𝐸𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 || 𝑇𝑠𝑢𝑘𝑖𝐾𝑎𝑔𝑒

4

"Good morning Miwa-san. Is Kagayama here right now?" I hear Tsukishima ask. I quickly turn around and run back up the stairs. "Sho! Come on!" I whisper yell. He looks at me confused. "Why? Weren't we gonna go check out Ms. Gloxna's family?" I roll my eyes, "It's Gloxinia and not right now!" I whisper shout again. I take the plant out of his arm and pull his hand. "Kag-" "Shhh" I shush him and listen. "Oh? Hey Tsukishima! Yeah, he should be upstairs planting some flowers! I see you've brought some friends with you today~" I peek over the bar stairs a little to see who she's talking about, but as soon as I peek over Tsukishima looks at me. I yank myself back. Oh my as- "Hello! I'm Yachi and this is kiyoko!" I hear. Yachi!?! "Yachi!?!" Hinata says out loud. He snatches his hand back and makes his way down stairs. I follow, trying to stop him. Thanks to my stupid leg and not being able to run I don't catch up to him. He runs towards yachi and hugs her. "YACHI!!" She hugs Shoyo back. "Hinata!? What are you doing in Miyagi!?" I decide to just go ahead and blow my cover and walk down the stairs. "Hey Yachi. Kiyoko." I wave at them. "Ah, the king shows himself."

He gives me a smirk. I look away. I feel the heat in my cheeks starting to rise. "Come on. I know you wanted to check out some flowers." I turn around and walk to a small section in the back. "Kagayama, it's good to see you!" Yachi smiles. She was standing next to me. "Hey. It's been a while since we last saw each other." I say smiling at the blonde. "Yeah, it has. I know you've been through...some things." Her smile wavers. "I'm fine now." I reassure her. She smiles again. "That's good!" Kiyoko "I heard from Tsukishima that you've been working at a greenhouse. So we tagged along with him so we could see you." I give a sad smile. "I'm sorry I haven't been in touch with you guys. I've just been busy." They both hug me. "It's alright. We know, we're just glad you're okay." Tears sting my eyes, but I blink them away. "Thanks guys. Anyway, we've got plants to look at so let's go!" I turn around and say with a wide smile. Tsukishima looks me straight in the eyes. "Let's look at those new flowers, KIng~" He says. I shouldn't blush, there is no reason to...but I do. My whole face feels hot. The dream. "Ahahaha, yeah. Um..we just got a couple of new ones. Ah..they haven't been planted yet, so if you want one you can just grab it. B-but please be careful." I cover my face and head back up the stairs. "Great, now you broke him Tsukishima." I hear Hinata whisper. "I didn't do anything! I just said, "Let's go see the new flowers." How's that breaking him?" Tsukishima grunts. "Your voice beanpole, your freaking voice. You could kill someone with how smooth your voice was!!" Hinata whisper yells. Kiyoko and Yachi laugh. My face just gets hotter and I'm pretty sure my ears look like roses now.

"Oh my asahi-!! These are so pretty!!" Yachi exclaims looking at the Gloxinia. "Aren't they!! I might buy some for Yams. Kagayama said he was going to show me the family flowers before you guys came in." Hinata is back to bouncing like a 5 year old. "Hmm? Family flowers?" Tsukishima says while observing the Gloxinias'. I don't look at him, instead I focus my attention on the other plants in the cart. "Uh, yeah. We got a shipment of the Gloxinia perennis before the parent flower Gloxinia. I told Sho I'd show him the perennis since he liked the Gloxinia so much." He gives a small laugh. "What?" I say finally looking at him. "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't speak plant, king." My face flushes with embarrassment. "O-oh yeah. I-i was just going to show him some different flowers from the same family. T-that's all." I continue looking at the cart of flowers. They all seem to be into the flowers up here because they all venture off and look at other ones while whispering. I take this chance to plant the flowers on the cart. There are 2 carts up here with 2 different flowers on each. On the 1st cart there are Globus Amaranth (top shelf) & Gloxinia (bottom shelf). On the 2nd cart there are 2 other ones I've never seen before. I look at the tag for the one at the top. "Heli-ot-ropes." I pronounce. I observe the flower for a second. It's dark purple color kinda reminds me of Kiyoko. I smile at the thought. The next one is light Pink with a light green inside. It's sorta shaped like an open rose. A very loose open rose. The pronunciation is a bit harder for this one, so it takes me a couple tries until I stick to one. "Lisi-an-thus...Haha. Now this one reminds me of Yachi." I say out loud.

"Umm..kags?" I look up startled, and see Sho. "Yeah?" I ask. Maybe he wants to see the perennis flowers now but for some reason he looks nervous. "Uh..Me, Kiyo & Yachi wanted to go see some other plants downstairs." Sho doesn't look at me. "Oh, ok. Wanna go see the per-" "NO, I mean...no. I meant by ourselves..." I blink. "Uh..ok? If you guys need help, or want to check something out then just tell me or Miwa..." He nods then hurries off with Kiyoko and Yachi. They all have the same look of nervousness on her face except Kiyoko. She looks...relieved? They wave and make their way down stairs and disappear in the vine room. I'm still confused on why they seemed nervous and relieved? I shake my head and get to planting the flowers on the cart. I barely had time to dig a hole in the dirt before Tsukishima knelt next to me. "What are you doing?" I look at him confused. Huh? I thought he left with the others. "What are you doing here?" He raises an eyebrow. "I never left." My brow furrows. "Oh." I say and continue to dig the holes. "Uh, I'm digging holes. To plant the flowers." I nod my head over towards the flowers sitting in carts. He hums and doesn't say anything. I dig holes and plant flowers for about 15 minutes. Tsukishima still knelt next to me, passing me items or flowers I would need. My leg starts to ache so I decide to stop after I plant the last Gloxinia. "Hey..." I say, rubbing off dirt on a towel Tsukishima gave me, then standing up. He stays where he is not moving but looks up at me. I check my phone for the time. 10:15. Time for my medicine. "I have to go get something real quick." I say flashing a small smile. He observes me before saying, "Ok." I start walking down stairs towards the staff room. Medicine! Medicine! I hate taking it but it helps to stop my aching. Sadly, and Gladly, I can only take it twice. Once in the morning and one in the afternoon, if I take it at night it'll boost my adrenaline and I don't need that right now. I grab my pills out of the cabinet in the staff room and some water.

A few minutes later I feel the ache subside. "Okay, back to work." I get ready to leave the staff room when I hear someone talking close by. "Sho...do you think it was a good idea to leave Kageyama and Tsukishima alone...by themselves?" I could tell it was Yachi speaking because of how high her voice sounded. Nervous laughter could be heard. "I don't know. This could either fail and ruin their, somewhat, friendship or they might get closer?" Hmm? Is that why Tsukishima was still there? "I think it might work." This time Kiyoko spoke. "They seem to know each other's feelings towards one another. It'll be ok." I don't hear talking after that so I decide to leave the room.

"Tsukishima." I call as I make my way up the stairs. He turns to me but says nothing. I've thought about it. In the 30 seconds I had to get up here I thought about telling him. "I-..." I stop. Come on! Speak! "You?" Tsukishima asks, confused. I look down. "I heard something...from somewhere...from someone" I finally say. He raises an eyebrow. "What exactly did you hear, king?" I stay silent. My friends are doing this so we could confess to each other. I know why Kiyoko seemed relieved, why Shoyo and Yachi seemed nervous. They want to help. I never asked but I'm grateful. "King?" Tsukishima gets up from where he was kneeling and walks closer to me. "That...you like me." I say looking directly at him.