PHASE 35 - VALENTINE’S DAY IS THE NEW SUICIDE DAY

And so, the day Rikkun hated most has arrived.

“Valentine’s Day… And it’s also a school day. I should have stayed in my room… if it wasn’t for the quizzes in our three subjects.” Rikkun wearingly had this exhausted face even though it’s still morning. Classes haven’t started yet, and we’re still on the way to school.

“W-Why is it that you hate Valentines so much?” I tilted my head.

“Didn’t you know that suicide rates are highest when Valentine's Day!?” Rikkun raised his voice. “You haven’t visited Wikipedia at all, do you?”

“T-That’s horrible!” I covered my mouth with my soft hands. “Valentine's Day is supposed to be filled with warm hugs, kisses, chocolates, flowers, and love! Not suicide!”

“Actually, Valentine’s is filled with rejected confessions…”

Just as I wanted to ask something more, we have arrived at the school gate. Past that gate is the ten-storey General Studies Building of Dradecim National High. But for some reason, the building looks weird. It has this long white banner that has a big logo of a red heart in it.

So our high school is celebrating some kind of event during Valentine’s! I’m so excited!

Actually, I’m planning to give a special chocolate to Rikkun after the classes. I spent the past two days perfecting my original recipe, and I hope he’ll like it!

“MISTER ALARIC EISENHOWER!!!”

Suddenly, there is this loud megaphone sound coming from the rooftop of the said General Studies building. It was our classmate, Giana! And it seems that she’s about to jump!

“MISTER ALARIC EISENHOWER, YOU HEAR ME!!!?

“I can’t.” Rikkun immediately covered both of his ears.

“Hey, you should hear her first!” I cried as I slapped his ear-defenses away, but Rikkun kept on returning his palms to his earlobes! Geez!

“MISTER ALARIC EISENHOWER, YOU’RE THE MAN OF MY DREAMS! PLEASE ACCEPT MY CONFESSION LETTER AND CHOCOLATES!!! OR ELSE… I WILL JUMP FROM THIS BUILDING!!!”

Everybody was silent. All the bystander students failed to utter any word.

Rikkun sighed as if he finally give up.

“...Fine then… Do a backflip.” He said with a smile.

I think Rikkun has contributed a lot from those Valentine’s Day suicide rates.

I’ll get you guys back later. I still have to punch someone’s nose.

<>

We’re already in the classroom, and luckily for the whole class, our first period is vacant. Mrs. Fontaine should’ve been busy in her own romantic day.

Beside me is Rikkun, who is tiredly leaning his chin on his hands. He has this label on this desk that reads “I DON’T ACCEPT CHOCOLATES, I’M DIABETIC.” Yes, all caps. There have been girls who are persistent to give him those Valentine’s boxes, but he has been silently ignoring them. But sometimes, he would annoyingly shout “Can’t you friggin read this label?” to the poor girls.

Rikkun’s personality is a problem, but there’s a bigger one that poses a threat to me. Is it real that Rikkun is diabetic? Then I won’t be able to give him my chocolate! This is bad! This is bad!

“U-Ummm… Rikkun…” I made a gentle pinch to his sleeve. “Do you hate chocolates?”

“Not really.” He coldly said.

I exhaled deeply. I thought my efforts would be wasted, but I think that label is just an excuse for him to outrightly reject the girls.

“B-But why are you rejecting the chocolates? You should at least accept their hard work on making those precious sweets… I think.” I said in a worried tone.

Rikkun’s eye became wide as if his lightbulb has turned on. He immediately gave a sparkling stare at me with a smile.

“That’s a great idea, Tiara! If I sell all those chocolates that have been given to me, I’ll be able to buy the latest XXX scale figures! You’re not that much of an idiot after all!”

“Ahahaha…” I forced a laugh. He got it all wrong.

“Maybe some girls dropped chocolates on my locker! Come, Tiara! I’ll give you a share!”

“R-Really!?” My mouth is drooling. But his words sparked my curiosity. “...Wait, there’s a locker room in this school?”

“What?” Rikkun shifted to a disappointed expression. “You have been enrolled in this school for a year, and yet you didn’t know the locker room? It’s just on the ground floor after the building entrance! You always go there, and there’s no way that you can miss it…”

“Well...I… Uh… I’m always kind of in a rush whenever I go there. Sometimes I get lost to our conversations during early mornings, so… I haven’t noticed it yet...” I scratched my head with a sorry smile.

Rikkun sighed. “Idiot.” He muttered under his breath, thinking that I wouldn’t be able to hear him.

<>

After asking for my own key for my locker in the faculty center, we immediately went to the locker room. There, Rikkun opened up his own vault and hordes of pink Valentine’s cards and letters gushed out. There are I think five or six chocolate boxes in there. That’s so many! He’s really the Dao Ming Si of this campus!

“Darn, that’s few.” Rikkun groaned. “This year is more on love letters. Wait here. I’ll go get a trash can.”

“H-Hey, don’t do that!” I shrieked. “You should at least read the letters! Those things are compressed emotions of their hard work and adoration for you. Don’t you feel bad for those poor girls?”

“I actually don’t.” Rikkun made a cold reply.

“READ THOSE LETTERS!!!” I shouted. I don’t know, but I finally snapped when he said he doesn’t care. Geez! His personality is getting worse!

“Fine! Fine!” Rikkun scratched his head as he began to open those cute envelopes.

Suddenly, he pulled out a red ballpen, stamp, and a red inkpad from his pocket. He seems to be prepared for something.

“I knew these things would come in handy!” Rikkun said as he started checking for grammatical errors on the love letters, encircling those faulty words with his red ballpen and finally stamping a big REJECTED sign at the very envelope of the letter. Then he proceeded on the next letter until there are piles of finished proofreading work.

Those things he brought… I remember we used those for documents and office stuff in our investigation work. And now, he’s using it in a senseless purpose! What is he, a demonic boss from an evil company!?

“R-Rikkun…”

At first, he ignored me. But when he heard the cracking of my fists, he gave me this pitiful look like a puppy begging for his life. He’s now sweating non-stop.

“...Uhhh… Tiara… Before you unleash on me, maybe you wanted to check out your locker first.” He said.

I looked at my locker and saw a sky blue envelope that has been peeking out. I used my key and opened it, and bam! Lots of love letters exploded to my face!

“Eeeeek!!!” I fell on my butt. “T-There’s too many!”

Rikkun immediately went to my side and helped me stand up. “Well, considering that you haven’t opened it since the very start, I wouldn’t be surprised that you’re flooded with love letters from the past.”

I scanned the dates of the letter and saw that Rikkun was right. All these love letters are from the past year. There’s even a love letter from our deceased friend Daughty. I really feel bad that I failed to respond to those feelings immediately.

“Oh, this one looks like it was submitted hours ago,” Rikkun said as he gave me the blue letter that was stuck earlier.

I opened it and it only reads that I have to meet him up to the Confession Tree on the school grounds. Nothing more, nothing less.

“What are you going to do?” Rikkun’s eyebrows irked. At first, I thought that this letter was his, but it seems that I’m wrong. He looks so pissed because somebody is taking interest in me.

To cheer him up, I projected a safe smile. “I’ll go, but I’ll apologize that I can’t accept his feelings. Watch me, Rikkun. I’ll teach you how to make a proper rejection.”