Namflow

My 99.5% Mush Free Valentine's Day Story (Part 1/3)

"Have you ever given a girl chocolates on Valentine's Day?" asked Hasegawa Sensei as I was explaining the differences between Valentine's Day in Japan and America for class 1-1 sometime last year. "Yes, I have." I responded. "But that's a story for Valentine's Day." He looked a bit surprised, then he smiled and jokingly said, "Rich has a sad Valentine's Day story!"

It was first semester junior year in college...

I was in this Japanese culture class. And in this class there was a girl named Amy. I never really talked with her or anything, but she seemed cool. She was half Japanese, half American, and 100% hot. She dressed fashionably and I'd see her at the anime club's anime screenings every Wednesday. The Japanese culture class came and went and I never really talked with her. But I knew she went to anime Wednesday nights and I got an idea.

Valentine’s day was coming up. And for the 21 years I had been alive I’d never done anything special for Valentine's Day except stay in and play video games. And it’s a holiday where you are supposed to go do something cute and romantic and sappy. My love life junior year had been pretty lackluster thus far - the last girl I asked to a dance said she'd love to go but had plans to go to a Protestant retreat to "hold hands and sign songs about Jesus." Things couldn't get much worse than that so I thought “Why not? I’ve never given a girl anything on Valentine's Day before, and I’ve got nothing to lose, let's rock.”

I had a small debate on what to give her, be it flowers or chocolates, and how much to spend. I decided on chocolates because I thought flowers would be too sappy and romantically heavy to give to someone I hardly knew, and if I was a chick I'd most certainly prefer chocolates. I mean, you can't eat flowers can you? Next, I had to decide on how much to spend. Cause I didn't want to seem like a cheap ass "Hey baby, here's a 99 cent Hershey bar, your place or mine?" But on the other hand, I didn't want to go overboard with a $50 dollar box of designer chocolate which might result in some kind of guilt trip, like "Yo, I just spent my whole paycheck on your gift so you are obligated to spend time with me." I talked this over with some of my friends who were girls (and thus had a much better idea of how this stuff works than I) and it was decided a small box of Godiva chocolate would fit the occasion perfectly. When I went to the mall Valentine's Day the smallest box they had was $10. But I figured $10 isn't enough to guilt trip anyone, and if a $10 box of chocolates could win me love, then so be it. And if not, well, she's $10 worth of chocolates fatter. Either way I win!

Valentine’s day was Thursday, and anime screenings were Wednesday ending at midnight. My great idea was this – give her chocolates right after midnight on the walk home from anime. And I could use a really cheezy line I saw in a drama in Japanese Conversation class where a guy called up his girl at midnight to say “I wanted to be the first to wish you a happy birthday.” Just replace "Happy Birthday" with "Happy Valentine's Day" and it's all good.

Wednesday came, she was at Anime, everything was going according to plan. Anime ended and I began to walk home with my friends as she did with hers. Her friends were two guys that I affectionately nicknamed dorkboy and loserdude. Thankfully dorkboy and loserdude went to pursue their academic interests at the library as she continued on her way to Sue B, the same dorm as me. My heart began to pound because I knew I was really going to go through with this. I began to walk faster to catch up with her. My friends were surprised to see me walking ahead of them and had no idea what was about to happen. And neither did I.

I caught up with Amy and started talking with her. I figured it'd be better to talk with her first to test the waters. She was nice and friendly and happy as I thought she would be (I mean, who wouldn’t be happy if I came up and started to talk with them?) Then we were almost to the dorm and I thought to myself “It’s now or never”. So I reached into my coat, pulled out the chocolates, and handed them to her as I said “I want to take this opportunity to be the first person to wish you a happy Valentine’s Day.” And she’s like “Valentine’s day?” a little confused, and then I’m like “Yea, it’s past midnight isn’t it?” And she was like "Ohhhhhhh yea..." And she thanked me and seemed happy and we kept walking...
and walking......
and walking...
walking...
.........
......
...
..
.

"Shit!!! Now what do I do?" I thought to myself. That cheezy line was as far as I had planned in advance and now I was lost. This was the part where she was supposed to say, "Wow, no ones ever given me anything on Valentine's Day before! I'll love you forever and ever and then some!" But we just kept walking in uncomfortable silence for a bit more before I started making small talk again. A few moments later we were at Sue B. Once inside she took the elevator to her floor while I elected to take the stairs. And she smiled and thanked me again and waved goodbye as the elevator doors shut on yet another Valentine's Day.......

Now, I'd say that didn't go all that bad for a first try at this Valentine's Day thing. I did what I set out to do, I didn't chicken out, and I didn't get slapped! Only problem was that I was too busy planning out the actual giving of the chocolates that I neglected to think I had to do something after that. Looking back on things, it might have been kind of weird for her to have this guy she didn't know give her some chocolates, wish her a happy Valentine's Day, and then not ask her out! But even so, I was really happy with myself for going through with it, I was ecstatic for the rest of the night. On the way to the CS lab to work on my latest project I just started jumping up and down with my hands raised in victory.

As time went by I was hoping to run into her again, talk, and maybe invite her over to watch anime. In our conversation on V-day she said that she wanted to see the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena which I had but didn’t tell her about. (doh!) I figured I could just invite her over to watch Anime next time I saw her. Only problem was I never saw her except at the anime screenings. I felt like I had already played my "talk with Amy after anime" card and was too stubborn to do it again, which (in retrospect) was stupid of me.

So I waited. Soon days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, and I still hadn't talked with her since then. I knew if I just kinda ran into her I could start up a conversation and things would be awesome. However, the longer I waited the more it seemed like fate wasn't on my side. But then I realized that, sometimes, fate needs a little push in the right direction.

To Be Continued...

Posted by namflow at February 14, 2006 03:59 AM