#sohee lee

you had only won a grand total of like 3 times out of the probable hundreds of times sohee had initiated a game out of nowhere over the years. he grabs your attention with 'hey' followed by your nickname and sliding his fist in your direction and you know you’re destined to lose. lose both the game and the money for whatever little pastry your best friend wanted this time.

“sohee.. it’s not that big of a deal.” you rolled your eyes — you were such a sore loser.

“it’s big to me. i really like ice cream.”

your body sunk slightly limp against the couch in defeat. “yeah, ok. let’s go.”

ʚ ї ɞ 

“hi, could i please get two of the blue ones, please? thank you, have a nice day!”

you paid for both you AND sohee’s ice cream and started to walk away from the van in the direction of the park.

“do you know you said please twice?” smiling, he held two fingers up for emphasis, keeping his other hand occupied with his artificially coloured sweet treat.

“i knoww.. i get awkward ordering food.”

“just ask me to order for you next time.”

you laughed, “what, you order and then i only come forward to pay? do i get the broke boyfriend hug too?”

he stifled his laugh, “but i’m not broke…”

“…why’d i just buy you ice cream then?” you squinted your eyes at him in an accusatory expression.

“because i’m super serious about rock, paper, scissors. and a winner deserves a treat.”

“right, right… well, what about all the times i’ve beaten you at mario kart?” 

sohee’s eyes widened slightly with realisation. realisation that 1) stupidly, he had never thought to bring the sweet treats outside of rock, paper, scissors; and 2) you had just given him the outlet to do what he’s been plotting for months — put the moves on you.

his eyes relaxed into an almost lazy look. a look that said 'oh, i know what to do.'

nonchalantly, he slipped both of his hands into his jean pockets, “well, that's 'cus you’re already sweet enough.” looking off to the side all proud.

you laughed at him. “what are you talking about, you cheapskate.”

“i’m trying to flirt with you.” he breathed out in a laugh. wait.

you both froze. he did not mean to say that so bluntly.

"oh? is this you feeling bad about making me buy you ice cream?"

"uhm, this is me being brave."

you stared at your friend. you would be shocked— you should be shocked, but you weren't. sohee, as much as he'd like to think, was not very subtle. you would be sitting watching a movie and every once in a while notice him studying your features in your peripheral vision. and on the rare occasion you would turn to silently let him know 'you've been caught', he couldn't care less. just smiles at you and reverts his vision back to the screen.

"wow, i'm blushing." you poked him in the stomach shyly, making him squirm. "are you gonna be my boyfriend now?"

he bent his body slightly, leaning to get his face a little closer to yours "do you want me to be..?"

"god, i mean kinda, yeah."

sohee laughed at your unseriousness, "okay then, i will be. can your boyfriend have a kiss?"

you hummed with a nod, cradling his face to press a kiss to one of the many moles his face, making the peaks of his cheeks immediately flush pink.

as you’re trimming one of the big plants in the corner you hear the shop bell ring and greet them before stopping what you’re doing to assist them and it’s an older male maybe in his mid 30s, so you approach him, “hi! welcome in, can i help you find anything specific today?” you say with a warm confident tone, a nice customer service smile planted on your face as you wait for his response.

“uh… i actually don’t know what i’m looking for-” he cuts himself off rubbing the back of his neck with a sigh “maybe something that's not too loud, but also not too quiet you know? i need it to scream ‘i love you’ but not to be so obvious.” and you nod listening to him and he speaks again “i know i probably said a bunch of nothing but that’s what i’m going for.” and you laugh, “no i completely understand, i am a florist after all. it’s my job to know.” you wink at him teasingly and you see his shoulders relax a bit.

“okay so starting with the basic everyone knows, roses but obviously roses scream ‘i love you’ and i know you said you didn’t want it to be so obvious.” he nods at your words “so do you mind me asking the occasion? just so i can kind of get more of an insight of what you’re feeling.” you smile at him as he brushes one of the rose petals with his finger and he speaks, “me and my wife haven't really been seeing eye to eye lately and i want her to see i’m at least trying.”

you hum and his words and then speak “okay well roses aren’t going to cut it,” you say and he laughs a bit “so let’s move on to the next flower being lisianthus, these are typically used for weddings but i think these will definitely suit your situation.” he bends over to sniff the flowers then lets out a low chuckle “why?” he adds.

“well lisianthus usually mean ‘appreciation’ and appreciation can be shown in different ways hence why you're buying the flowers, to show your appreciation for your wife, right?” he nods and you continue, “they also typically mean ‘long-lasting love’ and well that speaks for itself.” he gives you a friendly smile before picking one up and holding it towards the light, like he was looking for a sign. “you really know your stuff huh? are you also a marriage counselor?” he jokes and you laugh, “nope just a girl who works in a flower shop and knows how to talk to people.”

he nods and smiles then says “can i get a bouquet of these?” he asks politely as if you’re going to maybe say no. “of course, pick out 8 any colors you want then join me at the register and i’ll get those wrapped for you.” and then you make your way over to the counter getting the wrapping station prepared behind you. eventually he makes his way over to the counter and you turn around feeling a presence behind you, “is there a specific way you want these wrapp-” but he cuts you off before you can finish not in a mean or hurried manner just in a way that's like ‘i know what’s coming next’ and he says “whatever you think will look nice.”

you smile nodding not offended he cut you off, a lot of people do this towards the end of their flowering picking they’ll rather you use your brain for the rest of the time they’re there than them. you grab the flowers from him and wrap them neatly in a light pink paper to balance the pink lisianthus he picked and of course the colors flowed together naturally, you’re an expert.

as you turned around your friend entered the shop waving making silent noises like she’s excited to tell you something because she is, you raise an eyebrow in her direction before handing the bouquet of lisianthus to the man, “12.29, cash or card?” he said cash and gave you a twenty dollar bill and said keep the change, he gave you a nod as he left and you did the same watching him walk away from the window.

“DUDEEEEEE!” your friend says approaching the counter, “what was all that excitement about just now?” you tease her, as she’s about to talk you beat her to it “actually let’s talk outside,” and she grabs your arm dragging you outside. “okay like i was going to say, me and … blah blah blah.” is soon what you heard because your attention was elsewhere, you were fixing some of the flowers outside the shop but a hearing some voice across the street caught your attention, “anton, i literally told you NOT too yesterday AND YOU DID!” one of the guys shouted to someone you presumed to be anton, across the street was a dry cleaners so you just assumed whatever they were talking about had something to do with them leaving from there.

you turned around from the flowers and looked a the group of guys two taller than the other, he was a bit shorter, a few moles on his face, hair a tad bit messy or maybe it’s styled? whatever it is caused you to raise an eyebrow.

just as you relax your eyebrow the shorter guy looks over at you and for a second you were unsure if he was looking at you, but he was looking.

his eyes met yours and it suddenly felt like whatever your friend was saying was muted, the world around you felt still you knew he was with his friends but somehow even they disappeared, he eyes don’t dart as if he’s waiting for you to look away, you're afraid to, this moment feels familiar… right like this is something that should be happening and the butterflies forming in your stomach only makes you think that whatever you’re thinking is correct.

his gaze doesn’t flinch. it’s held with quiet intensity like he had been waiting—not for just a day or two but in a way that made your stomach flutter more. he looks at you with recognition, like two people in the same small yet big world, you two made contact without even using words. as if you two were reading two different books but hoping for the same outcome.

he couldn’t look away, neither could you. and you knew and so did he.

“hello…?” your friend snaps and waves her fingers in front of your face getting your attention, snapping you back to reality “are you listening?” and you turn your head in her direction nodding “huh? what? yes, uh huh. i’m listening.” you glance back in the direction that guy and you assume his friends were but they had already turned the corner.

you knew that wasn’t the end of your story, he’d be back. you felt it more than you’d like to admit.

“okay so like i was saying.” your friend says following you back into the store.

TUESDAY:

you’re up a bit early today, you didn’t have work today because you’re usually off on tuesday but you still wanted to stop by the shop maybe treat yourself to flowers because why not? the events from yesterday played in your head causing a faint smile to creep onto your face, you scream into your pillow thinking you’ll probably never see him again and yesterday was the last time but you had convinced yourself you would see him again.

you know it’s a 50/50 chance of seeing him again. it’s only a matter of time, but that was your first time seeing him on that side of town in general. you’ve worked at that for about 3 years now and never once have you seen him, “i’m sure i’d remember a face like that.” you mumble into your pillow “right..?” you try to disregard what you were thinking but that only made it worse.

so you give into your thoughts and let your mind race from the good to the bad “but what if his stomach also did flips…” “but what if he thought i was a freaking creep for staring at him… but like CAN YOU BLAME A GIRL???” you huff then bang the pillow against your face groaning. “pull yourself together, you don’t even know that man.” you say to yourself it was supposed to be encouraging but it didn’t work not even a little.

suddenly your phone buzzes and it’s your boss,

“goodmorning! i don’t know if you’re up or not but a man is here saying you sold him some flowers yesterday, said he wanted to thank you again but i told him you weren’t working today.”

you smile at the message, people usually always come back the next day or a few days later to thank you for your kindness and it always means the world to you because if they come back and thank you then that usually means their significant other loved the flowers. you quickly type a reply,

“aw… thats sweet, if he’s still there then tell him it’s no problem :), i hope his wife loved the flowers.”

you toss your phone across the bed now ready to start your day, your mind long off the mysterious guy you saw yesterday and now focuses on the day ahead. you move through you little apartment with ease like you’ve done this a thousand times, which you have.

you make you some tea, nothing fancy just basic lemon tea. you put one waffle and a piece of bread in the toaster since you couldn’t decide between the two, you quickly rush to the bathroom before the waffles are done. you made it a challenge ‘if i don’t finish before the toaster dings i’ll have a bad day’ and low and behold the toaster dings before you can make it back and you groan but no one told you to challenge yourself.

the morning is slow but steady, the kind of morning you look forward to. you loved a quiet morning just you, your tea and the dead flowers in the window. “i have to stop buying flowers when i don’t even take care of them.” you think to yourself, you take better care of the ones at the shop than the ones in your house “well i do get paid to take care of those at the shop” you muttered again the cup of tea.

eventually you wrap up breakfast and decide it’s time to officially start the day, leaving the house, going out, letting the sun kiss your skin and definitely buying new flowers for your window. you quickly get dressed in something simple, basic jean shorts, green babydoll top, knee high socks and some basic new balances you bought a few weeks ago as your everyday shoes.

as you walk along the sidewalk tote bag hanging on your shoulder bumping into your side casually as you walked, no specific destination in mind but you knew you wanted to end up at the flower shop. the world is so green, so beautiful the faint smell of bread hitting your nose as you pass by a cafe, what looks like a small family sitting at a bus stop. times like this made you realize even while you sleep or be in your own little world in your apartment the world around you doesn’t just stop.

you’re still walking the street having your main character moment which no one around you seems to notice or care. everyone is in there own world and that was okay with you. you walk past a book store heading into a record shop, mostly to look maybe to buy a vinyl or even a cd.

“oh hi y/n, welcome back! oh—we’ve got some new vinyls the other day. i knew you’d probably stop by soon so i put them out today.” ryan said, you know him because you always come here and he’s always working. he gestures towards the area of the vinyls and you’re about to say something but someone needs his attention at the front desk so you smile and mouth ‘thank you’ before moving to that area.

you’re flipping through the vinyls gently, most of these you’ve been hoping they’d have but your mind is torn between ‘do i want this or do i need this’ and you keep flipping through them smiling to yourself knowing you’re gonna leave here spending unnecessary money. just as you’re about to look through the cds on the next shelf you hear a familiar name, “anton?” you mumble to yourself, “why does that name sound so familiar?” you stand up from your squat position and look over your shoulder and there he is.

you immediately squat back down hopefully before he sees you again, “what the hell am i doing???” and then you stand up again “my life is not a movie why did i just hide like that?” and you laugh to yourself but then you hear “even she’s laughing,” you heard none of what he said prior to him that just now. you turn around and you’re two tall guys are on the other side of the vinyl table and the slightly shorter guy right beside him, you didn’t know which between the taller two were anton but you knew the shorter guy wasn’t.

“oh… i wasn’t laughing at you guys i was talking to myself-” you started cutting your own self off then continuing “actually never mind disregard that.” you say slightly smiling at how you almost embarrassed yourself in front of three good looking guys but you look good too so it balances it out.

one of the taller guys raises his eyebrows then says “you can admit you laughed at my joke, sungchan will not be offended.” you glance at sungchan and you put two and two together “if he’s sungchan and he’s anton… what’s his name…?” you think to yourself, you try not to make it obvious you’re in your head but you glance at the other guy with squinted curious eyes.

and he said “i look familiar?” raising an eyebrow, “huh? what? no no, i was just thinking about something and my eyes landed on you. my bad.” you manage to get out without it sounding weird.

he just nods his head, anton turns to sungchan and then back to you “you look very familiar,” he states. “do i say ‘yeah, it’s because i seen all three of you yesterday’ or ‘yeah i work in a flower shop’” obviously you pick the obvious answer.

“yeah it’s because i seen all three of you yesterday.” you said and they all look at you not like they’re creeped out just curious then anton speaks again “no not that,” he says “not that…?” you repeated in a slightly confused way. “you work at a flower shop, i remember you specifically. you helped me pick out flowers for my mom on mother’s day.” and sungchan looks at him “oh this so this is… aaaaahhhh…. ok ok.” he says in a knowing way and anton nods, it was obvious they had discussed you amongst themselves before.

“y/n right?” anton says and you nod and he continues “yeah i figured, didn’t know you were into vinyl but i guess i should’ve known since you weren’t into me.” and the shorter guy elbows him “are you serious right now?” your eyebrows are knitted not in an angry way just in a ‘are you serious’ way then shorter guy says “excuse my friend he’s a freak who doesn’t handle rejection too well.” “mmhm…” you hum before picking up a random cds and walking to the counter.

you pay for the cd telling ryan ‘bye’ before leaving. the shorter guy looks at anton and says “wow so smooth…” he rolls his eyes “i freaked out i didn’t know what to say.” he said “so you say the worst thing imaginable??? i didn’t even get to tell her my name…” the shorter guy adds.

“what are the odds we see her again? just like yesterday and the week before that?” he continues, then sungchan adds “sohee stop stressing if we ran into her today you’ll see her again, that’s how fate works right? you’re the one who said it was fate so.”