Changed the description + foreword a tiny bit, but not so much that it'd change the entire plotline of the story~
Also, huge thanks and shout out to xiaojiajia, for allowing me to use a couple of her stories in my own :D She's an incredible author, and I highly recommend you check out her stories if you like EXO or Red Velvet!
Enjoy reading everyone!

The second Ten stepped his foot into that flower shop, it was like love at first sight. The beautiful arrangements perched on top of the shelves and hanging from the ceiling, the elegant and vibrant petals blooming from thornless stems, the sickeningly sweet scent of flowers wafting in the air - he had found a place that had captured his aesthetic, and his heart.

It was only natural that Ten had asked if the owner, Taeil, was still looking for a new worker to help run the shop. The look on Ten's face when Taeil had said "Yes," could only be described as the look a kid had gotten when they are handed a piece of candy. The brightness in his eyes and his radiant glow reminded Taeil of the bouvardia flowers, soft yet sharp.

Ten's smile was blinding. Pearly whites framed by plush pink lips that suited his youthful demeanor all too well. Soft raven locks that contrasted greatly with his lightly tanned skin that just glimmered under the sunlight. He had a rather feminine look, with his rosy cheeks and long lashes, but he had very sharp facial features. Especially his nose and jawline, which Taeil was sure could cut the thorns off the roses. Ten's eyes were especially pretty. It looked like those mocha orbs of his captured the sun itself. They were just so bright and full of life, it made Taeil feel old. And not to forget the fact that Ten was rather quite shapely, with a lean body and some rather bodacious body parts he rather not mentions for embarrassment.

And to top it all off, his subtle yet distinct scent that smelled like a bowl of fruit that had been ripened by the sun, not overly sweet but it was sublime. It was like a bee being drawn to a flower - Taeil liked him immediately.

On the spot, Taeil hired the youngster and welcomed him with open arms. He didn't even consider what his other employee, Jaehyun, might think of Ten. He knew that Jaehyun would love him the second he laid eyes on his bubbly new worker, and he was so right.

As soon as Ten greeted Jaehyun, he hugged Ten as if he was a teddy bear and squealed about how cute the latter was. Ten hadn't even gotten a reaction like that since he met his best friend, Johnny, back in grade school. Back when Ten still had his baby fat and Johnny wasn't as tall or muscular.

In short, Ten felt extremely welcomed into that small establishment. With a kind boss and a loveable coworker, it was paradise--

"Ten, you head! I told you I was going to I was going to finish today's arrangements!" Jaehyun scowled at the elder who was putting out a fresh bouquet in the store's windows. "Well someone had to finish them while they were out seeing their oh-so-secret boyfriend. Who the hell takes an hour and thirty-nine minutes to go get some Chinese food from the store across the street anyways?!" Ten shot back.

"The lines there are always long, you know that, Ten!" Jaehyun crossed his arms and pouted angrily. He resembled a grizzly bear, and Ten was the mountain lion that was getting ready to tear him apart. "Mhmm, seems like it was extremely crowded because you had to come out from the backdoor with a rather large package that looked more like a ing bunny rather than a pile of noodles!"

Ten smiled victoriously when he saw Jaehyun's awestruck face, defeated at the fact that Ten had practically seen every detail that had gone on. "Yup, that's right. You don't try to test a Ten, because you'll always be a zero~" He giggled mischievously, sticking his tongue out at the younger male. Jaehyun then threw the wilted petals he had snipped off the flowers into Ten's face, laughing wildly at his high pitched squeal and his trembling fists next to his head.

"That is it, Mister Jung--!" Ten jumped on Jaehyun's back, holding on a little too tightly for comfort when Jaehyun tried to shake the smaller male off, but to no avail. Joyful squeals along with loud laughter echoed in the small shop as the two continued to play fight with each other.

Taeil then suddenly appeared from the back with a stern look on his face, throwing his gardening glove at the two bickering in the middle of the shop. "You two quit it! I swear on Yuta's excessive love for Winwin and anime, your bodies will be used to fertilize the soil and I'll water the plants with your blood if you guys don't drop the act in three seconds,"

Both pairs of eyes widened simultaneously at the thought of becoming human fertilizer. Ten untangled his limbs from Jaehyun's body and he quickly brushed the flower petals out of his hair and his gardening smock. Under Taeil's hard glare, he felt his palms sweat as if the lights in the store weren't bright enough to make his red face even more prominent. He was more than a little embarrassed that Taeil always caught the two in these awkward positions, either from an angle that looked oh so wrong or the two goofing around openly while there were no customers.

"You kids... I swear you two are harder to control than my nephews." Taeil sighed, shaking his head softly. Both Jaehyun and Ten muttered an apology with their heads hanging low. With a slight smile, Taeil reached out to the both of them and ruffled their hair lovingly. "But, I'm just kidding. I could never kill either of you." Ten and Jaehyun both let out a relieved sigh, blessing every holy being for bestowing them with an angelic boss like Taeil.

"I'd get other people to kill you two for me! Now, get back to work, okay?" With a frighteningly wide smile, Taeil disappeared into the back room again. The hairs on the back of Ten's neck stood up at the sickeningly sweet and honest tone Taeil had in his voice when he said those last few statements. He slowly turned to Jaehyun, who had the same owl-eyed look on his face.

"Did our boss just openly admit he would kill us?" Jaehyun muttered softly.

"No, but he has friends to do the killing for him." Ten replied back, a little bit louder than Jaehyun but less stoic than the latter.

Jaehyun clicked his tongue, stretching out to see if he could see Taeil's silhouette in the back room. "Wow, didn't know a grandpa like him actually has friends." He said when he could confirm that Taeil wasn't anywhere near them.

"I HEARD THAT, YOU BRATS!" Taeil shouted, scaring the two halfway to death as they both proceeded to vigorously clean the shop as if their lives depended on it. And both Ten and Jaehyun were pretty damn sure that their lives did depend on it.

After their little spat with each other, Jaehyun was sent out to go deliver the orders they have received, confirmed, and were ready to ship out. Ten didn't know exactly why Taeil chose to send him out instead of himself in all honesty. He had already exposed Jaehyun as a clingy boyfriend who takes every moment he spent outside of the store to go see his boyfriend, it made perfect sense in his head to send him out instead of that snake.

However, in Taeil's own words, he quotes, "He's got longer legs than you, Ten-ah, he'll be able to get the job done quicker." Those words felt like a stab to his genes, but more importantly his pride. It wasn't his fault that he was short! It wasn't his fault that his parents have him the short genes, not the tall ones. That lucky stitch Johnny got all the tall genes, that ing giraffe.

Instead, Taeil had assigned him to manage the store's front - manage the counter, set up flower displays, take calls and record orders, tasks that were boring unto itself, but it dragged on forever when there wasn't another person there with him to lighten the lonely atmosphere. He and Jaehyun had already cleaned up the petal graveyard on the hardwood floors, and their phone hadn't gotten any calls since they had opened that morning.

So, with a heavy sign, Ten subjected himself to watering the luscious plants growing in the shelves behind the counter. The ones behind the counter, in Ten's opinion, were the most artistic and unique out of all the bouquets they had in the shop. Yes, the ones he, Jaehyun, and Taeil made on a regular basis were beautiful and most certainly eye-catching, but the ones they had hidden were the true gems of the shop.

Some emitted so much elegance and beauty that it was fit for a Queen's coronation, other's looked like a prop straight out of a Tim Burton movie. There was a handful of them that were so delicately arranged in such a way that even the stems themselves play a crucial role in creating a masterpiece out of flowers. Ten himself was surprised that stems could be bent and twisted to create a cage-like structure and hold that position for that long, it was simply marveling. They remind him of why he fell in love with this store in the first place.

Ten set down the watering can with a satisfied smile. The plants were now glimmering with tiny droplets of water clinging to the leaves. They all looked just as bodacious and vibrant as the moment he walked into the shop, and that alone made Ten content with the fact that Taeil made him stay behind.

With a small smile, he turned around to check if there were any customers only to find one just inches away from his face. And a person who he thought he'd never see inside a pastel wonderland shop like their own.

This person was dark and intimidating. From head to toe, they were rocking an all black look. A sleek, varsity style jacket with leather details and a white patch that had some sort of logo on in on top of a plain black, yet tight, shirt that outlined the muscles underneath just right. His ripped, jet black skinny jeans teased the pale skin underneath, with fine black lines webbing out across his legs into some kind of intricate pattern blocked by the denim fabric. And to top his entire look off, a black face mask stretched out over his mouth, with a black snapback on his baby pink hair, a great contrast to his blackout fashion. 

Ten's eyes raked over his face. There wasn't much to see (and ogle over) since that face mask covered half of it, but what he could already see was enough to have him stare at the man for days on end. From what Ten could tell, he had an extremely structured face, with a defined nose and bone structure. He could tell Ten that he was sculpted by the hands of Leonardo Da Vinci and he would believe him.

And those eyes... Those eyes looked like they were staring directly into Ten's soul. They were beautiful, to say the least, but there was something more dangerous behind them. Almost as if there was another person behind those eyes of his, that trapped the last person who had looked into them for too long.

Ten couldn't find the willpower to pull away and be professional, he could look at the beauty right in front of him all day long. Or until the strange customer pulled down his face mask, revealing a cocky smirk that just screamed: "I know you're drooling over me." He shyly turned away and faked a cough before looking back at this mysterious person with a smile, "Hello, welcome to Honeysuckle Florals, how can I help you today?"

The moment he saw those plush, pink lips move, he knew he going to have a heart attack, "Ah, yes. I was wondering if you could do an extra special order for me," And right he was. That deep and husky voice echoed in Ten's head like a mantra, he felt high on his voice alone

Ten coughed once again, a bit embarrassed by the fact that he was already so intoxicated by this mysterious customer. "W-What do you mean by 'extra special,' sir?" 

"Just an idea I'm testing out for something I want to do later in the future, that cool?" A little shift in his posture exposed a grey camo pattern on the inside of his jacket. There were so many secrets and mysteries to this man, and Ten wanted to know them all. 

"That's perfectly fine, just tell me what you'd like in the bouquet and I'll put it together for you." Ten answered. 

"Well in that case," He propped his arms up on the counter, looking up at Ten with the same smirk from before, "What's your favorite book, baby?"

"My favorite-- Wait back it up, excuse me?" Ten's eyes went wide at this person's casual use of the word "baby," especially to a guy who he was almost 100% sure he had never met before. "Did you just call me baby?" He tried oh so hard not to break out into song like he usually would if he was with Jaehyun, not this man who was looking at him like a predator stalking prey.

"Yes, and I asked you what your favorite book was, princess," He repeated once again, but with a different pet name this time. "P-P-Princess--" Ten felt his face flush as soon as the word left his mouth. The word sounded so good when it rolled off of Taeyong's tongue, but it felt foreign on his.

"Mhmm, so can you please answer my question please?" He asked. Ten smacked his cheek softly, praying that the customer wouldn't find it weird that the worker slaps himself right in front of him. "A-Ahh... Yes, of course I am extremely sorry for my reaction. If I had to choose... It'd either "Heaven In You" or "Beautifully Imperfect" by Jia, they're both such romantic and heart clenching stories that slap you with all the feels,"

"Like the slap you did to your cheeks, or much harder?" Ten didn't know what flustered him more, the fact that this mysterious man did take note of his odd slapping, or that there was a slightly sultry undertone to it, and the tint in his endless eyes grew darker, if that was even possible. There was a feeling in Ten's stomach that he was hinting at something, but he didn't want to test the waters just yet.

"Harder," Ten said with a hushed voice, "But may I ask why you want my favorite book? What does that have to do with the bouquet?" He tilted his head to the side. The mystery man threw a hazy smile at Ten, "Just something I'm thinking about getting for my shop, and then someone else if I'm lucky."

Ten didn't take the hint of the stress on the word 'someone,' instead raising an eyebrow at the shop he mentioned. '"Your shop?" Ten questioned. He nodded, "Yeah, I'm Taeyong, the owner of Exotic Inks, the tattoo parlor next door." As he said that, Taeyong man took off his jacket.

Underneath the leather sleeves laid fine ink lines all over his skin, intertwining into intricate drawings. Some had color, but most of the tattoos were black and white, much like his attire. Ten's eyes widened at beautiful artwork and detailed works, it was simply stunning.

"Thought I'd put something unique on our counter other than Hansol's lunch." Ten honestly never took notice of that tattoo parlor next to Honeysuckle Florals, it was always a place he wanted to check out but was scared to go to. The vibes it gave off warded Ten away, but maybe now he'd check it out if this customer owned the place.

"Ahh... Okay, I see. So you want some flowers for your parlor? I'd recommend a combination of Queen of the Night tulips--"

"No, I want something unique," Taeyong stated. Ten didn't know if he was hallucinating, but he swore this man got closer to him. A few mere inches shrunk so that they were now a couple centimeters apart. "I want you to make me a bouquet of paper flowers from those books you said you liked." He said with a straight face.

Ten raised his eyebrow at the strange and very direct request. A paper flower bouquet? From his favorite stories at that, for a tattoo parlor, he hadn't even stepped foot in before. Ten was confused, he was perplexed, he was puzzled at what Taeyong wanted. 

"Um... Forgive me for asking, but why the books I like specifically? Wouldn't you rather have like tattoo sketches or something--"

"Nope. I want your favorite books to be the flowers, honey." Taeyong cut Ten off abruptly. Not only did he cut Ten off, but he dared to call him more pet names, and they were getting more oddly getting more ironic. He just called him honey, and he works in a flower shop, it was a laughable detail.

"You can't look up an origami flower video tutorial on YouTube? I mean, I'm sure there are lots of them." Ten questioned the tattoo artist standing at front of the counter, arms crossed with a serious look on his handsome face. He had to force himself to not let his eyes wander all over those inked and lean arms of his, covered in words and symbols he wouldn't dare wrap his mind around.

The man smirked and rested his palms on the table. He leaned in close, to the point where Ten could no longer smell the fresh scent of the flowers behind him, but the musky stench of his cologne. The smell enveloped him so tightly that he felt his eyes go in and out of focus as he stared at the watering can on the counter.

"No, I don't want to." He backed away with a teasing smirk. Ten snapped out of his dazed state and returned the smirk with a suspicious stare. "And why is that, Taeyong?" 

He kept his nose up high and proud in an attempt to stand his ground. Ten meticulously traced the wood grains of the counter as he looked into the other's eyes, waiting for some kind of response. A furrow formed between his brows when he saw a dark glint flash in the latter's piercing eyes. 

"H-Hey wait you aren't supposed to come back here--!!" Ten squeaked when the latter entered the 'strictly' prohibited area behind the counter. He found himself backing up until his back hit the wooden walls. Bits of dirt and fertilizer had likely fallen on him from the shelves hanging about his head, but none of that mattered when a complete stranger was corning him in his own workplace!

Ten nervously raised the edge of his gardening smock to cover his face, completely blocking the tattoo artist out of view. He let out a soft whimper when he felt the wood next to his head endure a heavy impact. He didn't even have to turn his head to know that he had been completely cornered and caged between the flowers and a tattoo artist. 

Shivers ran down his spine when he heard the man whisper haughty words in his ears. "Because it's in your nature to be pliable, Flowerboy." Ten's face turned redder than the roses that were on sale that day.

"I--" Ten's voice cracked when he felt Taeyong trace the flower patch Taeil had so kindly sewn in on the smock, dangerously close to a sensitive place on his chest. He could physically feel the air around them grow hotter as Taeyong got even closer. He nearly felt his breath tickle the base of his neck when the door to the shop slammed open.

"Oh Ten~ I'm back, did you miss--" Jaehyun burst through, a jolly smile on his face as he greeted Ten. His expression melted into a realizing smirk as he shot Ten that look. The look Ten so desperately to slap off of Jaehyun's face when he heard Taeyong snicker as he squirmed around.

"Clearly, I'm not the only one who secretly sees their boyfriend while I'm out." He leaned against the racks holding the carnations and chrysanthemums, a eating grin decorating that face of his.

Ten felt his face burn, pushing Taeyong off him as he stomped towards Jaehyun with a pair of sheers in his hand, "Jaehyun, you best shut it before I help Taeil with that human fertilizer." The color drained from Jaehyun's face when Ten charged at him, chasing him around the confined space while Taeyong watched the situation unfold with an amused look on his face.

Again, I cannot thank xiaojiajia aka Jia enough for allowing me to use quotes and little snippets from her stories in my works. As you all may have figured out by now, the two stories that I have used are called "Heaven In You" and "Beautifully Imperfect" They're both such well written and intriguing stories (especially "Heaven In You," I highly recommend that story) and I love reading them so much.
You'll see them more prominently in the next chapter (did I mention this'll be a short story with about four chapters instead of a oneshot?).

Also, is anyone excited to see what else I have in store? Because I have a loottttttttt of plans, and I'm actually motivated to write~ Let's hope this energy lasts for a good while, I want to get done afckdbsf

IDK what I'll update next though uggghhh, choices, choices. Oh well, let's see how I feel later today (it's like 4AM as I'm finishing this chapter oops). BUT I can confirm that there'll be a NCT x EXO [M] oneshot coming soon. OOPS SPOILERS BUT THE DANCERS WILL BE INVOLVED KMS

Anyways, I hope y'all enjoyed the first chapter :D Do tell me what you think about this so far if you've got any spare time, I'd love to hear your opinions ^^

Please take care, stay happy and healthy loves!
Signing off, Nic. ♡