Spring Comes

It's Valentine's, After All

It was a little over a month since Yayoi wrote to her father about wanting to change schools. Yayoi opened her morning mail and smiled when she read in this latest letter that her father had made an offer on a house.

'I'm so happy that he took me seriously and decided to let me transfer schools!'she thought, smiling brightly. It seemed Akito didn't care what she did anymore as long as she continued to stay away from the estate. Her mother didn't understand at first and wasn't happy that she was abandoning such a prestigious school for such an ordinary one, but her father had helped smooth things over because he knew a large part of her reason (other than seeing Hatori) was to be with Momiji, and he had begged for Yayoi to be able to go to Kaibara High School with him, too. She was a bit concerned about Hina, because of her social anxiety, but she thought all three of her friends would be okay because even with her gone, they would have each other, and it wasn't really goodbye, because she would be allowed in to visit them.

Yayoi headed down to breakfast to discuss the good news with her friends, and noticed there was an excited atmosphere in the cafeteria. Some of the girls eyeing Hina were like hungry wolves, giving off a desperate air. Yayoi sweat-dropped as she recalled that it was Friday the 13th, which ordinarily might have made some of the more superstitious students wary, but it was also February, which meant it was the day before Valentine's Day. With no boys in sight, many girls gave giri and honmei chocolates to each other. She supposed the nervous excitement was because the majority of the school had decided to give out their chocolates during the school day instead of waiting for tomorrow. She supposed it did make sense, since some parents took their daughters out for the day when it fell on a weekend, so admirers would have a better chance of finding their target before that happened. Because it was well known that Hina's father was going to take her on a father-daughter date on the 14th, today would be their chance to bombard her with chocolate.

"Man, girls are scary this time of year," Sara remarked as Yayoi joined them at the table with a traditional Japanese breakfast on her tray this time.

"Yeah," Yayoi agreed. 'I hope Yuki and Kyo are going to be okay, because Valentine's Day in a co-ed school must be scary for them... I wonder if Hatori ever has trouble with that, since he's handsome and a doctor. There must be some women who would try to target him... I don't think I have anything to worry about though, since he's still in love with Kana.' She sighed.

"Sighing on Valentine's Day, huh? How sad," Sara remarked.

"And what are your plans for today?" Yayoi asked.

"I already asked Himari-chan on a date, and she said yes," Sara said proudly. Himari was Sara's girlfriend, who she had met in middle school. Even with Sara being sent to a boarding school, they had managed to keep their relationship together. "She's going to come to school tomorrow and we'll hang out and watch a movie together."

"Something romantic?" Hina asked.

"No, something loud and full of action," Sara said, grinning. "So, I'm making chocolate-covered popcorn in family and consumer sciences class today."

"You think that will be allowed? We're just supposed to make plain milk chocolate today," Aoi said.

"I will make it happen!" Sara said with a serious gleam in her eyes. "I want our date to be perfect."

"I'm going off-road a bit, too," Yayoi said. "I bought my own molds to pour the chocolate into."

"Well, that should be fine," Hina said. "What shapes are they?"

"A seahorse, a rabbit, a dog, a mouse, a cat, a cow, a snake, a sheep, and monkey," Yayoi said. "And I'm going to make regular heart shapes for my parents and Momo."