"Aish, Luhan-hyung looks so uncomfortable," Sehun noted when they were out of hearing range. "He shouldn't be so surprised by this, should he? I mean, he knows that Lili-noona has a crush on him."

"Luhan's shy, that's all," Xiumin explained. "How would you act if girls continuously confessed to you?"

"I'd be gloating and basking in the compliments," Baekhyun announced honestly.

"And that is why you only have seventeen gifts," Chanyeol quipped, patting his friend on his shoulder.

"Yah, you only have one more than me, Yoda!"

"You guys seriously keep track?" Jae intervened, an eyebrow lifted. Chanyeol and Baekhyun froze.

"What? No, of course not, noona!"

"Yeah, that's ridiculous and childish, who would do that?" they piped up unconvincingly.

"But now that we're on the topic of gifts..." Baekhyun started, grinning at Jae who was taken aback when she gazed at a group of young men staring at her in anticipation. D.O. tried his best to look as aloof as possible, but he just couldn't keep his eyes off that damn dufflebag.

Jae laughed while shaking her head. She put the bag down eventually and opened it. "Okay, first of all, I don't usually celebrate Valentine's Day, so I'm new at this. Lili explained how you guys celebrate it on the island, though, so- uh, yeah...I kinda tried making chocolates by myself. I wanted to wait for Luhan as well, but I guess it won't matter much..."

"Wow, noona, if you're trying to sweep us off our feet, you're doing a great job," Kai deadpanned which made Jae flush furiously.

"S-sorry, I- uh- yeah, I mean, I never made chocolates before and Lili said that Valentine's Day was also to give gifts to guys that you care about and yeah, you know... Oh, do you want the chocolates or not?" Jae finally huffed, making them laugh.

"Yes, please!" they replied and Jae started grabbing boxes of chocolates. D.O. was surprised to see that she actually took the time and trouble to wrap each box individually and distinctly so that she could tell which box belonged to whom.

"Woah! Little thunderbolts! Thanks, noona!" Chen exclaimed when he greedily opened up his gift.

"Snowflakes. Cool," Xiumin nodded in approval, holding the piece of chocolate up.

"Oh? Unicorns! These are amazing, Jae-yah," Lay complimented gratefully.

Jae scratched the back of her neck. "Did they turn out okay? I really suck at these things..."

"They're awesome, noona!" Chanyeol assured.

"You must've taken a long time to make these," Suho pointed out, holding a chocolate in the shape of a water drop in his hand.

"I may or may not have turned the kitchen into a mess of chocolate goop, but I actually had fun making them," she admitted sheepishly as she handed Kai his gift. He opened it immediately to see what kind of chocolates she had given him and D.O. stared into the box as well. He smiled when he caught Kai wanting to grin, but hid it immediately.

"Poodles, noona? Really?" the stoic youth remarked coolly.

"As if you don't like it," Jae quipped and Kai scoffed, though a tiny smile graced his face as he stared at the chocolate dogs.

"Happy Valentine's Day, D.O.," Jae said as she extended a black box with a silver bow.

"Thank you," he mumbled, opening it curiously. He blushed when he saw that the chocolates he had received, were in the shape of hearts with a music note stamped in them. He admired the handiwork for a moment while his brothers gushed over how delicious their chocolates looked.

"Hey, Luhan-hyung! Check it out, more chocolates!" Baekhyun said when the teen joined their group after speaking to Lili. It seemed like Luhan was still recovering from talking to her as the tips of his ears were still red.

"Really? Jae, you made these?" he asked in surprise, first carefully tucking the heart-shaped box he received from Lili in his backpack before accepting the chocolates from Jae.

"Yeah, it's really no big deal," she mumbled humbly, gnawing on her bottom lip as she watched him chuckling when he held up a chocolate soccer ball.

"Thank you, these are brilliant," he said.

"I hope they taste as good as they look," Jae stated humbly, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear- something that she would usually do when she was nervous or shy.

"One way to find out," Kris said, grabbing a chocolate piece shaped like a wing. Soon, all of them grabbed a piece and simultaneously bit into them. Jae was holding her breath as she waited for their reaction, but D.O. felt his eyes widen at the taste. He automatically stopped chewing and did so slowly, noticing that the rest of the pack wore similar expressions on their faces.

Oh boy, this is awkward...

"Hmm," Chen started, attempting to smile while nodding.

"Hmm, hmm!" Chanyeol chimed in, Xiumin putting up his thumbs while nodding. The boys hummed as if the taste wasn't killing off their tastebuds and numbing their tongue to not upset Jae.

"Is it good?" the girl asked almost innocently, biting her lip as she waited almost anxiously for confirmation.

"Hmm! Hmmhmm!" it sounded in unison, heads nodding, thumbs being lifted up in the air.

"Oh, good," Jae sounded relieved while they all smiled at her, making sure to keep their mouths shut as they did so. "Well, I'm going to get something to drink. Do you guys want something?"

They shook their heads despite needing something to wash away the atrocious taste. D.O. felt guilty thinking it, but he couldn't help it. He constantly reminded himself that it was Jae that put the hard work into making these things for them in the first place, so he didn't spit it out on the spot.

"Okay, I'll be right back," she said and walked away.

The boys waited.

"Now?" came the muffled question from Sehun's mouth.

"Not yet," Suho said, smiling again when Jae had suddenly turned around, almost as if she suspected something. She gave a hesitant wave of the hand when the boys waved at her and she continued on her errand.

"Okay, now!"

When given the clearance, the boys quickly turned around to get rid of the chocolate and coughed at the taste.

"Aish...well, at least she tried," Luhan laughed. "It's the thought that counts, right?"

"How can you go wrong with chocolate, though?" Chen wondered, still trying to get rid of the taste.

"At least they're pretty," Tao added and D.O. agreed with that. However as they turned around again to pretend like they hadn't spat anything out, they jumped at seeing a little girl dressed like a cherub looking up at them with wide eyes and chubby cheeks.

"Whoa, I've seen you before," D.O. prompted, pointing at the smiling child.

"Hello," she greeted with a tiny, cute voice, looking up expectantly at her oppas. "Did you know that it's bad luck to throw away chocolate that was given to you by your Valentine?" she suddenly spoke, giggling at seeing the stunned expressions on the older boys' faces.

"Ha ha, she's cute," Baekhyun noted, prodding her cheek. "Now, run along, little one, shoo," he tried to usher her away, but the girl would have none of it. Instead, she gave a bright grin and suddenly showed them a red velvet box which she held with both hands.

"This is a very special piece of chocolate," she told the amused group of teens. "Whomever manages to acquire it, will be able to taste something far sweeter than candy," the little girl giggled. "Do you want it?" she asked the boys.

"Uh, sure," Suho answered, mostly to just indulge the kid. D.O. watched as she carefully placed the velvet box in Suho's hands.

"Not refundable," she said in a giggly voice. "Happy Valentine's Day," the girl greeted giddily before turning around to skip away.

Suho opened the box curiously, only to find it empty. "Uh, excuse me, little girl? There's nothing inside of the box," he called after her.

The girl turned around and with a cheeky grin replied, "Guess you'll have to go look for it then, if you wish to taste that which is sweeter than candy," she beamed. "Have fun!" she blew them a kiss and skipped away.

"Heh, weird little kid," Baekhyun remarked, grabbing the empty box from Suho's hands.

"Way too much into the whole method acting, too," Chen added.

"You're analyzing the acting skills of a kid?" D.O. inquired.

"There's really nothing inside of the box?" Sehun asked.

"Maybe it's to point out that it really is bad luck to spit out the chocolate that was given to us," Lay said, sounding as though he really believed everything the girl had been saying.

"What do you think she meant, though? 'Sweeter than candy?'" Tao wondered, looking at his older brothers for an answer.

"Duh, a kiss of course," Kai answered instead.

"What? Really?! Wah, we should look for it!" Tao then chimed like an excited school girl. Honestly, D.O. could hardly believe that they were barely half a year apart in age. He felt like Tao was years his junior- or maybe he was just more mature for his age. Either way, he was incredulous about Tao's naiveness in the matter. The panda didn't really think that the girl was being serious, did he?

"You're joking," Kai said.

"Why not? Where's the harm? It's like a scavenger hunt or something. I mean, what do we have to lose anyway? You got something better to do?" Tao insisted, getting more excited by the minute.

"You're not serious, are you, Tao? You want to find a piece of chocolate- on Valentine's Day," Kris emphasized, gesturing around him. "There's chocolate everywhere, Taozi. We won't even know where or how to find it, even if we knew what it looks like - which we don't."

"Yeah! Besides, the kid was just joking. Did you hear how she spoke? What kid speaks like that, honestly?" Chen added.

"So what? It'll be a fun challenge! If it happens to be true, you get to kiss someone you really like. That's not bad, is it?" Tao still persisted, arguing with any brother that defied him.

"And if it's fake- which it most likely is, we'd have spent our Valentine's Day chasing rainbows," D.O. replied.

"You heard the girl talk, right? When children speak, they mean every word, and this girl was really convincing. I think she might have actually hidden a magical piece of bonbon somewhere."

"It's official. You're insane," Sehun told his friend, patting him on the cheek.

"Ugh, fine! I'll go look for it myself, but don't be surprised if there really is a magical piece of chocolate somewhere and I get to kiss a girl to my liking. For instance," Tao pretended to think about it to tease his brothers. "Jae-noona," he exclaimed, a wide grin on his face.

"As if. She wouldn't kiss you to save her life," Chen dismissed, smacking Tao's shoulder, offending the lanky teen.

"Yah! She totally would! With or without magic chocolate!" Tao huffed. "But if magic chocolate helps, so be it. I'm gonna look for it. If you want to compete against me, go ahead. Those that don't want to- well, don't cry when I'm kissing her!" he stated like a petulant child that it made D.O. cringe as he watched his younger brother stalk off.

The group was left to stare at Tao as he seriously went off to look for the mysterious piece of non-existent chocolate and D.O. sighed again, wanting this day to be over.

"Can you believe him?" he asked.

"No. Tao lost it completely," Baekhyun said, but something in his voice sounded like he was hesitating.

"Yeah, he's- he's uh, ridiculous," Suho added unconvincingly. The brothers muttered in assent, but D.O. felt like he was the only one left who was sane.

"Oh my God, you guys are actually considering this!" he stated, rather than asked.

"What? No, no! Of course not, it's stupid. Everyone could tell the girl was just fooling around," Kris chuckled nervously.

"Yes, indeed!" Chen piped up strongly. "In fact, I think that little girl should be reprimanded. Anyone see where she went?" he asked, searching the crowd though it was painstakingly obvious what he was trying to do and D.O. felt secondhand embarrassment coming up.

"Maybe we should split up and go look for her," Luhan then said innocently, but it was all to put up a front and D.O. groaned.

"Unbelievable," he muttered, rubbing his forehead in mild agitation. "You know that you're not going to find anything, right?"

"What are you talking about, hyung? We're just gonna find the girl, you know, to tell her that it's bad to lie to people and that it's even worse to hide things so she should just say where she hid it- yeah," Sehun answered, looking as though he was anxious to bolt off to seek for the magical piece of chocolate.

"Right, what Sehunnie said," Kai pointed out, having the grace to look just a bit embarrassed when D.O. gawked at him incredulously.

"Not you too," he remarked, making the boy lower his head while shrugging.

"Someone has to find the cho-girl," he mumbled before straightening himself. "With my speed, I'll find her in no time," he stated smugly before saluting and running off.

"Someone tell me that this is a joke," D.O. huffed, looking at his remaining brothers, only to be taken aback when he saw that more than half of them had already disappeared and he was left with Suho, Xiumin and Lay.

"Well then," Suho started, fumbling with the empty box in his hands, "I'm going to make sure none of them get into trouble," he muttered, chuckling as he handed D.O. the box.

"Hmhm, and who's going to keep you out of it?" the youth retorted as Suho grinned widely at him before nervously making his escape. That left him with Xiumin and Lay.

"Maybe I should be the one to keep our fearless leader out of trouble."

D.O.'s eyes widened. Xiumin-hyung! No, not you too!

"I mean, I am the eldest, after all. See ya later," he casually walked off, leaving D.O. stupefied.

"I guess you want to look for the so-called magical chocolate as well, huh?" he directed his attention on Lay, who smiled shyly and bit his lower lip.

"It would be funny if the girl was actually speaking the truth, wouldn't it, D.O.-ah?" he said honestly.

"Ugh," D.O. huffed. "Just go already, hyung," he gestured for him to take his leave because he couldn't handle the childlike innocence radiating from Lay's face.

"Don't you want to try to find the chocolate? We could look together, and if you really want it, I'll let you have it, D.O.-ah," Lay said in such simple sincerity that D.O. nearly took him up on the offer. He managed a smile.

"Nah, thanks, hyung. I think I'm going to sit this one out, but you guys go and have fun," he stated determinedly.

"Alright. See you later," Lay greeted with a dimpled smile, waving at him as he left. D.O. returned the gesture heaving another, deep, deep sigh.

"See? Everyone is crazy on Valentine's Day..."