When you finally stepped out of the school building, walked over to the nearest bus stop, and sat yourself down on the bench under the shelter, you had only two things your mind: Kwak Tae Sun and how you ever planned to live down the terrible happenings of the worst Valentine’s Day of your life. You kicked the corner leg of the bench and plopped down, shedding your backpack and dropping the red, heart-shaped box of expensive chocolates by your side. At that very moment, you considered yourself the biggest idiot you’d ever known in all your years of life. How could you have been so naïve and stupid to think that you ever stood a chance with a boy like Kwak Tae Sun?

Kwak Tae Sun, the most gorgeous boy in school, son of one of the most important men in the city, the class president and co-captain of the soccer team, the angel-in-disguise, the golden boy. He was so far out of your league that if your leagues were mapped out on paper, you’d need two sheets in order to see them at the same time. You should have known all along that your childish confession could never win him over; not even in a hundred years, not even if the entire planet had been overrun by extraterrestrials and you were the only female human being in existence. Of course you were rejected. 

You looked down at the heart-shaped box of chocolates; you’d saved up a lot of money and work many over-time hours in order to buy them. You’d watched Tae Sun from afar for many years; he’d been your neighbors when you were both children together, and he once called you pretty when you were twelve. Tae Sun who spoke so smoothly to girls, whose hair bounced and glistened in the sun when he played soccer, whose voice commanded so many people’s attention when he spoke over the PA. Sweet, intelligent, brilliant, handsome Tae Sun. You couldn’t have imagined that he would have rejected you so easily and so harshly.

You choked back your tears when you remembered how angry he was, how dark his beautiful eyes looked. “Don’t you understand?” he had said, speaking to you as though you were a little girl who needed to be scolded. “You and I don’t go together. You’re just wasting your time, and mine. People like me don’t belong with people like you, anyway”

His exact words. And then he turned away from you, cursing in his frustration and linking his arms with another girl. Hearing those words ringing in your head again stung like whiplash. People like you, he had said. People like what? What was so wrong with you, you wondered? Why were you so unappealing? What had you done wrong? You clenched your fist and pressed it against your knee while you hung your head in shame, thinking about Tae Sun’s words, his rejection, and thinking about what you had done so wrong, what you did to make him dislike you so much. A call from your right side pulled you out of focus.

“HEY!” the boy sitting on the second bench to your right said aloud, and you turned your attention to him. He wore the same boys’ uniform that your school issued to male students, only he had undone the buttons, revealing a white, v-necked t-shirt underneath. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and sat in a slouched manner on the bench. You recognized Byun Baekhyun from your PE class. He was an average person with his average height, his average build, and average face. You were both acquainted with each other, but you weren’t exactly friends, either. When you both finally made eye contact, you shrugged. Baekhyun’s jaw twitched slightly and he suddenly pointed at something on the bench.

“Are you gonna eat those?” he asked. You followed his gesture and looked down at the heart-shaped box. You looked back at him with a blank look on your faces and then rested your hand over the box. Baekhyun raised one eyebrow at you.

“Well?” he prompted.

“They’re for someone else,” you said in a low voice. True, you had bought these chocolates for Tae Sun, who quickly rejected them along with your declaration of love, but it didn’t seem quite right to give them to any boy who asked, especially to Baekhyun, with whom you had no such relationship at all. Baekhyun shrugged.

“So, you’re going to wait until,” he checked his watch. “6 PM on Valentine’s Day to give it to this guy, or?”

You narrowed your eyes at him. Baekhyun scoffed and then smiled. “I was kidding,” he said. “No need to get so defensive. But why are you still holding onto those? Couldn’t find the guy, or what?”

You clenched your fist again, sensing that he was getting closer and closer to guessing what really happened. But Baekhyun kept his mouth shut while you both stared blankly at each other. You dared not speak a word; you hoped that your eyes had dried up from crying earlier, and you prayed that your voice would come out evenly when you answered. You placed a protective grip around your heart-shaped box. Baekhyun broke the silence with a lighthearted laugh despite his slightly sad eyes.

“Come on, __-ah,” he said. “Don’t make me beg for chocolate on Valentine’s Day. I’ve had enough ego-blasting for today. If you’re planning on just throwing those away, just give them to me. Don’t let such expensive chocolate go to waste.”

You blinked in his direction and then looked pitifully down at the box of chocolates. You felt even sorrier for yourself than before, resorting to giving chocolate away just to return home without them. With a sigh, you picked them up and walked over to where Byun Baekhyun sat. A small smirk traveled onto his face as you drew closer. You handed the chocolate to him, and he looked up at you looking a little surprised that you actually took his suggestion. But he sat up from his slouch and received them with grace.

“Thanks,” he said, immediately opening the box, taking one chocolate truffle, and stuffing it into his mouth. With a smile, he looked up at you. “Seriously, these are like my favorite kinds.”

You tried to smile at him, but it disappeared almost as soon as you grinned. Then, you promptly turned and tried to go back to your bench.

“Now, hold on a second,” Baekhyun said, suddenly grabbing you around the wrist and tugging you back by your sleeve. “Don’t be in such a hurry to escape. Sit down.” You turned to face him, wondering why he would insist on your company. He was stuffing another chocolate truffle into his mouth by the time you decide to seat yourself beside him. Baekhyun stretched the box toward you, offering you some of the chocolate.

You turned your nose up at the notion of eating one of your own chocolates. Chocolates were meant to be given out to crushes and sweethearts, not eaten on your own. Baekhyun swallowed the candy he was chewing and sighed, seeing your hesitation.

“__-ah,” he said, and you met his annoyed gaze. “The bastard snubbed your lovey-dovey chocolate already. You might as well eat them yourself just to spite him.”

He put another chocolate in his mouth and patiently waited for you to take one yourself. You stared at the expensive chocolate truffles and thought about Tae Sun. These were the chocolates he rejected, the representations of your feelings which he had unceremoniously dumped and shattered and spat back into your face. The heart-shaped box was like the heart he broke. Well… he would never taste this chocolaty goodness… and it would be his entire fault alone.

With a sigh, you surrendered your pride, plucked one truffle from the box and stuffed it into your mouth with twice as much gusto as Baekhyun. The boy watched you with an amused expression; he raised one eyebrow, not knowing what to think about the pained expression on your face as you chewed the chocolate.  For a split-second, he thought you might cry, but you swallowed back your tears along with the sugary confection. Without even thinking, you reached over the box and took two more, putting both into your mouth at the same time.

“Hey, slow down,” Baekhyun said. “You and I both failed the CPR Unit and the Heimlich maneuver in PE; can’t have anyone choking on chocolates today. And you should leave some for me, too.”

You chewed your chocolates properly and then looked over at Baekhyun with a slight grin. The two of you continued eating silently. You’d never spent time with Baekhyun this way; but the moment didn’t feel awkward in the slightest. Or at least it didn’t until he decided to talk.

“So, who did you confess to?” he asked, running his tongue over his front teeth. When he looked over at you, you bore a stunned look on your face. You hadn’t counted on Baekhyun asking you that question. He threw his hands up in surrender.

“I mean, if you don’t mind saying,” he added, and then grinned. “Although, at this point, I probably don’t have to ask.”

“What do you mean?” you asked, your eyes growing wide. Baekhyun shrugged and began wiping his fingers on his pant leg.

“Everyone knows you’ve got a thing for Kwak Tae Sun,” he said without looking at you. “Including Tae Sun himself. You haven’t really grasped the idea of a ‘secret’ admirer yet, have you?”

You gulped and then ripped your gaze from him. You could feel your cheeks growing hot. You thought you were doing so well with hiding your feelings from the school and from Tae Sun. Maybe your blatancy was what scared Tae Sun away. “I guess not,” you answered.

“So, how’d it go?” Baekhyun asked, eating another truffle, and you gave him a sideways glance. He shrugged.

“Well, yeah,” Baekhyun said. “Since we’re eating his chocolates, I get that it went badly, but still, tell me what happened.”

You raised one eyebrow at him. “Why would I tell you?” you asked. Baekhyun widened his eyes. True, neither of you were not exactly what you both would call the best of friends. In fact, this might have been the first real conversation you’d ever had with Baekhyun despite being classmates for most of your lives. Baekhyun swallowed the candy in his mouth and then shrugged. He looked at you blankly. Then he reached behind him and took something out.

It was a flower bouquet. Or at least it was. Baekhyun looked at the piece of work in his hand and let out a weak laugh.

“I’ll tell you how mine went if you tell me about yours,” he said. You looked at the bouquet and wrinkled your brows. There used to be pink roses and white baby’s breath, but all that was left now were a few broken stalks, closed buds, collapsed blooms, and very few traces of the little white flowers. The wrapping itself was also falling apart. Did he get rejected, too? And if he did, what did that girl do to his poor flower bouquet.

“I’ve got no one else to tell,” he said, clicking his tongue and looking pitifully at the bouquet. He turned and gave you a weak smile before taking a deep breath and launching into his story.

“You know Choi Chun Sa?” he said.

You scoffed. “Who doesn’t know Choi Chun Sa?” you answered. Choi Chun Sa wasn’t the prettiest girl in school, but she was definitely among the most popular. If Kang Kyung Min was the prettiest and most popular girl on the hierarchy, Choi Chun Sa was probably ranked #6. You widened your eyes at Baekhyun.

“You,” you pointed to the flowers in his hand. “Those were for Choi Chun Sa? You confessed… to Choi Chun Sa? On Valentine’s Day? Is that what these flowers were for?”

Baekhyun nodded with a smirk, and you gaped at him. It took a special kind of guy to perk up enough courage to confess to a girl, and it would take someone even more special to do that for a girl like Choi Chun Sa. For a moment, you were utterly impressed by Baekhyun’s nerve.

“Yeah,” he answered. “Gotta tell you; worst decision I ever made.”

“I didn’t even know you liked her,” you said. “I mean… I know she’s popular and she’s pretty, but… I never pegged you as the type of –”

“The type of guy to fall for the popular, princess type?” he said, completing your statement. Baekhyun laughed a little. “Actually, I’m not. But Chun Sa. I don’t know, she just –,” Baekhyun stopped and sighed and looked down at the flower bouquet. Something shifted in the atmosphere when he did so. You saw the way his playful smile suddenly disappeared and how the light in his eyes drained so quickly. Even his breathing seemed to deepen. You swallowed a lump in your throat, and you understood. Baekhyun was exactly like you, a nobody who dreamed of acceptance, who stretched out and took a leap of faith, baring his feelings to the girl of his dreams. You imagined that he was feeling a lot like you at this very moment: rejected, unwanted, inadequate, unappealing, like .

“What happened?” you asked. Baekhyun shrugged.

“You can imagine what happened,” he said, but he straightened up in his seat and took another deep breath. “I gave her the flowers and the other presents I got for her in the morning. Originally, I was going to wait until after class so I could surprise,” he chuckled a little. “But I got excited when I saw her, so I ended up giving it to her early.”

“What did you say to her? How did you tell her how you felt?”

“Oh, no. Those are some things that I’d rather not repeat right now,” he said, turning to you. “Trust me. It was incredibly cheesy and stupid, and you don’t want to hear it.”

You furrowed your brows at him again. “Try me,” you said, and Baekhyun groaned, putting another chocolate into his mouth. You sat forward and leaned your arms on your knees, waiting for his answer. Baekhyun avoided looking at you as he swallowed the chocolate, cleared his throat, rubbed his hands together, and prepared to answer.

“I-serenaded-her,” he said quickly under his breath.

“What?” you said, leaning closer to him.

“I serenaded her, there!” he said, crossing his arms and clenching his eyes shut, suddenly embarrassed of his attempt at declaring his love. “I wrote her a damn song and I serenaded her.”

“You did not,” you said in disbelief. Baekhyun let out a sigh and nodded slowly.

“Stupid, I know,” he said.

“No,” you said in protest. “That’s… a little old fashioned, yeah, but… you sing really well.”

Baekhyun looked at you with a curious look on his face, but he smirked a little and then turned away bashfully. You laughed at his reaction. But it was true. Baekhyun was the best singer in school, and he had proved it time after time at yearly talent shows and fundraising events, covering songs by the all the Greats and even singing a few songs he’d written himself. He had a voice, quite literally, like an angel. And if he had written a song for you, you would have been flattered beyond belief. What was so wrong with his serenading method that made Chun Sa reject him?

“Okay, go on,” you said, asking him to continue his story. “What song did you sing?”

“An original,” he said. “You know how her name is ‘Chun Sa’? I… I kinda made it a pun with her name. It’s called ‘Angel’ and I worked on it… maybe two months. I wrote it and rewrote it a bunch of times, trying to get it to be perfect. I wanted it to be perfect for her.”

You felt your heart beating in your chest. Baekhyun pushed the heart-shaped box at you, asking if you wanted the last piece. You took the box but held it in your hand without eating it.

“How does that song go?” you asked. Baekhyun ran his hand through his hair.

“Do I have to sing it now?” he said. “You know, I’m supposed to be trying to get over it.”

You put your hands up in surrender. “Fine, fine,” you said. “Just go on then. How did she reject you?”

“I’m getting there, don’t worry,” he answered. “So, anyway, I met up with her in the hallways in the morning. That’s when I gave her the flowers and I told her about the song I wrote for her, I sang it, and then I told her how much I liked her and how I considered how close we became since we were partners for the project last year. I told her that I thought she was beautiful and that I wanted to be everything to her; her partner-in-crime, her shoulder to cry on, a place for her to hide when things became too much for her. And I said that if she was ready for me, I was ready for her, too.”

You couldn’t help but swoon with each word he spoke. You watched his face closely as he spoke, noting the gentleness in his eyes, the smooth motion with his mouth moved as the words flowed out. He looked down at the flowers when he talked, but while you felt yourself warming up to him as he talked, you couldn’t help but sense just how much more heartbroken he became the more he talked about Chun Sa. And seeing that, you started to feel heartbroken, too.

There was a lull in the conversation, and Baekhyun sighed and then smirked. “She didn’t say anything, though,” he said. “She didn’t answer me, I mean. But she said to meet her after lunch, because she had something to say to me, something to give me. So she took the flowers and we both went our separate ways. I was so excited the whole day; I couldn’t even pay attention in class. I just kept thinking about her and how much I wanted her. So, when lunched finally passed, I was kind of in a hurry to find her. So I walked over the campus and finally went to the lawn behind the first building. And she was standing there, looking pretty, waiting for me with the flowers I gave her, and I just felt so… happy.”

Baekhyun looked up at you, sadness in his eyes despite the happiness he spoke of. You could tell that the bad part was coming up. He sighed and kept going.

“That’s when I noticed that there was another boy next to her and he had his arms all over her and her hands were over him. And I was being stupid, so of course I walked right over to them, fully planning to give him a piece of my mind when I did, but when I got there, I just stood and didn’t do anything. Well, apparently, that boy with her was her boyfriend, and the only thing she wanted give me was my flowers back.”

“Why are they so beat up, though?” you asked. Baekhyun lifted the thrashed flower bouquet and tightened his jaw.

“Because I was stupid,” he said angrily. “I was trying to get the truth out of her and I wanted to know why she did this instead of just telling me before. It was damn humiliating. And I tried to give the bouquet back to her, but it landed on the ground instead and she kicked it back to me. Then she said I was a stalker and that what I was doing was pathetic and pointless, and that was why she’d never date me. Then I called her a and her boyfriend shoved me. Probably would have punched me, too, if the faculty didn’t walk by. But anyway, that’s the tale of the tattered flowers and humiliated lover boy. Your turn.”

“Hey,” you said. “I am really sorry about Chun Sa.”

“What for?” he asked. “You didn’t have anything to do with it. It wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t so damn blind about her.”

“Still,” you said. “She shouldn’t have done that to you.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I deserved it –”

“No,” you said. “Seriously, no one deserves to be treated like that. I mean, she obviously knew how you felt about her, and then she just shat all over your feelings. And that’s wrong. Trust me, Baekhyun, you don’t deserve someone like her, anyway, and she definitely doesn’t deserve you. I mean, if that was me you confessed to, I would –,” you bit your tongue to keep yourself from talking too much.

Baekhyun looked puzzled at you at first, but a smirk soon landed itself on his face as he looked at you. “Well?” he said. “So, what if it had been you?” You kept your mouth shut and just threw him a slightly panicked look. Baekhyun started laughing.

“Okay, okay,” he said. “Nevermind about that. Anyway, I told you my story, so your turn. What about Tae Sun?”

“Oh, yeah,” you said, groaning. “Tae Sun. How could I forget?”

“How bad was it?” he asked. “Can you beat mine?”

You scoffed. “You can decide that for yourself,” you said. Truthfully, you still weren’t ready to revisit that painful memory just yet, But Baekhyun had been open and honest with you, and so you should be as open and honest with him in return. So, you sighed and began the story.

“I didn’t even really get to meet with him,” you confessed. “I got these chocolates because I knew how popular he was with girls and I needed a way to stand out. I practically busted my allowance and my paycheck buying these for him. So, in the morning, I put it inside his desk in his homeroom, and I went off to class. I was really nervous since I knew that even though he knew me, I probably didn’t stand out as much as the prettier girls and he might not even get to mine.”

Baekhyun scoffed. “You never pegged me as the type to go for Chun Sa,” he said. “But I guess guys like Tae Sun attract all types of girls. Even you.”

“What does that mean?” you asked.

“Nothing,” Baekhyun said in a hurry. “Just… what did you see in him in the first place? Like, how did you start to like him?”

“I could ask you the same question about Chun Sa,” you said.

“This isn’t about me right now,” he said. “Anyway, just go on.”

You shrugged and then continued. “Anyway, I just went about the day as usual, only a little more nervous. I finally saw him with a group of friends in the hallway, and even though I wouldn’t have gone to him with his friends around, I needed to know if he got my gift or read what I wrote to him and if he had an answer for me. So I walked over to him and I was going to talk to him… but then I heard what he and his friends were talking about.”

You gulped, and Baekhyun began to frown again.

“They were talking about me,” you said, fidgeting with the top of the heart-shaped box. You paused, remembering their words. You felt your heart beating again, the painful way it did when you first heard Tae Sun saying those things. Baekhyun nudged you gently with his elbow.

“What were they saying?” he asked. You bit the inside of your cheek and took a deep breath. Then you looked up at him with eyes that wanted to cry.

“It’s really not worth repeating,” you whispered. But Baekhyun only continued to stare at you, waiting for answers. You looked down at your shoes.

“Clingy. Desperate. Pathetic. Loser. Pitiful. Ugly. Little girl. Sorry. Pitiful. Plain. Stupid. Dumb. Dense. Idiot. Senseless. Creepy. Trashy. Moron,” you recited, one-by-one, until Baekhyun put a hand up, motioning for you to stop.

“I’ve heard enough,” Baekhyun said and his jaw clenched. “So what did you do?”

You shrugged. “I don’t really remember it too much,” you said. “I just remembered feeling sick and terrible. They turned around when they finally noticed me and Tae Sun just stood there. I don’t remember if he said anything to me directly, but he didn’t look sorry for anything he said. One of his friends told me to just take a hint and asked me why I couldn’t just leave him alone. And then I just walked away.”

You pressed your lips together. “Then later while I was passing him in the hall, he tossed my chocolate back to me. He didn’t even open it, probably. He wrote this on the top of it.”

You flipped the top of the box over and showed it to Baekhyun. On the surface, in permanent marker, Tae Sun had written: NO THANKS, LOSER. Baekhyun’s eyes widened at the sight of it. You told him Tae Sun's exact words when he confronted you: You and I don’t go together, he had said.

“You know,” you continued. “I started liking Tae Sun at the start of high school. He was late to class on the first day and he got seated next to me. He was a bit clueless about what was going on, so he asked me a bunch of questions. Just talking to him, I thought he seemed like a nice guy. He was so eager to talk to me about anything and everything in that class. He didn’t talk to me much after that year, but I kept holding onto him, thinking he was still that eager, easy-going, nice guy. Now, I realize that I don’t know anything about him at all. Makes me wonder why I thought I had a chance with him or what I saw in him in the first place. He and his friends said some things about me, but I guess some of things are true: I was naïve enough to think that about him and I fell for his nice-guy act like an idiot.”

Baekhyun, beside you, took a deep breath as well.

“I’d say we’re about tied, then,” he answered. After a brief pause, he spoke up again.

“You know, if I were you,” he said. “I would have just socked him in the face then and there.”

You grinned a little.

“I’m not that type of person, though,” you said.

“Maybe you ought to be,” Baekhyun said, sitting up. “How could you just let him get away with calling you all those awful things? You need to grow a backbone, __-ah, because stuff like that is not okay.”

“I know it’s not,” you answered, but you gave a weak groan. “It’s just… I was just so tired from all this disappointment and I was tired of being invisible all the time. I didn’t have the energy.” You slumped forward, burying your face in your hands and just listening to yourself breathe. Baekhyun watched you intently as you tried to retreat into yourself. He nodded quietly to himself, understanding perfectly what you meant. Still, it did not sit right with him that you could just swallow up all the that Tae Sun threw at you (quite literally in the case of the chocolates).

“Hey,” he said gently. “Don’t cry.”

“I’m not crying,” you answered softly.

“Good,” Baekhyun said. “You shouldn’t cry over jerks like him, anyway. He really didn’t turn out the way you expected, huh?”

“Not at all,” you said.

“Well, that’s fine,” he said. “You’re way out of his league anyway; he doesn’t deserve you.”

You looked up at Baekhyun blankly, hearing your own advice spoken back to you. The boy smiled. “I guess we’re in the same boat with no paddles,” he said. “Valentine’s Day .”

“Hear hear,” you said, agreeing with his statement. You looked over at Baekhyun, who was looking at the beaten bouquet again. He gave one last sigh and let the flowers droop in his hands. “Hey,” he said. “Sorry about Tae Sun.”

“That wasn’t your fault either,” you said. He chuckled.

“Yeah, I know,” he said. “But still. On behalf of the male species, sorry for being such jerks.”

You laughed. “And on behalf of girls everywhere, I’m sorry that we’re such es.”

“You’re okay, though,” he said, and you blushed.

“I guess you’re alright, too, even if you are a guy,” you answered.

“Seriously, though,” Baekhyun said. “Don’t let him get to you. When you look back on that moment, just remember that you were a hundred times the man that he could ever wish to be. If he wanted you to know something, he would have said it to your face. That fact that he did all that behind your back just shows how much of a coward he is. But what you did, confessing your feelings like that, now that takes courage. Turning you down just made him the loser who lost you.”

Baekhyun looked at your face and you both turned away shyly after meeting each other’s gaze. He laughed and ran a hand through his hair again.

“He is so full of , though,” he said. “Seriously, you should sort of feel glad that you don’t have to be stuck with such a like Tae Sun.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t need to tell me twice,” you said. “I’m the one who experienced that first hand.”

“You really should have hit him,” he said. “Now that, he would have deserved.”

You laughed along with Baekhyun, and you spied the last truffle in the box again. You looked over at Baekhyun and remembered how morose and heartbroken he looked when he talked about Chun Sa’s rejection of him. Baekhyun seemed like such a sweet boy; he had a nice smile, and he had a knack for getting others to laugh, including you. He sang like a lark, he talked easily, and he was kind, talented, smart, and a hopeful romantic. You couldn’t see any reason why a girl wouldn’t like him.

“Hey, aren’t you going to eat that?” he said, gesturing toward the last chocolate truffle. Giving chocolate to boys was a girls’ tradition on Valentine’s Day. It was how a girl expressed her devotion to one boy who was so special to her. But this Valentine’s Day, you realized, you hadn’t given chocolates to any boys at all. Well… aside from Baekhyun, and you looked at his bag, wondering if he had received any from other girls. It seemed that he hadn’t. You looked up at Baekhyun who was still watching you, expecting you to pluck the truffle from the box and eat it. But you smiled, thinking that there was a special boy in your life after all. You took your hand and gingerly lifted the last of the expensive chocolate truffles. Then, you stretch out your arm and offered it to Baekhyun.

Baekhyun looked at the truffle a while, and then he turned to you for an explanation. You pushed it further into his face. “It’s for you,” you said, smiling shyly. “Happy Worst Valentine’s Day Ever.”

Baekhyun let out a weak laugh and looked you in the eye. He lifted up a hand and took the truffle from you, and a little electricity shot through you in the brief moment that your fingers touched. He looked at the chocolate a little before putting it into his mouth.

“Thank you,” he said with a mouth that was still full, and he coughed, choking on it a bit.

“Chew it, first!” you said, laughing at his little mishap. "You and I both failed CPR, remember?"

Baekhyun soon recovered, and you spent the rest of the time waiting for your buses sharing other Valentine’s Day stories that you’d heard around school. Baekhyun’s friend, Kris, supposedly got the most chocolates from girls this year at 27 pieces, soundly beating Kai who previously held the record with 18 pieces the year before. One of your friends had her first kiss today. Baekhyun, after some bullying from you, eventually sang the first verse of the song he wrote, “Angel”.

“Which bus are you taking?” Baekhyun asked.

“Me?” you said.

“Yes, you,” Baekhyun said. “See anyone else around here? Which bus?”

“The Number 10 to Bucheon,” you answered. “You?”

“The 6 to Apgujeong,” he said. “Buses take forever. But I guess I’m getting picked up before you. Do you want me to just take the 10 with you?”

You raised your eyebrows at him. “I’ll be fine,” you said. “I’ve taken the 10 by myself before.”

“Alright,” he said. “But I’m just saying, it’s dark already. You’ll be fine on your own? Are you sure?”

You smiled at him. “Thank you,” you said. “But I’m sure. I’ll be perfectly fine; you can go on home once your bus gets here.”

Baekhyun shrugged. “Alright, then,” he said. “Suit yourself.” Baekhyun turned and looked you in the eye for what seemed like the tenth time since your conversation started. But somehow this time it seemed different; like he was hoping for something or searching for something in your gaze that you couldn’t quite place. You felt your cheeks flushing under his watch and at the same you were growing fonder of him. You felt weightless and you felt like you were falling down from a very high place. Was this why they called it “falling” in love?

The squeaky tires of the Number 6 bus came to a stop in front of the bus shelter where you both sat. Baekhyun stood up and gathered his things, pulling out his bus card and approaching the door. You said your goodbyes and he headed toward the steps. But before he could board, he suddenly stopped and turned back to you. You thought he was going to say “bye” again, but he looked at you once more and then lifted his hand with the beaten flower bouquet.

“I know they’re beaten up and ugly,” he said, looking at the wilting flowers and the broken stems. “But this is all I have for now.”

Baekhyun raised the bouquet and held it out to you, and you watched it with wide eyes and a pounding heart. He held his breath, waiting for you to take it from him, but you didn’t move.

“They aren’t for me, though,” you said quietly. Baekhyun shrugged.

“They are now,” he said. “I’m giving them to you.”

“Yeah,” you said. “But only because you feel sorry for me. And I got enough pity from everyone else.”

Baekhyun pushed his hair back in frustration.

“You really are not getting this Valentine’s Day admirer thing, are you?” he said. “It’s Valentine’s Day, I’m an admirer, and I’m giving these flowers to you.”

You continued to sit and watch the bouquet, still slightly hesitant to take it from him. You saw how sad he looked thinking about Chun Sa. He deserved to give them to a girl he truly liked. Baekhyun let out a sigh.

“Come on, __-ah,” he said. “Don’t let me get rejected twice today.”

Baekhyun watched your blank expression, but the quieter you became, the more dejected he felt. He looked down at the sorry state of the flowers. The petals were gone, the stems were broken, and it the plastic was torn. He understood why a girl wouldn’t want them. His spirits fell and he began to retract the bouquet. And he turned and walked back to the bus.

Before he could set his foot on the steps, the bouquet of flowers was jerked back from his hand. When he turned, you lifted one of the beaten pink blooms to your face. Whatever petals were left on the flower, you gently pushed to your lips. Though beaten and worn, they still smelled sweet, and the blooms were still beautiful. Baekhyun smiled gently at you. And although he didn’t speak, his eyes conveyed his thanks.

Baekhyun laughed and then bashfully stuffed his hands into his pockets as he boarded the bus, stepping backwards.

“Happy Worst Valentine’s Day Ever, __-ah,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” The hydraulic doors closed on Baekhyun, and as the traffic lights changed, the Number 6 bus took him further away. You looked down at your flowers and you felt butterflies rising up in your stomach and fluttering in your chest. Baekhyun’s flowers couldn’t have embodied him more: though worn and beaten, they were still beautiful, and Baekhyun, though tired and trodden, was still the best person you knew at that moment. And as far as Worst Valentine’s Days went, today was the Best Worst Valentine’s Day ever.