It sure was a long week. There were too many stressful things to think through, especially the phone conversation I had with Lee Kyung Jun. it was exciting but stressful at the same time. And I wanted a break. That was why walking down the school hallway totally made my mood. And a sight of my favorite person in school already made my day.

 

 

A smile formed on my lips as Miss Park entered the doors of the faculty room. A music was playing inside my mind as I imagined her in a dress that was flying along with the wind that was blowing, her hair freely flowing behind her.

 

 

I was smiling like a fool. Of course, those things were far from reality. She was wearing her usual black outfit she wore to school, her hair in a bun, a frown marring her face. Anyone would be scared out of their wits. I didn’t understand, she was beautiful but her beauty was being overshadowed by her lack of consciousness on appearance.

 

 

But I like that about her though. She never tried to please the people around her. She was just being her.

 

 

As she neared her desk, my smile was wider as I was anticipating her reaction on the rose I picked up this morning. Would there be a change in reaction? I hope so.

 

 

As soon as she reached her desk, she roughly grabbed the rose from her desk and threw it in the trash can.

 

 

My smile immediately faded, along with the hope inside of me. Anyway, it wasn’t like I didn’t expect that. I was merely hoping for a change, but I knew it wasn’t possible.

 

 

No! It’s possible! Let us try and try! Come on, Jiyong!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I already sent her the third rose today and there was no improvements. I willfully placed the fourth one on her desk before she arrived from her class. I smiled as I prayed that four was my lucky number today.

 

 

I leaned away immediately when Miss Park appeared on her desk. She sat down, not noticing the rose at first. But when she did, she just stared at it, as if willing it to move with her mind.

 

 

Suddenly, she stood up from her chair. “WOULD YOU JUST STOP SENDING THESE DAMN ROSES? HOW MANY TIMES SHALL I TELL YOU THAT? DOES YOUR BRAIN UNDERSTAND WHAT I’M SAYING HERE?”

 

 

I blanched in fear as I stared at her disbelievingly. I totally didn’t expect this.

 

 

“WHAT NOW? NOT GOING TO TALK? DO YOU WANT-“

 

 

“I just wanted to be your friend,” I mumbled childishly.

 

 

“I don’t want you as my friend!” she burst out.

 

 

“But I want to! And I know deep inside that you do too,” I said plainly. I was trying to keep the patience that was slowly turning into a slim line. I didn’t want to shout at her.

 

 

Suddenly, she grabbed the collar of my shirt to make me stand up. Our faces were close to each other that our cheeks would touch with just one lean forward. “I don’t need friends…” she told me in a dangerously low tone.

 

 

I furrowed my brows. “Nobody doesn’t need friends. Everyone does.”

 

 

With what I said, she pushed me so hard that my back hit against the wall with a thud. I heard gasps from the teachers around the room.

 

 

“I don’t!”

 

 

“You do too, Miss Park,” I said, eyes not leaving hers. “And I can be your friend. I know you need one with what you’re going through right now.”

 

 

She pressed me hard on the wall. Not satisfied, she put her arm across my neck and pressed it harder to choke me. For a girl, she was strong, eh? And I was already trying to gasp for the remaining air.

 

 

“Don’t act like you know me because you don’t,” she hissed.

 

 

After a while of staring, she let me go. I coughed for air and then stared back at her.

 

 

“Why are you being like this?!” I shouted, unable to keep my patience to myself anymore. “It’s just a flower! Why are you making this a big deal?! It doesn’t even make sense!”

 

 

She grabbed me by my collar again. “It does to me!”

 

 

“Then tell me why you don’t like-“

 

 

“Because I hate red roses, okay?! I hate anything red! It makes me remember blood! Blood all over! That’s why I hate every single rose you send me! I hate everything red! Satisfied?! Huh?! Are you happy now that I told you?!”

 

 

She was panting the moment she stopped bursting out. I was beyond shock. I never knew there was a deeper reason behind her hate of roses. Too deep that it even made her cry.

 

 

 “What’s happening here?!” the principal suddenly broke the silence and the tension building up inside the office.

 

 

She let me go and went to grab her things on her desk then walked out.

 

 

A hate towards red roses, eh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Annyeong haseyo,” the owner of the flower shop greeted.

 

 

I smiled at her, eyes never leaving the heaps of different kinds of flowers in bouquets. I was looking for a particular one when my eyes caught the heaps and heaps of roses on one corner. I walked towards them as I marveled on their beautiful colors. There were red ones, lavender ones, coral ones, and more.

 

 

“Um, excuse me, do you have a bouquet with different-colored roses?” I asked the lady.

 

 

She shook her head. “We don’t sell them.”

 

 

My face fell. “But can you at least make a bouquet for me? I—“

 

 

“We don’t do that service sir. We’re just a merchandising flower shop. We’re not really the one who makes the bouquet.”

 

 

“Is that so?” I asked. “But, can’t you really—“

 

 

“Young man, didn’t you hear what I said?” the lady said, losing her patience. Aish! I was asking nicely.

 

 

I left the shop, pouting. There weren’t other flower shops nearby. And I was also too tired from working. I might as well go home or—

 

 

Honk!

 

 

I whipped my head to the side and saw Miss Gong, one of our co-teachers behind the wheels of an Audi.

 

 

“You look down,” she noticed. “Something I can help with?”

 

 

I thought for a while. “Do you own a rose garden or something?”

 

 

She smirked, as if expecting the question. “Glad you asked. Hop in!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The moment we arrived at her house, I was literally gawking at how her rose garden was vast. There were different-colored ones, just like what I wanted.

 

 

“Take your time now,” Mis Gong said. “I still have a date.”

 

 

“Date? Are you leaving me here then?” I asked.

 

 

She nodded. “I trust you anyways. Get everything you want,” she said, turning to leave. “I’m sure Miss Park will like it.”

 

 

Wait, what?

 

 

Did that mean they knew of how I sent Miss Park the roses? I was still contemplating on that while watching Miss Gong’s retreating back when a wind blew and the fragrance of the roses entered my nose. I whipped my head towards the garden as I started walking towards it.

 

 

“This is more like it,” I said as I bended my knee in front of a lavender rose. I smiled. “I hope she will like this,” I said as I reached my hand out to pick the rose up.

 

 

However, a thorn pricked my finger. I pulled out as a blood formed on the tip and rolled down, staining my palm.

 

 

“I forgot that a rose has its thorns,” I said as I stared at the roses on the garden. “This would be a looong day.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I smiled as I stared at the six roses in a bouquet. They were of different colors and I especially made sure that red wouldn’t be part of it, though it was such a hard work since Miss Gong’s rose garden mostly composed of red roses.

 

 

I sighed in relief as I remembered what I went through yesterday. It took me an hour to gather all the different-colored roses. And another one to tre—

 

 

“Oh, hello, Mister Kwon!” Miss Gong’s voice entered my ears.

 

 

I looked up and saw her beaming at me. “Good morning. Thanks for the roses.”

 

 

“No problem,” she said. “But, your han—“

 

 

“Sssh,” I shushed her. “She’s coming.”

 

 

Miss Park strode her way towards her desk, her usual foul mood spreading across the room but not enough to ruin my mood. I was beyond excited for her to notice the bouquet of roses – which had deep meaning behind them, by the way – and perhaps she would accept it this time, considering there wasn’t any red rose on it.

 

 

“Oh, good morning, Miss Park,” I greeted. She stared at me for a while but didn’t greet me back. Her eyes snapped to the roses on her desk and I had to bite back the excitement inside of me.

 

 

“Why?” she asked.

 

 

“What why?” I innocently asked.

 

 

She picked up the bouquet of colorful roses from her desk and stared at them. She frowned at them. I stared at the roses on her hands too, and I could almost imagine myself smiling like a fool. After a while, I snapped my gaze back to her, she was already staring at me.

 

 

“What’s the meaning of this?” she demanded.

 

 

I hesitated at first as I bit down on my lip. “You said you didn’t like red roses, so I took time to pick those up for you, in different colors.”

 

 

She blinked at me, not saying anything. She just kept shut. She then turned to the trash can and threw it away.

 

 

She headed to her desk and started working, as I stared at the crumpled bouquet of roses on the trash can. Efforts wasted…

 

 

“Why are you doing that?” she asked.

 

 

I turned my gaze to her. She wasn’t looking at me though. “As I said, I just want to be friends with you,” I plainly said.

 

 

She stopped writing. I saw her hand trembling, gripping tightly on the pen she was holding. Until…

 

 

It broke into two.

 

 

“Omo,” I gasped as I reached out to her hand.

 

 

I saw her eyes switch to my hands and when I realized what she saw, I pulled my hands away, hiding them behind me.

 

 

 “Why are your fingers bandaged?” she asked, sounding confused and demanding at the same time. She didn’t stare at me though. And I was wondering what I would see behind her eyes when she looks up.

 

 

Suddenly, she stared at me, eyes unreadable. I forgot that I was about to answer, because it totally slipped off my mind as I was wondering what she was thinking then. She caught my wrists and stared at both of my hands, palms facing her.

 

 

“What is the meaning of this?” she asked me again, as she dropped both of my hands quite roughly. She was referring to the bandages on my fingers and the cuts on my palms. I got them from picking up the roses. There weren’t available garden gloves there, so I wasn’t able to wear a pair to protect my hands.

 

 

“I-I… roses… cut my…” I stammered.

 

 

“Speak straight, damn it!” she demanded.

 

 

“The flower shop doesn’t sell a bouquet with different colors, so I went to a rose garden of a friend and I picked them out with my bare hands. So, the roses’ thorns were able to cause cuts on my-“

 

 

I got cut off when she suddenly stood up.

 

 

I just stared at her as she stood motionless on her spot. I wanted to reach out to her, especially because her hand started to bleed more blood.

 

 

I noticed her grip tightening on the broken pen on her hand. More blood gushed out. I was about to grab her hand to treat the wound when she suddenly punched the wall with her fist.

 

 

I rested my hand on her shoulder. “Miss Park?” But instead of turning to me, she walked out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Hello?” I greeted the moment I picked up the call.

 

 

“Couz! It’s Tiff. You free?” she asked.

 

 

“Yep. Classes just ended. What’s up?”

 

 

“Meet me at our favorite café.”

 

 

“Why?” I asked, suspicious.

 

 

She giggled. “Remember my boyfriend you met on your first day here at Seoul?”

 

 

“Boyfriend? Which one?”

 

 

“Ya!” she scolded. “I only have one boyfriend.”

 

 

I laughed. “I know. Geez, can’t I joke?” I said, laughing more. “It’s not my fault anyway. I met him for like five seconds or less. I had classes that time, remember? And I was running late. And you just had to choose that time to introduce him to me.”

 

 

“Fine, fine,” she said, cutting me off. “Stop ranting, will you? My ear is bleeding. Anyway, he wants to meet you again. He had a proposal.”

 

 

“Proposal?”

 

 

“Yup. Well, it’s more like OUR proposal.”

 

 

I frowned. What was it this time?

 

 

“This would be fun,” she said. “See you later.”

 

 

She hung up and I walked along the hallway. The hallway was already empty as it was already past five. Teachers might had also gone home by now. Did Miss Park go home too?

 

 

I walked towards the faculty room once again. She hadn’t answered each of my questions all day when I asked how she was doing. She was deliberately avoiding me, but that didn’t stop me from asking her condition. I mean, really? Injured palms and fist? And she was a girl. What a tough one she was.

 

 

As I neared the faculty room, I saw Miss Park getting out of it, a small smile plastered on her lips. And what caught my attention besides the rare smile was the bouquet of the crumpled roses on her hands. She was examining each of them, even sniffing its scent.

 

 

And it made me smile.

 

 

When I realized she didn’t notice me, I chuckled in amusement. She lifted her head and stared at me. She frowned and almost instantly, there was a change of expression on her face. She reddened and walked past me.

 

 

 “Thank you,” I said when she was already a few feet away from me.

 

 

She stopped on her tracks but didn’t turn.

 

 

“Thank you so much,” I said again before she left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After half an hour, I arrived at the café. Tiffany said that they were already there. I pushed the door open and looked for them.

 

 

I immediately spotted my redheaded cousin. She noticed me too and waved at me. She was with someone who had his back at me. Tiffany stood up and he did too.

 

 

“Hey, Couz!” Tiffany greeted.

 

 

I hugged her in greeting like we usually do. We were ‘cousins’ after all. We were close like that.

 

 

I turned to her companion. “Hey,” I greeted. “We finally met properly.”

 

 

“Yeah,” he agreed and put his hand out for a handshake. “My name is Jaejoong.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

----

UNNIE'S NOTE: Jae has finally appeared. kkk~

 

*poster credits to Chiyomi

 

LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS BELOW. :)