"Do me a favor please," Soonyoung leaned in beside me and whispered. I jumped, startled with him suddenly starting a conversation with me in class. I looked at him and tilted my head to the side. 

 

"Just don't tell anyone about me working at the florist's?" 

 

"Kwon Soonyoung are you telling me that you're ashamed at working for your grandmother?" I said sternly. 

 

"No, no. It's just that I have this rep to uphold in school and really I don't want girls coming to my store just to make me notice them," He blurted out. 

 

I nodded slowly then held up the okay sign. He nodded back and handed me his notebook, this time a fresh new page. 

 

I started my drawing of a boy amidst many flowers arranging sunflowers into pots. He looked over at my book and smiled. 

 

------

 

I woke up in the middle of the night. My phone was buzzing loudly beside me. I reached towards my beside table, feeling for it. 

 

"Wake up, Minji," I heard a voice on the other line which sounded like Mingyu's except it was a lot more shaky.

 

"It's 1am in the morning, Mingyu. Go get some rest," 

 

"No, open the door now. I'm outside and it's cold," I struggled to get up and dragged myself to the front door

 

"What? Why are you here?" I opened the door and was greeted with a shivering Kim Mingyu.

 

He pushed himself into the house and took off his coat. He was in a wife beater and spongebob pjs. So much for trying to look punk rock. I snorted, "Nice choice of pants," He rolled his eyes and went to sit on the couch. 

 

He observed the room and said, "Good thing the dolls are gone," I nodded and rubbed my eyes. 

 

"You still haven't answered my question. What are you doing here?" I yawned while saying. 

 

He pulled out Mean Girls and Mean Girls 2, "Time for a chick flick marathon!" Wtf. 

 

"Not now, Mingyu," 

 

"Whyyy" 

 

"Maybe because IT'S FREAKIN ONE IN THE MORNING?" He covered my mouth, leaned in close to me and then said in a hushed tone, "Don't wake your Mom, ," I raised my hands in surrender. 

 

He took out a packet of microwavable popcorn and told me to go "pop it". I did as instructed and came back out of the kitchen with two large bowls of popcorn and soft drinks. 

 

"Perfect," He gave me a thumbs up. Then, he went into my room. I heard the opening sound of my cupboard before he came out with his hands full of pillows and blankets. He'd come over so often that my Mom kept spare blankets and pillows for when he came over to sleep. We both started a fort building competition. I was obviously winning, my fort standing proud beside his mess of pillows. With a kick of his long, long legs, he knocked down my precious castle. 

 

"That's it," I cracked my knuckles and pretended to get angry. I went on to steal his pillows to rebuild my fort. He pulled them back. Soon, we were engaged in a full on pillow fight. 

 

"Ouch!" I pulled back, pressing my nose. Mingyu stopped and looked at me, concern etched on his face. 

 

"Are you okay? I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," He came closer to me, gently taking my hands off my face. His face was inches away from mine as he studied the damage he thought he did. I tried to stop a smile from forming on my lips. 

 

Whack. I hit him on his head causing him to fall back. I laughed out loud. 

 

"My plan worked!!" I gasped triumphantly. He realised what I did and pinned me down on the blankets. 

 

"You little brat," His smile rivalling mine. I squirmed under his hands. He squinted at me and started a tickle war. I never laughed this hard since Jisoo's tickle fights. I raised my hands in surrender, yet again. He stopped and then proceeded to put the disk into the player and we watched as the drama unfolded. Mingyu was all giggly at the start, occasionally imitating what Regina George said in a sassy manner that I'd hit him while laughing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The training went by faster than I expected and I had picked up some football knowledge too. I spread out my music stuff and took out my guitar, practising the chord progession as I waited for Soonyoung to come out of the showers. 

 

"Hi," He sat down, hair damp. 

 

I waved, "Quite an intense game back there," I nodded toward the now empty field. 

 

He shrugged, "Nothing new," 

 

"It must be fun running around for a ball," I said sarcastically. 

 

He suddenly smiled, an idea forming in his head. He reached for my hand and tugged me down the bleachers. I struggled to catch up, laughing as we raced down. 

 

"What are you doing now, Kwon Soonyoung?" I panted, laughing. 

 

"Kwon Soonyoung is going to teach you how to play soccer," He lifted his finger. He was still in his spikes. 

 

I gave him a weird look and then said, "Oh, you wouldn't wanna do that. I at sports," 

 

"Have a little faith in yourself, Jeong Minji," He rested his hand on my shoulder. Then, he started explaining the main idea of soccer which I found really boring. 

 

We soon moved on to playing the game. He taught me how to kick a ball correctly. The first time I tried it, the ball had only moved a pathetic distance. I gave up but he dragged me back to the field. He demonstrated the correct posture and showed me it again. I tried and tried but the I just couldn't get it right. 

 

"Okay, go to your starting position now," He instructed me. I did as I was told. He gave me a thumbs up. 

 

"Now, twist your body to the side so that when you kick, the ball would move further," He explained slowly. I twisted. 

 

"No, not like that," He shook his head then came close to me, putting his hands on my waist, "Like this," He turned me slightly to the left. I followed his instructions and tried kicking again. The ball flew to the net. I started screaming and shouting. I smiled a big smile and he smiled back, just as wide. 

 

We played a few games together, with him using his jogging pace so that I could catch up with him. He evn let me score some goals, faking a stomach ache or leg injury when the ball went towards the goal. We ran around for almost and hour before we finally got tired. We dropped down on the green grass, lying down together, looking up in the sky. 

 

He turned to me smiling, "See, you did it. You just needed to-" 

 

"Have a little faith," I finished his sentence. 

 

-------

 

Ninth Line was gathered in Jihoon's basement, this time without the pretty girl. Jisoo had just broken the news to his friends. 

 

"So, you're leaving for good?" Jihoon pouted, clinging onto Jisoo. Even though they fought a lot, they couldn't live without each other. 

 

Jisoo nodded sadly. It was quiet for a while before Mingming spoke, "Then what about this Sunday?" 

 

"My Mom allowed me to stay for another week but after that it's goodbye…" Jisoo said. 

 

Mingyu who was silent throughout the whole meeting finally spoke up, "Man, I'm gonna miss you." 

 

"So am I," Jihoon and Mingming said simultaeneously. 

 

"Jinx!" The two pointed to each other.

 

"DOUBLE JINX!!" They said again. Ninth Line bursted out laughing. This was the first time they had smiled during the meeting. 

 

Jisoo ruffled the two younger boys' heads and replied, "I'm gonna miss you too," His smiled a sad smile. 

 

"Does Minji know?" Jihoon asked. 

 

Jisoo shook his head no. This was what he'd been afraid of. This was the reason why he'd broken up with her in the first place. He found it extremely painful to tell her this piece of news. Upon hearing this, Mingyu shut his eyes, leaning back against his pillow. Jihoon nodded understandingly and Mingming patted Jisoo's back. 

 

 

"Do you wanna come over to the shop and help out sometime?" Soonyoung popped a question as soon as I sat down. We had become much closer after that soccer game we had on Wednesday. 

 

"Sure, I could help water plants or something?" I suggested. 

 

"Thats cool. And we can work on our song at the same time," He added. 

 

------

 

Thursday after school, I followed Soonyoung to the shop. The boys had come by my class to pick me up to go catch a movie together but I rejected them and said that I had already made plans. They frowned and Jisoo, especially, looked bummed. I felt guilty as soon as I said no but I truly did have plans. 

 

Now, we both were standing outside the shop as Soonyoung fished the keys out of his bag. He fiddled with the lock and twisted the key. The door opened with a click. He opened the door for me and the bell above it chimed. 

 

"Ladies first," He stretched out his arms inviting me to go in. I did and I took in a whiff of different scents; some very fragrant, some milder. I took in the familiar interior of the place and waited by the counter for further instructions. 

 

"I guess I'm the boss now!!" Soonyoung beamed excitedly. My first task was to water the flowers. Easy, I thought. But I was wrong. He saw me pouring the water on the flowers and rushed to my side, grabbing the watering can away from me. I was baffled. He then showed me on how to water the plants. 

 

"Do it slowly, don't drown them," His eyebrows furrowed as he concentrated on watering the pansies. I made a face. 

 

I took the can from him and followed his method, slowly pouring water into the pot while he arranged lillies into bouquets. 

 

"You like Rain right?" He suddenly called out. 

 

"Yeah, but I hate it when it does rain and I don't have an umbrella but rain's-" 

 

"No, not that rain. Rain as in the singer," 

 

"Oh, yeah. Why?" I responded, laughing at myself. He just shook his head. 

 

Soon, the speakers started playing the instrumental to How to Avoid the Sun. 

 

Soonyoung started singing along to it, flashing his eyesmile at me. I could have melted right then. 

 

He sidestepped towards me and put his hands on my waist, initiating a dance. I put down the watering can. I followed his lead and soon he was singing the song so flawlessly as we danced around the small flower shop, smiles etched on our faces as the different types of flowers stood brightly around us as if they were smiling back at us too.