My eyes shot open and the first thing I saw was Masa’s worried face hovering closely over mines. I could no longer feel the warmth of his fingers and my irritation remained. Was it just a dream? This was the fourth night that I’ve had the same dream over and over again, except Masa’s touch felt real every time. The first night I had it, I asked him if he was messing around with me the following morning and he immediately denies it with an awkward smile. I took Masa’s word for it, and decided not to bother him about it again.

I slapped his hands away from my shoulders and pulled my covers over my head, but my hands couldn’t find them. Masa knew me too well.

“Kazu, I wanna show you something!” Masa screamed excitedly into my ears and I couldn’t hear the next few words after.

“If I said yes, will you shut up?”

Masa’s mouth came to an immediate close as a happy grin easily replaced it.

It was still dark out when we entered the greenhouse. I could barely see a thing, but Masa’s warm hand kept me from tripping on my face. I shielded my tired eyes from the sudden brightness and all I could hear was his excited gasps as he pulled me along with him.

“Kazu, they’ve grown.”

“Who now?”

“You’ve already forgotten? Kazu juniors!”

“Oh right, yeah. Sorry, Masa. I’m just brain dead right now because someone woke me up at an ungodly hour.”

“They’ve become beautiful buds,” Masa ignored me and pulled me down along with him as he crouched.

“I’m so proud of our Kazu juniors.”

I’ve stopped badgering Masa about using my name for every yellow flower in his garden since it was impossible to stop him in the first place. Besides, given that everything here was mostly green, I named all of them after Masa for his green thumb.

Kazu juniors, within four weeks, grew quickly under Masa’s care and I hadn’t noticed how much it changed until now. What started as an empty patch of soil was now a bush of countless budded yellow roses nesting quietly in the rose bush. They looked completely healthy and ready to bloom right this moment; unfortunately the sun wasn’t out yet.

“Thanks, Kazu.”

“You’re-” I was cut off when I felt chapped lips land on my left cheek, and Masa’s arms wrapping around me so tightly. I wanted to tell him to stop, but the words were stuck in my throat. Although I couldn’t explain exactly why I liked the feel of Masa’s lips and why my heart raced like a stampede of horses.

TBC