3. Baby Steps - TaeTiSeo

“오늘도 나 혼자 눈물짓는 거름으로

널 향해 걷고 있지만

네 맘에 닿는 날 네 품에 안아줄 그 나를 기다려

I need you”

Today, I walked towards you again with tearful steps

I wait for the day that I will touch your heart, for the day you’ll hold me in your embrace

I need you

Zitao stuffs yet another package of unlabeled box in pink wrappers to his bag, and he frowns at the sight of piling letters in, mostly, pink envelopes inside his locker. From his side, Jongin chuckles while biting off a chocolate bar.

“It’s gotten lesser this year?” Jongin jokingly asks.

“Not that I care. And I know you get a lot, congratulations. Now go get your face out of here and bother somebody else.”

“Whoa, no need to get aggressive, captain,” Jongin grins. He frowns as Zitao nonchalantly drags a plastic garbage can nearer, before carelessly sweeping the sealed envelopes inside. “Hey, wow, you’re just going to throw all that?”

“Unlike you, I still in Korean, so why bother reading those when I can go to my course and learn,” Zitao shrugs. “These things are so annoying. Heavens, we’re in high school.”

“Dude, it’s valentine,” Jongin says before helping Zitao with his pile of envelopes. “Aw, hell, don’t say you throw all the chocolate too.”

“I only keep one, I can’t stand too much sweet,” Zitao admits before continuing to empty his locker from pink boxes and letters. Jongin sighs at his best friend. “Take them if you want,” Zitao offers, to make himself looks less mean in front of Jongin—not that he cares anyway, actually.

“I know being all emo and mysterious is your point of attraction, but loosen up, Zitao. These girls—they buy these with their own money too, you know.”

Zitao ignores Jongin’s preach and he takes out his necessary books from his locker, before kicking the garbage can slightly to move it back to its place. Jongin winces, but he slings his arm around his friend’s shoulder before they head to their next class.

Class is boring, as usual, save for the significant raise of amount of giggling girls, and Zitao zones out here and there, hard Korean phrases passing by his ear without getting processed by his brain. Jongin is busy handling his own pile of various sweets and receiving more from several braver girls in their class. Zitao plugs in his earphones, deciding to no longer try to pay attention.

He barely hears the bell ringing, too busy with his own thoughts as he stares out the window, not noticing a petite girl approaching his desk, a package in hand.

“Hey, Zitao-ssi, happy valentine,” she smiles and says boldly, her present already directed towards him as he turns in her direction. Zitao contemplates before slightly bowing and taking the package, muttering his thanks as he heads outside. He doesn’t miss the girl and her group of friends squealing as he goes.

“You actually take it,” Jongin suddenly appears in his side, and Zitao curses in mandarin under his breath because sometimes, it seems as if his native best friend can teleport and can appear anywhere, anytime, and it sure is annoying. “Whatever that means, I heard that.”

“Here,” Zitao says, ing the package to Jongin’s free hand. “Give it to Sehun.”

“What for, Sehun probably gets the most out of the three of us,” Jongin frowns. Zitao snorts at Jongin’s words.

“What, are we competing with Sehun? Really, Jongin. Sehun likes sweets though, right,” Zitao says indifferently. Before Jongin can answer him, he runs towards the school gate, yelling, “I need to go now, though. I’m late. Bye, Jongin!”

“Hey! Are you late for a date? Is that why you’re so casual about your valentine presents?!”

+

The shops on the roads are sickeningly pink, heart shapes hanging above every shop’s door, and the weather itself seems to comply with the light and happy atmosphere—bright blue sky and mildly shining sun. Even though when the wind blows it’s a bit chilly—leftovers from winter, it must be—it’s warm enough for Zitao not to use an outerwear above the rather thin fabric of his school uniform. His backpack is hanging off one shoulder and Zitao is far too lazy to care. Sunlight bounces off his pitch-black hair (one feature of him Jongin has always envies), his fringes softly falling to his forehead.

One, two, three bus stops and Zitao is there. He intentionally gets off three bus stops earlier than his destination, desiring some longer thinking time before he actually gets there.

A florist.

The sunflowers, gardenias, daisies and red roses are several flowers displayed outside the room. Zitao peeks inside the glass tinted baby pink—Victoria Flowers—over the newly-attached sign of Happy Valentine! Red roses for half price! and waits patiently outside. Three girls are inside, giggling and getting a bucket of flowers that he can’t quite identify, and a man with light caramel-colored hair in dress shirt is talking to the florist, blocking the said person with his tall figure. After the three girls get out of the glass door, the bells chiming with a light clink, the man turns around, and Zitao gets a vision of his face—stoic, sharp and charming features, and seemingly cold too. He’s putting his wallet back to his back pocket with his right hand, and Zitao sees his left one holding a bucket of white rose. Said man suddenly smiles warmly at the roses, and Zitao barely suppresses his grin, for the transition of his expression is quite a remarkable one. The man gets out of the store, and comes face to face with Zitao; they nod at each other, smiles still intact.

Zitao enters the place, the bells chiming again and he promptly inhales the sweet scent of various flowers, closing his eyes and releasing his breath again.

“Taozi!”

He opens his eyes and a woman smiles at him brightly—even brighter than the sunflowers, he thinks—and Zitao almost stutters. She’s slender and tall, and her long, beautiful hair is a light color of blonde bordering on yellow, it’s a new look on her, but Zitao thinks she’s pretty nonetheless. Her huge eyes are expressive in their own way, probably it sparkles, even.

“Qian jie, Victoria noona,” Zitao slightly bows and smiles, and she swiftly moves from behind the flower-littered counter to where Zitao is standing, hugging a basket of flowers in her arms. “Do you want me to help?”

“Oh, don’t be silly, why are you so stiff in front of me?” She laughs, and Zitao is reminded of the bells in her shop, “I need to get these four o’clocks out first, okay? It’s half past three already, they should bloom in no time.”

Mirabilis jalapa, Zitao recalls, when she one day told him dejectedly, as he sheltered from the rain in her shop. She had been sulking slightly because she couldn’t get the flowers, which only blooms at four o’clock in the evening, out, due to the rain. “Okay.”

“So, valentine’s day, huh?” She teases when she enters the shop again. Zitao nods feebly. “People’s been flocking the shop since morning. I bet you’re getting lots of flowers, cards and chocolates, hm?”

“Well, there are quite a few” Zitao shyly admits, scratching the back of his neck. “My friend gets more though, I think. I’m not that fond of chocolate anyway, jiejie.”

Victoria, again, laughs easily, and Zitao smiles. “So now what are you doing here? Buying flowers for someone special, maybe?”

“You… can say that,” he nods and grins sheepishly again.

“Oh! Who’s the lucky one?”

“…Can I buy the flowers for her first?” Zitao shyly says instead, causing her to laugh even more.

“Taozi, Taozi, you’re so cute! What are her favorites, then?” Victoria asks brightly, leading Zitao to her bench and racks full of flowers. “Red roses are half price, but honestly, I can give you half price on anything, Taozi. White roses are really admired too, by the way.”

“Thanks, jiejie,” Zitao says, “but her favorites aren’t roses.”

“What is it, then? Lilies? Daisies? Sunflowers, hydrangeas, maybe?”

“Uh… it’s primroses.”

Victoria’s brows raise and she turns towards Zitao, utter surprise on her beautiful face. “Really? Those are my favorites, too, Taozi, they’re kind of rare in Korea, though. I’ve never heard of anyone, other than me, likes primroses.”

“She’s different,” Zitao smiles genuinely. “Like you, jie, she’s different.”

“She sure is,” Victoria smiles, “if her favorite flowers are the same as mine, is she as beautiful as me, then?” She asks, bending forward to get the roses with her back facing Zitao; she doesn’t notice he freezes, not knowing how to answer.

“I’m kidding,” Victoria says and chuckles lightly; Zitao exhales in relief, “here.”

“Thank you, jiejie,” Zitao stutters, taking the pale yellow flowers from Victoria’s hand. “How much would that be?”

“Zero,” Victoria smiles, “do you seriously think I would charge you?”

“I… do, actually,” Zitao admits, awkwardly shuffling on his feet as he feels heat raising to his cheeks. “Thank you so much, jiejie.”

“Don’t mention it, Zitao, you can come to me anytime, remember?” Victoria says, patting Zitao’s shoulder slightly as she smiles. “You’re already a brother to me.”

Zitao nods, in a loss of words again and he has no idea if his heart should soar or sink from what the other has said. He bows one more time and smiles at Victoria before leaving, primroses in hand.

The flowers stay on his study desk for more than one month.

a/n: ..........nobody ships taotoria (victaoria?) but ~haters gonna hate~

but taozi mentions her a lot during interview though, i think it was 3/4 times? and they got a lot of collaboration stages together so

what is age when there is love /runs away/

oh! if any of you are unclear in terms of the plots/anything you can ask straight away hehe ^^