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"honmei choco" his mother used to say, "it's the special chocolate you give your most special person" she added
shotaro always kept that in mind, growing up, valentine's day was a day of sweet chocolate, whether this comes from an admirer or just a friend, it was nice to get some chocolate regardless, he wasn't popular by any means, but he was friendly and attracted people with his dancing, he received quite a lot of chocolates, whether just as a formality, platonic-- or from admirers, but he's always waited for the day that he would give his own 'honmei choco'
shotaro wakes up with the alarm he forgot to turn off the night before, he sat up and grabbed his phone to shut the alarm, it was february 14, 7:00 am, a holiday with the lunar new year and valentines today
valentine's day... his eyes wandered to his roommate, the younger was still asleep, undisturbed by the ringing of his phone,
shotaro smiled fondly, "he must've been tired from practice," he mumbled to himself, stretching his arms once before sitting up and fixing his bed,
he zoned out watching the younger one sleep, its been a few months since they've practically been glued to each other, and feelings have quite changed from acquaintances, fellow trainees, new debut-- friends, brothers-- and now, maybe something more? shotaro doesn't know it himself, is this love or admiration? he shakes his head and took a deep breath
he heads to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth, in the middle of it, he receives a text from yuta
yuta-san (•̀o•́)ง
tarooooooo
are we still doing the thing
codeword: chocoooo
taro-taro （⌒▽⌒ゞ
yes hyung!
i'm excited, ive never made choco on my own before
yuta-san (•̀o•́)ง
same
but
we will persevere!!!!
come over now!
i think we can manage to do it
it's just chocolate right? ¯\_( ◉ 3 ◉ )_/¯
taro-taro （⌒▽⌒ゞ
i'll be on my way hyung!
i'm sure we'll be able to do it too o(^◇^)o
shotaro finished dressing up, grabbing a pen and paper, he left sungchan a note-- if ever he woke up without him
"with yuta-hyung! will be home by lunch, we can order or will you cook? (*´∀`*)"
shotaro smiled and placed the note on their fridge with the use of a magnet, he started to head out, remembering that most of the materials and ingredients needed was already at the tenth floor dorm, he walked towards the dorm and knocked silently, it's been months since he's debuted and performed with them, but he still feels a tad bit nervous with his sunbaes, from a fan, he suddenly became a co-member, a colleague and it's still all pretty exciting and nerve-wracking to him
yuta opens the door and welcomes the younger inside, "mornin' shotaro, all the stuff's ready in the kitchen," he greets and they walk amicably to the kitchen
"taro, you bought the deer and the autumn leaves right?" yuta asked raising both molds in his hand,
shotaro nodded as he checked the array of ingredients and materials on the table, "these are a lot" he shyly mused
yuta laughed, "well, we are making for the entire group," he raised his arms with a stretch
"imagine, i'm giving one honmei choco and then 22 other friendship chocolates" yuta whined half-heartedly, but smiled at shotaro
"okay, special molds for romantic chocolate and the remaining ones are getting these cute heart shaped ones-- because i found a good deal when i dropped by a baking store" he explained,
yuta grabbed a lion mold and some of the heart molds; while shotaro grabbed the deer mold, the autumn leaves mold, and the rest of the heart molds.
"alright, it's actually pretty easy to make these things, since we're just practically melting these chocolate bars, so-- let's do our best not to burn or-- just get hurt," yuta said, grabbing the chocolates and breaking them into pieces,
"i'll be using the stove, and you can use the microwave," he smiled,
the younger nodded and they started doing their respective chocolates, shotaro started with the autumn leaves one, melting the white chocolate to the right consistency was easy enough, his plan was to make a mint chocolate with two layers-- it seemed easy enough adding a bit of green food color into the white chocolate and a ample amount of peppermint flavor, he poured it onto the mold, about a third of its way, shaking and tapping it on the table to smooth it out, he placed them inside the freezer to solidify before starting on the deer ones, a simple dark chocolate one with melted caramel in the center to complement the bittersweet chocolate.
in retrospect, shotaro may have been in over his head, it seemed easy enough but he still felt like he'd fail at it somehow, he sighed but continued to mix the dark chocolate during the intervals from the microwave,
yuta looked over from the stove, "what's up taro, got something you want to share?" the older asked,
"it's nothing... i'm just worried it'll go wrong..." he admitted, there was no use hiding it from the older as he had this way of getting it out of you regardless,
the blond nodded, "i get that, it truly is worrying, it might suck" shotaro sucked his breath in at that,
yuta continued stirring the bowl of chocolate over the boiling pot of water, "but, it could also be... if not good, decent enough, and what is that they used to say?" he craned his neck to the right, as if to help his mind think of the words he wanted to say
"uh huh! it's the thought that counts," he grinned at shotaro, "regardless, this chocolate was made from your heart, in my opinion, that's enough to make it taste good," he finished, taking the bowl of melted chocolate off the pot, spooning it's contents into the molds, almost immediately.
shotaro smiled at his words, "thanks yuta-senpai," he said, earning him a backhanded wave from his companion
shotaro added the dark chocolate to the mold, adding it into the freezer before grabbing the now solid-enough leaves and adding the rest of the dark chocolate on the mint chocolate leaves,
the two worked in amicable silence, breaking it every now and then to talk about mundane things such as practices, or life back in japan, reminiscing about things long past.
adding the final layer into the deer molds and helping yuta finish their friendship chocolates, they all fit them inside the freezer, it takes about 30 minutes for all of them to harden, just enough time to fix the small boxes they were to give them in.
yuta chuckled loudly as he and shotaro sat down to fix the cute pink boxes, separating two larger red ones, "it really is my first time making these, and i have new-found respect for the girls back home," he mused
"my sisters used to make these before, and i always thought they did so much effort, but decided it wasn't my place to tell them anyway," he added, folding it into the correct shape of a box, putting it aside to start on another,
shotaro nodded, "my sister is too young to be sending off chocolates, so i hope she's still not doing these things" he laughed lightly, folding the boxes as well,
the two worked silently, occasionally chatting up again, topics ranging from the marvel movie they watched to songs they'd like to dance together with and subtle fanboy-ing about working with U-Know Yunho.
afterwards, the two managed to place the hardened chocolates into the boxes, looking at his phone, yuta saw the time, "it's 10 am already, let's clean up and we can start delivering our chocos~" he cheered, his cheeriness contagious as shotaro gave out a cheer of his own, they started washing the bowls and utensils used, wiping the table clean of any spills,
they gave some to the tenth floor members, jaehyun and jungwoo thanking them profusely and taeil smiling and eating the chocolate as they gave it to him,
"let's go to the fifth floor first, then to the dreamies and wayv dorm," he said, purposely avoiding mark's room, shotaro nodded and the two made their way downstairs, bags of chocolate in their hands,
johnny thanked them dramatically, as if he's never gotten a box of chocolate in his life-- unlikely, but then again shotaro doesn't know much about johnny's past in america to refute it, haechan grabbed it immediately, saying something along the lines of "i should get moon taeil some too!"
giving some to doyoung and taeyong ended up making the two suddenly competitive, as they put on their coats to buy ingredients themselves, leaving the fifth floor and his current inhabitants laughing hard.
the dream dorm was quiet and relaxed, jeno and jaemin accepting the chocolates in behalf of the members still asleep, the two had gone on a bike ride and the two remaining members were still out cold from a movie they watched late last night, promising to give the other one to chenle as well when he visited later in the afternoon.
the wayv dorm was chaotic with shouts of "no you can't eat that!" from both ten and dejun when the pets tried to grab the boxes of chocolates from them, as well as the loud laughter from the rest of the members, they thanked the two japanese members and along with hendery asking about the tradition as well,
by the time they left the wayv dorm, it was already 12 pm, "yuta-senpai, i'll be going back to my dorm now, thank you for today, i really enjoyed it!" shotaro smiled, bowing a bit
"thanks for doing this with me too," the older grinned, what was unsaid was the comfort of doing something traditionally japanese with an actual japanese member,
"good luck with sungchan!" yuta had said before running towards the stairs back to the tenth floor,
shotaro waved at him as he made his way back into their dorm, opening the door to a tall and pouting jung sungchan
"sungchan, you're already awake--" he greeted, "did you get to order lunch, or did you cook?" he added, taking off his shoes and entering their shared dorm.
"hyung!" the taller called out, his tone a bit frustrated, "i'm a bit upset" he said honestly,
sungchan might be one of the tallest members, but he is still as young as chenle, seeing it was quite refreshing to shotaro,
"what about sungchannie?" he asked humoring the younger
"this!" he pulled out his phone and it opened to a photo of jungwoo with a box of chocolates with a message "chocolates from taro~"
"why did he get chocolates and where's mine?" he had whined, to which shotaro had laughed, truly, he was in love with such a cute boy, which in turn made him stop a bit,
it's the first time he's actually admitted he was in love with sungchan, maybe unconsciously, he already has, the two boxes of honmei chocolate heavy inside the bag, hanging on his wrist, his heart is beating fast, but he doesn't feel out of breath, butterflies in his stomach, but it doesn't feel uncomfortable,
he looked at the chocolates and back into sungchan's pouting face, "i was going to give them to you later, but right now is as good a time as any" he spoke in slow korean, he grabbed both boxes in his hands and presented it to him,
sungchan grinned and grabbed it from him like an excitable puppy, "thanks hyung! and i got two," he cheered, as if it was a competition-- as if there was any competition,
'if there was, sungchan had already won for him' shotaro had thought fondly
"thank you for existing, your presence is very important to me. happy valentines day," he had spoke in clear and fast japanese, sungchan's forehead creased in unfamiliarity,
"what was that hyung? i didn't quite catch it," he said going near him,
shotaro laughed, "it's nothing, let's eat, i'm starving!"
today was chocolates, tomorrow, maybe a confession, but shotaro was quite content just being here with him, their own little bubble, just for them.