#tzuhyo

It’s not that Tzuyu didn’t like flowers. It’s just that she didn’t know shit about them. For some reason, she’d let Nayeon convince her that working as a florist wouldn’t be hard for a part time job and now she was stuck; stuck working an evening shift alone with barely any training and a pat on the back for good luck from Nayeon as she clocked out. Sure, the evening shift wasn’t that bad. On a usual day, there wouldn’t be many customers and the evening would go smoothly until Tzuyu locked the door and closed the shop. The only big responsibility she had was counting and restocking the flowers. Still, the idea of running the store alone with only Google to help her scared the hell out of Tzuyu.

It was after a few nights of running the store alone and only one mix-up that Tzuyu realized that Nayeon hadn’t been lying about the evening shift being pretty easy. In fact, Tzuyu would even call the job boring. Every night she’d worked had been the same, and tonight wasn’t supposed to be busy at all, so Tzuyu sighed and settled down behind the counter, ready for a long night of doing nothing but studying the flowers and hoping no one needing her opinion came in.

Just as she was about to get out the flower guidebook, convinced that nobody would be coming in for a while, the chime over the door jingled. Tzuyu looked up and came face to face with a girl, much shorter than her, with a sweet look on her face and two arms full of tattoos as far as Tzuyu could see.

“Hello, welcome,” she said, shoving the book back under the counter and putting on her best customer service smile. “Can I help you with anything?” The girl looked up and smiled, walking up to the counter. A little voice in Tzuyu’s head whispered “shit”.

“Hello! Yes, actually. I run the tattoo parlor across the street and I’m looking for something to liven the place up while simultaneously giving me a real-life reference for the flower tattoos I’ve been asked to do lately.” Somehow, Tzuyu couldn’t see this girl running a tattoo parlor. But then again, the tattoos running up and down her arms hadn’t been expected either.

“Oh. Well,” Tzuyu replied, stalling for a moment to think. “Do you know which flowers make popular tattoos?” The girl laughed and rubbed the back of her neck. Tzuyu’s eyes strayed to her tattoos and she had to cover her surprised choke with a fake cough at the sight of the naked woman on the other girl’s forearm.

“Sorry, I’m clueless when it comes to flowers, so I have no idea. I think roses are quite popular?” Tzuyu cursed internally, putting her hand to the phone in her apron.

“Okay, I see. There’s something I might be able to check in the back, if you’ll just give me a moment.” Tattoo girl beamed and nodded.

“Take your time, you’re the expert!” Tzuyu gave her a weak smile in return and resisted the urge to cry, because she really wasn’t. When she stepped into the back, she immediately pulled out her phone and turned on Google, fingers hovering over the keyboard, trying to think of what to search in order to find tattoo-able flowers. She typed in “tattoo flowers”, then deleted it. Not specific enough. “What flowers do people tattoo”? No, that didn’t sound right. Finally, she typed in “most popular flower tattoos” and hit search.

Immediately, she was overwhelmed by the staggering amount of Pinterest boards that flooded her results list. After scrolling through a few of them and scanning an article or two, she turned off her phone and shoved it back into the pocket of her apron, hardly any better off than she had been before. As she stepped back out to the desk, tattoo girl gave her a hopeful look. Tzuyu cleared her throat.

“Uh, well, it looks like flower tattoos have a whole lot of different types of flowers in them, like roses and poppies and lilies and stuff. I could make a giant bouquet or two, if you want.” Tattoo girl smiled widely.

“That will work. I guess I could also just start asking the customers what kind of flowers they want in their tattoos, that might be easier.” Tzuyu wanted to facepalm, but there was something cute about the girl’s personality that made her smile instead. It wasn’t even forced.

“I guess I could make you the bouquet now and you could come back whenever you need a specific reference.” The other girl nodded.

“I’ll take two mixed bouquets today.”

Making bouquets wasn’t hard at all. In fact, Nayeon had actually been right about that part being easy too, although Tzuyu would never let her know that. It took Tzuyu no longer than twenty minutes to stuff as many types of typical tattoo flowers into two bouquets as possible. At the end of it, two beautiful works of art sat in front of her and tattoo girl looked impressed, so Tzuyu would say it was a success.

“These look great,” tattoo girl said as she paid, eyes moving slowly over the many buds arranged perfectly on the table. “I think you covered everything. I might not even need to come back.” Something in Tzuyu didn’t like that idea.

“Well, they do die pretty quick.” Tattoo girl laughed as she picked up her flowers.

“Fine then, I guess I’ll have to come back,” she said, smiling widely. “My name is Jihyo, by the way.” Tzuyu smiled back.

“I’m Tzuyu, and please do.”

The bell over the door jingled again as she left and Tzuyu stared after her until she disappeared into her store. Then, slightly winded, she finally let her shoulders fall from where they’d been obnoxiously straight in an attempt to seem more professional. She just couldn’t seem to make herself stop smiling, though.

-

A month later, Tzuyu still couldn’t stop smiling. Every time she caught a glance of Jihyo through the window, or whenever Jihyo made her way across the street and through the door, calling Tzuyu’s name with a familiar twinkle in her eye, Tzuyu felt like she was going to explode. In a good way. She couldn’t remember the last time when she had felt so light. Her shoulders lost their tension and she walked lighter than ever, lips easily curving up when a customer walked in.

It was driving Nayeon crazy.

“What happened to the real Tzuyu and who are you,” she said one day as Tzuyu clocked in. She was sitting on the front desk, which Tzuyu was pretty sure wasn’t allowed, while Jeongyeon played with her phone behind her on the other side.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tzuyu said, turning her head to flare at the other girl. But then she caught sight of Jihyo through the tattoo parlor window and the flare dissolved into a small smile. Nayeon huffed and slammed her hand onto the desk, starting to swing her legs even faster in her frustration.

“See? That’s what I’m talking about. Did you see that, Jeongyeon?”

“Mmhmm,” Jeongyeon answered, even though it was obvious that she hadn’t been paying attention. Nayeon, unbothered, continued.

“The old Tzuyu would have cursed at me and shoved me off the desk already. This Tzuyu can’t even glare right.”

“I can glare, I just don’t feel like wasting my energy on you right now,” Tzuyu said, moving over to the desk and not taking her eyes off Jihyo. She could see the flowers by the window and her chest soared when she noticed their wilting leaves. That meant Jihyo would probably be over soon.

“Hello, earth to Tzuyu. Now you’re not even listening!” Nayeon turned around to look at Tzuyu, then followed her gaze. “What are you even looking at?”

“Nothing,” Tzuyu lied, just as Jihyo finally met her eyes through the window and waved. Caught, Tzuyu waved back, trying to ignore Nayeon’s squeal.

“Oh, Tzuyu, you have a crush, don’t you?”

“No, I don’t. Shut up, Nayeon.”

Nayeon ignored Tzuyu, clasping her hands together. “This explains everything. Did you hear that, Jeongyeon? Our baby Tzuyu has a crush!”

“Mmhm.” Jeongyeon switched from Snapchat to Tumblr, nodding her head to pacify Nayeon. Ignoring them, Tzuyu watched as Jihyo disappeared deeper into her shop and hoped that her cheeks weren’t red.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Tzuyu? I can help you woo her,” Nayeon continued, voice rising in excitement.

“No, thanks,” Tzuyu replied as she sank behind the desk, silently asking the gods above to make Nayeon shut up.

“Awe, you’re so cute when you’re in love.” Tzuyu sighed and closed her eyes, about to slam her head against the desk in frustration when Jeongyeon finally piped up from her spot leaning on the other side of the desk.

“Hey, listen to this. Apparently, lesbians used to give each other violets to confess their love to each other or something.” Tzuyu opened her eyes and perked up. Nayeon, momentarily distracted, turned around to ask Jeongyeon why the other girl had never gotten her any, but Tzuyu wasn’t listening. She was too busy formulating a plan.

-

Jihyo didn’t come into the store until hours later, after Tzuyu had kicked Nayeon and her girlfriend out of the store because they “weren’t customers” and were really, really annoying while she was trying to think. When the bell over the door jingled, all the cool words Tzuyu had rehearsed inside her head flew out the window, replaced by a million anxious butterflies screaming and flipping in her stomach. Regardless of he nerves starting to make her hands shake, she couldn’t help but return the smile Jihyo sent her as she walked up to the front desk.

“Long time no see, stranger,” Jihyo said, leaning on the desk with her elbows out in front of her.

“You just saw me, like, two hours ago,” Tzuyu replied, trying not to let her eyes travel down Jihyo’s low cut top.

“That’s too long!” The words made Tzuyu’s heart do a backflip, and she laughed, basking in Jihyo’s familiar glow.

“Are you looking for anything today?” Jihyo shook her head.

“Not today, no new tattoo requests. But I want to keep the place looking nice. Do you have any suggestions?” This was perfect. Tzuyu cleared her throat and readied herself.

“Actually, yeah.” The bouquet of violets sat ready in the back room. “I already have something ready, if you’ll, uh, give me a moment.” Jihyo beamed, and Tzuyu swore that she was experiencing a bit of déjà vu.

“Take your time.” Tzuyu stepped into the back room and took a deep breath, trying to calm her butterflies as she grabbed the bouquet. Jihyo was waiting outside, still leaning over the counter and smiling at her as she stepped out.

“This is it,” Tzuyu said, holding out the violets. Jihyo made an excited little noise that sent shivers up Tzuyu’s spine and carefully took it from her, looking it over.

“Violets?”

“Yeah, uh. They have a cool meaning behind them.” Jihyo looked up at her, eyebrows raised.

“Really?”

Tzuyu had rehearsed what to say here, but for some reason, now that she was face to face with Jihyo, the words just wouldn’t come out. So instead, she plastered on a weak smile.

“Yeah. You can look it up, it’ll be like a game.” If Jihyo noticed the sudden tenseness that had worked its way into Tzuyu’s every muscle, she didn’t let it show. She just smiled back and pulled the bouquet closer to her body.

“Thank you, Tzuyu. Should I come back when I figure it out?”

“Yeah,” Tzuyu said. “Please do.”

-

For the first time in a long time, when Tzuyu woke up the next day, she didn’t want to go to work. She knew that Jihyo had gone home and Googled the meanings of violets. In fact, Tzuyu had done the exact same thing, and who knew that violets had so many different meanings? Purity and modesty or something. But that was just the literal meaning, right? She has said interesting, so wouldn’t Jihyo search until she found the more interesting meaning?

Even if Jihyo had found the meaning that Tzuyu had had in mind, there was still the question of if Jihyo even felt the same. There were too many “what ifs” and Tzuyu really, really didn’t want to go to work.

She even told Nayeon this much over text. The text she received in return read “lol, sucks for you I’m not working a double.” She didn’t know why she expected more.

Eventually, Tzuyu dragged her way through getting ready, hoping to put off her inevitable conversation with Jihyo. By the time she arrived at work, Nayeon was standing by the exit, a scowl on her face.

“Took you long enough. If you don’t clock in soon, you’ll get marked late.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Tzuyu muttered, moving her way through the store. Nayeon rolled her eyes.

“Don’t forget,” she yelled after Tzuyu, “that you have the easy shift!”

For the first hour, Tzuyu didn’t see Jihyo through her window. Customers went in and out of her shop, but Jihyo was nowhere to be seen.

As the anxiety began to build higher in Tzuyu’s chest, Jihyo finally appeared, walking through her door and making her way across the road. Tzuyu wished she could hide under the desk.

The bell above the door sounded more somber than ever before. Tzuyu locked eyes with Jihyo, and Jihyo smiled. A bit of Tzuyu’s anxiety went away when she saw it, because a smile was good. A smile couldn’t mean anything bad.

“Hello there,” Jihyo said, and Tzuyu finally calmed down enough to look the other girl over and notice that her arms were behind her back.

“Hello,” Tzuyu replied, for a lack of anything better to say.

“I have something for you today,” Jihyo said. The anxiety immediately came back, and Tzuyu tried to act nonchalant, raising her eyebrows the same way Jihyo had the day before.

“Oh yeah? What is it?” Jihyo took her arms from behind her back. In her hand was a single violet. Tzuyu’s heart skipped a beat.

“Um, this is for you. I looked up the meaning and… I feel the same?” When she didn’t respond right away, Jihyo rubbed the back of her neck. “At least, I hope that’s what you meant by them.”

“You like me too?” Tzuyu couldn’t keep the words from spilling out. Jihyo, her cheeks pink, laughed and nodded her head.

“Yeah, I do. Want to be my girlfriend?” Tzuyu could feel herself blushing, but the smile was back.