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“Come on, just let me off the hook!”
“No, and that’s final. Nobody steals flowers from my garden and gets away with it.”
Ten felt his hand tighten around the handful of tulips he had grabbed from this man’s garden, the man’s hand in turn tightening around his arm. His grip was surprisingly strong for someone who looked like his arms might snap at any second, but looking at Ten himself he guessed that wasn’t too uncommon.
“You’ve been uprooting my garden and stealing my flowers for the entire summer so far— yes I’ve noticed —and I need to know where the hell you’re taking them.”
“Well I—“
“—And don’t want to hear it if you’re bringing them to your fucking girlfriend or something.”
Ten paused, thinking it over for a second. Of course, he could take this complete stranger with him and shut him up, or he could…well there was really only one option wasn’t there. Take the stranger or own up to literally stealing somebody else’s property for the past few days.
He sighed, eyeing the flowers and then the admittedly attractive man in front of him.
“Fine, you can come as long as I can have the flowers,” he spits out, and the man’s pretty face scrunches up before he seems to accept that fuck, he’s gonna have to do this and lets go of the flowers, stepping over the barely-there fence and planting himself beside Ten on the sidewalk.
“I’m Taeyong.”
“Youngheum, or Ten. Whatever’s easier.”
There’s a slight pause when Ten starts walking, Taeyong trailing slightly behind him. It’s quiet, the only sounds Ten can hear are the quiet rustling of the flowers in his hand, the birds around him, and his and Taeyong’s footsteps.
“So, Youngheum,” Taeyong speaks up eventually, “where are we going? This roads leads away from civilization, unless your girlfriend lives in the country.”
Ten sighs, “I was kidding about the Youngheum thing. Nobody calls me that.”
“Ten then.”
Ten nods even though Taeyong’s behind him and makes a sharp left, pushing open a rusted gate and entering the graveyard.
He keeps up a brisk pace, following the small gravel path until around the middle of the lot, then branching off to walk down one of the aisles and eventually plopping down in front of a short, black stone covered in Thai.
Taeyong had been silent for the past five minutes, ever since they had entered the graveyard. Ten looked up to see Taeyong standing a few feet away, by another person’s gravestone. All previous traces of annoyance on his face over the flowers smoothed over into pure grief as he watched Ten place the flowers onto the grave in front of him.
Ten couldn’t even feel that rush of satisfaction fall through him at Taeyong’s crestfallen face, and only placed his hand on the ground, pressing his palm flat into the dirt.
“Taeyong, meet my baby sister.”
Taeyong let out a choked sob and approached the gravestone, kneeling down beside Ten and mumbling a weak “hi” that Ten chuckled at.
“No need to be so sad,” Ten says, and Taeyong flushes pink, rapidly wiping the tears off of his face.
“Sorry, I just…I yelled and got mad at you and you were bringing them to your dead sister why didn’t you tell me?” Taeyong rushed out, and Ten dug his fingers into the grass.
“It’s not that big of a deal. She got buried here so I come back every summer to…spend time with her I guess? Summer’s over in another month so it wouldn’t really make that much of a difference.”
Another wave of tears made their way down Taeyong’s face, and Ten pulled a tissue out of his back pocket.
“Hey, no, stop crying.”
“Thanks.”
Ten smiled at him before turning back to the grave.
“Hey. This is the man I’ve been getting all those pretty flowers from. He was really mean when he caught me but apparently he’s just a big softie in disguise because he started crying when I told him about you. Taeyong, say hi.”
“Hi,” Taeyong sniffles out, and Ten giggles a bit.
Taeyong relaxes back onto his butt as Ten starts talking about what happened in the last 48 hours since he’s visited last, Taeyong sitting there and listening to Ten talk for the whole time, not even pulling out his phone once, which Ten commends him on.
As soon as Ten’s done he smiles at Taeyong, stands up and starts walking away from the gravestone, Taeyong scrambling up and doing the same.
They walk silently out of the graveyard, Taeyong waiting until they’re a few steps away from the gate to start speaking.
“I feel like some tea.”
“Good for you,” Ten says, and Taeyong snorts.
“I mean, do you want to get some tea with me? At my house?”
“Sure.”
The rest of the walk is spent chatting quietly between themselves, and when they get back around to Taeyong’s house they do the same over multiple cups of tea (Taeyong doesn’t stop making it and Ten doesn't stop accepting the glasses.)
The next time Ten walks by Taeyong’s house on his way to the graveyard, he finds a freshly cut handful of tulips waiting there for him and smiles, and on his way back he stops by Taeyong’s house for a cup of tea, making a habit of it for the rest of the month.
By the time Ten has to go home for the year, he’s equipped with a phone number and a promise to come back next year, promising to keep in touch with Taeyong during the rest of the year (and if he leaves with a new boyfriend too, well that’s his business.)