[I haven't delved too deeply into the lore, so please don't beat me up because it's not canon. I was thinking about a shifting practice while writing this, just so you know.]

Being a clown in any company is always difficult. And being a good clown in the dream world is even more difficult! After all, the only purpose of a dream is to keep your brain busy while the body is resting, and a good chunk of that responsibility fell on poor Early Early Oxenfree.

But don't rush to pity him; he likes his job! Sure, being the only jester around could sometimes be lonely, but he considered seeing fond smiles and hearing amused chuckles every time he made a joke — worth the fuss.

The only problem is: where to scoop ideas for new jokes and pranks for you, his colleagues, and himself, while you're all dreaming? When you weren't here, the dream world was pretty dull and rather isolated from the real world. Sure, it was pretty, but also kinda repetitive in its whimsy. So Oxenfree had to generate ideas of entertainment on his own, which weren't always in step with time.

So to find something new and silly to perform that you'd find relatable, Earl went into your memory while you were awake, for inspirations. And from what he found, it seemed that the real world had a thing called "holidays" like Christmas, Birthdays, Easter and many many others. And from the looks of it, you seemed to enjoy them most of the times. So he went deeper, and found out that there's an upcoming holiday called "Valentine's day", and decided to take that as his inspo.

There were no holidays in the dream world. Every day was joyful for them without any reason for it, especially with you around, and they simply did not need a special day to have fun. 

So the clown didn't know why the people in your memories gave each other flowers and symbolic heart-shaped cards. He wasn't aware that it wasn't something just friends did, and gifting you something in that day would mean more than just silly antic. But he honestly didn't care enough to bother fussing over some "meanings". It was something you seemed to like, and he was willing to whip himself up to make you happy.

And Oxenfree kept his word, preparing a surprise for you, and on the day of your dreams, placing the gift in a prominent place where you usually appeared. For Early Early Oxenfree, nothing was more pleasant than seeing the reaction to his antics, so he hid nearby, giggling and jingling his bells, eager to jump out at you as soon as you received what he had prepared for you.

And when you finally fell asleep after a long and tiring day, falling into a deep slumber as you had so many times before, you weren't greeted by the familiar sight of all those funny, colorful creatures of your dreams. Instead, you stood on a soft pink cloud, in front of a small table made of different candies. Taking a step forward, you stared at the bouquet of forget-me-nots and a very small chest, standing proudly on the colourful surface. The chest, which turned out to be a music box, was playing by itself a sweet carnival melody, with a beautiful ballerina figurine slowly rotating under its transparent lid.

Confused, you stood there for a few seconds before your gaze fell on three playing cards neatly laid out in front of the gifts.

On the left was a red joker card, the jester of which looked ridiculously similar to Earl. On the right was a queen of hearts (or king or jack, depending on your gender). And between them was an ace of hearts, with a big, red, juicy heart drawn on the paper between the other two. Beneath the set of cards lay a large red valentine with a painfully familiar orange and purple colour palette.

Early Early Oxenfree, barely breathing, watched you from his hiding place, suppressinh a giddy chuckle from anticipation of your reaction, having absolutely no idea how it all looked to you. He thought of it nothing more than a pleasant surprise he made for you, and was waiting for you to open the valentine and read what it said, so he could jump out of his hiding point.