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Quanxi is usually regarded as a woman of stoicity even when shrouded by unfortunate turn of events. It is by no means that she is emotionless, but rather, she is always calm and collected. A quality a devil hunter must possess at all times, never letting priorities slip out of one's mind.
Her ivory colored locks flutter along with the cold breeze, the dark coat draped over her shoulders swing along as well and Quanxi still pays no mind amidst the chilly, windy weather. Winter is near, after all.
Having gone through many losses of her fellow devil hunters, nothing was able to put a change on her expression anymore. It became a typical routine to hers, enthusiasm no longer resides within her heart as she later thought it was only normal for mere humans to pass away. Nothing shakes her core anymore— the concept of love, life nor death. One would usually have different, unique opinions comparable to others when they are asked of the latter. But for Quanxi, she only shortly answers, "It's a part of life." Nothing more, nothing less.
A certain, absurd thought crosses her mind. In a country where winter is slowly approaching, she chooses to go outside despite the freezing temperature in search for something.
What she's searching for? She does not know it herself as well. All she knows of is she's trying to break the usual weekend routine of her today, hoping to encounter something that would break the apathetic spell cast upon her since day one.
She wanted to feel something different, just this once.
It is indeed, an absurd thought and does not sound like something she would do. But how would she break the bubble she's trapped in if she doesn't try something new?
Doing something new is not about committing rebellious, questionable things out of the blue. Doing something new for Quanxi is just as simple as strolling around the streets of Yueyang, looking for something she'd take an interest to.
And so here she found herself, inside a tiny, well-ventilated vicinity of a flower shop wherein blended aromas of various plants and flowers lured the ivory-haired devil hunter in. She scans the surroundings, birch, ligneous wooden walls enfolds herself and a particular florist who seems to be too enthusiastic, flashes an innocent smile at her right after they lock gazes with each other.
This is not a world in which a romance novel prompt occurs, as Quanxi only felt nothing.
She simply speaks, "Good morning." Quanxi then proceeds to crouch down to her knee-level, fixedly gazing upon the bright, snowy white petals of the flowers at the corner of the store. She brushes her index finger with the tips, the smooth, silky feeling puts her troubled, lifeless soul at ease.
You greet back at the customer, "Good morning!" as vim and vigor laces the two words you uttered. Glancing upon the eye-patched customer, you slowly pace towards her.
"What are you looking for?" You spark up a question, and the customer only responds nonchalantly, "Nothing in particular."
It was quite a bizarre encounter after Quanxi buys a bouquet of white hued orchids at her hand and leaves the place with no utterance any further.
━━━
Another day passes by, Quanxi finds herself stopping tracks in front of the familiar flower shop yet again.
Your eyes widened, seeing her blurred figure slowly become clearer as she steps inside the shop and mumbles a greeting. You bow down immediately and greet back.
The encounter ends as the eye-patched customer leaves one more time with a bouquet of orchids at her hand.
━━━
Quanxi kept on stopping by the flower shop every other day then, buying the same kind of flowers with the same kind of arrangement laid on her bouquet. She ponders for a while as she sat on a metal chair, the bouquet sitting atop of the marble surfaced table.
She fiddled the white petals with her slender fingers and thinks, is there anything she's doing wrong? She set out that particular date to break off the usual routine of hers, but unfortunately ends up buying orchid flowers a part of her old routine now.
Quanxi expected something different, she expected an aberrant occurrence happening in the day in which she would witness something that might put any expression on her face apart from the nonchalant, distant, stoic one.
Despite doubts slowly gnawing at her heart, she believed there's nothing wrong from buying bouquet of the flowers every other day, and so, she continued on doing so.
From the early of September to the middle of November, nothing changed at all.
Not until you find yourself smiling unknowingly as she makes an appearance in front of your flower shop.
Mustering enough courage to know more about your frequent, loyal customer, you part your lips from each other and ask, "To whom do you give the bouquets to every other day?"
She stands up and gazes at you, her iridiscent, lifeless orb fixates on your figure. You look right back at her, the reflection of you on her eye is as clear as the crystalline waters. A short pause occurs in between you two, you could only hear nothing but the soft wind barging in the place.
"For me." A short reply is what you anticipated, but the response itself was not something you expected.
"Those orchids bouquet you buy every other day..." You halt your statement for a moment, and Quanxi patiently waits for the continuation. "They look amazing, no?" You ask and step closer to the female.
She only watches your actions, the tread of your footsteps against the wooden floor echoes inside the store.
━━━
Quanxi sits on her leather couch, a stockpile of dried petals of orchids all gathered in one glass container. Even though the flowers had wilted, the pleasant aroma still remains and lingers inside her spacious room. She quietly lets herself drift away from reality and slowly doze off to sleep.
━━━
"What's your name?"
"Quanxi. Yours?"
"[F/N]."
━━━
"So do you throw the wilted orchids into the trash after some time or—?"
"I keep them."
"Oh."
━━━
A couple of months after, if there was an award for consistency then there's no other better candidate for it other than Quanxi. She stops by at the same time every other day in front of the flower shop, leaving with the typical bouquet of orchid flowers at hand.
━━━
Today is another typical day, in which after taking care of Quanxi's matters, the thought of passing by the flower shop never slips out of her mind. Her head held down low as she paces through the streets then lifts up, taking a halt in the familiar spot of the roadside.
Her ghostly, chalk in color orb dilates at the sign hung at the glass window of the wooden door, 'Closed'.
She intuitively asks the shop next door about the florist, and the store clerks reply, "She's sick."
━━━
Quanxi thought it would be quite trivial to ask about an acquaintance's whereabouts or where one lives, but another thought crosses her mind that it wouldn't hurt to commit a foolish act for a while.
You groggily rub your eyes and yawn, dark bags carved deep underneath your fatigued orbs. You swing the door open, without taking any caution until you suddenly felt a tight embrace from the unknown person.
Batting your eyelash at the warm comforting presence you felt with your skin, a relieved smile then tugs on your lips despite of the fatigue you've been feeling.
Hues of white embers in a horizontal blur slowly drift down from the bright, blue welkin sky. A singular, tiny in size slush of ice settles atop of a familiar, grizzled hair.
It's the first snowfall and it was Quanxi who appeared in your doorstep.
━━━
Quanxi thought not all routines can be boring, as she feels the strings of her heart play a melodic tune whenever she sees you. Although she may not quiet show what she's feeling by her expression, she knows deep inside how her heart flitters like the wings of a butterfly indulging itself in a pool of sweet, nectar juices.
She sits on a metal chair, getting lost with the vista of blinding, flashing lights from the rows of tall buildings. Meanwhile a raven-haired man slouchy sat beside her with a glass of expensive alcohol in hand.
She decides to speak up,
"Recently, I realized that—"
"I might be into girls."