Soojin had expected today to be like any other day. A normal day where she went to school, listened to her professors, and worked on her projects. It might seem repetitive, but it was so normal to her that she didn’t even think twice about it.

However, it seemed like someone decided to give her something new. Something that didn’t belong in her regular schedule. And she wasn’t sure if she liked it.

Because beyond her papers where she was working on her landscaping project, there sat a boy. A boy she knew she couldn’t avoid and accepted the fact that she allowed herself to become somewhat of an acquaintance of his. A boy who was grinning cheekily at her and where she could only stare at him in response.

Even she knew it would be pointless to ask what he was doing here because he would say something mocking in response.

But she tried anyways. “I wasn’t going to say anything, but you seem to be content on boring holes in my head. What exactly are you doing here?”

He stared at her before grinning widely. “Why, I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to be in the library. The last I heard, it was a public place which means I’m allowed to be here.”

Soojin opened to retort to his comment, but he continued.

“And if you’re going to say you meant what I was doing at this table,” he said, gesturing to the wide table, “I believe there’s enough space for four other people to sit here. Plenty of space for one person to sit, no?”

Soojin sighed. She knew he would say something like that, yet she allowed him to state what she already knew.

“So you will be working on your work as well? Like any other student here?” she asked.

He smiled, “Yes. Yes I am.”

She wasn’t sure if she could believe him, but nevertheless left him alone and continued on with her project. And true to his word, he started to work on his assignments as well.

But it wasn’t long before Soojin could feel him staring at her again. She set down her ruler and pencil in a huff and looked at him with exasperation.

“Is there something wrong?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No. Nope. Nothing’s wrong.”

“But you keep staring at me.”

“What? I can’t look at someone who’s in front of me? I never knew that was such a crime.”

She rolled her eyes, wondering why she even tried. “Never mind. Go back to your work.”

He saluted her, “Yes, ma’am.”

After a while Soojin managed to progress quite a bit in her project. She was completely focused in her work, ignoring everything around her.

“Hey, what do you for fun?”

Soojin’s hand jerked in surprise, causing her line to skew off the paper. She stared in horror and looked at the perpetrator who caused her do such an action.

“What?” she grumbled, reaching for her eraser.

“I asked what you do for fun. It’s been bothering me for a while since we last met.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Since we last met? Wasn’t that our ‘date’?” she asked, using quotes with her fingers to indicate her dislike of calling their meeting a date.

She looked at him with disapproving eyes. “Why are you even asking me this?”

He smiled innocently, “Just curious. But mostly because your friend from the arcade said you didn’t go out much.”

She shrugged, “I don’t do much really. I go to school, study, and go back home. I do go out with friends though. It’s not like I’m stuck in my house or school all day.” She stopped and thought about it. “But I suppose I don’t go out as much as other normal people my age.”

He looked at with pitying eyes. “I see. No wonder you’re such a sad child.”

“Excuse me?” Soojin cried, astounded by Myungsoo’s choice of words.

He ignored her, continuing on, “You obviously need more excitement in your life.”

He pounded his chest. “And that’s where I come in! See, aren’t you glad you met me?”

Soojin put a hand to her cheek and leaned on it. “At the moment, no. No, I am not. In fact, there have been little moments where I was glad to have met you.”

He scoffed, “Oh, pish-posh. If you need some spice in your life, I can help you. And guess what! Now’s the time.”

She stared at him in surprise. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re at school. So, don’t you have class? And what about me? Don’t you think I have class still?”

“Do you have class later?”

“No, but that’s not the point. I’m asking…”

He cut her off, “Then it’s fine! I don’t have class. You don’t have class. It all works out perfectly.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about! You… I….Gah!” She put her fingers to her temples and started to massage them. She looked back at Myungsoo and said, “You are the most frustrating person I have ever met.”

He smiled back, “Why thank you.”

Soojin merely shook her head in response and defeat. She leaned back in her chair in exhaustion and asked, “So now what?”

He grinned, “Now we go on an adventure.”

Soojin followed the black-haired boy in wonder. Every time they meet, Myungsoo somehow managed to coerce her into doing what he wanted to do. It irked her to no end, but she still followed him. Even if she had set herself to refuse all of his demands, she always somehow would be following behind him. And always with him dragging her behind him.

This time she managed to persuade him that she wouldn’t try to escape, so he let go off her hand.

She tried to follow in silence, but her curiosity got the better out of her.

“So. Where are we going?”

He looked back and teasingly smiled, “You’ll see.”

She sighed and stared at the floor. She knew that they were still at the school. However, the place in question was still up in the air.

She almost ran into his back when he stopped suddenly.

“Hey! Why did you stop so abruptly? I almost crashed into you.”

He said nothing and stepped aside to motion to the building in front of him.

She looked at him and then back to the building.

“The greenhouse?”

The greenhouse at the school was one of the main landmarks at school. It was a building one knew about and referred to at school. It was a rather large building which expanded quite a distance. But it was the inside that was the main attraction. It was as if there was another world inside. It was a fascinating in both an architecture view as well as in a botany view.

“I’ve been here before. In fact, I’m sure both of us have.” Soojin said, looking confused.

“Ah, that may been true. But have you been in the locked area?”

“You have access to the locked area? How?” she asked, amazed by the fact that he did.

He put a finger to his lips and winked. “Secret.” He pulled on her sleeve. “Come on.”

They approached the looked door that always proclaimed a sign that said, “No Entry.” Soojin always wondered what was behind that door, and she couldn’t help but to be excited to see.

Myungsoo pulled out a key and opened the door, gesturing her inside.

At a glance, inside didn’t seem much different as the other greenhouses, but Soojin got sight of something she didn’t expect to see.

“Is that… Parrot’s Beak?”

As part of curriculum for her major as a landscaping architecture, she learned about different sort of plants in her botany class. She was always fascinated by the different flowers and plants in the world, and what you could create out of it. That's why she was in lanscaping. She wanted to create a little world where you could see something you didn't expect.

And in front of her was a rare flower that was once thought to be extinct in the wild, but now botanists have been trying to cultivate and find new pollinators for this flower.

She bent down to see the flower better, stunned to see such a rare flower.

Myungsoo bent down beside her. “Yep. Actually the reason why this place is locked is because of these rare flowers. The school is actually trying to help cultivate these flowers. We have some semi-rare flowers, but rarest are Parrot’s Beak and something else.”

“Something else?”

He smiled softly, “Sorry, can’t tell you. It’s all very hush-hush.”

She shook her head. “No. No. This is amazing. I never thought I would be able to see this in my entire life. Thank you,” she said sincerely.

She frowned, “But how did you know about this? I can understand why they keep this place locked. I never thought they would let students in here.”

Myungsoo scratched his head and smiled sheepishly, “I never thought that too. But I was working with my professor and he’s a friend of one of the people working with these flowers. So they allowed us to see them.  I asked if could borrow the key today and surprisingly, he let me.”

He laughed, “It’s not like I can come whenever I can. Today was an exception.”

She smiled, “I’m sort of glad I came with you.”

 “Didn’t I tell you that I could bring some excitement in your life?” he grinned

She looked at him and simply shook her head in amusement. Even though she didn’t have the best impression of him in the beginning, she was slowly beginning to at least appreciate his existence.

“Thank you, Myungsoo. Really, thank you.”.

“You’re welcome. That’s what friends are for.”

“Friends,” she repeated. She paused, “I guess that makes you my weirdest friend.”

He looked at her in surprise and smiled because he realized that she had finally accepted him as a friend. And that was a start.

A/N: Well, wasn’t that sweet? They’re finally friends! That took a while. I suppose you can’t really help it when you constantly see that person.

About the rare flower, I realize that it is probably very unlikely that a school would actually have access to such rare flowers. But for the sake for my story, let’s assume that this school is associated with people who are botanists who do experiments to help cultivate them.

Thank you for reading! And see you next time!

Note: In case you’re curious, Parrot’s Beak is a rare flower that is believed to be extinct in the wild because it is believed to have been originally pollinated by sunbirds which have long gone extinct.  Experiments have been done to see if the flowers could have found new pollinators, but none of these experiments have been successful so far. Since it is cultivated in the horticulture trade, I thought that it seemed like the more likely flower to have access to.