𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 - 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐆

04 | New Friends

I yawn, rubbing my tired eyes. Hearing the door chime makes me look. I inhale and look away at the flower arrangement that I was putting together.

"We're closed," I said, nothing in my voice as I was just tired and wanted to get this finish.

"I know, but I was hoping to catch you here"

I turn to look at the male "Were the roses that beautiful that you had to come back for more?"

He smirks "Something like that"

I swallow harshly "Well like I said we're closed" I look away and walk to the counter, pulling out a card and the piece of paper that won't have "Get well soon" on it, rewriting it onto the card.

I heard his chuckle and footsteps walk up to the counter. I look up at him as he stood on the other side of the counter "What?"

He shook his head "Nothing"

"Then don't fucking laugh"

The black hair male smiles softly "You know you have quite the bad mouth"

I shrug and cross my arms "So I've been told"

The male looks around the shop before saying "I'm Luca"

Luca. It was one thing to almost sleep this man but now I knew his name and that felt a bit wrong.

He looks back at me—Luca looks back at me.

He smiles again "I was expecting you to tell me yours"

My eyes widen "O-Oh" I chuckle, feeling myself grow embarrassed. "I'm Minho"

"Minho" He repeats "Well Minho, I came here for one reason—not for the roses"

"No? I think the roses are worth coming back for" Luca nods slowly as I knew, he knew I was growing nervous.

"I wanted to ask if you wanted to go to dinner?"

I stop, not moving a single muscle in my body. "Like a date?" I sounded fucking stupid. Like a middle school girl who never dated in their life and never went on one date.

Luca laughs and nods "Yeah, I was hoping"

I swallow harshly and shook my head "I can't" I inhaled sharply and before he could speak up I said "I'm not looking for anything serious and I thought you would have guessed that since we almost hooked up last night before knowing each other names"

"Right," Luca says, "How about just lunch?" He says, I was about to protest but he spoke again "Just as two people becoming new friends?"

I look down at the unfinished card and nod "Okay" I look up "Fine, as two new friends"

He smiles and nods "Okay" He looks down and grabs the paper and pen, writing something down and sliding it across the counter, back to me. "My number, let's set something up"

I look up at him and nod "I'll text you"

As he takes a few steps back he says "And I'll be waiting" turning around and walking out of the shop.

I let out a deep breath and look down at the paper with his number. "Just friends, okay, that's fine Minho. Everything will be fine"

-

I didn't make new friends, honestly, the last "friend" I made was Jae and that was far from a friendship. I can't count Felix and the others because I met them through him. I didn't go out one day and meet them.

The last real friend I made was Seungmin and that was because grew up together. I wasn't a friendly guy, and I always come off as rude. It wasn't because I was rude but because I've always had this fear that someone wanted to use me. In some situations, I was right.