Like most holidays, Taekwoon doesn't understand Valentine's Day. People gives candy and chocolate and stuffed animals to their loved ones, but you can do that on any day. Why do they choose to do so on Valentine's Day? Why is it so special? He asked Hakyeon a long time ago but he didn't really have a good answer.

The library is decorated for the holiday. Pink, white, red streamers and paper hearts and a table full of romance novels and such and such. They have story time for children every evening and the theme for this week is Valentine's Day. ((They also serve free red fruit punch and heart shaped sugar cookies along with the story, and Taekwoon is always the first one there to get his share.))

One day as they're rearranging the Religion section, Taekwoon's coworker tells him he's planning on proposing to his girlfriend on Valentine's Day. Taekwoon doesn't understand why he's telling him this, usually he and the other few library employees avoid Taekwoon as much as they can. 

He doesn't know how to respond. "Okay," he says. "Congratulations."

The other shakes his head. "She hasn't said yes yet." Then he leaves Taekwoon alone in the pile of Religion books.

-

Eventhough Taekwoon doesn't understand Valentine's Day, Hakyeon still celebrates it the best he can. It's hard to give him gifts because he's picky. He's terrified of balloons, not a big fan of chocolate, and doesn't care about stuffed animals that much. He took Taekwoon out to a Valentine's buffet a few years ago, and now it's their tradition. That's his gift to Taekwoon every year.

Now Taekwoon is thinking about how he doesn't give Hakyeon anything in return on Valentine's Day. Maybe he should. Valentine's is the day of love apparentally, and Taekwoon loves Hakyeon. He thinks Hakyeon would like it if he showed it a little bit. He's never done romantic gestures or anything like that. He's never even said I love you to Hakyeon out loud before. 

Taekwoon wonders why he's feeling these things now when Valentine's Day meant nothing to him in the past, though he thinks it has something to do with his coworker telling him about proposing to his girlfriend. That sounds nice. Maybe Taekwoon can propose to Hakyeon for Valentine's Day too, though there's no point. They already live together and sleep in the same bed. They're kinda already married.

-

The super market is a little crowded the day before Valentine's Day, but they need to shop because Hakyeon has been too busy this week to go until now. Taekwoon presses his hunting headphones from his birthday tight on his ears as they squeeze their way between a couple looking at giant versions of chocolate bars wrapped in pink and a few kids picking out Valentine cards for school.

"I remember those days," Hakyeon says. Taekwoon does too. It's not memories that he likes to think about though. Any memory involving school is a bad one.
Their shopping is successful, with only one minor incident - their usual brand of cooking oil they get is sold out and it throws Taekwoon off so badly he has to go to the restroom and breathe for a moment. It's pretty silly but that's just how he is. 

It makes him think about how lucky he is to have someone like Hakyeon, who doesn't mind being with someone that has to pause everything for a full ten minutes because cooking oil nearly sends them into meltdown. It makes Taekwoon feel sappy and gross, in the love kind of way. He thinks Valentine's Day is getting to him.

As they're making their way to the cash registers, Hakyeon stops, picking up a blue and pink stuffed owl with a heart on the center of its stomach. "This is adorable," he says. He playfully wiggles it towards Taekwoon's direction. "Taekwoonie, buy this for me?" 

Taekwoon is still thinking about the cooking oil, worrying about the new brand they got and if it's any good. He blinks at the owl and pushes it away. He's trying to do it as playfully as he can but maybe he fails because Hakyeon's smile falters for a moment. 

"It's okay, I'm just joking," he says, placing the owl back with the other ones on the shelf. 

-

Valentine's Day, the next day, is on a Saturday. Taekwoon wakes up bright and early while Hakyeon is still asleep - he usually sleeps in late on the weekend because work wears him down during the week. Usually Taekwoon gets bored of waiting on him to wake up but this morning it's perfect, because he's going to go back to the super market secretly.

After he got his mind off the cooking oil last night, Taekwoon started to think about the owl and Hakyeon and how sad he looked. He didn't mean to make him sad, and he wants to make up for it so he's going to go buy the owl.

It's a last minute Valentine's Day gift. Taekwoon should have gott