tiger lily; /ˈtʌɪɡə lɪli/; disdainful hatred

“a little disdain is not amiss”

Peace.

It was the state of not being interrupted or annoyed by any worries, problems or unwanted actions. It was the act of having the freedom from disturbances and annoyances. Everybody would like to have some peace and quiet once in a while. It helped one to stay calm and collected.

That was what it was like in the flower arrangement club. The word to describe the entirety of the club would be peace.

Every Thursday, it was club activity day for all clubs and societies formed in the school be it the soccer club, the culinary club or the drama club. Likewise, it was the same for the flower arrangement club as well.

It was around mid-afternoon when the sun was at its hottest. The sky was a clear shade of blue with a hint of wind blowing from time to time.

Somewhere in the school, a room was filled with the occasional snipping of scissors, the rustling of papers as well as the delightful sounds of three high school girls laughing.

“Ah, that’s legendary.”

“Kim Kei! I meant Burberry!”

“Mi Joo unnie, you said Burbaldy though.”

“Not you too, Ryu Su Jeong! Ah, so annoying!”

Mi Joo lightly flicked on her junior’s forehead before giving a glare to her friend. Not long after, the three broke into a fit of laughter once more.

To start, the trio were casually talking about topics that were trending as they would in the clubroom. This week highlights were about fashion, clothing and brands. While touching on the subject of well-known brands, Mi Joo had a slip of tongue, mispronouncing Burberry as Burbaldy. This led to Kei poking fun of the girl with Su Jeong as a very entertained audience.

“It’s indeed legendary.”

“Focus on your flowers, Kim Kei!”

“Mi Joo unnie should do that as well.”

“I’m quitting the club. Both of you are always ganging up on me.”

“Alright, alright. We’ll stop it, okay? Our club would be long gone without you. Satisfied now?”

“Very.”

Mi Joo grinned broadly, a sign clearly shown that she was indeed satisfied with Kei’s praise. Now that she thought about it, she wondered if it was even a praise. The innocent-looking girl always has her sly ways.

They resumed their tasks of cutting plastic stems and idle chit-chat once the situation was of the non-teasing, non-blackmailing kind.

As the name suggested, the flower arrangement club was a club that arranged flowers into beautiful bouquets for guests-of-honour during school events such as the school festival and the graduation ceremony. The club was usually busy during those periods but other than that, they would spend their time improving their flower arrangement skills.

The club consisted of only three members whereby Lee Mi Joo was the president, Kim Kei was the vice-president and Ryu Su Jeong was the treasurer. Besides Su Jeong who was in her second year of high school, the rest were in their final one.

From the headcount, the club itself was not really popular but for those who wanted to chill and relax or to gossip here and there, this club was it. Every new school year, there would be one or two who enjoyed those so there was nothing to worry about the club being disbanded.

Just like any clubs, the flower arrangement club was given a set of fixed budgets annually. With the amount, it was only practical to use artificial flowers. Thus, all the bouquets they created were made from those instead. They lasted longer compared to the real ones hence the girls had ample of time to arrange them for the big school events.

Speaking of big school events, the upcoming one was the annual school festival whereby all the students, teachers and staffs were involved. It was also the last special occasion for the two seniors before they would spend all their remaining time preparing for their college entrance exams. For the time being, they were prepping the flowers they intended to use for the bouquets as well as giving out a stalk for those who visited their club during the big day.

Not only was their club getting ready for the school festival, the others were as well especially those involved in the performance aspect.

And one was being very loud and clear about it.

“Seriously?! Again?! I’ve told him one hundred times to not play the darn music so loud and yet he still does this type of .”

Kei and Su Jeong watched Mi Joo as she furiously complained. Both knew what was going to happen next thus attempted to calm their president down.

“We should ignore it. No matter how many times you report to him, nothing changes. You’re going to waste your energy on him.”

“That’s why I bought these cute ear plugs! Aren’t they lovely, unnie? We can use them instead!”

“Ooh, Su Jeong. Nice!”

“It’s called having consideration and clearly this guy doesn’t have it in his body. I’m going there and not