(Hyunjung returns to the flower shop only seconds later. She takes one of her recently purchased gardenias from the wrapping and hands the one still in the paper back to Jiyeon, who accepts it with a questioning look.
“I actually only needed one flower; I bought that one just for you.”
Jiyeon’s blush deepens then, since it hasn’t really had time to fade, and Hyunjung walks out of the shop again with an even bigger bounce in her step.)
***
When Hyunjung returns to Permanent Record wearing a goofy grin, Eunseo eyes her suspiciously.
Hyunjung rolls her eyes and says, “Relax. I just went next door.”
“Ah, that explains it,” Eunseo says, laughing at Hyunjung’s almost palpable happiness.
Hyunjung sees Sojung smirk at her from her tattoo station, where she’s stencilling a design onto a client’s shoulder, and she shoots the girl the middle finger with her free, non-flower-toting hand.
“That’s not as effective when you’re wearing a shit-eating grin, Kim.”
“Up yours, Son.”
Hyunjung leaves Sojung to focus on her customer and leans against the front counter on her elbows, cradling the gardenia between her fingers and examining it. The white petals are unblemished and they look so delicate; she’s almost afraid to touch them.
“So you finally talked to her, huh?” Eunseo asks, eyeing the flower with interest.
“Yup,” Hyunjung says breezily. “And I learned that her name is Jiyeon.”
She dips her chin down to the gardenia in her hands and asks, “Do you know how to press flowers, by any chance?”
***
The next time Hyunjung returns to the florist, she has the framed and finally completed artwork under her arm. It’s undergone several changes, from her sketchbook page to cold pressed paper, from pencil to watercolour. It’s taken a long time, but she’s quite proud of how it turned out.
She places it on the counter between her and Jiyeon, and apprehensively awaits her reaction.
Jiyeon traces a finger over her painted counterpart, down the waves of hair that Hyunjung painstakingly recreated, across the blooming flowers of the outdoor display, over the muted pastel letters of the flower shop name above the door. She hovers over the finishing touch, the rolled and dried gardenia petals, arranged in a flower crown atop her likeness’s head.
“You made this?” Jiyeon asks, eyes flickering between Hyunjung’s own.
Hyunjung smiles shyly. “It’s from that day when you caught me sketching you from across the road. You asked me to show it to you when it was finished, so… yeah. Here it is.”
“It’s beautiful,” Jiyeon says honestly. “What are you going to do with it?”
“I’m giving it to you, of course,” Hyunjung answers, brows twisted as if to say that fact were obvious. “I couldn’t possibly give it to anyone else.”
Jiyeon shoots her a smile so blindingly bright, it’s well worth the hours of work she’s put into the painting, and Hyunjung’s heart soars
(When Hyunjung visits Jiyeon again later that week, she sees the painting hung up on the wall at the end of the aisle with Jiyeon’s favourite flowers.)
**
Okay, so, Hyunjung is probably being really obvious about her feelings for Jiyeon. But the thing is, she kind of doesn’t care. Sojung and Eunseo tease her but it no longer fazes her, because she’s fully embraced the fact that she has super huge crush on the girl next door.
