Subaru and I left the stadium soon after. It was dark outside and we sat outside in silence, waiting for our lift. Subaru just played with the rocks on the ground, while I stared up at the stars.
"Is... Is the sky pretty?" he asked in a small voice, still looking at the ground.
I looked at him, not completely sure those words came from his mouth.
Smiling and looking back up at the sky, I nodded. "The stars are especially bright tonight."
Subaru also looked up and smiled. "Yeah... They are."
"I think the night sky tells us how we should live our lives."
He looked at me questioningly, encouraging me to continue.
"Well, there's the moon." I pointed at the moon, which was full tonight. "It's so extremely bright. So bright in fact, that when you look up, your eyes are drawn to it and drawn away from the stars. They know their shine is being ignored, but the stars don't give up and grow duller. Nor do they increase their brightness beyond their limits and burn themselves out. They stay the same. Constant. If we focused more on maintaining our glow instead of worrying about not shining as bright as others... Maybe we'd live more fulfilled lives..." I trailed off and Subaru stared at me, gaping.
I quickly looked away and laughed nervously. "...Or something like that, hehe."
A silence fell over us again.
"Subaru, do me a favour?"
He lifted his head, indicating that he was listening.
"Keep on shining."
He got up and brushed himself off. He held his hand out to me as Tsubaki's headlights shone behind him, almost as if Subaru himself was glowing.
"I-I'll... Do my best," Subaru said with new determination in his eyes.
I nodded approvingly and took his hand. He hoisted me up and we walked to the car. Subaru insisted I take the front seat, so I did. As Subaru sat in the backseat, Tsubaki said, "Ne~ that counts as holding hands. Trying to get ahead of me, are you Subaru?"
"I-It's not like that!"
Tsubaki started laughing at Subaru's reaction and we were on our way home.
My eyelids started to get very heavy and I found myself dozing off as Subaru and Tsubaki talked.
When I woke, I was being carried by someone. Normally, if you wake up and are being carried by a strange person, you should probably run away very quickly, but I felt so comfortable and safe that I didn't panic. I looked up and Iori smiled down at me. "Oh, you're awake?"
I blinked tiredly and rubbed my eyes with my fists. "What happened?"
"You feel asleep in the car. Subaru and Tsubaki were arguing over who would carry you to your room. I was tending to the flowers and decided I'd do it."
"You do a very good job with the flowers. They're very pretty."
He looked very happy at the compliment. "Thank you," he smiled.
Oh gosh. Oh wow. That smile.
I looked away shyly. "Y-You're welcome."
Iori was very warm. The whole time he carried me, I knew he wouldn't drop me. I don't know how, I just knew. When I'm with Iori, I feel like I can trust him with anything.
We stopped in front of my door and Iori gently placed me on my feet. I fumbled with my lock, but finally managed to unlock the door. "Can you manage by yourself?" he asked.
"Uh... Yeah. Thanks for carrying me. Sorry I'm so heavy."
"It's fine, don't worry. I'll see you tomorrow then. Oyasumi."
"Oyasumi, Iori."
He walked off and I went into my room, straight to bed. Iori's so kind. I wish I could spend more time with him... Wait, what am I thinking?! I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Okay, Yui, sleep! You're tired and you're not thinking straight. Sleep will fix your brain!
And I did.
The next morning, I woke up before dawn. I quickly got changed and went outside. I sat by the big tree in front of the house and watched as the sun rose.
A hand held a white flower in front of me. It was Iori. I took the flower and he sat down beside me.
"At least you're not sitting up in the tree this time," he teased.
I laughed as I admired the flower he'd handed to me. "This is a gardenia, right?"
He didn't seem surprised that I knew that. "That's right."
"If I'm not mistaken, in the language of flowers, gardenias symbolize sweetness, purity and joy."
His cheeks turned a light pink.
"They have another meaning too..." he said, but I didn't hear.
"What was that? I didn't hear what you said."
"N-Nothing," he stuttered and looked at the sun rise.
We both sat there and enjoyed the golden hue of the horizon and the sun ascended the sky. Iori repositioned himself and his hand was touching mine. My heart started pounding in my chest. But I didn't move my hand.
I didn't want to move my hand.
So I didn't. And neither did Iori.
We stayed like that - almost holding hands - until the the sky became a light blue, and no more signs of sunrise were visible.
The sky.
Sora.
As soon as his name popped into my head, I felt guilty. Then I felt stupid. Why should I feel guilty?
I suddenly felt really lonely. I hugged my knees and Iori sat closer to me. "Are you okay?"
I smiled, even though my heart felt like breaking into pieces. "I'm fine."
He looked at me disbelievingly. "You don't look okay."
I put a little more effort into the smile. "I'm fine."
"If you ever feel sad... You're allowed to rely on me. I don't mind."
I nodded. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."
The smell of breakfast wafted outside. We both caught the scent and got up. Iori began walking, but I stared at the gardenia in my hand.
"Something wrong?"
"Oh, no, it's nothing."
I ran up beside him and we walked to the house together.
I'd realised something about gardenias, which was why I didn't follow at first.
And what I'd realised was that gardenias also had another meaning.
And that meaning was...
Secret love.