Roses Are Red
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">She finds herself in a garden, at late day, when the sun is setting and the grass turns golden shades of green. The petals around the small, yellow buds drift in the wind, and her fingers dance on the small pieces of pollen that float around."Times New Roman";color:black">
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">One pollen settles on her finger. She stares at it, as it tumbles down her finger nail to her knuckle, before falling off the back of her palm. Her eyes remain unblinking, as she stares at the place where the bead had once been, and her mind swims with puzzles and pieces.mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black">
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">There’s a rustling; she halts. Her ears perk up at the sound, while she waits for whatever, or whoever it is, to come out of its hiding place. Hiding is an ugly thing, she knows. Her fingers soiled with the dirt from the ground shine as she lifts them up, lightly touching the garden gate.
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">A man stumbles into her view--a man with wavy black hair and dark, dark eyes. He stops when he sees her, as if he’s come to the wrong place. He’s wearing a suit; hardly the outfit for beings of nature.
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">“Hello?” he says to her, eyes wide, slightly shining. “I think I’ve stumbled into the wrong place.”mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black">
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">She lets out a small chuckle under her breath. Her sundress swings along her body. “I think you have too.”mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black">
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">“I’m trying to get to, ah.” He darts his eyes around and stops for a moment. “Well. This certainly isn’t the city, is it?”
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">“I suppose not.” Her hand strokes along the flowerbeds. Outside, she can hear cars honking and beeping at the sound of traffic--but here, here is her place, the place for the flowers.mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black">
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">He stares at her, his previous ventures forgotten. “Who are you?” he asks."Times New Roman";color:black">
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">She glances up and smiles at him. “I’m Seohyun.”
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">--"Times New Roman";color:black">
The man says that his name is Kyuhyun, and Seohyun nods. Kyuhyun seems quite comfortable here with the grass, even though his suit speaks of large buildings, tall and shiny, not at all like herself.mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black">
Kyuhyun talks to her like he finds her interesting.
“You have a garden in the middle of a city?” he teases her, peering into her eyes, beyond her curtain of dark hair.
She turns pink and ducks her head down. “Oh be quiet.”
“Seems kind of pointless, doesn’t it?” He glances up to the smog filling the sky. “Why don’t you go to some nice rural place to live then?”
I like the feeling of your eyes. I like the feeling of your light smile.
These are words she does not say out loud, simply because she knows she’ll sound foolish, and she is not a fool (no, not at all.)
“Chaos?” Kyuhyun quirks an eyebrow upward. His gaze lays on her, like a blanket of snow washing everything to white.
“All these, crammed together.” Seohyun indicates the stems rising from the ground. “It’s chaotic.”
“And you love it?”
Kyuhyun’s eyes stare into her, the force and fuel to her heart.
“Yes,” she says. “I do.”
--
He laughs as she flicks her head back from the bee that’s coming towards her, and his rich warm voice rings in her ears as she smiles.
“Calm down,” he tells her. “It’s only a bee.”
“I know,” she says stubbornly, because she’s worked with bees before; how could she not know? But she forgets it when she sees him grinning again.
This is their fourth meeting together, and Seohyun realizes that she forgets about her flowers when he’s around. This thought scares her a little. But only a little.
Kyuhyun is not wearing a suit today; instead, he’s wearing jeans and a tee shirt. She thinks he looks wonderful, but she does not tell him.
“So you just garden and grow flowers all day? Aside from eating and sleeping, of course.” Kyuhyun peers down as Seohyun’s energetic hands dig into another flowerbed.
She nods. “Yes.”
“So do you actually get money from it?” He casts his gaze up to meet his eyes with hers. She pushes back her hair from the front of her face, the blush threatening to flood over her cheeks.
“Yeah.” She nods again. “I deliver flowers to the florists and flower shops in the city. They pay me. I have the best flowers in all of Seoul,” she boasts.
He raises his eyebrows again. “Oh really?”
“Yes really,” she presses, forcing the heel of her hands back into the soil.
He smiles, like the morning rays of the sun.
“I’d bet on it.”
--
Seohyun considers calling him “oppa” (because he is) except it wouldn’t fit. She calls him Kyuhyun, and he doesn’t seem to mind. Neither does she.
She asks him about his suit one day.
“What do you do?” Seohyun asks while she plucks a weed from the ground. Her calluses break from the fresh dirt.
“I work. Well.” Kyuhyun shrugs. “Looking for work. But I haven’t found anything, yet.”
“What do you want to do?” she inquires, glimpsing over to see the thoughtful on his face. He’s gorgeous.
“Something with music,” he answers. “I like music. But it’s really hard to find a job for it, you know?” He sighs. “So now I’m pretty much trying for any job.”
“With suits?” she can’t help teasing. She’s not much of a uniform person. And neither, she knows, is he.
He laughs and lightly hits her arm. “Yes,” he tells her. “With suits. I bet you thought I looked nice when I accidentally came here for the first time.”
She always thinks he looks nice, but doesn’t tell him so. “Sure,” she says, and believes in him.
--
The crowd is busy and she doesn’t pay much attention-who pays attention, anyways? So she doesn’t think to turn around when she says, “Excuse me,” and doesn’t expect to stop when her ear catches,
“Seohyun?’
She jerks her head up at once. Kyuhyun is standing there, seemingly surprised, seemingly pleased. “What are you doing here?” he asks, because it’s their first time seeing each other in the city.
Seohyun stutters as they ignore the people pushing past them. “Delivering flowers,” she manages out, and hopes the noise has drowned her out.
An understanding smile slides across his face. “Ah,” he says. “I just got back from a job interview. Want to have lunch with me?”
She disapproves of eating food from people she barely knows, but she can’t say no to Kyuhyun. Her eyes brighten up at the invitation. “Sure.”
“Okay,” Kyuhyun says with a laugh. And then, “Come on now, or traffic’s gonna run you over.”
She jumps to the curb on the sidewalk and feels the friction when their arms touch.
--
Kyuhyun tells her funny stories and she laughs. She attempts to tell him funny stories and he laughs. She knows the way his eyes crinkle up and he covers up his mouth, almost like he’s embarrassed.
Seohyun has never liked her smile. She’s never liked the ways her own eyes shrink and her mouth grow. But around Kyuhyun, she doesn’t care, like she’s never cared.
“What’s your favorite flower?” he asks her conversationally, taking a sip from his cappuccino (she thinks he’d be more of a black coffee man, but Kyuhyun’s always been packaged with surprises).
She shrugs and thinks. She thinks about roses and carnations and violets and petunias. She thinks about lilies and asters and dandelions and daffodils and orchids. She thinks about irises and poppies and lavenders and callas and daisies and lotuses. She thinks about forget-me-nots. She thinks about hydrangeas. She thinks about poinsettias, and how they come out during the coldest of seasons, splashes of red on sheets of white.
“I don’t have a favorite,” she says. “There are so many to choose from.”
He chuckles and looks at her over his cup. “Really.”
“Yes, really,” she says like she’s being challenged. “There are thousands and thousands of breeds of plants, maybe even millions, and it’s not much cutting them down to flowers, especially since the term ‘flower’ is really loose, since there are some fruit that are flowers as well-”
“Okay, okay,” Kyuhyun laughs and it sounds like the ruffling of petals. “Just pick one. Which one is prettiest to you?”
“Um.” Seohyun taps the spoon against her lips and thinks for a moment. “Asters.” She loves the way they bloom, thin and small, but all part of the same bud.
Kyuhyun smiles to her. She wonders, “What about you?”
“White roses,” is his answer, and his eyes rake over her ivory skin.
--
They learn to meet outside of Seohyun’s home, though Seohyun’s always been open to let others in. She likes going out with Kyuhyun more, though. It’s nice.
“Have you found a job yet?” she asks after a few weeks.
Kyuhyun shakes his head, but shrugs. “It’s okay-I can manage for now, anyways.”
“Still on a wild goose chase?” She looks over to him pointedly and he chuckles.
“Not anymore. I just want to sing somewhere. Anyways.” His eyes wrinkle at the sides.
She imagines what his singing voice would sound like, and figures it’d take her away, like wings of doves. She smiles and hums a tune under her breath, his voice singing to her in her mind.
--
“You could always work here,” she suggests, moving slightly and placing her hands underneath her.
“Hm,” he says thoughtfully, looking around. “Why do you say so?”
Because this is our place. “I don’t know. But it looks like it could use some entertainment.”
“It could, couldn’t it?” Kyuhyun shoots her a grin. “We’ll see.”
--
He calls her a week later to tell her he’s gotten the job. She comes that weekend to watch and visit.
“Lower the microphone!” she calls from the back of the restaurant. Everyone turns their heads to look at her, but she doesn’t care.
He smiles at her, teasing, but does as she says. The feedback lessens. She gives him a satisfied smirk.
“Hello?” he says, and his voice echoes around the room. “Okay, this is working.”
Seohyun stifles a giggle into her hand. This isn’t like her at all. She still doesn’t care.
“Thanks to my friend Seohyun,” Kyuhyun says suddenly, nodding toward her. She blushes and everyone looks to her again. “For the job. For helping me set up. For everything.”
The people start clapping, but she waves them aside. “Just sing for us already!” she calls to him, and everyone laughs.
“Okay.” Kyuhyun nods and speaks into the microphone, still watching her. “I will sing.”
The music starts and he speaks in melodies and harmonies, breaking octaves and going beyond all rang. She feels an ocean of peace come over her, washing away all her stains.
--
Seohyun’s stunned when as she’s plucking flowers from her garden the following day, Kyuhyun suddenly appears at her gate, with a bundle of asters in his hand. He looks to her and smiles, eyes brimming with joy.
“Here,” he says, walking over to her and taking her hand, placing the bouquet between her fingers. “For you.”
Seohyun blinks. Kyuhyun blurs for a moment. She glances down to the flowers dancing in her palm. “K-Kyuhyun-”
He lifts his hands up and captures her lips with his, tasting like honey. She kisses back as the white rose clinging to her fingertips falls to the soil beneath their feet.