You never wanted anyone to know your little secret.

It wasn't because you were necessarily ashamed or fearful of what people would think about you when they discovered your relationship with Aoba Johsai's beloved setter, Oikawa.

With your average grades and close to none sports skills, you were practically a nobody in the highly-esteemed school. It wasn't you who would get hurt if other's discovered the relationship between you and Oikawa. No, it would be he who suffered from it. You didn't want to be the person who ruined everything for him so you begged him to keep it secret, even when he teased that he would shout your name from the rooftops.

"I don't see why anybody would think anything of it," he said nonchalantly one day in bed when he was cuddling you. "It's only natural for someone as attractive and talented as me to be dating a girl as beautiful as you."

But your mind was made up. You wanted to date him more than anything but at the same time, you didn't want his name to be tarnished by it so you begged him to do the next best thing.

"Let's just keep our relationship a secret, please?" you begged him one day, catching him off guard.

He placed his hands over his heart, feigning pain. "Don't tell me you're embarrassed to be seen with me, [name]," he gasped, a smile threatening to appear.

You placed a quick kiss on his lips, easing his fake worries. "You know that's not the case, Tooru... Just until we graduate, okay?"

"You can't possibly be asking me to refrain from expressing my love to you for the next few months," he frowned, realizing that you were serious about him going along with this.

"It'll only be during school," you quickly reassured. "We can do whatever you want when home."

The chocolate brown-haired male swiftly climbed on top of you and left a trail of kisses down your neck, causing a fit of giggles to erupt from your chest. "Anything I want, eh?"

As much as he joked, though, Oikawa wasn't truly pleased with the situation at hand. He didn't want to be the cause of your unnecessary worry, but he refused to allow that to stop him from showing you the affection you deserved. He would be sure to express his love to you every day, even if it meant having to get creative with it.

* * *

You were shocked when you discovered a single, white Gardenia flower laying on your desk in homeroom one morning. At first, you thought perhaps you accidentally sat at the wrong desk but no, that was indeed your desk. Everyone looked at you curiously, wondering who could've possibly left the beautiful flower.

That flower wasn't the last one.

All throughout the day, you found Gardenia flowers waiting for you in every place of the school you usually went whether it be the classrooms you sat in or the rooftop where you ate your lunch. There was always a single flower without any hint as to who it could be sending them, albeit you did have your own suspicions regarding who it could be.

Those suspicions were finally realized once school had ended and you entered the gym to see Oikawa during practice, his teammates being the only people in the school who knew of the relationship between you and him.

There he stood with a bouquet of Gardenias along with a mix of Baby Breath and a smile on his face. His teammates were nowhere to be seen; it was just you and him. Despite your pleas to hold off on affection in public, you couldn't help but be overcome by joy when you saw the flowers he bought specifically for you.

You ran up to him in an instant and hugged him tightly, causing a small laugh to escape his lips as he relished in your cuteness. He lowered the bouquet and wrapped his arms around you tightly, pushing you even closer to him. You looked up at him with wide eyes which shone with your unshed tears of joy.

"But Tooru-" you started, only to be cut off by him.

"No need to worry, [name], I didn't break our promise," he reassured softly before placing a soft kiss on your forehead. "No one saw me place the flowers around the school. They'll be the only hint of our secret love."

Gardenia: secret love.