Yongsun thinks she’s doing a pretty good job of staying away from Moon Byulyi.

It’s not like that was on her to-do list or anything.

Really, she swears as she makes another centrepiece for the upcoming banquet dinner, adding dusty purple spray roses into the middle of the seeded eucalyptus and anemone arrangements. Zero contact since that day? Check. No going in the shop again? Check. Finishing all the candies? 

A corner of her lips quirks up in satisfaction.

Check.

Stepping back to admire her work, she secures everything again in a neat bow, placing it gently with the other bundles to deliver later. 

The shop is definitely gaining traction, even though it’s just been established two weeks ago, big orders like this dinner event starting to come in. It’s good, and she’s fortunate to have solid contacts and amazing neighbours.

Yongsun should be happy that her business is finally starting to take off. That her dream is coming true. Yet Yongsun still feels hollow inside as her eyes flit back towards the messages on the phone screen left open, words left unsaid between the blue messages.

Granted, Yongsun’s parents had never been supportive of her ambition to become a florist. They’d treated her passion as a hobby, indulging in her fantasies and buying her the best gardening tools and seeds. Yongsun's dad even built a plot of land in the back of the garden for her to tend.

Their relationship had all gone straight down the drain when she got up the courage to firmly tell them she had wanted to be a florist instead. For real.

Not make-believe anymore, like they'd insisted back in her childhood.

Now, their conversations are fraught with tension, an underlying fragility to all the unassuming, digital words coolly exchanged between them.

Shaking her head and trying to clear those troubling thoughts swirling around, Yongsun turns towards her prized flowers instead, catching sight of a certain pink store while carefully collecting trimmed stems and torn ribbons. 

Yup. Two days of avoiding the other girl has been a success so far, and she gives herself a hypothetical pat on the back, carrying a box of stripped leaves she’s cut away from the display area. The event’s all she can think about right now, and Byulyi certainly has no part in those thoughts.

Yongsun smiles proudly to herself. One for Yongsun, zero for the annoyingly cute candy shop girl.

Of course, fate likes to drop a bomb on her and kick her in the , and the moment is destroyed in a blink of an eye.

At first, Yongsun doesn’t exactly see who it is, just the regular chime of the bell and footsteps plodding up towards the counter seconds later. 

“Coming!” Yongsun calls cheerfully from the counter, back turned away from the door as she rearranges the remaining flowers in the cooler she'd purchased to maintain their longevity. Finally satisfied, she turns to face her latest customer, a radiant smile lighting up her features.

"Welcome to Sun's Flowers, how may I help you today... Byulyi? " The name dies on her lips as Yongsun's brain seizes momentarily at the sight of the other striding up towards her.

"Hey yourself." Byulyi greets cheekily as she drops a bag of sweets on the counter. She rests both of her elbows on the surface, brazenly staring up into Yongsun's eyes. "How's the shop going? Thought I'd pop in and check up on you." Her gaze takes in the room, not missing a beat. “Cool place you’ve got here, by the way. I love the decor.”

She's looking especially sharp today, all smiles with eyes crinkling at the sides. Byulyi is dressed in a comfortable-looking printed sweater with khaki-colored jeans, wispy blonde hair framing her face as she makes herself at home of Yongsun's humble counter.

Yongsun gulps nervously, alarm bells wildy going off in her head at how Byulyi looks. 

Right.

Yongsun reflexively concludes that she does not want a repeat of the day’s events. She probably wouldn’t, as long as she doesn’t do anything stupid.

“Uh,” she clears , attempting to properly converse to the very person who’s unknowingly breaking her two-day streak of No Contact with Moon Byulyi. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome.” The other girl questioningly raises an eyebrow. “You haven’t been coming in for the past couple of days.”

Yongsun inwardly wants to snark that Byulyi hasn't exactly been coming over to the flower shop either, but she holds back her words. “I was really busy,” she half-lies eloquently, dismissively waving her hand. "Lots of orders coming in, you know."

To her credit, Yongsun was actually busy with the banquet event on top with the usual walk-in customers, arranging for the supply of flowers, cutting them, having to reorder another batch after a change of requests, then giving the new ones flower food solutions along with preparing the instructions to care for them.

Yup, sureeee, her mind sarcastically quips back much to her irritation. Busy not thinking about Moon Byulyi.

But those thoughts are out of the window in the next instant when she realizes that Byulyi has suddenly leaned in dangerously close to her, breath almost tickling her ears.

 “Are you sure you’re not avoiding me, Kim Yongsun?” Byulyi whispers, a soft smirk gracing those lips, her voice sultry and teasing in all the right inflections, soft and alluring. They sound so far away yet so close to Yongsun's precious ears.

Yongsun can hardly bring herself to swallow in the heavy silence that suddenly reigns between them, thick and unyielding and bridling with tension.

“N-no.” Yongsun is flustered, stammering out those incriminating words as her brain stutters for a fleeting moment, her glance resting on those perfect eyelashes. “Perfectly busy, that’s all.”

Byulyi eyes her, daring her to look away as something unreadable pools behind that gaze. In the few seconds that ticks between them, Yongsun can smell clean soap and la