Life

This Girl's Chicken Nugget Bouquet Is The Tops

by Lara Rutherford-Morrison

“Romance” means different things to different people, but I think most would agree that the most romantic gifts are those that demonstrate a person’s deep understanding of their partner’s deepest, most fundamental desires. And sometimes that means chicken. In January, one very lucky young woman got a chicken nugget bouquet from her boyfriend because she doesn’t like flowers. Needless to say, the Twitterverse collectively swooned.

Annika Aguinaldo and Rico Villanueva, both 19 and living in Manila in the Philippines, have known each other since they were children. Last week, Villanueva put together a romantic surprise for Aguinaldo, who had once joked that she’d prefer nuggets over flowers: He gave her a bouquet made of McDonald’s chicken nuggets. “I was ecstatic!” Aguinaldo tells Bustle. “I didn't expect him to give me a chicken nugget bouquet since I had only been joking about receiving one, but more than the nuggets, I appreciated the effort he put into crafting a bouquet all by himself.”

This wasn’t the first time that the couple has bonded over fast food. According to BuzzFeed, they first hung out at McDonald’s, and have brought each other chicken nuggets in the past. Aguinaldo tells Bustle, “[Villanueva’s] whole gesture was absolutely sweet, but nothing that surprised me! It's very much like Rico to perform crazy antics since, according to him, he likes seeing me happy.”

They had their friend Eia on hand to take photos. Is this not face of a happy human?

Seriously, how adorable is this?

Fortunately, the bouquet didn’t go to waste; Aguinaldo, Villanueva, and Eia snacked on the “flowers” after taking pictures.

Aguinaldo later tweeted the photos with the caption, “I told him I didn't like flowers, so he got me a bouquet of chicken nuggets, and I pretty much became the happiest girl on the planet.”

Aguinaldo and Villanueva didn’t expect the post to go viral, but nearly 40,000 “likes” and 10,000 retweets later, the chicken nugget bouquet is officially trending. McDonald’s Philippines even invited the couple to one of its locations for a date.

“The whole virality of the situation is something that [Villanueva] and I never saw coming,” Aguinaldo tells Bustle. “To us, what he did wasn't anything completely out of the ordinary for us, as we enjoy performing random acts of kindness for the other. Seeing all the lovely comments are great, though! I'm glad so many people get to see how lucky I am to have Rico.”

All together, now: Awwwww.