Magnus stared at Blythe as though she had sprouted a second head from her neck.

  “What?” he said. “I didn’t say anything.”

  Regret flooded her veins. He had no way of knowing she received system notifications for changes in how he viewed her. Now she looked like a weirdo.

  What was she going to say? ‘I can feel you disliking me from here?’

  As her mind raced, she took a deep breath.

  “I … I was frustrated by your staring. I apologize for the outburst.”

  He didn’t say anything, and Blythe stole a glimpse at him when he remained silent after several seconds. His thick eyebrows drew together as he stared at his hands.

  "No," he said. "You were right. I was excessive in my staring. I was simply taken aback that you hadn't said anything about Valentine's Day."

  Huh?

  It was Blythe's turn to stare at him. “Did … you want me to say something about Valentine’s Day?”

  “It’s not that,” he said. “You just … always showed your excitement for Valentine’s, so it’s strange when you don’t.”

  What was so strange about that?

  “Well, I did,” she said slowly, “make that suggestion about our engagement last week. Wouldn’t it be far more bizarre to be excited about today after that?”

  Magnus’ look of contemplation was replaced by one of mistrust. Frankly, Blythe was surprised she didn’t lose favorability points for being too blunt. But she was tired of this back-and-forth, trying to prove she was turning over a new leaf and then having all that progress destroyed by a in-game event.

  “Sure,” he said, still wearing that heavy frown. “If you say so.”

  Fighting back a frown of her own, Blythe reached into her school bag for the short metal tin with his chocolate. She tugged it free from its snug spot between a notebook and the other box containing obligatory chocolates.

  Even until now, she honestly wasn’t sure whether she should be giving him obligatory chocolate or romantic chocolate. It felt weird to give someone she was trying to end things with—never mind that they’d never truly been in a mutually romantic relationship in the first place—romantic chocolate, but he was also still technically her fiancé until they called the engagement off.

  Blythe offered it to him, saying, “Uh, happy Valentine’s Day.”

  It wasn’t really all that ‘happy’ because he was obviously miserable being her fiancé, but she didn’t know what else to say.

  His gaze slid from the tin up to her face and lingered there.

  Red and green notification lights fought over her vision.

  Impatiently, she thrust the tin at him. She didn’t have the energy to figure out his weird emotional fluctuations. “Please take it. Or if you don’t want it, that’s fine too.”

  Magnus finally accepted it, allowing her to retract her hand. He stared at the lid for a few seconds before slowly opening it. He looked at the chocolate truffles for a significantly shorter amount of time.

  “Thank you,” he said, closing the lid again. “Are these the ones you said you’d hand make for me?”

  She paused. Realizing the original Blythe was the one who’d said that to Magnus, she said, “Yes.”

  They lapsed into silence once more, with Magnus’ eyes not leaving Blythe’s.

  Averting her gaze didn’t get him to look away. Forcing her lips into the shape of a smile, Blythe turned back to him and asked, “Why do you keep staring at me? Is there something on my face?”

  “Sorry,” he said, focusing his attention on the tin in his hands. “I hadn’t realized I was still looking.”

  It was dangerous how close Blythe was to saying ‘Yeah, right’ in response.

  “It’s alright,” she said, not feeling alright at all.

  She dropped her History IV textbook onto her desk and flipped it open.

  ???

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Magnus didn’t understand this new personality that had been emerging in Blythe for the past few weeks.

  Although she may have proposed breaking off their engagement in an obvious manipulation attempt to change his behavior, he hadn’t thought her capable of putting her money where her mouth was.

  On top of not having dropped obvious hints of wanting to go on a romantic date today, Blythe had also handed the box of Valentine’s chocolates to him like she was passing on a worksheet in class. In the previous years, she’d always made a show out of giving him chocolates in a nice spot. She’d never have done it in a classroom while they were surrounded by all these other classmates, especially when class was going to start soon.

  She also seemed more lethargic in general, barely seeking out any interaction with him. He was used to her pestering him without regard for his displeasure or frustration with her actions, so this was exceedingly bizarre behavior.

  Nevertheless, she’d stuck to her plan of hand making these chocolates for him instead of delegating the task to her palace chef like she’d done in the past. That had to mean she hadn’t meant it when she asked to break off their engagement. Why else would she go to all the effort of making these chocolates herself?

  Magnus just had to puzzle out what her goal in dangling this false desire to end their engagement before him was.

  He had to admit, even if it was only to himself, the chocolate truffles looked much more appealing than he’d thought they would. All of Blythe’s past attempts had turned out terribly, which was why she’d needed to assign the chocolate-making work to her chef.

  Before he could dwell any longer on the reason behind her presenting the chocolates to him in such an unceremonious manner, a ruckus near the entrance of the classroom caught his attention.

  ???

  The shrieks and squeals coming from the doorway distracted Blythe from reading ahead in her textbook.

  Cole came in with a bunch of girls swarming him, all of them trying to elbow each other out of the way and holding out elaborately wrapped boxes to him. It was a very unladylike scene, but none of the girls seemed to care.

  Some of the guys in the classroom appeared a little envious of all the attention. Blythe was somewhat amused by the other students struggling to squeeze into the classroom due to the gaggle of girls and Cole blocking the way.

  “Cole, I made these chocolates from the bottom of my heart,” one girl cried, shoving through the crowd to get to him.

  “Well, I spent hours making these to express my feelings!”

  “No, I worked harder—”

  “Ladies, ladies!” Cole was practically engulfed in their swarming; all Blythe could see of him was his head. “I’m truly honored by everyone’s thoughtfulness, but, as you can see, my hands are full at the moment. I simply can’t accept any more of your chocolates at the moment, and classes are about to start soon.”

  The clamor died down all at once, and the girls exchanged glances. Soon, they began a discussion among themselves.

  “Classes are about to start soon …”

  “That’s right, I have to get to my own classroom on the third floor.”

  “Wait! If this is Cole’s first class, we could leave our chocolates on his desk!”

  “That makes perfect sense! His desk can carry whatever he can’t!”

  Cole, who’d seized the opportunity to slip away from them, was once again surrounded by his admirers. This time, he was mere feet away from Magnus’ desk.

  “Where do you sit, Cole?”

  “Is this your desk?”

  “I … yes, I’ll be sitting here.”

  The instant they saw him step in the direction of the desk in front of Magnus’, they rushed to leave their gifts of chocolate on it.

  “Well, I have to get to my own class now, so I’ll see you later, Cole!”

  “I hope I’ll get to see you after school, Cole!”

  “I’ll see you in Botany later!”

  All of them vamoosed, leaving Cole standing there alone with a pile of beautifully-wrapped Valentine’s chocolates in his arms. His desk was buried in even more of them.

  As he plopped himself down in his seat, his usual personable smile slid off his face.

  “Where am I going to put all these chocolates?” he groaned, hanging his head. “My bag doesn’t have the space!”

  Magnus snorted. “Don’t act like you aren’t happy with this. Now you get to show off how many chocolates you got by giving the excess to Leopold and Albert.”

  Straightening up, Cole began storing the chocolates in his arms into his bag. “Hey, don’t phrase it like that. I don’t enjoy giving away the heartfelt chocolates that I can’t finish, you know. They put so much effort into it. I don’t want them to go to waste.”

  “I have a feeling they’d rather their handmade chocolates go uneaten than be given to another boy they didn’t make it for.”

  Blythe silently agreed with Magnus as she watched Cole give Magnus a withering look.

  “You’re just jealous,” Cole teased with a broad smirk, “that I’ve been getting way more chocolates than you have. Oh, no offense, Blythe. Magnus doesn’t need chocolates from anyone else other than you, of course.”

  “None taken,” she said, waving him off. “Doesn’t he get obligatory chocolates anyway?”

  Both Magnus and Cole whipped their heads around to stare at her with eyes that were nearly bulging out of their sockets.

  Blythe leaned back in her chair, wryly accepting the fact that she’d said something wrong again.

  “What are you saying?” Magnus asked. “Almost none of the girls in school except for your two friends give me obligatory chocolate because you think everyone else can disguise romantic chocolate as obligatory chocolate.”

  The original Blythe was way too jealous. If she’d gone to the point of warning off other girls from giving her fiancée obligatory chocolates, she had some serious issues.

  It was time to play dumb again. “Did I? Well, I’ve changed my mind, so I don’t mind that at all anymore. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

  Magnus’ eyebrows furrowed again.

  “Are you feeling alright?” Cole asked, looking at her like one might look at a severely ill patient. “Why does it feel like something’s going on with you?”

  “I’m absolutely fine. Speaking of obligatory chocolate, here.“ Blythe handed Cole a purple foil bag tied shut with a gold ribbon. “Not that I think you need it, but …”

  “No, your palace chef makes really good chocolate,” he said, eagerly taking it. “Thanks, Blythe!”

  Green light.

  “Well, yeah. He is a professional.”

  “Sure, but my chef doesn’t make it as good as yours does.”

  To her surprise, Cole undid the knot right away and tossed a piece of chocolate into his mouth. As he chewed away, he made a satisfied sound.

  “So good …”

  “You no longer have a problem with other girls giving me obligatory chocolates,” Magnus said, ignoring that little interaction between her and Cole. “Did I get that right?”

  “Yeah. That’s what I said. I mean, that was a really unreasonable thing to say, wasn’t it? I was wrong for that. Look, I just gave Cole obligatory chocolate, and it definitely wasn’t anything romantic.”

  She was really getting sick of seeing his suspicious glare, even if she had earned it through her contradictory actions.

  “I don’t disagree with that,” he said, but his eyes were still narrowed. “But what are you trying to achieve by saying this?”

  “Um … I’m not trying to achieve anything? I’m just saying it. I’ll let everyone know they can give you obligatory chocolates and I won’t pitch a fit. I promise.”

  Their professor was already walking into the classroom. Everyone began settling down in their seats.

  Magnus’ annoyed expression reflected how Blythe felt on the inside. “It’s not about the chocolates. I don’t care if I don’t get any—I don’t even like them.”

  “That’s great,” she replied dully.

  Her eyes were treated to another flash of red light. Whatever. It wasn’t like these points mattered beyond reflecting her relationship with the corresponding person anyway. He could hate her all he wanted.

  Right at the moment that the blue bird sang its cuckoo clock song, Cole looked over his shoulder to shoot her another weird look. “Did something happen to you? Since when did you become so open-minded about Valentine’s Day?”