The Fourteenth

It was fortunate that after Wendy's little incident at the eco-park, nothing major was wrought out of her snake bite. Apparently, the group's initial hypothesis was right, and that the snake was a non-venomous grass snake and Wendy's wound was treated accordingly. It was almost even unnecessary that Vivian and Jae-in rushed to the hospital just to see her, and all they saw when they arrived was her walking ever so happily accompanied with Thomas, Dawn, and Vincent with nothing else aside from a small bandage on her leg.

Perhaps it was also because of that small incident that the rest of the group decided to keep things low for the next couple of days. It might have been the best decision to do so; for as soon as they decided to tone down their drinking sessions, the next weeks that followed were filled with various surges of academic requirements within the university. Research papers, extra drafting assignments, essays, and all sorts of activities their professors could possibly give them to jumpstart the semester and 'make-up for lost time' due to the inactivity of their first weeks were ineptly given. Jae-in, in utmost regret, had to ultimately cancel his trip to the book café with Vivian to make up for the sudden surge of dues.

The week was almost over and the air was as chilly as it could have gotten. Yoon Jae-in had just finished almost every requirement that had been given consistently given throughout a three-week period. He was on his final subject for that Friday night, Manual and Digital Drafting, of which he shared with Vincent. The pair of them had just exited their room after an activity, welcoming the approach of the cold evening sky with the soft and subtle winter breeze.

"Ahh that fucking last one was surprisingly easy. I would have had enough time if I didn't spend the first hour monkeying around," The taller Vincent said as soon as he and Jae-in were out of earshot from their classmates. "I'm glad that at least I got to make it before the deadline."

"That sure did require a couple of brain cells to understand. I'm just glad that we managed to get off of that without having to extend. I feel bad for those who were not even finished yet and were left behind. I'm sure that ought to have some sort of grade deduction if they're not careful with the time."

"Aish… at least I'm done for the night and I don't have to worry about that shit for a while. Do you have plans? I'm feeling a bit hungry. How about we head off and grab something to eat?"

"I think I'll have to decline. My noona's actually home and I think she cooked. She'd get mad if I won't eat."

"She gets mad if you don't eat what she cooked?"

"I mean, not really angry. She does not mind if I eat before I head home but I feel kind of bad that she went through the trouble of cooking for me and I won't even eat what she made. She might not do it in the future and I'll regret it for sure."

"Damn… you sister must cook really well, then. No wonder you always come home on the earliest time possible."

Jae-in smiled towards his direction as they approached the back gate of the school, walking towards the exit heading to the hospital co-owned by the university.

"Well, that's usually the case. I really enjoy living with my sister so I'd do anything to make her happy, even in the smallest of ways. Now that I thought of it, maybe I should stop by the tart shop that Thomas mentioned before and get something for her, you know."

"You were always the one to do that, Jae-in… which actually makes me wonder about something. You haven't shown any signs ever since this week started, so I'm not really sure if you're planning something for tomorrow."

"Tomorrow…? Is there something that's going to happen tomorrow?"

Vincent scoffed.

"Are you seriously doing that to me right now?"

"No shit, Vincent… I really have no idea what's up. What's with tomorrow?"

"Okay then, if you want to plan a secret then I won't squeeze it out of you. But just in case you forgot, it's the fourteenth tomorrow, man. It's the best day of a year for a guy who's taken like you. Tomorrow's Valentine's Day!"

(I don't get where he's going with this.)

(What is it to me that it's Valentine's Day tomorrow?)

"Come on, Jae-in… surely a man of your calibre would have something special planned for Wendy, right? Surely you'll give her flowers or something, right?"

(Valentine's Day…?)

(But shouldn't girls give chocolates on the fourteenth…?)

(It's not White Day…)

(What?)

Once again, Jae-in fell silent as he felt an invisible shudder run through his body. With utmost effort, he mouthed a response; probably the safest to say to someone who was as nosy as Vincent in the hopes of it shutting him up from further inquiry.

"Of course I do… it is Wendy we're talking about, then of course there's something. It's a secret, but there's definitely something."

(Yeah, sure…)

('Definitely', there's something…)

"That's my boy right there! I can't wait to hear what you got in store for her. Are you planning to make the speculations in Skylight a reality now, hmm?"

"What speculation?"

Vincent teasingly formed a hoop with his left index finger and thumb, and then proceeded to insert his right index finger at the hoop he made.

"Shut up, Vincent."

Jae-in merely dismissed the small teasing as something normal and delivered his response with the most fake conviction he could ever muster. The pair of them continued to walk through the night heading to their respective bus terminals until they had to separate. Vincent was occupied on pestering Jae-in about the details in the best way he could squeeze it out of him, but in reality…

Jae-in really has no idea whether he should do a plan for someone he's not remotely even dating.

He doesn't even know if Wendy considers him as her boyfriend in the first place.

---THE NEXT DAY---

Jae-in's POV

I honestly have no idea what I am expecting for today. I don't even know if I should even expect something for this day considering things have really gone busy for the past week. Wendy and I… we were barely even messaging each other because she's busy with her schedule as well, and we haven't seen each other since the hospital save for a couple of run-ins here and there, but I don't really consider those because we didn't even talk.

Should I be the one who should make a move when she's the one who confessed?

First and foremost, are we even dating?

God, I don't even know where I'm going to place myself in this situation. Somehow answering to Vincent that I actually prepared something screwed me up in more ways than one. It's hard to make an excuse out of it especially when it was Vincent I told about.

For the better of the day, I decided to dump that little thought on the back of my head. It was not a priority, and in case I find something to make the day work for itself, then maybe I could do a little something for her; give her chocolate, flowers, or the like? I don't really know. It was still early in the day and I had just finished dressing up after a good shower. Like always, Yihyun-noona had gone off early in the morning since she had the early schedule today, and so I was left alone in the apartment trying my best to not be late for the bus.

I carefully donned on a slender, black jacket over my other layers of clothes when I noticed my hand phone's screen lit up with a message coming from an expected person: Wendy.

I closed my eyes in disappointment knowing there is a possibility of her asking me out for the day. I have nothing else prepared, and certainly I don't have time to prepare anything in case there's something that's up.

Wait a minute…

Why am I so stressed about this?

Should I even be stressed about it?

Oh god, Jae-in please… get your fucking act together.

With utmost effort, I moved to slide Wendy's chat tab from the side and opened her message for me.

Wendy: Jae-in~ Good morningI messaged this early because it's Valentine's Day and I want to wish you to be happy for today! Sadly, as much as I want to give my love to you today, I had to head out of town. Eomma had an emergency with a cousin of mine and so I won't be heading to Uni today. Don't miss me, okay? We'll catch up once I come back later and you better wait for what I'm going to give to you

I re-read and re-read the message over and over again just to make sure that I was reading the right thing.

Wendy's going out of town for an emergency? I do hope that whatever emergency she has to attend to would turn out well.

Strangely enough, however, with this new development I could not help but feel relieved that everything turned out the way it did. It feels so bad to be glad that the emergency had to happen and I do wish that it would work out for her, whatever it is; but then at least whatever thing was pressuring me from last night's conversation with Vincent was gone. I would not have to prepare for anything today because Wendy's out. In case I would have to prepare for something, then at least there's time.

Whatever…. I'm just glad that I got off that weight of the occasion. I really am not a fan of the idea that situations oblige me to do things that I have no plans to do… it makes me feel so half-assed and that I merely did it because I had to, not because I want to.

At least now I could relax for what's in store for the rest of the day. I better go before I miss the bus.

--- HOURS LATER---

Okay, I was a fool.

When I said that I could relax for the time-being, I've never been so wrong. While, yes, it did pluck out a huge thorn in my back that Wendy had to go out of town for the time-being, apparently I was naïve enough to realize that it was not only us that was about to celebrate Valentine's Day. It didn't occur to me that the University was that hands-on on such an occasion as well.

I don't know when they set things up because surely they were not present when Vincent and I went home last night, but in a quick moment the white hallways of the university began lined with the color red, and maybe a hint of white with it. Booths of different services offering flowers, serenades, fake weddings, and all other stuff I certainly did not expect to see them use this year began to line the corridors of the great buildings. The floors were flooded with a lot of couples and people wandering about, trying to check the booths out and in turn leaving an unnecessarily tremendous amount of rosy fragrance lingering up in the air. I had to endure wading through a thick flock of people as I exited the university. With how crowded the place was, I figured it was best to spend the afternoon at the book café outside despite the cold air.

Pacific Book Café, as I have always remembered, was this small café located at the opposite side of the university's street. Located on the second floor of a small establishment, it could easily be accessed via outdoor spiral steel stairways overlooking the street beyond. I haven't gone there ever since I mentioned it to Vivian at Skylight, and I could only blame the surge of school-related shit for that.

The soft and warm aroma of the place was already getting to me as I started to walk its steps upward. After not being able to go here for what felt like forever, it was definitely relieving to have my nostrils experience that scent again. I can't wait to take a seat and stave off of this awful Valentine's Day atmosphere for a bit. I feel like I've been squeezed with way too much people that I started to hate what the day stood for.

I gazed on the café's pretty doors and I was about to make my entrance when I was greeted by the figure of Vivian exiting the place with a look of frustration on her. She turned towards my direction just in time and shook her head in disappointment.

"The place is fucking full," she said as she descended a couple of steps to approach me. "There's no hope getting a seat, Jae-in. Even the café is filled with people because of Valentine's Day."

"Don't tell me that you also came here to loosen up the flowery crap from the Uni."

"I was about to, yeah. I was planning to maybe take the atmosphere off of myself. They discovered this place too, and every table is occupied with couples, flowers, stuffed bears, and all that crap. It's annoying," she said, pointing towards the door with her thumb.

I sighed.

"Apparently heading here was not a good idea either. The school is full of people and I wanted to go here to get something to drink."

"Beats me… I had the same idea."

"Well, that sucks. I don't want to go home this early. I don't have anything else to do because I got my requirements done already."

"If that's the case, then let's just head off somewhere else," Vivian then moved past my position and further down the stairwell. "Do you want to head to the mall? I reckon there won't be any people there by now."

"But would it even make a difference? If the school is crowded, then I'm sure as hell the mall would be as well."

"Yeah, but I'm sure there'll be enough space for us to not bump into people. It is better there than here, so let's go. Oh and by the way, you smell like roses Jae-in, please get rid of it. I hate the smell of roses."

"You smell like roses too, just so you know."

"Whatever… let's get a cab. I'm too tired to walk."

I didn't even get to reply as Vivian practically dashed around the spiral staircase towards the street below. I haven't even gotten off the said staircase when I saw her already boarding a cab she just hailed. It was that damn fast.

I don't know what her plan is here, but it's definitely better there than here.

---

As much as I really expected nothing less from Metro Station Mall, the initial anticipation of the surge of people were definitely there although not as much as I originally thought. One of the most noticeable features of the mall's décor, however, was the significant change of palette to hues of red, pink and white along with a lot of Heart's Day-themed props placed all over the huge establishment even on its entrance. Some of the multi-floored mall's premises were even lined with rose petals all over the floors.

"Oh god, it looks so bad when people have already stepped on them," Vivian quipped as soon as we exited the escalator from the mall's upper ground floor. "Some already looked like red dirt. It would have been better had they used something else."

I nodded in agreement, not entirely sure what to respond to that. I moved to ask a question I had in my head, although it unintentionally shifted the topic from the scattered petals.

"Where are we going here, exactly? Do we have a plan?"

If Vivian suddenly asks me to eat out of nowhere, even if I wanted to, I really doubt that there's a place for two friends to dine in. After all, Valentine's Day promos spread inside the mall and it would inevitably mean that everything is pretty much crowded. We might even be forced to eat impractical promos just for the sake of 'heart's day'

"Don't worry, I know of a place where people won't stay."

She suddenly picked up pace and I could barely keep up. We walked briskly through the multitude of stalls within the floor. Bookshops, perfume stores, apparels… everything had their own twist of sales for the surge of people. Like the University, there are a couple of booths selling flowers and chocolates that lined the usually-empty spots of the place. However, I would say that Metro Station would feel a lot more tolerable than the crowded corridors of North Line.

"Jae-in-ssi, why the hell do you walk so fucking slowly? Do you plan on buying something? Come on," I heard Vivian's voice call to me followed by a swift grasp on my arm. Quickly, I turned just in time to see her holding my hand before she jogged ahead with me in tow.

Vivian ran us past stalls and floors, eventually arriving at the Mall's topmost floor. With the given topography and altitude of the place, it caused the already-cold wind to bleed through the gaps on the wall's windows and open sided roof. Ning's strong grasp managed to pull me to the mall's arcade, its bright neon façade and noisy mix of arcade music greeting us in the arched entrance.

It was nothing in the sort of eye-popping, but considering I haven't been to this place for a long time, I can't help but be wowed by the tons of changes they implemented to make it look better. The walls, ceiling, and floors were all clad in what appeared to be dark blue tiles, emphasizing the neon lights, flashes, and the playful atmosphere of the place. The arcade was awfully empty from what I've been used to it, aside from a few groups of people of whom I assumed were mainstays on the arcade.

"I'll get us tokens. It'll be my treat since I was the one who dragged you here," Vivian said as she disappeared into the crowd of people even before I could even muster a word for protest. I was quite dumbstruck with how fast the events transpired, and so I just waited for Vivian to come back and merely occupied myself with watching the people playing fighting games.

A couple of minutes passed and Vivian returned, handing me a fistful of arcade tokens.

What the hell…?

She treated me with THIS much?

Is she planning to stay here the whole afternoon?

"Let's head onto that dancing console over there. I haven't done those in a while, too," she declared before I could even fully process the amount of tokens I have on hand. "I hope they have the song that I jammed a lot to."

"But Vivi isn't this a bit too much—"I began, but I was swiftly cut by her grasping my hand once again and pulling me to the vacant machine. The large neon signs bearing characters 'Dance Master- Infinity', which shone in English letters.

Vivian immediately shot me a reassuring smile as she led me towards the dancing platform. She moved to fling her bag towards the open chair nearby, and made sure that I did the same. With much anticipation, she placed a couple of the required tokens onto the slot and chose a two-player mode without even letting me talk her against doing it.

All attempts were thrown out of the window as Vivian immediately looked for her song in the directory. She gave me a wild smirk once again as soon as her screen stopped on a song called 'Black Mamba' before placing it in confirmation, awaiting the same kind of response from my end of the playing field.

I just need to play with her impulsiveness but shit; this won't end well for me.

---

The deep, bass intro of Vivian's chosen song began to play and the surprisingly complex dance steps began to show off the screen. What Jae-in initially thought to be a simple game of stepping the console on the perfect time turned out to be really difficult to do, especially when the song has a fast beat to make it up for it. However, despite having no experience on games such as that one, he was surprised that he could at least keep up with the fast songs that Vivian has chosen to dance to. She was excellent, and to even call it that was an understatement. Vivian hit each and every note perfectly while Jae-in even struggled to keep the consecutive arrows in check; her legs were clearly hard-wired with the game. Nevertheless, five songs later, Jae-in was visibly the one who was out of breath and sweating from head to toe while Vivian merely greeted him with a teasing smile.

"H-holy shit…" he panted as soon as they both got off from the console. "Y-you're good. I-I n-need a-an n-new set o-of legs."

"Shut it, y-you weren't as b-bad as you think. W-where to next…?"

"Let me get my b-breath back first."

"Okay, fine; f-fine…. I-I'll let you choose the next game then. Pick any. I'll j-join you."

Jae-in pointed immediately at the corner, straight at the racing games.

"Not even a question."

Vivian knit her eyebrows and supplied him a look of disgust.

"Seriously, Jae-in…? Y-you're in your twenties and you still want to play racing games?"

"Ah-huh"

"Oh my god; you're such a child, you know that?" Vivian laughed. "It's a good place to get some rest, I guess. Let's do it."

"Well, this child is about to kick your ass," he joked with a smile.

"Oh, still bitter about the DMI, huh? Okay then; I'm more than happy to take you on, Yoon Jae-in!"

The pair of them eventually stood at the two side-by-side arcade racing game with Vivian carefully examining the console from the steering wheel, chair, shifter, and the pedals from underneath. Jae-in, on the other hand, was more than happy to get into the console and moved to immediately drop the required amount of tokens in. Vivian followed suit, and the quick blare of the gaudy arcade sign shone above them, Potential Z: Arcade Sequence X, followed by an upbeat soundtrack that probably rivalled the quickness of the DMI's music.

Two-player mode was quickly chosen, the choices of cars, and eventually the dark, downhill race course that was the highlight of the game. Soon, the in-game engines began to blare as they raced against each other, eager to prove that one was better than the other. Corners were proven to be difficult to navigate as faithful to its source material, but thanks to Jae-in's excessive practice with games on the same calibre close to almost a simulation, he was able to navigate through the apex of the turns; perfectly injecting a surreal combination of braking, downshifting and steering that allowed him to barely miss the virtual guardrail by inches. It felt as if it was the perfect antithesis to Vivian's excellence in dancing as he completely blew her unstable car before settling for a clean victory as his competitive spirit began to rise.

Two games (and a lot of car crashing) later, the pair eventually stood up from the bright game and called it equals. They left the loud console to go and find something else to play.

"Okay, if the DMI was so straining on the body, that driving game was so stressful on my brain," Vivian said as she brushed the strands of her hair caught on her forehead. "You've shown me your best game, and I've shown mine yours, so how about we settle for a game that favours neither of us and pull our luck?"

"I just won because you called me a child, you know."

Vivian raised her eyebrows, and Jae-in merely laughed.

"I'm kidding. Okay, okay, let's do that. Let's look for a game that's enjoyable. We only have a couple of tokens left with how ridiculous they charge for each console," said Jae-in. "How many do you have left?"

"I don't have any. I took just enough to get five DMIs. You…?"

"I got about three. I think this is enough credit if you want to go another DMI round. I can just sit by and wait."

"Well, if we're going to pick up a game of luck, then might as well try it there."

"DMI is a game of luck?"

Vivian pointed her finger towards a large, glass box and Jae-in immediately realized what she was talking about. Of course, throughout his lifetime, he has never seen anyone succeed at the notorious Crane Machine no matter how skilled they were at trying. The choice definitely was interesting. Having a couple of stuffed animals inside, given how large they were, proved how exactly impossible it was to even get one.

"You know that it's rigged, right? No one wins these types of games" asked Jae-in.

"I do, but if we manage to take something out of it, then we're good. Let's try that luck of yours. You go and play for me."

Vivian snatched the three remaining tokens from Jae-in's grasp and immediately moved to place it on the coin slot, allowing the machine to light up and wheeze to life. The crane machine moved around and repeatedly opened and closed its mechanism as the machine entered its first stages of preparation for the game.

"I don't even know what to get here, Ning. Don't even pick what to get; I don't want to get your hopes up."

"Why would I? There's no point to even pick a specific design because it's easy to screw up. You know, just push your luck with this, Jae-in. You're a pretty lucky guy, so let's go ahead."

"I don't understand why that would warrant me enough to play, but okay."

"I blessed the tokens with my touch, so I'll leave and get some drinks while you're at it. This won't take long."

Before Jae-in could even protest, Vivian immediately disappeared from beside him with a quick flash similar to how she has been doing ever since they met in front of Pacific. He could not even see what direction she ran to, only that the ghost of her wishes was left on the guise of the crane machine. The crane moved in place, as if waiting in anticipation for Jae-in to take the perfect time and try it out. Luckily, there was no other time limit for the machine and he had all the time he desired to estimate the perfect plushie to grab.

Time dialled faster than intended, and Jae-in's initial plan of picking something for his own was complete disregarded. He angled the crane on a weird position, picking a spot right smack in the middle of the mountain of stuffed animals and hoped for the crane to snag something on the way down. In his head, it's highly likely for him to get something with how tangled and convoluted things appeared in the middle.

"Fuck it," Jae-in thought as he launched the crane, not even keeping his hopes up for it to even grab something.

However, as the crane retracted back up, he was surprised to find out that it DID manage to snag something. A huge, brown, horse plushie was dangling on one of the crane's closed fingers by a small string loop. Jae-in could only watch in disbelief as the plushie was slowly transported to the open drop-box of the machine and eventually dropped into the claiming slot. He quickly fished it out and watched it carefully, wondering if the entire ordeal was true or not. It took a while before he got back to earth again, and that was only when Vivian came back from her little escape, now with two chocolate chip frappes on her hands.

"What is that?" she asked upon seeing the horse in Jae-in's hand. "Don't tell me that you got it on the first try?!"

"Apparently I did. You were right, Ning; I do have that luck in me. Oh my god, I wasn't even banking on fishing this one out!"

"Oh what the fuck…? Can I see that? Here, this is for you," she said as she handed Jae-in a cup of frappe. He then traded it for the plushie, of which Vivian eyed it from every single angle and gave it a toothy grin right after.

"What is this though? Is this also your treat?" Jae-in teased, holding the frappe in front of Vivian.

"It was but not anymore. I'm taking this as payment if you don't mind," she said, waving the stuffed animal in between them as she moved to sip from her own cup of frappe.

"Sure thing, I don't have anything else to do with it anyway."

"I'm giving it a name… Jae-in"

Jae-in knit his eyebrows.

"Do you really have to name it? Why does it have to be my name?"

"You fetched it for me. It works just like that. Just deal with it."

"Whatever Vivian, suit yourself. I'll let it slide because you treated me today. Thanks for that by the way, although I didn't ask it. I'll treat you back next time."

"Don't mind it. Going here was my idea anyway so I think it's just right. Oh by the way," she pulled something from her back pocket. "This is an extra. Keep it until we go here again, will you?"

Vivian flicked Jae-in a token she hid from before. Despite his confusion, he merely nodded and moved to place it on his vacant pocket.

"I guess that'll be it, then. Shall we call it a day? I want to show Jae-in his new home."

"Show me my… what home?"

"Oh I'm not talking about this Jae-in…"

Vivian patted Jae-in on his shoulder.

"… I'm talking about this Jae-in."

She then patted on the horse's head.

(What?)

"Let's go! It's getting late!" Vivian said before he could even muster another word, and just as how quick she appeared, she equally disappeared from his side as well. The figure of Vivian Ning was suddenly on the doorway of the bright arcade, holding one horse plushie on one arm and a chocolate frappe on the other.

Jae-in could only stand there and smile after getting caught up with everything. It was an unexpected day for sure, but it was worth it for how fun it turned out. And so, he eventually treaded for Vivian, taking a sip on the chocolate drink she gave him on the evening of Valentine's Day.