Jihoon hummed a happy tune as he swept the welcome mat at the entrance of his shop. It was a beautiful morning. The pigeons on the other side of the glass cooed and hopped closer towards him, despite the fact he was holding a broom. The birds in the city were getting quite bold these days. It was a weakness, but he loved to indulge them. He made a mental note to feed them some of the sunflower seeds he had collected yesterday. Once he was confident the shop was properly cleaned, he flipped over the sign hanging from the door to show that he was open for business. 

It was time to check on his beautiful creations.

The flowers were spread throughout the shop in various stages of bloom. The floral aroma was calming for him, so much so, that even if it were a Monday, he was happy to be up early at work. Humans were creatures that let the placement of the sun in the sky regulate their behaviors, but plants were different. They were alive and conscious all the time. Some even bloomed in the moonlight instead of in the face of the sun. He was dying to attend a moonflower viewing at least once in his lifetime, but he had no time to join the others of the Florist Association in the expeditions, especially when they took place overseas. His shop was not as prestigious as some, but business was fairly active. Perhaps after the big Lee wedding, he would have made enough profit to go on a trip.

Placing the broom back in the utility closet, he calmly made his rounds through each potting station, giving the ones that were close to wilting a little spritz of water and a pep talk.

His flowers were living organisms, and he was convinced that they enjoyed hearing his words of encouragement. Some people thought it was odd that he would talk to his plants, but he didn’t care what others thought of him.

It was at that moment, a small brush of his sleeve against one of the pots resulted in a bit of soil to spill from the pot. Jihoon’s heart began to pound in panic. He scurried back over to the utility closet in a frenzy to sweep up the mess. He couldn’t believe that he made a mistake. He had been too careless, and it could have caused his flowers harm. He did not want to be the type of florist that was ignorant to the needs of his plants or the kind that pretended to care. He was genuine in his love for each and every single one of them. As he disposed of the dirt, he could not help but continuously apologize to the potted plant for his shortcomings as a plant owner.

The plant could not respond, which made him even more anxious. Not knowing whether or not he had been forgiven by them was the worst feeling in the world.

Moving on to his next task, he was grateful that his tulips seemed to be in a very good mood that morning. He was in the middle of the back room, checking on the nutrient levels in the soil when he was alerted to the arrival of another human being in the shop.

The slam of the front door and violent jingle of the bell attached to it, startled him, causing him to jump up a bit. He rushed out to the front counter to greet his first customer of the day.

~~~

Jeonghan was somewhat known as the Game God amongst his group of friends, and if he was being honest, the reason behind that wasn’t because he was just really, really good at those games. If there was one thing he knew how to do, it was cheating at said games. But when he gets out-cheated at his favorite game, Monopoly, he realizes that it’s a situation that simply should never have come to light. Unfortunately for him, it did, and he’s annoyed.

Grumbling the entire way to the closest floral shop, he pauses as he takes in the outside of the shop. He had passed by the shop several times while walking down the block from his apartment to go to the chicken restaurant, but he’d never actually stopped to look at the shop. He was surprised at how bright it was — in a sea of brown and grey tone buildings, the floral shop’s outside was completely composed of glass panes that went from the ground to the ceiling with the occasional dark blue panelling to connect all the glass. He vaguely remembered a store across the street also standing out for being completely black, but Jeonghan wasn’t willing to turn around to look. 

The front doors were also made of glass, and anyone walking by (and paying enough attention) would be able to see the flowers inside. There were so many bouquets and flowers growing that Jeonghan couldn’t even try to name, and he was just hoping they had exactly what he needed. He walked closer to the main entrance as he side-stepped some weirdly bold pigeons. Grinning at the thought of the perfect birthday present for the cheating best friend, he opened the door but paused (yet again) just before stepping into the store, staring at the name that was written in big, bold lettering on the glass door: What in Carnation. He squinted, trying to understand the number, but once he understood the pun, he laughed a bit at the name of the shop. He had to admit, it was clever. 

Jeonghan stepped into the store, and he flinched when the loud bell connected to the door rang, indicating that someone had entered the store, and then he flinched again when the door slammed shut loudly behind him. The scent of all the flowers assaulted his nose, and he unknowingly scrunched it, proceeding to scratch at it. There was no one behind the counter, so he walked about for a brief moment, looking at the different pots of flowers growing and the different pre-made bouquets ready for people to buy. There was a station on the side where there were different colored ribbons and plastics for people to make their own bouquets if they’d like along with a rotating stand meant as a carousel for various types of cards. He flicked his hand on the stand, and he looked at all the different cards as they moved through his vision. He snorted when he noticed that the majority of them were for romantic purposes, as if he didn’t see that coming. 

“Welcome,” came a voice from the front of the store, and Jeonghan turned to find a blonde haired man (there weren’t many males who could pull off the blonde hair look besides him, and looking at this man, Jeonghan had to admit that this male definitely pulled it off), and Jeonghan smiled in response.

“Hi,” he spoke as he walked closer to the counter.

“What can I help you with?” he asked. Upon closer look, Jeonghan noticed the name tag on the man’s shirt, pinned a few inches under the collar on the left side of his shirt. Lee Jihoon. There was also a stray flower petal in his hair, a striking contrast between his blonde hair and the orange petal.

“I need to find a way to say you to someone through flowers.” Jihoon blinked at him. Once, then twice.

“That’s intense...why?” he asked with a slight eyebrow raise. “Shouldn’t you be not getting him something?”

Jeonghan shrugged, not wanting to go into the details. “He cheated, but it’s his birthday.” Jihoon’s eyebrows scrunched in confusion, and Jeonghan had to admit, this man was like an adorable child. He idly wondered how old Jihoon was; Jeonghan couldn’t have been much older — maybe by a few years.

When Jihoon didn’t respond, Jeonghan spoke up again. “So do you have any flowers with that meaning?” Jihoon flinched and broke out of whatever daze he was in, and then slowly nodded.

“Y-yeah, we do. You want a bouquet?”

“Yes, please.” Jihoon moved out from the back of the counter towards the rest of the store where there were bunches of different flowers scattered. He made his way to where there was a pot of red colored flowers with strikingly green leaves.

Jihoon then mumbled, “Most people would get flowers to say ‘I adore you’, and here he is getting flowers to say you.”

“Hmm?” Jeonghan asked. He heard that fairly clearly, but Jeonghan still wanted confirmation. Jeonghan knew it was weird, but well, nothing he could do about it now.

“Nothing. Nothing. Okay, so these,” Jihoon started, pointing to the flowers, “are geraniums, and they represent stupidity.” Thinking about the lack of brainpower that Seungcheol had to even consider the fact that he’d win at Monopoly by cheating and Jeonghan wouldn’t notice, he nodded.

“Yeah, that’s good. He was really stupid to think he could cheat, and I wouldn’t notice. He’s normally so kind, and he would never dare do anything like that,” Jeonghan replied bitterly. Jihoon whispered something that sounded something like a “yikes,” but Jeonghan wasn’t sure. 

Jihoon plucked a few stems of that before looking around the store. He quickly walked a few pots over, and Jeonghan trailed behind him, sneezing when he breathed in a bunch of pollen. 

“Bless you,” Jihoon spoke, and Jeonghan mumbled out a “thank you” while he scratched his nose. “You get used to breathing in that much pollen. Anyways, this is foxglove. This is for insincerity, which I assume is quite accurate. If he wasn’t sincere in your relationship, then he wouldn’t have cheated.” Jihoon looked at Jeonghan for confirmation, and Jeonghan sighed.

“Pretty much. He’s never been the type to speak up first, and normally that’s one of his better traits, but he assumed that just because he was quiet, I wouldn’t notice,” he responded as he took a close look at the purple bell-like looking flowers. Jeonghan still couldn’t believe Seungcheol had thrown their friendship out that quickly.

Granted, he’d do the same, but that was a different matter. 

Next, Jihoon showed Jeonghan meadowsweet flowers. “Those look like dandelions except more fuzz that doesn’t fly away,” he idly commented, playing with the leaves.

Snorting, Jihoon replied. “That’s pretty accurate, I guess. They’re for uselessness.”

“That’s true. Seungcheol is very useless.” If he were useful, he wouldn’t have had to cheat at the game. 

“Seungcheol’s the wonderful recipient of the bouquet?” Jeonghan could hear the sarcasm in Jihoon’s voice, and he decided that he liked him.

“Yeah. He’s the one.” Jihoon made an “o” with his mouth as he nodded.

“Okay, the last two. Yellow carnations and orange lilies,” Jihoon pointed out. “The carnations means that he’s disappointed you and the lilies mean hatred.” 

“Accurate. I like that.” At this point, Jihoon was holding a bunch of stems, and his hands were full of the flowers. He watched as Jihoon walked over to behind the front counter and began tying the flowers together in a fashion that they’d be pretty to look at. Jeonghan nearly snorted at the thought of anyone seeing him with the flowers. They’d never guess that he was carrying a hate message in the form of a bouquet unless they knew all the meanings of said flowers. 

Jeonghan wanted to watch Jihoon make the bouquet, but he didn’t have the attention span, so he ended up wandering around the store for a bit, and then he ended up leaning against a table to scroll through his text messages. The group chat with a few of his close friends was blowing up because of talk about the birthday party, and a few of them were arguing over who would call Seungcheol first to wish him a happy birthday. Jeonghan snorted as he decided that he would much rather wish him in person and see the look on Seungcheol’s face first hand as he gifted him the bouquet.

It must’ve taken Jihoon about 10 minutes to get the bouquet ready, and he called Jeonghan over to pay with a grimace on his face. Surprisingly, it was cheaper than Jeonghan had expected it to be, but he paid, and before he knew it, Jeonghan was on his way home, cackling to himself as he imagined Seungcheol’s reaction to the bouquet. 

~~~

He closed up his shop with the incident from this morning on his mind. As a florist, the only aggression he had ever experienced were from middle aged ladies that seemed to think having the best garden in the neighborhood was a competition or bridezillas that seemed to be decisive yet could not make up their minds even if their life depended on it. It was a bit odd that someone would get flowers for a significant other that had cheated on them. This man must have still loved his boyfriend even if he had screwed up. Of course, flowers were the best way to express such passionate hatred in these situations.

He walked across 17th Street to the dark, intimidating tattoo parlor where he knew his friends would be waiting for the juicy gossip. VM Designs & Piercings was statistically the least visited business on the street, but Jihoon knew that was only because they catered to high-end clientele for permanent tattoos. Sometimes they flat-out refused clients, but most of the time they did henna or temporary tattoos for the clients that they believed were apprehensive of getting one. They both would always say that it was important to test the designs out before committing to them. He had no idea what the criteria for ultimately accepting a customer was. It was their business, and he had no intention of telling them how to run it.

The exterior of the shop was painted black. In the sea of gray buildings, it was the only one that stood out, just like his own except for a different reason. A large hook was printed into the glass of the door along with the name of the business. The sidewalk was clear of any dirt or obstructi