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Like the flowers Kaning tends to in the flower shop, she’s rooted deeply in the ground, eyes content with seeing what’s right ahead of her.
She’s not one for wishing for the stars when she has a whole bed of colorful flowers right by her fingertips’ reach; she has trouble looking up and aiming for the skies when she’s perfectly content with her feet on the ground.
She never wished to meet the F4, content with knowing them from a distance, catching information about them from the television or from the whispers in school (oh, do her classmates just love gossip).
This is why, when the world has seemingly tilted and led the paths of these four men to cross with hers and her best friend’s, she did not wish for anything more, none of that friendship, none of that romance, none of that acknowledgement from them, even, especially when she herself witnessed just what Gorya meant in those stories she told her.
As their luck would have it, the F4 are here to stay right in their lane so Kaning finds herself dealing with the change; she finds herself questioning her decisions, thinking twice over ideas, figuring out how to deal with the “flower four”, as Uncle Ga had said they were described ( “there’s a fine line between cheesy and cool! ”).
For the first time in her life, Kaning looks up at the skies and scans for the stars.
Gorya
Gorya wanted to be a dentist for as long as she can remember. She cannot recall the exact moment when it took root in her mind, but she remembers one memory of Glakao crying from the pain of a tooth cavity; she was fervently wishing she could magically make it go away.
Kaning tells her she’s envious of it, this certainty in a dream that she deems worth chasing. They were in their first year of lower-secondary school then when she first disclosed this information, along with how she wishes she had a dream to call her own.
“You’ll find it,” Gorya had said, eyeing her with certainty as she pushed a stem of yellow tulips into flower foam, “Dreams are tricky, Kaning. I wouldn’t have found mine if it weren’t for Glakao’s love for chocolates. At least, that’s the farthest thing I remember.”
“Maybe I’d become a dentist, too,” Kaning replied, shrugging as she watched her best friend work around the tulip arrangement, “I like eating chocolates.”
Gorya shot her an amused look. “You’ll be your own worst nightmare, then.”
“Hey, I always brush my teeth after eating!”
“Don’t come running to me once you have cavities, I won’t hug you to sleep like I did with my brother,” she cackled, sorting around the remaining stack of flowers.
Kaning sighed, leaning closer to the table and picking up a bright red tulip, its petals bright in bloom. “Maybe I’ll try my hand at being a florist.”
“Maybe if you handled this order, you actually can be one,” Gawao called out dryly from his place behind the counter, waving an invoice.
“Part-time florist, then,” she replied, smiling teasingly as she scanned over the new order.
“Well, you do like flowers, don’t you?” Gorya pointed out, “And you’ve always had an eye for arranging stuff. Or you could probably grow the plants yourself, not just work with arranging them. You could try joining the garden club in school to find out if it’s for you.”
“Hmm, well I am the organized one between us two, after all. I don’t know, I’d like to try growing plants and being surrounded by flowers is lovely but I feel like I could do something more.”
“Do you want to do something more, though?” Gorya asked, blinking at her between stalks of the red and yellow blooms. She watched her best friend pause midway between grabbing a stack of newspapers, hand hovering uncertainly.
Kaning had always been a meticulous thinker, running over her thoughts carefully before making decisions. She can almost see the gears turning in her mind, then, working out a response.
“Yes?” Kaning muttered, then more certainly - “Yes. I’d like that, doing more, doing what I’m capable of. Making my mark and everything.”
The planes of Gorya’s face softened as she smiled. “Well, there you have it. That’s a start, at least you have a general idea of what you want. Don’t sweat it ‘coz you’re on the right track.”
Her best friend shoved at her shoulder. “Maybe you should consider being a life coach of sorts. Be a life guru instead, you know, maybe that’s what you’re meant to do.”
Gorya smirked, nudging her back. “Let me try it with you then maybe I’ll reconsider.”
-
Gorya did not reconsider her own dream but she did, however, end up wondering if her comment about growing plants had somehow served as a neon arrow that led Kaning to her own vision.
Her best friend did end up joining the garden club in their school, taking root and flourishing in their activities, like a lovely house plant steadily growing on fertilized soil. Her three years of dedicated service in the club had ultimately led to two results: first, it made her one of their most respected senior members that the juniors look up to in more ways than one; second, it helped her find the purpose that she so longed for.
Gorya looked closely at one of the square boxes in the paper, her focus aimed at the words written in the neat, slanting script of Kaning’s handwriting.
“Education,” she read aloud, “You’re taking up education?”
In hindsight, she should have seen it coming. The hints come up in the mundane details - in their conversations (“There’s this new pattern I looked up - oh, the kids are going to love it.”), in her stuff (sheets of garland patterns with carefully-written notes in the margin) in her habits (a voice firmer and more assured). They were there, blatantly staring her in the face.
Kaning nodded earnestly. “Elementary education, to be exact. I’m still working out the details but - oh, Gorya, it just feels so rewarding , seeing the junior’s faces when they learn a new garland pattern or when they successfully raised a plant. Seeing them accomplish something makes me feel like I’ve succeeded, too.”
She turns again to her, eyes hopeful. “This is a good thing, isn’t it?”
She was positively blooming at that moment, rivaling the vibrance of the sunflower she was absently turning in her hands in a half-dreamy stupor. It was not a rare occasion to see Kaning happy (and god help the person who will wipe away that joy because Gorya will not pull her punches on them), but to see her this enlightened, this free is a sight to behold.
Gorya felt her heart swell with affection at the sight, catching Gawao’s uncharacteristically warm gaze from across the room.
“It’s a good thing, a good, good, good thing,” she responds, leaning against the table, “If choosing it makes you smile this much then it can only mean something positive. I guess this means you’ll be the teacher to my dentist, then?”
Kaning’s smile turns teasing as she nudges her with a shoulder. “Wasn’t it supposed to be the teacher to your life coach?”
“Honestly, Kaning, you should be the florist to Gorya’s dentist, but then again that’s just me hoping that you would take up the craft and succeed me as the heir to Maytee O Garden,” Gawao joins in, prompting Gorya to snicker in the sidelines.
He points a stalk of rose at her, his voice growing serious as he continues, “But if you think you found the one thing you’d love to do then go for it. Few people have the privilege of finding theirs.”
Gorya nods firmly in agreement. “And if all else fails, there’s always the flower shop to take care of. I mean, Uncle Gawao’s not growing any younger…”
Said flower shop owner gave a scandalized gasp and whipped around to look at her. “Excuse you , Ms. Gorya. I haven’t paid you your monthly salary yet, in case you have forgotten.”
“And we have not yet delivered these bouquets to the client,” Gorya stuck her tongue out in retaliation as she moved over to the flower arrangements on the table, “Let’s go, Kaning! Help me drop these off then we can submit your application form to the university.”
Kaning blinked, following her best friend’s movements in mild surprise. “Wait, no, I’ll stay, Uncle Ga needs help and-”
“Nonsense!” Gawao immediately cut in, waving his hand dismissively, “I’m still young and strong enough to carry out things here at the shop for a few hours, thank you very much. You two go out and deliver these orders. Gorya, you make sure that the application form arrives safe and sound.”
Gorya turns around and salutes. “You can count on me!”
Kaning’s shoulders slump down in resignation, shaking her head at the two people who stood as unyielding, dependable pillars in her life. “You two are absolutely ridiculous.”
Gorya merely grins at her with the force of a thousand suns and reaches over to pull her along. “You love us both anyway. Now let’s go, we have an important delivery to make!”
Thyme
The young Paramanaantra heir, for all of his bravado and fierce countenance, likes the softest of things, from romantic comedy movies to sappy surprises.
She should’ve known in hindsight that Thyme would like sweets as well, recalling Gorya’s numerous stories of Thyme’s sweets hunting escapades. It just makes sense that he’ll have a certain fondness for it, something that they surprisingly both shared. She discloses this information when Thyme invited them over and there were plates upon plates of cake served on the table. She mentioned it merely in passing, but apparently, the Paramanaantra heir latched on and kept it for future use, like today.
The door to the flower shop slid open and she looked up - first at her best friend's mildly curious gaze, and then next to the young heir struggling to close the door with his hands full of paper bags.
"Gorya!" Thyme calls out, eager as a young pup and Kaning had to laugh at the exasperated roll of Gorya's eyes.
"Don't be too loud," she chastised, voice lacking bite as she turned to greet her boyfriend.
“I got you something - it’s your lunch break, right?” he continues, head craning around the shop.
“Uncle Ga went to get us all food, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Gorya replied, grabbing the other half of the paper bags and setting them down on the table, Kaning reaching out to help move flower foams and arrangements out of the way.
Thyme looked up, scratching his head. “I should’ve called before coming over, then.”
Gorya poked his nose lightly. “Don’t go crazy with the surprises, silly.”
Kaning hides a grin as Thyme smiles and practically melts , utterly smitten at her best friend. It still feels unreal sometimes, how much of a sap he is when it comes to Gorya, but she supposes that it’s just one of those unexplainable things that happen when two people meet and fall in love.
He turns to Kaning then, eyes shining as he wags a couple of paper bags in front of her face. “Look what I got - limited edition cheesecakes!”
This time, she did not bother hiding and she grins openly, feeling excited despite herself. “What do you have?”
He places the paper bags down on top of the table with a flourish, the gold-embossed letters flashing the expensive brand name at her. She shared a startled look with Gorya.
"That's… this is… isn’t this that one upscale pastry shop that recently opened?" she slowly says, eyeing the paper bags with reverence and hesitance in equal measure. It was not the first time he shared pastries with her, but this is probably the most expensive one yet.
Thyme simply waves off her concern. "Don't worry about it, the store brought them in and there’s too much for me to eat, anyway.”
Kaning narrows her eyes at him. If there’s one thing she knows as a fellow lover of all things sweet, it’s that there is no such thing as too much sweets . She opens her mouth to refuse again but Thyme, sensing the protest, raises a hand.
“Just take it as a gift, then,” he began, “a thank you gift for being with Gorya all this time, especially when I’m not around.”
Kaning shared another look with Gorya - expressing twin shades of exasperation and fondness. Thyme had pulled all kinds of excuses before, almost all of them revolving around Gorya, too, and it’s these ones that tugs at her sappy little heartstrings, something Thyme apparently noticed and used to his advantage.
“I’m not doing it for you , I’m Gorya’s best friend. But,” she relents, taking a peek inside the paper bags, “I appreciate these. Thank you”.
Satisfied, Thyme turned back to the other set of paper bags and began pulling out containers and containers of food.
“Don’t tell me… did you cook all these?” Kaning can hear Gorya ask as she takes out one elaborately-decorated box from her own paper bag of sweets.
“I did!” came his enthusiastic reply.
“Thyme! I don’t want to be poisoned!”
“I - hey! Have some faith in me, I have improved since the last time I cooked something.”
“How can you improve when Auntie Yu said you’re banned from the kitchen…”
This is how Uncle Ga finds them when he returns carrying an armful of paper bags - Gorya and Thyme bickering in the background with Kaning contentedly eating one cheesecake slice. Thyme beckoned him over with an extra container of food, and Uncle Ga was once again instantly charmed, graciously taking the food with him to his place by the counter.
“How’s it taste like?” Thyme asked, nodding his head towards the half-finished dessert she opted to eat first before the other dishes he laid out.
Kaning gave an approving nod, eyes bright with delight. “It’s really good, the chocolate’s not too sweet and the cake itself is moist and soft. There's a perfect balance.”
He nodded in return, poking at the shrimp on Gorya’s lunch box, much to her indignation. “Good, They’d make a good addition to the hotel menu, then.”
Kaning blinked. “You’re not going to taste it?”
“Of course I already did! I just need to hear from someone else with a sweet tooth. Your taste in sweets and pastries is good,” he pauses and points his fork at her, Gorya taking the opportunity to steal from his plate in retribution, “unlike your taste in men. Can’t say the same for that.”
She wasn’t sure how he went straight from talking about pastries to that so she doesn’t comment on the statement and pokes fun at him instead, feigning nonchalance as she shrugged. “Something Gorya and I apparently share, then.”
He spluttered in protest, straightening up in his chair and opening his mouth to reply only to get a mouthful of pork slices. “If you want to pick a fight then do it with me,” Gorya interrupts, to which Thyme tries (and fails) to respond with all the food crammed in his mouth.
They spend the next few moments in relative silence, until Thyme calls out to her again. “What degree did you say you were going to take again?”
Kaning chews down the soft chiffon cake slowly. “Education. Elementary education, to be exact.”
Thyme’s eyebrows rose up as he nodded. “You’ll be the same height as the kids then.”
She reached over and shoved at his shoulder but succeeded in only making him move back a fraction. F4 and their skyscrape-tall stature. You'd think giants would have been extinct by now but here is one, living, breathing evidence right inside their flower shop.
“If there’s a cake that would add a couple of inches to my height, I’d gladly take it,” she muttered sullenly, peering at the sleek boxes in the bag, “This is a lot of cake, though. Gorya, share with me? I think some of these have mangoes.”
Gorya’s smile was fond as she shook her head. “That’s all yours, Kaning, don’t worry about me. ‘Sides,” she playfully pokes her cheek, “I know you’d love to have them all to yourself.”
“I do not!”
“Yes you do, Gorya swore on it,” Thyme cut in, smirking, “She’s right, that’s all yours. Take it as a good luck gift for your entrance exam.”
“Cheesecakes for good luck,” Kaning mused out loud, “That’s new.”
Thyme wags a finger at her. “Sweet things help you concentric-”
“Concentrate,” Gorya immediately cuts in.
“Concentrate,” Thyme repeats firmly, “Sweets help you concentrate more. I read about that before somewhere.”
“Isn’t it just chocolates that do that, though?”
“Is it?” he asks, raising his eyebrows in surprise, “Really? My source said it’s sweets in general!”
Kaning shrugs in return but smiles in gratitude all the same. “I guess we both have to check, then. But in any case, thank you for sharing these.”
Gorya was highly amused by the whole affair. “Thyme, you haven’t been checking your sources correctly, haven’t you?”
“Oi, I have!” Thyme protests, “I saw it in an article somewhere before, can’t remember. Even Kavin and MJ said the same thing about sweets!”
“You’re really betting it all on Kavin and MJ’s words?”
Kaning can only shake her head at the scene, opting instead to finish the cake slice on her plate. Pastries or chocolates - either way, she’d take it, she’s got a sweet tooth for a reason.
(Thyme brought her both cake samples and a stash of dark chocolate for good measure the following week. She indulged particularly in the chocolate flavored ones, and gave the boxes of mango-flavored slices - she grinned teasingly at her friend, then - to Gorya, who grumbled about the cavities she’d get from all the sugar, but scraped every single crumb from the plate all the same.)
Ren
In the amount of time that they spent together along with their mutual friends, Ren finds Kaning to be utterly calm and composed, for the most part at least. The F4 and Gorya aside, this is one of the things that links them together - two souls content with standing on the sidelines as their friends take the center stage and command the audience. He was already used to being the only one sitting quietly in the background but it’s pretty nice to have someone else share the same energy as him, for once.
Perhaps that’s also why, like gazing at a reflection in the mirror, he quickly sees the things that tick the petite girl off.
His watchful gaze absently swept over the scene before him, nimble fingers stilling the graphite pencil he used on his sketchbook.
There was Thyme, whooping loudly with the video game controller clutched in his hands.
Sitting on the nearby sofa was Gorya, relentlessly trying to dodge Thyme’s awaiting arms ( “You said the winner gets a hug!” ).
MJ, the poor guy, was badly failing to drag the Paramanaantra heir back in front of the LCD screen for a rematch.
Amidst it all, sitting at the other end of the sofa was Kaning, her eyes lost in the pages of the slim textbook in her hands.
There was nothing unusual about the scene - save perhaps for the absence of the last F4 member by the petite girl's side - but it was the perfect picture of a lazy Saturday afternoon with the F4 and the two girls they wheedled into joining them.
Except - Ren took a slow double take.
Kaning had not moved an inch from her position, fingers not flipping pages around either.
He wonders briefly what could have happened. It was not like her to look… as stressed as she did in that moment, although she did display bouts of distress these past few weeks what with the entrance exams coming up -
Oh.
Oh.
"Alright, alright a rematch, then!" Thyme declared to M.J’s expectant grin, before turning back and pointing an accusatory finger at Gorya, “The bet still stands!”
Gorya scoffed. “Fine, go ahead - but only if you win two of three against MJ.”
The F4 member whooped loudly, “You would do well in our family business, Gorya, you clearly know how to deal with bull-headed people like this one here.”
Ren watched as Kaning heaved a sigh, eyebrows furrowing as she finally flipped a page.
Of course , he thinks, lips stretching into an amused smile as he stands up. It makes sense that she has that kind of response to all the ruckus happening literally beside her. It’s something that bothered him as well, though not as much now that he got used to the antics of his friends. He learned to cope with it; that’s what the rooftop and his numerous playlists are for, anyway.
Thyme and MJ’s hollering echoed in the background as Ren strode over to her, pulling off the pair of earphones from his ears in the process.
With one smooth motion, he splays his hand out in front of the book’s pages, effectively bringing her focus to the earphone buds hanging from his fingers.
Kaning turned mildly puzzled eyes at him, traces of frustration still present in her gaze. “Why?”
Ren merely smiled, dropping them in between the pages. “It’s more peaceful in the gardens, too, if the earphones alone won’t work.”
It took Kaning nearly three seconds before her face smooths over in realization. She picks up the white wires and echoes his smile. “Thanks.”
Ren tilts his head in acknowledgement and responds by shifting to another playlist. He clicks the triangular icon and leaves his phone with her, gravitating back to his comfortable nook in the armchair where his discarded sketchpad lay.
He picks up his pencil, twirls it idly between nimble fingers.
He pauses for a second, scribbles down a couple of composers and some choice classical pieces on the back of the page then resumes with his work, throwing lines and curves and angles.
MJ
MJ may not be the picture perfect student but he can say ( with a remarkably straight face at that ) that he’s a decent one.
Decent students attend their classes even if they scrape in a few minutes late, decent students submit their assignments and answer their assessments even if they don’t get all of the answers right. Most of all, decent students leave school right on the dot.
He fits himself neatly in that last category, walking out of his class as soon as the professor dismisses them. He takes quick steps down to the parking lot, his motorcycle keys at the ready. He was supposed to meet Kaning today; he recalls Kavin meeting him after a class earlier, a couple of textbooks on his hands and a request at the ready stemming from the need to leave early because of family matters.
He sent her a message earlier about having her wait in the flower shop, so he was surprised when saw her hanging around uncertainly near the gate of their university. He pulls over to the sidewalk and calls out.
“I was just about to go to the flower shop to give you the books,” MJ says as the petite girl walks closer.
Kaning looked hesitant for a moment, fingers fidgeting with her tote bag. “Yeah, I-I received your messages, I just arrived before I got them.”
At that, MJ grinned teasingly. He’s seen this exact expression on her face before, back during their graduation and she comes in holding a bouquet of hydrangeas and roses. “You were hoping to catch Kavin before he left, weren’t you?”
Her reply was instantaneous. “That isn’t the case! Classes just ended early so that’s why I figured, I might as well go over to your university now…”
MJ thinks it’s such a missed opportunity to not have Kavin by his side right now and hear all of this himself. He would pay to see his best friend tease his “chipmunk”, as he called her, and get his fair share of retorts from the girl in return.
“Alright, if that’s what you say, Kaning,“ he responds airily, waving off her denial reply as he places his helmet down between the handlebars, “How’s it going, by the way?”
Kaning gave a sigh heavy with all the weight of her thoughts, tucking back her skirt as she crouched down on the pavement. “Difficult,” she says, “I feel like I’ve studied a lifetime’s worth of lessons. Several lifetime’s worth, now that I think about it. How did you guys do it?”
MJ blinked. “That sounds like a rhetorical question but if it isn’t, I have to assume your brain is too exhausted to ask that to an F4 member.”
Despite herself, she laughs. “Of course, you’re the F4. Questions like this don’t apply to you.”
“Connections and power, Kaning,” he says matter-of-factly, sighing as he takes out his pack, “That’s what the F4 has. That doesn’t mean we don’t burn our brain cells trying to study at all, though.”
“Right, you have your own family businesses to attend to in the future. You need to be well-equipped for what’s to come.”
“Exactly,” MJ replies, catching her distant gaze, “There’s a big responsibility waiting for us someday, when the time comes. Well, for everyone else, really. To shoulder that burden properly, we need to be well-prepared. I know it absolutely doesn’t look like it but we need to pull our own weight as well.”
He watched Kaning nod slowly, almost absently, as she rested her chin on a fisted hand. For a moment, he thinks she looks preoccupied enough with far-away thoughts, mind running for miles a second… until her eyelids drooped down slowly, covering half her eyes from view.
“Kaning?” he tentatively says and, like flipping a switch, Kaning jerks, eyes blinking repeatedly as she turns to him.
“Sorry, did you say something?” she asks apologetically.
He sees her fist rise up to rub at one eye, the other fixing her exhausted gaze at him. MJ shakes his head and zips up his pack again, reaching out instead to a spare helmet. “You know what, I’ll just give you the books later. For now, get on, I’ll take you home.”
“I - well…”
“Scared of riding on a motorcycle?” he asks, patting his trustworthy vehicle, “Don’t worry, I won’t push the max speed limit, I don’t want Kavin to skin me alive.”
Kaning almost laughed at the irony between MJ’s words on speed limits and Kavin’s antics with his sports car, but she reins in her laughter and shakes her head instead. “No, it’s not that. It’s just… Well... I wanted to make a detour to the ice cream parlor before going home.”
Thyme had bragged about this before, about having an ally in Kaning when it comes to eating all things sweet, and it makes complete sense that she’ll want to get herself some ice cream as well before going home to study. He can’t help but laugh at her soft-spoken admission.
“Alright, let’s go for ice cream first, then,” MJ readily agrees, “And I’m not handing you the textbooks until you’ve had enough rest.”
“No fair, I only have a few weeks left,” Kaning managed to utter, but to both of their ears the protests sound feeble enough to be squashed by another round of persuasion, which MJ, of course, took notice of.
“Kaning,” he started, steadily catching her gaze, “Your mind absolutely can’t absorb anything with you this exhausted. Besides, passing the entrance exams wouldn’t mean a thing if you end up with an IV drip up your arm.”
There was silence for a moment. Kaning managed to stare defiantly back at him for a few heartbeats, before sighing, her resolve crumbling within seconds. “Once I’ve completely recharged?”
MJ nodded firmly. “Once you’ve completely recharged.”
With that, Kaning nodded in response, standing back up. She fanned her hands around her uniform, dusting them off before flashing a resolute smile. “I’m in.”
MJ returns her smile with a triumphant one of his own as he tosses her the spare helmet. “Hop in, then, we’re going for some ice cream!”
They ended up going for ice cream and macarons, and Kaning’s belly felt so full by the end of it that she ended up doing nothing but sleeping for hours straight by the time she went home. In the midst of the sleepy haze fogging her brain, she ended up forgetting to claim the books from MJ that day, getting greeted instead the next day with the sight of Kavin himself waiting for her outside the school gates with said books on his hands, much to her surprise,
( Kavin was highly confused when MJ shoved the books towards him then, with a word of how Kaning was too tired to function normally and needing rest. For good measure, MJ threw in an off-handed comment about her preferring a motorcycle ride to a car ride just to tease his best friend before hastily pushing him out the door. )
Kavin
Kavin likes to think that he has the most important role in helping Kaning out for her university entrance exams. He says so one afternoon, while hanging around with the F4 and the girls in the mall.
Gorya immediately shot him down, bristling like an angry porcupine as she draped an arm around Kaning’s shoulders and droned on about being one of her strongest support systems right from the beginning.
Thyme scoffed before beginning his indignant rant of how food ( sweets! ) is essential to healthy brain function (at this MJ and Ren shared a disbelieving look ) and how it is definitely included in top ten lists of examination tips.
Ren just gave him an amused smile, said something about peace and quiet and study playlists before sharing a conspiratorial nod with Kaning. MJ, on the other hand, simply shrugged.
“I don’t know about that, dude. You aren't exactly the most promising candidate for that matter. And besides, sometimes it’s better to just take a break than to study at all,” he nonchalantly replied, to which Kaning laughed and nodded in agreement.
Outnumbered, He was viciously outnumbered.
Oh well, it was not their opinion that matters the most to him, anyway.
“You? Tutoring me?” Kaning repeated, eyeing him quizzically.
Kavin nodded in affirmation, walking over to the vacant spot next to her behind the table. It was a warm, sunny afternoon when he visited her in the flower shop to talk about his proposition - business was stable but slow that day, and he watched as Kaning spritzed a bouquet she just finished arranging.
“Why do you sound so surprised? I’m class valedictorian, remember?” he added lightly, his eyes seeing shadows of white and blue hydrangeas in the assorted rose arrangement that she had been fussing over.
Had he not been already looking at the bouquet, he would not have noticed how Kaning’s hands faltered for a heartbeat at the mention of their graduation.
“Yeah,” she replied in the affirmative, sneaking a glance, “I was there . MJ said it’s because your uncle’s the education minister.”
“Ah,” he said, stretching the syllables out. Leave it to his pragmatic best friend to casually drop information like that. “Well, he’s not wrong, my uncle is the minister of education. When you have the connections, you need to make use of them, though some things are already out of our hands. You’d have known it by now right, chipmunk?”
Kaning slanted him a mildly disapproving look but stayed silent, opting instead to carry the bouquet to a free space beside the counter.
There it was - the layer of steel in her gaze that always challenged him to do something, to prove something . It was there when they first met at Mira’s party, it was there when he and MJ tried to warn her about Thyme and Gorya’s budding romance. and It was certainly there now, holding him close and forcing more words out of his mouth.
“Just think of it like this,” he continues, “It’s like a 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration thing, but scratch the inspiration part.”
“And replace it with what?” Kaning asked with thinly-veiled amusement as she walked back towards the table, “1% fabrication?”
Oh, she’s gotten so good at this.
Kavin smirked, reined in the pride and amusement in his voice and smoothly countered. “Education.”
“Creation? Of grades?”
“Fascination.”
Kaning’s eyes snapped up to meet his just as he predicted, brows drawn together in confusion. “Fascination of what?”
He purposely held her gaze as he leaned down to her height, on his face was that annoyingly self-satisfied smile that Kaning has learned to be immune to. “Of who , you mean.”
Or maybe not .
He has always been capable of pulling the rug out from under her feet, and - there! - he sees the telltale series of flustered blinks before Kaning gathered herself to form a reply. “Fascination of - of your uncle, then?”
Kavin cannot stop the laughter easing up from his chest. His little chipmunk never fails to surprise him in her own way, either.
He reaches out and pinches her cheeks. “You never back down, don’t you, little one?”
There was clear triumph in her eyes as she stepped back and turned to the floral cooler. “I would not quit so easily but you’d have known it by now, right?”
Kavin was kind of glad Kaning was too busy picking a new batch of flowers to notice the full-blown smile on his face. God, he hopes he isn’t turning out as bad as Thyme is with Gorya, but now, as he watched Kaning hum softly while carefully selecting gardenias from a bin, he thinks that it might not probably be so bad to give in for once.
He straightens up, grabs a floral foam and another spray bottle just as she turns back to the table. “If you are without your stubbornness,” he begins, readily pushing them towards her, “we wouldn’t be where we are right now.”
Kaning looks at him then, eyes clear in the gold of the afternoon sunlight. The hint of her fiery spirit was still present, but it had mellowed down, overshadowed by an emotion that burned bright into his own.
If she heard the pronounced shift in his tone and the undercurrent in his words, the answer was clear in her eyes right then.
“You’ve got to give me an answer, Kaning,” he drawls the words out deliberately after a moment, feigning a sigh as he turns to the clock perched on the wall, “Will you accept my offer of helping you out?”
One, two . It was endearing, the way her eyelashes flutter against her cheeks in that mannerism he had become increasingly familiar with over the past year.
She lets out a breath which gradually turns into full-blown puffs of laughter. There was a teasing lilt to her voice as she says, “MJ has said some particularly concerning things about your academics.”
Oh, he’s definitely going to plan a proper payback for that.
“Nothing about math, I take it?” he counters earnestly, “You forget our family delves in the economics side of things, I have to be good at it.”
“Just my luck that it’s the one subject I’ve been struggling with the most, then.”
His hand easily finds its home atop her head, the other reaching for the finished bouquet of gardenia and hydrangeas, “You worry too much, chipmunk. Trust in me, for once.”
Kaning answers him with a roll of her eyes, her lips gently curving upwards. “Maybe. We’ll see. But for now, new guy , let me do my job and finish these pending orders.”
Kavin echoes her smile - wider this time, and he places the bouquet beside the arrangement of roses from earlier.
He means it, his affinity for math. Numbers are fixed, there is always a recognizable pattern and an answer brought about by a clear albeit complicated process driven by pure logic and reasoning. Numbers are concrete, numbers are unyielding.
Not all situations are as definite nor as readily structured as math, though, and it’s at this kind of stuff that his motivation wanes.
Maybe. We’ll see .
It’s not definite, but it’s a start.
He turns around and walks back to his place by her side, watches her concentrate on the primroses in her hand. He’s not one for relentlessly chasing down solutions, but he supposes that some questions do have answers worth searching and fighting for.
Kaning passes the university entrance exam and the good news is celebrated in the only way the F4 knows.
Thyme invites them over for a party, serving plates upon plates of dessert after dinner (prompting MJ to ask if he’s planning on getting revenge for his streak of wins on their video games by giving him diabetes).
Ren sneaks out to the speakers and blasts through the night with a special playlist (“ Who are you and what did you do to Indie Ren?!” Kavin had exclaimed).
MJ whips out a batch of water guns, leading an impromptu water fight which ended with Ren and Thyme getting dumped into the pool (Thyme had manically run after MJ then, “ Who says I’ll get revenge by giving you diabetes, I’m going to drown you - get back here! ”).
Gorya had stuck to Kaning, giving her the tightest hug she could ever muster, proudly congratulating her again and again (“ You said you won’t hug me to sleep like you did with Glakao?” Kaning had asked). But then Thyme had switched gears and turned to her instead for help, and Gorya had to run around, opting to use Ren as a human shield.
Kavin casually walks over to stand beside Kaning, both of them facing the ruckus happening right before their eyes.
She did not turn, but from her periphery she could see him standing close, so close that she could feel his fingers brush against hers - once and then twice. With her heart thundering against her chest, she lets her fingers meet his halfway, and before she knows it he has her hand encased in a gentle grip.
“Kaning?”
It was uncharacteristically gentle, his voice, and she turns around, only to have her cheeks hit with a cold splash of water.
“Congratulations!”
Kavin was grinning broadly, laughing at the surprised look on her face, a spare water gun hanging from his other hand. It was unfair how she both wanted to strangle and hug him at the same time, so she responds instead by wriggling out of his grasp and shoving at him into the pool with all of the force she could muster.
She fails badly , and he laughs harder at her.
“Difficult, isn’t it? If you wanted to jump in the pool, you should have just said so,” he responds, that teasing smile present again on his face. He presents his hand out to her, and his smile shifts, the edges softening.
“Jump in with me?”
Kaning stares back at him for a moment, taking in the sight of the bright lights bouncing off his hair and encasing his head like a halo. Her gaze softened as she nodded, reaching out. “Nice of you to actually ask me this time around.”
Kavin’s grin widens as he takes her hand in his, pulls her forward and jumps in.