Chapter Text
“In this world we aren’t all born equal, in fact to me it seems that inequality is the most normal thing around. There’s nothing worse than having people look down at you from a pedestal of greatness, you have little to complain about when you develop a quirk that is a guaranteed ticket to overwhelming success, money, riches and admiration all around. Here’s how you can learn to love you and your individuality-“
you close the page putting down the 350 something long book that you borrowed from Mr Sanadas “read while savouring your sweet delight” shelf in his coffee shop next door. You think this book seems good enough that you’ll give it 15 minutes of your time back at home so you put it away for now under the counter
You love this little job, even though this is just you helping out your mother when she’s too tired in the afternoon to run it herself, it’s honestly your pride and joy, a reflection of your being, rows and rows of florals and petals and greens. I mean at the end of the day you volunteered out of your own will to help out after school , right?
Yes, yes you did, but, even you have days that you wished you could honestly just drop dead after a long day.
It’s frustrating how wonderfully stressing even things you love can be.
You’re naturally a helper, one of santas elves, someone who willingly pointed the way to the nearest train station even in a rush, you pick up small pieces of trash to help the cleaner who’s down the road
But when 4 hard-headed costumers come in throughout the afternoon with specifically challenging requests that little old you can’t keep up with , it becomes overwhelming.
Your 1st costumer was at 4:15pm in the afternoon, a gentleman with a perfectly tailored suit and an over gelled slick back
who came in weeping and moaning to you about getting a bouquet for his girlfriend who was on the verge of dumping him for forgetting their anniversary for the 5th time, which well, is very deserved you internally note but not your business so you shrug and offer what you deem can be good advice on which set of flowers you recommend as an apology,
you don’t get anxious when speaking to people as long as it’s once in your lifetime
first you go soft and simple, a bundle of red roses never goes wrong, but he insists she’s allergic to roses so you hatch out any colour of roses from your mental list,
then you suggest blue hyacinths and he disagrees, “im going for big, and something that gives off pop, you know?” He charmed.
right, okay, bummer
thirdly you indicate sunflowers but he hits you with “oh can’t do that shes scared of sunflowers for some reason” your eyes twitches but you keep your cool for the sake of professionalism
and that’s how it goes for a good 15 minutes, he ranges from
; too big, too small, too ugly, too skinny, too girly, too expensive, too basic.
And this is how you send him off with a bouquet of carnations that he himself ended up picking out even though he complained about all of the above as he happily slips away in a rush for his train. You let out a relieved sigh as you continue on with your day.
your 2nd costumers at 4:35pm , a charming little boy who slips into the shop dressed in smart but playful elementary school uniform, big smiles and cheers holding and waving around an 100 yen coin barely able to reach over the counter to hand it to you
“excuse me miss is there anything I can get with this? my mommy gave it to me and I thought your flowers looked pretty” He yelps at you with a toothy grin typically no, 100 yen is a very small price for a bloom but you make the rules here when it’s you running the shop so merrily you agree
“Of course baby, give me a second” quickly reaching in the cabinet down right above your shins
“Oh! Really?” He beams “For sure sweetness” a short pause while you fiddle around for his prize
“here you can have this sweets ”you offer; a pretty stemmed white and purple tinted Lilly emerges from under the mysteries of behind your counter
his eyes illuminate a bright childish sparkle
He gladly reaches and very politely trades the bloom with a coin, as he skips away calling a woman’s name which you assume is his mother he fades into the luminous afternoon , a truly beautifully calming encounter.
Your 3rd pair of costumers at around 5 were an engaged couple picking flower arrangements for their upcoming wedding in a few months,
a beautiful woman with a bright smile, pretty mole on her left cheek and her fiancé who was genuinely just happy to be there, you spent about an 1 and a half helping them pick their favourite arrangements, colours, styles etc etc,
a very opposite but harmonising couple in fact, pretty Indecisive to say the least. Your 4th stressful costumer was around 6:45 straight after your well deserved snack and juice break
A man. dressed in a typically posh attire with a sassy walk and a noticeable personality
a rather stingy one too,
criticising you about the layout of the store, the sizes of the flowers and the coordination and overall “kindly” offering passive aggressive pieces of his “knowledge” which almost caused you to pop a vein right then and there
by then ,time flew by almost too quickly as the clock on your wall told you it was almost 7:25 about an hour before closing time , business was slow for you today but that didn’t mean it didn’t feel long
you sit in defeat, you had a couple of other people pop in for advice on flowers, bouquets and pretty decorations but it all results in you head in hands and knees up to your chest, as you ponder on what an awful day for you it’s been , not awful people but just awful in general, you decide it’s better to suck it up and prance around the shop fixing and trimming the blossoms you deemed slightly imperfect,
the little perfectionist in you not letting a single leaf out of place
you love flowers, you deeply deeply love flowers, in fact in another life you will be reborn as a flower you convince yourself as an attempt to cheer yourself up.
you feel light again, the gentle thrumming on the small tv beside the marble counter ranting about the latest villain attack, heroes were able to apprehend the perpetrators before anyone was seriously harmed,
Out of basically thin air Mirko appeared on screen flexing and charming the reporters, spinning in circles despite her prosthetics
She’s so cool you mentally coax
she’s your favourite pro, she’s everything you want to be
she’s strong and brave , fearless and passionate. She’s never afraid to speak her mind and most definitely not a crybaby
fan girling almost feels wrong when it’s not a male pro
Maybe I’ll invest some of my piggy bank money into her next meet and greet, it’d be pretty sweet to get that poster signed!
you feel relaxed as you soak in the orange afternoon, the glow of your skin is appealing, thinking and thinking and loosing yourself in endless thoughts as you arrange a pot of blue hydrangea in the far left post of the shop
very abruptly your peace is interrupted by the ringing noise of the door bell along with the sound of heavy boots across the entrance carpet, however, all hope is not lost for your poor soul
your “calm moments” playlist began to bless your eardrums with 希望の泉 by Miharu Koshi lowly echoing through the suddenly calm environment
very florist shop music you muse
your 10 minutes of peace and quiet did in fact bring you back down to earth
“I’ll be right there with you in a second!”
You cheer from behind the countless shelves of pots and vases.
quickly scrambling to pat your apron wiping the dirt from your palms as you do a giddy jog towards the new comer, before turning a corner you catch a glimpse of the pretty clock on the wall.
7:32pm
as finally you pad your way to the person, you raise your gaze from your slightly dusty shoes.
Standing still in the entrance of the shop is a boy, a boy with his hands thrown unceremoniously in his baggy pockets with seamlessly prestigious looking school uniform, a blue shoulder bag thrown lazily over his right shoulder and unbuttoned shirt surely not fitting whatever school this guy goes to dress code
wild obnoxious messy blonde hair that looks like bed hair yet seems to be styled precisely by pretty expensive hair gel or something like that to look so rugged and masculine
From the small look that you managed to get at him before you panicked , chickened out and never looked up again he seems to be scowling , heavily , almost as if he’s sour to even be standing where he was in the moment as if he was angry at the world for throwing tomatoes at him
smiling definitely wouldn’t hurt
Briefly you realise you were probably gawking at him
as the store assistant it does look sort of out of the ordinary for what may seem as unwelcoming silence, I mean what is there to say when he hasnt even said a word either right?
oh God oh God oh God.
You clutz .
You probably stood there for a good minute. Feeling nothing but the blood rushing to your face burning through your pores to give you what you assume a literally tomato face. This guy was handsome
mustering all courage you need to look up
when you do you swear you feel heavily judged
piercing cold orbs, redder than the flames of hell , his pure sole focus is strained on you, just you. The reddest red you’ve ever managed to ever lay eyes on. pretty almond eyes… you daydream
oh wait!
you know this guy
you recall seeing him in the news a little over a year ago during your first year after he began to apprehend villains recklessly immediately after getting his provisional hero license or something along those lines
though you didn’t quite catch his name, you hear the echo of the news reporters yapping about a certain Explosion Murder God Dynamight… hmm.. Dynamight..
Quite rudely you’re broken out of your quality examination by a booming gruff voice
“Hey! The fuck are you staring so hard at me for?”he huffs
“will you quit being creepy and ask me what I need help with?”
… ah.
Costumer number 5 . 07:33pm