Kashika
Seven piles with seven parcels of chocolate, that's how their Valentine's Day usually begins. Surprisingly enough, Mark finds an eighth one, with no indication from who, asking him to be his Valentine.
----
On that one certain day, where chocolate and flower sales reach their all-time high each year, Mark walked tiredly into the living room. He skilfully avoided the seven piles of little presents that were lying on the ground despite only being half-awake and yawning. He stretched once with all the laziness of a cat, too wide sleeping shirt lifting up slightly to display a patch of skin on his stomach. Making his way further into the kitchen, an equally sleepy looking Jinyoung greeted him with mumbled words over a cup of coffee to which he responded to with another yawn and a half-wave.
It wasn't long until the rest of their group slowly trickled into the kitchen to fulfil their morning routines, eating breakfast together in comparable silence to their usual animated chatter at less-ungodly hours. The only person being forbiddingly awake already and talking comfortably about his dream that involved Godzilla and giant, radioactive ice cream, was, unsurprisingly, Jackson. Mark nodded along to the story with an amused smile, the younger giving off his very best monster-impression at this point.
None of them had mentioned the piles of chocolate in the other room yet, had it been a similar case last year, too. Seven piles with seven little parcels, all bought gifts since none of them had any time to make anything with packed schedules full of training and promotion. So when they finally went to pick up the Valentine's good wishes with sweets attached from their friends, Mark was more than surprised to find an eighth one. It was rather big and wrapped very neatly in white paper with a red ribbon around it. No sign of who'd left it for him on it, though. No sign on it at all apart from the red 'Mark' that had been written on a tag attached to it. He couldn't even place the handwriting, it had been done that carefully.
Curiously, he laced his slim fingers into the band to untie it, peeling the paper away to reveal a plain box he continued to open. There, he found three rows of chocolate hearts in different quantity and with a closer look, he realised that they were hand-made as well.
"Hyung, what do you have there?" Youngjae asked him curiously as he was the one sitting right next to Mark with his own pile in his lap, already trying what was apparently a gift from BamBam.
"I don't know." the oldest replied truthfully since he really was clueless as to what exactly he held in his hands here. He inspected the tag again that he'd put to the side but nothing apart from his name was on it. He lifted the box to check the underside of it but again, nothing, confusing him only more and more.
"Who gave you that?" BamBam was suddenly sprawled in front of him on his stomach, chin propped on his hands as he looked at the Valentine's gift intently, curiosity as clear as a day in his voice.
"No idea." was, again, Mark's rather unknowing answer, a frown knitting his eyebrows together as he tried to work his brain into figuring out anything.
"And what's this?" the Thai boy inquired further, holding up a folded paper he'd apparently picked up from the ground that must've slipped the oldest attention earlier. He quickly snatched it from BamBam's hands that were already opening it, getting a protesting noise from him.
"Let Mark read it first, at least. It's his gift, after all." Jinyoung scolded BamBam slightly after his attention had been caught as well now. He was apparently done with his own cards and though he showed it less than the two younger boys, he seemed as interested as the rest on who had put so much dedication into Mark's chocolate and what they had to say.
With as much care as Mark had put into opening his gift, he now unfolded the paper, the same red, characterless writing displaying what seemed to be a badly done poem. The only indication he had for that, really, was the unusual line breaks, as the writing itself didn't seem to follow any obvious pattern, let alone a rhyme.
Would you please be my Valentine for today?
I wanna make you happy,
Be mine?
How was he supposed to answer to that when he didn't even know who was asking him this?
"Hyung, what does it say?" now even Yugyeom was crowding around him, having noticed the increasing attention that was slowly turning towards Mark from the other members. The only two who'd been still talking with each other were Jackson and Jaebum now.
"Not much." he shrugged, handing over the paper to his nosy friends who immediately, though in various degrees of discretion, read over the short message.
"But it doesn't even say who!" BamBam complained loudly, waving the piece around, finally catching the last two missing attentions as well.
"What is this?" their leader inquired now as well, frowning at the others.
"Mark got self-made chocolate and a weird poem but it doesn't say from who." Jinyoung explained dutifully, pointing at the objects in question. BamBam started to talk again after this as well as Yugyeom now but Mark zoned out on it, instead taking the paper again and holding it next to the box of chocolates. He only noticed now that the little hearts were all ordered in the same way the poem was. One row with eight, one row with five, one row with two.
And suddenly, he started to laugh loudly. The others immediately looked at him with clear confusion, had he been rather silent before his sudden outbreak. He tried to muffle his own sounds with putting a hand over his mouth, warmth bubbling up from the pit of his stomach and into his chest at the silly realisation. How could he have needed so long? There was only one person who'd do something this sentimental, probably at the middle of the night when nobody else was awake and then put such a blatant reference to themselves.
"I'd very much like to be your Valentine." he eventually managed to get out around the grin that was persistently staying on his face, looking right towards the person that had been sitting silently across from him the entire time.
Jackson blushed with a wide grin.
