Himawari smiles to herself as she is on the way to Marinette's bakery. Today, the Dupain-Cheng family is going to take the whole crew to the nearby beach as a celebration for finishing their exam season, the young designer has invited Alya, Adrien, Nino and Luka to come along.

With the help of Adrien's family, his father has allowed them to stay at their vacation house over the weekend under Tom and Sabine's supervision. Although having 2 adults come along, Marinette knows that they will never force the teens to live in a routine and instead, let them have the freedom of exploring all the sights that Normandy city has to offer.

"Are you excited, Marinette?"

"Yes, dad!" she yells back, unable to hold back the beaming grin on her face.

Alya giggles along with Nino, they sure know why Marinette is overly cheery today, even the one who sits next to her is affected by her positive vibe. Adrien smiles at the bubbly sight of the bluenette, jumping up and down like a child on the morning of Christmas day.

After Kagami's family problem was resolved, his fencing partner had given him quite a lot of advice on how to approach a girl from her female perspective. While talking to her yesterday about the trip, Kagami told him to gather up his confidence and go get his girl, simply stating that 'Girls hate hesitation. If you like Marinette, just tell her!' which caused him to blush madly.

Following her advice, Adrien has actively asked Marinette to sit next to him during the trip. She is very surprised to hear this and almost melts into a puddle as she stammers incoherent words. If it's not for Alya to push her to the seat, she would still be frozen in her very own spot. Adrien is very confused by her over-the-top reactions, thinking that she doesn't like it which caused the blonde model to doubt himself whether or not he can tell her how he truly feels.

"Adrien, is something wrong?"

"I'm fine, Marinette. Just a little bit nervous…"

"Nervous? A-about what?" she looks at him, puzzling.

"Well, you don't seem to be very comfortable around me." scratching his head, he smiles "I wasn't sure if I have done something that upset you…"

Marinette blushes at his comment, not knowing how to respond. After Kagami declared to give up on Adrien, she has given her the hope to pursue the young model. There is a shift in their relationship as well, Alya has commented on how Adrien always stares at her without her notice, which causes the bluenette to scoff at her friend for teasing her like that. Himawari mentions the same thing, telling her that she should prepare for the greatest love confession of this whole world. Her friends' words clearly aren't helping, because ever since Adrien has gotten closer to her, she realizes the increasing rate of her odd behaviors around him, stammering and getting all flustered and even saying weird silly things in front of the blonde. She really needs to cool herself down…

"N-no, I'm not…I mean…It's not like that…" she shutters.

"Are you sure? You don't seem to enjoy the moment whenever I'm around."

"No, it's not like that." she exclaims, bluebell eyes shining with genuine as she gently holds his hand "I can never hate you. Adrien. I just…you know…my clumsiness always gets ahead of me so…"

Emerald eyes look at his hand in her hold as he smiles, squeezing it a bit to let her know that he feels the same nervous as her, a soft blush appears on his cheeks. The bluenette is astonished, and clearly understands what he is implying as shyly averts her eyes to focus on something else besides the boy next to her. Adrien does the same thing, turning to the other side to start a conversation with Nino, he needs to distract himself a bit. Although they don't look at each other, none of them let go of the other's hand as they enjoy a sweet moment together.

Besides Nino is Alya, who is looking through her phone to search for places where they can hang out later. Behind them are Luka and Himawari, one is still strumming on the guitar while the other looks out the window to admire the view. The 'wise' pair, Nino and Alya, has planned the seat for all of them, hoping to get their friends to get along with each other more.

Luka, who hasn't said anything, just keeps gently playing his guitar. The raven head slightly turns her attention to him, not sure if she should start a conversation. By the sound of his tune, the artist can sense his unpleasant feelings from him. Luka is not pleased to see the others getting all lovey-dovey at each other. After Kagami's incident, Himawari's eyes have never left Luka. She is unsure about this, wondering if she should tell him to follow his heart or just give up on Marinette. It brings her down to see him so dull and wearisome like there's nothing that can inspire him beside the bluenette.

"Luka?"

"Hm?" turning his attention to her, he smiles "What is it?"

"I…Do you want some cookies?"

Hoping to cheer him up, she shows him the bunny-shaped cookies that she just baked last night and the older boy gladly accepts them. Sweets have always been the best to ease one's sadness and what better ways to cheer up a person than to offer them some homemade cookies?

She notices that Luka indeed has a sweet tooth. He likes cookies, candies and other types of sweets because the guitarist always accepts and enjoys her homemade treats. Looking at him, Himawari smiles, seeing how his mood has slightly become better than just a moment ago.

"Thanks, Himawari." said Luka as he munches down another cookie "Your sweets always make me feel better."

Her face beams up at the comment, a cute blush appears across her cheeks as she smiles in acknowledgment. With Luka's calm and collected personality, it's hard to tell whether or not he's being moody about something. He can easily read people's feelings but not many people can understand how he truly feels about one situation or another, which is why Juleka has commented that her brother has a reputation for building and maintaining the walls around his heart.

With a gift of music, Luka usually expresses everything through his guitar, which helps his mother and sister to understand him a bit. Himawari knows this side of him, there is a reason for her to only observe him rather than walk up and start a conversation. The guitarist will immediately mask his problem behind the perfect charming smile and pitch in for others rather than let anyone help him.

Through her observation, Himawari knows some of his usual ways of expressing his feelings. When he's happy or inspired, his face will light up and aqua eyes shine in excitement as he writes down the notes for his music. When he's sad and upset, he will blankly stare at something while lazily strumming the string. When he's angry, although masking the negative feeling behind the calm expression, he will tightly grip his hands until all the knuckles turn white. Thanks to her observation, Mrs. Couffaine and Juleka are able to break the walls around his heart, some of them…

"You…have something on your cheeks…"

Himawari takes out a handkerchief from her bag and wipes the cookie crumbles on the corner of his mouth, letting out a small giggle when she sees a soft blush appears on his cheeks. The guitarist turns his attention to her, she is talking about something to light up the air around them but Luka doesn't pay enough attention to what she said and instead, observes her carefully.

Himawari wears her hair in a soft french braid with the signature blue ribbon, similar to the hairstyle that princesses wear in films. There's a soft floral scent around her, so nice and weirdly soothing. Luka has never enjoyed the scent of perfume and fragrance, he finds them very strong and often give him a headache, so when he said Himawari's fragrance smells nice, he really means it. Her outfit choice today is quite casual compared to the one that she uses to wear to school, with a t-shirt and a flowy midi skirt paired with walking shoes.

She looks very nice today…

The guitarist startles at the thought as he slightly covers his face with one hand, hiding the fainted blush behind it. Not minding about Marinette being all lovey-dovey over Adrien, Luka finds himself in a situation where he is actually blushing at someone else besides the bluenette, a fluttery feeling surges in his chest.

"Juleka shows me your new work yesterday."

Luka starts up the conversation, thinking that he needs to distract himself from staring at the girl sitting next to him.

"Oh, uhm…" Himawari blushes, index fingers poking at each other "How was it?"

"It was good, quite different from your previous stories." he smiles, glancing at his guitar "I feel like the main character bears a resemblance to me…"

His comment catches her off guard as amethyst eyes turn their attention to him, shyly laughing at herself for being so obvious about 'borrowing' Luka's appearance for the new character. Although very surprised that he can see through the design, the raven head can't help but feel like there is something deeper behind those words.

Her new work tells a story about the golden boy who was a prodigy at calligraphy art. He came from a family that has a long history in this field and he was the chosen one to continue the family's tradition of creating magnificent art of calligraphy. Although having a very good relationship with his mother and sister, the boy and his dad have never seen eye-to-eye due to the older man's overbearing and tyrannize behavior towards everyone.

One day, the boy got into a fight with the bullies at school as they hurt his best friend and broke his gifted hand. His dad, instead of worrying about his son's wellbeing, stormed into the hospital and cried out about how the family's tradition can no longer be preserved. He then verbally attacked his wife for not 'caring enough for the family's heir' and yelled at his sister for 'being useless'. These actions were the last straw for him as the boy got into a huge fight with his dad in the hospital before deciding to run away from his house.

He stayed at his best friend's house in the countryside, hiding away from everyone. His friend, although just a young girl, was a wise person with a heart of gold. Her family welcomed him and offered to find a physical therapist to help but the prodigy declined. The girl then tried to talk to him, and offered her support and words of encouragement, telling him that he should not run away but instead, face his own problems.

The story ended ambiguously, with the young boy watching the sunset with his friend on the grass field. There was no sign that he would go back to his family and cure his hand or he would run away from everything to start a new life. The ending was soft and gentle, with many questions left unanswered, which didn't really stand out well with her audience.

"I'm glad you like it. To be honest, a lot of people think that I have gone overboard this time…" she smiles "They prefer a happy ending rather than an open ending like this."

"Don't mind them. Not every story has to end in a 'happy ever after' style, besides…" he pauses a bit "There are issues you can't solve within a small amount of time."

Amethyst eyes beam at the guitarist, amazed to see that he gets the hidden message behind this one. In her new work, she wants her audience to understand that sometimes, there are things that can be out of their control and aren't always that easy to untangle. For a short story like that, Himawari doesn't want to jump into the happy ending because it will drive away from the realistic sense of the story, the idea that some problems and questions may take days, months and even years to find the answers.

They exchange small talks before Luka decides to take a nap while Himawari pulls out a book to read. Marinette's dad, Tom Dupain, has decided to take the longer route to Normandy instead of driving on the highway, saying that they can use an extra hour to admire the scenery on the sides of the road. The raven head smiles at his comment and turns her attention to the book, she has seen enough sight and is getting bored as each minute passes by.

While enjoying the light novel, she feels something heavy lean on her head. Freeze in the seat, the artist slowly glances over to see the familiar black-and-teal hair comfortably resting against her black locks. A deep shade of red spreads across her cheeks as Himawari sits still while trying to be a good 'headrest' for the other boy to relax.

This is bad…

As much as she wants to focus on the novel, Himawari finds herself failing miserably at the task. Her body heats up, knowing how close he is to her. She can scent the earthy cologne from him, the soft teal locks against her head and his weight against her frame.

This is very bad…

Biting their lower lips, she fights her inner self against the idea of taking a picture of Luka while he is sleeping, which will be an invasion of privacy. The raven head sighs as she lightly whimpers, hands clutching tightly on the book, she really wants to see his peaceful sleeping face…

Concentrating on the book, she tries her best to relax and reads the content of the novel. Mr. Dupain drives the car at a steady pace, the AC is turned on at the right temperature with the soft soothing music in the background causes her eyelids to become heavy. Before Himawari knows it, her eyes have closed as she allows the drowsiness to take control, and slightly leans toward the warm body next to her.

Alya and Nino are both soundly sleeping when the vehicle stops, causing the glasses girl to wake up. She looks around and then checks the clock, one more hour before they reach their destination. Looking over Nino's tall frame, she smiles at the sight of Marinette and Adrien as they're watching something on the blonde model's phone. She then turns around, only to witness the sweetest moment between Luka and Himawari.

"Nino! Wake up, Nino!"

"H-huh?"

Yawning, the tall boy turns to his girlfriend with a drowsy expression on his face. What is it that makes Alya wake him up like that? She smirks at him before waving her hand to grab the other two attention, telling them to look at the seats in the back. Her friends look at her, puzzling before a smile forms on the bluenette's lips as she lets out a small 'awww'.

"They look so cute!" she exclaims in excitement "Look at them…"

"Better get a picture of this." the brunette holds up her phone and snaps a bunch of pictures "Juleka is gonna be so thrilled once she sees this."

"Send it to me, too!"

Adrien chuckles at the girls before glancing at the guitarist one last time. It seems like he doesn't have to be worried about the potential rival for Marinette's feelings thanks to Himawari, maybe he can help his friends on a mission of bringing those two closer, that would be nice…