When Hitomi was three, she began picking sunflowers from her neighbor's front garden to give to her parents and older siblings as daily gifts. With a large smile on her adorable chubby toddler face, she held each flower out in her hands, telling her parents they were free outside in Mrs. Kwon's garden.

Knowing well of what their child meant, her parents brought her next door to apologize personally.

=

When Hitomi was five, her mother brought her to a gardening shop in town to buy the things she would need to begin her own garden in the backyard. She was ecstatic, skipping from aisle to aisle to see what they could possibly add into their cart.

They stopped in front of the seed pack section, the child's bright brown eyes shining with happiness carefully scanned each flower pack to make the correct choice. A store attendant came up behind them, asking if they needed any help with their selection. The question prompted Hitomi to ramble on about how she wanted to plant happy flowers first in order to make everyone feel happy when they looked at her garden.

The store attendant chose two different flowers while the young child held a pack she chose tightly in her tiny hands. She was more than happy with her purchases and couldn't wait to get home to begin planting, running towards the door of the shop with the plastic bag in hand, not forgetting to turn back to wave to the person who helped her choose her happy flowers.

Sunflowers. Daises. Primroses.

=

When Hitomi was eight, she met a girl named Chaewon in the spring. Her parents bought her a brand new peach-colored bicycle as a gift for getting straight A's on her report card, promising to take her to the park on the weekend to learn how to ride it.

Mr. Honda geared his youngest daughter up with the protection she needed – A helmet that fit well and was decorated with cute bread stickers, elbow pads, knee pads, riding gloves (Her older brother, Mitsu, insisted. He wanted his sister to look like a cool motorcycle rider on her first time learning, hence why she was wearing his old leather jacket with black sunglasses to match.)

She carefully climbed onto her bike, placing her feet on the pedals while her father held the back of her bike seat to avoid wobbling. Gripping the handlebars firmly, she nodded her head, signaling she was ready. She began to pedal slowly to get the feel of it before nodding her head again, another signal for her father to release his hand from the bike seat. Following the signal, he let go.

The solo ride was going smoothly, passing by the first tree a few feet away from where her father was standing with no issues. Her parents and older siblings cheered from their standing places, each of them yelling she was doing an amazing job. Mitsu told her she could drop out of elementary school to become a professional motorcycle rider at this point, causing his mother to smack him playfully.

Beaming with pride, Hitomi made a fatal mistake of looking over her shoulder and taking one hand off the handlebars to wave to her family, a large smile on her face, eyes turning into crescent moons. With all the weight now on the right side of her bike, she lost her balance and fell into a flower patch, the bike discarded to the side.

She stayed on the ground for a few seconds with her eyes focused on the clouds above, enjoying the breeze and the flowers tickling her cheeks until the view of the clouds were suddenly blocked by a girl wearing a mint-colored helmet.

“Are you alright? You look like you fell pretty hard.” The girl standing over Hitomi commented, crouching down beside her soon after.

Hitomi turned her head to look at the person, letting her gaze linger longer than she intended. The girl was slightly taller with straight black hair, bright brown eyes and chubby cheeks that could rival hers. She wanted to reach over and pinch them, but refrained.

“Am I in heaven?” Hitomi questioned, a hint of adoration in her voice.

The girl looked down, a small giggle escaping her lips. “No, silly. You landed in some kind of flower patch!” She extended a hand out, in which Hitomi gratefully took and lifted herself from the ground with the help of the angel-like girl, her cheeks a light hue of pink.

Her family ran up to her and began patting her body at once to check for any broken bones or scrapes. Deciding to be mischievous, Mitsu knocked on her helmet with his fist, asking if she hit her head when she fell. Their older sister smacked him on the back of his head, scolding him for his actions in case their younger sister really did hit her head. Their parents asked if anything on her body was hurting, turning to each other to ask if they should take their youngest daughter to the hospital to be safe.

Hitomi pouted in embarrassment, her cheeks turning bright red. “I didn't get hurt and I don't need to go to the hospital! My new friend helped me up, I'm okay!” Her parents turned their full attention to a girl who looked around their own child's age, thanking the young girl countless times for helping clumsy Hitomi get out of the patch of flowers she fell into.

“I'm Chaewon, by the way!”

“I'm Hitomi, but you can call me Hii-chan!”

After their formal introductions to one another, Hitomi's mother thought it would be a great idea for the children to learn how to ride their bikes together. Loving the idea, Chaewon ran off happily to grab her parents to introduce them to the Honda family in hopes she could see her new friend more often if their parents were friends as well.

While Chaewon ran off to bring her parents over, Hitomi looked down to see what kind of flower patch she managed to land herself in.

Yellow daffodils.

=

When Hitomi was ten, she and Chaewon began to have their weekend sleepovers. With their parents' permission, one of them would go to the other's house for the entire weekend, only leaving on Sunday evening after dinner due to the fact they didn't want to be separated for too long.

Their parents told them not being by each other's side for one day wasn't going to hurt them. The kids retaliated with: “She's my best friend. We always need to be with each other!”

=

When Hitomi was thirteen, she began feeling weird whenever she was around Chaewon. During one of their routine sleepovers at her house, they cuddled up in her bed with two warm fluffy blankets Chaewon seemed to love and put the Disney movie of the older girl's choice into the DVD player.

Engrossed in the movie, they reached into the large bowl of popcorn set in between them, fingers accidentally brushing. Hitomi gasped quietly, looking down at their hands before sneaking a glance over at Chaewon who kept her eyes glued to the television screen in front of them, completely oblivious to her friend's internal situation.

She could feel her cheeks heating up involuntarily, her heart beating faster as the seconds go by. Her older sister would joke about there being a possibility the two friends would develop feelings for each other when they got older, saying they were constantly together, so it would make perfect sense.

There was no way she had feelings for Chaewon, right? It was impossible to have feelings for her best friend.

Chaewon glanced over at the girl sitting next to her, eyes moving downwards to see what Hitomi was staring at. She shook her head slightly with a playful smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. “Aw, is Hii-chan embarrassed from our hands touching?” She teased.

“S-Shut up! That isn't the reason, so don't flatter yourself too much, Chaewonie!” Hitomi quickly removed her hand from the popcorn bowl, pulling the blanket up to her face in a desperate attempt to cover her blushing cheeks. Grabbing the popcorn bowl, Chaewon leaned to the side to place it on the table next to the bed and scooted back to her original spot, pulling Hitomi towards her despite the whines and protests. With a cute pout, Hitomi cuddled up to Chaewon's side.

Chaewon smiled, grabbing the younger girl's hand and intertwining their fingers afterwards.

“Let's stay like this for a while.” Chaewon mumbled shyly.

Hitomi obliged.

Maybe it wasn't so impossible as she thought. Maybe she did have feelings for Chaewon.

=

When Hitomi was fourteen, she got a part-time job working at a nearby flower shop.

Hitomi took a deep breath before pushing the door open, the bell attached to the top of the door ringing to announce her arrival. She stepped inside slowly, letting the door close behind her, looking around to take everything in.

The shop was medium-sized with plain white walls, brown shelves mounted to the wall to hold the materials the workers would need to finish their jobs quickly, decorations along the other shelves to give off an elegant look. To the left was a small stereo system playing Korean indie music through the speakers, different types of flowers and plants surrounding the small area.

She smiled, feeling a sudden wave of accomplishment wash over her. One of her childhood dreams were to work in a flower shop to use her knowledge for good use to help someone choose the perfect bouquet for a wedding gift or to help them choose a perfect bouquet for their loved one, maybe even helping someone choose the perfect flower to bring on their first date.

“Oh! Sorry, I didn't hear the bell!” A young girl said as she hopped over to where Hitomi was standing, a beaming smile on her face. “Are you the new part-timer? Mrs. Lee said there would be a new part-timer coming in today.”

“Ah, I am! My name is Honda Hitomi and I'm ready for my first day at work, nice to meet you.”

“Yabuki Nako at your service, quite literally.”

The owner of the shop, Mrs. Lee, walked in carrying a small bag a few minutes after the teenagers formally introduced themselves to one another. She greeted Nako happily, asking if everything was ready for opening, in which Nako nodded her head, hopping off to her spot behind the counter. Hitomi wondered if the smaller girl could reach the counter without a step stool, but decided against it to ask.

After switching the sign on the door to 'open,' Nako took it upon herself to give Hitomi a small tour around the shop. She started behind the counter, showing her how to operate the cash register, pointing to the plastic bags hooked to the wall next to them, settling into a conversation about how the vase orders ready for pick-up are placed in the yellow bags while small gift boxes and small flowers given as gifts are placed in the white bags.

Next on the tour was showing the new employee their work station. It was a simple long brown counter with countless materials – boxes on the side of the counter, scissors, tape, ribbons, yarn, black markers, newspaper, plain colored wrapping paper and tissue paper of assorted colors. Nako explained each material's usage in full detail, not forgetting to mention how there was more in the storage room if they ever run out on the counter.

Taking Hitomi's hand in hers, the small girl brought her over to what they liked to call 'the flower wall.' When Mrs. Lee first bought the shop, her husband mounted four pigeon hole cabinets with twenty holes each to the wall in the back upon his wife's request. The couple filled the first twenty holes up by themselves, opening their business together soon afterwards. After a few months of maintaining their business, they decided to look for employees to help out with the shop during spring season, putting up ads around the city and on the internet in hopes someone replied.

Someone replied within the first two days and that was how Nako joined the couple on their business journey. Once Nako joined, they were able to fill the rest of the holes with flowers with different meanings, each flower symbolizing something different. Nako often compared flowers to people - They were all different in their own way, none of them were ever the same.

The tour was interrupted with the bell to the door ringing to announce someone's arrival, leading to Nako promising to continue showing Hitomi around the shop on their break.

- 

Mrs. Lee let the two teenagers go on break at the same time in order for them to chat and know each other more due to the fact they were going to be working with each other more often. She walked over to the door, switching the sign to 'on break,' telling the teenagers she will return in forty minutes when their break ends.

Nako failed to keep her promise of showing Hitomi around the shop, though she made it up to her in another way. They sat at a small fold-up square table in the middle of the shop with sandwiches Mrs. Lee brought for them and decided to play a random game of twenty questions (Nako insisted to make up for the broken promise.)

They learned they had a lot of shared hobbies and interests, flowers being the main interest between them, a conversation naturally blooming.

"So, what's your favorite flower?" Nako wondered, taking a bite of her ham sandwich.

Hitomi tilted her head in thought, eyes going straight to the flower wall at the back of the shop. "My favorite flower would definitely have to be sunflowers."

"Any particular reason why?"

"Sunflowers are known for being happy flowers because of their color, hence the reason why people often use them as a gift to bring joy to another person's day. Whenever I look at them, there's always a sense of happiness. I want to make other people feel the way I do when I look at sunflowers." Hitomi's voice was soft and warm, eyes sparkling with such happiness even Nako couldn't help but smile.

For Nako, there weren't many people around to have a conversation about flowers with. Most people she asked the favorite flower question to always gave her the same exact answer - Their favorite flower was a rose. When she pushed a bit further and questioned why, they waved it off, saying it was the only flower coming to mind or shrugging, saying 'just because.' For Nako, it was nice to be able to sit down to have a conversation about flowers with someone on the same wavelength.

"How about you?"

"Definitely Gladiolus."

"Is there any particular reason why?" Hitomi asked, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

Nako tapped her chin, pretending to think. "The symbolization for Gladioli is strength. Whenever I'm stressed over school or going through a difficult time, I look at those flowers and get a sense of healing from them. It's like they're telling me to cheer up, everything is going to be alright." A smile appeared on Nako's face. "They also look like tiny swords, it's adorable."

The two girls erupted into a fit of giggles, their conversation switching from topic to topic after they got back to their game - Favorite books. Favorite movies. Favorite color. Favorite and least favorite food. Favorite ice cream flavor.

"Uh, your favorite ice cream flavor is what?"

"Mint chocolate chip!"

"Nako... That is absolutely disgusting."

"It is not! It's delicious!"

"It tastes like toothpaste." Hitomi deadpanned.

"You taste like toothpaste!"

Hitomi rolled her eyes, laughing at the lame insult the other used. Nako sat across the table, ham sandwich completely gone, her arms crossed firmly over her chest with her bottom lip jutting out, forming a tiny pout.

"I am never going out for ice cream with you." Hitomi commented.

"That's not fair! Let's go out for ice cream together sometime after work, I promise you don't have to get the so-called dreaded mint chocolate ice cream."

Hitomi agreed for the sole reason of not being forced to get the dreaded mint chocolate ice cream.

For the last question in their game, Nako said she wanted to end the game with a big bang, which was why she brought up the topic of crushes.

"Have you ever had a cr