chapter ten;

I placed my hand on the rack and stood on tiptoe while trying to extend my other hand as far out as possible. Mum told me to ask for one of the shop assistants’ help, but somehow my pride wouldn’t let me do so. The stubborn side of me just wanted to reach for that very box of cereal on my own, without anyone’s help.

But. I. Just. Can’t. Rea―

Out of the blue, I felt someone behind me, and before I could turn around, a long, thin outstretched arm appeared in my view, grabbing the very box I was trying to reach with much ease.

“Here you go,” he said, handing me the box.

His voice startled me, and with my widened eyes, I met his gaze. “T-thank you,” I stuttered.

Minho smiled at me, then shifted his eyes past me before bowing. I turned around and saw Mum approaching us. “Good afternoon, Auntie,” he greeted her.

“A friend of yours, Suji?” Mum asked. I opened my mouth to answer but somehow I couldn’t find my voice, so instead I nodded.

“I’m in the basketball club. My name is Minho,” he introduced himself, his smile not fading from his face. With his big doe eyes still locked at her, he asked, “Excuse me for if I’m bothering, but can I borrow Suji for a while?”

His request brought another shock to me. “W-why?” I managed to ask despite the uneven tone of my voice.

“I’d like to ask for your help, if you don’t mind,” he replied, returning his gaze at me.

“Sure, sure,” Mum answered with a knowing smirk. “Nice meeting you, Minho,” she added before pushing her cart away. Seeing her retreating figure, my heart called for her desperately, not wanting to be left alone.

“Well?”

I gathered my strength and turned to face him. “What kind of help?”

The corners of his lips curled into a smile. “I’m choosing a present for my friend, but I don’t exactly know what I should buy,” he explained. “Then I saw you, and I thought I’d ask for your opinion, since you’re a girl,”

His last sentence caused me to raise my eyebrows. “Is your friend a girl?”

He nodded. “Yup,”

“Is she your girlfriend?” I blurted out. Immediately after that question left my mouth, I scorned myself silently in my mind.

He looked away and shrugged. “No,” he returned. He glanced at me again, but I noticed that his smile seemed different then. “Just a normal friend,”

A part of me wanted to ask further, but I didn’t say anything back and simply nodded.

-

“Is this one pretty?” I asked, holding up a ribbon shaped hair clip.

He looked up, and within just two seconds of studying the clip, he shook his head, rejecting my suggestion. “It’s not fancy enough,” he commented.

I placed the hair clip back to its place and shifted my eyes at Minho who was bending down, carefully observing one item after another. His expression was focused, with his forehead creased and all, as if he was choosing something very important.

After leaving the supermarket, he brought me to an accessories store not far from there and told me to choose something that I’d like to have as a present. I scoffed at that, remembering how Jongin once complained about me not owning a single jewelry. “But I don’t like stuff like these,” I told Minho.

He frowned at me. For a moment, I thought he was going to assume that I was only joking about it like the others when I told them the same thing, but he didn’t. “Then, just pick something that you think a girl your age would like,” he said.

Just when I was browsing the collections of rings, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I glanced around and found him grinning. “I think I found the perfect one,” he announced, before extending his right hand, revealing a silver bracelet.

I took it from his palm and held it close to study it. It was just a simple, empty bracelet, except for a thumbnail sized flower charm dangling at one side which is slightly gold-ish in colour, and that was it. “I like it,” I remarked, fiddling the charm with my fingers and traced the petals.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” he asked. “Do you know what flower is that?”

I shook my head no. “What?”

“It’s called dahlia,” he beamed as he took the bracelet. “It might sound weird, coming from a guy, but I guess you can say it’s my favourite flower,”

I said nothing and watched him headed to the counter to pay for the bracelet. Realizing that I just learned a new fact about him that probably no one knew of, my heart blossomed.

-

The class was noisy when I arrived the next morning, and I saw Riah being surrounded by a group of girls. One of them handed her a sky blue box, and eagerly she unwrapped the packaging. I couldn’t see what the content was, but upon seeing that, Riah gave that girl a hug. “Happy birthday!” I heard the girl cried.

“It’s your birthday?” I asked Riah once the first bell rang and her friends left.

“Yeah,” she replied with a shy smile. “Sorry about the noise earlier,”

“Nah, I don’t mind,” I reassured her. “And happy birthday to you,”

“Thanks,” she said.

I kept my gaze at her while she ran back to her seat as our homeroom teacher entered the class. The students stood up to greet him, and followed suit. That was when I saw something silver around her left wrist with a tiny little flower dangling on one side.

The people around me took their seats, but I remained on my feet. “Aren’t you going to sit, Suji?” I heard him asking, but his voice sounded so distant that I almost didn’t hear it.

I felt Soojung tugging my sleeves, urging me to sit, but I continued to stare at the familiar bracelet ― at the flower. It hit me then, that Riah’s family name was Da.

I guess you can say it’s my favourite flower.

Vaguely, I recalled her telling me once about her mother naming after a flower.

It’s called dahlia.

Da Riah.

The warm summer breeze blew in, and just like how the flowers were withering outside, I could feel my heart shriveling inside.