#028
I organized the shop while recalling Kim Yujin’s behavior—how she would smile shyly and tuck her hair behind her ear. Today I should stop by the hospital I’d been putting off and go home early to rest. Still, quite some time had passed, and it was much better now compared to when I’d hurt my back.
Time really is the best medicine, I suppose. I was shaking the leaves I’d gathered in my palm into the trash can and dusting off my hands when the wind chime rang out with a ding-a-ling. But I’m about to close…
“The shop is closing—”
“Hello, ajeossi.”
My gaze went up toward empty air for a moment before dropping down. There was an elementary school kid in front of me, bowing politely with his waist bent at a right angle. I found myself bowing back reflexively.
“…Hello. But I’m not an ajeossi.”
“Then what should I call you?”
The child, with plump cheeks full of baby fat, straightened his upper body and asked innocently. Ah, to a kid that small, I really would be an ajeossi.
“…You can call me ajeossi.”
I walked around the table and stood in front of the little customer. Standing just a few steps away from the entrance was a young boy who looked like he might have just turned eight. The child was looking around the inside of the shop with eyes full of curiosity.
“It’s mama’s birthday, and I want to give mama a present, and mama said she likes flowers. So I came here.”
“Ah, it’s her birthday. Did she happen to say what kind of flowers she likes?”
I lowered myself to match the child’s eye level.
“Mama said she likes flowers that look like me… So what kind of flower would that be?”
You should have asked mama that before coming here. What am I supposed to do when you ask me…? Hmm. I fell into thought. Looking at the child’s hair cut like a round bowl and his big, round eyes, I tried to think of flowers that resembled him. Hmm, what would be good? Only things like forsythia came to mind.
“Well. What might you resemble.”
“I brought this much money.”
The child rummaged through his pocket and pulled out two crumpled ten-thousand won bills and one thousand won bill with his tiny hands.
“My entire fortune. Please give me whatever I can buy with this.”
“You have twenty thousand won. Wow…”
“How many can I buy with this?”
“We don’t count flowers by ‘how many’ but by ‘stems.’ With just one of these bills, you could buy over ten stems.”
“Wow! That’s amazing! Even at the convenience store I can’t buy much with this, so I thought flowers would be the same.”
His black eyes sparkled with light. The child already knew the value of money. Ah, I quoted the flower prices too cheaply.
“Hyung, I mean ajeossi’s shop has too many flowers left over today, so just for today we’re selling them this cheaply. If you come on other days it won’t be like this. Other places definitely aren’t like this either. You understand, right?”
“Yes. I understand.”
“Um… ajeossi just thought of a flower that looks like you.”
As I rambled on and moved toward the back of the shop, the child followed with eyes sparkling with anticipation. I opened the showcase and took out white phalaenopsis orchids, light pink amaryllis, pompom chrysanthemums, and apricot-colored pompom gerberas.
“Which one looks like me?”
“The one that looks like you?”
“Wow! It must be this one, the pretty one.”
The child quite naturally pointed to the phalaenopsis orchid with its white petals elegantly spread. That’s not it though.
“It’s this one.”
I carefully took hold of his plump little finger and turned it in a different direction. When I pulled out a stem of apricot-colored gerbera that was similar in color to the child’s cheeks and placed it in his hand, his gentle eyes curved beautifully.
“Wow!”
I watched the child bounce around the shop before focusing on trimming the stems and arranging them to make a bouquet. Actually, the phalaenopsis orchid was a flower I’d bought separately to give as a gift to the bride’s side while making a bouquet tomorrow. Since it’s such an expensive flower to use in bouquets, I’d bought it thinking I’d use it bit by bit as gifts, but I hadn’t expected it to be used like this. Still, I thought it wasn’t a bad thing.
Chuckling softly, I gathered the stems together and tied them tightly with string so the shape wouldn’t get distorted.
“Even just looking at it like that, it’s super pretty.”
“Do you like it?”
“I really like it, but I don’t know how mama will feel about it… Oh, but I think mama will like this too.”
The child held out the gerbera I’d given him, saying it resembled him.
“I hope mama likes it too.”
I reached out my empty hand and gently patted the child’s shiny hair before spreading out white kraft paper. Being careful not to wrinkle the wrapping paper, I wrapped the stems and tied a light yellow ribbon around the middle to finish it.
“Hyung.”
“You called me ajeossi before. Now I’m hyung.”
When I laughed and responded, the child blushed red on both cheeks as if embarrassed.
“Mama is at the hospital because her head hurts. If she gets this, will her head hurt a little less?”
“Well. Just… won’t she feel less pain when she sees you?”
“I hope so.”
“…Would you like to write a card for mama?”
The innocent eyes looked over the gerbera held in his small hand before landing on the cards placed on one side of the small table.
“I want to!”
The child moved his tiny hands to pull out and unfold a pink card.
“Hyung can’t look.”
“My eyes are bad so I can’t see anyway.”
I turned my head away while unnecessarily fiddling with the perfectly tied ribbon. After coughing loudly a few times, the child handed me the neatly folded card. I tucked the properly folded card between the bouquet stems, and hearing that the bouquet’s owner was at the hospital, I carefully wrapped the bouquet in transparent wrapping before handing it to the child. The rustling sound of the wrapping paper crinkling seemed amusing to him as he let out a cute giggle.
“Here.”
The child placed the bills with clear fold marks on the table and walked away with the same spirited appearance as when he’d entered.
“Take care.”
“Goodbye.”
So cool. Not even looking back as he walked away.
I neatly smoothed out the ten-thousand won bill left alone on the table, put it in the counter, and organized the shop.
Then suddenly my moving hands stopped. Somehow my heart felt a little heavy. The face that had smiled innocently and asked in a calm voice whether receiving this would make it hurt less kept coming to mind.
“I hope it hurt less.”
I muttered while gathering up the fallen leaves. Now I really need to go inside. I untied my apron and turned off the shop sign. I was putting my arms through my outer coat and walking out when I saw a familiar face through the glass window.
Ah, stop coming already, stop, stop! If you saw the sign light was off, you should have the sense to come next time…!
I tried sending telepathy to the man looking inside, but it seems he didn’t receive it. That’s why instead of leaving, he made eye contact with me and opened the door. Ding-a-ling, the wind chime rang out clearly, oblivious to my mood.
“I found the right place this time.”
“……”
“You might not remember, but I’m Yeo Dongju. We met before, didn’t we.”
Of course I remember. I had clearly told him to call first if he was coming alone. Even though he could obviously see I was making a displeased expression, Yeo Dongju strode inside toward the back.
“I was just about to close the shop.”
“This is my first time in a flower shop… So this is what the inside looks like.”
Yeo Dongju really looked like he was seeing something completely unfamiliar. You’ve lived a pretty harsh life. You should live while giving flower gifts sometimes too. I shook my head and quickly spat out what I had to say.
“This is your first time in a flower shop and I feel bad about this. I have to come out early tomorrow for a bouquet reservation, so I was just about to fill up the flowers and go home today. I’m also not feeling well. Cough! Cough!”
After deliberately coughing as if I was about to collapse, I pulled out my loosely tied apron while speaking, and Yeo Dongju checked his wristwatch and tilted his head.
“It’s just past 11 now. Don’t you do business? Don’t you sell flowers?”
“…When I’m not feeling well, I close right after opening, or close at 10 o’clock. Flowers get sold if they get sold, and if they don’t, well. I have other places to use them for that too.”
At my words about doing business as I pleased, Yeo Dongju smiled with an expression whose meaning I couldn’t understand. What’s that, why is he smiling like that? So annoyingly.
“Gyoyeon said you’re the landlord, Ranho-ssi.”
“What?”
“Building landlord. Right?”
She really said all sorts of things. The corners of my mouth that I’d been trying to keep up came back down to their original position.
“Gyoyeon really said all sorts of things.”
“This building belongs to you, Ranho-ssi? You’re young, so how do you have a building?”
“What?”
“If you own a building like this, how much rent comes in per month? Ah, was that question a bit rude?”
If you know it’s rude, why ask such a thing? When I glared at him with sharp eyes, one corner of Yeo Dongju’s mouth curved upward.
“I was a bit surprised when I first saw you, Ranho-ssi.”
“Ahaha… I wonder why you were surprised.”
I’m not curious at all why he was surprised. I didn’t hide my expression showing I wanted to go home quickly and muttered, then let out a deep sigh. But even so, Yeo Dongju shamelessly continued speaking.
“I wondered how a man could be so pretty.”
He said this with a voice that seemed a bit amazed, but with curiosity thick enough to make the person listening feel bad.
“You should be a bit careful with that mouth of yours. Even if I look pretty, my personality isn’t pretty.”
Cough— This time I really had a dry cough. Maybe because my condition was poor, my throat made a metallic sound. At my voice that split into several branches, shallow wrinkles formed between Yeo Dongju’s brows.
“I think I need to close the shop quickly. My throat hurts too.”
“I waited outside for quite a while.”
“……?”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Why are you looking at me like that? Why are you speaking so curtly? Is it because you’re older? Because you’re a team leader? Because you’re an ajeossi? Or because I’m Gyoyeon’s friend? Questions with no answers continued long in my head. And so what if you waited a long time?
“Yeo Dongju-ssi. I’m really close with Gyoyeon, so close that—”
“Close?”
The follow-up question was also in informal speech. It wouldn’t be easy for someone to change so much from their first impression, but Yeo Dongju was a man with a twist in a bad way. I carved the character for patience into my heart several times before opening my mouth.
“Did you come here to buy flowers?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
