"Ah you've grown so much since I last saw you," Sumino laughed at the sunflower that had far surpassed her in height long ago. She now had to crane her neck to see the sunny petals in front of the glaring rays of the bright August sun.

"Just like Teru and Hinata," She smiled watering the plant lovingly. The sunflower meant so much more to her than anyone could imagine. This simple flower had saved her from slipping into depression and who knows what she would've done if that had happened?

Sumino stroked the lush green leaves on the stalk absent-mindedly. If she tried to explain to anyone else how much her flower meant to her, she would probably sound rather insane. Not everyone attached to an inanimate object quite like Sumino did, but then again she wasn't everyone.

Suddenly she felt a presence behind her, but she didn't feel any traces of fear. Sumino didn't get to dwell on this before she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise when she felt a warm breath of air hit her cheek. She immediately relaxed when she heard a familiar voice question, "What are you doing?"

The girl turned to see her friend, Teru's, face only inches away from hers, "I'm taking care of my sunflower. What else would I be doing?"

Teru moved away from Sumino and simply shrugged, replying, "I dunno, doing stuff with Hinata."

Sumino glanced at the ground and sighed sadly, "Hinata's busy doing other stuff... he's always doing other stuff."

"Stuff that is more important than you," Teru demanded, hesitating for a slight second before continuing, "Wow, that's some boyfriend you got there."

Sumino smiled sadly but didn't reply to his teasing like she normally would. Teru immediately felt a pang of guilt when he saw that sad smile, she didn't deserve to be sad. Trying to distract her, he changed the topic subtly, "So how is your sunflower doing? I haven't seen it in a while."

Her face instantly lit up with joy as she proceeded to tell him all about her growing flower. Sumino bounced on the balls of her feet excitedly and beamed to Teru about her plans to plant two more sunflowers.

Teru smiled gently as she continued to go on about her flowers.

That night Sumino sat alone in her room looking at her blog. Suddenly she noticed that Black Rabbit had left a comment on her recent post. It read, "Hinata hasn't been a good boyfriend lately, maybe I can help you."

Sumino was so overjoyed that Teru was willing to help her and Hinata with their relationship. A bright smile was lighting up her entire face before she shut down her laptop.

Sumino was slight tired the next day from being on her blog so late last night, but that didn't stop her from smiling every chance she got. The dark-haired teen looked everywhere for her friend, eager to hear his advice for her. Finally she spotted him. Taking off at a slight run, Sumino went straight for Teru. His face lit up at seeing his much shorter friend. Sumino slowed to a stop and she beamed excitedly, "So what do you have in mind for helping me with Hinata? I couldn't sleep last night because I was so anxious for your advice. As my friend, I highly value your opinion."

Teru's face instantly dropped at her remark. Of course she hadn't understood what he meant. He put on a smirk as he joked, "It might be because you haven't kissed him yet."

Sumino's face became akin to a tomato as she stumbled to form a coherent sentence, "T-Teru! That's n-not funny!"

The young teen gave a short laugh before adding, "You've been dating for over a year and you haven't even kissed yet. Hinata probably thinks you don't love him enough."

She almost didn't understand what he was saying. There's no way that could be true.

"T-that's not true," She pushed to think for a moment before continuing, "I don't want to move too fast, Hinata understands and respects my decision."

Teru was becoming more frustrated by the minute. She just wasn't understanding anything that he was saying. Yet at the same time, it's not like he was literally saying what he meant.

"Then I can't help you," He huffed angrily before walking away from the flustered young girl.

Sumino wanted to stop him, but she was a confused mess at a loss for words. She tried to reach out and grab his arm, but she was too slow and he disappeared around the corner of the two hallways. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes and threatened to fall any moment.

The bell rang abruptly and there wasn't anything else she could do to fix things with Teru. Maybe she was wrong to ask him for help in the first place, and maybe she should just forget it and act like there was never anything wrong.

Heading off to class, Sumino rubbed her eyes gently on her sleeve and smiled. Teru and Sumino were in the same class, so she decided to apologize to him when she got there.

When she entered the classroom she scanned every group of bubbly teens chatting animatedly, looking her a certain blonde, but he was nowhere to be found. Her mind instantly flooded with worry as she thought of all the trouble she put him through.

She had noticed that Teru had seemed slightly upset before she talked to him, and she hoped that it wasn't her fault. Sumino realized that he had been sad when she had mentioned Hinata earlier, "Did they have a fight? Yes, that has to be it! Maybe I can help them work it out later!"

Sumino smiled successfully for she thought that she had found the reason behind Teru's sadness.

Soon everybody in the class took their seats. It wasn't much longer when Teru entered the room. Sumino smiled at him, but he just walked to his seat without even a single glance her way.

Sumino frowned and promised to herself that she would talk to him after class even if she had to chase him all over the school to do so.