Seasons of love - Freenbecky ☆𝆬

Chapter 3: You don't seem to know a lot

Now that Freen is 100% aware of her crush, Flower Shop Girl takes up a permanent space in the recesses of her mind. She worms her way into all of Freen's absentminded daydreams, and even carves out her own section on Freen's shelf in the tattoo parlour staff room, there is a whole stack of scrap paper dedicated to Flower Shop Girl's likeness; these drawings stay hidden and unassuming (well, she hopes they do) in the back corner of her shelf, behind her preliminary sketches for former clients and pencils that have been reduced to stubs.

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"Is that the girl from the flower shop next door?"

Freen startles and hurries to flip over her sketchbook. Unfortunately for her, the opposite page also has a half sketch of Flower Shop Girl's pretty smile. She curses, and Mind just laughs.

"Chill, I'm not gonna call you out on your little crush," Mind says, leaning against the wall beside the tattoo station that Freen has commandeered during the downtime between clients.

"But I definitely will," Nam teases, rolling her office chair across the floor in order to join them.

Freen exhales heavily, and wishes that she'd taken over any other station besides the one directly behind the front counter.

"What do you want to know?" she asks, flipping the sketchbook closed and turning to them resignedly.

"Who is she?"

"How did you meet?"

"What's her name?"

"Are you gonna ask her out on a date?"

Freen isn't quite sure who asked which question, but she ticks them off on her fingers as she answers.

"I don't know who she is, just that she works at the flower shop next door. We met a couple weeks ago when I went outside the parlour on my break. I don't know what her name is. I don't know if I'm gonna ask her out on a date."

Nam wrinkles her nose at Freen's response. "You don't seem to know a lot."

Freen shrugs. "What do you want me to say? I don't really know that much about her."

"You know enough to draw her over and over and over," Mind says playfully. "Don't act like there aren't a thousand pages of her face on your shelf in the back room."

Freen gapes at her, affronted. "First of all: that is called snooping and you just admitted to violating my privacy. Second of all: rude, much?"

"I didn't snoop on purpose," Mind says defensively. "I know you keep your prelim sketches back there and I needed to find a design you drew 'cause one of my clients was interested in it; I just happened to accidentally find those instead."

"Accidentally on purpose," Nam whispers to Freen conspiratorially.

Mind rolls her eyes. "Nam is the one that stole your Reese's Pieces that one time, Freen. It was when you got really angry because you'd been looking forward to them the whole day and I had to stop you from interrogating all the other artists, remember?"

"When you leave chocolate in plain sight in the staff room, I'm gonna assume it's for everyone to share," Nam says airily, not in the least bit fussed that she'd been outed. "Not my fault you put the box right on the edge of your shelf, logo side up."

"I hope you both step on Lego bricks for snooping through my stuff and stealing my chocolate," Freen says coolly, eyeing her co-workers and giving a satisfied smirk when they both look away guiltily. "But that doesn't change the fact that the 'thing' between me and Flower Shop Girl is just a silly crush. Nothing to get worked up about."

"Who are you telling that to? Us, or yourself?" Mind asks meaningfully.

Nam winks at her as she rolls back towards the front counter, and Mind leaves her with a pointed smile. Freen shakes her head at their antics and flips her sketchbook back open.

Instead of the page she was working on before Mind and Nam interrupted, it opens to the mostly finished sketch of Flower Girl outside her store – the one that she drew on the day they met. It was still missing something, but Freen just couldn't figure it out.

With nothing better to do, she sighs and resolves to try and finish the sketch.