final ;

Working at a flower shop in the middle of New York City is certainly a way for one to meet all kinds of people. Sometimes it's a young child buying tulips for Mother's Day, or it's a kind old man going to visit a sick loved one, or it's a nervous young lover trying to propose.

But today, one of those people happened to be the most beautiful boy Chunhwa had ever seen.

She was carefully tending to the orchids in the display window when he walked in. The familiar tinkling chime of the bell sounded in her ears as the door to Ode à la Rose opened, and when she looked up, her gaze was met with piercing brown eyes. Chunhwa almost dropped the delicate glass plant mister she was holding.

However, to save her from embarrassing herself (and from getting scolded by her boss), she quickly composed herself, setting the plant mister down and smiling. Her customer service persona resurfaced so quickly that she was afraid of the whiplash, but it was a good way for her to distract herself from his almost blinding beauty. So she stood up just a bit straighter and gestured kindly at him.

"Welcome to Ode à la Rose. Is there anything I can help you with?"

The boy stood at the entrance of the shop, his eyes going wide. Chunhwa mentally kicked herself, automatically assuming that she had creeped him out by her obviously fake voice which practically screamed, "Please don't actually ask for my help." Of course, in any other situation, she really would have meant that. Any person who worked some sort of job requiring customer service could relate to the dread of helping out a customer with strange and unreasonable demands. But for now, any opportunity she had to talk to him was one she was willing to take, but her body was practically running on autopilot in a desperate attempt to keep herself from openly ogling at him.

Chunhwa was very discreetly trying to discern how tall he was, noting how long his legs were and how perfectly proportioned he seemed to be. She was so engrossed in this task that she didn't even notice how nervous he looked as he tried to come up with some sort of coherent sentence.

Finally, he exclaimed clumsily, "I'd like to buy some flowers, please!"

How perfect could this guy be? His voice was pleasantly deep and its rich tone wrapped around her ears like velvet.

"Well," Chunhwa replied, laughing slightly at his response, "you've definitely come to the right place. Any particular flowers you're looking for?"

The boy puffed out his chest and proclaimed, "I want to give a bouquet to someone I like."

Aw. So she definitely had no chance. Chunhwa fought off the urge to frown and quietly made her way towards the back of the shop, trying her best to seem nonchalant as she pulled out a flower catalogue. After tucking it under her arm, she walked over to the cash register and set the catalogue down, beckoning him to come over.

"There are several types of flowers that can convey romantic feelings, and they're all listed here. Unless you just want to go for some kind of color scheme, which I can also do for you," Chunhwa explained, willing herself to slip completely into customer service mode.

The more she focused on her job, the less she could focus on how handsome and unavailable he was.

"Yeah, uh," the boy began clumsily, rifling through the crinkled pages of the flower catalogue, very clearly looking confused, "these are all really pretty."

Seeing how engrossed he was in choosing what flowers to include, Chunhwa took the chance to observe him with a little less subtlety. His brows, which were almost perfectly sculpted, furrowed in concentration, creating a cute little wrinkle in between. His nose was somehow so aesthetically pleasing that she just couldn't process it, and his lips were puckered ever so slightly, giving him a somewhat pouty look that just made her entire soul ache. He was so attractive that she didn't know what to do with herself. It just wasn't fair!

She was about to lose herself in the perfection of his face until he looked up at her. Chunhwa almost yelled out loud, but she quickly caught herself and cooled her expression, offering up a small smile at him. He beamed back at her but then, as if restraining himself hastily looked away, leaving Chunhwa feeling very confused and embarrassed. Did he catch her staring?

"So, uhm," she began, clearing awkwardly, "have you decided which flowers you would like to include in your bouquet?"

"Yes," he said, suddenly staring at her very intently. "I would really like a bouquet of gardenias and blue salvias," he finished, butchering the pronunciation of the salvias. (He blushed profusely at his mistake, laughing nervously, but this just made her think he was even cuter.)

Chunhwa carefully gathered the blooms in her hands. The gears were whirring in her head.

"Gardenias represent 'secret love' and the blue salvias mean 'I think of you.' This is a pretty loaded bouquet," she commented, smiling widely to make up for her increasing disappointment. She was very sad that he already had someone in mind, but the other half of her was happy that this beautiful boy was pursuing his love. She sincerely hoped he would be successful and berated herself for feeling disappointed about a guy she had literally just met.

"Yeah, uh...I mean. I have this huge crush on this beautiful girl and I want to give this to her," he said excitedly.

He was just too cute! Chunhwa screamed inside.

"Well, whoever that girl is, she is certainly lucky to have the affections of someone as nice as you," she replied, genuinely meaning it.

He laughed shyly, looking away slightly and lifting his hand to fiddle with the hairs at the nape of his neck. Chunhwa positively swooned.

"Would you like me to include a little handwritten message with the bouquet?" she asked, forcing herself into customer service mode again before she could confess right then and there.

"Um, you can just say it's from Yukhei. Y-u-k-h-e-i. I'm Yukhei," he said very seriously.

"Okay, Yukhei," Chunhwa said, relishing in finally knowing his name. Of course, even his name was beautiful. He was so perfect it almost made her angry.

She gingerly wrapped up the bouquet and placed the little message card inside, and then rang him up on the register. It took all of her willpower to not just stop and stare at him and instead to remember how to count so she could give him back the correct amount of change. As they neared the end of their transaction, Chunhwa slowed down ever so slightly just to prolong their interaction even a few seconds more. When she finally handed him the receipt, she wanted to cry. Don't go! she wanted to say. Let me bask in your perfect presence just a little bit more! There were countless other flower shops in the city. There was no telling whether or not he would ever come back to this one, just another little flower shop amidst Manhattan's sprawling Flower District.

But all good things had to come to an end, and he took his little bouquet and his perfect self and walked out the door. The tinkling of the bell signaled his leave, and Chunhwa's sad state of mind made it sound a lot more melancholic than it could ever actually be.

The rest of Chunhwa's work day paled in comparison to the golden interaction with Yukhei, and when she finally closed up shop, she sat by herself in the middle of Ode à la Rose for just a few minutes, reliving their encounter in her head. She was both celebrating her luck for meeting someone so beautiful and also mourning the unavailability of such a handsome person.

The next week at work, Chunhwa came in after her last class, just before her coworker was about to finish his shift. She settled herself at the cash register, cupping her chin in her hand as she watched him tend to the plants one final time before he had to leave.

"You don't understand, Eunseok. He was the most beautiful person I have ever seen," she sighed wistfully, trying to explain just how perfect Yukhei was. A week had already passed and she was still not over it, apparently. "And I don't know if I'll ever see him again."

"Well, New York is a big city. But at the same time, it's kind of a small world here, don't you think? You never know. Maybe you'll see him on the train one day," Eunseok said good-naturedly, grinning back at her.

"I really doubt it," Chunhwa retorted, sinking down sadly into her chair.

And then the tinkling of a bell filled the store, and the Gates of Heaven opened to reveal God Himself.

Trumpets started playing in Chunhwa's head and the shocked expression on her face was enough for Eunseok to know that the guy she was just talking about had now appeared inside the store.

"Welcome!" Eunseok greeted, smiling broadly. Then he turned around and looked at Chunhwa with the most excited and shocked look on his face. This boy really was beautiful.

"My shift is actually over, so I have to go. Chunhwa, could you please take care of this customer for me? Okay, thanks so much, bye!"

And with that, Eunseok slipped off his apron, gathered his things, and clocked out in record time. Chunhwa stood there, staring blankly at the space Eunseok had just been in, trying to process what had just happened.

"Um...hi!" Yukhei said, smiling sheepishly.

"Hello," Chunhwa replied slowly, still not believing that he was right before her eyes. But then her brain switched to autopilot out of embarrassment and an automatic smile manifested on her face.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" she asked cheerily.

This time, Yukhei chose a bouquet of pink carnations (happiness) and baby's breath (everlasting love). Chunhwa smiled softly as she gathered the flowers into a bouquet, thinking to herself about how sweet he was. She wrapped it up quickly and rang him up at the register, trying to make the exchange as quick and clean as possible out of fear that he would recognize just how enamored she was with him. She felt kind of ridiculous, considering that this was only her second time ever seeing him, but something about him was so charming that she could just feel herself falling fast. His laugh was contagious, and the way he talked made him seem like a genuinely happy and easygoing person. His humor and positivity was infectious.

But Yukhei was just a customer. She had to constantly remind herself of this boundary.

However, it seemed like the universe had other plans for her, and it didn't want her to rest. Her struggle to push down her little (okay, maybe big) crush on Yukhei - who obviously already had his sights set on someone else - was made harder and harder each time she went to work. He was coming to the shop every week. It was sweet that he seemed to be getting some girl a bouquet of flowers so often. Perhaps, if it were anyone else, Chunhwa would have thought of it as a bit too much, but for some reason the thought of Yukhei going to a flower shop once a week just to show his affection to some girl was both charming and heartbreaking.

Roses, honeysuckle, lilies, and tulips... Week by week, Yukhei bought them all. And the symbolism of each flower that he picked out had some sort of connection to the words "love" and "affection." It was agonizing. At one point, he asked her what kind of flower she would want, and when she answered with "sunflowers," he bought a whole bouquet of them, looked as if he was going to say something to her, and then ran out. It left her feeling both flattered that he took her advice, and jealous that the flowers were not for her!

Chunhwa had no idea how to cope with this. Every time she thought she was about to find some sort of relief, he would walk into the shop. She was about to go crazy.

One day, when he was buying yet another bouquet, Chunhwa asked if he wanted to write the name of the girl he liked on the little message card. Maybe if she knew the girl's name, she would have some sort of closure. It wasn't like she ever expected anything in the first place, but it was still kind of sad to send him off once a week with a bouquet that she made for some other girl.

Yukhei looked caught off guard once she asked.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," she quickly said right after, trying to keep the note of hurt out of her voice. She didn't want to make things awkward, but she was confused as to why he suddenly looked like he wanted to run away. Did she know the girl he liked or something?

"No, it's fine, I do want to write her name, actually," he finally said, looking very determined.

"Okay, let's go for it, then!" Chunhwa said, trying to sound upbeat.

Yukhei took a deep breath, his cheeks very red. If even thinking about this girl's name was enough to put him into such a huff, then he must really like her. Chunhwa felt a sort of calm wash over her as she finally processed that she had an absolutely zero percent chance with him. This guy was whipped. She sent a silent prayer to whoever this girl was, thinking once again how lucky she was.

Slowly, letter by letter, Yukhei spelled out the name of the girl he liked.

"C-h-u-n-h-w-a."

"Wow," Chunhwa said, laughing slightly at the hilarity of it all, "she has the same name as me."

"That's because she is you," Lucas said loudly. He sounded confident but the tips of his ears were as red as the chrysanthemums he was holding.

"Chunhwa," he continued, practically shoving the bouquet of chrysanthemums and moonflowers in her face due to his nervous energy, "would you like to go on a date with me?"