There are Many Flowers in Seoul

Chapter Two

The park was peaceful. Only a few late-night cyclists and couples crossed the winding paths through the lawns and trees. It was the end of March, and the graduates only had a week's respite during the Spring break before they were expected to start a new semester at their chosen university. Hitomi, like many students, had elected to start her courses in October so that she could enjoy her free time before she threw herself back into her education. Rose had told her parents that she intended to do the same so that they could attend together, but in truth, she was undecided as to whether she'd be ready by that time.

It was difficult to know what she wanted to study when she had no idea what she wanted out of life.

The girls rested at a wooden bench beside a row of vending machines and lifted ribbons of cheap ramen from steaming plastic pots, letting them cool in the evening air before slurping them down noisily. Cherry blossoms were beginning to bud and bloom on the trees, and soon sakura flavoured snacks and drinks would be available in every café and store across Japan. Tourists would descend upon the parks for picnics and to pose with their country's national flower, and the peace the locals so enjoyed in their green spaces would be lost until the blossoms withered and dropped from their branches.

'I wish we'd eaten more,' Hitomi lamented as she swirled the soup with her disposable chopsticks. 'The cheese looked good.'

'You have cheese at home,' Rose replied.

'That's home cheese. I wanted fancy party cheese.'

Rose smiled sadly. 'Home cheese is better than fancy party cheese if we have to eat it near Keiji.'

'Keiji is more like rancid cheese.'

Rose felt a tear roll down onto her cheek and was quick to wipe it away. To distract herself, she agreed, 'Totally rancid cheese. Like cheese that's been in the sun for a week.'

'And has been rained on.'

'And sat on.'

'Hear that, Keiji?' Hitomi shouted into the night. 'You're rancid, old, wet, butt cheese!'

Rose laughed helplessly into her hands. As sad as she was to find Keiji wasn't the knight in shining armour he'd pretended to be, she was happy to have at least one friend. Hitomi reached out to rub her friend's arm consolingly.

'You can do better,' she said. 'He had weird hair. I didn't want to say so before... but imagine if you had children and they got his weird hair.'

'That's the sort of thought that keeps me awake at night,' Rose joked. 'Children with weird hair.'

'And he can't act,' Hitomi added.

'I think he's good at acting. He made me think he really liked me.'

Rose supposed that had been why she'd liked Keiji. It wasn't because he was the most perfect guy in the world, and he'd certainly not made her heart race. Truth be told, she didn't even like him to the point of wanting to spend the rest of her life with him. It was because he was the only boy who'd acted like her name and money meant nothing to him. He'd said that he liked her because of who she was instead of who her parents were.

Hardly the best reason to enter a relationship with someone, but as he was the only boy to have ever made such proclamations, Rose had really tried to love and trust him.

That was a mistake she'd never make again.

'That's lying. Lying is different to acting,' Hitomi pointed out.

'Is it?' Rose shrugged. 'If you say so.'

'I do! Your dad isn't a liar, is he?'

'No,' Rose said. 'But he's a terrible actor.'

'Have you told him that?'

'So many times. He's deluded.'

Hitomi flicked Rose's forehead gently. 'Cheer up, okay? You don't want Yuta to see you crying into your ramen.'

'Maybe I do,' she said. 'Maybe I want him to hold me and tell me that Keiji wasn't good enough for me.'

'I can do that.' Hitomi rounded the bench and sat beside Rose. She brought the girl into her arms, hugging her tightly, and in her best deep, masculine voice, she professed, 'Rose, my honey, don't shed any more tears for that child, Keiji. You need a real man. A man with muscles and hair that isn't weird.'

'You're scaring me, 'Tomi.'

'Run away with me, Rose!' Hitomi declared dramatically, her resonating voice frightening a bird from a nearby tree. 'Let me draw you like one of those French girls! We'll cling to that iceberg together and die for love!'

A handsome young man in an expensive navy-blue suit stopped when he saw this display. His black hair was combed back neatly, his eyes dark as coffee, and he cleared his throat pointedly to announce himself. In crisp, flawless English, he asked, 'Am I interrupting something? Do you want me to come back in five minutes when you're done planning your elopement?'

Rose stood sharply and Hitomi fell from the bench, landing awkwardly on the grass. 'Crap,' Rose swore before she helped her hapless friend back to her feet. 'Sorry, 'Tomi.'

'It's Yuta's fault,' Hitomi said as she dusted herself off. 'You couldn't have waited? I was about to convince her to date me instead of stupid high school boys.'

'Stupid high school boys?' Yuta asked. An intelligent man, he quickly put the pieces together. 'Is this a break-up party?'

'Not sure it's a party,' Rose muttered. 'Maybe more like a funeral or something?'

'Why, did you kill him?'

'She would have if I hadn't stopped her. I hate phones, by the way,' Hitomi said. 'Everything goes viral, now. You can't even murder one lying, rancid, butt cheese boy without someone wanting to post it all over the internet.'

'Butt cheese...?'

'It's nothing,' Rose said quickly. Heat flushed her cheeks, and she couldn't help wishing Hitomi hadn't mentioned butt cheese in front of the very handsome and incredibly mature man that she'd had a crush on since she was twelve.

'Anyway,' Hitomi said, sensing her mistake and hoping to rectify it swiftly, 'we need to have our own party. We've graduated, so you have to treat us.'

'To what?' Yuta asked. 'You've already eaten.'

'Ramen doesn't count,' Hitomi argued.

'It's food, isn't it?'

'Barely.'

Noticing Rose's sullen appearance, Yuta yielded to their demands and offered, 'I can take you to a game centre. How's that?'

'Are you paying?' Hitomi pushed.

'You do remember that you're rich, don't you?' Yuta asked. 'And that I have to use my salary to live?'

'You'd really make two high school girls treat you?' Hitomi asked, aghast. An actress in the making – or maybe a comedian – she placed a hand over her heart and forced horrified tears to her eyes. 'You – a grown man – would take advantage of two young girls by asking them for money?!'

'If you stop talking, I'll pay for your stupid games,' Yuta promised.

Hitomi clapped her hands together. 'Yay!'

'I don't know,' Rose muttered.

'I'll try to win you a stupid plush toy, too,' he promised. 'The ugliest one I can find. You can call it Keiji and stick pins into it. Sound good?'

'Yeah,' Rose smiled, thankful for the distraction from the self-pity which would otherwise consume her. 'Sounds fun.'