Yanjun noted that the for sale sign was finally taken down from the store across from his flower shop. For the following two weeks, there was a parade of workers filing in and out of the building, decorating and getting the store ready for it's grand opening. No one else on the little shopping street had seen the new owner yet. Rumours flew around like leaves on an autumn wind about what the newcomer would be like.

Yanjun was happy to ignore the rumours, content to wait until the new owner appeared to make his own opinions on them. What he hadn't expected was a woman around his own age to appear on the final day the workers were at the store. He was entranced by her from the moment he laid eyes on her. He heard her apologise to the workers for not being able to assist during the renovations due to her mother’s health. Her bright, genuine smile seemed to wash away the men’s fatigue as she thanked them for all of their hard work, taking her time to thank each of them individually, commenting on how beautifully the store looked thanks to their hard work.

Once they had left, she started opening boxes and filling her shop with her items. Yanjun quickly set to work before heading over to introduce himself. He knocked on the door, smiling through the window at her. She gave him a puzzled look before opening the door for him. “Sorry, but the store wont be open until next week.” she said with a smile. Yanjun flashed her a warm smile in return. “Hi, my name’s Yanjun, I run the flower shop opposite you. I just wanted to welcome you.” he said as he held out the bouquet he had made. Her eyes lit up at the sight of the gorgeously arranged flowers. “Are these for me?” she asked making him chuckle.

“Yeah.” he said as she took the bouquet from him, admiring all of the colourful flowers. “These are beautiful, thank you so much!” she gushed, obviously pleased to receive the unexpected gift. “My name’s QingQing.” she said as she extended her free hand for him. He shook her hand, his charming smile never leaving his face. “Welcome, QingQing, I’m looking forward to seeing your pretty smile every day from now on.” QingQing giggled at his flirting, feeling a little shy from the sudden attention. “Can you tell me what kind of flowers these are?” she asked, pointing to a strangely shaped flower that she had never seen before.

Yanjun smiled, instinctively reaching out to gently caress the orange petals. “Those are called birds of paradise. See? If you look at it from this angle, they look like birds.” QingQing cocked her head to the side. “Oh my god, so it does!” she smiled at him. “They symbolize wonderful anticipation, and these little yellow ones are goldenrod, they symbolise good luck since you're opening up this new store.”

“Wow, I didn’t realise that flowers had so many different meanings! What does this one mean?” she asked. “Ah, that one is a lucky heather. It’s for protection.” she beamed up at him. “I feel like my store is going to do well with all of this good luck you’ve given me! I feel like I need to return the favour!” she carefully placed the bouquet onto the table in front of them. “You don’t need to-”

“No, no, please. Let me return the favour.” she said as she rummaged through a couple of boxes before standing up, a triumphant smile on her face. “Hold out your wrist.” she asked. He held out his wrist and she slipped a bracelet with a stone with thin bands within it onto his wrist. “This is an Agate stone. They're very powerful. Many years ago warriors would incorporate them into their armour to protect them. It should bring you good luck.” she said as she adjusted the bracelet to fit him perfectly. He lifted his wrist to admire the bracelet. “Did you make this?” he asked. She nodded, a hint of pride on her face. “Then I’ll never take it off.” he said with a wink.

A shout of his name caught both of their attention. They looked outside to see a man around their age waving to him through the window. “I better get back, I still have deliveries to organise.” she nodded and led him back to the door. “It was lovely to meet you, Yanjun. I’ll get my flowers into a vase right away.” Yanjun smiled at her. “I’ll see you around.” he said as his name was called again.

The following day when QingQing arrived at her store, there was a single flower in front of the door, with a note which simply read:

Alstroemeria: the flower of friendship.

She smiled at the flower and the note, turning to look into the flower shop across the street but Yanjun was engrossed in putting together a bouquet.

The next day, another flower and another note.

Daffodil: New beginnings.

Each day QingQing arrived at her store with a new flower and a note from Yanjun. They found themselves spending more and more time together, Yanjun taking the time to help her organise her store when he had some free time and QingQing finding herself spending time learning about all of the flowers Yanjun had and which ones worked best to create the most stunning bouquets she had ever seen.

Nearly two weeks after their first meeting, QingQing arrived at her store to find a flower at her door, accompanied by a note that had only two words written on it.

Chrysanthemum: Honesty.

She longed to ask Yanjun about the meaning behind this particular flower and note, but her store was particularly busy and Yanjun had been out doing deliveries almost all day. By the end of the day she was exhausted and all thoughts of the chrysanthemum were pushed to the back of her mind. She decided that she would try to find a spare moment to catch Yanjun the next day to ask him about his latest flower and it's meaning.

The next morning, she found yet another flower by her door, but this time, there was no note accompanying it. “That’s strange.” she mumbled to herself as she looked around, in case the note had been blown away by the wind, but there was no note to be found. She frowned as she unlocked the door to her store, her determination to speak to Yanjun increased. She briefly considered trying to search the meaning of the flower on the internet, but she didn’t know what kind of flower it was. “I can't just type in white flower…” she said to herself as she carefully added the flower to her ever growing collection of flowers from Yanjun.

She busied herself with work, making sure to keep an eye out for Yanjun. The whole morning passed without a single glance of the handsome man. It wasn’t until late in the afternoon when she was thinking about closing up the store for the day that he finally appeared, letting his friend, ZhangJing, go for the day.

She quickly finished cashing up and closing up her store before hurrying over to Yanjun’s flower shop, afraid that he would disappear before she had the chance to talk to him. He jumped at the sound of her sudden knocking on the shop window. He unlocked the door and let her in. “Hey, how are you?” she asked. “I’m good, how are you?” he asked, casually leaning against his workbench. “I’m good.” she said as she caught a glimpse of the flowers behind him. She pulled her eyes away from the gorgeous bouquet and back to Yanjun. “I have something I want to ask you though.” A knowing smirk passed over Yanjun’s face, “Ask away.”

“Yesterday, you left a chrysanthemum by my door and your note said it meant honesty? And then today you left a white flower by my door but I couldn’t find the note, I think it might have been blown away in the wind or something.” Yanjun shook his head, “Nope, I didn’t leave one today.” a look of confusion clouded her expression. “I didn’t leave a note  because I wanted to tell you the meaning in person.” he said as he turned around and picked up the bouquet of flowers she had spotted when she had arrived at the store.

“The flower I left for you this morning was a gardenia. It has the same meaning as these flowers here.” he said as he started pointing to each different kind of flower in turn. “These are called yarrow, these red ones are carnations, these ones with the yellow part in the middle are camellias, these are tulips, the purple ones are called morning glory, and of course you probably know that these ones are roses.” QingQing’s head was spinning from all of the different kinds of flowers. “Do you know what these flowers mean?” he asked.

She shook her head, too afraid to assume and make a fool of herself. “Yesterday’s flower meant honesty because I wanted to be honest with you. They all symbolise affection and love. I’ve been trying to find the perfect flowers to express my feelings for you and in the end, I couldn’t pick just one so I decided to give you them all.” he took a deep breath as he held her gaze, “QingQing, I like you.” he admitted boldly. But despite his bold confession, she could sense his uneasiness as he waited for her reply.

“Yanjun… I don’t know what to say, I’m a little overwhelmed.” she said as she looked down at the flowers in her hand. “I think that I’ll need you to go over all of these flowers with me again, say over dinner?” she asked, a smile playing on her lips. Yanjun gave her an easy grin, relief and happiness washing over him at her words. “It’s a date.” she nodded in agreement. “It’s a date.”