#053
Humans are animals with excellent adaptability. I had now reached the point where I would open my eyes wide at 8 o’clock even before the alarm went off. While I opened my eyes and squirmed for a moment, the familiar alarm rang. I only stuck my hand out of the blanket and fumbled around on the sheet. I snatched my phone and brought it into the blanket, turned off the alarm, and lay there a little longer. On the screen I briefly checked, there were missed call records. Right, I was supposed to call Ban Hajoon. After washing up, I got drunk and fell asleep without being able to answer the phone. Still, it seemed he only called up to 3 times before falling asleep. How sweet of him.
“I should call him later.”
As always, I don’t want to go to work. Especially in winter. It’s cold, cold, and cold, so I really don’t want to move. This is why animals hibernate.
“Ugh…”
I made a groaning sound and sat up straight, then flopped back down onto the blanket. What should I eat to improve low blood pressure? I’ve heard of foods that lower high blood pressure, but I’ve never heard of foods that raise low blood pressure. Is exercise the answer after all?
I sluggishly got out of bed with very slow movements. Even while heading to the bathroom, my vision flashed black several times. I fumbled along the wall to press the switch and pop- the light came on. Standing in front of the mirror, I examined my particularly haggard appearance today. Did mice chew on my hair all night? How can someone wake up looking like this after sleeping? Even my somewhat decent face was all swollen. I was thinking things like whether I drank too much yesterday when it happened.
“Really… what a mess…”
Blood. A nosebleed. I wiped with the back of my hand the blood that had dripped down my T-shirt in long streaks, drop by drop, and bent my head over the sink. I turned on the water to wash the blood from my hands and rolled up tissue paper to stuff into my left nostril where the nosebleed was flowing. It wasn’t a nosebleed that would stop easily, so only after changing the tissue several times did the blood gradually stop dripping.
I felt dizzy from losing just a little blood from my nose. I pulled out the tissue that had been blocking my nose and checked how much blood was on it. It had almost stopped. Since I had decided to extend Seo Ranho’s life, it would be great if I could raise his health condition to at least “average,” but since that wasn’t easy, I thought the best thing for now was to live without getting tired.
I should only open the shop 4 days a week. Once I get to work, I should seriously think about which day to take off. I carefully finished washing my face so as not to stimulate my nose that had stopped bleeding and cause another nosebleed, then left the bathroom. It’s always the same thought, but I hope today is a little less busy.
***
Just as I had hoped before leaving home, it was a leisurely morning. I swept the floor, opened the door for quite a long time to ventilate, and thoroughly wiped the drunk’s fingerprints on the messy front window. Even while dizzy from losing a bowlful of blood from my nose, I consciously tried not to sniffle.
Who left so many damn fingerprints? While squeaking away at cleaning the glass window, my irritation and anger flared up like fire. Is this what they call gradient anger? I don’t know if that’s the right expression, but even if Ju Isin came right now to prostrate himself in apology, I wouldn’t want to forgive him – that’s how pissed I was.
Feeling sorry was feeling sorry, and being pissed was being pissed. But wait, why isn’t he coming? Did he take the flowers home well? Is he busy? I repeated the action of spraying glass cleaner and wiping with a dry cloth until my fingertips became numb from the cold, then stopped cleaning. I realized that to clean as thoroughly as I wanted would take more than today. When the guy who made this mess comes, I’ll make him clean it. I thought this while washing my hands that had cleaner on them.
After making lots of suds and rinsing my hands clean, I dried them with the towel I’d brought while checking inside the showcase. Hmm. All the flowers are in good condition. It would be nice to sell a bouquet or two. I looked at the entrance as if checking for customers who weren’t coming, then sat down on the sofa. I turned on the mini heater and was fiddling with my phone when I thought of Gyoyeon, whom I hadn’t contacted for quite a while.
Did Gyoyeon go to work? If she was upset, I should apologize, and I should tell her I never saw her as more than a friend, and I need to break up Yeo Dongju and her too.
I stared at the message window where I’d exchanged texts with Gyoyeon for a long time, then moved my fingers without hesitating further.
「Gyoyeon, did you get to work okay? The weather is so cold today ㅠㅠ」
「Did you dress warmly?」
「If you don’t have anything special today, let’s have dinner together.」 11:46 AM
「Call me ^^」 11:47 AM
As soon as I sent the message, the number that had been next to it disappeared. But no reply came separately. I felt a little hurt, but I pulled myself together saying that shouldn’t be the case. I shouldn’t have those kinds of feelings toward Gyoyeon.
I put down the phone I was holding and sprawled on the table, thinking about Yeo Dongju and Gyoyeon. How could I separate those two? Seo Ranho stayed by Chu Gangmin’s side even while being beaten, so if Gyoyeon does the same, what should I do?
I was sighing deeply when suddenly the wind chime rang.
“Welcome…”
I straightened up my body that had just been lying down and turned only my upper body to check the entrance.
“Huh?”
“Hello!”
It’s Kim Yujin-ssi. Wearing a cream-colored turtleneck, light jeans, and a long padded vest, she showed the world the brightest smile with her plain face without makeup.
“I came to make a bouquet reservation. The wedding is right around the corner.”
Along with the words she spoke naturally, she approached the inside with quick steps and sat down next to me without hesitation. It seemed too close, so I reflexively created some distance.
“Ah! Was I too close? Sorry, sorry. I wanted to show you this…! The bouquet.”
Kim Yujin-ssi blushed as if embarrassed and laughed. She naturally swept back her hair that had fallen down with a rustle, then pushed her phone in front of me. The ring on the fourth finger of her small hand caught my attention. As if conscious of my obvious gaze, she placed her hand on the table and opened her mouth with a mischievous expression.
“Oh my, my hand is so heavy it’s a big problem. It’s so heavy I can’t lift my hand.”
Her delicate, slender fingers tapped the table at a steady pace. As if she really was Woo Dohwan’s friend, even that kind of playful behavior was similar. They both look prim and proper though. When I couldn’t help but laugh “pft,” Kim Yujin-ssi also burst into laughter.
“Congratulations. I guess you set the date?”
“Yes. So I looked up bouquets like crazy. The ceremony date is the 28th of next month, you know? It’s at the end of the year and completely in the middle of winter, right?”
Kim Yujin-ssi made a crying gesture by lowering the corners of her eyes with a “hmm,” and even though this was only our third meeting, she spoke freely like a friend she’d known for 3 years.
“I can’t postpone it. If I postpone it any more, my belly will show. But if we move the ceremony up, the schedule is too tight and there’s no hall we want.”
“I see. Weddings must have a lot to prepare. I always just make flowers and send them, so I don’t really know what or how to prepare.”
“I didn’t know there would be so much to prepare when getting married either. I thought it would be over with just putting on a wedding dress, ta-da-da-da.”
Kim Yujin-ssi naturally held her belly with one hand while pushing her phone toward me. I fixed my gaze on the screen and reached under the table. I turned the heater that had been facing me toward Kim Yujin-ssi and enlarged the photo.
“Hmm…”
“What kind of flowers are these? The image quality isn’t great when enlarged, so maybe it’s hard to see?”
“No. I can see it. This… looks like phalaenopsis and calla lilies.”
“Calla? This pink color? No, what color is this? Anyway, this is calla?”
I pushed the phone toward Kim Yujin who was asking back.
“It seems to be calla. And this is phalaenopsis.”
“Wow, pretty. Calla comes in this color too?”
“Right, I’m seeing coral for the first time too. It’s probably dyed… Pretty.”
The calla lilies with pink and orange colors exquisitely mixed had a lovely feeling. Does she want exactly the same as this?
“If you want the same as this, ordering from the florist who made this bouquet would be the best method.”
“Hmm, no. That’s not it, I’d like this to be included rather than calla. Phalaenopsis? This one.”
“Just this one?”
A bouquet with only phalaenopsis would be elegant but might be a bit plain.
“I’m not sure about that. This flower is pretty so I want to use this, but what should I add more? What would be pretty? I only know roses when it comes to flowers.”
She was genuinely confused. She grabbed her hair tightly and made a crying sound saying she didn’t know much about flowers. To such a person, I lowered my voice as if telling her a secret and whispered softly.
“It’s okay because more people don’t know flowers well. Most customers who come to buy flowers only know roses.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
When I made eye contact and nodded, Kim Yujin-ssi’s face softened gently.
“But this is also my first time making a bouquet with phalaenopsis… hmm…”
“Won’t it be pretty?”
Her gentle eyes turned downward. The face that had been smiling brightly soon filled with a gloomy mood and let out a light sigh.
“I’ve never paid attention to bouquets when attending weddings. If I had known it would be like this, I would have looked more closely.”
To her words spoken like a lament, I offered sincere words of comfort.
“Don’t worry too much. It will be pretty. Of course bouquets are pretty… I’m the problem. I’m worried I might ruin something important to Yujin-ssi.”
“I believe you’ll definitely make it beautifully. But… you know my name, shop owner?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
