Chapter Text
It’s a Sunday and Ten is drinking up every bit of sunlight he can get in the small greenhouse area attached to his flower shop. Well, his mother’s flower shop. But she’s out of town on business, and will be for a few weeks, so it’s his to keep up with. It’s surprisingly busy during the weekdays and Saturdays turn out to be the busiest. Who knew so many people actually bought flowers? Ten had no idea.
He’d worked with his mom for quite some time, but usually on off days from school just making sure everyone was finding what they needed. Maybe for an hour or two. It’s a whole different monster when you’re working the shop open to close, seeing the different faces that pop by throughout the long hours. The summers are long where he lives, which means the days will be long at work, but he can handle it.
After a short rush of people, Ten finds himself tidying and making up a small bouquet of white roses for a customer. Said customer had called in frantically about ten minutes prior to the rush, and Ten feels sort of bad for not being able to get around to it sooner. He just hopes it’ll be done in time when the customer arrives.
No more than ten more minutes pass before the bell over the door dings and a man about his height rushes in with a flushed face.
“Hi, are they ready?” The man says, out of breath and with zero context to the question.
Ten is almost confused and would go to ask him but the man sees the bouquet in Ten’s hands and a smile comes to his face.
“They’re beautiful!” He says. “Just like my mom. I hope she likes them.”
Oh. This is his customer from the phone. Makes sense.
“I’m almost finished, I promised.” Ten says. “I’m sorry, there was a rush right after you called so I wasn’t able to get to them sooner.”
“No worries, take all the time you need.” The man says, looking around in admiration. “I’m just happy they’re as beautiful as everyone in town says they are. A lot of people love this shop, you know?”
“Do they?” Ten says, picking some dead petals from one of the flowers.
“Sure.” The man says, coming up to the counter to get a better look at his bouquet.
“Just about…” Ten says, plucking one last dead petal and trimming a stem or two. “Done!”
The man smiles back at him and reaches out to take the bouquet delicately into his arms.
“How much do I owe you?” The man says.
“How about I’ll put them on the house today.” Ten says with a grin. He’s not sure why he’s being so generous. Maybe it’s because the man looks like he could use a pick me up.
“You’ve got to be kidding.” The man says.
“Nope! On the house.” Ten says. “Take them before I change my mind.”
The man eyes Ten for a minute before breaking out into an even brighter smile.
“Thank you so much, you have no idea how much this is going to mean to my mom!” He says. “And I’ll be back. Next time I’m going to pay!”
“I’ll see you to it then!” Ten says with a slightly less bright smile because nothing can match the other’s.
“My name is Baekhyun!” The man calls as he’s heading out the door.
“Nice to meet you Baekhyun!” Ten calls after him. “Good luck!”
The door drifts closed after him and Ten lets out a breath. He opens up his wallet and puts the money for the flowers in the till and calls it a day.