Juleka walks into class, just to see a full vase of blooming red roses congregating on her desk. It's an odd image. They aren't purple, her favorite color, nor are the black roses that most would consider to fit with her 'aesthetic,' instead they are romantic red ones. She pauses, to reach out and touch a soft petal, still slightly damp as if just picked this morning. This has to be a mistake, maybe someone thought she was sitting in Rose's seat or Nathanael's seat or Marinette's or even Marc's seat.

Juleka doesn't have admirers, not when her dreams of being a model are constantly thwarted, not when she plays guitar like her brother to cope with the unexpected tides of life, not when her brother draws more attention than she does. She is not the center of attention and will never be it. Her fingers curl around red petals, gently falling down dethorned stems, and she briefly speculates, who can buy someone red roses in a glass vase on the first of February. You'd need to still be prepared for thirteen days later, but her stomach seems to purr just as a contented kitten might.

Juleka sighs, before she takes her seat. The roses call to her like the song of the sea, and she immediately wants to brush fingers against soft petals again and again, just to know that they are in fact in front of her and intended just for her.

"Juleka!" Rose exclaims as she walks into class a minute later, "Who got you flowers?"

"I don't know," and she's tucking her hair back, fidgeting rather nervously. She doubts that the flowers won't wilt before Valentine's, but she still can't think of anything but just how sweet this gesture really is.

"You don't?" Rose looks lost in thought as she sits down and then scrutinizes the rest of the classroom. Adrien Agreste looks half-slumped over in his seat, tired from probably a long day of photoshoots. Max is writing down what is probably a really complex formula. Nathanael looks scattered as he catches up on last night's homework, a cute drawing on the corner of the page. Alya's scrolling through her phone, checking the LadyBlog for more updates, and Juleka realizes just how bare the classroom is.

Her secret admirer could be in the room this very second, and she would have no idea who it is. She immediately rules out Rose, who had just gotten here, and likely had no way to transport a dozen red roses in a vase and would have gotten her purple ones, besides, and rules out Nathanael. Someone trying to impress wouldn't still be working on last night's homework, unless maybe he had been busy preparing this.

Juleka still doubts it as she watches the artist work, before she turns to look for a tag or a label, saying something either clever and witty, a beautiful picture drawn on it, a name signed neatly, a pretty poem, or even something as simple as 'from your secret admirer.' There is nothing of the sort. It's just roses in a nice vase, and Juleka wonders how whoever it is could afford both a dozen roses and a pretty and decidingly quite new vase, let alone have time to put water in it first.

It's the second, and there's a huge, purple box of gourmet chocolates at her desk. The person must have gotten the right person, because he wouldn't make the same mistake twice. Juleka peeks around the room, and sees the same people as the other day minus Rose and with Nino sitting beside Adrien instead. The boys are discussing something obviously mundane like the weather and look as if they've been there a while. She figures that that's all they've been doing.

Nathanael is using his spare time to draw out pictures presumably for his comic. Alya is eyeing Adrien and Nino as if their conversation holds vast secrets. Max is discretely playing a video game to pass the time as they are still pretty early for class. It's a relatively emptu class today too. She peeks at the door, and no one comes through at her shift of focus.

She sits down and fiddles with the box before she realizes that this is a custom pattern. On the pretty bow overtop that is just a few shades darker than the box is her name in light purple, 'Juleka Couffaine,' implying that this couldn't be a mistake and that likely whoever her secret admirer was couldn't be broke. The box itself was a dark purple with pretty light purple hearts scattered in even patterns throughout. It cheerfully proclaimed when she eventually peeked inside, an assortment of dark and milk chocolate candies.

Her belly warms up at the gesture, and she suddenly wishes that she could thank that person in person. The roses were a beautiful and wonderful gift that she still couldn't explain to her mom when she had gotten home yesterday. She had placed them on her vanity in her bedroom and had looked at their delicate petals until she'd fallen asleep last night, wondering if the person knew of her near constant struggle with self esteem, whether her secret admirer loved her, or something else entirely.

Juleka didn't know what to say to Rose when fifteen minutes later, she ran into the classroom grateful not to be late. She'd merely turned to roll call as Rose tried to question her, seeking answers that she didn't know if she could provide if questioned.

Today, there's something typed up with a pretty hand drawn heart on the side. Juleka picks it up, carefully, holding it like a prized gem, vaguely wondering if her secret admirer had spent all his money or maybe all of his ideas. The poem on the page quickly changed her mind on that matter, entirely.

'When I slink

into the ever expanding night,

I think back to you,

as each moment together grounds me

in ways that I can't find words for,

Each word that you ever spoke

to me is drifted into the home

of my heart,

kept as reminders of all that you mean

to me, as days float into months

I still only dream in color,

once I've talked to you,

and, I only know the beat of my heart

when it beats, in tune,

with yours'

It's short and sweet, and Juleka is positive that he's managed to melt her heart and carry it off with him somewhere that her heart isn't able to hide from, a place where she wouldn't need to. Juleka's too tired to investigate the classroom as she doesn't even want to know who else is there right now.

The cat stuffed animal surprises her the next day. It's a purple and black kitty cat, and it is laid in a pretty box of fake, purple rose petals. Juleka stops to pick it up. It's adorable, though she has never been the collect the stuffed animal type. A stuffed bear is more traditional as she gazes at the heart the cat is holidng, 'Be Mine.' It makes her pause to trace the words with her fingertips.

Should she put more effort into her appearance on days that she has class as she gingerly cuddles the cat close? Maybe any effort for one who already likes her is too much, unless he'd appreciate the gesture as well. She wishes that she could give him a gift back, but he never signs his name on any of the gifts that he leaves behind.

Juleka isn't sure after plush cats, beautiful vases of roses, gourmet, custom chocolates, and poetry what to exactly expect on Valentine's Day when it finally arrives, but it isn't this. Her whole desk is covered in a dark purple table cloth, even Rose's side. On top of that are two vases of roses: the red ones more on her side and the purple ones closer to Rose's side.

Smack dap in the middle is a huge box of gourmet chocolates somehow upon closer inspection filled with her favorites from the previous set. It's purple though it is not labeled with her name on it, this time. Sitting right on top is another poem, this time hand written.

Juleka picks that up first eyeing her decked out table, noticing rather late that she had two stuffed animals this time. A black and green cat that somehow brought to mind Cat Noir and a blue and purple bear that held red roses as if symbolizing her secret admirer. She carefully read through the poem.

'Often, I am like the sun,

but the sun is pointless

without his moon,

and you are the moon

that guides the night in its rest

and lets the day arrive as with

a kiss goodnight.'

Juleka briefly let the words float over her before she finally set down the poem carefully at her desk, too stunned to read for once a tiny signature underneath the poem. Instead, she carefully picks up the chocolates, wondering why the room suddenly feels filled to the brim with people, especially the hushed Rose standing beside her, looking on in awe, too nervous to take her seat down at the very decorated desk.

'Love Adrien Agreste,' peeks out at her from the bow this time. Juleka nearly falls over as the shock hits her like a ton of feathers, gentle but commanding. Juleka can barely breathe. No one goes through the much effort for a woman that he isn't sure will say, 'yes' at the end of the day.

Her hands are still trembling as she sets the box down to pick up the poem, finding his tiny, neatly written, 'Adrien Agreste, AA,' at the bottom by way of a signature. Her heart skitters to a dead stop before tapping out a rhythm that she can't even keep tune with, if she were to pick up a guitar in this moment.

Juleka suddenly is so overwhelmed with a kind of delicate joy that she wants to sit down and cry; it's hard to imagine warranting this kind of love or attention. She surely couldn't be pretty enough to catch a model's eye, nor could she somehow be the right kind of person to charm him, accidentally. She didn't fumble her words often, but she wasn't one with elegant speech either. She has always been just Juleka, and now, she wasn't sure if the just had ever been there in Adrien's gaze to her.

When he steps up to her, he's holding a single rose, and he looks as nervous as she feels overwhelmed. It's a shock when he moves to hand it to her, "I know that this is probably an odd display," His face turns red, "but, I hoped that it would tell the girl that I love just how I feel." Adrien's green eyes are nervous, but they are soft.

Juleka steps closer, pressing a kiss against his cheek. "I wish that I had something for you too." She murmurs, guilt clawing back at her stomach now that the joy was easier to deal with, less imbued with shock as it now was.

"This is enough." Adrien smiled at her, "I don't need anything." She realizes belatedly that he holds the twelfth red rose, the very one that completes her vase of flowers. That comes as a surprise when it finally sinks in later than night, but for now, she looks up into his eyes and hopes that somehow she can convey just how much this means to her or even just how long ago she'd fallen for him and yet couldn't find the words to say or the confidence to become, which she instead hid.

Juleka had never expected that her crush could like her back just as much as she thinks back to their one photoshoot together, that still sends sparks through her veins.