elise | jjk ✓

douze

📼 crash into me
steve aoki & darren criss
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taehyung lugged down the stairs, his feet hitting the creaky floorboard at the bottom. arielle turned around from her stool at the counter and gave a small smile, taking one earbud out. she was a senior in high school, wanting to be a florist or botanist of her own someday.

"hey arielle," taehyung greeted. she gave another small smile and handed him the clipboard with the inventory for the day. "how'd we do?"

"roses are all gone, pink hydrangeas are out in front, daises need more water before the end of the night, and a director from some museum came by looking for jeongguk," arielle answered as if mechanically driven like a robot. taehyung was impressed. he scanned the sheet over seeing she had done everything just the way jeongguk would have wanted it.

"and the market on saturday?" he asked, "are we all prepared for that?"

arielle pursed her lips together, swaying on the stool lightly. "if jeongguk can get his ass ready to be there." taehyung looked at her puzzledly. arielle rolled her eyes, "oh c'mon," she droned, "it's not like i didn't hear rose come down every once in a while to rinse out some buckets in the back. i know he's sick."

taehyung almost felt relief and sighed. he nodded, "yeah, sick. he's sick."

"exactly," arielle smiled cockily. "so saturday will be a hit... if he can be there. we both know we can't do it by ourselves. he's the mastermind behind this whole thing." and taehyung did know that. he didn't even work at jeongguk's flower shop, but knew enough that this was what jeongguk poured all of his blood, sweat, and tears into. there was no denying the shop would not have been as successful had someone else been running it.

amidst their light conversation, neither of the two noticed the small figure that entered the shop and approached the counter. they both turned their heads at the sound of someone clearing their throat and taehyung froze. the woman had very piercingly black eyes, the kind that were almost brown and gold, but were so deep they were like caverns. she had long, dark, sun kissed hair that flowed nicely around her shoulders and reminded him of rose.

but he also knew who this was. he could never forget those eyes.

"hi," she spoke, and arielle smiled back, showing off her excellent customer service.

"what can i get for you?" she asked.

"i-i'm actually looking for rose? she had tried to get ahold of me earlier but i missed the call. she had left a message saying to meet her here."

taehyung pursed his lips while he stared her down. did she know the turmoil she was putting his best friend through? she mustn't, because no one would dare put someone like jeongguk through hell like this.

"she's," arielle started and then turned to taehyung, looking to him for clarification, "upstairs? i think, right?" taehyung blinked and then turned to elise, letting a quick breath of air leave his nostrils angrily.

"she's preoccupied at the moment," he answered curtly. the woman nodded, slightly hanging her head. "but i'm her boyfriend. why don't we have a chat outside, elise?"