Erina sighed as she entered her office. Another bouquet from Professor Suzuki. She stared at the newest addition to her collection. Beautiful pink roses were displayed in a vase on her desk. She tugged at the card attached by a ribbon and read the message out loud.

"I hope these flowers brighten your day like your smile brightens up mine."

"Whoa, nice flowers, Nakiri! Who sent you those?" Soma's cheerful voice interrupted her thoughts, startling her, and she whirled around in agitation.

The headmistress barked, "Yukihira! Who told you it was okay to enter my office without asking?"

Soma shrugged, "The guards don't stop me anymore. They know it's useless." He strolled up to her and gazed intently at the indoor garden she had in her office. Each vase had a gorgeous bouquet of different flowers and today's was no exception. The bright pink roses exuded love and beauty.

Soma cocked an eyebrow and whistled, "This guy's serious, huh?"

Erina grumbled, "I suppose so."

Soma asked teasingly, "So am I gonna be invited to the wedding?"

She growled in response, "There isn't going to be a wedding! There is nothing going on between me and the professor! He just won't stop sending me these flowers and now I'm up to my neck in plants. Honestly, this is incredibly rude. As if I have time to take care of these." She threw up her hands exasperatedly and sat down in her chair.

Soma's eyes widened, and he exclaimed excitedly, "Ooh, in that case do you mind if I take these?" He pointed towards the pink Damascus roses she had just acquired.

Erina replied warily, "What could you possibly need flowers for?"

A girlfriend? No way, Yukihira doesn't like anyone like that! Does he?

Soma rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Eh, it's not really something I'm ready to tell people about yet if that's alright with you…if not, it's cool!"

Erina's eyes widened in response to his strange admission and she wordlessly motioned for him to take them, stunned.

Soma grabbed the bouquet from her desk and smiled brilliantly, "Thanks, Nakiri! I'll get out of your hair now!"

Erina watched him leave, confused and a little jealous. Could he have a secret girlfriend he hadn't told anyone about? Was it one of his friends and they were keeping it quiet to not make things weird at the dorm?

She felt something violently twisting in her gut at the thought of him delivering HER bouquet to some other girl. Buy your own damn flowers!

She tried to go back to her work with little success. She kept experiencing wave after wave of anxiety as she filled out her paperwork. Why do I care who he gives those to? If he wants to keep it a secret, then so be it. It's not like we're friends!

An hour passed, and she had been staring at the same page for roughly half that time. Damn it!

She packed up her things and immediately called a car to take her to his dorm. As they drove past the campus, Erina spotted his distinctive motorcycle outside one of the buildings. She hastily yelled for the driver to pull over. A secret tryst in a classroom? Real classy, Yukihira!

As she marched up to the building, she was steaming with anger. Not about the fact that he had some secret girlfriend (obviously!), but at the sheer audacity to re-gift a bouquet intended for another girl. It was just rude! She would be doing the girl a favor by demanding he give her flowers back; this way, he could go out and properly buy some himself. Preferably ugly ones.

She poked her head into a few of the empty classrooms, but no annoying redhead in sight.

Suddenly, the smell of roses filled the air. She followed the heavenly scent towards the classroom at the end of the hall. She silently crept in to find Soma pulling a tray out of the oven. As he set the tray down, he glanced up to find the blonde staring curiously at him.

"Nakiri? What are you doing here?" He asked, the blush on his face evident.

She responded evenly, "I was going to ask for my flowers back. If they're for some secret girlfriend, you should have some sense of decency and buy them for her yourself." She walked in the classroom to take a closer look at what he was making.

Beautiful rose-shaped apple tarts were cooling on the tray, and the divine rose scent was coming from a sweet syrup on the counter. They made eye contact, and he laughed, "Secret girlfriend? You thought that was what I didn't want to tell you about?"

She blushed and crossed her arms loftily, "Well, what else was I supposed to think?!"

He shook his head and grinned, "It didn't even occur to me you would take it that way. Uh, no, my 'secret' is that I'm trying to make Momo's Queen Apple Tart she made at the Regiment de Cuisine. She made it look so easy but making the little roses was actually a lot harder than I thought. I gotta hand it to her, the girl's got skills."

Erina scoffed, "Obviously she has skills. She was the fourth seat!"

A wave of relief washed over her at hearing his confession. Why had she been so worried about him having a girlfriend? Obviously, he didn't! Who would want to date him?

She asked perplexedly, "Why didn't you want to tell anyone about this?"

He laughed, "I don't know, I guess it's embarrassing that I even had to practice. I always thought desserts were supposed to be the easiest."

She shook her head and replied, "Desserts are an art form in themselves. It can take years to master not only the actual baking but the decorating."

Soma nodded, "I can see that now. I don't think they turned out too bad though, do you?"

She smiled at his attempt. They weren't bad at all, but they definitely weren't as good as Momo's. "While I can't say I haven't seen better, I'd prefer a bouquet of these than Professor Suzuki's any day."

She hadn't meant much by her words, other than how little she thought of the professor's gifts, but Soma felt slightly victorious hearing her statement. He passed her a rose and drizzled some of the syrup on it and prepared one for himself as well.

"Cheers," he playfully tapped his apple tart against hers.

She giggled as she watched him try to catch some of the syrup that had drizzled off the rose with his tongue before it hit the counter. He grinned at her fit of laughter when he showed her his trashcan of failed attempts. Her heart fluttered as she stole a glance at him delicately moving the roses into the bread basket.

Who would want to date him?