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It’s the weekend before Valentine’s Day at the dorms, and Muku has just arrived with fresh new manga to indulge in the festivity.
He was telling Kazunari all about a scene he has just read – he is trying to slow down the reading because otherwise, he’ll finish all he has bought in just a day. Muku even shows him a couple of pages, and he offers to lend him the volume when he has started a new one.
Kazunari says he is excited for the next meeting of the shoujo manga club and they start brainstorming titles to suggest for the next reunion.
When it’s time to have dinner, they quickly go to the living room, but there are quite a few members who are missing. That makes it less lively than usual, and they take the chance to continue their conversation on manga and Valentine’s Day.
Yuki, who is within earshot, tries to ignore the conversation at first. However, all that talk about romance and Valentine’s Day is getting on his nerves, and soon enough he can’t help but interrupt them.
“Valentine’s Day isn’t just for couples, you know?” Yuki doesn’t look at them while talking, but he says it loud enough that both Muku and Kazunari stop talking, forks midair. Yuki can feel their gazes still on him, and that further irritates him.
“Yuki…” Muku murmurs, trying to decide whether he should drop the conversation and wait until they’re back in their shared room to resume the shoujo manga talk with Kazunari.
“Oh, yeah! I’ve heard girls celebrate it with their friends too! It seems totes fun~” Kazunari resumes eating, while Muku softly sets his fork down.
“It does seem fun… I wish we could celebrate it, too…” Muku softly says, but because the table is quieter than usual, Yuki and the others hear it clearly. “I, uh, forget I said anything! You must be busy and Valentine’s Day is just another day in the year, it’s not…” He quickly adds.
Everyone knows Muku isn’t speaking the truth. For whom else would Valentine’s Day mean so much if not for him? There’s nothing wrong with that, Yuki wants to say, but somehow the words don’t make it past his lips.
That’s why when that awkward dinner is over, Yuki stays in the living room until he sees Muku go to the bathroom to take a bath. By that time, the missing members of the Summer Troupe have already made it back to the dorms. Then, he starts his plan.
“What’s this?” Tenma asks when Yuki brings Kazunari, Misumi and Kumon into their room.
“Listen up guys. We have one mission to accomplish by Monday.” Yuki makes them sit down on the bed while he explains the situation.
Even if some of them complain at first – Tenma – and most of them are confused, by the end of his talk Yuki has managed to convince them all, and they promptly start working towards their goal.
The rest of the weekend passes by in a breeze, and Muku manages to still save one of the volumes he bought. He’s really looking forward to reading it when he comes back from school on Monday.
At school, he sees some girls giving chocolates to their crushes, and he remembers a scene from the manga he finished last night. In it, it was the boy who gave a rose to the girl he liked for Valentine’s Day – something about a Western tradition. Muku looks out the window and imagines how that would be in real life. The boy looked so princely, too. Just like a knight courting a princess.
He wonders how it would be to live in that world, but he is quickly pulled back to Earth when the bell rings. When he’s done getting his things, Yuki is waiting for him to go home together.
“Yuki! Thank you for waiting. Did you receive chocolates?” Muku asks while walking down the stairs.
“Yeah. Luckily, I managed to avoid getting confessed to.” The green-haired boy talks without looking at Muku. The other laughs and wonders if it would be okay to ask more about the chocolates, but finally decides not to.
Once they’re home, Muku doesn’t notice Yuki is following behind him. When the pink-haired boy opens the door to his room, a joyous group shout is heard.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Muku!!” Everyone in the Summer Troupe speaks those words, including Yuki behind him, who quickly pushes him to enter and closes the door behind them.
“Wha-what are all of you doing here?” Muku asks looking at all of them in turns.
“We have a present for you, Muku.” Kumon is the first to speak, and Yuki places his hands on Muku’s shoulders to guide him to sit down on a cushion they’ve prepared. All of them sit down in a circle around him.
“Okay, everyone, on the count of three, one, two-” Yuki says, and Muku’s heart starts beating faster with anticipation.
“Triangle~”
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, each of them gets a special present out.
“Ah, what- this- what is this?” Muku feels overwhelmed, and still doesn’t fully comprehend the situation.
“Mukkun, we got you special VD presents~”
“What? But Valentine’s-” Muku starts saying, but Yuki quickly intercedes.
“This holiday is not reserved for certain people or a certain type of love. And anyone can celebrate love.” Yuki takes Muku’s hand and places his present on his palm. “Here.”
It’s a cloth patch with a beautiful pink rose embroidered there.
“Woah, Yuki! You did this for me? Thank you so much!! But why-”
“My turn~ here, you can have this Muku.” Misumi hands what seems to be a semi-transparent pyramid, and when he looks at it carefully, he sees it has a miniature rose inside.
“Ohh, Misumi, where did you find this? It’s incredible!”
The older one just laughs and quickly Tenma takes the cue.
“Muku, this is from me.” He hands him a beautiful felt rose, but it is so realistic Muku doesn’t notice it’s not a real plant until he is holding it.
“The hack couldn’t even find a real rose and had to buy something fake, huh?”
“Shut up! I wasn’t going to give him something that would wither away and disappear when all of your gifts will be permanent.”
“Ohh, the hack didn’t want to be left out.”
“Thank you so much, Tenma!” Muku quickly interrupts before their little quarrel can escalate.
“Muku, here’s my gift,” Kumon speaks next, handing him what looks like a typical friendship bracelet, except, it is formed by roses threaded together.
“Kumon, you did this? It’s so cute!” he says rotating the bracelet in his hands.
“And last but not least,” Kazunari makes a sound like drum rolls and gives him a little canvas where he has painted a rose. “HVD, Mukkun!”
“Kazu, guys…” Muku looks up from all the gifts that are now nestled on his lap. Tears are already forming in his eyes. “Thank you so much, I can’t even begin saying how much this all means to me.”
From then on, Muku decides to create a friendship altar on his desk, where he places all the gifts he received from his fellow Summer Troupe members, his friends, his family.
Valentine’s Day has been forever marked in Muku’s heart, but for completely different reasons to what he once thought. The feeling these objects represent accompanies him and comforts him, inspiring him to show his own affections to other people throughout the rest of the year.