A/N: As promised, here's my gift to the Bread nation for winning the poll. It's honestly lacking even for me, so I really apologize in advance.

 

 

A bouquet of fresh roses sat atop the kitchen counter as Hitomi poured herself some morning coffee. Her best friend slash housemate walked in astonished by the sight of the flowers for the fifteenth consecutive time that month and for the second straight month.

 

"Another one?" Nako asked as she read the message on the card.

 

'I look forward to seeing you smile with this. Hope you like them as much as I like you.'

 

"Ugh. Whoever has been sending you these flowers must be a coward." She even faked a puke. Hitomi only smiled at her as she took a seat on one of the stools. "Sending messages through a card and asking someone else to deliver it."

 

"Just let them be. I love the flowers anyway."

 

"Of course, Hiichan. That explains why our apartment is almost looking like greenhouse now." Nako rolled her eyes, referring to the dozens of flowers Hitomi has arranged anywhere she can in their unit.

 

Being already used to her best friend's exaggerations, Hitomi just laughed, making the midget frown. She took a sip from her coffee and extended her arm to pat Nako on the head. "Cheer up now. It's too early for you to be frowning like that."

 

"Nonsense. You know this has always been my morning mood." The shorter girl shoved her hand away before walking towards the fridge to fetch herself a glass of milk.

 

Hitomi chuckled at her actions. She knew better than anyone that the midget is just being envious of the flowers she keeps receiving. Nobody has ever dared to give Nako any flowers. But can she blame them? Especially when her friend is out to throw a fit every time someone dares to make a move on her?

 

"Say, Nako, do you want to go visit the flower shop?" Hitomi asked out of nowhere.

 

Nako looked at her with skeptism. How unusual it is for Hitomi to be asking to go out on her rest day when she should be working on her lesson plans for her classes.

 

"For what?"

 

The blonde thought about it for a while. She honestly did not have a reason to go until suddenly, a face flashed in her mind. She wouldn't want to tell Nako about it so she has to make up an excuse. Hitomi shrugged her shoulders and sipped on her coffee.

 

"It just feels like a good day to check on the flowers, don't you agree with me?"

 

*^*

 

The door chimes rang as a rider walked in still with a helmet on. The tall girl who sat boredly at the counter immediately stood up and picked up an object closest to her. She threw a floral foam towards the rider who successfully dodged it the last second.

Outraged by the violent greeting, the rider took off her helmet and shouted at the girl. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!"

"YAH! You took my bouquet again! Pay for it!!"

"Why should I?! I didn't take it!"

 

Another foam came flying towards her again and she successfully caught it. Pissed off by the younger's actions, she was about to throw the item back at her.

 

But someone held her arm before she could swing it forward.

 

"Chaewon-unnie, Wonyoung-ah, stop it." Another tall girl stood beside Chaewon. The aggravated rider could only give them both a snarky glare.

 

"Yujin-unnie! She took the bouquet I made again!" The youngest in the room cried out.

Chaewon groaned in frustration. "I told you I didn't!"

"Aish, will you both stop shouting?" Yujin reprimanded them and the two immediately shut their mouths.

 

A soft chuckle resonated around the small shop and all eyes immediately flew towards the brunette that just came in from the back door.

 

"Wonyoung-ah, I took the flowers. I'm sorry."

 

Wonyoung softened at the apology of her favorite unnie. "A-Ah, Minjoo-unnie, it's okay."

 

Chaewon scoffed at the immediate shift in Wonyoung's behavior before plopping down on the nearest couch.

 

"As always, if it's Minjoo…" Chaewon mumbled to herself.

 

"We all have a soft spot for Kim Minjoo." Yujin said as she sat beside the grumpy rider. "Did you give her flowers again?"

She hummed and stretched in her seat. "I don't know if I should personally give her some tomorrow."

 

"Why so?"

 

Chaewon thought back to when she delivered the flowers earlier.

 

◇

 

As for how long she has been doing a somewhat creepy deed, Chaewon had never felt so nervous her entire life. When she presented business proposals at work, nervousness was just a word for her. But now, the word itself has showcased its effect on her entire being.

With her heart pounding in a mix of excitement and worry, breathing became difficult for Chaewon to do, especially with her helmet on. She has never been this excited to see the girl since she started delivering flowers personally.
 

 

And that's all because she has other plans for today, not just to deliver the flowers.

 

Her finger lingered near the apartment's doorbell, her arm trembling. Even just the thought of seeing the Japanese teacher personally again made her mind go crazy. Mental plans of what she intends to do clouded her head and eventually causing her to not be able to think straight; that when the door suddenly opened, she shoved the bouquet of white roses right on the chest of the person who just came out.

 

To her surprise, it was the girl of her interest who now stood shocked by her actions.

 

Honda Hitomi, though with a dumbfounded look, accepted the bouquet without question but Chaewon didn't withdraw her arms and couldn't mutter an apology. Sweat ran down her forehead and back as if she was being trapped in an oven and could melt at any second; but ironically, she's just frozen in place.

 

"Uhm, are you okay?" The blonde-haired foreigner asked in her cute voice that Chaewon have always swooned for since the first time she saw and heard her outside of her workplace.

 

But in that moment, she feels like she could drop on the floor if her arms weren't anchoring on the bouquet.

 

The rider didn't answer and that somehow made the foreigner worry. Hitomi pulled Chaewon's arms down for her to take a step forward. Chaewon's eyes grew wide when she felt the blonde's hand hold on to the visor of her helmet. She was going to stop her from doing anything but Hitomi had already beat her to it.

 

With a gentle push, the tinted material was lifted open revealing Chaewon's eyes and a part of her cheeks squeezed by the cheek pads inside.

 

As it is the first time their eyes have met in close counters, Chaewon just lost it.

 

She forgot about whatever she was supposed to do and unintentionally pushed the girl off her before running away like the coward that she is.

 

◇

 

The giant puppy's boisterous laugh filled the small shop, catching the attention of the two other girls who were busy chatting with each other. Chaewon smacked Yujin hard on the arm.

 

"OW!"

 

"Stop laughing! It's not funny!"

 

"To you, it isn't. But to me," A snort turned to another round of laughter, making Chaewon's frown more evidently deep than it already was. "That was so hilarious, unnie! I didn't know the great Kim Chaewon could panic like that." Her laugh became louder, irritating the hell out of Chaewon.

 

One snarky glare from the older girl was all it took to shut Yujin up and come up an excuse to escape her incoming wrath. The puppy scrambled on her feet and dragged the clueless Minjoo outside. Chaewon could only breathe out a frustrated sigh as the two disappered out of the door.

 

She turned to the counter and found the youngest now glaring at her. She raised a brow at Wonyoung.

"What?"

"Seriously, stop scaring Yujin-unnie like that."

She rolled her eyes and lied on the couch. Wonyoung was quick to reprimand her.

"Yah! You're not allowed to sleep there!"

Chaewon lost the energy to argue anymore and yawned. "Just give me ten minutes. I was up too early today."

 

True enough, she did wake up an hour before her alarm blared. And the first thing she did? She arranged the flowers she picked from Minjoo's garden (with permission, of course) and arranged one of her signature bouquets to offer to her favorite girl.

 

She initially didn't have the interest of arranging her own set of flowers until Honda Hitomi came along. The latter's fondness of flowers and her attraction to the teacher's entire being pushed Chaewon to make one herself instead of paying her friends to do it.

 

Every time she begins to question why she's doing it everyday – even sacrificing her sleep – at the back of her head, Minjoo's words lingered,

 

"Girls love it when you offer them efforts instead of paying others to do it for you."

 

Thus, her extra efforts of also personally delivering the flowers right at the foreigner's exact address.

 

But with what she did earlier? She doubts she'll be delivering some for a while.

 

"Get up, unnie. You have a delivery to do."

Chaewon groaned as she opened her eyes again. "Do it yourself. I'm not your delivery girl."

"I'm not a delivery girl, my ." Wonyoung mocked as she walked over to the older girl. "Give me your keys."

The sleepy rider lazily tossed her keys before adjusting her position on the couch and closed her eyes again.


"Not a scratch, Wonyoung."

"Yeah, I get it. At least watch over the shop after your ten minutes is over."

Chaewon didn't bother answering properly and faked a snore. That was the cue for Wonyoung to leave her alone.

Though it took quite awhile for her to fully drift off but the ten minutes was enough to energize her for the rest of that morning and tend to the shop while the owners are out.

 

After stretching out her limbs and refresh herself with a glass of cold water, she settled on the stool at the counter and waited for any customer to arrive.

 

*^*

 

The breaks of Hitomi’s bicycle squealed in friction when she neared the flower shop. Seeing the blooming flowers at F3 Haven's front immediately brought a smile to her face, forgetting about how disappointed she was feeling because Nako declined to accompany her just so she can get that free disgusting mintchoco ice cream at a newly opened ice cream parlor near their apartment. She got off and walked the remaining distance towards the shop with her bike on her side, admiring the façade’s beauty that brought life to the formerly dull-looking neighborhood.
 

She still remembers the first time she arrived in Korea and explored the neighborhood around the school she's going to teach in. There were a lot of cute and famous shops but none of them caught her interest more than the newly opened flower shop.

 

Since she was a kid, she always had this particular liking to flowers. No matter what kind, she loves them. Even if they have thorns and can be poisonous, she equally loves them as much as she loves those that are harmless. Whenever she has time, she purposely visits the shop just to see the flowers. That has been her sole reason for the past two years of dropping by while occasionally chatting with the owners.

But for the past few months, there came another reason for her visits: a new girl in town who happens to visit the shop for as often as she does.

However, they never had a single verbal interaction with each other simply because when she arrives, the girl happens to leave right at that moment and had always been in a hurry too.

 

Hitomi did try to initiate a simple exchange one time, however, she only got a pissed off glare in return. But that did not lessen her admiration for the girl's beauty, even more for her kindness when she found her treating some kids with cheese balls at a nearby park.

 

Back to the present, she pushed the door open and the chimes rang above her head. She expected to see the youngest owner to be greeting her with a smile at the counter but no one was there. She turned to the couch on the side where the second youngest owner would usually be lazing around or sleeping, but still she found no one.

 

"Hello?" She tried calling and got no response.

 

Lastly, she peeked outside the window where she can see the beautiful garden always tended by the eldest owner, hoping to see her but there was nobody.

 

"Why would they leave the shop open without anyone keeping watch?" She thought to herself loudly.

 

Suddenly, she heard a loud crash coming from behind the counter. With cautious steps, she moved forward and tried to peek over it.

 

"Wonyoung-chan?" She called for the youngest, but boy has she ever been so wrong for the first time in her life.

 

*^*

 

"Yah! Where the hell are you guys?" Chaewon yelled into her phone the moment Minjoo picked up from the other line. Unfortunately for her, it was the puppy who answered the call, shouting back at her.

 

"You're disturbing us, unnie! We're on a date! Geez!"

The bored rider rolled her eyes dramatically as if Yujin is in front of her. "Do I sound like I care?"

"Just say you're—ow!" She smirked when she heard the puppy cry out in pain. She bet Minjoo was pulling on her ear right now while scolding her.

 

A few seconds later, a soothing voice talked from their end, totally opposite to Yujin’s scandalous loudness.

 

"Hello, Chaewon-unnie! Sorry about Yujin. We're just finishing things up and we'll be back in a few."

 

"Okay. But hurry up! Wonyoung's not here too and I don't know what to do when your customers come in asking for arranged flowers."

 

Minjoo's signature laugh echoed through the earpiece and Chaewon swore she heard Yujin mumbling something about the older girl's laugh.

 

"You can handle them well, unnie. You know you arrange flowers better than I can."

 

Chaewon didn't know what to do with her cheeks burning after hearing a compliment. It's a good thing they couldn't see her face so she can just mask it with a pretentious tone.

"Yeah, right. If you're not back here in an hour, I'm destroying your garden." She even threatened. But then again, Minjoo just knew how to handle it.

"I'd like to see you try unnie and we'll see where you can get flowers to give to Hitomi-ssi."

 

Before the older girl could reiterate, Minjoo had already ended the call. Chaewon groaned in frustration and pushed herself off the counter.

 

Unfortunately for her, she forgot that she was sitting on a stool, causing it to fall over and throwing her on the ground, wincing and cursing in pain.

 

"Damn you, Jinjoo. This is your fault."

 

She was about to get up when she heard the front door open with the chimes ringing. Thinking it was just some random customer, she pulled herself together and attempted to stand. But when the unknown customer spoke, for the second time that day, Chaewon was frozen.

 

 

Honda Hitomi is in the store.

 

She heard the steps around the place and her mind began panicking again. There was no one else inside but them and she was in no fixed and proper state to face the girl after what she humiliatingly did earlier that day.

 

She looked around her and tried to find something that she can use to cover her face. She spotted a box full of nonsense stuff--probably owned by Yujin--on one shelf and she pulled it out in haste. The box crashed on the floor and the items fell out. She cursed herself again for her clumsiness that surely caught Hitomi's attention as she heard her calling out for Wonyoung while her steps were coming her way.

 

Without thinking twice, Chaewon grabbed the cheetah mask and wore it before standing up abruptly and scaring the hell out of the Japanese girl.

 

Hitomi's freaked out squeal filled the shop and Chaewon began to panic too. She frantically shook her hands in front of the other girl and tried to soothe her verbally.

 

 

"Ahh~no, no~ I- not monster. Just mask–"

 

 

Although her Japanese can be likened to that of a preschooler, she still tried to speak the language using the limited words she picked up from her friends, complementing it with gestures.

 

Fortunately for her, it worked! And though in tears, Hitomi calmed down.

 

The guilt of scaring the girl, although unintentionally, crept under Chaewon's skin and she immediately felt sorry for it. She grabbed some tissue and, a bit hesitantly, reached out for Hitomi's face.

 

As she wiped her tears, the Japanese stood stunned by the mysterious girl in a cheetah mask, her eyes staring right through t