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Although much more into gardening and photography, Basil considered himself a pretty good baker. He liked playing with frosting, learning how to make flowers on cakes or artistic lines across the corners, and finding out which colors go best together.
And during the Valentine’s season, he enjoyed nothing more than to experiment with his chocolate skills. So when he came to school with a big box, his friends already had an inkling what was inside. He had given them all friendship chocolates last year.
Kel didn’t have enough tact not to look too excited. He rushed over at the end of school, an eager smile on his face.
“Chocolate! I hope there’s a big chocolate bar for me.”
“Kel,” Hero admonished. He offered a smile Basil’s way, “You don’t know if any of that’s for you.”
“Don’t worry, Kel. They’re for all of you, guys,” Basil smiled. He was honestly happy to see them so excited for his baked gifts.
Mari and Aubrey and Sunny were there too. They all bundled around, like a gaggle of curious ducks about to be served breadcrumbs.
Basil continued to laugh, as he stared at each friend, his heart skipped a beat when his eyes landed on Sunny. The moment of truth was on its way. He opened the lid and pulled out each item one by one.
“This is for Aubrey,” he handed her a wrapped chocolate in shape of a bunny. Aubrey smiled as she held it in both of her hands.
“Wow. This is the best friendship chocolate ever. Thanks, Basil.”
Basil noticed Sunny scoffing, his hatred for anything bunny related apparent. Basil thought it was cute how unafraid Sunny was about sharing his dislikes for something so adorable.
“Basil? Basil, what about me?” Kel asked, snapping Basil out of his Sunny trance.
“Kel….” Hero was about to scold him again but Basil smiled.
“It’s okay, Hero. Here, Kel. This one’s for you.”
“Wow. It’s so orange! But I thought these were chocolates?”
“With enough food dye, you can use any colors,” Basil insisted, “I was trying to make it look like the Orange Joe mascot….but I might’ve went overboard on the dye. It should still taste the same though.”
Kel held the precious item in his hand close. For a moment, it looked like he was debating on whether or not to eat it. But then his sweet tooth got the better of him and he grabbed it out of the package and scarfed it down.
Basil looked at Mari, “I wanna give you and Hero’s both at the same time, if that’s okay.”
“Sure. But…why?” Mari blinked.
“You’ll see,” with that, Basil handed the candies to them. Mari’s eyes went wide with wonder. Meanwhile, Hero seemed unsure about what he was looking at.
"It’s….Mari’s head,” he said.
“And I have your head, Hero,” Mari giggled. She placed it to her chest as if hugging it.
Basil laughed out loud at Hero’s look. The others joined in. When the laughter died down, Basil allowed himself to explain.
“Since you guys are so in love, I figured you’d want to have something that looked like each other the most.”
“Wow, Basil. I don’t know what to say,” Hero stammered, holding the chocolate close, “I don’t know if I could even eat this because it looks so much like her. What do you think, Ma---” he trailed off when he saw that Mari had not only taken her Hero shaped chocolate out of the wrap, but she had also started to nibble on it, “Mari!”
She munched on the head with glee. Catching Hero’s hurt look, she gave him an apologetic smile.
“Oh, don’t be like that, Hero. I can’t resist eating you when you’re so sweet. You can eat me too if you want.”
Hero’s face went bright red for reasons Basil was too young to understand. While the two were bickering like an old married couple, Sunny approached Basil’s desk, his head bent low as if too nervous to look Basil in the eye.
“Um…..can I have mine?”
Basil’s heart fluttered, his face heating up. Why was it always hard to breathe whenever Sunny spoke to him? The blonde pulled out the last item and handed it to his best friend in the world.
Sunny looked at it, curiously.
“It’s a…..sunflower?”
Basil couldn’t breathe, “Um….yeah. Is….is that okay?”
The others were too busy talking amongst themselves to notice the boys’ awkward exchange. Sunny held the sunflower chocolate tenderly. It had been the hardest to make by far, using a bunch of colors and making sure the details were just right. He only used dye on Sunny’s and Kel’s, but Sunny’s needed a lot more to make the flower look just right.
“Yeah,” Sunny looked up with a confused smile, “I guess I was thinking I would get a violin or something, but that must be too hard to make probably.”
“It’s not that. I gave you a sunflower because,” breathe, Basil. Get some air inn those lungs. Why did his face feel so hot? “They’re my favorite flower. And you’re my favorite……um…..”
Sunny inhaled sharply, his eyes growing wide.
“R-really? I’m….your….? Are these friendship chocolates? Or are….they….?”
Basil was sure his heart was about to burst right out of his chest. He opened his mouth without even knowing how to answer. Thankfully, he was saved from making a fool of himself by Mari.
“Speaking of friendship chocolates,” she said suddenly, grabbing everyone’s attention, “Did you know that in Japan, girls are the ones who’s supposed to give the chocolates. There’s friendship chocolates and then there’s chocolates that show your true feelings. If a boy gets romance chocolates from a girl, then a month later, he has to give her something white.”
“Something white?” Aubrey asked, “Like a white bunny?”
Mari giggled, “Well, that might be a little extreme. Probably some marshmallow dish or white chocolate instead.”
“So should we give Basil something white next month?” Kel asked.
“Only the people who got romance chocolates should give him one. It’s only appropriate.”
Hero seemed to be deep in thought.
“I….I don’t want to correct you, Mari. But actually, on White Day, everyone who gets chocolate should give---”
“Nope,” Mari kept her eyes on Basil and Sunny, her smile nearly mischievous. Basil was starting to wonder. Had she overheard their awkward conversation? “Only people who got romance chocolates from Basil should give him something very special for White Day. And that’s only IF they return their feelings. I promise I’m not lying.”
She was up to something. Basil could tell. Sunny had his face to the floor and upon further inspection, Basil noticed how red his face was. He swallowed thickly.
The days went by after that. Basil never officially stated what kind of chocolate he gave Sunny. But Sunny seemed to have forgotten all about the matter entirely. As time went on, Sunny was back to his old self, being the silent one in the group as they hung out.
Basil basked in the time spent with his friends, making new memories with them all. Truth be told, he was honestly a little disappointed in himself for not confessing to Sunny while he had the chance. But he decided it was for the best. Sunny probably didn’t feel that way about him.
It was better to keep this feeling a secret forever.
A month went by and Basil had forgotten mostly about it. Then one day, Sunny came up to him with a potted plant. Sometimes his friends liked to give him plants they found in stores or something, because they knew it made Basil happy.
Basil’s eyes lit up when he saw it. A beautiful white orchid. As Sunny set it on Basil’s desk, his head hang low.
“Um….this is for you, Basil.”
“Aww. Thank you, Sunny,” Basil said nonchalantly.
Sunny looked at him in shock, then in hurt. Basil blinked, realizing something was wrong, but unsure of what it was.
“Did….what’s wrong?” he stammered. He didn’t like to see Sunny so upset. Especially if HE was the one who caused it.
“It’s…..um..white….”
“Yeah,” Basil frowned, trying to puzzle things together, “White orchids are usually white.” He didn’t mean that sarcastically, just as a statement of fact. But he realized too late that his words could sound condescending, “It’s….it’s not a problem that it’s white, is it? Unless---”
“It’s White Day---”
“White….” Then the puzzles started to fit together in Basil’s mind. His face pooled with a deep red color, almost reaching his eyes. His heart skipped a beat for a second too long that Basil thought he was going to die.
He couldn’t breathe.
Sunny looked him in the eye, just as pink on his face.
“Does this mean….” Basil asked.
“Y-yes.”
“Oh Sunny,” Basil smiled wider than he ever had before, “I am so happy! I’ll cherish it forever. I…I feel that way about you too!”
Sunny smiled back, his grin wider than Basil had ever seen. Before he knew what he was doing, Basil took hold of Sunny’s hand and just held it. Sunny squeezed his hand back. The two boys were far too bashful to do anything else at the moment, but neither minded.
They were in love.