Episode 15: Chocolate
The next morning, when
I arrived at work as usual, the atmosphere in the office was different from
usual.
Everyone seemed to be
in a mood, or strangely nervous, or just somewhat awkward.
The reason for this
became clear to me during my lunch break.
“Onizuka-kun, take
this.”
When the lunchtime
chime rang, Hosoya-san, sitting in front of me, took something out of her desk
and held it out to me.
“What's this?”
It's a Valentine's Day
present.
“............ Oh, I
see!”
By the way, today was
the 14th of February.
“Onizuka-kun, did you
forget? Valentine's Day?”
“Yes, I did. I
completely forgot about it.”
So many things have
been happening around me lately that I completely forgot about Valentine's Day.
“That's not fair. I was
so nervous about when I was going to give it out.”
I wondered what was so
unfair.
“Here, I'll give you
this anyway.”
“Ah, thank you very
much. I appreciate it.”
I took it with both
hands, which was wrapped in beautiful wrapping paper, and I bowed twice.
“I was going to make
homemade ones at first, but the ones on sale tasted better, so I bought them.”
Hosoya-san is always so
cute when she says things like that with a smile on her face.
If I had wanted to, I
would have been happier with a homemade one, but no matter, I'll eat this one
carefully, little by little.
“Here you go,
Okajima-kun.”
“Thanks. I'll take it.”
Okajima moves his head
forward, trying to look like he's bowing.
“Then, I'll give it to
everyone.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
“Alright”
Hosoya-san got up from
her seat and began to go around the desk, handing out chocolates to each person
in turn.
The middle-aged male
employees grinned as they received their chocolates.
I see, that's why
everyone was strangely nervous.
Aside from the managing
director, Hosoya-san is the only female employee in our company.
The male employees must
have been waiting anxiously to see when Hosoya-san was going to give them
chocolates.
Come on, this isn't a
high school….
Well, if I had known
that it was Valentine's Day, I might have been a bit nervous myself.
“Good for you, Yamato.”
As I was doing my
business in the bathroom, Saeki called out to me from behind.
“Huh? What's that?”
“A chocolate from
Hosoya-senpai.”
“You're talking too
loud.”
“Don't worry, we're the
only ones here. Look.”
Saeki shows me the
toilet stalls.
“Still, don't talk
about such things at work.”
It was still a mistake
to tell Saeki that I had a crush on Hosoya-san.
“Besides, it's just an
act of kindness anyway, so why should I be happy about receiving a chocolate?”
I'm going to try to act
calmly despite my feelings.
I'm not going to let
Saeki take any more advantage of me.
However, Saeki
immediately said something that shook me to my core.
“Not necessarily an act
of kindness. Did you look closely? The chocolates Hosoya-senpai was handing
out, only the one she gave you had a different wrapping paper.”
“... Eh, really?”
“I'm not sure. She said
she bought them for us, but maybe only your chocolates were handmade by Hosoya-senpai?”
“U-Uh-Hm, no way.”
Yet, I was getting a
bit more excited about it than I should have been.
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