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Ran didn't exactly care about this particular date. To be fair, it's only when Himari starts talking to no end about it exactly as soon as February 1st comes up in her calendar, that she suddenly remembers that people actually give each other chocolates on a very specific day, for whatever reason. The idea itself is even a bit... silly, to be honest. For reasons that she doesn't really want to speak about out loud (be it for the sake of not ruining Himari's hype, or because she's just not one to talk down on things), Valentine’s Day has always been a stupid concept for her. Of course, she can't exactly hate it either. No matter how unbearably milky, unnaturally sweet or uncannily soft those chocolates are, Ran just can't reject them—not when they're those of the dearest people in her life. Those that they give to eachother after school, on the rooftop, like a reminder of their bond—as proof that even the most primitive traditions of their friendship are still alive, almost like a relic to her. She's sure it's the same for them, too. That's all Ran expects from Valentines; remember that, with the smiles of her friends and the setting sun on the very familiar place they meet up, that friendship over a decade old has yet to break up. ...except, when Tomoe has her trapped against a wall behind the entire school, everything she could've ever expected from a fourteenth of February just jumps through an imaginary window, and turns into something completely different. And she just has to ask, what the hell...? "...T-Tomo--" And everything that could've ever come out of her mouth in pure confusion dies on her tongue when Tomoe shh!'s her, index finger on her lips taking away any right to speak. She'll just have to ask herself again, then... What the hell was Tomoe doing? More specifically, why did Tomoe, on a fourteenth of February as soon as her feet crossed Haneoka's entrance, drag her practically running all the way here—somewhere behind the gigantic building of the school, suspiciously isolated and quiet? She's about to try and ask again what was she trying to do exactly because it's starting to get weirder the more she thinks about it, but when Tomoe looks over her shoulder one last time to then look back at her, Ran notices how quickly her expression changes. "Alright, uh..." Tomoe digs into her bag, searching for something that Ran doesn't really know what to expect of and, once she sees her take out a cardboard box, in the shape of a slightly crooked and strangely cut heart, Ran is just even more confused. The faint embarrassment on Tomoe's face handing her the box is even making her think maybe she's been sleeping way too little over the past few weeks. "Here." She stares at the box for a second or two in which she's convinced she's in a weird fever dream, to then realize she's very well awake. Ran pushes down that little urge to take it into her hands and settles on looking away from the box and give herself a breath. This is suddenly all too overwhelming. "You could've waited until after school, you know." "I mean, they're not exactly tomo-choco," Tomoe says, like stating the obvious and, for some reason, for some goddamn reason that Ran really doesn't want to fully look into, her heart skips a beat. If they're not tomo-choco, then... "These are... From me, to you," she hands out the box to her once again, and when her most prominent suspicions blatantly come true right in her face, Ran's will is suddenly split up into the ever-present resistance to taking the chocolates, and that insistent something inside of her, she doesn't know how or where it's coming from, yelling at her to just take them. That something seems to bloom further in her chest when she hears Tomoe chuckle as she decides to take the box in her hands. "Happy Valentine's, Ran." Ran is still reluctant, even when she knows there's no turning back because the chocolates are already in her hands but-- Tomoe simply cannot be giving her chocolates in a place and context different from the rooftop after school. Anything other than that is stupid to just think about. She's even debating if she should to open the box right there and now and see exactly what's inside, make sure this isn't a bad joke of sorts despite how much she doubts Tomoe would do something like that. No, in fact—she's convinced that Moca has something to do with all of this, and once she sees her she swears to God... Seconds pass in which Ran realizes she's staring at the box in her hands like an idiot, then she takes a deep breath. Yeah, it's just that, surely. She carefully lifts the lid of the box, expecting any stupid prank that she could imagine Moca bothering to plan out (with Tomoe as some sort of partner in crime, why of course)—except, what she sees inside the little box isn't part of whose stupid prank, but in fact they're actually... chocolates. Chocolates in the shape of awkwardly drawn hearts, with a color and a smell so particular, so familiar, that only seconds later she realizes... ...Dark chocolate.
Ah--
It only takes a moment for her to apparently start acting ridiculous in front of Tomoe, blood rushing to her cheeks and her mouth a stuttering disaster, right as her heart begins to pound and bounce in a way that shouldn't be. It-- It really shouldn't-- why the hell does she have this in her hands? What kind of motives does Tomoe have to give her something like that? What...? "Aha, not too proud of how they ended up looking, either..." She looks up to find an uncharacteristically shy Tomoe, scratching at the back of her neck with a blush on her cheeks she doesn't think she's seen before. She's serious. She's dead serious and Ran is starting to think she would've preferred for it to be a joke. Tomoe can't be giving this to her—she just can't have that intention; much less should she be willing to receive it. (Even if that something inside her, that little thing inside Ran making her heart pound and her face paint a betraying red at the sight of those chocolates, and maybe—just maybe, at the very same girl in front of her, shout her otherwise.) Now, Ran can only admit the absolute disaster she is right now, but she just has to make sure. She has to get something out of her mouth, hear whatever Tomoe had to say about this—some sort of justification for whatever she was trying to do, give a reason for the mess of... emotions inside of her to be there. "Wh-- What... Why did you...?" "I... I guess I wanted to thank you, in a way. You know, for everything you've done for me," she says, playing with the strips of her bag with her other hand still hiding behind her head, and only there Ran dares taking a good look at her face. She can't be kidding, not when her eyes shine in such a particular way even when they're darted to the ground, not when her lips draw a smile so wide and too genuine on her face for her to be lying, and definitely not when Tomoe seems to be telling her the very truth. With such a soft and cautious tone in her voice, with an honesty in her words that leaves Ran way too sure of what she was trying to do with this. Maybe... No. No, no. Stupid Tomoe-- How the hell is it that she manages to make her think of things like that? The bastard didn't think it was about enough to make her a walking disaster, but also convince her of such... things. God. "Listen, I..." And just when she's about to put the lid back on the box and respectfully decline the chocolates (however appetizing they looked—goddamnit, Tomoe had this too well thought out) and pretend all of this never happened, Tomoe is back in her usual position, cutting her short. "Better go now," she says, getting closer to her and the next thing she knows is Tomoe's lips are pressed against her cheek and-- she just kissed her. She kissed her in a place so close to her mouth and-- Huh!? Her lips leave her face as soon as they came, right as the lovey-dovey symptoms in her body have turned 10 times worse, and Ran doesn't think she's able to look at her face again without possibly falling on her knees to the floor from the epidemic sweetness gnawing at her, and it's then and there she's finally convinced that Tomoe, she doesn't know when, she doesn't take in how, and she refuses to know why, messed her up completely. "See ya!" Her voice sounds distant, and Ran has to look up again to make sure it's just her alone there now, with a box of chocolates in her hands and still leaning against the wall, hardly breathing and her heart pounding in her goddamn throat. She's trying way too hard to make something out of-- whatever happened earlier and yet, it still feels like too much to take in, and she doesn't know if she'll ever fully process it. Ran looks at the box of chocolates in her hand, and taking the lid, she carefully puts it back in it's place, then she presses the box against her chest, sliding against the wall and falling to the floor. And she just has to ask herself, again...
What the hell, Tomoe?