"You Puzzle Me"

Now I'm asking if you'd like to know the real me... ― Florence Joyce

xxxxxx

[Rinako]

"What happened to you? Your mind seems to be traveling somewhere else. You just went to your favorite place, right?"

I chose not to answer Mayu's question—who hadn't left yet even though Seiho mentioned that the two would have a "date"—as soon as I arrived in the classroom. I just sat on my assigned seat and placed my head on the table that I was using. It was a good thing I didn't choose to just bang my head there just for me to wake up.

Was this a nightmare? Why would a simple flower have this kind of effect on me? Why was my heart beating this fast?

Waah! What kind of day was this, seriously speaking?

"Hey! Are you okay?"

I looked at Mayu who slightly shook me but my head was still placed on the table. "Tell me one thing. How am I supposed to feel okay if there wasn't a day that that irritating jerk won't ruin my mind, huh?"

"What did he do this time and you're here again calling him an irritating jerk? Can't you even think of a much better naming convention? He's still a decent human being, you know. Don't treat him as someone retarded."

"Well, with what he's doing to me, I'll treat him that way. And I will continue doing that until he stops being a jerk to me and being the source of my everyday irritation." Grr! I hated feeling so worked up like this because of him. "This is seriously frustrating!"

And here was my cousin, just laughing at me. I guessed she was supposed to be the one who I should call irritating or retarded.

"Okay, fine. You win. I just won't mention anything about him so the discussion won't proceed any further. It's a good thing that they won't be our classmates in the next three subjects of the day."

That was when I was able to heave a sigh of relief. But even so, my mind was still thinking about what happened a while back. That jerk wasn't even present but he still made my heartbeat that fast. And it was all because of a flower.

I wasn't sure if that guy understood the meaning of the flowers. But... if I would consider what Seiho told me that the flower he handed to me was Setsuji's message for me, then it must mean...

Was it possible that he was quite knowledgeable about the language of flowers?

I could've laughed at the thought but I couldn't. I groaned discreetly. This was getting crazy! Why does my mind have to become in pieces like this?

I forced myself to ignore it as time continuously passed inside the room. It was a good thing that I was still able to concentrate on the lessons even though undeniably, my mind felt like it was scattered around. If there was one thing in this world that I would choose not to suffer because of my childish and nonsense thoughts, it would be my studies.

This was one of the ways for me to repay my parents' efforts who supported me all this time.

After the class, I decided to head straight home. I decided not to wait for Mayu since she said that she still had a club activity. Besides, from what I could see, perhaps the date that Seiho mentioned would finally take place. It was obvious even if she chose not to mention anything to me. I had that notion when I saw her getting giddy over the fact that she saw Seiho waiting for her outside the room.

As for me, I could be considered untied to any responsibilities of any of the clubs in the university. I don't want to bore myself (or I should say torture myself) from those club activities. They would only get in the way of my freedom.

I was already out of the building when I saw something scattered on the stairs. At first, I thought I was just hallucinating or something similar. But when I crouched down and picked one of them, that was when I knew it was real.

Scattered on the stairs of the building's entrance were petals (or should I say colored sepals) of love-in-a-mist.

I still hadn't been able to recover from what I saw when suddenly, I noticed the petals of the same flower on the ground falling from somewhere. I even looked around the place.

What the heck? There was no one around. What was this, some sort of people conniving or something? Seriously, there were no people around the area of the building. When I looked up to where could these falling petals possibly come from, I saw a silhouette.

Weird... I could only see that person's back and probably had taken a few steps away from the balcony. I think that person noticed—whoever it might be—that I glanced in that direction.

As far as I knew, that flower couldn't possibly be available in Yakuramoto. Though I knew that there was one clan in town who owned the largest flower farm, I still found it hard to believe that such a flower would exist in the area.

"This is crazy... To think he'd scatter this trash around. Why can't he just put this in a vase or maybe even create a bouquet out of these flowers and give it to someone who could appreciate," Great! Now I ended up talking to myself while looking at the scattered love-in-a-mist at the entrance of the building.

I didn't know what to feel. But first and foremost, just who were these flowers meant to? Was it just by chance that I was the only person here to see this?

I was about to leave the place when another unexpected "something" fell from above. I couldn't help heaving a heavy sigh because of that. And then I looked up again to the very same spot where I saw the silhouette.

"Hey! Whoever you are that decided to scatter these things around here, make sure that you clean all these very well, okay? Don't expect me to clean it for you!"

Once again, I heaved a heavy sigh just to calm myself after that. Until my attention was taken by whatever it was that fell from above a while ago. That was when I noticed that it was a mini-bouquet of the same flower scattered around the entrance of the building.

It was a bouquet of nigella damascena--which was the other term for love-in-a-mist.

You were kidding me, right? Won't that person ever stop scattering trashes around, whoever that would be?

To be honest, I couldn't help glaring at the balcony of the building where I was at the moment. Whoever it was that dared scatter all these, I would beat him to pieces. Doesn't that person have any pity for these beautiful flowers?

Even though I was irritated, I still approached the spot where that bouquet was. When I took it, that was when I noticed that there was a note attached to that bouquet. Okay, it wasn't a note. More like a small card.

And since my curiosity got the best of me, here I was, suddenly deciding to read it. But my frown deepened as I read what was on the card.

'I guess that whatever you do, you'll always be one puzzling person to me. Anyway, I hope you like this, Fukuizumi Rinako.'

Okay...

Tell me, was this for real? Does that mean... the flowers scattering at the entrance of the building was something that whoever this person wanted to tell me? But why? And for what reason? What was the purpose of all this?

It seemed that I wasn't myself when I looked around and saw the scattered petals-slash-sepals by the stairs. What followed soon after was me looking up to all of the balconies of that building that I could see. But to be honest, I didn't know the reason for me to look up there.

Was I hoping to find something there? But what could that be?

The card that was on the bouquet... A puzzling person—just like what the love-in-a-mist meant in the language of flowers.

To be specific, love-in-a-mist means "you puzzle me"...

Was I like that for whoever that person was to give me these flowers?