arrival ended up creating a chain of events that was unfavorable for Ishi and Rinse. Depending on one’s opinion, it was up for debate who suffered the most between them.

“Are you going to do it soon?” Someone asked.

“Can you give us a hint?” Another person spoke up. They had all crowded around her desk. With the number of people here, and his close proximity to her, Ishi also felt the group surrounding him as well.

“Oh, I’ll do it after classes are done.” Rinse responded with unease. Being surrounded by people interested in her was one thing she was already used to. The problem was that their line of questioning was giving her worry. They seemed to be pining a lot on who she was going to give the treats within her bag to. While it was obvious coming from the boys, even the girls appeared to take issue if she happened to choose someone they liked.

“Does it have to be after classes?” Asked Koto. “Or is it because it’s someone not in your classroom?” He only said it because it gave the boy a false sense of security that it was him.

“I know that perhaps a confession might feel a little weird, since it’s your first one.” Otoya informed her that it was unlikely she’d be able to obtain privacy with how many people were interested in her confession. So basically if that was what she was planning, then the idol would be better off just doing it right now.” That was definitely the impatience within him driving the suggestion.

“I…” Now she felt it a little hard to breathe with all of them looking at her. “I need some fresh air.” Rinse stood up from her desk, taking the bag with her. “Sorry everyone.” Quickly, she rushed out of the classroom. However, before anyone could go after her, Ishi stopped them.

“Nice job everybody.” He sarcastically spoke, drawing their attention. “You’ve gone and scared her off. Now I doubt she’ll be giving those chocolates to any of us.” Ishi was annoyed with his classmates once again. Those the ones that drew most of his ire were his best friend and cousin. “And you two are the biggest idiots I know.”

“I-Ishi, I’m sorry.” Being the younger cousin, Koto was more than willing to accept any punishment. However, it meant little to Ishi if that boy couldn’t learn why he was upset with their behavior. “I didn’t mean to upset Rinse.”

“Well, first off to the two… No, everyone here.” Despite not being older than most of the students here, the boy felt now was a good time for a lecture. “Boy, stop expecting Rinse to just pick any one of you. And girls, it doesn’t matter if she decides to go after someone you like. If you won’t fight for it, then you will have absolutely no shot.”

“But…” Someone spoke up to object, but he shut them down.

“No buts. I don’t care that she’s an idol, and quite frankly I really hate it that you guys won’t stop doing it yourselves.” It was already one thing to have to listen to their adoration of the girl. Yet he had also grown tired of what they were missing from her. “She’s a truly kind girl. Someone who’s better than someone like me could ever be. And what I hate that we’re all missing is that it’s her feelings we’re talking about.” How could they forget that? He was the one that brought it up to be her main reason. If they all continued to pressure her on who she was going to pick, then could she ever truly be genuine for herself?

“Sorry.” Said Otoya. He understood where Ishi was coming from, and even began to realize something else about the person he called his best friend. That perhaps there were feelings for a certain somebody within that boy had yet to notice.

“And you two are probably the worst I know.” Ishi wasn’t finished yet when it came to Koto and Otoya. “Marika.” When he said the girl’s name out loud, she immediately knew what he was going to do. The hair’s on the back of her neck stood up straight as she began to already lose her composure.

“Y-yes.” She responded, her body sitting straight up when be brought the attention to her.

“And I know you’re just outside the door, Seyuki.” He called out the person who had been spying on them the entire time. She also gingerly walked in to show herself, realizing that he was going to embarrass her in front of all his classmates. If anything, his call already did that as she put up a hand to cover her face.

“Hi, Koto.” She spoke nervously when she came up to them.

“Look, I was biting my tongue because I think people should be doing their own confessing, but it’s kind of dumb when I have to keep seeing you two bozos fawn over Rinse at the same time.” While it was fine to perhaps have a crush on someone as beautiful as her, it was ridiculous how dense those boys were about the girls close to them.

Ishi exposed what those two girls had asked him the other day in preparation for this holiday. That came as a shock for some people in the crowd, and while it might’ve seemed a little mean to tell everyone that some people had crushes on others. He didn’t care. The point the boy was trying to make was that everyone had continued to let themselves be blinded to Rinse’s shine, that they forgot about their own light as well.

“I made this for you.” Shyly, Marika handed Otoya the bag of handcrafted treats she created.

“I tried following Ishi’s recipe, but I think I messed up.” Seyuki’s chocolates seemed more likely to poison somebody, but the effort was appreciated.

Wow, I didn’t know you liked me like that.” Koto was caught by complete surprise to hear the confession. Ishi could only hang his head down in disappointment that he was somehow related to this dense boy.

“Gosh, you two really are some dumb boys.” Ryugi, who had been a part of this crowd the whole time had to throw in an insult. “It’s probably no wonder why the three of you hang out all the time. The stupid must really rub off.” Ishi could’ve lived with being left out of that barrage.

“I’m not going to stick around to hear if you’ll accept them or not.” To Ishi, it didn’t matter in the end as he got up from his seat. As long as they let their feelings be known, that was enough for him.

“Wait, you don’t care to hear our responses?” Otoya asked as he accepted the chocolates.

“There’s something more important for me to handle.” Ishi answered. “I’m going to go check on Rinse to make sure she’s okay. Then I’ll come back.” That was when he walked out of the classroom. However, he wasn’t the only one to leave the room.