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"Here you go! A fresh batch of roses, declaration of love!" Junhui announced a little too proudly while shoving the huge box of roses into Mingyu's waiting arms. To be completely honest, Junhui hated his part-time job, it was so boring driving boxes around for the entire day, and besides, it wasn't like he was all that interested in flowers in the first place. Except for weekends when the flower shop owner's son would drop by the store to help out. Junhui always found himself looking forward to delivering flowers then.
Kim Mingyu, a plant biology major one year below Junhui. Everyone said that it was a waste for a face like his to go into the science field where they would be constantly shut inside labs, and now Junhui fully understood why. After laying eyes on him once, he just couldn't help staring at the taller student whenever he was in his field of vision.
Thanks to Junhui's competitive nature, he immediately came to the conclusion that he must "have" Mingyu. It shouldn't be that hard, after all, he was the master of flirting! (Or so he thought)
After placing the box down on the counter and inspecting the contents, Mingyu smiled in a slightly wary manner at Junhui, "These are blue roses. Depending on the color, the meaning changes as well."
"Oh." Junhui mentally slapped himself in the face. Well, it wasn't his fault that he didn't know, everyone always said that roses were the most romantic flowers and stuff, so he was just misled, right? "What do blue roses mean then?"
"Blue roses are fabricated flowers, so we don't really consider them in flower language..." Mingyu replied coolly, but dropped his tone slightly when he noticed the disappointed look on Junhui's face. He had always thought that a certain delivery boy seemed like a cat, especially now that he had adopted a sulky expression, a perfect image of a cat caught in the rain.
Speaking of peeps who behave like cats, the part-time worker tending to flowers in Mingyu's family's shop suddenly spoke, "But there are natural blue roses, right? Mingyu, you recently cultivated some in your lab."
"Don't know what you're talking about." Mingyu replied, a slight touch of annoyance in his voice. Wonwoo had always been the type to keep to himself, except for when he's trying to set Mingyu up with some guy. His friend had always been a little too worried about Mingyu's love life, claiming that he'd end up marrying himself to plants if his "no dates" spree continued.
"Mingyu, I can see your greenhouse from here, there are clearly blue roses-"
The younger boy made a displeased growling noise and proceeded to head to the back where he kept all his precious self-nurtured flowers. After a few moments of Mingyu complaining about how Wonwoo should mind his own business and that his blue roses weren't for sale, the former still ended up returning with a small pot in his hands.
Junhui's eyes widened at the delicate flower tangled around a wooden pole for support. Even though Mingyu and Wonwoo called it a blue rose, the petals were more of a purple color, dusted with a touch of silver. Unlike red roses that were vibrant and full of life, the apparent blue rose seemed as though it'd wither with just a slight touch. Maybe that was what made it so beautiful, an imperfect fleeting beauty.
"...Wow." Junhui finally breathed out, bending down in front of the rose at a distance, afraid that its petals would be blown off from just his breathing.
Mingyu had been studying Junhui's reaction since the latter's eyes fell on the blue rose. There was almost a childish wonder on the older's face, and instead of begging to touch the flower like normal people would have done, the delivery boy treated the plant with something almost akin to respect. Acknowledging the plant's fragile existence, and admiring it for that.
"You can have it."
Junhui lifted his head up and stared at Mingyu incredulously. The latter was surprised by his own words as well, but kept a calm face as he handed over the unique specimen, "I have more in the back. You seem to like it a lot, so I guess I'll give it to you."
"Really?!"
"Yeah." Mingyu placed the flowerpot carefully in Junhui's hands, watching with amusement as the latter received it just as cautiously, his mouth still hanging open at Mingyu's generosity. "The first natural blue rose was given the name 'Applause'. An encouragement to dreamers."
A smile spread across the older boy's face, even though he tried to hide the stupid grin by lowering his cap, Mingyu could still see the upward corners of his lips, "Thanks!"
After that, Mingyu sent Junhui off along with Wonwoo, his usual polite smile on, the type he used to send customers off. He watched as the delivery truck vanished around the corner, and walked straight into a smirking Wonwoo.
"...Shut up."
Meanwhile, Junhui gripped the flowerpot tightly in his hands, still wearing a goofy grin as he admired the almost one-of-a-kind color presented to him by his crush. "Minghao, drive slower!"
"We're going 20 miles per hour on a freakin' highway, Junhui." Minghao rolled his eyes, his teeth gritted as honks exploded from all around them. He swore to God Junhui was going to get him fired someday, all because of some stupid crush. Oh well, he was only physically attracted to Mingyu anyway, he'll probably grow out of it soon. Either that, or Minghao really needed to find a way for Junhui to shut up for eternity, and murder sounded pretty tempting when you're going at a tortoise-like speed in a huge ass truck with constant rushing noises coming from the side.
Jesus Christ, it's only a flower...
"Morning." Wonwoo greeted as Junhui made his usual delivery to the flower shop, but the part-timer's smile quickly withered as the delivery boy merely replied with a noise that sounded eerily like a dying animal. "Rough day?"
"Two language exams tomorrow. Back-to-back." Minghao explained, leaning his head out the window to make sure Junhui didn't trip over himself like what happened during their last three orders. Minghao had offered to go down in his stead, but of course Junhui was going to insist on delivering this particular order.
Wonwoo arched an eyebrow at the now groaning Junhui, unfortunately for the neighborhood, Junhui's groaning had slowly made its way to a crescendo and eventually turned into wailing. Thankfully it was stopped abruptly due to Minghao's karate chop. Now that he appeared to have calmed down, Junhui seemed to be contemplating something, not even noticing when Mingyu had come out to see what all the ruckus was (although he could make a pretty good guess by then).
"Say, do you think I'll still pass the course if I don't show up?"
"Unless you have a high enough grade for that course, no."
"Damn it."
"Then don't ask in the first place, geez." Minghao rolled his eyes. Catching sight of Mingyu, the part-time driver decided to help Junhui, just this once, and only because he was being more annoying than usual (and that was saying a lot), "Yo! You got any suggestions for the guy, Mr. Top-of-the-Class?"
Wonwoo spun around as well, showing an uncharacteristically sneaky grin towards Mingyu with his back towards the two delivery boys, he had an image to keep after all, "That's right, why don't you tutor him?"
For a brief second, life came back into Junhui's eyes as he looked up with anticipation, he looked so excited that Mingyu almost felt bad about what he was going to say next, "Cramming the night before usually doesn't work very well, especially for your type." The older boy's face immediately fell, and Mingyu could almost see cat ears drooping in disappointment. "But, the least I can do is give you moral support." With that, Mingyu smoothly pulled out a white camellia from a bouquet he was in the middle of wrapping earlier, "Here you go."
Mingyu almost laughed out loud at how fast light had burst back into the older's eyes, he swore he'd never get tired of just watching this guy. Junhui took the camellia gratefully, flashing a smile for the first time that day, "I shall pass with flying colors!"
"You do that." Mingyu chuckled, lifting his hand up and letting it rest on top of the older's head, not missing the brief shade of red that crossed the latter's face, of course, "Who knows, if you pass, I might give you a bouquet of pink and red camellias." He didn't mean for it to come out as a whisper, and he didn't really know when he had stooped down to position his lips next to Junhui's now scarlet ear, but seeing the bashful look on the delivery boy's face was oddly satisfying.
"A-and if I fail?" Junhui managed to ask despite feeling light in the head.
The young stand-in florist shrugged, "Then I guess I'll tutor you next semester."
"Don't promise him that, he'll probably purposely fail now!" Minghao objected from the rolled down window, earning an eye-roll from Junhui.
Contrary to his usual "professional" goodbyes, Mingyu sent Junhui off with a gentle smile, which he hoped looked encouraging. It wasn't until he turned back to a smirking Wonwoo yet again that he realized, he was starting to care for this clumsy delivery boy more than he should. Especially while fully knowing the other's feelings for him.
But it's all superficial. Mingyu was sure that like many of his previous admirers, Junhui was going to fall back eventually when he realized he was only in love with Mingyu's outward image.
On the other hand, Junhui was busy flipping through notes on flower language in the truck, finally falling upon one regarding white camellias. His eyes grew increasingly wide as he read over the first paragraph, but not in a good way, "FUNERAL FLOWERS?! Why did he give me funeral flowers?! Does he want me to die?!"
"With all due respect, please shut up when I'm driving." Minghao grumbled, shoving Junhui back into this seat with one hand still on the wheel.
As Junhui continued to switch between whining and claiming he still refused to give up, he failed to notice the highlighted note at the end of the page.
'Only when presented to a man, the white camellia represents luck.'
'On the other hand, a bouquet of pink and red camellias carries the meaning of romantic love.'
To Mingyu, the world had always been fairly simple. He decided to become a botanist simply because of his family's occupation, it felt right to stick to what he was used to. There was no need for adventures in his life. Slow and steady was the key, right? He helped out at the store, simply because he had already gotten used to doing so. "You say that, but you actually really like flowers, don't you?" Wonwoo had teased while watching Mingyu tend to his garden in the back.
The plant science major had kept his lips pressed into a thin line, disregarding the part-timer's very presence in the lab. He gently swept a finger over a delicate blue petal from his treasured blue rose he had tried so hard to grow from scratch. Yet he was able to give it away almost too easily, and to that dork of a self-proclaimed flirt in fact.
The color had already started fading into silver. Maybe he did like flowers, but it wasn't in some romantic or poetic way people tended to associate with the subject in question. They were... interesting. Almost like people, except they never talked back, or made assumptions about him. They never pursued him for the benefit of their own fantasies, nor did Mingyu ever had to worry about the intentions behind their actions.
The world had always been fairly simple, or at least his world, including people. He knew that he loved his family, and everyone else was split into two types. Those he liked, and those whom he couldn't care less about. It all seemed perfectly black and white, until Junhui decided to waltz himself in.
To Mingyu, a person had no meaning in his life until proven otherwise. He didn't exactly enjoy socializing, people naturally flocked around him anyways. Of course, he knew that humans needed to survive in groups, but even then, he only kept his close friends to a minimum amount. Then there was Junhui. Opposite to Mingyu's approach to people, the older always thought that people were innocent until proven guilty and would befriend pretty much anyone. Mingyu thought that this was naive, and to be honest, that was pretty much the word to sum up Junhui as a whole.
Of course Mingyu knew that Junhui was only trying to get close to him because of his looks, that was probably the only bad aspect he had heard of regarding the linguistics major. He was a total sucker for appearances, and it was almost a hobby for him to "collect" good-looking people, regardless of gender. That was why he absolutely would not let Junhui enter into the white area of his mind.
Yet, Junhui's approach felt so innocent that Mingyu almost let his guard down a couple times. The older's genuine aura almost fooled Mingyu into believing Junhui could see anything underneath his "golden appearance".
"You know, Junhui might come off as vain, but he's really just naive." Minghao had commented one day while Junhui was busy pestering Wonwoo about lending him his glasses. Though at the time, Mingyu couldn't completely focus on what the part-time driver was trying to tell him.
At first, Junhui had always been in high spirits during his delivery to the flower shop, and he would never forget to try a line or two on Mingyu while the latter would simply send him off with a polite smile, which progressed into a single flower's accompaniment. He had heard Junhui wondering over his actions out loud while Minghao joked unhelpfully on the side. But lately, it seemed that Junhui barely interacted with him at all aside from the usual greetings. In fact, he spent more time bickering with Wonwoo. Mingyu didn't even know when the two grew to be on such great terms, last time he checked they barely knew each other at school.
Well, admittedly Wonwoo wasn't all that bad looking, so it wouldn't be surprising if Junhui had decided to switch targets. Even though Mingyu's scientist's brain knew very well that it wouldn't be surprising given the data collected about Junhui, it didn't mean he liked the results. Though he wasn't quite sure about the cause of this dislike.
"Oh wow, blue orchids!" Junhui exclaimed, practically tossing the delivery box into Mingyu's arms before pushing past to stare at the vase of exotic flowers on the counter.
Wonwoo laughed at the childish action, "True blue orchids don't actually exist, but occasionally we can get our hands on ones with blue tints, like these." The part-timer explained patiently as Junhui walked in circles around the long-stemmed flowers. "You should know by now that full blue flowers are actually quite rare to come across. Do you remember what I taught you about blue orchids in flower language?" Wonwoo prompted as Junhui directed his widened eyes towards him.
"Rarity?"
"Good job!"
Although Junhui had his back to the door so he was oblivious, Wonwoo could see clearly from his angle how utterly confused and almost betrayed Mingyu looked. If Junhui had a question about flower language, shouldn't he be asking him instead of Wonwoo? Jesus, did this guy have a crush on him or not? It was getting harder and harder for Mingyu to tell, and for some reason it was bothering him a lot more than it should.
Almost grudgingly, Mingyu disappeared to the back where he could find peace with his homegrown plants. He could still hear the two talking, so he went even further until he found himself outside of the greenhouse in his private garden. He stood there for a good while, blanking his thoughts. It was already late in the evening, the sun had started to set. Even though he risked getting bitten by mosquitoes, Mingyu thought that he should stay outside until moonlight sprinkled along the grass. The area was silent sans the chirping of crickets.
"Whoa!" It really wasn't an exaggeration when Mingyu thought he almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the familiar sounding exclamation. He simply stood frozen to the spot as Junhui bent down to look at the white flowers that had partially bloomed thin petals, "I've never seen these type of flowers before!"
Although still slightly miffed for reasons unclear to himself, Mingyu cracked open his dry lips, "They're kadapul flowers, one of the rarest flowers in the world. They're even considered to be priceless."
At this, Junhui's outstretched arm immediately retracted itself, looking up at Mingyu with disbelief in his eyes, "Is it really okay to just leave something like this out in the open? Won't people try to steal them? Why do you have them in the first place?" The botanist had to suppress an amused chuckle. The older seemed a lot more worked up than he was about his secret garden getting exposed, almost like Mingyu was keeping a secret stash of gold, which wasn't exactly wrong.
"You can't really put a price on a flower in the first place. It's just human behavior, feeling the need to place a number on everything." Mingyu replied calmly, turning his attention back to the white flowers that were just beginning to unfurl themselves, "You're pretty lucky. Blooming kadapul flowers are hard to catch since they only bloom at night. Besides, they die shortly after they're picked, so I doubt anyone would gain any benefit from stealing them carelessly."
Junhui listened silently to Mingyu's explanation, his arms folded on his bent knees. Out of nowhere, the older student suddenly let out a laugh, "I guess you can call this your secret moon garden!" The delivery boy continued to laugh as Mingyu arched a skeptical brow, "Think about it! The Secret Moon Garden - Where everything comes alive at night." Junhui joked, intentionally lowering his voice in a dramatic cinematic tone.
"And I suppose you're the poor unknowing main character who accidentally stumbled upon this rarity?" Mingyu rolled his eyes. Fine, he'll play along for a bit.
"Yup!"
"Is that so?" The younger boy stooped down so that they were at almost eye-level with one another, waiting patiently for Junhui to recover from his laughing fit, or at least enough so that the latter was returning his gaze, "So now that you've come face-to-face with the stone-hearted keeper of the moon flowers, what are you doing to do?"
The smile on Junhui's face faltered the longer Mingyu's gaze bored into the older's eyes. Maybe it was the close proximity, but the younger's stare seemed much more intense than Junhui hoped he had intended.
"Will you try and soften his heart?"
Mingyu's almost sarcastic prompt had barely reached Junhui's ears when the shorter of the two suddenly leaned forward, closing the distance between their faces completely, but only for a brief second. Due to his own rash decision, Junhui could still feel the burning spot on his lips where they grazed against the younger's; in that split second, Junhui thought his heart had stopped, and all sound had vanished from the world.
When he finally found consciousness, he was met by the rushed pounding of his own heart, and the slow burn crawling up his neck and filling his cheeks. Almost out of fear, Junhui allowed his field of vision to rise up slightly until Mingyu's face came to view once more.
But what fell out of the aspiring botanist's lips almost made Junhui's blood run cold almost as fast as it had almost reached boiling point, "Unfortunately for you, he never had a heart to begin with."
And all sound vanished once more.
"Why would you say that to him?!" Wonwoo had screeched uncharacteristically straight into Mingyu's face the next day when a certain delivery boy didn't show up for his shift. The part-timer had heard from Minghao that Junhui appeared to be in oddly low spirits after their delivery last night, and Wonwoo immediately suspected Mingyu, forcing the story out of him in no time. "He may have fallen for you because of your looks, but you really think that's still all he sees even after all this time? I don't know what kind of complex you have, but I know that you're never going to get someone else as genuine as Junhui."
He'd be lying if he said he wasn't at least a little worried, but Mingyu figured the positively charged energy ball of a boy would soon get back on his feet and return to his job, then Mingyu could try and smooth things out from there. However, the delivery boy didn't show up even after an entire week. It was only then did Mingyu give into Wonwoo and Minghao's prompting, dropping a surprise visit on the older boy on a fine Friday, having received the address from Minghao.
The young delivery truck driver had told Junhui he was visiting, so the older didn't expect a thing when he opened the door. Upon seeing the actual face of the visitor, however, he immediately started closing the door again.
"Wait." Surprising himself, Mingyu quickly stepped forward, lodging his foot in the way of the closing door, wincing slightly as it slammed down.
Worry flashed through Junhui's eyes briefly before being replaced by an uncharacteristic look of indifference. Although still wary of the unexpected guest, Junhui's strength withered just a little at the thought of a bruise forming on Mingyu's foot from the door slam incident, "What are you doing here?"
"I, um... I brought you flowers." The taller boy said lamely instead of giving a straight response, holding up the neatly wrapped up bouquet of moss rosebuds and myrtle.
Moving slightly to the side so that he could peek through the door crack, Junhui took a long look at the bouquet before finally letting out a whisper, "What game are you playing at this time?"
"Excuse me?"
"A bouquet of moss rosebuds and myrtle, it represents a confession of love, doesn't it? Wonwoo told me." Junhui's tone had raised slightly, and Mingyu could make out a slight tremble in it.
Lowering the bouquet slightly, Mingyu leaned down closer towards the crack, "Wonwoo again, huh? Then let me ask, what game are you playing at?" The older was silent, looking up at the taller student with a confused expression. How naive... "Everyone knows you like people with 'good looks'. Is Wonwoo not one of them?"
"...It's true that I like good-looking people, but you were the first one I bothered to crack open." Came the weak reply from the other side of the door, "Or at least tried to. To be honest, I never had to try so hard before, and at one point, I wondered to myself why I was even trying. There are plenty of other good-looking people out there, so why did it have to be you?"
Feeling the door budging, Mingyu took the chance to open it fully, finding Junhui looking up at him with shock, but more importantly, with tears filling up the brim of his beautiful sharp cat eyes. Almost out of complete reflex, Mingyu stepped forward to scoop Junhui into his arms, ignoring the throbbing pain in his foot he had sacrificed earlier.
"And then to be told directly by you that what I was doing was pointless... Even after I've clearly expressed my feelings to you..." The older had now broken down into full-on sobbing in Mingyu's arms, hitting the younger with weak halfhearted fists.
"...Junhui, what exactly do you like about me?"
Feeling Mingyu's hold slackening around him, Junhui gently removed himself off the younger's chest, still sniffling, "Well, you look cool. You're smart, tall, passionate about your goals, everything I've always striven to be as a student. But it was your gaze I liked the most... when you take care of plants, you treat them with utmost care and respect. Even though you probably wouldn't admit it yourself, I knew you really loved flowers." Then, almost as though to make up for the embarrassing confession he just made, Junhui quickly added, "Also, you look cool."
The botanist allowed himself a small smile, his gaze briefly swept over Junhui's book regarding flower language that was laid on the small desk near the doorway, looking as though Junhui had been busy reading it right before getting interrupted by the doorbell, "You really were looking."
"Come again?"
"But now that that's taken care of..." Mingyu gently guided Junhui closer, brushing a finger under the older's chin, causing the shorter to lift his head up by reflex, "What is your answer?"
"What-"
It almost felt like a replay of what happened in the moon garden, except Mingyu was the one initiating. Junhui's eyes fluttered restlessly as their lips made contact. Mingyu almost chuckled into the kiss. It felt even sloppier than their first kiss, but at least their feelings were mutual this time, or at least, clearly mutual. Mingyu never believed how good it actually felt to let down all his burdens and openly express affection for someone, while knowing that his feelings of affection were returned. Hm, guess that theory's been proven invalid.
As they pulled away, Junhui's eyes didn't cease their fluttering, and Mingyu could almost see the hypothetical question marks floating above the older's head.
"The answer to my bouquet, of course."
Wonwoo had always thought that people like them were hard to come across. Someone who would be willing to learn all the meanings behind each unique flower, their colors, and convoluted combinations - or what they'd like to simply call "flower language". Usually, people would simply take a look at a flower and exclaim, "How beautiful! I'll have this one!" Instead of pondering what it represented.
That was why Wonwoo found Junhui to be interesting and tried more than usual to pair the two together. Though now he was rethinking his choice. The couple was constantly flirting on the job, and Wonwoo wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to get used to an actively flirting Mingyu.
On the other hand, Minghao had been keeping him company, throwing shade in his stead when customers were around. It was nice having a war buddy. So of course, Wonwoo was more than happy when Minghao came in on his day off, asking if he could learn one or two things about flower language.
Junhui did know how to repay a debt after all.