The filtered rays of the sun pierced through the white curtain of the medium sized room, brightening the young woman's face as she stirred on her bed. She blinked her eyes to wake herself from her long sleep before she lifted her body from the queen sized bed. Still half asleep,  she trained her sight by looking around her perimeter,  first on the painting of waterfall on the wall,  then to the large cactus placed near the window,  and then her sight shifted towards the picture in a grey frame on the bedside table.

She ran her fingers through her hair while her eyes still locked on the picture of herself and her boyfriend, cheek on cheek with each other. The latter was away filming his recent drama in Jeju,  and might be back today.

Her morning was quite a rush but still pleasant as she still had time to cook  a simple soupy breakfast for herself before she bid her cat goodbye and went out of the house for the day.

She opened the flower shop fifteen minutes late today but thankfully she could still catch up with the flower supplier who waited for her on the bench in front of the small shop.

"Thank you, So Eun. Sell plenty! " the flower supplier who was wearing a bright orange dress greeted her before she went into her small truck parked on the side of the road and drove away.

SoEun apologized again for her late arrival and bowed in response before getting right back to work. She first checked the ordered flowers to make sure they matched with what she had requested the day before, and when every flowers arrived were confirmed the correct ones,  she started arranging them in their respective display containers.

Located at a shopping district, the small flower shop she worked at opens at 9.30 everyday,  which was quite a benefit since she wouldn't have to wake up too early in the morning and hurt her sleeping need.  When all opening tasks were done,  she scurried next door for a cup of coffee after making sure there were no potential customers on sight.

"Oh, I'm sorry, sir." she immediately apologized as soon as she saw a man holding a bunch of roses and lilacs at the counter. "I went to get some coffee next door,  I'll pack this one for you immediately" she picked the bunch of flowers from his hand and quickly worked herself to design the arragement while ignoring the fact that the customer's eyes were so round when their eyes met,  like he was in shock.

"So Eun?"

She heard her name being uttered.

"Kim So Eun?" he repeated to make sure.

"Yes,  that's me" she smiled wide as an appreciation, assuming that he read her name from the nametag she pinned on her dress.  "So what do you want me to write on the card? " she asked,  finally done with the flower arrangement.

"That's fine. I'm gonna put this at my office" he answered simply. "Don't you remember me?" he immedialy continued with a question, thus striking So Eun with confusion.

"Err . . " her brain worked hard through the database but could not seem to find anything related to the man. The young man standing before her was suave, in his fine suit and a shining grey tie in place,  he smiled,  a smile that was almost cosmic which seemed to shone his entire surrounding. But she couldn't recall any memories of knowing such man and it was reflected on her face that was obviously in a state of trance.

"I'm Beom."

"Beom?"

"Kim Sang Beom" he grinned. "I was in class 1. We always talked during PE, remember? " his grin became wider like he just won the lottery.

His mention of PE class suddenly gave her some hints of the situation. " Oh my God. But are you?" she muttered. She remembered conversing occasionally with Beom during high school but that Kim Sang Beom was manifestly not this charming man standing before her, smiling to himself. That Kim Sang Beom was a chubby and chatty guy who wore thick glasses and walked around with a mushroom cut as a hairstyle.

"Yes. I'm Beom" he almost laughed. "Pardon me, you might not know me,  obviously. I kinda, changed,  didn't I? "

"A LOT." she said, her jaw dropped in awe. "Dude,  did you?" she swung her fingers before her face,  making such signs that somehow described plastic surgery. She couldn't help but thought of that procedure since the latter looked drastically different from how he used to look like.

"NO." he denied,  a little bit hurt on the inside. "I lost weight,  worked out,  you know" he continued.

"Beommie" she smiled bright. "So glad to see you. You look so good, like really" she walked out of the counter to properly greet her long lost acquaintance. "Do you work around here tho? Never seen you around before" she asked before leading him towards the bench right outside her shop.

"My office currently got relocated here, a week ago to be exact, at the tower next to the the mall. Actually my assistant bought flowers here everyday, but he took leave today"

"Your assistant? "

"Yeah,  tall guy with platinum grey hair"

"Ahhhhh. Min Ho?"

"You know his name?"

"Yeah of course. Why wouldn't I?"

********

Sang Beom placed the flower he bought in a ceramic vase located on his table.  He's always a fan of flowers,  he need to see and smell one every day,  which was the reason why he decided to walk  all the way to the florist while Min Ho was away.

That decision though, he was very proud of it.
As if he had lost control of his mouth,  he bursted into few small laugh while he was settling himself on the leather chair of his office.  Being a Managing Director of Lotte Young Plaza, he was provided with a large office that houses him and his assistant. That gave him plenty of room to work at,  and sometimes to daydream at.

"Kim.  . .So.  . .Eun.  . ." he uttered. His mind flew thirteen years back during middle school, in where he was a chubby nerd who only like books,  and So Eun. She was his crush, heck Beom was almost sure that he loved her back then. Ever since he saw her jumping over the school fence after morning assembly, he couldn't stop his heart from beating extremely fast upon seeing the petite girl.

"What are you looking at?"  He remembered So Eun's snap the moment she saw him witnessing her jumping into the school compound. "DO NOT TELL ANYONE" she emphasized before scurrying towards her classroom, leaving him dumbfounded but at the same time, mesmerized. From that time onward,  he could not take his eyes off her though he did not have even the smallest gut to talk to her.

She was all cheery and mischievous throughout middle school but he realized her gradual change the moment they shifted to high school. She laughed less,  often seen gloomy and seemed to isolate herself from her usual circle of friends. Eventually Beom came to a knowledge that she lost her mother, who was killed by her own father. Tragic, it was.

And the news eventually spread at school like wildfire, placing So Eun as the centre of attraction for a good amount of time. Sometimes he would see SoEun walking aimlessly around the school garden,  face full of grim, but  a lot of times she would just be absent from school.

It was until one day,  when class 1 and class 3 had their PE class together,  that time where Beom who was too lazy to join the class went to the garden to read his book, that he finally talked to So Eun. He saw her hugging her knees while sobbing aloud, which somehow made his heart ache.

"Need tissue?" was the first sentence he uttered to her. Lame,  he knew it,  but being a person who only reads non-fiction doesn't give him that much vocabs to work on to be able to make her feel better. Thankfully,  she used the tissue to wipe her tears after the nth time he asked her to. And from that time onward,  they slowly engaged themselves in a PE class friendship where they will be conversing throughout the physical education period and sometimes got told off by their teacher for not joining the games she had arranged. 

"Hyung." A voice popped Beom's cloud of daydream. 

"Min Ho? i thought you were on leave?" he muttered,  not even trying to hide his annoyance towards the lad for disturbing his reminiscence of the past. 

"I was on a half day leave. You should be more alert of your employee's affair, hyung" he said. "I was gone for few hours and you have already started laughing to yourself" he teased while taking a seat across Beom's.  

"Why don't you just take a week off " Beom rolled his eyes at his cousin's nag.

"So,  what made this workaholic smiling to himself like a lunatic while leaving all these urgent documents unsigned?" MinHo folded his arms,  his eyes pointed at the untouched pile of papers on the table that was prepared by him yesterday. It was very not-Beom for the young man to neglect his work like that,  and it made Min Ho super curious about the reason of his unusual conduct. 

"Why don't you mind your own business"

"You not signing the lease document IS my business,  hyung" Min Ho almost barked,  his eyes round. 

Beom  heaved a sigh of defeat. Knowing his cousin, he knew he would eventually need to tell him the truth or the unnecessarily tall lad will keep bothering the out of him so he decided not to waste time and open his mouth to let the story jump out.

 
"I went to buy flowers, at the place you always go"

Min Ho didn't utter anything,  his ears opened wide in listening mode. 

"The 'Kim So Eun' working there,  I believe you know her name,  since she knew yours" he glared at his cousin for a second before he continued. "She's long-jump So Eun" 

"What? No way" MinHo's left eyebrow fell heavily onto his left eye while the right shot straight up and he gazed at Beom in disbelief. 

"Yes way" Beom grinned wide. 'Long-jump So Eun' had been the name Beom used whenever he shared stories about his crush to MinHo who was attending boarding school in London at that time. 

"Now this is news" Min Ho stated. Despite the long distance cousinhood back then,  Min Ho knew very well that Beom was deeply in love with his unsolicited crush and now that he had known her, Min Ho started to understand why. The young woman had a subtle charming persona, and it was downright impossible to not like her. 

"But hyung,  have you not,  I mean,  do you still like her?  It's been years" Min Ho threw a question. He witnessed how heartbroken Beom was when So Eun started dating their senior during their last year of high school and he was just not fond of seeing his cousin hurt again. 

"I think I do" Beom's smile was so dreamy that if anyone was looking they must have thought that he was drunk. "I think I'm gonna try my luck this time. I'm quite confident" 

"But hyung"

"Why not?  I'm single"

"Yeah, I know that, but is she?"