Mizutani Shizuku was diligently studying one day and in the midst of her Calculus homework, she sighed. For some reason she kind of wished Haru was there to annoy her or something.

It was February, nearing her birthday on that one day that she oh so detested before she met him. Before it was a complete waste to shower and throw away perfectly good candy that can be given to the homeless or some creature that could utilize the little nutrients in the junk food.

Shizuku's eyes softened as she glanced at the red heart over the 14th. It was supposed to be a special day, but with Haru on that stupid little voyage, was she going to enjoy that smooch fest holiday?

There was a knock at the door and Shizuku was broken out of her musings. She walked up to the front door and opened the door to reveal a delivery man holding a box.

"Yes?" Shizuku's voice came out more clipped and cold when she was annoyed when the man started to blush at the fact that she was a developing teenage woman.

"A delivery for you! Sign here!" The man smirked at Shizuku.

"If you look downward my body any further I will rip your eyes out of your sockets, you insolent womanizer," Shizuku had to bite her tongue from saying a more foul insult.

The man shivered and shuddered at her cold shoulder but at the moment she ceased to differ.

Shizuku took the clipboard and scribbled her signature and the man went skipping off, completely smug with himself that he had a piece of her handwriting but disappointed that she didn't give him her number.

"Wait right there," Shizuku glared. The man froze.

"Give me my parcel, thief," Shizuku glared. He shivered and thrust the object in her hands.

Shizuku sighed and slammed the door after her. She went to the kitchen island and put the box down. Out of nowhere, Takaya appeared.

"Hey onee-chan," Takaya took a seat next to Shizuku.

"Hello Takaya," Shizuku nodded.

"What's in there?" Takaya pointed at the box, "Did you buy something off online?"

"No, I didn't," Shizuku shook her head, "I got it as a present."

"Free stuff," Takaya's eyes sparkled. Shizuku sighed and clapped her forehead.

"Takaya, it is too light to be considered food," Shizuku gave the box an experimental shake. Takaya's face fell and Shizuku rolled her eyes as she got the knife from a kitchen drawer and came back to the parcel. Although the content would not be food, Takaya stuck around to see what kind of valuable inedible object could be in the box.

Shizuku dipped the knife and broke the packaging tape bonds. Snapping the box open and setting the knife back in the drawer, Shizuku peered inside to see a bunch of foam peanuts.

"What kind of prank is this?" Shizuku asked.

"Your object might be delicate, onee-chan. Rummage your hand in there," Takaya said impatiently.

Shizuku did so and felt the softness of rose petals. Her brown eyes widened. Twelve of those flowery stuff except one felt artificial like cloth. She realized it was a fake.

She yanked the bundle out, some foam peanuts flying everywhere. Confused why she would just get a rose bundle, she looked to her brother again.

Takaya shrugged and said, "There might be a card coming with it. Check again."

Shizuku shrugged and plunged her hand in again and felt the sharp edges of an envelope. She pulled that out to see an intricately designed envelope.

Shizuku used the knife to carefully open the envelope and pulled out the card. She was sure the brand of the card was going to be foreign to her, because the best cards she saw were nowhere nearly as pretty as the lacy card she had in her hands. And yes, it had real lace on it. So much, to the point Shizuku thought either the card was made from clothing or else it was supposed to be a gothic trend.

"Who the heck would send such gifts?" Shizuku asked.

"Probably that arrogant blondie," Takaya said, shrugging and going away to his room.

"Why would Yamaken-kun still try to woo me when I made it clear?" Shizuku murmured.

"Just open it and read it for god's sake!" Takaya called and followed it with the slam of his bedroom door.

"And to think I reprimanded him to not slam it closed," Shizuku sighed before setting her brown eyes on the card again.

She opened the card and a look of dread covered her face when the inside of the card was covered with smiley faces, completely hand drawn and contradicting the stylish yet gothic card.

Yamaken-kun is not the smiley one. Only one person would do this in a card…

"Haru."

Shizuku's brown eyes melted as she thought of him. Then she snapped her head out of the musings and foused her sights on the card. Her heart stopped at the handwriting.

Shizuku-chan!

I know it is your birthday tomorrow. I know you are not the one to like Valentine's Day, forget about birthdays. But I want to tell you this.

I will love you until the last rose wilts.

Haru

Shizuku's heart flopped at the last sentence. The roses were real, what is the idiot thinking?! They won't last more than a week!

Does he mean that he is thinking of breaking it off? Was it because she was being such a needy girlfriend before Haru went abroad for his research?

"No," Shizuku thought about it, "It doesn't mean that way. Haru has put up with me so many times. I do not remember anything I did recently that made him break up with me!"

The pigtailed girl then breathed in and out and decided to complete her homework, thinking that doing her problems in various subjects might give her mind to rack up with a possible explanation.

But when she finished her homework from all of her classes, and had ironed her school uniform for the next day with the bags of sweets for her close friends only, Shizuku wanted to hit her head against a wall.

"I still didn't come up with a convincing explanation!" Shizuku yelled to no one in particular.

Takaya opened his bedroom door a crack and peeked through to see his sister freaking out over nothing and injuring her head. He shook his head. He knew Yoshida Haru was the reason for his sister to go out of character.

Shizuku went to the kitchen and yanked out a long glass vase and filled it with water. She put the bouquet in and went for the home phone.

Shizuku punched in a number and when a girly voice answered on the other line; she tried to speak in an even voice, "Natsume-san. Do you think by any chance you can meet me in the courtyard after school tomorrow? I have some advice to seek from you."

"Mitty called me?! Is the world ending?!" Natsume freaked out.

"I am not failing my classes. I am on the top. I just need help with… relationships," Shizuku turned slight red at the end of her sentence.

"Ooooooh, the strong Mitty needs help? I should play cupid! I just saw this amazing costume that I could wear tomorrow at-" Natsume started to ramble before Shizuku cut her off.

"Not with that now. Are you going to help me or not?" Shizuku asked impatiently.

"I don't know, you see love is a hard subject, even harder than the subjects at school and playing Cupid is not as easy as it seems," Natsume started to slyly mention.

"Oh really?" Shizuku sarcastically asked.

"Yes. So for the nice advice I will be giving tomorrow, what will you give me?" Natsume asked.

"I helped you last semester so that you wouldn't fail and be held back," Shizuku said.

"But I had to pay you doughnuts just to keep the guys off my back and for my helping in studying," Natsume argued.

"Correction, the doughnuts were to keep those annoying trio boys that hang around Yamaken-kun, off your back. I didn't charge anything for the materials I gave you for free in studying and the amazing tutoring that could have wasted your allowance for shopping," Shizuku countered.

"Amazing tutoring?" Natsume mocked, "More like yelling in my ear on why I couldn't understand a formula or a rule or the nature of life."

"Are you going to help me or not?" Shizuku wish she could behead the girl with a glare of hers.

"Okay fine Mitty!" The girl laughed on the other side.

"Good. See you at the courtyard tomorrow after school," Shizuku said before hanging up with the girl's consent.

Shizuku looked around her and put the card in her bag to show Natsume.

After doing some chores to make the household look presentable when her dad comes, Shizuka called it a day and went to bed.

-x-

After an obnoxious day of throwing around sweets and sickening smooches were delivered by the lovebirds of the school, Shizuku came to the courtyard to meet Natsume like they agreed over the phone.

Natsume was sitting there, as innocent as she could be. When Shizuku came, Natsume flipped her hair and smiled at Shizuku.

"Thanks for the truffles, Mitty! I swear I need your secret recipe!" Natsume flashed her pretty eyes.

"Natsume, all of us girls made them together before Valentine's day," Shizuku rolled her eyes.

"What about Haru's valentine? Did he get it?" Natsume smirked.

"I mailed it to him…" Shizuku blushed.

"Oh, I see. So what relationship advice do you need?" Natsume had a devious smile, one that could get under Shizuku's skin.

"Haru sent me this card but I do not know what he meant by it," Shizuku handed over the envelope with Haru's card in it.

Natsume, confused, took the card and exclaimed, "Oooh, pretty card!"

Shizuku rolled her eyes but then jumped when there was a loud squeal.

"Look at the smiley faces hand drawn by Haru-kun! Look at the deformed smiley face!" Natsume tried pointing to a poorly drawn smiley face. Shizuku's stomach churned in the most unpleasant manner and she slapped her forehead for the millionth time that day.

"Natsume, focus on the text," Shizuku sighed miserably.

Natsume groaned but did what Shizuku asked of her to do. Then she laughed really hard it took all her willpower not to drop down to the floor and roll around while clutching her stomach.

"What is so funny?" Shizuku asked, offended.

Natsume took a few minutes to compose herself. Then she asked, "What are you so scared about?"

"He gave me a bouquet of real roses! They won't last more than a week!" Shizuku cried.

"Did one of them feel fake to you?" Natsume suddenly asked. Shizuku stopped herself.

She recalled skimming her hand over a rose who instead of having velvet petals and a moist stem had soft cloth like petals and a hard plastic stem.

"Maybe…" Shizuku murmured.

"And do fake roses die?" Natsume talked to Shizuku as if she were a little baby learning the alphabet.

Shizuku caught herself and glared at Natsume.

"Quit treating me like that. And no they do not die, they are just not decomposable! And what do the immortality of fake roses have to do with the duration of Haru's love for me?" Shizuku cried.

"Keep talking you are almost there," Natsume snorted. Shizuku took back the card.

"What?"

"Look, Mitty, I can understand that you haven't been able to experience a lot of emotional stuff in life because you had a hard time. But love is not something that can be understood in one way out of textbooks like math and science. It is different, even more difficult than English. There is no right or wrong answers, yet people who think they understand it only to find out they are so far from the actual picture," Natsume said in a bit of a monologue.

"And your point is?" Shizuku asked.

"You need to go home and do your homework and think about the card on your own. When doing your homework, think about what we talked about and you will find out," Natsume smirked.

Shizuku snorted but allowed Natsume push her back to her house.

-x-

After finishing her homework, Shizuku kept thinking about what Natsume meant in their little talk after school.

"Hello onee-chan," Takaya greeted.

"Hello, Takaya," Shizuku sighed.

"Mom won't be coming home for your birthday," Takaya sighed as he put his backpack down on the kitchen table and yanked out his school books to do his homework.

Sadness gripped her heart but she didn't feel that bad. Her mom never made a commitment to come home and then actually keep it.

"I thought as much," Shizuku said softly, "She's working hard for us, Takaya. We need to understand."

Takaya sadly watched his sister disappear into her room. He then went to the home phone and flipped through the phone book to the page where Haru had wasted a whole page writing his cell number.

Takaya dialed his number and when Haru answered he said in a dark tone, "Where the hell are you? You better go see my sister before she cries on her own birthday."

-x-

Shizuku sat on her bed on her belly and looked at the roses she moved into her room. Like Natsume had told her she could discern the fake rose from the real ones. Plucking it out, Shizuku twiddled the fake rose in her hands.

"Fake rose huh? And he said he would love me till the last rose wilts…" Shizuku murmured.

"I will love you forever," a new voice next to her said.

Shizuku jumped and saw Haru sprawled out on her bed like she was. She raised an eyebrow as Haru continued to grin at her like an idiot.

"I see I set you on a quest for Valentine's day," Haru plucked the fake rose from Shizuku's hands and he also twirled it in his hands.

"What did you mean by it? I thought I got onto the catch," Shizuku murmured, not making any sense.

"Those other eleven roses will die in a week or so. This," Haru held up the rose like it was made of gold or something, "will never die. Just like my love."

Shizuku was quiet to the point that Haru had to poke her to get her attention focused back onto whatever was happening in her room on Planet Earth.

"So you weren't going to leave me…?" Shizuku's eyes watered.

Haru's face showed alarm. He scooted closer to the pigtailed girl and wiped away the tears that started cascading down her petite face.

"No of course not!" Haru exclaimed and then realized that he put Shizuku through a hard time, knowing the girl's first time at love, not tenth shot at it like Natsume.

Shizuku is a beginner at love and he set her to the test with a hard and somewhat abstruse saying.

"I didn't mean to tell you that my love for you was fading," Haru said gently, "But rather the opposite."

Shizuku took the rose from Haru's hands and twirled it herself. She smiled.

"I like this rose."

And little did she know that rose would mean wedding rings, chiming bells and a family of her own.

-fin-