---

Some hours later, Jongdae's at work doing the usual. Suddenly, a woman walks into the shop, with who he assumes is her boyfriend or husband, judging by the way they're looking at each other with fondness as they sign at each other with their hands.

He watches them with curiosity; wondering what type of flowers they're gonna get, who they'd be getting them for, for what occasion etc. But, he can't just be standing there staring, so he cleans up the register area a bit while taking short glances at them. The two look cute together with the way that they just seem magnetized around each other, and Jongdae smiles as he sees them walking up to his register before he goes through the usual cashiering.

As he hands them their change and reciept, he also offers them a small packet full of preservatives to help preserve their chosen red carnations. With matching expressions of confusion, they look at the packet before turning to sign rapidly at each other with both hands. Jongdae tries to mentally decipher what they're signing, but the way that they're forming letters seems way different than his knowledge of American Sign Language. But, his deducing skills tells him that they're most likely conversing about the packet. (It's pretty common to have a lot of customers be confused about the preservative packets.)

They turn back to him after a short moment and then the man pulls out his phone and types some words on it before presenting the screen to him.

What's this for? the screen reads.

"Uh..." Jongdae says, before scrounging around for a paper and pen. He ends up writing It's for the flowers. To keep them perky haha.

Ahh okay, the man types back on his phone.

Jongdae nods and they smile before asking him some other questions via the man's phone about how to take care of the flowers, what's in the packet, and talking a bit about how they're visiting from England for a few days.

With a grin, he answers all of their questions and writes out Really? Cool! I've always wanted to go there on the paper. Then after reading what he wrote, the woman types on the phone and presents it to him with a smile. Come visit us sometime xD.

Jongdae laughs and writes back Alright! and the woman silently laughs while the man smiles along. Then, they both sign, Thanks.

Jongdae smiles and they silently chat together for a bit more before they thank him and head out with their flowers; the woman cradling the flowers in its bouquet and the man linking arms with her and signing rapidly in the air. Jongdae continues smiling for a bit as he watches them walk away before he crumples up the slip of paper and discards it into the trash bin under the counter. Then, a new customer comes in and he greets them with a cheery smile and a Welcome.

That lingering feeling of moroseness from yesterday still creeps up from time to time, but work tends to be a nice distraction from his worries.

------

In the kitchen of Kyungsoo's family home, Kyungsoo sighs in relief as he watches his mom and Chanyeol's mom put their arms around each other's shoulders and yell, Woo-hoo! in English.

Finally, he thinks.

It took five plus hours this time around to make all of the food for their shared dinner tonight. Five plus hours that Kyungsoo can never get back.

And it's not like he hates cooking--he loves it. But, cooking with Chanyeol right beside him isn't good for his sanity. His family home's kitchen isn't small, but having himself, his mom, Chanyeol, and Chanyeol's mom there just made it seem too cramped. And Chanyeol would give him these sad, longing looks at times and offer to help get things he needed and pass ingredients to him and, well, it just made Kyungsoo feel angrier.

He decides to go to the bathroom as their moms talk to each other (and pretends to ignore the meek look that Chanyeol gives him). When he's washing his hands and face, his phone dings--notifying him of a new text message that turns out to be a text from Jongin whining about having to wait to eat his dinner. Kyungsoo involuntarily smiles as he dries himself off and quickly texts back a response while walki