#039
I couldn’t sleep properly all night due to the phone call with Gyoyeon. What Gyoyeon said was exactly the same, not a single word different, as the lines the original Seo Ranho had said to Gyoyeon after experiencing escalated violence in the story. I blinked while looking out the window where dawn was breaking in a bluish hue.
I lay quietly in bed, tracing through the thoughts I’d had all night, then let out a deep sigh and sat up. Instead of continuing thoughts that had no answers, I thought about what to do today. On days like this, it seemed like it would be good to make plans and move according to those plans.
I sat hunched over for a long time, just breathing quietly, then flopped back down again. My head felt foggy from not getting a wink of sleep all night. Maybe it would be okay to pull the thick blanket up to under my nose and lie down all day.
“……”
Today especially, I didn’t want to get up. To be honest, I felt like I was at the peak of lethargy and didn’t want to lift a finger. Still, I had to get up from bed thinking of the flowers. Even closing the shop for just one day would wither plenty of flowers. I had more sense of responsibility than when I first opened the flower shop. On opening day, I had mistaken Ban Hajoon for Chu Gangmin and was bedridden for three straight days, keeping the shop closed….
“Ha.”
I sighed. I had opened the flower shop thinking of extending Seo Ranho’s life a little more, but the original storyline had already changed and the life of Gyoyeon, who had been the female protagonist, had changed. Her personality, and the people she met.
My late parents had run a flower farm, so I opened a flower shop using the floriculture certification I had earned, and this was the result that followed. Seo Ranho already had a lot of money, but as the shop did well he earned even more money, and instead of meeting some weird bastard, two decent men came to confess, and Mo Gyoyeon, who had been a close friend and the female protagonist, came to dream of marriage with some innocent trash instead of the original male lead.
Second life, I had only wanted to extend Seo Ranho’s life a little, but I had twisted the original story.
“Sigh.”
What should I do now? No matter how much I thought about it and thought about it again, no answer came.
“I’m going crazy.”
I got up sluggishly, quickly finished showering, and sat at the dining table for a moment, and before I knew it, it was almost opening time. I thought about dragging my feet a little more, but felt like I might give up on going out altogether, so I barely managed to stand up. Ah, I don’t want to go to work.
***
It was a busy morning, too busy to have any stray thoughts. What day was today? Flower bouquets sold like crazy from the morning. As if they had made an appointment, customers came in lines and ordered rose bouquets before I could even suggest they choose flowers. I spent the entire morning making large and small bouquets and couldn’t properly look at my phone even once. When there was a break in customer traffic, I checked the calendar I had left on the table.
Huh…? Has the date already become like this? Only after checking my phone and the desk calendar alternately did I realize what day today was.
“So that’s why there were so many customers?”
I thought so. I thought there were particularly many male customers among those coming to buy flowers today. Today is November 11th, Pepero Day. With just a few hours of business in the morning, about half the flowers in the showcase had sold. I had brought in particularly many roses, thinking I’d have to sell them to Ban Hajoon if they didn’t sell, but embarrassingly the flowers seemed like they’d be sold out before evening came. But Pepero Day isn’t such a special anniversary, so it was fascinating that business was going so well.
I thought about making several more bouquets in advance, but decided it would be better to let my hands rest even briefly, so I stopped moving and took out the canned coffee I had bought on my way to work. When I opened the lid and took a few sips to moisten my throat, the lukewarm sweetness quickly moistened my throat stickily.
My eyes kept scanning the flowers. At this rate, I might have to go to the flower market once more during the week. As soon as I emptied the can and was about to clean up the messy table, the door opened. At the tinkling sound of the wind chime, I raised my head and the person I had been trying hard to erase from memory walked in toward the inside with a strange smile. I’m tired to death, why is he here again?
“Hello, boss.”
“…Hello.”
When I gave a reluctant greeting, one of Chu Gangmin’s eyebrows rose upward and creased.
“I stopped by while passing through. To give you this too.”
In his outstretched hand with a forced smile was a snack commonly seen on days like today. Pepero, that is. He placed the red box on the table and pushed it toward me.
“They say today is a day to eat this kind of thing.”
“Ah.”
“This flower shop. Business was quite good today.”
It was difficult to properly understand what he meant. There were particularly many customers in the morning. So what? Besides, how does Chu Gangmin know that? It’s not like he was watching from the front….
“I kept watching while buying snacks from the convenience store and coming out, and there were many customers? Especially male customers.”
I couldn’t understand at all what intention he had in saying such things.
“I didn’t know the flower shop would do this well.”
“Did you come to buy flowers?”
“Do I look like it?”
You don’t. That’s why I asked. Sweat beaded on my spine under the gaze of the man whose mouth was smiling but whose eyes looked fierce.
“It made me feel bad.”
“Pardon?”
“I didn’t do anything, so I wondered why you look at people like they’re trash. It made me feel, bad.”
The man who leaned forward threateningly with his hands on the table showed his bumpy shoulder line prominently. It was quite cold outside but he was wearing only a thin jumper, which was also very unpleasant. It was an outfit that seemed to deliberately show off his body. As if he knew that even that would be a threat to me. I couldn’t bring myself to make eye contact with Chu Gangmin and lowered my gaze.
“It’s not like that. I’m sorry if you felt bad.”
“Won’t you explain why it was like that?”
“You seem to have misunderstood, so what explanation should I give? I do tend to be a bit uncomfortable with strangers, but I’ve never looked at Chu Gangmin-ssi in that way.”
At the words I barely managed to spit out, Chu Gangmin chuckled and raised his pot lid-sized hand as it was. I reflexively shrank back and turned my head, but instead of the sound of cutting through air, a sneer similar to before cut through the air.
“No, why are you cowering? Hey, boss. I don’t hit people.”
My heart was pounding like crazy. Because it was beating as if it would jump out of my mouth, even my breathing seemed to have become rough. I opened my eyes wide and exhaled heavily. The emotion I was feeling right now was predominantly nothing other than fear. I was scared. My shoulders naturally flinched and my body trembled. The knuckles of my hand that was gripping the table tightly stood out white. I even had the illusion that the scenes I had seen countless times in dreams were unfolding clearly before my eyes.
“You’re doing it again. I’m not originally that kind of person, boss. Huh? Since the boss reacts like that, it makes me feel like I have to hit you at least once, doesn’t it?”
“Anyone would react like me if you raised your hand like that.”
My voice trembled pathetically. As I muttered without making eye contact, Chu Gangmin’s hand stretched straight toward my face and grabbed my chin with rough hands.
“Say such things while making eye contact.”
“……”
“It’s strange, isn’t it? We’ve only met a few times, but the boss keeps appearing in my dreams.”
Chu Gangmin held my face and examined it thoroughly. His pupils, which were particularly small compared to other people’s, rolled around in all directions carrying unpleasant emotions.
“In reality we’ve only met exactly twice, but in dreams we’re quite intimate. So after having those dreams, I get confused about whether this is a dream or not. I wonder if the boss and I were actually in that kind of relationship.”
“You know you’re being very rude right now, don’t you?”
Chu Gangmin, who had been scanning various parts of my body with his gaze, raised one corner of his mouth and smiled fishily. While still holding my chin, as his upper body leaned even more, I knocked away Chu Gangmin’s hand and stepped back one step. Chu Gangmin, who had been staring intently at my action of putting my hand in the pocket of my apron and taking out my phone, straightened his leaning upper body.
“I don’t think I would do that if I were you.”
“How do you know what I’ll do?”
“Hmm… anything? I just came to let you know that I’m having interesting dreams. So don’t be scared.”
Chu Gangmin raised and lowered his eyebrows and winked around his eyes.
“Who knows? Our relationship might become as close as in my dreams. You’re not in any relationship with that bastard I saw back then, right, boss?”
“That won’t happen, so don’t have vain expectations, and even if you have business buying flowers, don’t come here anymore. And I am in that kind of relationship with that person I saw back then.”
I gripped my phone tightly and lowered my trembling hands. Chu Gangmin’s gaze, which had been fixed on my lips that had spat out a plausible lie, immediately came up and met my eyes.
“Ranho.”
“……”
“In my dream, I called the boss like that. Ranho.”
“…I’m really feeling bad right now, so moderately—”
“You’ll get beaten to death if you lie.”
I thought it was fortunate that at least the table was blocking between me and Chu Gangmin. The sharp words were somehow familiar, and my whole body stiffened as soon as I heard them. I should have just not gotten out of bed after all. I opened the flower shop door for nothing. While staring intently without avoiding the gaze I had barely met, fortunately the entrance door opened and the wind chime sounded. As long as someone, anyone, would break this atmosphere, it didn’t matter who it was.
“Welcome.”
I greeted the customer without taking my eyes off Chu Gangmin. Only then did his gaze turn from me to behind me. His slowly turning head checked the visitor.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
