IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE

Just once. Just once, I wished I could talk to Valentine like a normal person. I glanced at my phone and hung my head in shame. Unknown to everyone, I’d been behaving like a stalker the whole time we were in the room. I browsed through Valentine’s social sites.

I opened my smartphone and smiled at Valentine’s Facebook page. He was smiling in his profile picture and he had so many friends there already, while I had… well, Tita Emilee, Tito Xavier, and a few unknown people who probably just sent me a friend request for the heck of it.

I was about to put my phone back to sleep mode when a friend request notification popped. It was Valentine. With a shaky finger, I pressed the “Confirm friend request” and nearly let go of my phone when immediately, the chat window popped up.

Val: Want some warm chocolate drink?

I didn’t bother to type a reply. I simply observed what he’d do next. Another message popped up.

Val: No?

I typed: ‘Yes. Thanks.’and sent it before I could stop myself and excitedly waited for his reply. But ten minutes passed, still no reply. My chest quickly felt heavy at the thought that he might have lost his interest to chat with me. But I got surprised when he showed up in the living room carrying two coffee mugs with warm chocolates.

“Here we go.” Valentine put the mugs on the center table. He sat down beside me and pushed one of them in front of me. He sipped his chocolate drink with a nonchalant look on his face, acting as if he didn’t notice me tense up by our closeness. “Oh, that hit the spot.” He then turned to me. “Are you not gonna drink that? It’ll go cold.”

“Huh?” I looked at the coffee mug and nodded. “Uh-ah, thanks.” I put my phone down and reached for the drink. I brought it up to my lips and froze the moment the chocolate touched my tongue. My face turned sour at the salty taste. “D… disgusting!” I stood up and clapped my hand over my mouth. I ran to the common restroom facing the living room and gagged on the toilet. After I was done, I noticed the masculine figure leaning on the doorway.

“I call it ‘sweet revenge with salty chocolate.’ How did you like it?”

I scowled and turned to look at Valentine grinning from ear to ear. I clenched my fist and attacked him, but the jerk was quick to react. Before I could reach the doorway, he was already running far in the hallway. “Get back here, you Maldito!”

“Speak for yourself! Maldita!” Valentine laughed and playfully stuck his tongue out. I chased him at every corner of the house, and after a while, I simply noticed that I wasn’t chasing him because of anger, but rather, I was laughing and having fun with him.

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