Valentines Day and Homemade Chocolate

 Setsubun was fun. On February third, Uncle wore an oni mask, and we all threw red beans at him. I laughed because the mask didn’t look quite like a real oni’s face. (Not that Uncle was a convincing oni anyway.) Grandpa informed me, “That mask has been in our family since before my son married a yuki-onna and took in a dragon. How were we supposed to know it didn’t look exactly like an oni!?”

Good point, I guess.

After school on the thirteenth of February, Hana asked Aunt to take her out to buy chocolates for her school friends. She seemed pretty excited. Aunt asked me if I wanted to come along, but I declined. Since Uncle was still at work, and Kenji was still at school with film club, I had the place to myself! Which meant … it was my turn to cook dinner. Seriously, that’s what Aunt said, “If you want the place to yourself, it’s your turn to cook dinner.”

I didn’t know how to cook anything, so I recruited Grandma and Grandpa for help. (They live downstairs from us.) They taught me how to make curry. I chopped the vegetables, Grandpa put the rice to cook and chose the meat, and Grandma made the sauce telling Grandpa and I when to add the meat and vegetables.

“Why are Hana and Aunt buying chocolates?” I asked.

“Tomorrow is a day when girls give boys chocolates,” Grandma explained. “It’s a special holiday for young people.”

A special holiday for chocolate! Humans are strange. “If it’s the girls that give the chocolate,” I asked. “Why did Aunt ask me if I wanted to come along?”

“She probably didn’t want you to be lonely,” said Grandma. “Or bored.”

I wouldn’t’ve been bored or lonely. In fact, I was planning on playing video games instead of making curry. Uncle said that I could play any of the games he bought any time I wanted, but I wasn’t allowed to play the ones Kenji bought with his own allowance unless I asked first. I knew which games were which. It annoyed Kenji that Uncle allowed me to play “his” games, but he tolerated it as long as I didn’t override his saved game. (Not that I would anyway.)

The curry was done by the time the others came home. After we were done eating, Kenji did the dishes, and Hana took out a pen and her boxes of chocolates and started writing on the boxes.

“Would you like yours to say ‘Ryūsuke’ or ‘Ao’?” Hana asked me.

“Are you bringing mine to school?” I asked in turn.

“No. I’ll be leaving yours on the table with Kenji’s, Dad’s, and Mom’s.”

“Then put whichever name you want on it.” I didn’t know why she was giving one to Aunt, when Grandma said it was a day girls gave chocolate to boys, but I didn’t ask.

After Hana was done writing names on the boxes, she left four on the table nicely laid out, and put all but one of the others back in the bag.

“Grandpa,” she asked. “Do you want yours now or tomorrow?”

Grandpa was about to say, “Now,” but Grandma interrupted him, and said, “Tomorrow. You do not give Valentines Day chocolate out before Valentines Day.”

The next day, at school, Saki found me before class, and gave me a nicely wrapped box. She was holding a few smaller boxes, as well. Unlike Hana’s chocolates, Saki’s chocolates didn’t have anyone’s name written on the box. Also, unlike Hana’s boxes (which were identical), Saki’s boxes had differences. I already mentioned the one she gave me was slightly bigger then the others, but that wasn’t the only difference. Mine had hearts drawn on it, and the others didn’t. However, it was wrapped in the same white paper as the others. Although, the paper was the same color, the ribbon was not. Half the boxes Saki was holding had red ribbon and the other half had black ribbon.

“What’s with the two different ribbon colors?” I asked.

“The red ones are for girls, and the black ones are for boys,” Saki explained as if it were obvious.

“Why is mine…different?”

“These here are obligation chocolate…and friend chocolate. Your chocolate is special.”

What?

That was the only box of chocolates I got, but, oh boy, was there exchanging of chocolates all day. Before school, after school, between classes, and even during class. It really was a holiday honoring chocolate. I knew chocolate was popular among humans, but this was ridiculous. There’s nothing stopping them from giving each other chocolate any other time of the year. Heck, I’ve been in the human realm long enough to know that, humans buy, sell, and give chocolate all year round. Why have a special holiday for it? That would be like if foxes had a holiday for fired tofu, fried rat, or sake.

I decided to hide in the school library during lunch. Even in the library there were still few girls giving out chocolates, but not as many. The librarian was explaining to a first grader that the “no food in library” rule applied to eating chocolate. I sat down at one of the tables. There was a sixth-grade boy reading a book on trains, and a third-grade girl reading manga. I wondered if I should be reading something too. I stood up to browse the bookshelves, when the girl put down her manga and stopped me. I wondered if she had chocolate for me or something. (She didn’t.)

“What brought you to the library?” the girl asked.

“Thought I’d get away from the exchanging of chocolate,” I said.

“I know,” she said. “Ridiculous isn’t it? If Saint Valentine knew what this day had become he would be appalled!”

“Who’s Saint Valentine? Is he the person who invented chocolate or something?” That would justify having this holiday…maybe.

“No. St. Valentine was a Roman priest who was martyred in 269.” I was going to ask the girl what “martyred” meant, but she continued talking. During her speech, the boy who was reading about trains moved to a different table. After the girl was done with her speech she asked me if I had any questions. I had three. “One, what does ‘martyred’ mean? Two, what does this have to do with chocolate? Three, what’s the symbol on the end of your necklace?”

“This?” she held up the tip of her golden necklace. “Is a cross. I wear it for luck and protection.”

“Protection? From evil spirits or something?”

“Yes!”

“So it’s a type of talisman.”

“I suppose you could call it that.”

I never asked the girl her name. The bell rang to signify the end of lunch, and we went back to our assigned classrooms.

When I got home after school, I put the box of chocolate Saki gave me in my room next to the one Hana gave me. When Kenji got home he looked at Saki’s chocolate wide eyed.

“That’s homemade chocolate!” he said. He sounded both impressed and jealous. “Is it alright if I try one?”

“Sure.” We both picked up a chocolate and put it in our mouth. It was amazing. After swallowing the chocolate, I asked, “Have you heard of a person named Saint Valentine?”

“No,” Kenji said. “Is that the person who invented chocolate of something?”

I laughed because I asked the same thing. “I don’t know,” I said. “I met a girl who seemed to think Valentines Day had nothing to do with chocolate—”

“Nothing to do with chocolate!” Kenji interrupted. “That’s like saying Hanami has nothing to do with cherry blossoms or New Years has nothing to do with the starting of, well, the new year.”

I smiled and looked up at the ceiling. He was right; regardless of its origins, Valentines Day had everything to do with chocolate.

“Remember to have a return present ready for White Day,” Kenji said.

“White Day?” I asked.

“One month from now. Anyone who received chocolate on Valentines Day has to give a return present that either costs three times as much or contains three times the amount of chocolate.”

Great. I hope he’s joking.