Chapter XLII: Chocolates, Part 2
The night before Valentine's, Kota gets a weird dream. In a black atmosphere, it lights up and portrays a beautiful landscape. There is a hibiscus, growing near the riverbank. On the hibiscus, is a white caterpillar. For many days, while munching on it's different leaves, it suddenly vanished and went to the other side of the river via an odd rock formation. On that other side of the river, lies a red spider lily but little did the caterpillar know that there is a Venus flytrap waiting at the bottom of it. However, after many days, the caterpillar wasn't there anymore because the hibiscus couldn't see due to the large grass that has grown in front of it. After some days, a white butterfly came towards the hibiscus. It then stayed there, laying it's eggs while the hibiscus is providing food for the younglings of the insect. In another part of the dream, he hears a sinister voice, laughing and mentioning Akiko's name. He gets a flash of Akiko, wearing the Insect Hashira's clothes with a strange and unknown silhouette of a man. He then wakes up from this.
The day of hearts arrive. At the school rooftop, footsteps can heard escalating until the door opens and turns out to be Gin. He looks at the view and when he sees a couple, he takes a deep breath and shouts from the top his lungs,
"HEY, IT'S NO WORTH!"
From afar, Kota hears this and laughs as well as Enmei, Tengen, and Asahi who are approaching the park. Once they're at the park, they talk about the day.
"Say, ain't you have important things to do today with your mom?" (Tengen)
"Oh, it's still in the afternoon" (Enmei)
"Well, I hope it's not anything like in an anime or manga. Sweet home Alabama, I guess lmao" (Kota)
"It's not anything sus, it's just an important family business" (Enmei)
"And what business is that? Lmao" (Asahi)
The group laughs at this while Enmei is having a difficult time to explain it until he reaches to a point.
"We're gonna go for a driver's license, MY driver's license" (Enmei)
"Oh, speaking of which, I also want to have a driver's license test but I'm very busy" (Tengen)
"Busy of what? Banging someone" (Kota)
"Tf?! No! School and family business as well" (Tengen)
"Oh, ok, I'm just messing with y'all" (Kota)
He then looks at the sky, thinking that something bad is going to happen because of the dream he had last night.
"Glad the school cancelled class today" (Kota)
"I don't even want the principal to catch me giving chocolates anymore just like what I did back then lol" (Tengen)
The others also recount their times with the principal but it was very cruel. Asahi tried to give chocolates to his crush back then but the principal was already behind him. Enmei also tried to give chocolates back in elementary school but when the principal chases him, Enmei tries to hide in the restroom that turns out to be the ladies'. He then got caught from this. Kota couldn't remember his but he just gave a chocolate to one of his friends secretly, also in elementary days. But sadly, he couldn't remember who's that girl anymore since it was a far place and most people today don't resemble their youth anymore.
"Btw, you guys ready for this day?" (Tengen)
"Of course, but I just have a bad feeling about it" (Kota)
"Just relax, how else can this day go wrong?" (Tengen)
Asahi gets a call from Natsuki that she's waiting for him at the mall.
"Bye guys, I'mma go now, she's waiting at the mall" (Asahi)
"Alright, good luck" (Enmei)
"I don't need luck. Besides, we're just on a hangout" (Asahi)
Enmei looks at his watch then also looks at his phone.
"Dudes, I also have to go, my ride's waiting for me, bye"
Tengen and Kota wave goodbye to him. Since both of them will go on the double-date, they get ready and prepare to go to the mall. On their way to he mall, they get a text from the girls, that they're actually waiting at the fountain.
Once they reached the fountain, they see Akiko and Hanako and they all enter the mall. They go to the café then go for some billiards, couple vs couple. When they finished, they now go to the arcade to try out some games. They also tried virtual sports while Tengen almost break the screen due to overacting to it. They then go for shopping to look at different clothes, and even trends. Lastly, they then go to have some karaoke. As they go out of the mall, they sit at the fountain.
While sitting, the boys give their chocolates to the girls. Having flattered from this, Akiko looks at Hanako while the latter is also doing the same.
"Hey, can I talk to you for a bit?", says Akiko to Kota. Kota nods as they go to a place far away from them.
"Umm, this may be sudden but first of all, thank you for the chocolates and btw, here's mine" (Akiko)
She then hands a box of chocolates to Kota while he accepts it kindheartedly.
"You know, it may seem unfortunate to tell you this, given that it is Valentine's Day", she says with hesitation while Kota nods and gulp, having worried eyes.
"What are they doing?" (Tengen)
"It's best for them to talk it out, and by the way, I also have something to tell you" (Hanako to Tengen)
"I'm terribly sorry if I'm going to say this...but, I'm in love with someone else! I met him on Accord in December. He's kind, gentle, and nice" , says Akiko in tears while Kota is in shock and tears as well as he recalls the dream.
Kota falls down to his knees while Akiko hugs him.
"I didn't want to come down to this because I don't want to hurt you anymore. But at least, we patched up some things." (Akiko)
"You were always there when I needed you the most, but why doing this now?" (Kota)
"I love the guy alright? He's more cooler than you!" (Akiko)
In Kota's mind, he can only ask,
"How did it turn out like this?
How did she rapidly changed?
Was she manipulated?
Somebody might have manipulated her."
"We can still be friends, ok? I hope that you'll find the one, a better one than me. It's better now you move on." (Akiko)
Akiko then walks away from him and grabs Hanako. On the other hand, Tengen rushes to him to comfort him.
"It's ok, it's ok, bitches be crazy they say. This day really sucks!" (Tengen)
"Well, I hope these chocolates they gave us is bitter than their love to us!" (Kota)
At the Chisai Residence, Akiko looks guilty and when she recalls what happened, tears rolled down her cheeks until she gets a call on Accord which is from IceBurgh.
"Ah, why are you crying?" (IceBurgh)
"It's nothing" (Akiko)
"Hold on a sec, AFK" (IceBurgh)
IceBurgh mutes his mic then laughs sinisterly as soon as he finds out what happened. He comes back to her after a while.
"You can vent to me if you want to" (IceBurgh)
"It's ok, I was just finished cutting onions" (Akiko)
"Well, if you say so" (IceBurgh)
On the other hand, Asahi and Natsuki are inside a café, talking about different stuffs. They then go out to chill in the park. They teach each other guitar chords and begin to jam to different songs.
Meanwhile at the Mizushiro house, Kota contemplates on what happened. He wants to investigate who the mysterious guy is. He texts Toshiro for advice and if he knows something about it. He tells him that the possibility would be have started in late January or early February given the fact that it might be someone that we know. He asks Tengen what Hanako did to him. The latter replies that it's private. Kota also texts Enmei and he says,
"I'm sorry if you're going to see this but according to her, it's for documentation"
Enmei shows a lot of pictures regarding Akiko and IceBurgh's convo for supporting evidence that she coined that Kota may think that it was all a ruse. Kota comments,
"Wow! (Sarcastically) Now she'd turned into an iceberg, she and that guy might as well drift to the coldest part of the earth, colder than Antarctica."
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