Flower In Bloom // Harry Styles

//Chapter 31//

“Don't forget to take your hanbok with you. We did not go to so much trouble having  you one made by our seamstress to leave it behind,” she reminded me.

I groaned at the memory of having to wait in Amaryllis' seamstress' living-room – without shoes, which I remembered to take off on my own, sitting on the sofa with Amaryllis trying to decide what colours I wanted my hanbok to be, while I had to ignore the wondering gaze of the small woman.

“Oh look at this pattern!” I pointed at the material with dragons printed on.

Amaryllis laughed like she knew something I didn't.

“The crane pattern is amazing! I want cranes – no wait the tigers are better, it's so beautiful,” I had cooed and raised my eyes to see that the two women were looking at me with amusement written on their faces.

“Harry, dragons and cranes as well as tigers and phoenixes are only meant for royalty. I know you have an angelic face and are one of the best human beings in the world but that still isn't enough to acclaim yourself as royal,” The girl next to me had said in my ear playing with my curls.

I had looked disappointed, but then settled for the material of green and grey because Amaryllis had said that it brought out the colour of my eyes and I would look very cute – a compliment that I was open to.

Exiting the building, she grabbed my hand and laced our fingers together as a bright smile was plastered over her face. I had been so glad that this simple act of me owning a hanbok had made Amaryllis so happy so I had decided to treat her to her favourite ice-cream parlour because seeing her smiling did horrible things to my heart.

“Well that visit was a success. She has finally warmed to you,” she laughed and took another bite of her coconut flavoured ice-cream.

I made a confused face, “You call that warming to someone? Because I swear to God she kept sticking the needles in my skin,” I replied rubbing some on the sore areas of my stomach, while Amaryllis just waved me off.

“She just doesn't know how to show it. Tough crowd.”

I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel, going over that conversation and hoping that not everyone was a tough crowd. While Amaryllis was mindlessly humming to the songs playing on the radio and taking a notes about one of the projects she had for work, my mind was making up every possible scenario that could go wrong. I knew that there was no point in trying to make amends with Amaryllis' father since he had already decided how much he strongly disliked me, but I hoped to make a good first impression on the rest of her relatives. That is why I had packed only t-shirts that reached my neck and long-sleeved sweaters instead of revealing shirts. 

“What has you thinking so hard?” Amaryllis interrupted my thoughts and I slowly snapped out my trance of nervousness as I released the bottom lip that I had been biting.

“Remember how freaked out you were when you were meeting my mothers? Well that is how I feel right now multiplied by five,” I confessed and I momentarily glanced over at her watching me with a sympathetic expression.

“Oh, baby that can't be true, it's only going to be fourteen of them,” she replied like that was supposed to calm me down.

“What?!”

“Yeah. The rest of them couldn't come,” Amaryllis patted my thigh and returned to her work as I stayed silent.

“What are you doing? You can turn left and take a shortcut,” she advised and I internally cursed because I'd hoped that she wouldn't notice me prolonging the unavoidable.

The thumping of my fingers got more prominent and caught Amaryllis' attention, so she huffed and turned towards me.

“Would it make you feel better if I gave you instructions on how to act?” she asked and I had never felt more thankful.