Chocolate (Suzu / Miki extra)

Chocolate (Suzu and Miki endure White Day)


For once, my alarm is music to my ears. I roll out of bed. And then pick myself off the floor. I steal a glance at the calendar pinned to my wall, already covered with reminders for track meets and important practices and maybe even a test or two. A grin spreads across my face as I double check today's date: Wednesday, March 14th. Hell yeah. In fact,
“Hell yeah.” I say it out loud, because I can, because I want to. It's White Day. This is going to be good.

“Wake up! Wake up wake up!” I bang on Suzu's door, and hear her trudging forward a few seconds later. The door swings open, and a bleary eyed little narcoleptic girl stares back at me.
“Are the dorms on fire?” She moans, obviously still half asleep. On a normal day I wouldn't be much better off, but it's not a normal day, it's freaking White Day.
“No, but maybe you are.” I say with a completely straight face. She stares at me for a few seconds before slowly glancing down at the gigantic t-shirt covering most of her body. After deciding that she actually isn't on fire at the moment, she looks back up at me with the sleepiest look of disapproval I've ever seen.
“Don't joke around like that, Miki. Spont... spontan.... spontaneous combustion is a real thing.” She struggles with the word despite it probably being the only thing she learned from science class yesterday. It's far too early in the morning for big words like that, I agree.
“You would worry about things like that. But come on, get up, go take a shower.” Suzu weakly protests as I wade into the piles of random things strewn throughout her floor--she thinks she's sneaky by just looking like a lazy, messy high school student, but I know she really does it so she can feel better about passing out anywhere in her room. I snatch up her uniform, toothbrush, and any of her other morning necessities, it's kind of a pain in the ass with only one hand but I manage to hold it all, and then I shove Suzu into the hallway with my elbows. At this hour, it's like herding sheep towards the bathroom. Are there narcoleptic sheep? Oh well.
I wait outside the bathroom as I hear the shower begin running. She'd better hurry it up in there, no time to pretty up her wool coat because there's a wolf outside and she's hungry for chocolate. Chocolate! Actually, maybe I should cut her a break, today is definitely a time when it's a good idea to look your best.
I hear a thumping noise from inside the bathroom. Damn it.

My pulse begins to pick up as we finally near the room for class 3-3. Only students who commute to school get lockers, so that's one traditional method of delivery ruled out. There's still the classic “chocolate in the desk” method, though. Finally awake (and thankfully not much worse for wear after her nap in the showers), Suzu watches me curiously out of the corner of her eye. Poor Suzu, she was away for White Day last year, so no chocolate for her. Well, I'll be sure to share some of mine with her this year if she doesn't get any. I stride through the door of the classroom, unable to keep the grin off my face.
Inside, the air is filled with tension, even Mutou looks on edge. If I was the superstitious type, I would probably be reeling from the aura of menace that the other girls are giving off. Well, most of them anyway. Hanako Ikezawa is nowhere to be seen, Shiina Mikado is already munching on something happily--although knowing her it could be any damn thing and not just a White Day present--and the two girls in the back corner--Natsume Ooe and Naomi Inoue, I'm pretty sure--are both unwrapping expensive looking gifts and giving eachother approving glances. Ha ha, confirmed for gaylords. I knew it. Not that that's a bad thing, they actually look pretty sweet together like that, too bad Inoue can have such a temper at times. But anyway. The boys look pretty on edge as well. That's too damn bad, they had their fun on Valentine's Day, now it's our turn.
“Morning Haruhiko~” I grin at the first boy in the front row, who smiles back uncomfortably, looking like a worm on a hook. I take my seat and Suzu does the same, immediately slumping forward onto her desk, probably planning to catch as much sleep as she can before class starts. I whip around to face the chair behind me.
“How's it going, Takashi?” But he just yawns and pretends to be engrossed in some last minute homework. Hmph. Forget him then. There's still hope, someone could have hid something in my desk. Oh yeah, my desk!
I quickly turn back around, and then remember that the desks here aren't like my old school, they don't have any spaces built underneath them to store things like books or pens. Or chocolates. Damn it! I run my hand under the bottom just in case there's something taped there out of sight, but no luck.
Well. Well. Someone could still be planning a direct handoff approach--hold on, handoff? Goddamn it.
 The closer the bell gets to ringing, the more depressed everyone who hasn't received anything gets. Everyone except Suzu, who's still snoozing peacefully at her desk. I'm tempted to join her, but I still hold on to some tiny hope. Why are there so many girls in this class compared to boys, anyway? Lezard, nah, not a chance. Maybe Akio? Or even Taro or--
The bell's chime is like a boom of thunder, cleaving my world in two. Mutou lurches straight into things and I'm left staring at him, that sinking feeling managing to fill me up inside. Nothing? No chocolates, not even some cookies or candy? What have I done wrong? What have I done to deserve this?
I aim a kick at my best friend's desk. Wake up Suzu, be miserable with me.

All through lunch break is the same, I'm stuck watching other girls receive gifts and eat delicious things and here I am with nothing. Nothing! At this point, I wouldn't even mind if some tiny, blushing first year came up and offered me something. After all, I'm a star on the track team and good looking to boot! I deserve it, right? Right! Right...
But nothing happens. I even make Suzu hang around with me after school for a bit, waiting in case of stragglers, but no such freaking luck. Eventually I give up, and we retreat back to the dorms to crash in my room.
“White Day sucks.” I puff out my cheeks in frustration as I sit, leaning against the side of my bed, barely watching the TV.
“It's--munch--White Day?” Suzu replies hazily from the bed.
“Well yeah! Why do you think everyone was freaking out or being lovey-dovey all day long?”
There's a pause, Suzu is probably shrugging. “You didn't--munch--get anything at all? Not even... never--munch--mind.”
I narrow my eyes in suspicion. “Why do you ask? What do you know? And what are you eating?” I turn around to look at Suzu, who stares back at me innocently, holding something wrapped in fancy paper. It looks like... it looks like...
I go back and forth between my friend's face and the object in her hands in shock. “Someone gave you chocolate!”
She looks at me blankly for a few moments before realization appears to dawn on her. Suzu yelps, staring down at the candy that was already halfway to her mouth, her face growing red. “That's right, it's White Day...” She mumbles.
“Who was it? Where'd you get that?” I quickly plop down on the bed next to her, eying her prize with envy. It's white chocolate too, and look expensive, damn iiiit!
“It was...” Suzu stares off into space for a few moments. Whenever she does this, I can tell the next thing out of her mouth is going to be a lie.
“It was. It was one of the boys in 3-2. He was very handsome. He said he liked my hair!” Suzu nods enthusiastically, growing more confident as she goes. But I just frown back.
“Suzu, you remember that 3-2 is full of blind kids, right?”
“Oh. Y-yeah, I remember that.” She takes a bite out of her chocolate, deflating.
“I saw you getting a package in the mail from your parents yesterday. That was this, wasn't it?”
Suzu pouts for a few moments--something she's not very good at but she's getting better--before responding. “...Yeah.” She takes another bite, looking more and more depressed. God damn. To be 18 and still getting candy on romantic holidays from your parents. I suddenly feel a lot better about my own situation.
I sigh, leaning back against the wall. So neither of us got any chocolate from boys this year. Damn.
“What's wrong with us, Suzu? Give me some, too.” She pouts a little, but obeys. We pass the solid block of white chocolate back and forth like it was a bottle of booze.
“The boys in our class are all such pussies.” I mutter.
“You really didn't get anything?” Suzu asks quietly. She seems like she's holding something back.
“Not a freaking thing. Why?”
Suzu shrugs. “No reason.” She hands me the chocolate and then slumps forward onto the bed, looking like she's about to take another nap. But she's not getting off that easily.
“Tell me.”
“Nah.” She nestles her face into my blankets, looking like an airplane coming in for a landing or something. I need to intervene now or I'm going to lose her. I scoot forward to sit on her and Suzu lets out something halfway between a yelp and a grunt.
“Tell meee.” I bounce up and down on her back once, driving her further into the bed.
“Miki, you're squishing me.” Suzu squirms a little, her face getting a little red even with how tired she looks.
“Suffer. At least you got some chocolate.”
“And I shared! Now get off, I can feel my organs compacting.”
Always assuming the worst, this one. I roll off to lie down next to her. “I mean it though.” I say.
Suzu flops her head down on the bed, looking at me sideways. “I just thought, someone like you, you know... you're...”
Compliment coming up. Probably. Hopefully, after a day like this. Fire away, Snoozu. I still use that nickname for her in my head sometimes, just not to her face since she probably wouldn't like it.
Suzu blinks several times, each one a little slower than the last. “You're popular, and you're prettier than me, and you have, you know...” She's fading fast. The clock on my desk says that it's only 6 PM, but she could be out for anywhere from ten minutes to a few hours.
“You know...” I give the sleepy little sheep a shove.
“You know. You have, like, bigger... I mean, you're more...” Her eyes are only half open now, and I can tell there's not much left behind them. She lifts one hand to point at me vaguely, and then drops it to the bed. Suzu checks out.
I frown at her for a few seconds. She needs to work on her complimenting skills, if she was better she might have gotten some actual chocolate this year. But then again...
Now that she's gone and left me all by myself, I sit up the bed. I guess it's up to me to finish off this chocolate, we don't want it melting and I'm the only one who'd be able to work it off anyway, Suzu and the track just do not mix. I glance back at the sleeping girl next to me.
Popular, huh? Prettier than her? And I have “bigger”.  Hmph.
“Gaylord.” I mutter, ruffling her hair with my hand. She being silly, she's plenty pretty. Right about the bigger part, though.
I let out another sigh. Another March, another shitty White Day. Sorry Suzu, I guess we both haven't had much luck this year so far. I take another bite of the chocolate, it's pretty damn good.
“Tell you what.” I stick the chunk of candy in my mouth, using my newly freed hand to brush a stray lock of hair from Suzu's face. “Mmf youf ftill don'f haf anfyone to giff youf chocfolate nexft yfear, I'll giff youf fome myfelf.”
Suzu mutters something in her sleep. It almost sounds like “Deal”.