♜

The next three days went the by the same pattern of trades.

On Friday, Luhan asked for purple flowers and he got them in exchange for a jar of sugar cookies. On Tuesday, Minseok received a candy cane collection and jack-in-the box that was starting to really scare him. Wednesday, it was roses for Reese’s peanut-butter cups. On Thursday, there were balloon animals and daisies.

Luhan hadn’t forgotten what he was here for. It had been a while now, with the surprisingly difficult task of bringing Minseok down to levelheadedness. He decided the florist wasn’t that far gone, and could easily overcome his rage-quit issue. Kim Minseok was – and Luhan could tell just by looking – really just a bundle of fluff and feelings.

In the end, Luhan was only concerned about the fact that he had started to enjoy the job. And that, while it had it’s benefits, would make things difficult.

For instance, the other day, he’d found himself so heated by the debate of whether or not tomatoes could be in fruit salads that he even let Minseok throw the red fruit at him. He caught it. But that wasn’t the point. He was straying from the point.

The point was, he needed to focus on psychological results.

“How dull is your apartment, anyway?” Minseok asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he arranged the yellow flower assortment into a wrapped bouquet. “You’d think you would’ve had enough plants by now.”

“Never mind that.” Luhan waved the question away with a bandaged hand. He’d been hit pretty hard with that ceramic paperweight that had been meant for Tao. But he wouldn’t say it out loud. He let the bandage speak for itself and so nobody said a word about it. “I didn’t know you had a tattoo.”

Minseok raised an eyebrow. “Oh, this?” His sleeved were rolled up and his exposed forearm revealed an inked image of a veiny, realistic heart. The organ looked somewhat gorgeous against Minseok’s pale, pale wrist, bringing out the white skin of his arm and deepening the smoldering purplish ink of the tattoo.

“It’s nice.” Luhan said. He had his back resting against the wall and his hands in the pocket of his over-sized lavender cardigan. He was wearing a white Gudaetama t-shirt underneath and it made him look even younger. “When did you get it?”

Minseok had to think about that. “When I was sixteen, I think?”

Luhan’s eyes widened. “That young?”

“Yeah.”

It started a silence, but Luhan filled it easily. “What kind of teenager were you?”

Minseok shrugged. “Guess.”

That would’ve been easy. Luhan obliged anyway. “You…had money. Not rich but middle-class.”

Minseok nodded.

“You played a sport.” Luhan guessed. “Football?”

Minseok smiled. “Yeah.”

“I bet you were completely single. Listened to indie music. No, rock. Rock music.” Luhan pressed his lips together and Minseok let out a low chuckle. “Bon Jovi?”

At that, Minseok laughed. “Exactly that.”

It was still early. Luhan had work in a while and Minseok had been in the shop for hours already.

“By the way,” Luhan started. “How’s Tao doing?”

Minseok shrugged. “He’s in the back. Go and ask him.”

Luhan rolled his eyes. “There’s an Employees Only sign on that door for a reason.”

“He’s fine.” Minseok sighed.

“What’s that attitude?”

“He’s just all…” Minseok furrowed his eyebrows and Luhan leaned forward. “Too close to Sehun.”

“What’s wrong with Sehun?”

“What’s wrong with Tao,” Minseok corrected. “He shouldn’t be around my…my…”

“Son?” Luhan filled in.

“He shouldn’t be around my son.” Minseok ruffled the flowers a little more harshly and Luhan make a ‘tch’ noise because he knew what was about to happen. “I mean, it’s bad enough Sehun took him in and let him live on his couch – by the way, did you know about that? They live together.”

“Yeah, I knew.”

“How did I miss that?” Minseok slapped his hand on the counter half-assedly. “What’s worse is I think Tao…”

“Tao…?”

Minseok blushed (he blushed) and looked down at the flowers. “I think Tao hafmmfm,” he mumbled.

“What?”

“I think.” Minseok awkwardly scratched his chin. “Tao has a crush on him.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…well?”

Luhan cleared his throat. “You just now figured that out?”

Minseok turned beet red and fumbled with the ribbons on the bouquet and Luhan broke into laughter. With a final tie of the golden string, he left the flower-set on the counter and walked into the back room.

“Whatever,” said Minseok with averted eyes. “Take your bouquet and get out.” The blush was still deep on his cheeks and he turned around a final time before completely behind the door. “I’m in a weird, stingy mood today,” he said. “So you’d better bring me something good for it.”

Luhan picked up the flowers and grinned. “I have just the thing for that.”

♜

♠

That morning, Chanyeol took a long, eventless walk through town. And as he studied every building he passed, he wondered how he ended up there. He remembered he city well, but it didn’t feel like something that would last. He was glad it was over. He couldn’t take walks in the city – at least not this quietly.

In his first year at Parkside, he was living in the guest room at Yixing’s mom’s house making only enough to rent the closet. Somewhere through the generosity and a hit single, he managed to make it into his current place. The second year, he met Jongdae and Kyungsoo, and by horrid circumstance, Junmyeon. As the years flew, so did the familiarity and formality, which faded quickly into casualty and simplicity.

Parkside seemed to shrink a bit every time Chanyeol left his house. There were only like four streets total, two of which were occupied by flower shops and preschools and pet stores and confectionaries.

Another little perk of the rest-stop town was that you probably knew your neighbor, even if you never really met. It was the definition of a miniature world.

Truth was, he’d left his house with a fixed intention. He stopped in front of the flower shop and let out a breath as he pushed through the double glass doors. A bell jingled, and the guy behind the counter looked up.

Chanyeol had been there before, just window shopping on a rainy day for no apparent reason. He could’ve sworn there had been a different employee the last time, and a different man behind the glass every time he walked by.

“Uh, can I get a bouquet of roses?”

The guy stopped flipping through his magazine and gave Chanyeol a long look before nodding. “What for?”

Chanyeol raised his eyebrows; no employee of any known service he’d seen had ever asked what for. “Just for a friend.”

The guy smirked. “Pink, then?”

“What?”

“Pink roses.”

“No, uh.” Chanyeol dug his hand into his pocket awkwardly. “Red.”

The guy’s smirk deepened and stretched into something gleaming, “Just for a friend?”

Chanyeol frowned, and held a long pause before answering. “Yeah.”

“You hesitated so long I’m getting curious.”

The employee’s nametag read TAO in shiny, bolded letters. He wore a plaid shirt that was kind of ripped from the corner of the sleeve, and a big watch that questioned his social status.

“He’s just a friend,” Chanyeol said, but eased into his own shoes and matched Tao’s smirk. “For the moment.”

Tao laughed. “I’ll get you that bouquet.” He walked around the counter and behind a shelf. “Don’t just stand there, though. Gimme a hand.”

Chanyeol blinked. “Right.” He shifted the weight in his legs. “Right. Okay.” And followed after Tao through the rows and rows of potted colors. The flowers were grouped by order of the rainbow, and soon after the orange chrysanthemums, they made it to the roses, which had their own corner.

Chanyeol felt the urge to take a picture of the display. There was a whole wall of blood red roses, starting from a bush and a spider-plant hanging from the ceiling. It stretched and branched out beautifully, vines of the flower falling drooping down over a dark wooden table, which held vases of picked, undamaged specimens, and ready for Tao to carefully tuck them together.

“Is seven okay?”

“What?”

“Is seven roses enough?”

“Oh.” Chanyeol tore his eyes away from the flowers. “Yeah. It’s great.”

“’Kay.” Tao walked back to the checkout desk and Chanyeol followed quietly. “So this friend of yours…”

Chanyeol’s forehead creased. “Uh-huh?”

“How badly do you want them?”

It took Chanyeol a minute to guess how he wanted to answer that. He saw the crescent-eyed smile and the rectangular smile and he choked and man, that was a bad idea. Falling into a fit of hoarse coughs, he could only wave a hand in haste as Tao laughed. He wrote something down on a card and Chanyeol studied the wall as the employee finished wrapping the bouquet.

“Here.” Tao held out the bouquet. “Carry it carefully.”

“Right.” Chanyeol took the roses and nodded. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Tao said, not looking back at Chanyeol as he opened his dog-eared magazine and went back to his article. Chanyeol took that as his dismissal and soon, he was back out on the streets in the heat of the day.

♠

♬

Junmyeon had been home for three days and it had been as eventless as it could’ve gotten. He’d been looking forward to continuing his reputation as Parkside’s anomaly. But his plans were unluckily foiled by a summer cold, and now he lazed around the house without a thing to do.

Kyungsoo didn’t have classes for a while, and he could’ve been enjoying the time spent at home, if it weren’t for his idle returnee roommate and his desire to be entertained. Junmyeon became a lump on the couch beside Kyungsoo, who was buried in his textbook.

A few paces away, in the dining room, Jongdae was filling out a crossword puzzle.

The clock ticked and the only sound in the whole house was the scratching of dull pencils on dry paper.

“Kyungsoo.”

“Yes.”

“You’ve been studying for three hours.”

“I have.”

“Aren’t you tired?”

“Of course.”

“Why are you still working, then?”

“Exams.”

Junmyeon sighed. “You know, if you take a break, it’ll be better for your brain.” Kyungsoo said nothing. “It gives time for the information to sink in.”

The student set his pencil down. “Will it?”

Junmyeon nodded. “It’s psychology.”

From the dining room, there was a snort. “Please,” Jongdae scoffed. “Don’t believe anything that beaver tries to tell you.”

Kyungsoo looked between the two and sighed, closing his book and packing his things. Junmyeon grinned because he thought he’d won, and Jongdae glared because he couldn’t stand it.

“I’m going to study upstairs.” Kyungsoo said, and Junmyeon’s face fell. Jongdae smirked. “I’ll be back later to make dinner.”

“What’re we having?” Junmyeon asked.

“I was thinking of gimbap today.”

“Oh,” Jongdae’s head poked into sight. “I think there’s something wrong with the kitchen sink, by the way.”

Kyungsoo nodded. “Fix it well, hyung.” And then he was upstairs, leaving Jongdae staring after him dull-eyed.

The aura went slack until Junmyeon chuckled and stretched out his legs on the couch, now that Kyungsoo was gone. “Fix it well~” He mused.

Jongdae tch-ed. “You don’t do any work around here.”

“I pay the rent.”

“Do some labor, you snail.”

Junmyeon let out a breath of laughter. “Like what?”

Jongdae gave him a long, hard look before picking up his crossword puzzle and setting it on the coffee-table. He took a seat on the single sofa and pursed his lips. “Fix the sink.”

“What?”

“The sink isn’t working right.” Jongdae said. “Fix it.”

“Call a plumber.”

“Plumbers don’t come to Parkside.” That was true. Services like this: pizza delivery and electricians and even real estate agents didn’t come to Parkside. It was too secluded and the road through the forest and into the town was too ragged for regular travel. “Come on, you took a course on this in college. You can do it.”

Junmyeon scowled and stood up, rolling up the sleeves of his black t-shirt. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Find out.” Jongdae said, mimicking Junmyeon’s previous position and stretching out his legs. “Oh, and I wouldn’t wear that watch if I were you.”

Junmyeon took off his watch with a simple click and set it on the counter. He turned the knob of the sink and gasped as the water gushed out diagonally and all over the floor – and his legs.

“Do we have any tools?” He asked through gritted teeth.

“Nope.” The vein on Junmyeon’s forehead could practically be seen in his annoyance. It only pleased Jongdae, who took it as a victory and relaxed, keeping his focus on the crossword. “Just get some from Yifan.”

There was a pause. “Who?”

Jongdae looked up from his puzzle. “Wow.” He put his pencil down. “You’ve lived in Parkside longer than anyone else, and you keep up this superiority complex because you think you know everything that goes on here.” Jongdae crossed on leg over the other. “But you don’t even know Yifan.”

Junmyeon teeth pressed against each other into a stony glare, but that quickly melted into an easy smile. “That just makes this fun. Who is he?”

Jongdae rolled his eyes. “He owns the pet shop.”

“Sehun’s boss.”

“Yeah. He’ll probably have tools.”

Junmyeon nodded and ran a hand through his hair. He made sure to clip his watch back on before stepping out onto the street, leaving with another set of animal nicknames from Jongdae and an open mind as to who this man might be.

♬

♚

Junmyeon could hear Sehun’s voice before he even neared the shop; and almost smiled a little because maybe he’d missed the kid. He let out a short breath before pushing through the doors and stepping into the pet shop.

He didn’t let it get to him that he didn’t know this Yifan. There was a reason he never went to the pet store; it was the same reason he’d never visited the preschool.

The first thing he saw in the unfamiliar place was Sehun tangled in multiply colored strings of yarn, a cat at his heels and laughter all over. Junmyeon cringed, but smiled.

“Oi.”

Sehun’s head snapped up and his eyes widened. “Hyung!” He exclaimed, right before the yarn caught his legs and he tripped, falling to his knees and flat on his face. “Hey.” He said, muffled through the pet-friendly carpeting.

“Hey, Sehun.” Junmyeon said. “Working hard?”

“Oh yeah.” Sehun shimmied out of his little string-prison and the kitten nuzzled it’s nose against his cheek. Junmyeon took a step back and eyed the animal. Sehun brought himself to his feet, cradling the white cat in his arms. “Ace was just being weird.”

“Ace. Right.” Junmyeon coughed. “Um, is your boss here?”

“He had an errand, but he’ll be back in a minute,” Sehun said. “Hyung, you have to tell me about your adventures.”

“What?”

“Come on, in my office.” Sehun ushered Junmyeon into the little clinic to the side of the shop and sat him down on the spinning chair. Sehun himself propped himself up on the patient’s bed, and Ace lingered around the floor for a bit before parking his fluffy self next to the wheel of the chair. Junmyeon tensed and glared at the cat.

“Now,” Sehun grinned. “Tell me everything. Where did you go first?”

“Moscow.” Junmyeon said with utmost pride.

“Was it cold?”

“Freezing.”

“And after that?”

“I went on a Eurail tour.” Junmyeon said. “Around Europe.”

Sehun’s eyes lit up. “Seriously? Hyung, you have to take me with you next time.”

Junmyeon smiled. “Next time, sure.”

“You know,” Sehun cleared his throat. “I got uh…a roommate.”

“Oh?” Junmyeon raise