Chapter Text
The puddles on the sidewalk get distorted as Chan hops into them in his brand-new shoes. He feels quite happy today and well, why wouldn’t he? It’s his first day in his new school. The enthusiasm of a kid is quite evident on the 8 years old’s face and his cheeks bunch up everytime he thinks of the Power Rangers pencil box, which he bought with his shoes, in his backpack. But to say he is not intimidated is quite a bit of an exaggeration, really. He is a bit afraid because his friend, Seungkwan, isn’t here with him but that’s okay, he will make new friends. He believes himself to be quite good at it.
Honestly, even a rainy, and gloomy (and also cold) Monday morning cannot dampen Chan’s excitement. No, siree.
Mumma Lee, who had been checking the bus timing on her phone, suddenly catches Chan preparing to frog jump into another puddle. Horrified at her son’s antics, she pulls him back towards her and says, “Channie, it’s your first day in your new school. Can we please keep those shoes clean, honey?”
Though she looks a bit annoyed at him, Chan knows his Mumma isn’t exactly angry, so he proceeds to give the most common reason any 8-year-old would give “Mumma, the puddles are so fun to jump in! I want to jump in and see the splashes” He even gives her those puppy eyes you'd give when you really want something from a parent.
But of course, as is usual with logical moms raising fun loving 8-year-old kids, Mumma Lee gives him a stern look which clearly says don’t give me that look it won’t work on me this time, and says “These shoes get dirty and I won’t let you go to Seungkwan’s house in the evening”.
Chan’s eyes widened at the threat. He clearly loves his best friend more than the puddles, because immediately he starts walking away from them while pointing at his pristine black shoes “Look, Mumma! I’m not getting them wet. Now can I still go play with Seungkwan in the evening?” And there’s the puppy eyes again, just to make an impact on her.
And this time, Mumma Lee just smiles adoringly at him, squeezing his little fingers in her hands. Clever boy, she thinks, he does know he has beautiful eyes and how to use them. “Yes you can. Now hurry up, honey, the bus should be coming in fifteen minutes.”
They finally reach the assigned bus stop, where Chan sees a lot of kids wearing the same uniform as him. It’s a common park, surrounded on all sides by roads leading to different streets full of houses. Straight ahead, right across the road is an arcade of shops and Chan sees people opening them up and chatting with each other. But he has more important things to look at. As they walk inside the park to wait for the bus, his eyes scan it and its entrance for someone who looks approachable, but mostly everyone is in groups.
Dismayed, he is about to turn to his Mumma, who is talking to another woman a bit further away, when he sees a boy sitting on a bench playing with a puppy. Chan follows the leash on the pup with his eyes to the owner, who’s an old man with a bald head. But he immediately focuses back on the boy when he laughs, as the puppy is licking him all over his face “Aji, stop! Mom would kill me if she saw you ruined my hair, AJI!”
The old man pulls the puppy back and says “Don’t you worry about her, Mingyu. She won’t know one thing about this, promise. She’s busy talking anyway, look” He points at the lady who’s talking to Chan’s Mumma and then takes out a small comb to fix the boy’s hair.
The boy, Mingyu, has one of the most beautiful eyes Chan’s ever seen. They are positively sparkling in the cold and damp weather, and Chan wonders if the boy even knows that it’s raining or does he see the whole world bathed in that shine. As he tries to think of an answer to this question, Mingyu glances at him. And his eyes sparkle some more. Chan is pretty sure if he looks closely, he can see fireworks going off in them. How is that even possible?
Mingyu hops down the bench and comes running towards him, and for a frightening nanosecond Chan thinks the boy would push him into a puddle besides him (no no no please don’t do that, I won’t be able to go to Seungkwan’s house!). But then something happens which immediately makes Chan believe that this is the most harmless boy in this world: Mingyu trips on his own shoes and whoosh skids right in front of him on his knees.
“Yes?” Chan’s first word to Mingyu comes out instead of “Are you okay?” and maybe that’s because he’s still reeling from the shock that, instead of being pushed into the puddle, he saw this boy tripping and falling himself. It might have happened in a matter of seconds but for the little boy, the moments stretched out like a slow-motion sequence of a movie. He still makes sure to check his shoes as he doesn’t want them to be dirty in any way. He looks back up and sees that Mingyu has gotten up and is straightening his coat, while glancing at his mother. He gives a sigh of relief when he sees his raincoat took the dirt. Then he looks at Chan with those sparkly eyes.
“Yes- I mean hello! I’m Kim Mingyu.” Mingyu points at his badge on his chest. “Are you new to the school? I haven’t seen you here before” Mingyu asks, pointing around them. Chan replies, “Hello, my name is Lee Chan. Yes, I am. But I’m not new to the city. I even have a friend, Seungkwan, who lives on that street” He points enthusiastically at a street on their left. Mingyu glances towards it and nods solemnly, before turning back to Chan. “You were watching my dog, right? Her name’s Aji. Want to play with her?”
Chan looks back at the puppy. In all honesty, he doesn’t really like pets that much. But looking at Aji and then back at Mingyu, he feels he could give the white puppy a chance. Just as he’s going to say yes, Mumma Lee calls for him. Turning back he sees Mingyu’s mom looking at them both, smiling, and realises that she too has the sparkly eyes. “Coming Mumma!” he shouts, looking back at Mingyu, who is waving goodbye to Aji and the old man. They both walk towards their mothers and Mumma Lee introduces Chan to Mingyu’s mom, who in turn introduces her boy to the former’s mother.
On the bus, Mingyu insists Chan sit with him and his friends. Chan joins him, thinking one friend made! 10 points to Channie!
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The snow in the park is almost blindingly white when two 12-year-old boys make their way there to play snow-fight. Chan looks at Mingyu walking beside him and thinks back on how he was whining about it being too cold to play outside over the phone the day before, but now look at him, all bundled up to do exactly that huh. Chan looks at his own outfit which he put up in a hurry because His Nibs won’t stop banging on his bedroom door to hurry up dressing.
As they near the park, Chan sees the florist opening his shop and, in excitement, grabs Mingyu’s hand to drag him towards the shop. Mingyu almost slips on the snow on the pavement and makes it known by complaining “Chan what are you doing? We’re supposed to go straight and turn left into the park, not right across the road to the shopping arcade! Chan!”
But Chan doesn’t pay him any heed. He is used to the boy’s whining and complaining. He has to be, after having to endure his arse for almost 4 years now. Though they’re of the same age, Chan truly believes, and would even present you with a proper essay and all, on how Mingyu is actually still the 8-year-old kid he met on that one rainy day. The only thing grown about this guy is his height, and boy if I’m not jealous of that he thinks as he quickly crosses the road to go to Mr Park’s shop.
The shop, Parks and Florals, has been there for as long as he remembers; his earliest memory being coming with his dad to buy flowers for Mumma on their wedding anniversary. The shop is still the same. The bouquets are placed in racks neatly in the front of the shop, while housing hanging floral arrangements of various colours and kinds of flowers. It looks straight out of a Pinterest picture of a Victorian flower shop and, Chan is sure, smells like one too. The only thing changed about the whole setup is the upgrade of Mr Park’s engagement ring to a wedding ring and the now ever-glowing fairy lights.
The man greets him with a smile as he makes his way to the front displays of bouquets, still dragging Mingyu by his hand, “Good afternoon, Chan, I see you dragged Mingyu to the shop this time too” he says laughing at Mingyu’s pouting face.
Mingyu doesn’t miss a beat when he replies “He never listens to me. I don’t know what I’m going to do with him, Mr Park”. He even huffs for effect. Chan gives him his most unimpressed look while replying to Mr Park “Good afternoon, Mr Park. Ignore this whining kid with me. Did Mrs Park get those flowers I told her about?” He starts looking around for Mrs Park to ask her this directly, but she is not in the shop. “
Yes, yes she told me about her favourite customer’s request. But Jae isn’t coming today, as she’s feeling a bit under the weather. Come on son, it’s here. She asked me to wrap it in a paper, but it’s just a single stem. So, I wrapped it up in a bow” Mr Park tells them as he guides them to the bouquet section on the front. He bends down and retrieves a small flower bouquet whose long stem is wrapped in a soft pastel coloured bow. The flowers are blue, getting lighter at the tip of the petals. They are small, but numerous, making the bouquet look like a blue bulb of flowers. The petals glisten with dew in the overhead fairy lights and their stem is equally vibrant shade of green. Chan’s eyes grow wide at the bouquet, as he had only seen them in pictures on the internet and just their name itself sounded so exotic on his lips, he was almost convinced into letting go of putting in a request for Mrs Park to order them. But looking at them, he swears he has found out what love is like, and he knows he’s being dramatic but he can’t help it. He knows he’s a diva through and through.
But, damn, if it isn’t the most beautiful shade of blue he has seen in his 12 years of living.
However, before his brain could start sprouting Shakespearean level poetry on a bunch of flowers wrapped in a bow, Mingyu pulls him back to reality. He retrieves his hand from his grasp, which leaves Chan feeling a bit disoriented and cold, though he associates the latter with the cold of January and the snow beneath their feet. He takes the bouquet in his hands and sees them up close. Chan suddenly has an earth-shattering realisation: he loves flowers. I can’t believe I’m getting emotional over them but flowers are so pretty. He can suddenly imagine having a big bungalow with an even bigger lawn where he’s planting flowers and small plants, watering them and just enjoying the gift of mother nature. Overwhelmed with emotions, he turns to Mingyu, and gets struck with another, even bigger realisation, one that he absolutely did not see coming:
Mingyu is beautiful.
Don’t blame Chan. He always knew his best friend was pretty, with those big sparkling eyes and the most adorable canine teeth smile he’s ever seen. But standing there, looking like a panda in his black padded jacket and white trousers with a black wool cap on his bowl cut, Mingyu is looking at those small flowers in wonder, while looking nothing short of an angel himself. Clearly he doesn’t know this type of flower either. But Chan doesn’t care. He cannot care when the boy beside him is bathed in the soft light of the fairy lights and has red cheeks due to the chill of the wind, who’s looking at him right this instant with the sweetest expression on his face, sparkly eyes in full force beaming at him.
“They are so pretty Chan! What flowers are they?” He jumps a little in excitement as he asks Chan.
“Blue hydrangeas” Chan says absentmindedly, his voice sounding far away. He is a bit lost, to be honest. What do you do when you realise that you think your best friend of four years is not just pretty, but actually quite beautiful, and that maybe, maybe, you have a tiny (read: HUGE) crush on them?
Chan has no idea.
He tries not to get scared by that.
He fails. Superbly.