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Jin’s hands shook as he carefully poured the chocolate into the molds.  He couldn’t mess this up.  But his shaky hands weren’t helping too much.  It had to be perfect.  For Soyeon.  He still couldn’t believe she had agreed to be his valentine.  Now he was back in his chocolate shop, trying to make his best chocolate.  Hopefully, even if he messed it up, she’d still like it. Eventually, he got most of the chocolate into the molds and left it to set.

The phone rang.  He picked it up. 

“Jin?”

“Yes.”

“It’s me, Jimin.  I need your help.  I want to give Seongja the best make-up Valentine’s Day date ever tomorrow.  Could you make me some special chocolates for her?  I’d like them to spell her name.”

“Spell her name?”

“Yeah.  Like…can you make them in the shape of her name – you know, like the characters?”

“No.”

“No?  Aw, man…”

“But I could draw the characters on. What shape would you like the chocolates to be?  Hearts?  Squares?  Circles?  Roses?”

“You can make roses?  Of course, you can.  Can I have hearts and roses?  Like half a dozen of each?”

Jin blew out a long breath.  He glanced at the clock.  He was supposed to pick Soyeon up in three hours.  If he worked diligently, he could do both.  “Okay.”

“Okay?  Jin, you’re the best!  Thank you.  Can I pick the chocolates up tomorrow morning?”

“Sure.  Talk to you later, Jimin.  I gotta go.”

“Bye, Jin.”

Jin sighed.  He had another couple hours of work ahead of him.  Normally, he would have had some chocolates in stock, and he could have just hand painted the characters onto them.  But he had sold out today, even before noon on Valentine’s Day.  He had closed the shop early because of it.  He’d been happy to, thinking he’d have more time to get ready for his date with Soyeon.  Not anymore. 

He got to work tempering more chocolate once he’d prepared his molds.  The things he did for his friends…

—

Jin carefully removed the chocolate from its molds.  Both pieces came out whole.  Phew.  The hard part was done.  Now for the embellishments…

A while later, he removed Jimin’s chocolates from their molds and began to hand paint them.  They turned out perfect.  He had painted three of the hearts and three of the roses, red, then he had painted the remainder pink.  Finally, he added Seongia’s name to them using an edible white paint.  He dusted them with gold powder.  Now, her name was in golden characters atop the red and pink candies.  They were beautiful.  He carefully placed them inside a paper heart box.  They were ready for Jimin to pick up in the morning. 

Jin glanced at the clock.  He had just enough time to run home and change before he needed to pick Soyeon up.

—

Soyeon stood in front of her mirror.  Why was she so nervous?  It wasn’t like she’d never been on a date before.  But she really liked Jin, and she barely knew him.  Despite being in the same class all throughout middle and high school, she and Jin had seldom talked.  But she had always liked him from a distance.  Would tonight be awkward?  She glanced down at the envelope in her hand.  It was customary for girls to give guys chocolates on Valentine’s Day, but Jin was a chocolatier.  She couldn’t really see herself buying him chocolate that was better than what he could make.  Also, she seemed to remember him saying once that he didn’t really care for most chocolate.  How odd.  Why had he become a chocolatier then?

She had wracked her brain trying to come up with something to give him.  She had finally decided on something a little strange.  But she was hoping that it would appeal to him…

—

Jin knocked on her door a few minutes later.  It swung open.  Soyeon, a vision in white, stood in front of him.  She dazzled him with her gleaming smile.  It matched her beautiful, flowing dress.  She’d put a button-down sweater on over it; her top looked like freshly fallen snow.  She matched the ground around him.  She looked stunning, innocent and sweet.

“Hi, Soyeon.  Happy Valentine’s Day!  Are you ready to go to dinner?”

She nodded.

“Great!  I got us reservations at a little gourmet restaurant a friend of mine owns.”

“Sounds wonderful.”  She didn’t know what else to say, so she stepped out of her house and closed the door behind her before turning to follow Jin to his car.  He opened her door for her.  She smiled up at him before sliding onto her seat.  He closed her door and made his way to his side of the car.

A few minutes later, after a quiet ride, they pulled into a parking space at the restaurant.  They walked inside and were quickly seated in a corner booth.  The table was lit by three candles of varying heights.  Each was a different color: white, pink, red. 

After they had ordered their dinner, Soyeon handed Jin the envelope. 

“I hope you like it. I know it’s common to receive chocolate on Valentine’s Day, but I seem to remember you saying you don’t care for it.  So I got you something else.”  Why was she so nervous?  Because it was a strange gift to buy for a man.

Jin smiled at her as he received the envelope.  “You remembered accurately.  I don’t really care for chocolate.  Funny, huh?  Since I’m a chocolatier.”

“Yeah.  How did that happen?”

“I’ll tell you the story over dinner.  It’s a long story.  Right now I’m very curious to see what you got me.”  He shook the envelope. Then he held it up to the light as though it would suddenly become transparent and reveal all of its secrets.

She laughed.  “You could just open it.”

“Hmm.  But that’s so usual.  I was trying to be creative.”

“I have a feeling you are very creative,” she commented, smiling.

“Ok,” he blew a long breath out.  Then he used his knife to slit the envelope open.  He withdrew two tickets.  He began to laugh.  “Disney on Ice?”

She grimaced.  “Is it too weird?”

“Weird?  No!  I love Disney on Ice.  I see that it’s the Princesses Show.  I’ve been wanting to see it.”

“REALLY?!”  She could not believe this.  He had to be kidding, right?  He was just being nice, maybe.

“Really.”  He smiled at her.  “This is a great gift.  Thank you.  Now…I have something special I made for you…” 

He pushed a box across the table towards her.  It was a red cube.  She gazed down at it curiously.  It was tied with a white ribbon.  She pulled on the ribbon, and the bow fell apart.  She reached out and lifted the red lid. 

She glanced into the box and gasped.  “Jin, it’s beautiful!  Is that chocolate?”

He nodded.

She reached into the box and unearthed a chocolate heart box.  It was made of two pieces, the bottom box itself and a lid.  She lifted the lid and found a treasure inside.  Jin had set a dozen red chocolate roses inside the dark chocolate box.  She set it back in the box, afraid the heat of her hands would melt the chocolate.  She held her phone over it and turned on her flashlight so that she could study the chocolate heart.  Jin had made the entire heart of dark chocolate.  The lid looked like it had been engraved.  It had beautiful scrollwork on it. 

She looked up at him in wonder.  “Jin, this is absolutely the most beautiful thing anyone has ever given me for Valentine’s Day.  You must have worked hard on this.  Thank you,” she breathed, still in awe of his gift.  “You have an amazing talent.”

Jin blushed.  “Thank you.  I’m glad you like it.”

“No, Jin, I LOVE it!  I am so glad you asked me to be your valentine.”

“You are?”  Why had he been so nervous?  She loved his gift, and she seemed to like him.

“Yes.  I…I’m assuming you want to go on another date with me since you spent hours creating this little beauty for me,” she gestured to the chocolate heart box.

He nodded.

“So, I can go with you to see Disney on Ice?”

He laughed.  “Well, I just assumed the tickets were for us both.”

She breathed a sigh of relief.  “Well, you know, if you decided you didn’t like me…”  She let her voice trail off.

“That’s not going to happen,” Jin murmured. 

She had no idea, but he’d had a crush on her for years. It had taken him all this time to work up the courage to ask her out.  She didn’t know it yet, but she was the reason he’d become a chocolatier.  He’d found out in middle school that she had a love affair with all things chocolate.  And he had determined to master the way to her heart.  The only question was…how was he going to tell her that?