"Here, for you," he muttered nervously, and outstretched in his hands were the six flowers.
----
Neither of the two were quite sure of what to say. They barely knew each other... and now this? Wonwoo had already taken his jacket; did he deserve to take anything else? He didn't want to be greedy, didn't want to owe the male anything either, but for some reason beyond his understanding, he slowly reached out and accepted the bouquet of gloxinia. "Thanks..."
"Don't mention it," Mingyu murmured almost inaudibly, suddenly quite flustered. He didn't know what it was, but his face was burning. "And, also, uhm... Do you want me to walk you home? I have an umbrella, a-and you could use it, so..." He nervously trailed his gaze up from the linolium to meet with Wonwoo's, and he couldn't help but notice just how beautiful his eyes were. It was crazy. "Is that alright?"
The other just silently glanced down at the striking bunch of flowers. He had met this guy only a few minutes ago. He didn't even have the confirmation that he wasn't some kind of serial killer waiting to lead him out to the back alley. "Uhm, sure." So why couldn't he say no?
"Cool, great, awesome."
It was obvious that the taller one was now having some sort of messy, quickly-thrown-together party in his head. When he saw that Wonwoo noticed it, though, he pursed his lips, swallowed down his smile, and calmed himself. His flushed cheeks were the only things that remained. "Well, let's get going, yeah?"
"Yeah."
Wonwoo slowly stood up from the dampened chair, and as he did so, he subconsciously held the bouquet close to his chest, close to his heart. His face remained stoic, while on the inside, it was the likes of something completely different. However, he wouldn't get into it; that was his business. "Thanks, by the way."
Mingyu only stole a hurried glance of the flowers before muttering, "Yeah."
The two then chatted quietly amongst themselves as they exited the flower shop, leaving everyone who had been watching the whole situation play out speechless. In their eyes, it was a nice story--they all could agree on that--but the hurried development had them a bit confused; actually, the majority of them were nothing less than speechless.
"Was... was I the only one that saw that?" Seokmin questioned with a flabbergasted expression. He looked to everyone else in the room before gently slapping his cheeks, making sure he wasn't just daydreaming, and that two boys, two strangers, had really just come in and possibly experienced love at first sight.
Minghao, although also confused--more confused as to why that hadn't happened between him and Junhui--had to stifle a chuckle at the employee's reaction. He tucked his chin away in his chest, biting at his lips to hide the humorous grin. Ah... Why hadn't Seokmin become an actor? Or even a comedian? With all that pent up dramatic flare, the high-school student was sure that Seokmin would have made lots of money.
"Wow..." Junhui was also gawking at the fact that that had really just happened before his eyes, almost like it was in some kind of movie. Before, he hadn't been one to believe in love at first sight; he thought it was just some cliché thing made to make films and books interesting--but he quite possibly just witnessed it happen. He didn't know how to process.
Soonyoung was the only one that hadn't realized what had just gone down. He still sat in the corner, Wonho on his thighs, calmly stroking up and down his back. His eyes were blank, his breathing slow. He must not have been ready to come back to reality just yet.
"... Soonyo--"
"Hey, guys!"
Chan suddenly hurried into the shop, his heavy backpack hooked onto his shoulders, hair damp from the rain. He had the usual grin painting his features, yet when he noticed the heavy silence in the air, almost so thick that he could have cut it with a sword, it gradually disappeared. "What did I miss?"
They only sighed.
----
It had been a day since then: 24 hours, 1440 minutes, but to Soonyoung and his fractured heart, it felt like it had been only a short 10 seconds. He wanted as much time to pass by as possible, so he could work on healing himself, but instead of speeding up as he had wished it to, time decided that he had done something that made him deserve to suffer. With a mischievous smile, it slowed down--perhaps even halted.
"Are you okay?" Junhui asked as he slowly approached Soonyoung, his palms sweaty, his fingers shaking. What he had seen the day before still haunted him: his friend plunged back into that dark abyss of pain, just as he had been the first time. His heart ached for his best friend, and to put it simply, he was drowning in worry. "Soonyoung?"
Letting out a high pitched hum, the shop owner glanced up from his bouquet to the male standing beside him, his eyes wide with innocence. "What do you mean?"
"You were just... making a face to yourself. It worried me."
The blonde seemed genuinely confused at the words. He curiously rubbed at his face with the palm of his hand, searching for any hint of a displeased expression. "Oh, I was? I didn't realize it..." He softly slid his fingertip over a flower petal, and as he did so, his dark eyebrows pulled together. They had caught on, huh? That wasn't good. "I'm sorry."
Junhui immediately shook his head. "No, no, don't be sorry. I'm just... worried about you."
"I know." Soonyoung took a deep breath in, ignoring his pounding heart, and brought his gaze up to meet with his friend's. He forced his brows to unfurrow and his fake smile to grow. "What do you say we take a lunch break? I could use it." And he wasn't lying; he could use the fresh air, because the voices were screaming, still.
He missed when they were just whispers.
"I'm sure you could, too."
"I suppose so."
Then, with a feigned smile, Soonyoung slipped past his friend and hurriedly made his way over to the double doors. He was watching his feet as they moved across the floor, so he hadn't realized that just outside the entrance, a familiar male waited.
"You're closing?"
Soonyoung quickly peered up at the voice, the one he knew better than he knew his own. For a second, he hoped that he was just dreaming, that he was just... hallucinating, but he wasn't. Jihoon was really there: beautiful, shy, annoyed, perfect Jihoon.
His breath hitched.
All the bandages he had used to repair himself in the span of a day peeled off, exposing the cracks in his being. "I'm just going on lunch break," he reassured, although rather nervously, shutting the door behind him. "You can wait, though. The break is only fifteen minutes." There was a heavy pounding in his ears, resonating in his mind. He hadn't realized yet that it was his heartbeat trying to communicate with the one before him, to spill all the secrets he had hidden away so many years ago.
"Oh." Jihoon paused for a moment, seeming to be thinking about something, before his eyebrows lifted and he asked, "Can I just stay with you, then? You know, hang out with you on your break?" He didn't mean anything weird by asking; he just genuinely wanted to get to know Soonyoung. Normally, he wouldn't have been interested in any strangers whatsoever, but he still hadn't gotten over the fact that he knew Soonyoung from somewhere, somewhere, and he wouldn't be able to get through his day with a clear conscience until he figured out from where.
It was those eyes he was most curious about.
Soonyoung kept his face flat, calm, but his heart trembled and his fingers twitched. For a second, a thought crossed his mind. If he and Jihoon grew close, he would be able to keep him in his life, right? Even friends would be enough for him. But could he do it? Could he put himself through that stress and pressure day in and day out just to keep him near?
Of course.
For him, he could.
So he offered a soft nod and gestured to the wooden bench just outside the window. "Let's sit here."
"Alright."
The two of them sat down.
Soonyoung slid his fingers through the gaps between the wooden planks, fingering the underside. His lips were pursed, his brows furrowed, and the tips of his feet prodded at the grass below. He gripped tightly at the bench when Jihoon began to speak.
"You know, I'm not one to try and get close to people right off the bat."
Soonyoung gazed towards the male, his irises intensifying in color as the sun hit them in all the ideal places. I know, he wanted to say, but instead he just nodded, signaling for the male to continue on.
"But... I swear I know you from somewhere. Do I?" Jihoon turned towards the flower shop owner, his face set in determination. He was making an expression that Soonyoung had seen so often back when he was still in his teens; the nostalgia of it all almost made him want to cry.
"Mmm-mmm," Soonyoung hummed lightly, shaking his head. He was gripping the bench so tightly that his fingers had turned white. He couldn't bare to look Jihoon in the eye any longer, so he turned the focus of his attention to the many dandelions lingering throughout the grass. "I don't think so." The lie sounded so natural coming from his mouth that even he could have believed it.
Jihoon's lips set themselves in a frown. "Huh..." He gradually followed the other's eyes to see patches of yellow dandelions. His heart tugged for just a moment, yet it wasn't in any way that he could begin to explain with words; the only words he could say were already rolling off his tongue, "I don't know why, but I've always felt connected to dandelions in a way. There's just something about them."
Soonyoung's eyes fluttered shut at the innocence of the words. Dandelions, they were the one thing that brought them together when everything else was trying to tear them apart. Even though Jihoon's mind had forgotten what they had, it seemed that his heart still remembered.
Soonyoung knew that the male was waiting for some kind of response, yet what could he say? Only a quiet sigh escaped his lips as his head dropped, his shoulders sagging. He forced his fingers to uncurl from around the bench, to keep them from breaking at the intensity of his grip. He had to change the subject if he wanted to get through this moment with no regrets.
"So... what do you do fo--"
"Soonyoung!"
And there stood an angel.
Leaning with his head sticking out the door, Chan waved an arm in the air. He couldn't have chosen a better time to interrupt. "Soonyoung, I need your help with a math problem, pronto." His head jerked in the direction of the interior, a single eyebrow raising in curiosity. "You coming?"
The shop owner stood up faster than he ever had before. "Yeah, just one second. Sorry, I have to help him, let's talk later?" The first sentence was directed to the highschool student, still standing in the doorway, while the second was aimed towards the love of his life. It was weird calling him that once again: the love of his life.
Jihoon just nodded and stood up to join Soonyoung. Something about the way the shorter male looked seemed almost sad, but then he blinked and it all washed away. "Yeah, and remember to think about if we've met before, okay?"
"Soonyoung! The math is waiting!"
The blonde laughed aloud and offered a gentle pat to the other's arm. The action had already been completed before he even realized his mind had thought of it. "Okay, I promise. See you."
However, some promises were just meant to be broken; he wouldn't spend a single second wondering if they knew each other.
Their past wasn't ready to be revealed.
----
Ah, I've been trying to write this chapter for a while but it hasn't been coming together all that well, so excuse this 😅
-Author 🖤