Such a nice day, I thought to myself as I walk along. The sun was shining and I felt like going for a walk. Wandering along, I noticed a familiar voice talking to himself. Following the sound, I was lead to Heisuke.

"I found it, but how do I get it?" He seemed to be focused on his objective and hadn't noticed my presence yet. Looking closer, I noticed he was staring intently at a plant I knew very well. It was one known to be covered in spines, making it one of the more hated plants. But I thought the flowers that they had were beautiful regardless of that.

Was he trying to pick one of those flowers? I walked up beside him and asked about it. "What are you doing?"

Heisuke jumped slightly and turned towards me with a slight blush on his face. "W-well I... I was just trying to get that..." He pointed at the little purple flower just in front of him. "But whenever I try to grab it, it's kinda painful."

I gave him a curious look. "Why? Do you like them?" I asked calmly. Heisuke didn't seem like the kind of guy to like flowers, but looks can be deceiving.

He just shook his head. "You see, there's this girl that I really like..." he started, making me feel kind of sad. You see, I'd liked Heisuke for a while. We had several classes together, but I'd always hoped to get closer to him. "I heard that she really likes these, so I wanted to get one for her."

Despite how I felt about it, I had to admit that it was sweet of him to do something like this for a girl. So as I put on a smile and decided I'd help him. "I'll get it. I'm used to picking these since they're my favorites."

"No!" Heisuke grabbed my wrist as I'd reached out to pick the flower. Realizing what he'd done, he quickly let go as a blush made its way onto his face. "I've gotta do it or else it won't be special."

He must really like this girl, I thought sadly. "Then how about I show you a trick to do it?" He just nodded and smiled. After a quick glance at the ground, the object that we needed was right at Heisuke's feet. "Hand me that stick."

He was confused but did it anyway. "I don't see how that's going to help..." I ignored him and swung the stick a few times, confirming that it would work for what it was needed for.

"Thistles are kinda tricky," I told him, gently taking his hands and making him hold the stick like a sword. "The spines will keep you from touching the stem of the plant, so it's hard to break it without hurting yourself. But if you use a stick like this and hit it right, you'll break the stem easily without having to touch it."

Heisuke was still a bit confused but did as he was told anyway. As I'd said, hitting the stem with the stick snapped it fairly easy, sending the flower falling to the ground. As it hit, he laughed. "That actually worked! I can't believe I never thought of that."

"Now just pick it up gently by the soft purple part," I smiled. After he had it in his hands, I had to show him how to remove the spines. Placing my hands over his, I noticed that blush was back again. "Just hold it carefully, but firmly," I instructed as I showed him the proper way to pull the spines off without damaging the flower.

Once it was all done, Heisuke was ready to give it to the girl he liked. It made me sad to think about it, but if he liked her then there was nothing I could do. So I just smiled and wished him luck with her.

As I was about to turn and walk away, he held the flower out to me. I was confused; he'd said that it was for a girl he liked, not me.

Seeing that I was confused, Heisuke just smiled with a slight blush tinting his face. The next words out of his mouth made everything perfectly clear and brought a smile and a blush to my face. "I... I wanted to tell you... I really like you."