14^th February, 10am

Amber yawned as she tapped in for work, welcoming the next 9 hours of work. Which also means 9 more hours before she could meet her beloved girlfriend and they both head out for a movie after dinner. This is how the couple usually celebrate their Valentine’s Day, nothing too complicated, just time alone for the both of them. The dinner need not to be fanciful, even a burger from the fastfood restaurant will do. As long as it filled their tummies and hearts, that itself is enough.

She went out to the store, only to be greeted by a messy shop of the displays, evidence that it was not tidied the night before after the store closes. Amber and her other colleagues groaned in annoyance as they have to tidy them up before the store opens at 11 am.

14^th February, 11am

The store opens, and they finished tidying the shop in the nick of time. It is a Sunday, which means that there would be a crowd for the entire day. Especially so when it is Valentines’ Day. Couples would make their way to the store to get a gift for their other halves, families would be here to shop for clothes for their little ones. In other words, the store would be in a mess once again, and there would be lots of customer requests to be fulfilled.

True enough, the first batch of customers came in at 11am sharp. The neat and tidy displays of clothing as well as several accessories were short-lived as kids could be seen making a mess with the necklaces, and women were picking up the clothes that were folded neatly, trying to gauge if it fits them, then hastily putting them back when it don’t.

14^th February, 12.30pm

The crowd finally died a little as the customers make their way out of the store, heading to find a restaurant for lunch. The number of customers in the shop maintained at a decent level enough for Amber to tidy up the mess that was created by the earlier crowd.

She looked down towards her left wrist where her watch sat on her forearm. 12.35pm it read.

“Time is passing so slowly today.” Amber thought as she let out another yawn to herself. She slept late the previous night due to discussing her plans for the following day with her girlfriend, Krystal and wouldn’t sleep until Krystal slept first.

“Another hour till lunch time!” a colleague said to her as he was passing by. This gave Amber a little motivation to work as she counted down to her break time, but that did not stop her from looking at her watch every five minutes.

14^th February, 2pm

It is finally lunch time, and that hour or so seemed to pass very quickly since Amber was busy in keeping the store neat and tidy. She did not even realise that it was time for a break until her best friend, Min pulled her into the pantry.

“Oh? It is time already?” Amber asked as she looked at her watch. 2.04pm.

“Yes. If not I wouldn’t have dragged you out.” Min answered.

Amber chuckled.

“5 more hours before I get to see Krystal.” Amber mumbled as she heated up the food she brought from home in the pantry.

14^th February, 3pm

One hour seemed to pass very quickly when you are on break for work. Amber spent that one hour trying to get her girlfriend to reply her messages, but to no avail, while playing and joking around with Min. Towards the end of the hour, she felt disappointed that she didn’t get to talk to Krystal during her break, as well as dreading to head  back to work.

The moment she stepped out of the pantry, Amber was greeted by a busy store. Customers are back to shop once they have finished with their lunch. At this timing, there are more families with kids than couples as the parents and trying to see which size of clothing would fit their young ones.

Children who are about the age of five are running around the store playing catch, the store was noisy from the screams of the children and the chattering of the adults.

Amber could not take the noise and went to position herself at the front of the store, tidying up their promotional items for the week.

While she was folding, a small girl who looked like the age of five was wearing a Frozen themed t-shirt as well as a pair of jeans. Her hair was tied into braids and she was holding her mother’s hand as the mother-daughter pair walked into the shop.

“Mummy, how do you spell Chinese in Chinese?” she turned to her mother and ask.

“What sort of question is that?” her mother turned to her and said gently before letting out a small laugh.

“Hmmmmmm… I don’t know either.” The girl said while smiling to her confused mother.

Amber smiled at that cute conversation between the mother and daughter as the pair head to the kids section of the shop.

14^th February, 5pm

Two hours passed in a blink without Amber realising. For the past two hours, she has been busy helping a colleague to move some furniture that has just arrived for their pantry. Being one who has strength, she was asked for help amongst all the other female colleagues since he was the only male staff to be working on that day. The others are either on their off days or have taken a sick leave in the morning.

She wiped a sweat flowing from her forehead and started gulping down water from her water bottle placed on the table, making up for the loss of liquid from all the sweat.

14^th February, 6.45pm

It is near the end of her shift, and for the past hour or so, Amber has been standing at the cashier counter, scanning the items that customers would want to buy and receiving their money or cards. It was a busy hour as there isn’t an end to the line of the queue to the counter. Even when there are three more counters, customers just keep coming in to pay for their items, contributing to the never-ending queue of people.

14^th February, 7pm

It is finally the time to finish work for Amber as she heads out of the staffroom and walks towards the entrance of her store, making her way to meet her girlfriend near the restaurant where they will be having their dinner at.

Little did she know that she is in for a surprise at the entrance of the store.

Beside the mannequin of the store stood a girl with long hair, wearing a long sleeve top and a pair of ripped jeans, wearing a pair of red sneakers.

She stood at the entrance hugging a bouquet of roses, as if she is waiting for her date.

Amber (almost) walked passed her as she felt that the girl seemed familiar. She stopped in her tracks before turning to her right where the girl was standing.

“Krystal?! What are you doing here?! I thought you are supposed to wait in front of the restaurant for me?!” Amber asked shockingly.

“Waiting for you to finish work you stupid.” The younger girl sulked and hugged the bouquet tightly, letting some petals to fall on the ground.

“Awwwww. So you were waiting for me? How sweet.” Amber said in a baby voice.

“Yeah. Waiting since 5 pm you stupid.”

“What?! So long?! Why didn’t you tell me or look for me?!” she asked again.

“I wanted to give you a surprise! I thought you saw me! I didn’t know you are that dense you stupid!” Krystal replied.

“Awwwwww. My poor girl have been waiting for so long?! Then all the more I should pamper and reward you! What do you want then??”

“Hmmmmmmmmm… I want steak!!! And… something precious of yours…”

“Yes! Of course! Anything for Krystal Jung!” Amber said confidently.

“Really?!” her eyes lit up. “Then I want your latest collection of your sneakers!” she said gleefully.

“Yeah sure! Wait….” She paused. “My sneakers?! Noooooo you can’t do that! It took me so much effort to find it online!!!!!”

“But you promised…” Krystal pouted and faked a sob, looking down at the bouquet she was still hugging.

Amber sighed before saying, “Okay. Anything for my princess.”

“Yayyy!!!!!” Krystal cheered before dropping the roses and jumped on Amber. She have been wanting the pair of sneakers like Amber, but could not find it. Amber got lucky two weeks ago, finding a seller who is selling second-hand goods that has the shoes the couple wanted.

A/N: it is the 14th here right now. to all loverss out there, enjoy this day while i hug my Stitch plushie. tried a new style today, hope it is to your liking. kekekeke. and i really met a cute girl that asked the exact same thing to her mum. it is soooooo cuteeeeeeee heh.