A day before valentine, on the porch of a small, lovely florist shop, a girl with shoulder length hair and mustard coloured coat was standing with her gaze fixed at the bucket of red and white roses displayed just right next to the shop door. She raised her head when another boy was about to enter the shop, her eyes following his figure as he reached for the door handle. Then as if he remembered something, he hesitated. His hand dropped and he began to scratched his head as he took a step back.
"Oh my God Akira," Fei, the girl, sighed, "are we going to stay here until next year?"
"But--"
"It's just buying flowers!" Fei groaned, "it's not like that girl you like is inside-- how will you even manage to give it to her when you're already this flustered by just-- buying flowers?"
"I know!! I'm.. I'm.. ah.. I'm all ruined.."
The girl gave up her longest sigh of the day and grabbed both the door handle and the boy by his wrist. Without even saying anything else she pushed the glass door open amd flashed her brightest smile to the store owner as she came in dragging the boy along with her.
"Good afternoon," the store owner, a man at his forty, greeted with raised brows and amused smile. His eyes were so small they were no more than a pair of lines as he speak, and he had wrinkles around his eyes and dimples on his left cheek, "Valentine's Day?"
"This guy over here," Fei pointed to Akira, who's busy fidgeting while looking around, "wanted to buy flower for his crush but he couldn't decide."
"That's nice to hear," the man walked off his counter, "what kind of girl she is, young man? Or maybe you just want to be honest and give her some roses?"
"Eh... Roses will be good," Akira grinned as he rubbed his neck, "I haven't had the chance to ask her what flowers she likes...."
"Also.. also she is .. older than me. A very nice girl but she's just not that expressive. Very quiet you know..."
"Alright, now what do you want to say to her? If you're going to ask her out you can go by red roses, if you want."
"No it's just...." Akira looked at Fei and then back to the store owner, "everyone buys roses so I want something else.."
"Like," he looked up for a second, "pure love or protection or.."
"Maybe we can use Lily?" Fei suggested.
"Instead of Lily, maybe we can use carnations instead, white carnations, innocent love," he walked by one of the many shelves and show them a bunch of white, frilly flowers, "I can arrange them with another one. What was it you were saying earlier?"
"Protection?" Akira asked back.
"Lavender for that," he pointed to another bucket, "a very soft colour for a quiet girl."
"Oh," Akira began to blush, "sounds... great."
"Anything else?"
Akira shook his head.
"I'll add some other nice things for you, boy. Pick your size, this way please."
They made their way to the counter to pick one of the size offered by the man. Akira picked a rather small one, he didn't mean the flower to be so grand anyway, and promised to pick it up the next day in the morning.
There was snow in the morning when Akira stood by the tattoo parlour he had been frequenting lately, a bouquet in his right hand, a big lunch bag in his left hand. He took note of the time one more time, adjusted his cap and knocked.
There were steps, then silence. Akira noticed that the peeping hole went dark so he put up his biggest smile. The door swung open slowly, revealing a girl in a large hoodie and pajama pants, with her face flushed so bright pink until her ear in contrast with her expression, as flat as the salt flat. Her gaze fell on the bouquet and her ears turned even redder.
"Good morning and happy Valentine's Day Leon... I... um... I bring you flowers and lunch. I hope you like them..." Akira flashes his biggest grin. Leon pulled a few strands of her hair, mumbled a thanks before letting him in, eyes fixed on the floor but face flushed and bright. He caught her smile and looked at her blushing and that's when he knew they were in love with each other.
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I'm not gonna try to fill up all the gap :( I have so many things to do and worry about so I'll just put something up when I have ideas :)
