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Every day, except Sunday, Wen Junhui wakes up at five thirty in the morning and goes out for a short run around the block. Sweaty and a lot more awake, he will be back half an hour later and goes straight to the shower. Then he will make himself some breakfast; it varies depends on his mood each morning. Sometimes he has a cup of tea with biscuits, and sometimes he will make some toasts and eggs. Or when he is in a particularly good mood, he will cook some elaborate breakfast like fried rice or even vegetable soup to eat with some steamed rice. At seven he will grab his book bag and keys, and heads to the flower shop.
Junhui doesn’t know much about flowers, but he likes them. He likes their sweet scents and rich colors, and he likes being around them – it keeps up his happy mood.
When he first came to Seoul for university, Junhui did not plan to work part time at a flower shop. Well, he didn’t plan to get a part time job at all. The money his parents send every month is more than enough for him to get by. He actually wanted to join some clubs on campus, like the music club or the university paper. He thought it’d look good in his resume. In fact, he did join both clubs in his first year.
Things changed on a particularly warm day in Spring, Junhui’s second semester in university.
A friend he was quite close with had taken ill and had to be hospitalized. Intending to visit her before going to class, Junhui stopped by the flower shop on his way. He figured a bouquet with a get well soon note would definitely cheer her up.
There was no one in sight when Junhui walked in. He was looking around, thinking of which flower to get his friend when a man emerged from the door behind a row of orchid stands, looking out of breath.
“Hello,” greeted Junhui in that pleasant tone he always uses with strangers, despite being a little puzzled by the man’s appearance. “I want –”
“Listen,” the man cut him off out mid sentence. “I’m sorry about this but could you please keep an eye of the shop for a while? I don’t have time to take the flowers inside and close the shop, I need to go to the hospital right away. My grandma got into an accident.”
Junhui was struck silent by the abrupt request. The guy, taking Junhui’s silence as consent, thanked him hurriedly before running off. It took a while before the realization of what the man requested Junhui dawned on him. He had never manned a shop before, not to mention a flower shop. But Junhui, being the nice guy he is, didn’t have the heart to turn away from someone in need (despite that someone running off on him before he could formulate a response). Long story short, Junhui failed to visit his friend, missed his classes, and by the end of the day somehow landed himself a part time job as a shop keeper (Mingyu, the guy from the flower shop, practically begged him to take the job saying he needed another person to keep the business running while he took care of his grandmother).
Junhui is now a senior and has been working at the flower shop for a little over two years. He works Monday to Friday from eight to two, and attends classes in the afternoon till evening. He is good friends with Mingyu and his bratty co-workers Seungkwan and Chan, – two sophomores who started working part time in their freshman year –, has a weird passive-aggressive-not quite friendship with Mingyu’s possessive boyfriend Minghao, and gets free desserts from Jihoon, the owner of the bakery across the street, on his lunch break.
He quit music club in his sophomore year due to schedule conflict, but he stays with the university paper and is now the chief editor for the campus news and student life sections. Final editing is on Saturday, so Junhui spends most of his Saturdays at the university paper HQ, harassing his juniors to write readable articles. Sometimes he stays until late with his fellow editors. He will usually dodge Jisoo’s – another senior editor, attempts at coercing him to go drinking with the others, because he’s such a lightweight. But sometimes Jisoo manages to drag him to the club near campus anyway. Jisoo will drop him off in front of his building past midnight and he will pass out the moment he drops face first into bed, only to wake up hating himself and Jisoo in the morning.
Junhui would spend Sundays being tired and a little cranky, and unfortunately, that is when his mother often decides to give him a call. She will tell him he’s being a try hard and he should relax a little, enjoy university life. And every time Junhui will tell her not to worry because he is, enjoying life, the way he knows how.
Junhui enjoys working at the flower shop. He enjoys meeting new customers and looks forward to seeing the returning ones from time to time. He enjoys learning more about the flowers everyday and making bouquet after bouquet, knowing they will bring happiness to the person receiving them. He enjoys working with Seungkwan and Chan despite being at the receiving end of their stupid pranks time and again. He enjoys bickering with Minghao and teaming up with Chan or Seungkwan to throw bits of cut out stems toward Mingyu and Minghao’s direction whenever they are in a particularly lovey-dovey mode, which is far too often for his liking. He loves Jihoon’s desserts and is even more delighted that he gets to eat them for free. His classes are hard, what with him being in his final year and juggling coursework, working, and editing for the paper. But Junhui enjoys all of it.
Lately, there is one more thing Junhui enjoys.
For a few months now, Junhui notices, there is this tall and handsome guy that often sits at the table by the window facing the flower shop at Jihoon’s bakery. The guy usually comes by around half an hour before Junhui’s lunch break and will sit there, typing away on his MacBook or scribbling something on the papers spread on his table, until Junhui’s shift ends.
The man’s sharp, attractive eyebrows will crease and arch when he is concentrating on whatever it is he is working on, and sometimes the man likes to chew on his lower lip, making Junhui unconsciously follow by biting on his every time he watches the man during his lunch break. Jihoon gives him funny looks at times, but Junhui will just smile sheepishly at him.
The man intrigues Junhui. Watching him from across the street becomes Junhui’s favorite pastime at noon when business is slow. And during his lunch break, he will sit at his usual spot near the counter at Jihoon’s bakery, secretly throwing glances at the man while mechanically eating his packed lunch.
Of course his other friends soon notice his behavior. Chan says he’s got a bad case of schoolgirl crush. Seungkwan tells him, and everyone at the shop, that he’s hopeless. Minghao gives him a smug, knowing look every time he comes by, and while Mingyu is the only one that at least tries to be supportive, Junhui would very much like it better if the man stops patting him on the head like he was a sad puppy every time he catches Junhui looking at the direction of one particular window of Jihoon’s bakery.
Junhui thinks he should probably do something. Maybe, like approach the guy and actually talk to him. Maybe he will get to know him and they can maybe go out on a date at some point in the (hopefully near) future. Junhui would like that very much, yes. But he enjoys watching the man sitting by the window, being engrossed in his papers, so much that he doesn’t want to risk scaring him away. So Junhui decides to keep things as they are. He is, after all, content with the way things are so far.
“You’re just being a coward, Hyung,” Seungkwan points out to him when he explains to his coworker why he is not doing anything about his current situation, before stalking off to the backroom.
“Like he can talk,” Chan quips after Seungkwan disappeared behind the back door. “He won’t even stop pretending to not acknowledge Hansol’s existence despite having a crush as huge as the Sahara Desert on the guy. Don’t worry, Hyung.” Chan pats his arm. “You’re not the only coward in this side of Seoul.”
Well. That’s comforting, Junhui thinks.
So Junhui goes about living his life as usual. He runs, he cooks sometimes, he works, goes to classes, harasses his juniors on Saturdays and manages to sidestep Jisoo’s grabby hands a few times and spends some Sundays blissfully free of hangover. And every noon at work, he will watch his crush from the shop and throw him subtle glances during his lunch break at the bakery.
All is well.
Until one day.
Junhui is perched behind the counter at the shop waiting for his current object of interest to show up at his usual window seat at the bakery across the street. Aforementioned object of interest shows up a few minutes later. Only, instead of walking into the bakery as he would normally does, the man turns to his right towards, oh god, the flower shop.
It is kind of surreal witnessing the man – all long legs, swanky clothes, and gorgeous face, step into the minuscule flower shop. It is even more bizarre to see him surrounded by the array of flowers set all over the shop.
“Hi,” greets Junhui, trying not to sound too enthusiastic. “What can I help you with?”
Is he getting flowers for someone? Junhui wonders. A girlfriend?
“Hi,” the man greets back pleasantly. He also has a pleasant voice – deep and rich, just perfect to Junhui’s ears. He approaches the counter in three long strides. “I’m looking for – well, some flowers, obviously. But I’m going to need some help.”
“Okay,” said Junhui, doing his best to maintain his friendly business tone. “What are you going for? Is it for a present?”
“It’s... well, you can call it a present. Or a greeting, more like it. For someone special. I was thinking, maybe, roses?”
There goes Junhui’s crush. Crushed.
Right. Junhui looks at the man and keeps his smile in a truly splendid show of professionalism.
“Okay. You could never go wrong with roses. What color? Do you want a bunch to make into a bouquet?”
“Not red, I suppose. And yes, a bouquet would be nice. I have a note to go with it,” the man says a little bashfully.
Junhui’s heart breaks a little inside.
“What’s the message? I mean, not your note, but the message you want the flowers to represent.” A lot of customers don’t really know what they were looking for when buying flowers, so Junhui is familiar with this procedure. He might not know a lot about flowers, but after working with them for more than two years, he’s known enough to help the clueless souls that stumble into the shop.
“Um. Well. I want to tell them a lot of things, but I’ve been having trouble actually telling them, you see. Hence the flowers,” the man confesses.
Junhui never suspected his crush to turn out to be a huge fluffball. It’s so cute, Junhui heart breaks even more at the reminder that the man is buying flowers for someone. Clearly to ask them out. Suddenly Junhui is not so content with the way things are anymore.
“What about a bouquet of multicolored roses then? Maybe pale pink and yellow, or orange?” Junhui offers.
The man’s eyes light up at Junhui’s suggestion and he nods in agreement without delay. “That’d be great,” he says. He then looks around the shop and stops at the sight of some lavender roses at one corner, next to a bunch of red ones. “Can you add some of those lavender ones too?” he asks Junhui.
“Sure. How many roses do you want for the bouquet?” Junhui asks.
The man smiles a little at Junhui’s questions before answering, “Thirteen. Please make it a bouquet of thirteen roses.”
Well damn.
“Okay. If you could wait a moment, your roses will be done in a bit,” he tells the man as he promptly gets to pick the roses. Thirteen pale pink, yellow, orange, and purple roses. Perfect, he thinks. Whoever the person who will receive the flowers is, they are so very lucky. Junhui mentally sobs a little. He skillfully cuts the stems and lays the flowers on the counter one by one, going about his usual routine while being all too aware of the man sitting by the other side of the counter.
“It’s a cool shop. Is the business good?” the man suddenly asks.
“Eh? Oh, well.. it is. Actually, quite a lot of people buy flowers nowadays. They never get outdated, you know. People will always love receiving flowers,” says Junhui.
“That’s true,” says the man. “How long have you own the shop?”
“It’s actually not mine. I only work part time. The owner is here in the afternoon,” explains Junhui as he grabs some ribbons and a sheet of pale pink sleeve.
“I see. How long have you been working here then?”
“Just over two years. I started on my second semester in uni.”
“So you’re now a senior?”
Okay. It seems like the man, in addition to being a huge fluff ball, is also quite chatty.
“Yeah. What about you?” Junhui throws in his question.
“I’m a graduate student,” answered the man.
Oh wow. That explains all the typing and papers.
“Cool. What are you studying?” Junhui asks.
“TESOL. And you?”
“Ah.. I’m a journalism major,” he says. He bites his lips as he concentrates on tying the last ribbon and let out a triumphant ‘hah!’ when he finishes. “Here you go, your bouquet. You want to attach your note as well?”
“Yeah.” The man fishes out a small envelope from his breast pocket and passes it to Junhui.
Junhui makes small work with the card and smiles widely as he presents the flowers to his customer. He’s still a little heartbroken that the man actually has someone he’s interested in, but Junhui still wishes him the best.
“It’ll be sixty thousand won, please.”
The man hands him a fifty thousand and a ten thousand won bills.
“Thank you,” Junhui says. “Good luck.”
“Thanks,” says the man, smiling sweetly at Junhui before offering the flowers to Junhui. “It’s for you.”
“Huh?”
Wait. What?
The man ducks his head a little, hiding his bashful smile, but then looks back up to Junhui. “It’s for you,” he says once again. “I’ve wanted to talk to you for a long time now. It was hard to find the courage. I hope you like the roses. Sorry you had to make it yourself. Well, you should probably read my note. I’ll… see you around, then. Bye.” Then the man walks out of the shop, leaving the still gaping Junhui.
When Junhui finally regains his proper brain functions, he is alone in the shop, a bouquet of thirteen multicolored roses in his hands. He opened the small enveloped attached (by his very own hands) to the flowers, and reads the endearingly squiggly handwriting.
Hi,
My name is Jeon Wonwoo and I spend my day admiring you from the bakery across the street when I’m not being harassed to hang out with my friends or laboring over my graduate thesis. You have the brightest smiles I’ve ever seen and I would like to see more of them. I swear I’m not some creepy stalker. Jihoon knows me well, you can ask him things about me. Though, if you’d rather ask me personally, I’d love that too.
So, will you want to get to know me while we talk over a cup of coffee (or two) sometime this weekend?
-Wonwoo
Oh man. He has a secret admirer. Well, he has a crush on his secret admirer.
Junhui breaks into an ecstatic laugh when the realization dawns on him. Carefully putting the bouquet atop an empty stool, Junhui runs across the street to pester Jihoon for Wonwoo’ phone number.
Because Jeon Wonwoo, stupidly endearing giant fluffball that he is, has forgotten to write down his phone number in his note.
-fin