As January transitioned into February, not much changed. The snow was rather grey, muddy and dirty than white and powdery and the sky was constantly covered by clouds. The overall atmosphere could really have been better. Oh, and Taehyung and Jungkook refused to speak to each other.

At first, Jungkook had tried to get the vampire alone and talk the issue out with him, he did not get the opportunity to do so as Taehyung would just coldly shrug him off as if he were a simple speck of dust. Whenever he approached the redhead in the hallways or in the bathrooms, after and before class, the latter would just give him a deadly glare and turn away from him fiercely.

As he really did not want to discuss their problems with Jimin and Namjoon, he had been looking for a moment with them not being there to pursue a mature and peaceful conversation with Taehyung. However, now it seemed that the older was now constantly glued to their side, purposefully. Jungkook was daily forced to witness the way he sat close and comfortably next to Jimin with a sly smile while giving him annoyed sideeyes or the way he loudly laughed with Namjoon, flipping his hair elegantly as if telling him to shove off and be ashamed of himself.

And after a while, he realized there was no point trying to get him to talk, ever. This person was centuries old and if he once held a grudge, he'd hold it for a long time. What seemed like a year to Jungkook would seem like a second to him and by the time Taehyung would finally be ready to talk and hear him out he would probably already be decomposing in his grave. Just why did he have to be so relentlessly stubborn?

Eventually, Jungkook stopped trying. Which led to their earlier relationship to each other reocurring, the one where Taehyung couldn't stand Jungkook's nosiness and Jungkook was overly suspicious of Taehyung, his habits and his actions and kept staring him down like a hawk. Except that things were different now, of course.

The ravenette tried extremely hard to hate him, purposefully turning away whenever he and the redhead accidentally made eye contact, even trying to glare at him sometimes or lightly bump his shoulder when crossing him. But in his heart, he couldn't deny the fact that he did feel a little hurt at Taehyung's brutal mistrust and and his reluctance to merely hear him out.

Jimin and Namjoon, Jimin particularly, noticed the changes in their attitudes towards each other almost immediately and were curious as to what had made them act so hatefully with each other. They seemed to be getting along and warm up to each other at some point, what had changed? Jimin, being the ultimate king of gossip, immediately started asking an abundance of questions to the two of them which they could only answer partially truthfully.

Whenever the noodlehead mentioned Jungkook in one of their conversations, Taehyung would simply roll his eyes, mumble something incoherent and indicate a change of topic. He was still utterly convinced that Jungkook was responsible of the drawing and he felt his stomach turn whenever seeing the younger (traitor, as he liked to call him) around him.
He tried to convince himself that resentment was the only thing making his stomach turn.

And whenever Jimin would mention Taehyung to Jungkook and question their strange behaviour, Jungkook would freeze in his movements and simply shrug. He eventually came up with a pretty believable story in which Taehyung accused Jungkook of stealing his favourite piece of jewellery and therefore refused to talk to him any further or hear his side of the story out. Not that far from reality, if you thought about it. However, Jimin seemed only partially convinced and continued keeping an eye on the two of them.

Things remained pretty dull throughout the first two weeks of February, the same boring things repeating each and every day of the week. And suddenly, there was Valentine's Day, a day that would probably be different and perhaps bring a little shrine of light to the usual dullness. Or at least so they thought.

Valentine's Day seemed like a pretty big deal in Cheonsang University, something that Taehyung definetely failed to understand.

The entire building was decorated with huge pink and red helium balloons, heart stickers littering the glass cabinets and students lockers and several posters with cheesy love-related poems aswell as drawings of Cupid shooting an arrow stuck on the wall.
That wasn't all. Outside the building, there was quite a fuss around the Valentine's Day, too.

Red roses were piled up on the stairs leading up to the two-winged gate massively, the crimson contrasting beautifully with the building's marble white. Even classrooms were decorated with little heart-shaped balloons floating in the air, hearts drawn on the whiteboard and on the windows aswell.

Overall, the atmosphere changed drastically and suddenly, everyone seemed to be in the mood for love. Girls giggling and walking around with love letters and chocolate in their hands, boys holding red roses to gift to the girl they loved. Couples holding hands, giving each other sweet gifts and smooching each other happily, right in the middle of the hallways. Basically, everything you'd expect from a classic stereotypical Valentine's Day.

Taehyung absolutely hated it. As expected, since love was pretty much the literal bane of his existence and a whole day dedicated to the emotion definetely had no chance of being one of his favourites.

Lastly, there seemingly was one extra tradition at Cheonsang University that made everything even ten times worse. Students confessing their love to each other in the middle of the hallways through loudly recited poems or songs, so everyone could see them and they were pretty much publicly humiliated. Taehyung secretly thanked God he wouldn't have to partake in this tradition, he was certain there was no one who would dare to confess their love to him in such a brutal way. And vice versa.

Perhaps he was a bit wrong about that after all...

"But TaeTae! How could you say that, this is the sweetest tradition ever! I wish we had this in high school, would've made my school years much better! Imagine someone confessing to you that way, I think I'd melt!," Jimin swooned, him pulling a face of utter terror.

"Yeah... Sorry Jimin, I think I'll pass," he spoke dismissively, mentally cringing and accidentally catching Jungkook's eye who had just entered the hallway. Both of them broke the eye contact off almost immediately but not before Taehyung had given him a dismissive glare. Jungkook didn't look all too pleased either and the only thing that interrupted the thick tension between them was Jimin's loud sigh.

"When are you two finally gonna knock it off and make up? Whatever happened, both of you aren't kindergartners so I'm sure you can work it out," he exclaimed sadly, the redhead shaking his head profusely. "Nope. Sorry," he declined, the blonde groaning.

"I just don't understand- you two seemed so happy with each other! What could've happened that changed you like this? It's such a pity!" The vampire shrugged, feeling heavily uncomfortable with the current choice of topic.
"Anyways, back to topic. How would you react if someone confessed to you like this? I'd be flattered!," Jimin steered them back onto the horrid hallway-confessions, a topic that wasn't all too enjoyable for Taehyung, either.

So far, he had to witness two of those confessions today, three if he hadn't excused himself to the restroom. The first one was quite positive, a girl singing a horribly cheesy love song to a boy who accepted her confession gladly. The second one, not so much. The girl had run out of the hallways before her admirer could even finish his horrid poem for her. It was quite a sight to see and would not be forgotten easily.

Currently, they had lunch break and Taehyung couldn't wait to see what sorts of horrid conundrums would happen in the cafeteria. Note the sarcasm.

"I'd fucking gag," he muttered in response to Jimin's earlier question. "It's not like I'm super popular or anything, though, so I guess I'm safe on that one. No one in their right mind would ever come to the idea of crushing on--"
All of a sudden, he felt a tap on his shoulder from behind.

At first, he thought of Jungkook (since Namjoon was absent today, it was needless to be said why) which made him freeze in his movements and widen his eyes. He was in shock: there was no way Jungkook was suddenly keen on talking to him again. Not now, on Valentine's Day.

As he turned around with his heart thumping loudly in his chest and blood rushing to his ears, he came face to face with... someone who was not Jungkook. The eyes he met were not dark and twinkling like pretty stars, they were light brown and somewhat reminded him of an old teddy bear.

"Uh... Who are you?," he asked in confusion, literally not knowing this person. It was a tall boy with curly brown hair and rectangular glasses, wearing clothes that would've looked trendy about fifteen years ago and proudly holding a piece of paper in his hand. Perhaps Taehyung had seen him in the hallways once or twice, but he couldn't remember a name. He felt terribly awkward, hoping the very thing he dreaded would not come true.

"Kim Taehyung," the boy said loudly, making everyone in the hallway look at them curiously which resulted in an uncomfortable silence filling the hallway as everyone had stopped chatting.
"Will you spare me a minute of your precious time and listen to my fierce heart beating for you?" The vampire's jaw dropped, he was simply left speechless.

Don't worry, Taehyung. This is just a dream. Just a dream. None of this is real, you'll wake up soon and have a nice, cool glass of--
Who am I fucking kidding, this is brutal reality. Fucking what do I do?

"I-I'm sorry, I think I need to head to the toilet for a sec'. I'll be back soon, so you can just--," he tried to excuse himself and walk out of the hallway quickly but got pulled back by the mystery boy pulling his wrist which made some people, including Jimin, giggle and coo at the two of them. Taehyung could not see how this situation was amusing or endearing in any shape or form as he simply felt humiliated and a strong desire to rip out the male's throat. He grinded his teeth and snapped his eyes shut.

If only I were able to use my powers here, boy...

Reluctantly, he faced his apparent secret admirer again and tried not to scream in mortification as the boy took his hand all of a sudden, keeping a tight grip on it. "Kim Taehyung- The first time you stepped into the classroom, I immediately knew you'd be on my mind for a long while."

Who the fuck even are you?!

Taehyung gave an awkward smile that looked more like a secret plead for help as the other continued. "Your hair as red as a raging fire much like the one you're lighting up my heart with, your skin gleaming gold as the insides of a pirate's treasure chest. Your eyes the deepest, most mysterious green like wild tangles and seaweeds gracefully swaying around in the deepest depths of the ocean..." With every passing second, the desire to throw himself out of the window was getting harder to ignore.

My eyes aren't even green, you embarrassing piece of rat shit!

"...And I wrote you this poem to tell you how much I would love to walk around these very hallways with my hand entwined with yours, my arms holding and protecting you from all the evil this world may bestow upon you. Will you have the tenderness and accept my confession?" There was a pin-drop silence in the usually so loud hallway, just a few students silently whispering into each other's ears and trying to muffle their continuous gigglings.

That shit didn't even rhyme.

As much as the vampire would've loved to slap the boy in the face and suck the blood out of his veins to a point of him dying of blood loss, he knew he was being watched and couldn't risk ruining his entire reputation in front of his 'peers'. Compulsion also wasn't an option, even the strongest vampire could not compel hundreds of people without getting confused and making a mistake.

So he simply gritted his teeth, pulled everything inside him together to stay as calm as possible and took a step back with a forced smile. He then removed his clammy hand, trying to find appropriate words. "Uh... You-You surely are... courageous? Thank you for being honest about your... feelings, I'll- uh- think your confession through and give you an ultimate answer soon. Next... week?" Much to his luck, his admirer started smiling widely and nodded so all of his curls bounced around lightly. He basically resembled Jimin in a foot taller and more body mass which was not very reassuring for him.

Taehyung then turned around with his heart thumping in his chest, and with a horrible feeling that this might've been the most traumatic experience he had ever lived through in his three centuries of life, he forced himself through an abundance of curious university students.

The last thing he heard was a high-pitched "Oh my gosh, if only Namjoon were here! He would've loved this, don't you agree?" from Jimin before he had reached the end of the hallway and dashed towards the desired bathroom.

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(A/N: okay okay i have no idea why i wrote this but i thought it'd be needed to say that this chapter is actually inspired by harry potter and the chamber of secrets like they had this chapter of valentine's day where some ppl sent gnome thingies that sang poems to their valentine in public and ginny sent one to harry about how beautifully green his eyes were and he was totally mortified jsjsjs it sadly wasn't shown in the movies so many fans might not know abt this but one of my favourite book scenes by far :D

anyways i don't have much to say, it's getting hot in europe (over 30°C which i actually kinda enjoy ngl) so remember to stay hydrated and put on some sun screen and enjoy shjdjw thank you for reading and goodbye, i love you💜💜)