Hana POV

“Hana, there is a delivery for you!” My mother screamed from the front door, as I got ready for class that day. “You need to sign for it!”

I put on my grey sweatshirt and leapt down the stairs, greeting the deliveryman with my signature. He nodded, satisfied that I was indeed Kim Hana, and went back to his car to collect the parcel.

When he returned, I wasn’t sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me, or if I was simply still dreaming. In his hands were the largest bouquet of flowers I had ever seen. Pink, green, purple and baby blues stuck out of the bundle wrapped intricately in yellow tissue.

“Here, miss,” he said, handing them to me. It was quite heavy, and I almost dropped it. I regained my senses just in time to save them and put them on the shoe cabinet next to my front door.

“Thank you,” I said, taking the receipt he handed me.

I was still in shock when my mother came out to see who it was, flour smothered on her clothes.

“Hana, who was tha – oh my God,” she breathed. “Who are they from?!” She squealed, more excited than I was for these flowers. Or perhaps it just hadn’t sunk in yet that these were the first ever flowers I had gotten in my life.

“I – I don’t know,” I said faintly, reaching for the neat card sitting out amidst the colorful spectrum of flowers.

Hey, friend, it read. Thanks for being my friend. Love, Woohyun.

The wave of emotions that hit me was too strong for 8am in the morning. I felt happy, overjoyed, confused and a bit uncomfortable all at the same time. My knees felt weak, and I quickly walked over to sit down on the bottom of the staircase.

It was less than 24 hours since we had hung up the phone, and now this? I might just clutch my heart and lie down to die.

I always knew Nam Woohyun was greasy…but this was too much to handle. It was greasiness at it’s best.

“I suppose I should thank him, right?” I murmured in a voice that seemed very far away and detached from the rest of my body.

“Yes, darling, of course,” my mother replied with tears in her eyes. “I’m so happy for you! Your first flowers from a boy! But…Hana, why does it say friends? If a boy sends you flowers, isn’t it to say that you don’t want to be friends? Why is he so confusing? Woohyun is the boy that came over once last year right? Hana? He told you to make him bacon friend rice? Or was it kimchi fried rice?” She mumbled and rambled on and on.

“Mom!” I said loudly. “Your pancakes are burning.”

“Oh,” she gasped, hurrying back into the kitchen.

I laughed and went upstairs carefully to place the flowers on my table. I grabbed an apple for breakfast and my bag, hurrying out the door before I missed my bus.

I texted Woohyun while I waited for the bus.

thanks for the flowers lol friend~^^

He replied straightaway.

you’re very welcome :-) are you free today?

Why was he asking this?

i have a break between 12 and 2^^ why, what’s up?

oh nothing~ just don’t eat lunch yet, okay? can you meet me at the science library?

My heart leapt out of my chest and I tried very hard not to smile by myself in the bus.

you’re coming to my campus?!

sure!~ wait there hana banana kkkkk

I texted back okay and grabbed my things to exit at my stop.

Throughout the morning, I couldn’t really concentrate in my lectures. What did he have planned? Were we going out? On a…date? But, no, we were just friends.

A quote from literature last year popped into my mind. “Friends before lovers, lovers before friends.”

I gulped. I wasn’t sure how to act when Woohyun and I were just friends. We had skipped the whole ‘friend’ stage and dived straight into the deep end of the pool.

12pm came faster than I expected. It was the first time we had spent together, alone, properly, since the beginning of the year. I didn’t count the time at the restaurant because that turned out to be so disastrous.

I waited anxiously outside the science library. At 12:00 sharp, a pair of hands covered my eyes and blocked out my vision.

“Who is it?” They sang in a childish voice.

I just laughed; trying to hide the fright he had given me. “It’s Woohyun,” I replied.

“Okay, good girl,” he patted me on the head. I scrunched up my nose. “Now, can you put this blindfold on? I have a surprise for you.”

He handed me a piece of cloth and helped me tie it around my head.

“Hana, your head is so big, this cloth almost doesn’t fit around!” He teased.

I stuck my tongue out. “Hey!” I yelled, laughing. “Don’t be so mean!”

I reached behind me to where I guessed he was standing and slapped arm.

“Hey, behave woman,” he said, stifling a laugh. “Stay still, will you!”

“Where are we going?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

“Secret,” he whispered, very close to my ear. I could smell his cologne – the perfect mix of soap and man-perfume. It made me feel a bit lightheaded because it smelt so good.

I didn’t know what to say.  

Woohyun nudged me in the small of my back and pushed my gently in the direction of our destination.

I must have looked extremely silly. I had a blindfold on and was blindly feeling my way around campus. I earned the stares of many people who I heard laughing at my misfortune. I was secretly excited inside, so I didn’t mind.

“We’re here,” he announced in another singsong voice. He reached over to untie my blindfold and my eyes squinted to adjust to the lie before I saw where we actually were.

We were in some kind of meadow. There was no other way to describe it except a lush, green patch of grass in front of a small, bubbling lake. Wild yellow flowers grew in random spots, coloring the rich green with bright yellow spots. I heard insects buzzing faintly in the background.

“It’s beautiful,” I breathed. I turned to look at him. “Where are we?”

He grinned proudly. “It’s a spot behind the main stand of the football field. I come here sometimes. To think. To get away from all the madness.”

I was still in awe. I couldn’t say much except gasp and sigh.

Woohyun reached down into a picnic basket below us that I didn’t notice before and pulled out a thick, checkered rug. He shook it out onto the grass and motioned me to join him.

From the basket he pulled two bottles of aloe juice and an array of food that he had placed cutely in a circle on a massive dining plate.

My breath caught in my throat. They were all my favourite foods. He had remembered. He remembered, from our conversations over a year ago. On the plate were fried prawn sushi, some pizza, half melted ice cream, pizza and chicken pie. All my favourite foods.

“Woohyun – “ I didn’t know what to say.

“I know,” he smiled proudly, again. “I remembered. They’re all your favourite foods, right?!”  He handed me some chopsticks. “Let’s eat! I’m starving.”

I could hardly eat because I was so touched. He remembered – he actually did. This told me that I wasn’t alone in cherishing the conversations we had over the Internet. He cherished those memories, too.

I felt myself tearing up and I pinched the area between my forefinger and thumb to try stop the tears. I was just too overwhelmed by everything. He was being so nice to me. The flowers, the surprise, the picnic, my favourite foods – everything.

I knew he was trying to earn my forgiveness and treat me as an actual friend. I saw straight through his motives, but for once, I didn’t mind. It felt good being treated nicely, for a change. I wondered if it would last.