In the early morning, Irene woke up with a silent yawn. Her alarm has been ringing twice before she finally turned it off. She didn’t hear the first two because she was dead tired. Last night, she spilled some coffee on her papers and, yeah, she had to start it over again. The deadline was at noon but she already had around breakfast time.

Trk, trrk, trk. [To Yelm: Kim Yerim, you really need my help, don’t you? Are you even up yet?]

With a sleepy face, she rose up from her bed and headed to the bathroom to freshen up. Her eyes closed as she hummed in the shower. It was a song which no youngsters would want to sing these days. Well, she denied her age but she couldn’t say no to her preference. She finished shower quite quicker than usual and left without a proper breakfast. A banana and soy milk would do for now, she thought, enjoying her breakfast on the bus.

Tting, ttung! [From Yelm: I’m already at my shop. I’m sorry to cause you trouble in the morning]

Irene didn’t mind to take care her second cousin’s flower shop. She loved flowers—well, she loved nature so much. She was just worried that she might be late to attend her meeting. Yeap, the one whose paper she ruined last night.

The bus stopped after some time. Irene got off with a sigh. A morning in Seoul was always nice—minus how some people accidentally pushed her over because they had to rush for work. She walked to the shop not far from the bus stop and greeted with a bright smile of Yeri. Plus a hug.

“Hey, hey, not too tight!”

“Sorry, sorry. I’m just really thankful. Are you sure it’s okay?”

“It’s fine. You’ll show me what to do first, right?”

“It’s not that hard! Besides these days there aren’t a lot of costumers. You can take pictures of the flowers and promote my shop!”

“…that’s not the real reason you want me to help you, is it?”

“Eyyyy, I know you’re a part of a big magazine in Korea, but I just need you as my cousin. But if promoting is not too much work, I guess you could do that too.”

At that time Irene hit Yeri’s shoulder which caused the younger to let out a faint ‘ouch!’ and a grin. Both walked into the shop and Yeri started explaining about the flowers and how to handle the costumers. Actually, Irene was not unfamiliar, she just wanted to be thorough. “Ah! One more thing! There will be a part-timer coming around… 11? When she comes, you can just go, Irene.” That was Yeri’s last instruction before leaving Irene for her personal matter.

“I guess I can do this right,” Irene thought out loud.

Her dark hair was tied into a ponytail. Her bangs were a little messy but she looked beautiful as usual. Her presence at the flower shop attracted some passersby. She looked like a floral angel or fair came to life, not only in myth or fairy tale.

“Hello, have a nice day.” She said as she watered the flowers outside the shop. Actually, she didn’t really want to greet the people. However she found it disturbing how some guys would just stare at her without even focusing on the flowers she was trying to sell. The greetings were only meant to shoo them away. Yeri would regret asking me for help.

Fortunately, some costumers really came and Irene felt more relieved since she could really help. She ordered a cake from a café next to the shop and waited for 11 o’clock. Yeri said the part-timer would come around that time. It was 10:55, the moment before Irene shoved the last piece of the cake, when the person Yeri talked about came into the shop with a rumble and murmurs by the door, enliven the sound of the doorbell.

“Hi, can I help you with anything?”

The person was holding a big vase painted with a big sunflower. Irene saw a head poking out from behind the vase and she didn’t blinked for a few moments. “O-oh? You’re not Yeri…?” A girl with bangs, shorter than hers, a dark blue shirt inside an orange sweater, eyes without double lids, and body taller than her looked around the shop with confusion on her face. Irene finally blinked and something… something just came up on her mind.

“She has an urgent matter so she couldn’t come in the morning. Would you like me to tell her something?”

“N-no! That’s fine. I’m here for work.”

“Work? You’re the part-timer?”

“Yes! My name is Kang Seulgi.”

Kang Seulgi. Irene memorized her name repeatedly on her mind. Then, she curved a warm smile and came forward to help the girl with the vase. “Call me Irene. I’m Yeri’s cousin.” Seulgi seemed to blush a little when Irene came closer. “Are you okay, Miss Seulgi?”

“Just ‘Seulgi’, please. You don’t have to call me formally… Miss Irene.”

Irene smirked. “Then drop the ‘miss’ title from my name too.”

“O-okay. I’m sorry, I.. I didn’t know that Yeri’s cousin would be here instead of her.”

“So she didn’t tell you? Maybe she just forgot.”

“Probably… well, I better put this vase—umfh!—somewhere.”

The girls moved slowly to another corner of the shop just to put the heavy sunflower vase and adjust its position. “So the sunflowers will go here?” Irene asked. “Yes, we planned to do that. We just haven’t got the flowers.” Seulgi replied with a sheepish laugh and hand-scratching gesture on top of her head. “Do you… like sunflower, Irene?”

The reply was two nods. Irene put her hand on the vase lip and trailed it with her index finger. “I love a lot of natural things; light, sky, flowers, scenery.” As she spoke, she glanced to notice that Seulgi’s gaze was focused on her finger. She made a little smile and took of her finger from the vase. That kind of snapped Seulgi’s focus. Their eyes met and Seulgi blushed again. Irene noticed that Seulgi knew she was caught red handed.

“Look,” Irene showed her finger.

“Y-yes? I was, yes, you were saying that you like—”

“It’s a little dusty, don’t you think?”

“Oh!” Seulgi was part relieved, part embarrassed. “I’ll clean it up!”

Irene chuckled and cleaned her finger with a small cleaning cloth on the counter desk. “I’m sorry that I can’t help you cleaning. I have to attend a meeting in an hour.” She untied her hair and took her purse that she hung near the counter. “You’ll be fine, right?” Seulgi nodded as an answer. Irene took out a card from her purse and gave it to Seulgi. “If you need my help, you can contact me there.”

But it seems that I am the one who will need your help.

“See you around.”

Irene turned her back and opened the door. Right before the door closed, she could hear Seulgi, who was quite quiet when she gave her namecard, said in a surprised tone: “She’s a what??!” That got Irene smiled widely. She left the shop and rushed to her workplace on a taxi. Ah, she forgot her cake.