When Flowers Bloom✔

9

That night something changed between them, that night something happened that wouldn't leave their minds for a good long while. But that night... nothing happened. Not fully.

Hoseok panicked that night and ran out of the room after the two had been staring at one another for so long. He didn't even just go out to the couch. Nope, Hoseok literally left the apartment and slept downstairs in his little office. Petal was both confused and frustrated, but she was willing to give him a chance... till he never came back.

Hoseok left the shop the next morning and spent the whole day out and about. Since it was Sunday and Hoseok never opened on Sunday, Petal just did what she could around the apartment- she cleaned. She cleaned... and cleaned. She even scrubbed the grout in the bathroom. Soon the whole apartment smelled like citrus and lemons with a hint of a floral scent. Hoseok still hadn't returned.. and now, Petal was just plain irritated.

Hoseok on the other hand was busy trying to figure things out.. while also completely trying to avoid what happened. Which is what eventually led him that evening to a bar. Where he sat and drank, the bartender listened to him prattle on.

"I mean.. I like her... she's great, she's just... well it's complicated." He admitted to the bartender with mint green hair and a few tattoos up each arm.

"Yeah, been there before." He commented as Hoseok continued to spill to him.

"Right? It's so... so.. I don't know. I just know that she's... she's something special, but she confuses me." He was being rather open with this bartender he'd just met.

"Some people are just an enigma. My boyfriend included." The bartender said. Hoseok looked up at him and nodded, taking the glass of whiskey on the table and downing it in one go.

"I don't have anything to offer her.. I mean.. how.. why would she be attracted to me like that when she's so.... So... her." Hoseok was drunk, but aware enough of the bartender's cute chuckle.

"As a gay man, I feel it's my dutey to let you know that you're a very attractive man. And about fifteen people have been oogling you since you walked in here." The bartender said with confidence.

"Is that so?" Hoseok asked in disbelief. The mint haired man leaned closer to Hoseok, pouring him one more class.

"If I wasn't so in love with my destructively clumsy.. yet hot as fuck boyfriend, you can bet I'd be slipping you my number." The minty man said with a smirk. His cat eyes stood out, Hoseok thought he was rather attractive himself- being complimented by this man gave him a little confidence boost.

"R-really?" He stuttered a little and the bartender stood back with a smile.

"Really. Now if I were you, I'd go give this woman an introduction to the confident you. If she likes you, and you like her, then there's no question what should be done next." He wiped down the counter to the side of Hoseok as he spoke.

"You're right... I mean.. she was super turned on... I should have just kissed her and not left her like that when she was so vulnerable. I'm going to have sex with her.... If she wants to of course." Hoseok drunkenly stated as his words registered with the bartender. He looked at Hoseok and tried to resist the laugh he felt coming on. Hoseok laid down some cash, more than what he drank and stumbled slightly out of the bar.

"Oh boy... that one's gonna be back with a whole new set of problems." He sighed.

Hoseok made his way back home by eleven pm. Petal had cleaned the house, figured out how to cook something without burning the apartment down, and gone to bed by the time Hoseok opened the apartment door. He tried to be quiet but he noticed the linoleum flooring of the kitchen area was more slippery than usual. His socks provided no grip so he slid around the kitchen trying to get a bottle of water and something to eat. He noticed the plate that was wrapped and sitting on the counter. A little note beside it.