Jongin always loved tulips.

Purple tulips, white tulips, yellow tulips, and call him cliche, but red tulips were his absolute favorite.

His grandmother use to tell him that red tulips symbolized a ‘perfect love,’ and the deep, velvet center of the tulip represented a lover’s heart overcome with a deep passion for their lover. Jongin admired how beautiful and elegant the tulip was, and although roses are frequently his best selling flowers, he admired the classy aura tulips held and would choose them over any other.

The wind chimes over his door broke Jongin out of his trance and he immediately bowed his head with a smile at the old woman walking in, “Good morning, ahjumma.”

She nodded at him in acknowledgment as she wobbled her way to Jongin’s delphiniums display. He moved out from behind the counter and walked over to her, “Were you looking for a bouquet for a specific event?”

“My grandson’s birthday is today and I just wanted to give him something for working so hard,” The grandma spoke with a fond expression on her face, “If you were to see him, you would probably think he’s scary but he’s a softie. He secretly won’t admit it, but I think he likes getting flowers.”

Jongin picked up one of the fresh bouquet’s from the back of the display, holding it up for the old woman to inspect, “How about these dark blue ones? Do you think your grandson would like these?”

“Oh! They’re perfect!” She reached out to touch the petals, “I’ll take them.”

Jongin led her back to the counter and cashed her out for the bouquet, adding in a free card. The old woman refused but Jongin shook his head, “Please, it's your grandson’s birthday take it as a little gift from me too.”

She smiled widely, the wrinkles in her face becoming exposed, but Jongin found it endearing. “Thank you, I’ll make sure to tell my grandson to pay you a visit one day, he would love it, I’m sure.”

Jongin grinned, “Well, he is welcome here anytime. Have a nice day, ahjumma.” He wrapped a white ribbon around the stems of the flowers before handing it to the old woman and waving goodbye.

-

The rest of the day passes by slowly, as it usually does, with a few customers stopping by here and there but Jongin was use to it by now.

It’s been only about three months since he decided to open up his flower shop, and although he loved Daegu, business was steady but not where he thought it would be. In the back of his mind, there was still a lingering feeling of regret for deciding to put his shop near the popular tattoo parlor. His friend Yifan, who is an avid fan of both tattoos and the head artist next door, even advised Jongin not to open his business in the area. But Jongin, being an empty headed businessman at the time, assured Yifan that he stuck with his decision and believed it would be his best move. The shop would be in a prime area and he would get to sell what he loves the most; flowers.

Of course, now that he's somewhat established himself here, the only thing keeping Jongin from moving his shop was the regular customers who visit every week. He was one of the only flower shops in the area (that were decently priced anyway) and many people preferred to come to him over anyone else.

The thought of leaving continues to taunt him, but for now, he was going to stick it out.

Jongin's alarm on his phone beeped and it was his cue to close up the shop. He pulled off his apron then hung it up on the rack by the storage door, on his way out he grabbed the keys to his apartment and made sure to shut off all the lights before locking the shop up.

As part of his nightly routine, Jongin quickly jogged to the cafe across the street. The hazelnut latte had become one of his favorites when he moved to Daegu and he made sure to grab a cup every night after he closes up.

When he reached to grab the handle, another hand went over his and he shot his attention to the stranger beside him. Jongin's eyes scanned his arms and saw the exposed tattoos under the man's folded flannel sleeves, when he met the stranger's gaze, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck shoot up one by one.

His skin looked like porcelain, with plump flushed lips, and dark black hair ruffled messily on top of his head. There were signs of a chest tattoo peeking out from under his gray v-cut shirt. Jongin had to refrain himself from staring any longer and hurriedly removed his hand from the (hot) attractive man's. "I-I'm sorry, um, please go ahead."

"Hmph." The tattooed stranger grunted, pulling the door open and not even bothering to hold it for Jongin.

Rude. Jongin thought to himself, opening the door seconds later and getting in line behind the rude, yet still very attractive, man. From behind the guy didn't look too intimidating, although his cold eyes would say otherwise. He was just a few inches shorter than Jongin, if he wanted to he could easily pull him into a headlock but the man was just so damn intimidating from the two seconds he looked at Jongin.

So, Jongin chose to judge the man silently, watching as he ordered his drink (a grande sized black coffee, with two sugars) and took a seat in the far corner of the cafe. He pulled his ear buds out and stuffed them in his ears as he began to tap away on his phone, sipping occassionally at his coffee.

"Sir?" The barista raised her voice, trying to get Jongin's attention.

"Hm?"

"Are you ready to order?"

"Oh right, I apologize, yes I am," Jongin scurried towards the cash register and paid for his hazelnut latte. He stood off to the side while he waited for his drink to be made, playing a quick game of Crossy Road as he did, but he couldn't help but feel the urge to glance behind him.

He paused the game and took a quick glimpse around only to see the tattooed man looking right at him, his eyes hard and mysterious. Jongin wasn't able to find it in himself to look away and the man tilted his head as if daring him to do something. Jongin physically gulped, turning his head when he heard his name called.

Jongin grabbed his drink and went to the opposite end, attempting to get out of the view of the stranger. He busied himself by looking through his Instagram feed, liking Wonshik's random pictures he took at an art gallery and some of Yixing's dance videos from his class.

Suddenly, his curiosity was itching at him again and he found his eyes trailing to the table in the far corner.

The man's flannel was now off and hanging over his lap while he stared out the window, Jongin's eyes widened when he saw that both of his arms were covered in tattoos. Usually, Jongin would be turned off with so many tattoos on a person, but on this man, it just made him even more desirable.

There was something about his aura that Jongin was drawn to.

He bit down at the edge of his cup, as he sneakily tried to take a picture to send to Wonshik when he heard the guy loudly clear his throat. He nearly dropped his phone and looked up to see the man staring at him again, his eyebrows furrowed together in confusion (and what else was that? judgment?).

Jongin coughed, taking the cup out of his mouth and pretending to busy himself with a text message. He heard a chair screech and he knew the night was about to go downhill from here. He prepared himself to get yelled at for violating the man's privacy and trying to take pictures of him, but instead the man threw his flannel over his shoulder, tossed his empty cup into the trash can and walked out of the cafe with not even a glance in Jongin's direction.

Jongin watched through the window as the tattooed stranger ran across the street and into the tattoo parlor. The sign still said 'OPEN' and Jongin closed his eyes as he tried to remember how Yifan described the head tattoo artist.

You'll know it's him when you see his tattoos. His arms are covered in them, it would probably look a bit messy to most people since they all look like they don't relate to each other, but believe they do. Most of the time his hair is a bit unkempt and he almost always wears flannels every damn day of the year, although that just adds to his charm. I don't swing for the other team, yet if he asked me to go out with him, I wouldn't say no.

Jongin's eyes shot open and he shot his attention back on the tattoo parlor. So, that was the head artist?

He couldn't wrap his head around what made Yifan go full on fanboy over him, but he did have to still admit, he was handsome.

-

"Did anyone order an extremely y man to help out today?"

Jongin nearly jumped when the door slammed open and the wind chimes banged against the glass, "Wang, get out of here, shouldn't you be in China?"

"Oh come on," Jackson frowned, running up to the counter with puppy dog eyes, "I promised that whenever I come to Korea for business, I would always visit you."

"I saw you last month, Wang." Jongin teased, poking his forehead.

"But you know how hard it is to get rid of me, don't you? Business majors stick together, even after graduation." Jackson went to grab an extra apron from the rack then came back with a smug grin, "Plus, I heard the tattoo parlor next door has a lot of eye candy."

"Yeah, but the head tattoo artist seems to be a bit of a jerk," Jongin mumbled under his breath.

"Jerk?" Jackson's ears perked up, "Who? The head tattoo artist? Isn't he the epitome of hot? I heard he has a whole Facebook page dedicated to him, the people of Daegu love him."

Jongin rolled his eyes, stripping the thorns from the new batch of roses, "Well from the impression I got from him yesterday I wouldn't exactly be the first to sign up for his fan club."

"But you have to admit it, he's pretty cute right?"

"Just help me de-thorn these roses, Wang."

-