Chaeyoung and I were best friends. It seemed that no matter what happened in my life, no matter how bad, she always cheered me up. When I came out, she was the first one I told, when I was rejected by the girl I had a crush on, she was there to tell me to stop whining. That's how Chaeyoung is. She always could tell me what I needed to hear. Me? I was shy, that's why when I discovered I had feelings for Chaeyoung, I said nothing. I mean, she was my best friend after all, and I didn't want to ruin that. I was also terrified. I didn't want her to laugh at me, or think it was just a joke. So it came as a surprise when she started speaking to me with flowers.
    I remember the first flower very well, I walked into homeroom and there lying on my desk was a white camellia. I looked around. No one was there. There was no note, and no way of telling who had left the flower. When the rest of my classmates arrived, I asked them if it belonged to one of them, they all shook their heads. I put the flower in my locker and went about my day.
    I met up with Chaeyoung after school. She saw the flower sticking out of my backpack and gave me a curious look.
    "Who's that from?" She asked gesturing to the flower.
    "Don't know." I replied shrugging, "I just found it on my desk.
    "Looks like someone has a secret fan." She said. 
  I rolled my eyes and we walked home. Chaeyoung didn't live too far from me so I always walked her home. We talked about our day and how much we hated teachers, but mostly we speculated about the white camellia. Chaeyoung was of the opinion that it was all a prank by one of the boys. I wasn't so sure. If it were one of the guys, they'd be dying to see how I was taking it and would have asked me about it by then. After we reached Chaeyoung's house I headed off to my house and forgot all about the flower, at least until my mom saw it.
    "Who gave you that dear?" She asked.
    "I don't know." I replied as I put it in a vase on the kitchen counter, "It was left on my desk this morning."
    "You know that reminds me of something your father did once. He looked up the meanings of flowers and left me a gardenia." My mother said wistfully.”
    "What do you mean by 'the meaning of flowers?'" I asked.
    "Each flower has a specific meaning, like the gardenia means, 'secret love.'" My mom sighed happily. I rolled my eyes and headed for my room. I started on my math homework but my mom's words made me curious. I got on the Internet and googled "white camellia meaning." I found it meant, "You're adorable." I wondered if whomever left me the flower knew it's meaning. I dismissed the thought as stupid and finally got back to my math homework.
    The next day there was another flower lying on my desk. It was a red carnation. I sighed helplessly. Getting flowers on my desk two days in a row couldn't be coincidence. I as I put the flower in my locker, I briefly wondered what it meant. At the end of the day Chaeyoung once again mentioned the flower in my backpack.
    "You got another one?" she asked. I nodded.
    "You know, it turns out that flowers each have a different meaning. Did you know that?" I asked.
    "Yeah actually I did." She said.
    "Well I looked up the white camellia online last night and it's supposed to mean 'you're adorable.'" I said laughing.
    "Huh, well that's interesting." Chaeyoung said softly.
    "I mean who would think I'm adorable?" I asked gesturing to my clothing and general figure.
    "What about that carnation, what does it mean?" she asked changing the subject. I shrugged
    "I haven't looked that one up yet, I'll do that when I get home." I waved to Chaeyoung as she climbed the stairs to her house and continued home. I quick search on the Internet told me that red carnations meant, "My heart aches for you." I frowned in thought. If I had some kind of secret admirer it would have made more sense if they just left me a rose, unless of course they were giving me these specific flowers because of their meaning. I tried to think of someone who might leave me flower messages. I briefly thought of Chaeyoung, but dismissed the thought. I decided I'd just have to go to school extremely early the next day and see if I could catch whoever it was. When I walked into my homeroom I saw there was no flower on my desk. I grinned. The mysterious flower person hadn't arrived yet. I stood out of the sight of the door and waited. I heard footsteps and I listened carefully, they were approaching somewhat fast. The door opened and in walked Chaeyoung. She looked surprised to see me there.
    "What are you doing here?" She asked.
    "Waiting for the mysterious flower person." I said, "What are you doing here?"
    "I sometimes help the teachers by cleaning their chalk boards or putting the chairs down in the morning." She replied.
    "Why?" I asked.
    "Well because they're helping me out a lot with tutoring and such." Chaeyoung said obviously embarrassed for admitting that she'd been getting bad grades.
    "Oh…well, have you ever seen anyone leaving me a flower?" I asked.
    "No, sorry." Chaeyoung said. I sighed. I helped Chaeyoung put the chairs down and clean the board and then she left to go to another teacher's room. I waited all morning and no one showed up with a flower. At the end of second period I went to put my books in my locker and found a daffodil sticking out of the vent. I glared at the flower.
    "You're mocking me aren't you?" I muttered to the yellow bloom.
    "Talking to you again?" I heard Chaeyoung ask from behind me.
    "Look." I said pointing to the locker.
    "Well whoever this admirer is, they're certainly smarter than you." Chaeyoung said.
    "Thanks." I said sarcastically as I put the flower in my locker. Chaeyoung laughed and I followed her to lunch.
    "Why do you keep them?" Chaeyoung asked while I was eating.
    "Huh?" I asked.
    "The flowers, why do you keep them?" Chaeyoung repeated.
    "Well someone is going to an awful lot of trouble just to give flowers, and besides, even if this does turn out to be a prank, for now at least it's nice to think that maybe there's someone out there that likes me." I said.
    "Well tomorrow is Saturday, so I guess you'll be flowerless for a few days." Chaeyoung said.
    "Yeah." I said nodding.
    I went home that night grateful for a flower free weekend but I woke up Saturday morning to my mom calling me from the living room.
    "DaHyun I think there's something for you down here." She called. I groggily rolled out of bed and made my way downstairs. When I reached the landing my mom was standing there with a strange purplish flower.
    "Oh for the love of…HOW!?" I asked angrily to no one in particular. My mom gave me a curious look.
    "This was sticking out of the mailbox this morning." My mom said.
    "What is that anyway?" I asked. I'd never seen a flower like it before.
    "I think it's a gloxinia." My mom replied. I took the flower from my mom and went back up to my room.
    "Where are you going?" she asked.
    "I'm going to do some research." I yelled back. At my computer I looked up the meanings for both the gloxinia and the daffodil. The daffodil meant, "unrequited love" and the gloxinia meant, "Love at first sight." Determined I got dressed, went to the store and bought an armful of caffeinated sodas. That night, with the aid of caffeine, I stayed up and waited.
    Around 5 a.m. that Sunday morning I saw someone walking down the street. I hurried downstairs for a better look. Carefully I peeked out of the front window. I could quite make out whom the person was. Slowly the person made their way down the street. They stopped in front of my house and headed towards the door. I they were close enough to where I could see the shape of a flower in their hands.
    "This is it!" I thought to myself. As the figure moved towards the mailbox by my front door I put my hand on the doorknob. I heard them lift open the lid to the mailbox and I quickly pulled open the front door.
    "Oh!" I shouted as the person came into view. The person dropped the bunch of small white vase shaped flowers on the ground. I was stunned.
    "Chaeyoung?" I asked. 
 Chaeyoung ran as fast as she could back to her house. I was too overcome with shock to follow her. By the time I could recover she was long gone. I knew I couldn't call her because I'd wake her parents up, and I knew she probably would let me into the house if I went over there. I picked up the flowers from the ground. My mom woke up and came down the stairs.
    "Hey, mom do you know what these flowers are?" I asked showing her the small white blooms.
    "I believe they're arbutus." She replied.
    "Thanks…" I said as I started heading upstairs.
    "Anything wrong?" my mom asked.
    "No, I just have some more research to do." I replied as I headed up to my computer. I looked up Arbutus and my heart jumped, "the only do I love." I sat back in my chair and tried to contemplate what had just happened. Chaeyoung was the one sending me the flowers. She knew what they meant; she'd told me she did. Hell, I'd told her what they meant. She knew I was looking into the meanings so, she must have meant them that way. Then it hit me,
"She loves me…" I whispered softly to my empty room. 
 I sat in my chair thinking for a while. Suddenly an idea struck me and I furiously began searching the Internet for the answer I desired. After a few minutes I found what I was looking for.
 I knew Chaeyoung volunteered at the animal shelter on Sundays from about 12 o'clock to three. When her and her mom drove up at three fifteen I was sitting on Chaeyoung's front porch. Chaeyoung's mom waved at me and smiled, Chaeyoung went a little pale and looked ready to run again.
"DaHyun what brings you here?" Her mom asked pleasantly.
"I need to talk to Chaeyoung." I said, indicating strongly that I meant alone. Her mom took the hint and went inside the house. Chaeyoung timidly exited the car and walked toward me like a prisoner walking to the gallows.
 "Hey, bro…" she said meekly.
 "Hey." I replied walking towards her.
“So ... hmm ... last night ...” she said, not meeting my eyes.
"Yes, you are a mysterious flower man, huh?" I asked. Chaeyoung blushed.
“Yes ...” She paused.
"Thank God it's you, bro."
 Chaeyoung looked confused
"Because it was I who was waiting for you. All the time."
 Chaeyoung's eyes widened with understanding.
"You mean ... you ..." Chaeyoung fought for the words. Her gaze looked for the answer to his question, and apparently found it. She hugged me tightly, pressed me to her, and smiled happily:
"It’s so good that I turned out to be that fan ..."
"Yes. Fan. After all, I love only you." I answered. I leaned over and gently kissed her: "My flower girl."