Summary
Sakura Moeno is approached by several male classmates while making her way to class, re-gifting her for the chocolate she passed out for the Holiday. Many make remarks on how cute and sweet she is for doing this and she sits down to admire the collection while her friends remark she gave too many. Sakura plays ignorant -while mentally thinking about how amusing it was to see how much effort people put into spoiling her- when Kamiya approaches to give her handmade chocolate. She eagerly accepts and after he walks away, her friend asks if she gave him the nicer chocolate. Sakura confirms that while he received high quality fondant chocolate, everyone else got measly little wrapped ones.
Her friends aren't the least bit surprised by this considering he's the school Idol for girls, while she is the boys school Idol. Sakura admits that if he made a love confession she'd probably go out with him -while mentally deciding that going out with just one guy would be boring- but she becomes distracted with a big, fancy, wrapped box among the pile of chocolate gifts. She isn't able to find a name or card and opens it to discover large, expensive cream puffs sitting inside. One of her friends recognizes them being from an expensive shop in town, and Sakura appears to be earnestly touched by the gesture since she's never been able to buy them, and she bites into one. She finds it very delicious, but when her friend tries a little of the cream she reacts with disgust.
Sakura is confused by her response but she sees no problem with them and keeps eating, and soon the entire box is gone. For a second, she is momentarily anxious feeling a gaze upon her, but she sees nobody there and shrugs it off. Her friends don't take it seriously either since it's not uncommon.
Later, the oddities continue as Sakura prepares for gym class. She can't shake the paranoid feeling from earlier and has become light-headed and sickly- her friends quickly reminding her that she was being gluttonous by eating so much prior to class. As Sakura lays on a bench they head off to fetch the Teacher, and Sakura theorizes that she's feeling strange because she is deeply aware of an admirer unable to confess, but she wishes they would just get it over with.
Sakura rests easily until her friends worriedly wake her up to remark on how ill and sweaty she looks, and by now class is over. Sakura gets up when a folded paper falls from her pocket, and she opens it to see were the cream puffs tasty, Moe-chan?!.
Alarmed, Sakura wonders who this person is to have sneaked in like this, and by the time school ends she has become further distressed. Her friends attempt to calm her by speaking to their male classmates to find someone who can walk her home, but none of them want to help; claiming they have club or just aren't interested in getting involved. The girls of her class coldly mock her, insinuating that it was her fault for being too friendly in the first place. This behavior makes Sakura frustrated, but to her surprise Kamiya offers to walk her home. She shyly thanks him and they take off.
While making their way to her place, Sakura apologizes for making him miss club activity but he claims not to mind. He noticed how anxious she looked and wanted to help her; although Sakura quickly denies anything of the sort. He reacts with amusement and calls her upfront, something that flusters her since she's never been called anything but cute or manipulative. Nearing her place, she offers to let him go but he insists on following to make sure she gets in alright, giving her a little push when she hesitates to accept.
Before stepping inside she observes him again, wondering why she hasn't noticed how different he is than other guys. She heads into her room and sets the box of chocolate he gave her on her desk as her mother joins her to ask if she knows where their scissors went. Sakura claims she doesn't as they recall using them to cut ribbon the other day, and her mom leaves to continue looking. Sakura observes the chocolate before deciding to focus on catching her stalker. Since Kamiya was so considerate and seems to genuinely care she wants to make sure he knows she will be okay.
However... the following morning she awakens to her shocked mother. She points to her shirt and Sakura rushes to the nearest mirror to find You don't have to be scared. It's fine. written on it. She confides in her mother what happened and they immediately contact the police; but because they don't have any real proof they can't do anything to help her.
The stress soon overwhelms Sakura at school when she confronts several boys she gave chocolate too. Her abrasive behavior catches everyone off guard but she is unable to get answers and is reduced to tears until Kamiya calms her down, pulling her inside to speak to her. He had remembered overhearing a boy from class 3 that was planning on making her something, and he vanished recently. Sakura begins to theorize that she might know who this boy is and she recalls handing out one of her chocolates to a glasses-wearing student who kept to himself. He attempted to speak to her out of appreciation, bringing up how much he knows about her and likes her, but she got uncomfortable and tried leaving. When he tried to prevent her to try to get her to listen to him, she was startled and bluntly told him that they don't suit each other. She saw her friends nearby and took off, with them beginning to make fun of him within earshot once she reveals only giving him the chocolate out of pity.
Having ate those cream puffs, Sakura wonders if it could be the same guy trying to get revenge. She suddenly yells out an insult while thinking about him- but in the process she finds Kamiya staring at her with hurt, causing her to realize he mistakenly believes she was talking about him. She tries to clarify what she meant, but he tells her that if this is what she really thinks then she shouldn't talk to him anymore.
Later, Sakura makes her way home while sadly thinking about Kamiya and their misunderstanding. Her mood is only worsened overhearing a couple of girls nearby, who bring up that he got together with a girl from another class. As part of the re-gift process they hung out for a bit and it flourished into a romance. Sakura tries convincing herself that it means nothing because she's popular anyway, but hearing the girls bring up how he gave the girls he wasn't interested in cookies, she desperately opens his present upon arriving home.
Finding cookies inside of the package causes Sakura to cry, realizing he never had feelings for her. She feels horrible knowing someone she deeply admired didn't feel the same way; but she isn't given a long time to linger on it when a new voice startles her. She recognizes it as the boy from class 3, who amusingly makes a remark on her rejection. He goes on to thank her for eating the cream puffs, and Sakura attempts to locate the source of the voice until noticing it's coming from her own body.
As the boy speaks, Sakura begins to piece together the strange occurrences since eating the cream puffs. She realizes why the boy vanished and is physically sick when she determines he killed himself and somehow managed to bake his blood into them. She tries throwing up but his control over her doesn't allow it, and he brings up how much he likes her again. Horrified, Sakura tries to determine how someone could go to such lengths when she feels a jolt of pain. She recalls that her scissors have gone missing and desperately begins to plead with him to stop, but he refuses, saying that because she understands his feelings now, they will become one in the same. He proceeds to stab her from the inside, splattering blood on the unwrapped cookies.
At home, Kamiya is approached by his mother with a package for him. It's quite strange considering Valentines Day has already passed, but she shows him the cute, homemade looking chocolate heart within the box. On it is a note saying I am only yours.
Tropes:
- Crush Blush: She denies wanting to date one guy, but Sakura makes it obvious that she had a crush on Kamiya.
- For bonus points, she seems to be a pigtailed tsundere.
- Foreshadowing: Early on in the story, Sakura's mother mentions that the scissors went missing. There isn't any sort of build up or implications as to what happened to them until Sakura is killed though.
- There are also random drawings with blood-like detail on the sides of the panels, hinting to the Loner students fate.
- Gory Discretion Shot: The image shifts away from Sakura as the scissors make a dent in her top, instead showing blood splatter the cookies as she screams.
- Lack of Empathy: Sakura's female classmates -not counting her friends- believe she got what she deserved for being so friendly to boys and refuse to show her any concern over how genuinely frightened she was.
- What makes it worse is that Sakura points out that only some people are aware of her true nature, but not everyone. So they weren't shown to have any real reason why they would act this way.
- Loners Are Freaks: The unnamed loner student, who was stalking Sakura prior to the story and frightened her when he revealed knowing all sorts of intimate details about her.
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Nightmare Retardant: The yonkama put a humorous spin on the ending of this chapter. Sakura visits the bathroom to relieve herself from her stalker. - Rule of Scary: The scissors somehow getting into Sakura's body for starters.
- The Fake Cutie: Sakura, a cute girl who pretends to be nice to boys in order to get a lot of return gifts on White Day. Her friends even call her out on it when they observe what she got, and she mentally reveals throughout the story her true, less-nicer thoughts.
- The Woobie: Even if Sakura isn't the nicest girl around, it's hard not to feel bad for her when she was shown bonding with Kamiya and found out that he never returned her feelings. Only to be killed by the unnamed Loner after he makes himself known.
- Yandere: The unnamed Loner student, who was Driven to Suicide after Sakura rejected him and made fun of him with her friends.
- Sakura herself appears to be one for Kamiya after her death, when she pulls the same tactic.
