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Acorn could feel his heart rapidly beat as he made his way down the hallway. Today was Valentine’s Day and he was gonna confess his feelings to the love of his life!
…for the 3rd time, but, at this point, it's a routine. Every single Valentine's Day he confesses his love, and every time he gets rejected. This time, it'll definitely go the same way, but it's kinda funny.
He'll sneak a well-written love letter into Sua's locker, and then wait for her at the rooftop afterschool, then he'll get rejected, and repeat the next year.
Well, that was the plan…
He slipped his love letter into the open crevices of the locker and continued on with his day. Everything was going as usual until—
“You finally moved on?” Sua asks during their lunch break. It was surprising to see Sua this early on, as he’d only see her after school when he’d confess to her.
“Huh?”
Sua clarifies, “From me. I didn’t get a letter.”
He blankly stares at her for a couple moments, “...huh?” He mumbles out, “But I gave you one?”
Now it was Sua’s turn to be confused, “I didn’t get a letter?” She repeats.
“But I did give you one, I put it in your locker, 2106?”
“No that’s—” Sua’s eyes widen briefly in surprise but she continues, “—not my locker.”
Acorn tries to make sense of this entire situation, “But. But I’ve seen you use it before?” He reasons.
“Community locker.”
“Wha—okay…” He lets out a sigh, before practically begging Sua, “Who’s locker is that though? Please.”
She shrugs, “Guess you’ll find out.”
“Sua. Please.”
She doesn’t budge, instead asking, “Why are you so nervous anyway? They’re going to read the card and see that it was written for me.”
Acorn bashfully rubs his neck, “I. Uh. May have not written your name on it. At all.”
“Oh. You’re cooked.” Sua turns around to walk away before she hears Acorn's shouts of protest.
“WAIT! SUA! Please, please tell me whose locker it is. Or at least tell them it was a mistake please—!” Acorn frantically rambles, about 1 second away from getting on his knees and begging her.
Sua turns back and his hopes lift for a second, “Good luck.” She cruelly says, before leaving.
Speechless, Acorn begins to cry into his lunchbox.
__
There's 5 minutes left until the final bell rings. 5 minutes for him to decide whether he should go to the rooftop to clear up the misunderstanding or if he should ghost the mystery person. On one hand that would be really awkward, but on the other hand, thats kinda mean.
The bell rings, and students excitedly chatter and rush out the school doors, Acorn rushes up the stairs to the rooftop, preparing himself for the most awkward conversation of his life. He practically throws his backpack off into a corner, and takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself.
Imagine he accidentally gave the letter to a guy, that would be so embarrassing! But, on the off-chance he got lucky, maybe it was some cute girl that he hadn’t noticed before. A quiet beauty, just like Sua. A mysterious loner, who has a passion for the things she loves. Maybe she’d get embarrassed and pout and throw a fit but feel touched by the sincerity of the note. She’d bashfully give him a gift back for the letter, blushing and insisting it’s just a gratitude gift… Acorn has always liked tsunderes… And maybe she’s actually harboured feelings for him for a long time and—
His daydreams were abruptly interrupted by the door slamming and he braces himself for the realisation—
No… it can’t be!
The person who walked through those doors was someone he never could’ve thought of! And… dammit! Did it really have to be him ?!
In all of his non-glory, it was Till who walked through those doors. Acorn really is the unluckiest guy in the world…
Till’s eyes widen as they make eye contact, and Acorn starts to mentally curse himself. Why, god, why?!
“Um…” Till hesitantly starts, his hands behind his back, as if he is hiding something. Weird, but whatever, “Do… you really like me?”
Acorn clears his throat, prepared to clear this entire situation up, “Well, I actually—”
“W-wait!” Till awkwardly shuffles to him, offering Acorn the thing that he was hiding—a gift box with a nicely wrapped bow on it. “Here, take it!”
Dumbfounded, Acorn stupidly asks, “Did you… make this for me?”
Till’s face reddens (cute) and begins to explain nervously, his hands frantically moving all over the place, “Well, yeah! It’s rude to not after you put so much effort into your letter—I really like the scrapbooking— and it wasn’t hard, don’t get the wrong idea idiot!” Till continues to ramble after seeing Acorn’s dazed expression, “I heard you liked those chestnut cookies from the convenience store and I just happened to have some leftover— and uh, I got you a keychain— Maru from Bye-Bye Darling?”
“You know that show?”
“Y-yeah… you have a keychain of Lubelle, so I thought you’d like this.” Till pauses before turning bright red, sputtering out, “B-but, this is just a gratitude gift! Nothing more! I didn’t try at all!” Till averts his eyes, rubbing his neck.
Acorn carefully removes the wrapping paper, making sure to not rip it, and peers inside the gift box. And, lo and behold, it’s the chestnut cookies (which were still nice and pristine in their packaging) and the Maru keychain. How Till got this within the few hours of accidentally getting Acorn's love letter was a mystery, but the fact that he did all of this for Acorn… all while being blushy and a bit combatant… was there a chance that Till liked him?
There was something sticking out at the bottom of the box, a letter. He plucks it out and begins reading.
Dear Acorn,
I’m writing this letter because I don’t think I’ll be able to voice my thoughts out loud. I don’t know what to say to this confession, I always thought you didn't like me. I'm not sure if I like you, but I'd like to get to know more. I think I could like you.
“I…” Acorn trailed off, unable to voice his thoughts. He never really liked Till to begin with, always thinking he was weird, but now he’s seen the other side of him, he’s kinda cute..? He vaguely remembers Durian calling Till a cutie when you get to know him but he brushed it off at the time. He never even considered Till as a potential crush, as the other boy seemed too infatuated with Mizi, but even that has seemed to slowly dissipate. “I, uh—”
“Well, I guess that’s all, I’ll get going now—”
“Wait!”
“Huh?”
“You said that you wanted to get to know me more right?” Acorn tries, “Why don’t we hang out? Are you free on Saturday?”
“I think so, but isn’t this just leading you on? It’s not like I like you or anything!” Till says, to which Acorn shakes his head. Wait… was Till saying the catchphrase of every tsundere on this Earth? Now that he was thinking about it, Till did seem like a Tsundere...
“I want to get to know you more too. If you don’t like me then we can just remain friends.” Till seems shocked at this, and hell, Acorn’s shocked at himself for saying all of this.
Till still seems unsure, but he agrees anyway, “Sure. Uh, should I give you my number..?” He nods and gives his phone to Till. After Till puts his number on Acorn’s phone, he hands it back. Till gives him a slightly crooked smile and Acorn really shouldn’t feel as endeared as he is.
Acorn coughs, covering his face to hide the slight blush he has, “We should get going. Do you want me to walk you home..?”
“It’s okay, I’m walking home with Ivan.” Till’s eyes widen in realisation, “Oh shit! He’s probably waiting for me right now— I gotta go!” Till rushes to get out, and Acorn rushes to get his bag and put away the gift box, following Till down the stairs.
When he catches up, Ivan is there, waiting for Till this entire time.
“Hello Acorn,” Ivan says, smiling at him. Till apparently didn’t notice Acorn following him, looking at him in surprise, “What were you and Till talking about? I’ve been dying to know, but Till’s too mean to tell me.”
Acorn nervously chuckles, “Well, it was nothing really…”
Ivan arches a brow at that, “Nothing?”
“Why do you want to know so badly?” Till grumbles.
Ivan gives Till a smirk, “I just wanna know why you and Acorn came out looking like strawberries.” He singsongs, making Till flush, “Plus, it’s my birthday, so you should tell me.”
“W-whatever!” Till shouts.
“Uhm, happy birthday..?” Acorns says, feeling on edge. Ivan nods in thanks.
“Why don’t you go on ahead, and Acorn and I will meet you at the front of the school,” Ivan tells Till. Till makes a sound of confusion, and Ivan explains, “Don’t you need to get your art project from your locker?”
“Oh yeah! I’ll go get that.” And with that, Till was gone, leaving Ivan and Acorn alone. Acorn feels as if the atmosphere got a bit darker, and suppresses the urge to shiver.
They begin to walk towards the entrance of the school, and Ivan asks again, much more seriously this time, “What did you say to him? I saw your letter to him. Didn’t you like Sua not too long ago? What changed?”
Acorn feels bombarded by Ivan’s questions, barely able to say a word before Ivan interrupts him.
“Are you taking him on a date? Did he agree to a date?”
Acorn stammers, “It’s not exactly a date, just a hangout—”
Ivan’s face darkens and he knows that he’s screwed. Of course, he forgot about one of the most important things about Till, his best friend who’s head over heels for him. Aka the most popular guy in school. There’s no way Till would choose him over Ivan, the embodiment of perfect— but… it was Acorn that he prepared an entire gift for in a few hours, right? And maybe they got off the wrong foot, but now Acorn’s eyes have witnessed another side to Till, a cuter, tsundere side, and he’s determined.
“Alright,” Ivan says, and they continue to walk in uncomfortable silence. They made it to the entrance before Till, and Acorn refuses to look in Ivan’s direction, afraid of the predator next to him.
Thankfully, Till doesn’t take that much time, lightening the mood immediately.
“Took you long enough,” Acorn dryly jokes, earning himself a look from Ivan.
Till scoffs, “Whatever.”
Ivan doesn’t say anything, opting to glance between the 2 of them.
They leave the school, and to Acorn’s disappointment he lives in the opposite direction of Till and Ivan, so he has to bid a reluctant farewell to them.
“Bye guys,” He slowly turns away from them, about to continue his way home.
“...bye Acorn…” The sound of Till’s voice is so soft that he can barely hear it, swiveling his head back to look at Till, but he and Ivan are already walking away from him. Ivan notices Acorn staring at them and gives him a smile, which didn’t really help with his nerves from earlier, but at least he was being civil..?
Well, whatever, he didn’t care. He got a date(?) and his phone number! Maybe this accidental confession was for the best, he wouldn’t have seen how cute Till could be without it.
Acorn hums as he continues home, heart full and confession accepted—even if it’s by the one he least expected.