Chapter 1

Bottled Love

"Byun Baekhyun! Late, again!" The store manager, Mrs. Kim yelled at me. "I'm sorry." I bowed my head in apology. "Neverind that, just get to work." I grabbed my apron and rushed to the busy front counter. We were always busy around valentines day, every guy wanted to buy his girl something nice, flowers just happened to be that 'nice' thing most of the time. 

"Welcome to Flores Flowers, what can I get you?" I asked my first customer, with my wining smile. The large man scratched his chin before giving me a puzzled look. Most men didn't know anything about flowers, they had no idea what to buy. Thats where my expertice came in. "Can I make a suggestion?" The man nodded. "How about this flower?" I pointed to a purple Heliotrope. 'It symbolizes eternal love, in fact-" Before I could go into the story behind the meaning, the man cut me off, handing me money. "I'll take it." wih a gracious nod  I accepted and put in an order for his flowers.

"It's finally slowing down." A tired Mrs. Kim said to me from across the store. "Finally." I repeated, while rearranging a boquet of flowers. I heard the chime of our store entrace ding. "Not slow enough." I whispered to myself. "Welcome to Flores Flowers, what can I get you?" I asked, repeating the store's customer greeting, this time, too weak to smile. "I'd like to get this vase cleaned." The customer whispered. "Excuse me?" I leaned closer, the woman was young, but visibly frail. "Just take it!" She screamed, speeding out the door. I looked to Mrs. Kim who was just as confused as me. "I don't know, just clean it for her." I nodded.

I took a look at the clock. It was finally eight o'clock, closing time. I exhaled a sigh of relief and turned around the "We're Open" sign so it'd now say "Sorry, We're Closed". I stretched my back and began to clean the shop before I left. Walking into the back I stopped and played with a few flowers, making my own arrangement. I picked up a few baby's breath, lillies, roses and whatever other stark white flowers I could find. "Now, a vase." I searched around for a suitable one. My hand glidded around them alll, leaving a figerprint on each. "This one!" I said, holding up a small clear vase. "That woman!" I suddenly remebered that the frail women had left this vase eariler. Usually I wouldn't take from a customer but this was beautiful, besides she probably wouldn't even come back for it. It was dusty around the rim, a thick grey film covered it. 

I looked around for a cloth to clean it with, but there weren't any around. I resorted to my own sleeve, rubbing the bottle with my flannel. A puff of dust shot out from it. I coughed as it surrounded me. I had no idea it was that dirty. When the room cleared, I put my arrangement into the vase and bought it out to the front to display. When I walked out, there was a young girl smelling the Buddleia flowers.

"I'm sorry, but we're closed." She turned around with a smile on her face. Her long brown hair flowed softly as she spun. "Master!" She ran towards me. "Huh?!" She knocked me over, hugging me the whole way down. "Master! I am your genie! At your service!"

Like this story? Give it an Upvote!
Thank you!

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
No comments yet