Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
« « » »
When we first met that day, you were like a peony.
So shy yet gorgeous, beneath your rosy cheeks and pink, thin lips.
You were quiet and awkward, almost unspoken to, yet there was something about it that I liked about you.
Maybe it was the thought that you had the potential to shine one day, and bloom into the pink-petaled flower that I imagined you to be.
Or maybe it was just the feeling that one day, beneath a blanket of stars and a sea full of water, we would make it together and reminisce about the old times, where we ran through gardens and picked the best flowers from all the lands.
Who knew, that among the path created for us in our own, secret forest, that the time would come for us, and paint your petals into a brighter pink, and my dull, old ones, into a fresher yellow.
We seemed happy at those times, and if not, almost untouchable.
Everything changed when the skies differed and the clouds decided to darken though.
Our happiness, the way we talked with one another, and the way we simply just looked into each other's eyes.
That changed, and everything I could remember about us was nothing but shame and loneliness.
We used to be comfortable, weren't we?
Because if we were, whatever changed?
-
A pile of dirt sits next to Mrs. Shin, as she shows us where she wants the lavenders and peonies to be placed.
I sit alongside Hoseok on a white-swinging bench, attached to a thick branch of a large oak tree.
We both watch Mrs. Shin dig into the garden bed she had prepared for the flower crates waiting on her deck.
"It's not that late right now," Hoseok leaned against the bench, with his hair drooping over his eyes. "And it'll only take us a few minutes to help Ms. Shin plant her flowers. Maybe we can go to the place I want to take you? You know, the special place."
His eyes flutter open, as he waits for my answer.
His dark brown eyes blink, as if wanting to me to say yes.
And I do.
Because of course, I do.
"Sure," I respond, with my heart soft and light, because of the happiness radiating from him.
A small sigh escapes his lips as he relaxes in the arms of nature.
And just by looking at him, my heart becomes heavy.
"Hoseok?"
He looks up at me with his adorable eyes, and I struggle to get the right words out.
Because I don't want to hurt him.
Or better yet, make him worry.
How was I supposed to tell him about what he had said, without scaring him away, like the last time?
Was there even a way?"
"I just wanted to say that I'm excited to hang out with you after this." I finally answer.
Hoseok sat up from the bench and looked over at Mrs. Shin, before nodding nonchalantly.
"I'm excited too, Hwayoung. As in, really, really excited." He turns to me, smiling wider than before.
I hold his hand in mine without even thinking, and swipe my thumb against his palms.
He stares down at me softly, and within a blink of an eye, he ends up pulling me into a hug.
A hug so tight that it made fresh tears want to run down my cheeks.
