There are Many Flowers in Seoul

Chapter Thirty

Shopping in Hongdae was to celebrate beauty and fashion. As the most experienced of their party, Eun-young took the lead and started the girls off with a sweet Korean-Western fusion store which combined the styles of the two cultures. Rose was surprised at how reasonably priced everything was and was mentally calculating the exchange rate every time she checked a tag. Hitomi had no sense of self-restraint and hurried around the aisles grabbing clothes off the hangers and laying them over her arm until she had so much that there was no hope of her getting them into her suitcase.

''Tomi, maybe you should go try some of this one before you pick up anything else...?' Rose suggested apprehensively, imagining Robert and Mitsuki's faces when their daughter's credit card bill arrived at the end of the month. 'I mean, how are you even going to get all this back to Tokyo?'

'I can ship it ahead,' she said. 'Or buy another suitcase...'

'Ship it,' Rose said. 'If you try to get all of this onto a plane we'll drop out of the air.'

'Cool, then I don't have to hold back!'

'Uh, I didn't mean –'

Hitomi ran off to the changing rooms to try on the outfits before Rose could finish, and she let out a soft sigh. It had been silly of her to think that Hitomi would be any different in Seoul as she was in Tokyo, and as much as she admired her friend's boundless energy and joy, she wished that she'd act like she'd just left high school and not kindergarten. Eun-young giggled lightly, amused by her antics, and understanding the dynamic the girls shared. Rose was the reserved, sensible party while Hitomi was the life and soul. They complimented one another well, but with the weight of the previous evening weighing on her, Rose just wanted to slow down and have a quiet, peaceful day.

Instead, she sat and watched as Hitomi paraded outfit after outfit for them, only moving on to the next store when Eun-young promised there were more fantastic clothes to be found. Rose indulged in a new dress, a pair of jeans which – if the claims were to be believed – would make her look five-pounds lighter, and some wedge shoes which were higher than she was accustomed to, and she hoped she'd be brave enough to wear more than once.

It was as they browsed the skincare products in a nearby boutique that Eun-young asked her quietly, 'Is this making you feel better?'

'What?' Rose asked, confused.

'Yuta told me that you'd had a difficult evening. I'm sorry, we should have included you more in the bar.'

'No, it's okay,' she hurried to reassure Eun-young, finding the look of remorse on her face too painful to bear. 'It wasn't anyone's fault.'

It was Tae-won's fault.

'I just want you to know how much I appreciate you helping. Honestly, this is one of my first important jobs and I was so worried it wouldn't go well when Tae-won caused trouble on the first day.'

Rose felt a rush of affection for Eun-young. It ought to have been difficult to like her when it was clear she'd been flirting with Yuta and Rose had been crushing on him for as long as she could remember, but there was an honest kindness about her that made it impossible to be cruel towards her. And, like Yuta, she was determined to see the campaign succeed which would be to Rose's benefit, too, when she considered that it was going ot be her company one day even if just in name.

'I'm having fun,' Rose lied. 'It hasn't been boring at all, and Si-woo is great to work with.'

'Ah, we were so lucky to find him,' Eun-young said. 'Chae Si-woo was so famous when he was young.'

'He was? For fashion?'

'For natural photography. He won a lot of contests but with everyone having cameras in their phones, now, I guess that it was difficult to compete. Still, he is one of the best.'

It must have been heart breaking for Si-woo to have to give up the subject matter he loved in favour of fashion just so that he could pay the bills. Rose liked beautiful clothes as much as the next girl, but they were nothing compared to rolling countryside, beautiful forests with dappled light breaking through the canopies, or sprawling oceans. If anyone could understand, it was Rose. Once upon a time she'd enjoyed modelling and appearing in her father's drama shows, but the people around her had made it clear that she didn't deserve to be there, and the toxic atmosphere had driven her away from that path and forced her to focus on her studies instead. Now she had good grades and no passion for anything, which meant she'd lost her path in life and had no idea how to find it again. The shoes her mother had said would help her to take her first steps were still in her suitcase, waiting for the opportunity to guide Rose to whatever lay ahead, and for her to find her courage to begin her journey.

'Can I show you something?' Eun-young asked. 'I'm sure you'll like it.'

The women dragged Hitomi away from a set of princess pink makeup brushes and hurried her through the checkout. They flanked her so she wouldn't be tempted to escape back into the store to pick up more items, making it seem as though they were the bodyguards of a VIP rather than two people who were concerned that her credit card would overheat and melt from overuse.

The stores in Hongdae ranged from upscale boutiques to vibrant, lively stores aimed at younger girls and, in the middle of them all, was a vacant unit with workmen hurrying to install displays and shelves to their deadline. The women watched them through the glass as they shouted instructions to one another and heaved tools and boxes here and there.

'What's this?' Hitomi asked. 'Didn't you say we were going for lunch?'

'It's the next Silver Lilies store,' Eun-young said. 'It was so difficult to find a spot in the middle of Hongdae, but I wanted it to compete with all the big Korean labels. I love fusion fashion, don't you?'

'Don't we have a flagship store here?' Rose asked. Realising she sounded a lot like her mother, she added, 'I mean, Yuta said...'

'Silver Heart has a larger store, but we thought that if we put Silver Lilies here then it would attract more of the younger audience.'

'Will there be pictures on the walls from the ad campaign?' Hitomi asked excitedly. 'Will people get to stand next to Tae-won's stupid giant head and make it look like they're picking his nose? If you say yes, I'm totally coming back when it opens.'

Eun-young laughed, 'I'll ask them to put up a large canvas just for you.'

'Yes! My Instagram is going to crazy for that.'

'Can you try to not put pictures of me in here?' Rose asked. 'I don't want pictures of 'Tomi picking my nose all over the internet.'

'There'll be some sweetheart pictures with your and Tae-won, but when they bring out the next line, those will be replaced with new models. Unless you want to model with him again...?'

'God, no,' Rose said flatly. 'I wouldn't mind modelling, but with someone else.'

It was as surprising to Rose as it was to Hitomi to hear those words pass her lips. Hitomi raised her brows and smiled at Rose knowingly, as if seeing a long-forgotten part of her for the first time in many years. As far as Rose was concerned, it was more an indication that she was up for just about anything as long as Tae-won wasn't involved in the process. Besides, it meant she got to see more of Eun-young and Si-woo, and that could never be a bad thing.

'You know,' Eun-young said mischievously, 'there's a great place to buy cupcakes around here. After lunch, should we buy some and take them back for the staff?'

'Aren't you worried I'll put on weight and not fit into the clothes?' Rose asked.

'That's what gyms are for. Come on,' she said and linked arms with the girls, 'I'm starving.'