Kim Hwiyoung usually has very peaceful days working as a florist. Mainly because people don’t really chance upon the small little flower shop on 9th street, and he was perfectly fine with that. Sure, he likes the flowers and all, but talking to all the people was more of Inseong’s thing, maybe even Jaeyoon. Unfortunately, the latter two were away for some “business matters” (read: date trip to Jeju, as if Hwiyoung doesn’t know) leaving the youngest member of their flower shop team alone. It was already his second day manning the shop when the bell chime by the door sounded.

Hwiyoung looked up from fixing his basket of peonies, ready to greet the customer, but the words fall short on his lips.

He would like to say that he doesn’t get affected that easily and that it just happened to be a moment of weakness, but he knows that would just be one big lie. The boy who entered the shop had blond hair, like himself, with a bright smile plastered on his face. If he were a flower, Hwiyoung caught himself thinking, he would probably be a sunflower. Big, bright, and yellow. Definitely something to do with the sun. Anything to do with the sun, really.

“Hello!” the customer greeted first, much to Hwiyoung’s embarrassment as he continued to be distracted by the boy’s pearly white teeth— who gets distracted by teeth, honestly? “Is this Inseong’s store?”

Hwiyoung shook himself back to reality and nods, tongue-tied and cursing himself because of it, “it is. He’s not here though.”

“Oh, that’s fine, just tell him Taeyang dropped by then. I’m looking for a nice bouquet of flowers.”

Taeyang. It’s like his family knew he was meant to shine brighter than anything Hwiyoung has ever laid his eyes upon.

“Uhm, any flowers in particular?”

“I don’t really know much about flowers, so I’ll let you decide.”

“What’s the occasion?”

“First date.”

The smile on his face was still blinding as Hwiyoung forced himself to look away and head towards the back of the store. A date. Of course. With a face like that, Taeyang probably doesn’t have a trouble at all with dates. Probably has a whole line of people falling at his feet. Good for him. Good for his date, too. Lucky lucky lucky. Him, or the date? Hwiyoung doesn’t know, his thoughts a bit too pre-occupied by the customer to really focus on fixing a bouquet up.

In the end, Hwiyoung settles for a bouquet of soft pink roses and white peonies, deeming it pretty enough for a first date. Girls usually liked soft pastel colours anyway, right? Actually… was  Taeyang’s date even a girl?

“Ah,” Hwiyoung muttered to himself, “I’m getting ahead of myself.”

Plastering a polite smile on his face, Hwiyoung turned and walked back to the store counter.

“Would this be alright?”

“Looks perfect!” Cue another bright, bright smile. “How much?”

Hwiyoung named a price, keeping his eyes anywhere but on the face in front of him. A quick transaction later, and Taeyang soon had his back turned to Hwiyoung. The latter watched as Taeyang headed out the door, thinking that Taeyang had managed to take his heart with him as he exited— which was a terribly sappy thing to think about, he should really stop with the romance dramas— when Taeyang stopped and turned around.

“I didn’t get your name,” he said.

“Hwiyoung. It’s Hwiyoung,” came the soft and shocked reply.

“Alright,” Taeyang smiled brighter and Hwiyoung swore his heart did not skip a beat because Taeyang was a customer who had a date, for crying out loud. “See you then, Hwiyoung!”

The latter smiles and waves despite his thoughts, mentally blaming Inseong for all of this and making sure the older boy knew all about it when they returned.

____________________________________________________

Hwiyoung is alone again the next day.

Well, at least he was alone until Taeyang walked into the store.

“Hi, Hwiyoung!” the personification of sunshine said as he entered the store, dressed just as nicely as yesterday. He settled himself next to the counter, grinning at the still dumbfounded Hwiyoung. “One bouquet please.”

Hwiyoung blinks himself out of the thoughts racing in his head— ranging from ‘wow Taeyang looks good today too’ to ‘he needs another bouquet’ to ‘what do you mean he has another date it’s only been a day what the hell’ and finally back to ‘wow he looks really good’.

“First date went well?” He asked, attempting small talk so things won’t feel that awkward.

Taeyang shrugged, “no, actually. First date again. The girl I met yesterday liked the flowers, so I thought maybe it would be a good way to start this one too.”

Okay, what?

“What?” Hwiyoung voiced out eventually.

Taeyang grinned sheepishly, “I have bad luck with dates, so this happens a lot. I hope you don’t mind if I end up frequenting this store.”

Hwiyoung doesn’t mind his presence one bit, but he chooses to keep quiet about that. Not trusting his mouth around such a handsome figure, he decides to head over and begin fixing up a new bouquet. He wasn’t sure whether he should just make the same one from yesterday but soon decides against it, settling for purple calla lilies and white carnations. Still a soft colour palette, so it should still be good.

“Here you go,” Hwiyoung announced, ing the flowers over to a joyful Taeyang.

He asked about the price again and Hwiyoung rang up a number as he tried his best not to spout more questions about Taeyang’s unfortunate predicament.

“Thanks again, Hwiyoung!” Taeyang said as he was headed out the door. Hwiyoung gave him another small wave.

____________________________________________________

“Oh, Taeyang?” Inseong asked as he clipped a few thorns off their fresh delivery of roses.

Hwiyoung grunted in reply. It’s been a week since Taeyang’s visit, which also meant Inseong and Jaeyoon were back around the store (sunkissed and way too happy about it), which was great. Hwiyoung was no longer alone in the store. He could leave the counter to the two older boys and tend to his flowers in peace. What wasn’t great, ho