February 14

People were exceptionally in high spirit. Hearts and reds and chocolate ornaments were everywere. Love-shaped papers were scattered on the floor hallways and it was nightmare for the janitors, and it was still bright early in the morning. The hallways were filled with whispers and giggles. Some girls and boy were flirting each other while walking to their class.

It was a lovely day yet a disastrous day for people who had just broken up with their girl/boyfriends, and even more disastrous for those who had been single all year.

The single ones usually were fine being single and free everyday. However they always did feel miserable during this particular day. The next day they were all shine and bright again.

“God, is people hugging and smooching and snogging and eating each other’s faces the only thing we are going to see for the rest of the day,” Sooyoung commented, looking around her surroundings, not particularly interested. The trio were walking to their class together. They rarely got a the same class. Probably the valentine’s day effect.

“Smooching, snogging, and eating each other’s faces are pretty much the same thing,” Baekhyun corrected her.

“Love is in the air,” Chanyeol commented lamely.

“Love is in the air,” Baekhyun repeated, but sadder, a sigh escaped from his mouth.

He continued to look around, walking not too fast beside his other two giant friends. Sooyoung punched the boy in the shoulder. “Come on. We’ve been through this almost our whole life. What’s with that sad face?” She teased as they turned to the right in the hallway’s intersection. There weren’t too many people inside the classroom. Some were still out for some reasons.

They walked the stairs up to the last and highest row to sit next to each other. At least when the lecture got boring they could whisper or pass notes secretly to talk. They had ten minutes before the college teacher came and not even half the students had filled the room. They suspected that teacher himself wouldn’t come on time.

“So,” Baekhyun started, resting his head on her palm, eyes looking straight at no particular object. “do you think I should give her chocolate or gifts?”

It was the first time Sooyoung and Chanyeol saw Baekhyun being confused to buy a freaking gift. Sure Baekhyun had had girlfriends back then, but as what had been told, the relationships did always not last too long. The longest one was two and a half month. And never lasted long enough until valentine’s.

“No you shouldn’t.”

Turning his head, Baekhyun gave her a questioning look. “Why?”

“She’s right. Taeyeon probably has them piled up on her desk,” Chanyeol answered, “you don’t want yours to be just ‘one’ of them, do you? Where the hell is my phone?!” He asked more to himself as he rummaged through his backpack. Sooyoung rolled her eyes, he didn’t even bring that many of books.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking,” Sooyoung confirmed before grabbing Chanyeol’s bag from his hands. She opened the front zip and easily found Chanyeol’s phone. She placed it on the table, eyes never looking away from Chanyeol. He was seemingly confused as to why was it in the front part of his bag, he didn’t remember putting it there. He shrugged it off, it was probably because Sooyoung simply knew them the best.

“You two are actually pretty smart,” Baekhyun agreed. Sooyoung’s eyebrows quirked. “My grades are higher than yours.” He snorted and looked away to see the front rows were almost full now that the lecture would start in two minutes. But as they had thought, the teacher came thirty minutes later and only to dismiss the class thirty minutes earlier, much to their delight.

***

12.00 pm.

They had never seen a cafeteria this red. The cafeteria staffs were apparently taking the valentine’s day event to a whole new level. The heart-shaped decorations that were everywhere around the big indoor room was understandable. But turning every foods to love-shaped ones were another thing.

As could be seen by the trio who had rabokki (ramyeon ddeokbokki/rice cakes) for their lunch. The shape of the bowl was heart, even the rice cakes. They would even go as far to shape the noodles as well had it been possible to do so. It left the three speechless for at least ten minutes. Last year wasn’t this horrible. And they definitely wouldn’t want to imagine how next year’s would be.

“I’m glad they have normal chopsticks and not ones with little hearts on top of them,” Sooyoung commented, taking her chopsticks to begin filling her stomach. “But they’d be cute.”

“Next year they’ll have it,” Baekhyun responded, taking his own. Chanyeol took his own chopsticks and inspected them carefully. “Take a look at your chopsticks closer,” Chanyeol ordered. Both looked at him quizzically but did it nonetheless.

“They can’t be serious.” Sooyoung noticed how the chopsticks had some kind of little hearts design all over its stainless body. “Where did they even buy these?” Shaking her head, she proceed to eat. She thanked the heavens that the foods were delicious.

Sooyoung’s forehead wrinkled when the overlapping chats between people around them got louder. She threw a look to the surrounding, cranning her neck to get a better view, only to find students whom she knew from the psychology, making an entrance. Each of them holding suspicious papers. Baekhyun let out a lazy groan beside her. They all probably knew they would be handing all the students present in cafeteria  questionnaires. As they always did. Today’s topic was probably wouldn’t be far from valentine’s day.

Just as she thought, two girls magically appeared beside their table, giving them smiles and greetings. They gave the three each one paper. “Please answer the questionnaire very honestly. We’ll collect them again. And don’t worry, your secret is safe with us!” The two girls left them. They didn’t even gave them ballpoints or pencils or quill or anything to write.

The three just nodded. They read all the questions. All of them was about love-life. The questions are around. ‘When was the first time you fall in love? How old were you that time? Who’s your first crush? Who’s your first boy/girlfriend? Are you in a realtionship now? If yes with whom, if no why? When was your first kiss? Who’s your first kiss? Et cetera.’

The three of them was stunned, couldn’t believe the questions at all. However they almost had no problem answering all of them. Almost. The two awkward questions got the two boys thinking. While Sooyoung simply asnwered both.

‘When was your first kiss?’

11 y.o

‘Who’s your first kiss?’

A dolphin.

Sooyoung recalled the time when she visited a wildlife reserve and kissed a baby dolphin.

The two peeked through her answers. “A dolphin? Really? I mean, you need not to be too honest about that,” Baekhyun said. Shifting from her questionnaire, to the boy who had just talked, she cooed at him weirdly.

“At least I don’t write ‘none’,” she retorted, “and I never take this seriously.”

“Well who writes ‘none’? Definitely none of us,” he said as he smiled mockingly that Sooyoung wanted to wipe it off his annoying face.

She peered at their papers and her eyes widened at the same name written on them. “Why the hell do you write my bloody name?” She looked to Chanyeol then Baekhyun then shifted back to Chanyeol. “I don’t recall th—” She stopped and looked at them.

“Yes. Yes. That one time.” Baekhyun had to roll his eyes at her forgetfulness. She looked at both in disbelief. “No way you count that as a first kiss. I mean, not technically.”

“Whoa whoa,” Chanyeol said. Sooyoung shot him a look. “What?!”

“No, i think I just need to say whoa.”

Sooyoung fought hard to resist the urge to facepalm. She looked around the cafeteria that had been filled with even louder overlapping chats and giggles between people. At some point, the three could catch some words they’d been speaking. The students, especially females, were currently discussing their first kiss experience to their friends. The blush, shy smiles, and giggles didn’t go unnoticed.

Sooyoung let out a sigh. She focused back with her male friends who had ignorantly written Choi Sooyoung in the last question that said who’s your first kiss.

“Erase that,” she ordered. “What? No way, we have to answer honestly that’s the rule,” the boy insisted. “But that barely counted as a kiss, you—”

“Oh? You mean that time when we had just barely been friends for days, when I and Chanyeol were playing a playstation you sit there watching behind us and we got into a little fight and we were about to strangle each other but you watched us as well not doing anything but straight up grabbing his face then gave a peck in the mouth then you went to me and did just the same just because you thought you were our mom and we were your sons and that mom and their kids do that all the time and that we were too cute so you couldn’t resist?” Baekhyun rant in one breath. His voice was loud that the overlapping voices around them were slowly lowering.

“Keep your voice down, will you?”

And now that Sooyoung thought about it, that was indeed plain embarassing and the fact that she did that not so many years ago. Who knew that they were going to remember it for the rest for their lives?

Meanwhile Chanyeol was laughing hard and clapping and hitting the table like a retarded seal. ‘Baekhyun is basically pouring them all down.’

Just when Baekhyun was about to retort back, the two ladies from before returned to collect the ‘valentine special’ questionnaires—it really had those words on top of the paper. Sooyoung watched as they handed them and let out a sigh.

Her glance flickered to Chanyeol. “Yah do you plan to laugh forever?” she asked, directed to him who was still laughing all to himself. She didn’t even know why he laughed in the first place.

***

05.00 pm

Both Baekhyun and Sooyoung had decided to stay in Chanyeol’s (again) after going home. It was a perfect opportunity to stay outside at Chanyeol’s balcony and just sit there counting chocolates and flowers they had received during the d