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As Yuta was entering the florist shop, ten minutes before the beginning of his shift, he couldn’t help but notice the large removal lorry parked in front the long-abandoned shop across the street. A small army of guys that viscerally reminded Yuta of Yakuza from the old movies his dad loved to watch, were transporting big seemingly heavy boxes directed by a small man in a suit.

Yuta stopped for a moment and thought about going over and greeting his new neighbours, but then he noticed a guy with two-coloured hair staring at him with a menacing look. Their eyes locked. Yuta wasn’t a scaredy-cat, but he did have some sense of self-preservation. So, when the guy started moving through the workers towards him Yuta did the only reasonable thing in this situation. He fled inside his shop.

As he stood, strangely out of breath with his back pressed against the door to the florist, his co-worker for the day, Renjun, looked at him strangely. “You okay there, hyung?”

Yuta looked at him seriously. “I just escaped certain death. I think our new neighbours are from the mafia.”

Renjun wiggled his eyebrows. “Oooh, finally something exciting.”

Yuta scoffed and finally went to the back room to change for the day. He was soundtracked by very awful rendition of “Mafia in the Morning” courtesy of his younger colleague.

***

The next day the head of the mafia came to introduce himself. Yuta was just rearranging the shop window, when he saw the small, classically handsome yet somehow imposing man push on the door. Yuta took a quick look over at the till, where Jisung was showing an obvious-chaebol-customer his newest pride in the form of potted daisies. He’ll be fine. Yuta put on a professional smile and came in to meet the obvious criminal mastermind.

“Hi, welcome to Sunflowers and Marigolds. How can I help you today?”

The mafia person gave him an obvious look-over resulting in a vague expression of approval. Strange.

“Hello, I just came in to introduce myself. I am Moon Taeil, I am the owner of the new shop across the street.” He passed over a very professional and artistic business card with a stylized black and white dragon.

Yuta took it with a polite bow and dug into his apron for the shop’s own. “Thank you. I’m afraid our owner Mr. Lee Sooman is on an extended holiday, but I will be happy to pass on any messages and I’m sure we’ll be able to coexist in perfect harmony.”

In the corner of his eye, he noticed Jisung frantically waving his way and made a conscious effort to ignore him, moving so that Mr. Moon Taeil didn’t have him in his vision.

Mr. Moon chuckled a little. “Naturally, naturally. I’m sure there wouldn’t be any problems. Still, I do have a request for you, that I would hope you could pass on to your… Coworkers.”

Jisung looked like his arm was going to fall off from his continuous waving. Yuta made a cutting gesture at him and returned his attention back to the small man, who suddenly looked… Really intimidating.

“Do you need to help your dongsaeng? I’m sure our chat can easily wait for a few minutes.”

“Ah, no, no. He’s fine. Please, say what you wanted.”

Jisung in the background sent him betrayed puppy eyes, such that Yuta was sure he wouldn’t be hearing the end of this for the next month.

“Ah, you see Mr.” Moon Taeil gave an obvious look over his apron until he found a name tag. “Mr. Yuta. Our business is rather secretive and my… artists require privacy and calm. Should there be any trouble, I’ll of course immediately look into remedying it. But I would be immensely grateful, if you called the number on the card straight away and stayed away from my shop. Would that be any trouble?”

Yuta gulped. How is this guy, who is standing here almost half a head shorter than him, in HIS shop, intimidating enough for Nakamoto Yuta, who moved away from his home state alone at 15, to wonder if he packed spare pants just in case? Unbelievable.

“Ah, of course, of course, Mr. Moon Taeil, I will be sure to pass this on to everybody. Likewise, if you have any trouble, feel free to ask for me, Nakamoto Yuta. We’ll all make the utmost effort to be the best neighbours possible.”

Taeil grinned, lightly slapped Yuta’s arm and nodded approvingly. “Splendid, that’s what I like to hear. Well, have a lovely rest of your afternoon. Also,“ He sent a very amused glance towards the till. “I think you should go help your friend. His bouquet looks a bit… Experimental.”

As the man was leaving, Yuta could swear he heard quiet laughter. A completely different wave of dread suddenly washed over him. He basically ran towards the till, just in time to watch Jisung sheepishly pass on a monstrosity.

A ball of violets sat at the bottom, haphazardly tied together by a hemp knot, where Jisung obviously attempted a bow, failed and sort of gave up. From the more or less middle of the violet ball a single orange rose towered, nothing around it to soften the giant stem overhanging the mess, except for a single branch of white cherry blossoms fastened towards the middle by a sky-blue bow and hanging almost 90° from the rose stem. It was indeed experimental.

The boy in designer clothes accepted it hesitantly and uncertainly looked from Jisung to Yuta and back to the bouquet several times.

Yuta was about to open his mouth to apologise and offer a re-do, when the boy’s face suddenly lit up.

“Oh, I love this! Marvelous! Original! Thoughtful! Perfect, my aunt is going to adore this!” He quickly pulled out a wad of cash from his back pocket, handed a speechless Jisung enough to cover the cost more than 10- times over and scampered away from the shop without even waiting for them to pack his flowers for the journey. A black shiny limousine stopped just in front of the shop, the boy got in mindful of the flowers and then he was gone.

Yuta and Jisung were left behind in stunned silence.

“What… The hell just happened?”

“I… I don’t know. I’m so sorry, hyung, I tried getting your attention…”

Yuta sighed. “It’s fine.” Then turned to go back to his half-rearranged shop window. “Oh, and you’re taking me to dinner tonight. I want meat.”

“Hyung, that’s not fair!”

***

The store was luckily quiet and empty, so Yuta didn’t feel any particular remorse in cutting Donghyuck’s usual 45-minute break (that was supposed to be 15 minutes) short.

The floor needed sweeping, the plants needed watering, there was a tiny bonsai at the back waiting to be replanted into its final pot before getting sold and Yuta would be damned if he was the one doing all the hard work, when he has his younger subordinates to do it instead.

To his credit, Donghyuck grumbled only a little bit, but took up the broom easily enough. While he half-heartedly got rid of the old leaves on the tiles, every so often, he would look towards the mysterious mafia den across the street, to Yuta, back to the den and then hum. Yuta closed his eyes. Three-two-one…

“Sooo, hyung. What do you think about the new neighbours? Pretty cool, huh?” That was… Not what Yuta was expecting, but ok.

“You mean gangster central, which opened across the street, and the owner who already threatened us once? Sure, pretty cool, if that’s what we’re calling it…”

Donghyuck scoffed. “You’re being a scaredy-cat again. Manly man my arse. I don’t know what they do, but they definitely aren’t gangsters.”

The door to the shop opened quietly, but the customer just stood with his back to them, admiring the Petunia pots, hair covered by a black hoodie, so Yuta decided not to pay them any mind.

“I will let you know, I am the manliest man you’ll ever meet, you brat. And I’m telling you, you didn’t meet the guy, who came in. He was scary. Tiny, but scary. I’m pretty sure they’re like… torturing people for money down there or something.”

A scuffle, that sounded suspiciously like a snort, echoed and Yuta glared at Donghyuck, as the younger boy made his way back to the till.

“You’re being a judgemental arsehole. Have you seen the tiny young guy? He has tattoos all over his neck. A cutie like that? No way he’s in the mafia or anything. I’m sure he cries when he sees a needle, not to mention a knife.”

The customer seemed dissatisfied with the Petunia collection and started to make his way back toward the till.

“Right, so I’m judgemental, because I’m cautious of the obvious Yakuza wannabes, but little Hyuckie is thinking with his dick, so he must be right. Besides, if he’s afraid of needles, how did he get the tattoos, you genius?”

A choking sound to his left finally made him aware, that the customer is at the till. And it definitely has to be a member of the mafia gang from across the street.

A bit smaller than Yuta, his angular face, wide eyes, pale skin and obvious face tattoos more than made up for the height difference. The dead look in his eyes just completed the whole thing. Yuta gulped.

“Can I have a single red rose, please?” His deep voice sent shivers down Yuta spine, the lips barely moving. Donghyuck seemed to share his impression, because he was suddenly very focused on sweeping the corner of the store furthest away from the till.

When Yuta just stood there frozen like an animal in front of headlights, the guy raised a single eyebrow with a line in the middle of it and took off his hood. His hair was shockingly parted into two colours, a deep blood red taking one side, while a bone white took the other. The shocking contrast, for some reason, was the thing that pulled him out of his stupor.

“R-Right away!” The guy huffed and sighed. Yuta turned towards the roses and sent a quick prayer towards the ancestors. Please, let him die with some dignity and not in a flower shop… “Any… you like any in particular?”

“Hmm… The third one from the left looks good. No need for any greenery, I’ll use it just like this.” Here he was, almost pissing his pants once again, and the guy has the gall to sound BORED?

“Of course, of course… Do you need paper to cover it up?”

“Oh no, I’ll just be taking it back across the street.” The guy gave him a small smirk, that could almost be called a smile, if the stretch of his lips didn’t also move the terrifying beast head by his left ear and make it look like it was biting down on something. Yuta just quickly passed the flower over, wishing for the interaction to be over.

“Perfect, thanks. What do I owe you?”

“Oh! Oh, nothing!” The thought of the guy staying longer while he’s searching for change more than made up for the loss of a single rose. “Let’s call it a good neighbourly gift and be done with that.”

The guy once again raised his stripey eyebrow and smirked, so the beast looked like it was nibbling at his earlobe. Yuta hated it.

“Thanks then. See you later!” Please don’t. Please don’t come back.

Yuta waited until the guy disappeared behind the blackened-out door across the street before hiding his face in his hands and taking several very deep breaths. Donghyuck slowly made his way back towards the till with a grin on his face.

“Well, well, well. It looks like I’m not the only one thinking with his dick in this shop.”

Yuta raised his head. “What the hell are you talking about. That guy was scary as fuck.”

“Sure, he was. I will not argue with you there. I definitely felt a few hairs on my neck stand up, not gonna lie. He was also incredibly hot too though. You can’t deny that.”

“Why- Why would I? It doesn’t matter! I’m not gonna simp after somebody, who probably owns a skeleton collection!”

“If you’re sure about that…” Donghyuck nonchalantly straightened a bouquet on display on the middle shelf. “You looked more horny than scared to me though.”

Yuta’s aim with a ball of old cut-off stems was – as always – true.

***

The pub was dimly lit and full of smoke, though none of the patrons seemed to mind it. Yuta made his way towards their usual table and sat down heavily, thanking the barman for the beer that was passed over straight away. It was probably a sign that he shouldn’t drink so often… Oh well. Things that the PhD course will do to you.

His coworkers/fellow students were already there, staring into their own pints. Yuta blinked at them both.

“You two doing ok?”

Doyoung groaned and shook his head. Oh, this was going to be bad. “You’re so lucky you ran away to field botany, man. Professor Jung prepared a final for his first years. All 500 of them at once. Wants it marked by Friday. I haven’t slept in two days.”

“I think my brain is leaking out of my ears.” Jungwoo muttered despairingly into his beer.

“Oh wow. That sucks guys.” Yeah, he really didn’t miss that. The worst Dr. Kim did to him was made him take charge of a field trip into a swamp behind Seoul. It was cold and miserable and the whole class ended up getting hammered in a nearby pub after two hours anyway.

“If I have to look at one more person try to make up a new lifeform, because they can’t remember how cell walls work, I’m gonna strangle somebody.”

“Doie-hyung. The way you’re going, you might strangle Park Jinah anyway.”

“Yeah, because she refuses to study and thinks animal cells can use photosynthesis if ‘they just try hard enough’. Ugh, I hate students so much.”

“At least she’s not Do Yihyun. He confused chlorophyll with chloroform. And then tried to bullshit his way out of it by claiming it’s called that in some scientific circles.”

Yuta whistled. Both of his former classmates looked done with life. “Damn, guys. And here I thought me having to physically stop botany students from eating obviously poisonous berries was the worst of it.”

Doyoung just shook his head and finally seemed to focus on Yuta. “You. There’s something different about you. Spill.”

“What? Nothing’s different? Why would you think so?”

At this point, even Jungwoo squinted at him. “Your hair’s combed, amongst other things. What is it?”

“Nothing is different! Just because I actually learned how to use a comb in my 26 years of age is not a reason to doubt me! Stop it!”

Doyoung squinted. “You’re fucking someone new.”

Before Yuta could squawk in offence, Jungwoo shook his head. “Nah, if that was the case, he would look smugger. He WANTS to fuck someone.”

“No, I definitely don’t wanna fuck him!” Fuck. That came out wrong.

Jungwoo looked like a cat that got the cream. Gone was his previous exhaustion, apparently. “Oooh, so it’s a him. Do tell, our only proxy for free time and potential sexual and romantic encounters.”

Yuta glared. “You’re younger than me. You should be respecting your elders.” Even as both of his classmates snorted, he knew it was a very weak argument. “Just… A new shop opened across the street, and one of the guys is… Really fucking hot.”

“Ok? That doesn’t sound so bad? Woo him then.”

“I can’t.”

Jungwoo scoffed. “You can’t? You, a Japanese sex on legs? Why?”

“Don’t tell me you started crushing on a straight guy again. One Jang Sehyun was more than enough.”

“No, that’s not it. Probably. Who knows. Also, no way Sehyun was actually straight. No way.”

“Sure, he wasn’t. But the new guy? What’s the problem then? Spill then.”

“He’s probably a serial killer, and definitely part of the mafia.”

The two whistled in unison. “Ok,” Doyoung allowed. “That does complicate things a bit.”

“That it fucking does.”

The three of them took a long drink in unison.

After a long silence, Jungwoo put a heavy hand on Yuta’s shoulder. “Well, look at the bright side. If you die, at least your funeral flowers will come with a discount. Also, your hall of sorrow will be shared by half of the first years from the biology course.”

***

Yuta was enjoying the sun during his lunch break, when he noticed a suspiciously dressed person look around and then creep their way into the mafia shop across the street. He sighed. It was probably only a matter of time before the suspicious activity made its way over to their street, but still. He was going to miss the days he didn’t have to look behind his shoulder after locking the store at night.

The guy met his eyes across the street and Yuta frowned at his suspiciously familiar wide eyes. He shrugged to himself. Oh well. Probably a beginner drug dealer, or something. He’ll get sorted quickly enough, one way or another.

It wasn’t until about three hours later, when the same guy shyly entered the SandM. It was quite unbearably hot today, what with the swiftly approaching summer, so the long jeans, heavy hoodie and the hand gloves were especially strange. The black facemask and a ball cap didn’t exactly help matters.

That said, he didn’t look particularly scary, so Yuta just kept an eye on him, while continuing to go through the order form.

It wasn’t until the guy came towards the till, that Yuta had a sudden thought. This wasn’t a thug, or a new drug dealer. The suddenly very familiar wide eyes were staring at him every day from the weird massage chair advert on the mall wall by his apartment and the hoodie looked very designer from up close and-

No. Stop. There was no way, no way in hell this was Jeon Jungkook from BTS. No way in hell.

“Hi, uhm. Sorry, you wouldn’t have any really tiny, but like… Manly bouquets, right? Ming- I mean, a same-age friend of mine has his birthday today, and I kinda wanna get him something nice.”

Damn, even his voice sounded like he indeed was the dreaded celebrity. But no! Yuta was definitely wrong! There is no way in hell!

“Erm. Sure. If your friend likes flowers at all, we can make something work. Do you know if he has any favourites in particular?”

The guy, that definitely wasn’t Jungkook, took off his cap and uncovered a head of dyed and professionally cut hair and a small bandage on his eyebrow. “Erm… I guess he likes sunflowers? I don’t really know…”

Yuta nodded and, after a few more follow-up questions, got to work. As the NOT!Jeon Jungkook passed him his credit card, Yuta looked over the name and closed his eyes. Damn it!

No! No. Stay in denial! This is not a fucking celebrity, it was a coincidence, Jeon Jungkook is a pretty common name and there will be no fan congregation in front of his shop anytime soon! Denial! That’s the way!

As the guy was happily humming while leaving the shop, Yuta stubbornly went back to his form.

Jisung made his way over to him with a curious look on his face.

“Hey, I… This might be stupid, but… Wasn’t that Jeon Jungkook from BTS?”

“NO! NO, IT WAS NOT!”

***

The day was finally coming to a close. Yuta was just getting the outside display back inside for the night, grateful for the moment of quiet. Renjun followed him the whole day and hummed different songs about mafia, criminals and whatnot. It was exhausting.

He was just about to haul a big case of potted flowers, when he saw a familiar face leaving the mafia den across the street.

Wait. No. That wasn’t possible.

“Jaemin?!?”

His student looked up, nervously checking the street, before his eyes fell on Yuta and he visibly relaxed.

“Ah, Yuta-hyung! Sorry, I didn’t know your flower shop was here, I would have come to say hi otherwise.”

Yuta could scarcely find the words. “What the hell were you doing there? This is dangerous!”

“What? Oh, that. Nah, it’s no big deal, I know them, kinda. Jeno introduced us, and they’re actually kinda cool. Especially Jaehyun-hyungnim.”

“Are you… Are you serious? This is a damn mafia drug den! Jaemin, you and Jeno could seriously get hurt.”

Jaemin suddenly seemed to draw himself back. “You don’t have to worry about me, seong-saem-nim. I’ll be fine.”

God damnit. Yuta kicked an empty pot and groaned. Jaemin last called him seong-saem-nim in his first year. Well. This hadn’t gone well.

***

The scary tattooed man came in about once a week since the first time, taking away a different single flower every time. After the first two times, even Yuta had to admit it grew less and less scary.

The guy always seemed to deliberate for a few minutes by the potted flowers of the month, before making his way to the till.

His hair grew out a bit and he exchanged the crazy two-coloured scheme with a tamer blond hair-do, which (if Yuta were to admit that to himself) actually made him look kinda cute. It also made all of his scary tattoos come starkly into contrast, which would have looked really cool if they weren’t all of terrifying monsters with razor blades for teeth.

Ok, he might be exaggerating a bit. Still. When the guy glared, it really was something, no matter how cute he looked when he smiled as he smelled a lily the last time he visited. There was also the serial-killery member of mafia part, that needed to be taken into consideration.

Nope, no argument is strong enough to override that, Yuta told himself over and over again, as he frowned at the black t-shirt clad back of the guy, who was admiring the begonias in the back.

The door opened and a pair of people got in, giggling to themselves. Two young men. Great, date night. At least he could be jealous of someone else, for once…

It wasn’t until the two got closer to the till, that Yuta stopped. There, in front of him, a terrifyingly familiar figure stood, alone with another shorter one.

The NOT!Jeon Jungkook had brought with him a NOT!Park Jimin. Oh, ancestors, why are you trying me so much.

“Uhm, hi. I wanted to ask…” The relatively high voice sounded about as nervous as Yuta felt at that moment. Nope, they are just customers. “Do you deliver bouquets as well? Like, multiples of them?”

Strictly straight to business then. Good. He couldn’t tolerate anything else. “Sure, though we might need some time to prepare them if it’s anything we don’t have in store. When do you need them and what’s the address? I’ll be able to calculate the delivery fee for you from that.”

The two exchanged an unsure look, but then went ahead with it anyway. They passed him a business card and Yuta wanted to scream. Former Big Hit building, now known as one of the HYBE buildings. Of course it is. He stifled a groan and nodded.

“That’s not too far. What do you have in mind?”

A fairly short discussion ensued, which lead Yuta to believe those two had very little idea what they actually wanted. Yuta was fine with that. He was just glad he didn’t have to acknowledge their definitely untrue-status out loud. That might just kill him. Denial. Yes. That is the way to go.

As the two scampered away, he looked down at the SandM business card stand, that he had filled with a wad of new ones just this morning. It was completely empty. Either NOT!Jungkook or NOT!Jimin had swiped all 200 of them. Yuta groaned aloud this time and crouched behind the counter. Oh, this was not happening.

A throat was cleared above him and Yuta looked up. The mafia guy was leaning across the till and looking at him with a very amused expression. Which was not cute. At all.

“You get used to it after a while. The celebrities. They kinda appreciate the anonymity too, you know.”

Yuta took a deep breath and, once again, decided not to acknowledge reality for the sake of his peace of mind. He didn’t reply to the mafia guy and just straightened instead.

“What can I do for you today?”

An almost disappointed look crossed the guy’s face, before he once again steeled into his normal intimidating frozen frown. “The narcissus in the right-hand corner, please.”

***

The pub was about the same amount of packed as always, although for once, his friends’ usual table was the loudest one.

Yuta started laughing even before he came close enough to be able to separate their hollering voices, as he watched the very drunk Winwin completely cover Doyoung in shitty imported beer. The poor man looked like a drowned duck and it wasn’t even seven in the evening.

“Hey there, guys. I see you’re taking the end of semester with all the bombast it deserves!”

“Hell, yeah, man!” Xiaojun hollered, his usually almost unnoticeable accent coming on very strongly. “School is over, all the exams are marked and finished aaaaand!”

All of the people around the table looked at Yuta with shit-eating grins and Hendery even started a random very disorganized drumroll. Yuta laughed indulgently and leaned in.

“Professor Jung is leaving for an extended sabbatical, and Molecular Biology research is going to be taken over by Dr. Oh from the next year!”

The whole table shouted and howled and got themselves a few dirty looks from the people around them.

Yuta frowned. “I don’t know guys. I don’t wanna rain on your parade, but isn’t she the same kind of hard-ass as the prof was? I thought she was his star student, or something?”

“Oh, boo, you fart!” Hollered Yangyang, very clearly too drunk to stay upright and leaning all across Kun’s lap, who didn’t seem to thrilled about it.

Jungwoo put his arm around Yuta’s shoulders and conspiratorially muttered. “My friend, of course she is.” Yuta flinched, a drunk Jungwoo trying to whisper was not only loud enough to be heard by the rest of the table, but also full of spit. “You’re simply far too gay to appreciate the small tight skirts she likes to wear.”

The wave of approval went around the table. Yuta grimaced. “That’s kinda gross, guys. Not gonna lie.”

Kun managed to push Yangyang away with some effort and laid him over an already passed out Ten. “Oh, it definitely is.” He wisely nodded, now free to finally reach for his beer. “But, as far as I’m concerned, if we need to suffer already, at least we can look at something nicer that an old man in a shirt that hasn’t been washed since the Korean war.”

Even Yuta had to concede that point. “I guess that is true. Although, be glad. At least there aren’t any grass-stains on it.”

“Yeah…” Xiaojun looked mildly green suddenly. “Just the remains of recently dissected mice.”

“Eeew…” Everyone put aside their beers and shuddered.

“Changing the subject and speaking of gay.” Doyoung finally finished with wiping his face and neck from the spilled beer and looked at Yuta with a sly look. “How’s the mafia guy doing?”

The whole group turned to Yuta with a sudden interested silence. Yuta rolled his eyes. “Still in the mafia, so. Probably murdery and into doing illegal stuff?”

Jungwoo scoffed. “Oh, boo-hoo, you fart. You said he’s hot! Live a little!”

Yuta grimaced. “By live a little, you mean to say, die very soon? Because that’s what it sounds like to me.”

Hendery turned to Jungwoo. “You said you talked to Donghyuck. Has he seen him?”

“Hey, no, that’s cheating!”

“Suck it up, hyung” Jungwoo grinned at Yuta “I did indeed. Apparently, said mafia guy is a little smaller than our resident Japanese hottie” Yuta groaned “covered in tattoos and tends to peek into the shop every so often to see if Yuta is inside to buy a single flower each week.”

The whole table, including a previously fallen Yangyang and Ten, hollered again. Xiaojun hummed, his chin in his hands, his elbows in a puddle of beer on the table. “Sounds really hot, honestly.”

Yuta huffed. “Ok, I will freely admit, he just might be one of the hottest people I’ve seen in my university life. But I will, once again, remind you that he is in the mob. Which is kind of a deal breaker.”

While everyone else was scoffing, Kun wisely just chuckled and pushed a full shot glass in Yuta’s direction.

“My friend, I think you are simply far too sober for this.”

***

You know, maybe Kun was right. He obviously cannot do this sober. No, he will definitely give the pretty mafia boy a piece of his mind! No more coming in to his shop to threaten him in the middle of the day!

With that in mind, Yuta staggered very unsteadily towards the entrance to the mafia shop across the street from his flower shop. It was just after midnight and this part of Seoul was very, very empty. That could have been objectively scary, but Yuta was honestly far too inebriated and full of righteous fury to care.

After having to stop at the corner to stop himself from throwing up, he finally made his way towards the door and knocked. Well, banged on it. He didn’t exactly have the coordination for the more civilized version.

What opened the door was a mountain. As he raised his head, he was greeted by a very muscular and very naked chest. He had to actually crane his neck up to see the man’s very intimidating frown. If he thought the tattooed guy looked like a mafia guy, this one left him in the dust.

“Can I help you?” Even his voice was scary, very deep and with a strange accent.

Yuta took a step back, put his foot down wring and started falling. Apparently, his brain took that as a good place to blank out, because he didn’t even feel the hands, that caught him and prevented him from falling to the pavement.

***

The couch Yuta woke up on was dingy and uncomfortable, his head was pounding and the lights in the office were cruelly bright.

He groaned, shifted and attempted to bury his face into the side of the couch as well as find another more comfortable position and go back to sleep.

“Now, now, mr. Nakamoto. I do not believe this is a place you should continue sleeping. Surely you have friends and family, who will worry about your whereabouts.”

The voice has featured in quite a few of Yuta’s nightmares and made him wake up almost instantly. He sat upright, turned his head towards the sound and immediately groaned in pain. His head really was pounding.

To his right, Mr. Moon Taeil sat behind an enormous wooden desk covered in papers and looked very entertained. Yuta gulped.

“I-I’m really sorry, Moon-shi, I really didn’t mean to intrude. I-I was just-“

“I get it, you overdid it with the alcohol a bit. It happens. You got a bit wild yesterday, but luckily nobody was seriously hurt, so all is good and forgotten. Now that I know that you are awake and good to go, would you mind if Johnny escorted you out? I quite need to get to work, you see.” He gestured to the mountain of papers and chuckled.

Yuta blinked. If he wasn’t absolutely certain Mr. Moon Taeil was some sort of horrible mafia boss, he would have looked like an overworked uncle at that point.

Luckily, he was quickly distracted from his thoughts by a person clearing his throat. There, in the door to the study, stood the same muscly mountain of a man, that opened the door for him yesterday. This time, his arm was in a sling and there was a giant bruise blooming on his cheek, that definitely wasn’t there yesterday.

“Johnny, we talked about this. I appreciate you wore a shirt this time, but it does have the buttons for a reason.”

Moon-shi behind the table looked very exasperated, while “Johnny” looked very, very amused. The whole situation was almost too surreal.

“Oh, come on, hyungie. I’ve been injured. Jaehyunie told me I need to keep my arm fixed.”

“I suppose so, but the shirt can still be buttoned up.”

Yuta cleared his throat, got up, bowed to Moon Taeil for (hopefully) the last time and left the room following the still-chuckling giant muscly man.

“Hope your head is ok, by the way?” Johnny turned to him in the middle of the walk and grinned. “We can stop at Jaehyun’s station for something for the pain? You looked pretty hammered, dude, the hangover must be a beast.”

The accent was American, Yuta realized after a few seconds of awkward silence on his part. “Oh, no, I’m good. Thanks though. And thank you for letting me crash here, I… Don’t really know what I was thinking.”

“Well, me neither, but you definitely do have a punch in you, my dude. I truly didn’t expect that.” He seemed genuinely amused at the whole thing, if not a bit pained as the grin tugged on his purpling cheek.

“Wait… You mean I did that? That’s not possible, I can’t remember anything. I- I’m so sorry, I- It was an accident-“

Johnny laughed and shook his head. “’s alright. I get it. Young love and all of that. I’m afraid Taeyong won’t be here until next Tuesday though, he had to go pick something up from the States.”

Taeyong? What? Who the hell is he talking about? “I… Sorry, I think there’s some sort of mistake? I didn’t want anything with any Taeyongs or anything, I just…”

“You just came in totally by accident, swinging your tiny fists around and totally not shouting about face tattoos. Sure, my guy. That’s totally fine, take your time. Now.”

The morning light from the suddenly-opened front door was jarring and Yuta had to squint a lot. Johnny patted his shoulder and gently pushed him out.

“You know, if you ever want to come in during daylight and see Taeyong’s work, I’m sure he would really like it. If you ask next time, he’ll definitely invite you in.”

The door was firmly shut before Yuta fully turned. He stared at the entrance for a few minutes dumbfounded. Why would he want to see a mafia person at work? Were they hiring, or something? Did him getting in a few lucky hits on the bodyguard while drunk make him somehow qualified for the underground mob?

After a little while, he just scoffed and started on his very miserable way home to at least take a shower and eat something before his quickly approaching afternoon shift. He really hoped there wouldn’t be any trouble from this.

***

It wasn’t even full two days, before the proverbial echo came back to haunt him. Donghyuck had just left after his shift ended, having spent the whole last hour loudly protesting to being called by his birthname and instead insisting on being called Haechan, as it “made him sexier” (Yuta gave it a week before he stopped caring), when the door to the shop opened a smidgen and a bleached head peaked in.

“Is he gone?” A shaky voice asked and Yuta frowned. For some reason, the wide terrified eyes didn’t exactly go together in his mind with the tough gangster with his neck covered all the way to his chin with tattoos.

Yuta blinked. “If… You’re talking about Donghyuck, then yes. He just left.”

A large sigh of relief went through the guy and he finally fully entered the shop, heading straight to the counter. “Don’t get me wrong, I usually like a talkative person, and Haechan-shi is exactly my type normally, but like… He is terrifying.”

That was a lot of information that Yuta didn’t want to know. Like at all. He quickly decided to focus on the least damaging part. “His name is Donghyuck, actually. I don’t know why he suddenly decided to call himself Haechan. But yeah. Anyway. What can I help you with?”

For some reason, the guy’s huge eyes and a soft face made it almost impossible for Yuta to feel worry of any kind. Unlike the face-tattoo guy. Weird.

“Oh, yeah, sorry. I need a bonsai-specific fertilizer and if you have it, some shaping wire.”

As Yuta moved to get his customer his required things, the guy (boy? He looked so much younger…) started to talk towards the counter, seemingly not requiring answers.

“I don’t… I don’t know what it is, but for some reason I suddenly totally understand people, who are talking about scared-horny, if you know what I mean? Like, I if I’m away, I can totally admit he’s hot and my type and everything, but when I’m with him? Scared poop-less. Don’t ask me why.”

The large eyes, suddenly full of hope, focused on him as he set the required things on the counter. “You know what I mean, right?”

“Ehm… What? No?” Unbidden, the picture of the face-tattoo guy smiling after sniffing a
lily came to mind. “No, definitely not. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh.” And then the tiny baby mafia guy had the gall to pout. Unbelievable.

After paying and packing his purchases, he turned to leave, but stopped just before opening the door. “If… If Haechan is here… Tell him I said hi? But like…” He turned halfway towards Yuta at the till, but didn’t meet his eyes. His ears were completely firetruck red. “Like… Not obviously? You know, never mind.” And he basically fled away towards his own shop.

Yuta stood there for a few seconds in total silence, just processing what had happened. After that, he scoffed and got himself a broom to angrily sweep the floor. No, he definitely didn’t know, what the little mafia gremlin meant. He wasn’t scared-horny, or whatever else that brat said, and he definitely wasn’t in denial and lying to himself!

***

The day started weird and continued weird. He went to the university in the morning for a brief meeting with his professor, who just ended up telling him his work was lackluster, calling him by the wrong name and sending him off, after managing to still take up two hours of Yuta’s time trying to find his glasses, then Yuta’s thesis he was supposed to look over four months ago and then his glasses again. Admittedly, that part was pretty standard.

No, on the corridor, he met Jeno, a student he coached through a seminar project in his first year and then formed a sort-of kind-of friendly mentoring relationship with, along with Jeno’s best friend Jaemin. He couldn’t ever remember a time when Jeno actually bowed to him in greeting, aside from MAYBE their first meeting. Apparently, that was to change.

“Good morning, Yuta-shi.” And Yuta could only stare in despairing silence, as the tall student marched on quickly down the corridor. That was kinda awful.

Then, as he came into the flower shop for his afternoon shift, Jisung was just leaving while humming something or other.

“Hey, Jisungie. What are you doing here? It’s not your shift today, right?”

“Oh no, it’s not.” The young boy grinned widely. “But I was especially requested. The lady actually called the big boss to especially ask about me. Wild, right?”

“Yeah… yeah, definitely. That’s awesome. What was requested, if you don’t mind me asking? Some sort of potted special order? You’re really good at those…”

“Actually!” The boy looked delighted, but genuinely perplexed. “I was requested for bouquets. Ten of them. It’s wild. And was specifically told, and I quote the big LSM here, “to go nuts”.”

“Huh…” Yuta blinked a few times and then shook his head. “well, congrats anyway. Have a good afternoon!”

“You too, hyung! Oh, and before I forget, the face-tattoo guy was here asking for you. He was kinda cool, actually, complimented my bouquets and everything! And his hair is pink now. Byeee!”

Yuta once again found himself standing still and watching his younger friend bound away, before shaking himself and continuing on into the shop.

The days with Renjun were luckily pretty stress-free, which was his only saving grace. His younger coworker was a friend of Xiaojun and was usually quiet, diligent and had a cutting sense of humour that always managed to get Yuta’s mood up.

That is of course, when he wasn’t wailing out the entirety of Taemin’s latest discography.

Don’t get Yuta wrong. He liked the idol’s music as much as the next guy. And Renjun, when he wanted to, actually had a great singing voice. Emphasis on ‘when he wanted to’. Because he definitely didn’t want to today.

“Oh-ah-eeh ah he chikeum criminal-“

“Can you at LEAST pronounce the lyrics as they are, and not as something not even remotely what he actually sings there? The nal haechineun there sounds like have chicken when you say it.”

“It’s my third language, fuck off.”

Yuta wanted to point out it’s the same for him and yet he managed not to butcher lyrics to his favourite songs, but decided not to. He was exhausted already, he didn’t need this in his life.

He was beginning to start on his evening count of what needed to get ordered, when a suspicious figure entered the shop. Black ball-cap, giant sun-glasses, face-mask, baggy hoodie and long trousers were a very particular look, especially now when they were firmly in July and the temperatures were usually moving somewhere between hell and an exploding supernova.

Considering all the orders they had had to almost every single one of the HYBE buildings, Yuta almost prayed the guy was an actual drug-dealer.

No such luck. “Ehm, hi.” The guys voice was very soft and smooth, almost like he was trying to whisper but not really. “A friend of mine said you can be… discreet?”

Yuta supressed a groan and nodded. “Sure. Nothing illegal though!” He half-heartedly added and the guy actually laughed.

“Oh, no. Don’t worry about that. It’s just that a hyung of mine is being discharged from the military as a first member of my group and I would really like to welcome him with something nice. And Jimin recommended you, so…”

Yuta closed his eyes, took a deep breath and made a decision. Denial. That was the only way. He will resolutely not think about a co-worker from the university gushing just a few days ago about Onew from SHINee finally returning from military. He’ll definitely not think about how similar the voice of the mummy in front of him is to the very Lee Taemin’s, whose work he had to listen to so horribly rendered just a few minutes ago. No. Denial. The only way.

“It’s good to have such a close-knit friend-group then.”

The man chuckled, but luckily for Yuta’s sanity didn’t correct him.

Just as Yuta started to pick out the flowers the mummy-man, that was definitely NOT Taemin from SHINee, pointed out, Renjun came from the back continuing to hum the god-awful rendition of Criminal.

Yuta hissed at him in the hopes to shut him up. He shouldn’t have done that. Renjun, the little brat that he was, took one look at both Yuta and his customer, before turning back towards his previous goal, opened his mouth and started hollering so loud, Yuta was sure the mafia den across the street could hear every word.

“Ooh-Ah-eeh, I have, chicken criminal- It’s okay, nana-nanahyo! OOOH!”

Yuta took a deep breath, closed his eyes and then slowly opened them, attempting to calm down and not beat his younger friend into the ground in front of a (potentially- but definitely not- famous) customer.

“I am so sorry about him, he’s just… a lot sometimes.”

Only then did he realize, the man was shaking with quiet laughter. “I-It’s okay. I’ll definitely have to tell my friend about the chicken though.” And then he broke down into quiet giggles, having to hold unto the shop counter. Yuta could just stare.

He didn’t really know, how exactly he survived the rest of the NOT!Taemin visit. It somehow both seemed to take an eternity and also be over in a second. As the door finally closed behind him, Yuta crouched down to hide himself behind the till and took a deep breath. There was blood pounding in his ears, his hands were shaking and in the background Renjun was still wailing his horribly rendered songs.

It took him several minutes, before he managed to get himself together, grabbed the worst-case-scenarios baseball bat under the till and went to kill Renjun. The life in prison was worth it.

“Yah, YAH, HYUNG! STOP! Why are you trying to kill me?!? That wasn’t even the worst thing we ever did in front of a customer!”

“DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU DID? WHO THAT WASN’T?”

“What? That doesn’t make any sen- Ooooh. I see. I knew there were quite a few celebrities and their lackies coming around, but I didn’t think I would actually be here to see Tae-“

“NO! It wasn’t him, do you hear me? Denial. WE ARE IN DENIAL! THERE ARE NO CELEBRITIES OR WHAT NOT COMING IN AND YOU! WILL! STOP! SINGING! IN! THE! SHOP! DO YOU UNDERSTAND!”

Renjun looked genuinely taken aback. “Ok, then, weirdo. I do and I will stop singing in front of customers. But You should maybe find some help. Jesus. Talk about overreaction.”

“YOU-“

“PUT THE BAT DOWN!”

***

For some reason, Renjun didn’t really want to have shifts with him after this. A mystery of a lifetime, as Donghyuck said it while creepily waggling his eyebrows.

They also had more and more high-profile orders from all over the city, as the word spread among the celebrity circles around them. Yuta thought long and hard about it, and then decided that none of this was actually happening, they just have a lot of revenue, which is always a good thing, and hired two new part-timers to pick up the slack.

The fact, that the two high-schoolers were the cutest people to ever walk the planet, was just a pleasant bonus. Shotaro was even from a Japanese recently-moved-for-work family, and therefore was incredibly happy to chatter in their native Japanese with Yuta. He missed it more than he realised.

It was one of the days the shop was manned by Yuta and his two new ducklings, when the dreaded face-tattoo guy finally returned. It had been a solid three weeks at least since he came in last (and two and a half since Yuta attempted to give him a piece of his mind and got into a fight with a bodyguard), so Yuta started to hold out hope, that the weird obsession the guy had with single flowers was finally gone. Apparently, it was not so.

As always, the guy started by looking at the potted begonias in the back. Yuta knew, that it would be another ten minutes, before the guy went up to the till and chose his single flower. But this time, something was different. That something was Sungchan.

“Oh wow, sick tattoos, man! Where did you get those? I thought they were illegal here!”

Yuta was about to pick up his trusty bat and die in defence of a stupid high-schooler, who he knew for exactly a week, when something… Not quite unexpected, but not exactly expected happened.

The mafia guy took down the hood of his hoodie-vest, uncovered his bubblegum pink hair and smiled sweetly. “Oh, it’s not illegal to have them. Just, everybody thinks you’re from the mob or something. It’s just illegal to put them on somebody without a medical license. I got these in the USA, actually.”

“Oh, that’s really cool. I always wanted to go there. And also have, like a sick dragon, like… All over my body? And also a phoenix all around my biceps, you know. And also-“

“Well, that’s some plans! You really should wait to get some, and probably start small, you know. It is a commitment for life.” The guy’s voice was soft, amused and fond. Yuta found himself leaning against the till and staring, while the guy started gently explaining the challenges of getting tattoos to a much less vibrating but now much more hero-worshippy Sungchan.

He got disturbed by Shotaro, who lightly nudged him to start stocking up the cut flowers he just brought in from the freezer in the back. “Is that one of the yakuza guys? He seems kinda cool. And not like yakuza at all, to be perfectly honest.”

Yuta sighed and moved, so that Shotaro can have enough space, but also so he can keep an eye on both of his errant disciples. “I guess. But honestly, you should have seen them when they started moving in. And their leader? Moon-shi? That guy’s scary. Like, genuinely scary. The rest might just be like… secretaries, or what not, but he definitely is a mob boss, and he has a bodyguard, that’s like seven foot tall.” He shuddered in exaggerated, but not completely feigned dread.

Just then, the duo by the begonias started to make their way towards the till, a bright hero-worshippy look now firmly settled on Sungchan’s face. Yuta sighed. Another lost to the darkness.

“You wouldn’t have any chrysanthemums, would you?”

Yuta must have hesitated for a second too long, because Shotaro sprung up. “I think I saw some in the back just a few minutes ago. Sungchanie! Help me look?” The last sentence seemed like a question, but also sounded a lot like an order. Sungchan did seem a bit grumpy about having to leave his new-found idol behind, but followed Shotaro to the back quickly enough. Yuta could only watch in confusion.

They had been away for two whole minutes of silence (the back wasn’t that big, Yuta could almost smell the rotten fish), when the face-tattoo finally opened his mouth to say something.

“So… Uhm… Johnny is almost ok now? If you were wondering? You really got him good…” He chuckled in amusement, looking at Yuta through his lashes.

Yuta scoffed. “I honestly can’t remember any of it. He’s like two heads bigger than me, I’m sure he went easy on me cuz I was drunk.”

“That’s what he said as well. It’s not what Jaehyun or Mark said. And Taeil-hyung had this amused look on his face, so… Yeah. Johnny is full of shit. You must be really strong.”

Yuta could feel blood rushing to his face and had to look away. Ok. Ok, this really felt like face-tattoo was flirting hard. It also really felt like it was working, if the weird butterfly-ish feeling in his stomach was anything to go by. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go!

The guy seemed to sense that he was making headway, because he pushed a strand of his bright-pink hair behind his ear, revealing the face monster nibbling on his earlobe. It shouldn’t have been cute. But it was.

“I was actually wondering… I’ve been using your flowers as a sketching subject, and I think they actually came out quite nicely? Maybe… “ He bit his lip and Yuta couldn’t help but lean in a bit. “Maybe you would want to come across the street and look at them sometime?”

Yuta didn’t know if it was him, or if he had hallucinations, but he thought he heard a dreamy sigh from behind him. He ignored it.

“Well, I… I mean.” There it was, the look through the lashes and the soft smile. Yuta’s brain seemed to slow down to a stop. He could only watch in fascination, as the long fingers on the face-tattoo guy’s hand ran through his pink hair, highlighting the tattoo monster and…

Right. The mafia part.

Yuta cleared his throat and looked away. No matter how much everyone told him that they can’t really be part of the mob, there was still the illegal crime part. They even got poor Jeno and Jaemin into this! No. Unforgivable. He’s not going out with a drug dealer. That’s a hard no.

“Ehm, no, sorry. I… “ Quick, Yuta. Find an excuse that won’t get you shot. “I don’t. I don’t really like flowers.” There, success.

The soft look from the face-tattoo guy’s face slowly melted away, and he suddenly looked really scary again. “What? Seriously?” Ok, take back, Yuta might have fucked up after all. He’s definitely getting shot now.

Face-tattoo guy surprisingly just huffed and then snorted for some reason. The fact his eyes looked a little wet and shiny was definitely a trick of the midday light. “I get not wanting to be with me or whatever, but next time” he turned his suddenly angry and piercing gaze on Yuta “it would be nicer to just tell me outright instead of coming up with such a lame-ass excuse.” And he stalked away angrily.

Yuta was very glad their door had an automatic closing mechanism, because he was absolutely sure the guy would bang them closed and they would have to replace the glass.

He groaned and hid his face in his hands. “What the fuck was that?”

“Yeah, what the fuck was that, hyung?” Sungchan stood in front of him suddenly, arms crossed and a pissed off expression, that was much too passionate considering he knew the face-tattoo guy for all of five minutes. “You don’t like flowers? You seriously couldn’t come up with a better excuse?”

“Yeah, nii-san, why would you do that? From the was you were looking an him, when he came in, I thought you were about to ask him out yourself?” Shotaro was anxiously clutching a half-wilted chrysanthemum in his hands and looking at Yuta with huge eyes.

“I mean… He’s a… I can’t just…” Gah, this shouldn’t be this hard. “I can’t just go out with a Yakuza person, no matter how attractive I find him, ok? I need to finish my PhD and I kinda need to be alive for that!”

The two boys looked at him with eyes full of scepticism. After a few seconds too long, Shotaro carefully asked. “Nii-san… You never met an actual Yakuza person, have you?”

And no, truth be told, he never did. He just knew they had tattoos and looked scary and that the Korean mafia functioned in a similar-ish enough manner.

But he would never ever admit to that to a pair of high-schoolers.

“Enough chatter, get back to work!”

***

For once, Yuta was the first one to arrive to the pub. Admittedly, he had forced Donghyuck to close up for once and ran away half an hour before the end of his shift and got here straight from work. It felt a bit like cheating. No matter that Donghyuck was usually the one to disappear before he could be saddled with post-closing clean-up. It serves him right.

As it was, when Jungwoo shouted across the bar to get his attention, Yuta was on his third beer. He had hoped it would help with his mood. It did the opposite.

“Hey there, man, you’re here early! Awesome, I thought I was gonna have to hold the fort myself!”

Yuta squinted at his cheerful friend suspiciously. “You’re more chipper than usual. What’s happening?”

“And you’re being a downer. Doyoung is actually bringing a new boyfriend? So we have to embarrass him properly. So snap out of it, I’m counting on you!”

“I thought Doyoung was straight?”

“I have no idea where you got that, but no. Doyoungie-hyung is very firmly on the bi-side. Swinging violently, and everything.” Jungwoo made a boxing gesture and almost knocked the beer the barman was bringing him out of the poor man’s hands.

“Right. Sure. That’s exactly what I needed.” Yuta groaned and physically resisted calling for a shot. He could NOT get completely drunk again. Considering how fast he was feeling the beer, he should probably slow down on that too.

“Right? Something to get you to stop thinking about the dreaded thesis is always a good thing.”

Yuta contemplated explaining, that his thesis for once wasn’t exactly the reason for his maudlin mood, but rather the bad feeling in his mouth and a weird pressure in his throat whenever he remembered the confrontation in the flower shop a few days ago, but ultimately decided against it. It seemed like too much effort for close to no reward.

As the Chinese part of their friend group started to assemble as well (all of them of course making note of Yuta’s morose mood), the excited chatter about the new significant other became more concentrated.

It wasn’t like it was that unheard of for them to meet the new girlfriend/boyfriend of one of them. Hell, Kun brought Ten over in their first year of knowing each other and since then, those two had been on and off again, depending on the month. Both Xiaojun and Hendery brought a few girlfriends each over the years (none of them unfortunately [or luckily for Xiaojun, in a few cases] lasted long) and it sometimes seemed Yangyang had a new fling every second month, but Doyoung was different.

Their immensely private friend had a few partners over the years, and spoke of them fondly and often, but when pressed about introduction, tended to duck and avoid. Never had he ever brought anybody over to their friend group. Well, except for Jungwoo, but Jungwoo was a special case and the two had a very obviously platonic sibling-like relationship.

Finally, the table went silent and everybody’s attention turned towards the door of the pub, where a familiar figure entered, followed by a large frame. Yuta squinted. As the guy came closer, he could have sworn he saw him before.

“Hi, everyone! So, this is Jaehyun.” The guy grinned widely and waved a bit.

“Hi, Jaehyun!” the whole table greeted in unison, that came from long practice and fervent need to creep out the new date and embarrass their friend. Apparently, since this was Doyoung’s first time, everyone was determined to try extra hard.

Jaehyun, Jaehyun… The name was also incredibly familiar. Damn. Yuta supressed a groan and forced a smile at the newcomer instead. This was going to bother him the whole evening.

He tuned in a whole minute of Ten and Yangyang interrogating Jaehyun about well… Everything.

“Yeah, no, I’m nowhere near you guys. I mean, I did attempt to finish an undergraduate in pharmacy? But that’s where I failed miserably, so… I’m a working man ever since. Doyoungie-hyung here will have to take care of me in our old age.” His grin, that he sent Doyoung’s way, was wide and charming. And Doyoung’s cheeks went very, very red.

Yuta chuckled, wilfully supressing the sudden wave of jealousy. He will not remember the pretty blush on the face-tattoo gangster’s face. Hell no. He saved his own life by refusing to get tangled up and that is the part he’ll have to focus on.

“But, admittedly, pharmacy is really hard.” Kun pointed out and received a round of sage nods all around. Yangyang even actually shuddered at the memory. “But it’s really good Doyoung brought you. The majority of us actually met at our first year PhD. introduction party and brought in the younger ones at one point or another…” At which point Kun started to point at different people around the table and introduce them.

Since he started at the other side of the table, Yuta was one of the last ones to be presented. “…that killjoy over there is our Japanese botany expert Yuta, and the clown next to him is Jungwoo, he’s working with Doyoung in the Molecular biology part of campus. And that, I think, is it.”

Jaehyun’s eyes for some reason didn’t move away from him for longer than it took him to smile at Kun in thanks. The attention made Yuta want to squirm. He heroically resisted and looked back at Jaehyun with his best bitchface instead. That will show him. He probably doesn’t like Japanese people. Horrible.

Jaehyun started a short discussion with Xiaojun about some sort of part time job in a café they apparently both had at different points in their university careers, but he glanced at Yuta every few seconds regardless. It made Yuta supremely uncomfortable.

After about 10 more minutes of this, Yuta finally had to stop. His fuse admittedly ran a bit short lately. Still. He thought he actually was pretty diplomatic, all things considered. “Hey, man, do we know each other? Since you keep looking at me this whole time?”

Haha! He made the guy squirm! That will show him. “I mean… Maybe. What the hell right? You don’t work in a flower shop in Haengun, right?” Yuta… Didn’t expect that. He might have stared for a bit too long. “I mean, nah, that’s probably too much of a coincidence, right? Thought so. Sorry about the staring, I was just-“

“I do work there. S&M flower shop.“ He started to have a really bad feeling about this. “Why are you asking?“

Jaehyun’s face suddenly changed. It very quickly went from an amiable good-looking guy, to a scary model. “Oh, so it’s you? Damn it. And here I thought… Sorry, Doyoungie.” And he just got up, left some money on the table and left.

The whole group stared at his back in silence, until Doyoung turned to Yuta with fire in his eyes. “What the hell did you DO?”

Yuta was honestly as stunned as the rest. “What? I didn’t do anything, you saw it yourself!”

Ten looked contemplative. “How the hell does he know where you work? Is he like… A stalker or something?”

Jungwoo scoffed. “Then he got together with the wrong guy.” He looked at his hyung guiltily. “Sorry, Doyoungie-hyung.”

Kun sighed. “He’s probably a customer, or something. And Yuta doesn’t remember, because he’s horrible with faces. Sorry, Doie. But I’m sure he’ll come around. He seemed really nice.”

And it was then and only then, when Yuta’s brain finally decided to start working. “Wait, no! He’s one of the mafia guys!” He got up at the realization and was quickly pulled down by the people around him, when the table started to shake. “I remember the other guys mentioning his name!” He resolutely turned to his younger friend. “Doyoung, you need to break up with him. He’ll get you into something illegal, and then what? I mean-“

“No. Fuck you.” Doyoung told him in a matter-of-fact tone. “He actually told me what he does, and if it indeed is the same shop… Man, you’re way off.”

The whole group obviously couldn’t decide who to watch and so settled on turning their heads to and fro like a really weird bobble-head toy set.

Just as Yuta was opening his mouth to retort, Doyoung started digging into his pocket for his own wallet. “And before you ask, no, I’m not gonna tell you something I was told in confidence. But you definitely need to get your head out of your ass, Yuta. You’re supposed to be smart. Act like it.”

And with that their colleague and friend left money on the table right next to Jaehyun’s and left to follow his boyfriend.

Yuta huffed. That was way below the belt.

***

His deal with Jisung was simple. He will let him have a free rein of the cut flowers, but only when the weird Chinese chaebol came in. And he would make himself scarce to leave them to flirt (very badly), but mostly so that he wouldn’t have to look at the horrible eldritch-like creations Jisung was making for his customer.

In exchange, Jisung gave Yuta 10% of his enormous tips, which was… Usually enough to set Yuta for either a week of college food or three whole take-outs. He was honestly wondering why Jisung still bothered to come to work, with the amount of money he was getting at least once a week.

It was one of the days, when the chaebol was in. Yuta ostensibly started to straighten the empty flowerpots on offer, when he started hearing Jisung giggle and with the corner of his eye saw the chaebol reach across the till to point at something, and on his way back very smoothly took Jisung’s hand and kissed the back of it, and… Yeah. Yuta decided it was time to vacate the premises.

He hollered something about watering the outside plants, but since the watering can was always fastidiously kept to the right side of the counter right across the water pump, that was an outright lie.

Instead, he closed the door behind himself, checked the street that the air was clear of any potential customers and sat at a bench about five meters away from the entrance to the flower shop to sunbathe. Quite honestly, the summer heat had come in full swing and there wasn’t much else to do outside in these temperatures anyway.

He idly wondered in his head, if there’ll be another high-profile order this week. They already had a large van of flowers delivered to a mid-tier company in the north of Seoul for the celebration of a new group debuting, but there hadn’t been any birthday celebrations in some time now… Meh. As long as everything doesn’t happen at the same time.

Quite honestly, the need to fulfil these high-profile orders perfectly, while staying firmly in denial about the identity of his clients put Yuta under a unique kind of pressure he definitely didn’t expect as a young and hopeful student of botany. Oh well. The world keeps turning.

He was about to get up to make sure Jisung wasn’t making out with the chaebol outright in the shop, when he saw two very familiar figures turn the corner. Well, one very familiar figure, and one not as much, but still distinct enough.

Why the hell where all of his friends getting hitched with gangsters?!? Was he the only sensible one around?

And Donghyuck was definitely wearing the same clothes as he had yesterday.

Yuta groaned and started to make his way towards the pair. “Donghyuck-ah. I didn’t see you on the roster today. You wanna come help out in your free time too? How sweet.” Smooth Yuta. Real smooth.

Donghyuck actually stopped, while the neck-tattoo guy continued towards the mafia den. As he passed Yuta, he gave him a fierce glare, which Yuta of course passionately reciprocated. Admittedly, the guy could have been scary, but he had eyes the size of an anime character and over all looked a bit like an angry kitten. Yuta wasn’t exactly pissing his pants.

“I told you before, call me Haechan. I’m gonna have a legal name change, I decided. Also, no. I’m going across the street today. Defecting and all that.” Donghyuck looked like a cat that got the canary. “Markie is going to show me his work-space.”

“Markie? Seriously?”

“What, it’s not like he dislikes it! Fuck off. Also, trade secret.” Donghyuck conspiratorially leaned towards Yuta. “He actually is afraid of needles. Which makes his place of employment doubly funny. Anyway!”

“Place of employment? You mean the mafia den, where they sell drugs and probably torture people?”

Donghyuck tssked in disdain and rolled his eyes so hard Yuta was afraid for a moment they’re gonna get stuck at the back of his head. “Don’t be so dramatic, hyung. You’re making it sound like we’re in a bad movie.”

“Right. Sure. You know what? Whatever. I give up. You’re gonna get murdered or worse go to jail. Not me. You do you.”

Yuta just helplessly threw his hands up and turned to go back to the shop. His stride was quickened by the hyena laugh, that Donghyuck – or actually, Yuta should probably really start to call him Haechan if the guy is serious about this – let out.

When he was about three meters from the shop, the door opened and the chaebol left, clutching a giant bouquet with colours that actually made Yuta stop, look away and blink a few times to get his vision back. The guy grinned over the top of the monstrosity, which made him look like his head was growing out of a pile of clown vomit.

“When my mother told me Seoul was full of art and culture, I thought she was exaggerating. But look at this! Isn’t it lovely? And the artist is possibly even lovelier! Wonderful! I’m never going back to China!”

And Yuta could only stare mutely as a large black limousine stopped exactly in front of the guy, a swarm of people poured out to help him with his “art piece” and within a minute he was gone.

Yuta finally returned to the shop, feeling slightly traumatised. Behind the counter, Jisung stood with a starry look in his eyes and a hickey already showing on his neck. Yuta cursed quietly and resisted just giving up and going home.

***

Admittedly, Dong- right, Haechan is not only an adult, but also insane and scary enough on his own to probably bully even a gang-member into submission. If Yuta was absolutely honest with himself, he was more worried about the neck-tattoo guy in that relationship, despite the probable gun-ownership being in the hands of the mob member. Hyuckie was scary.

Also, as much as he wanted to interfere and help all of his friends, Doyoungie was much too stubborn to let anybody tell him who to go out with. Yuta could sympathize with that, he was usually much the same way. Also, honestly, the Jaehyun guy might be tall and muscular, but he looked more like a model than an actual mobster. Doyoung was going to be alright. He wasn’t that scared for him after all.

That left the last part, which were his two precious students, Jeno and Jaemin. And considering they seemed to be angry at him much sooner than the rest, he needed to tread carefully and be tactful. Unfortunately, that never was his strong suit.

It took him two weeks, before he ran into them on the corridor at the university. It was actually kinda surprising it took him only that long, considering it was the end of July and the undergraduate students had no real need to go to the school. But Yuta wasn’t going to complain. The sooner they could have this conversation, the better, honestly.

As he approached the duo, Jaemin caught his eye and immediately started tugging Jeno away. Yuta wasn’t gonna lie to himself, it broke his heart a little bit.

“Hey, guys, wait. Let’s just talk, okay? I haven’t bought you coffee in some time?”

Unfortunately, Jaemin still looked ready to flee, but Jeno gave him an amiable enough look and gestured for him to lead the way. Yuta let out a nervous breath.

The cafeteria was… ok. It was usually full to bursting with people desperately cramming in a last few paragraphs before their exams, so the empty hall was honestly a bit creepy. The usual lady behind the counter was replaced by a much older man furiously writing something on the margin of a crossword. Yuta shrugged and looked behind him to share a commiserating wince with his younger friends out of habit. The usual lady couldn’t make good coffee anyway, this pensioner couldn’t be that much worse.

They picked a table the furthest away from the single sad-looking girl reading a stack of something by the door and sat down. The silence suddenly seemed much more oppressive.

After a few minutes of sipping the truly atrocious coffee, Yuta decided to start. He is the hyung, after all. It’s more or less his duty.

“Look, guys… I’m sorry. I’m not entirely sure what kind of misunderstanding happened, but I am honestly just worried for your safety. I… probably came off a bit strong, didn’t I?”

Jeno snorted and Jaemin rolled his eyes next to him. “Honestly, hyung,” the smaller of the two finally spoke out “It was more about the whole…” he gestured his way vaguely “not trusting us to do anything. We’re not dumb, you know. Jeno has a cousin there. Of course we knew where we’re going.”

“I honestly didn’t know you’re THAT against tattoos, hyung. It was a bit of a surprise.” Jeno joined in, chuckling a bit.

Yuta frowned. “I’m just worried, is all. And no, I’m not against tattoos. I just… I don’t mind them on people, but when they do honestly mean the person is a criminal, it’s… different.”

This time it was Jeno rolling his eyes and scoffing while Jaemin frowned. “Hyung… You do know that there’s certain… medication that isn’t exactly legal in here. Just because they supplement it let’s say… outside the law doesn’t mean they are some sort of drug den. I thought you could appreciate that.” He looked genuinely offended on the gangsters’ behalf. Yuta was going to explode.

But no, he’s cool. Cool and calm. While he himself had experimented a bit during his undergraduate years, he was more careful than this, damn it! He took a big breath. “Jaeminie. I love you, you know that. Please, please tell me, you didn’t go to an actual mafia drug den to get marihuana, when you have a hyung who majored in botany! Do you seriously think it’s that hard for me to get it more or less legally? You don’t have to put yourself in danger to get high!”

Jaemin choked a bit on nothing, eyes suddenly going huge, while Jeno spat his coffee and started laughing.

“What? No, hyung, wha-what? I don’t- I’m not smoking marihuana! Why-why would you think that?!?”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure Jaehyun-hyung has some edibles in stock, if you wanted to…”

“No, shut up, No! I’m going there for anti-anxiety meds!”

As Jaemin shouted over the still laughing Jeno, the pensioner at the till looked up from his crossword before looking back down and muttering something about the horrible new generation. The girl by the door didn’t seem to notice anything. Jaemin cleared his throat, taking a dainty sip of his coffee and making a face at the taste.

Yuta could only stare. There was a horrible pressure in his chest, rising up and up before finally settling behind his eyes and making them water. “Oh, Jaeminie… Are you okay? I didn’t know, I’m sorry…”

Jaemin blinked a few times, eyes also suspiciously shiny, and looked away. “Yeah, I am better now. It was just… A lot at one point? So I asked my doctor about it, but none of the stuff available in Korea works for me. Or well, one of them did, but it also made my head hurt a lot, so. I had to stop.”

Jeno wasn’t laughing anymore, though there was still a large grin on his face. “Yeah, luckily my cousin has a store selling some stuff not available in Korea that is normally sold in the US, so he hooked Jaeminie up.” He reached over and hugged his friend to his side, who gratefully leaned in and hid half on his face in Jeno’s shoulder. “It worked well, right?”

The young man nodded and pulled a very disgusting-looking tissue out of his pocket to blow his nose.

Yuta blinked. “So… they’re selling meds in there? Like. Under the counter illegal-in-SK-but-otherwise harmless meds? They… Don’t look like that at all.”

“Well, it’s actually a tattoo parlour, Jaehyun-hyung just kinda runs it on the side. And I think one of the guys does piercings as well?”

Jaemin finally disentangled himself and made a noise of assent. He took his coffee cup to take a sip, and then made a face and put it down again without even touching his lips to the rim. “Yeah, Markie does some. Hyung, I’m sorry, I don’t think I can finish this. It actually might be even more disgusting than usual. I think I’ll go get some tea, he hopefully can’t ruin that.” Jaemin got up to go to the counter and left the other two to their own devices.

Yuta sat back, kind of working through the series of revelations. Did he seriously not notice that his little Jaeminie had problems with anxiety? Was he such a bad hyung? Will they ever forgive him? And a TATTOO PARLOUR? The fuck?

Just as he was starting to spiral a bit, Jeno leaned in a bit with a conspiratorial look on his face. “So, hyung? You said something about getting us some weed? Jaehyun-hyung doesn’t want to let me, says I need to be twenty-five to get some. Which is honestly not fair.”

Yuta just glared and reached over to grab the younger man by his ear, a move that was quickly dodged. “I might have more in common with your hyung than I thought. No way in hell.”

***

Yuta… might just be stalling now. It’s now been a week since his talk with the two youngsters, July very firmly became August and he needed to do something.

Quite honestly, now that he had thought about it, some stuff that didn’t make sense before now did. First and foremost. Why the hell would a mobster try to flirt with a florist from across the street? And why would they be talking about drawings? Yeah, a tattoo parlour made more sense.

He sighed, looked around to check if there were no customers around (there weren’t. It was 6 o’clock in the evening, he was going to close in half an hour and the pavement still felt like a frying pan. Nobody was outside in this weather if they could at all help it) and slid down to sit behind the counter on the cold tiles. This was horrible.

The honest question of course was, if –should he be forgiven – he would want to date a tattoo artist with a monster on his face. It was an incredible face with a lovely smile, don’t get him wrong, but the beast by his ear, was… disconcerting, to say the least.

And no, Yuta actively refused to think about the reason why, when he found out face-tattoo wasn’t a mobster, his mind immediately jumped straight to dating him. Especially considering that they hadn’t exchanged more than ten words outside of Yuta selling him flowers and then very badly rejecting him.

During that week, Haechan (hah, he was finally getting the hang of it) came in with a newly pierced ear, while Jaemin randomly turned up at Yuta’s flat with a container of tteoboki, claiming “Taeyongie-hyung” made that for him and that he and Jeno couldn’t eat all of it and Yuta should have some.

Considering Yuta knew for a fact that Jeno was a bottom-less pit when it came to food (he admittedly still was a growing boy and those muscles had to come from somewhere – Jeno’s words, not his), Yuta had a feeling his excuse was bullshit. He didn’t care. The tteoboki was fucking delicious.

Beforehand, he would have actively refused to think about which one was “Taeyongie-hyung”. Now, he couldn’t help but imagine having the face-tattoo guy in his own (admittedly sparse) kitchen and making Japanese food together. Like a good okonomiyaki. Damn, he hadn’t had a good home-made okonomiyaki in ages. Possibly since he moved to Korea, honestly.

There were shouts from the outside of his shop, but Yuta just glared through the counter. Hooligans. Probably some brats making a ruckus since they don’t have anything to do during the holidays. Ugh. He was turning old.

Speaking of home though, he probably should plan his annual visit home. He was last there around September last year, just before the semester started. He spent two hours on the plane going there, ten hours traveling in total, which included the bus journey between the airports and the respective homes. After arriving, he had 10 minutes where he enjoyed his visit, before he inevitably got into a spat with his mother over an inconsequential thing, his father insulted his Japanese and then he had to spend the whole weekend babysitting the kids of his older cousin, because ‘he needed some family time’. Then his grandmother proceeded to make him sit through an hour-long spiel of how his generation wasn’t family oriented at all, and when is Yuta going to bring home a nice Japanese girl to introduce to her? And Yuta had had enough. He originally planned on staying for the whole week but changed his plane ticket to go back after four days. He just couldn’t.

He loved his family to bits. But they could be a lot.

The shouts outside got louder and it now sounded less like a group of hooligans and more like genuine cries of distress. Yuta frowned and got up to check it out. It honestly wouldn’t bode well for anybody to die in front of his shop, especially now when actual celebrities were making orders there.

He stopped for a little bit and then returned to get his trusty baseball bat. Better safe than sorry.

The street was suspiciously empty, but the noise was coming in from the wide-open door to the tattoo-den. Just as he was locking his shop and carefully making his way in, the smallest one that Haechan liked so much pretty much crashed through the doorway, hit his shoulder on the frame and fell down to land in front of Yuta’s feet.

As he looked up, Yuta gulped. The guy suddenly looked incredibly young, but his eye was already colouring up with a bruise.

“Here” Yuta chucked the keys at him and nodded towards the flower shop. “Don’t break anything.” And he, with a deep breath, entered the parlour.

Nobody was in the entrance room, but there was an incredible amount of noise coming from the direction Yuta was pretty sure Moon Taeil’s office was in. He readied his baseball bat and started to stealthily creep in that direction.

He came in on a scene.

The office was a shambles, the large wooden desk was overturned, papers were everywhere. There was a guy rifling through an opened desk drawer, another one trying to violently open the cabinets mounted on the walls.

The one that immediately caught Yuta’s gaze though was much closer to the door, standing ramrod straight and holding a gun. A gun, which was shakily aimed at a pair of men on the couch, where Yuta spent that inadvisable night about a month before.

The tall guy – Johnny? – was laying down and clutching his side, where a large circle of blood was slowly darkening his shirt. To Yuta’s very unprofessional eye, he didn’t look terribly pale or distressed, more pissed off than anything. But still, a gunshot wound was a gunshot wound, and that was never a joke. Sitting on the floor by Johnny’s side, was a black-haired man, that Yuta after a second recognized as face-tattoo guy. He was pale, looked worried, but stayed silent and kept pressure on Johnny’s bullet wound.

Yuta took one last quick look around the room to make sure he didn’t miss anyone or anything and started to creep behind the guy with a gun, baseball bat at the ready. He was taking the fucker down.

He had to freeze for a bit, because the face-tattoo guy looked up defiantly and caught Yuta’s gaze across the gun-wielding thug’s shoulder. There was a second when his eyes widened and Yuta was sure he that he was going to draw attention to him.

Instead, face-tattoo opened his mouth and sneered in the direction of the guy rifling in the drawer. “I told you, we don’t keep any money here!”

The guy scoffed and was probably about to say something disparaging. Whatever it was, was interrupted when he swung his trusty baseball bat and hit the gun-thug straight to the side of his head. The man went down like a sack of potatoes.

The drawer guy looked up just in time to see his brother-in-crime go down, which also meant he saw Yuta immediately charging his way across the debris in the room. He took out a box that Yuta guessed was some sort of electric stun gun. Yuta didn’t really want to find out if his immediate guess was right, so he took precautions. He swung his bat again and hit the guy straight on the wrist, making him drop the box to the ground.

Unfortunately, his wide swing meant his bat flew out of his fingers and landed by the overturned table. No matter.

The guy let out a yell and charged at Yuta, still clutching his wrist. He was probably hoping he could make him flinch and run past him and out the door. Very naive of him.

He moved away from the guy’s shoulder, caught his already injured arm, and with a twist he last practised in elementary school in Osaka, he pulled the guy’s arm behind his back and forced him to kneel down.

A cry from the couch made him raise his head, worried for a moment. The third thug took advantage of his attention being elsewhere and was about to attack him. Instead, his eyes met with face-tattoo, who was pointing one bloodied hand towards the door. The cabinet guy decided to run. Yuta scoffed. Coward.

He quickly immobilised the drawer guy by grabbing a nearby piece of fabric and tying his hand to a leg of the overturned table. The guy honestly seemed so out of it though, Yuta kinda doubted he would be getting up any time soon anyway.

Drawer guy dealt with, he quickly gave chase to the last accomplice. He hoped the man wasn’t too fast, because his solid 60 second head start would mean a lot in a chase. Luckily for him, the man was apparently supremely stupid.

As Yuta sprinted out of the tattoo parlour door, he saw the guy attempting to force the flower shop door open and failing. Heachan’s flame apparently knew how to lock a heavy door. Good for him.

Yuta let out a yell and charged across the street after the guy. For some reason he expected there would be some sort of fight. He was sorely mistaken.

The guy let out a high girly shout and started to run down the street. Yuta didn’t waste any time. He grabbed one of the begonia pots on display by the door and chucked it after the fleeing thug.

His aim, as always, was flawless.

***

An hour later, Yuta was still in shock. He sat motionless on the steps to the flower shop, clutching the remains of the begonia pot. Poor flower. It didn’t deserve this fate.

Around him a swarm of police and EMTs was slowly but surely thinning out.

Apparently, Mark called Moon Taeil after getting to the safety of the flower shop and he arrived exactly ten minutes after Yuta had taken care of all of the trouble.

The main problem now was the stack of illegal medication and the very obvious illegal tattoo parlour, which the thugs had attempted to raid.

Yuta was reasonably sure he was asked for permission, so that the others can use his flower shop. Unfortunately, as the adrenaline started to drain away from his bloodstream, so too disappeared the clarity of his thoughts and leaving him only able to stare in shellshock.

Johnny was apparently fine. It seemed the bullet had just grazed him. It didn’t look like that from his point of view, but the giant was well enough to help face-tattoo carry the two from the office all the way to Yuta’s shop, artistically arranging them and overturning a few bags of soil, scattering a few flowers and smashing a few pots. Yuta was going to make Haechan clean that up tomorrow. Somehow, this felt like it was the youngster’s fault.

They got their stories straight quickly and efficiently (luckily, Yuta was so out of it, everybody decided he was too shocked to remember much, which was the thing he was going to stick to on every single future retelling), they called the cops and the paramedics. The tattoo artists, Johnny and Taeil became respectively customers and concerned passerbys, the thugs became opportunists trying to take money from a poor florist. All seemed like it was going to work out. It might have something to do with Taeil at one point leading one of the sergeants away and passing him a wad of bills. Yuta was very determined to stay ignorant.

Johnny was taken away to a hospital to get stitches, Taeil went with him, holding his hand in the ambulance and looking like a concerned wife. Jaehyun got there looking harassed, just after the ambulance pulled away from the curb. He and Mark immediately went inside the shop, probably to take care of the mess and hold down the fort.

Face-tattoo looked at Yuta for a long moment, his eyes weirdly sad and vulnerable. His hair was black now. For some reason, Yuta couldn’t focus on anything but that simple fact.

Finally, face-tattoo came in closer and knelt in front of Yuta, on the face of it checking him for any injuries.

“That was really brave. Thank you.”

Yuta had to look away. He awkwardly cleared his throat. “I… guess? Nothing special. They were just surprised is all.”

Face-tattoo smiled, and it was as lovely as Yuta remembered. “I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree then. Anyway. You sure you’re okay? I can still take you to a hospital, if you feel sick?”

Yuta shook his head. “Nah, I’ll be ok. Will call someone to take care of the mess and then go home. Thanks though.”

“Mmhmm. Ok. If you’re sure. I should… Probably go help the guys. See you around then?”

As face-tattoo got up, Yuta forced himself to smile. “Sure. See you around.”

Something in his chest ached weirdly. Considering he barely knew the guy’s name, that was concerning. What was it… Taehyung? Taeyang? Damn it. That’s what he gets for calling him face-tattoo in his head all the time.

The door just about closed and locked behind face-tattoo, when somebody called his name from down the street. Yuta turned his head and almost got a heart-attack.

A few meters away from the street corner, his portly boss Lee Sooman was wheezing as he half-ran towards him. “Nakamoto Yuta! What the hell have you done to my shop?!?”

Yuta clutched the remnants of the begonia to his chest and pouted.

***

The pub was weirdly empty. The majority of their Chinese friends decided to go home for the same two weeks, and so their booth seemed extra bleak.

Yuta had just finished his recollection of the fight from two days ago and fell silent, morosely staring into his beer.

“Whoa, daebak, hyung! I didn’t know you were so cool!”

“Neither did I, Jungwoo-yah. Neither did I.”

Doyoung frowned. “Jaehyun told me the majority of it, but… I didn’t know your boss came in afterwards. You okay? Are you in trouble?”

Yuta snorted and shook his head. “Nah. He would have to leave his vacation home in Busan and move here to actually run the place. Both of us know that. He didn’t even give me a paycut for the broken pots.”

“That’s good. You know, when Jaehyunie told me, I was really worried. I didn’t know they were bothered by the actual mafia. That is really dangerous.”

Yuta frowned. “What do you mean, actual mafia? It was just a couple of thugs thinking they would make an easy buck. No way, Doyoungie.”

Doyoung pursed his lips in disapproval. “Jaehyun said they bothered them a few times before, the same group. Looking to threaten them. Apparently Taeil-hyung always took care of it before, but they caught them when he wasn’t in this time, and…”

“But you were there instead! My hyung is awesome! Will you teach me martial arts, hyung? Please?” Jungwoo’s puppy eyes would have admittedly been lethal if Yuta wasn’t used to Jaemin. Instead, he scoffed.

“Come on, Doyoungie. There’s no way that they were actual members of an actual gang. I saw the movies. They were much too ugly for that.”

At this, both Jungwoo and Doyoung stared at him mutely. It took another minute for Jungwoo to finally get his bearings together enough to speak.

“Hyung… Why exactly would the mafia need to look for people, who aren’t ugly?”

“Hyung.” Doyoung looked basically done with him. “Is this the reason you thought Taeyong was part of the mafia? Because he’s good-looking?”

“Why are you two looking at me like that? I can’t help it, that in the movies they’re always played by nice-looking people! I mean, have you seen the new High&Low movie? Like, all of those guys are just smashing each other in the streets, while looking dirty but handsome! I always thought… Eh. I guess never mind.” He then squinted at Doyoung. “So… Face-tattoo’s name is Taeyong? Ok. Noted. Good to know.”

“Are you telling me, you’ve been slobbering after this dude for almost half a year, and you don’t even know his NAME?”

“Well, I do now! Leave me alone and keep to your own criminal person!”

***

It was a full week after that before Yuta finally got his courage together.

He finished his morning shift in the shop, gathered the things he’d been collecting for the last two days and took a last look at the two youngsters, who were in charge of the shop in the afternoon.

While Shotaro gave him an encouraging thumbs up, Renjun just rolled his eyes and made a shooing motion with his hand. “Off you go, lover boy. Hope you won’t get into a fight this time.”

Yuta sniffed but grinned at his friend as he was opening the door. “That’s either lover boy-hyung or lover boy-ge.”

The door closed with a jingle, leaving the boy behind. Yuta clutched his burden, took a deep breath and marched himself across the street.

He entered the tattoo parlour gingerly, carefully looking around. Apparently, he’d never taken in the entrance room before. It was something like a tiny waiting room, the walls covered by pictures of various tattoos. It actually looked really cool. Behind a counter sat Johnny, who immediately gave him a lascivious grin.

“Now now, slow down, cowboy. You might have saved my life, but I’m still in a very happy committed relationship.”

Yuta chuckled but shook his head. “I heard from Doyoung you needed five stitches. That hardly counts as life-saving.”

Johnny laughed. “You never know.” He then turned his head to the space behind him. “Taeyongie! I think you have a visitor!”

It barely took a minute for Taeyong to come out, looking confused. “Really? But I thought we didn’t take walk-“ at which point he saw Yuta. “-ins. What?”

Yuta could only swallow dryly and watch as Johnny patted the other guy’s shoulder before pushing him towards the counter and disappearing into the back. Only then did he manage to come out of his stupor.

“Erm. Yeah. Hi.” He gave him his best grin, which unfortunately, Taeyong didn’t reciprocate. Still, he continued on. “So, I… I guess I need to apologize. Like a lot. Possibly grovel too. Maybe kow-tow a few times? Haven’t decided.”

That got him a small twitch of the lips. Ok! He could do this!

“So, as you probably understood, the whole thing about me not liking flowers was bullshit.”

“You don’t say.”

“Yeah… That was bad. In my defence, I genuinely thought you were part of the Korean version of Yakuza, or something. You looked scary.”

That finally got him a laugh. “What? Me, a Yakuza? How did you get to that conclusion?”

Yuta could only shrug. “I don’t know, man. I saw you across the street, you looked scary, my brain went ‘Yakuza’ and that was that.”

“But… When those guys came in, you beat them up without a problem?”

“Yeah, no. That was a freak accident. Just because I did some Judo in Elementary apparently means I know how to use it ten years later.”

“Right. Well. It didn’t look like a freak accident from the outside, so. You don’t have to be scared anymore.” Taeyong gave him a thin smile. “If it makes you feel better, apology accepted. We can forget about the whole thing if that makes you more comfortable.”

Crap, he’s turning away to leave! “Actually! Well! I do like flowers!” He stopped! Ok, Yuta, quickly now! “So, I heard you had some drawings of them? You know, me being a botany student and everything?”

Taeyong gave him an unsure look but returned to the counter. “I mean… I guess? Do you want a tattoo or something?” And he took out a big binder from somewhere underneath and started to open it.

“Well, not exactly. Maybe, at some point. Possibly. But that’s… Not what I meant.”

“What did you mean then?”

“Well.” Yuta finally took out the bouquet he’s been unsurely hiding by his waist and started to take out the individual flowers. “I was hoping that. Maybe. In the future I could bring you more flowers and… You could show me your drawings over dinner, or something?”

He could feel his face getting bright fire truck red. At least Taeyong’s face looked about the same.

“Well. I will admit. I do like flowers. Also dinner. I like dinner.” Yuta’s face was stretching into a large grin. Yes! “That said, you really will need to grovel, if you want to see my attempts at a realistic flower. Especially as a botany student.” And Taeyong took the sunflower from the myriad of flowers on the counter and brought it to his face as if to take a sniff. At the same time, he looked up through his lashes, his eyes smiling. Yuta couldn’t help himself. He fistbumped into the air, which got a laugh out of Taeyong. Yes, life was gonna be good now.

Who knew honestly, how exactly this relationship was going to go down. Their start was admittedly pretty rocky. But if Yuta was honest with himself, he was ready to give this whole serious relationship a shot. If that meant getting a tattoo by his hot boyfriend, he was ok with that.

They were interrupted from behind Taeyong by a series of sneezes. “Fuck, I think there’s lilies in there. Oh no. I told you before not to bring those over.”