[FIC] You and Me, CH3
Title: You and Me
Author: setsuna_k
Pairing: MiQ (side HanChul)
Rating: PG - 13
Genre: AU, Romance, Comedy
Type: Multi-Chaptered
Status: Complete
Disclaimer: Where do I start bidding for them? *gets mauled brutally*
Summary: Florist Zhou Mi likes the boy who passes by his workplace. Heechul is his insane manager who pokes fun about his interest. And Eeteuk and Yesung are a duo of gossipers helping Zhou Mi to his interest... well, maybe?
And the boy who passes by at the flower shop happens to be allergic to flowers... and flower boys. Problem and hilarity, stage left!
----
Zhou Mi mentally noted, 6th day, while he busied himself arranging freshly picked flowers. All the while Heechul and Hankyung exchanged remarks - teasing-bordering-to-insulting remarks, he corrected - at the back, he was too caught up thinking that it was almost a week since he last saw Kyuhyun.
"SEASONING! YOUR COLOR COMBINATION IS SO WRONG!" The girly-man manager appeared from behind and took the mismatched flowers. "What's wrong with you? You know that these hues do not go with that!"
"Oh, um, sorry."
Hankyung had more of the endearment tone, quickly standing next to Zhou Mi. "Still thinking about him, aren't you?" Zhou Mi wanted to reply with a little smile when Heechul rolled his eyes and stepped-in between the two Chinese males. He tapped Hankyung's nose like how he did with a naughty and disobedient Heebum.
"Doy, captain obvious. If Seasoning were attentive, he should be done with this an hour ago but look at him! Staring, gaping and sighing! Why are my henchmen like this??"
The delivery man almost choked. "H-Henchmen?! Dammit, Heechul, I swear I'll--
The phone rang and Zhou Mi's attention drifted away from Hankyung's Chinese profanities and their manager's maniacal laughter, walking towards the annoying ringing at the counter. His co-workers were right: he was a whole lot more distracted that Kyuhyun stopped passing by. What had happened? Did his allergic reaction get worse or something?
Zhou Mi froze and dropped the scissors; the flowers were now left completely unattended.
What... what if Kyuhyun was hospitalized?! It had never occur to him the possibility. It was the closest thing he could think of since this was allergy they were talking about. And, if that were the case, then was it Zhou Mi's fault?
Because he was the one who had the flowers?
"Oh, crap. I think I just killed my love interest. WITH FLOWERS." Was all the troubled florist could conclude before shrieking crazily in guilt.
Heechul rushed back at the front to see scattered petals around, a hysteric Zhou Mi wailing and a clueless Hankyung trying to do damage-control. "I LEFT FOR SECONDS AND THIS IS WHAT I SEE THE MOMENT I GET BACK?!"
It took persuading, with a couple of cakes and sweets, to calm the panicking Zhou Mi. And of course, plus Heechul's amazing charismatic talking about the benefits of owning a cat than a turtle.
How that was related to everything, the two Chinese men would never understand.
---
"Do you think it'd work?" The receiver was placed down.
"I hope so. Kyuhyun's been hiding and it's high-time he deals with this. I can't stand it. I mean, can you?" The time was checked; it was approximately ten in the morning. "If the owner follows the schedule, everything will go according to plan."
There was an amused smirk. "So, who's paying for the arrangement and delivery then?"
"Of course, we'll share, Ryeowook-ah. The thing's so expensive!"
A cheery giggle and a clasped of hands was made. "We'll make Kyuhyun pay for this! I can't wait, hyung!"
---
Zhou Mi seemed to have calmed down and the manager took this opportunity to reveal origami books - accompanied by a sweety smile - by placing them in front of the two. "Now that I have your sanity back, I need you and Geng here to start folding papers."
The two exchanged what looked like an uh-oh-he's-up-to-something-again gazes. They peered slowly at the reference material they never knew they had in the store. "What's... going on?"
"Origami flowers, you silly Chineses. Someone ordered origami flowers earlier and because this is MY shop we're handling, I bet this request is a no-brainer for us!" Heechul did a thumbs-up and waltz right back inside the room and cheered. "I'll be expecting them to be done in two hours!"
Hankyung gaped. "Wait, what are YOU going to do!? Aren't you going to help?!" Zhou Mi had thought about that too but dismissed it since this was Heechul they were addressing at. He knew how his manager was.
"And have my newly painted nail-polish ruined? Not a chance! And I need to feed the store-guardian! See ya!"
"Dammit, Heechul! You're the worst!" The delivery man almost threw a wilted bud at their manager but missed, resulting to a more hysterically laughing Heechul leaving them all alone. Hankyung grunted and angrily took a colored paper. "One day I'll seriously hurt that man, err woman, err something. Or I'll shave that cat of his and dye all his pink clothes to black. Let's see who gets the last laugh." When Zhou Mi wasn't reacting like what he was doing, Hankyung blinked at him. "Aren't you at least bit angry?"
Zhou Mi smiled, not really feeling too moody, not even thinking what he just said. "Nah, he's just being the normal guy that he is. He's usually like that when you're around."
"I can't stand him. Why me?" Hankyung asked tiredly, all the while folding papers into pretty flower-figures. Zhou Mi didn't say anything and had his distracted self thinking about a certain Kyuhyun instead.
Where he was, what had happened to him, Zhou Mi needed to know. Badly.
The first origami flower, finished. One hour and 50 minutes to go before due time.
And why origami flowers, of all the real flowers of Cinderella's? Who wanted them? It was one odd request arrangement that Zhou Mi had never encountered before.
"Uh, Zhou Mi? You're supposed to be doing paper flowers, not paper cranes."
Oh, snap.
---
Oh, double snap.
He was utterly and hopelessly lost in this maze that disguised itself as an apartment situated at this too eerily quiet neighborhood. Room 1513 was nowhere he looked at and the nearby residents were already suspecting him for a wimpy thief who couldn't find the perfect opportunity to steal anything.
Zhou Mi glanced one more time at paper that had Heechul's ridiculous (meant flower, ufo's and Chinese characters) scribbling of the delivery address to recheck.
Yep, he was at the right building, standing on the right floor. But where was Room 1513?
Good thing the bouquet he was holding was made of paper or else the flowers might have already started wilting an hour ago. This delivering thing should have been done by Hankyung, not him. Zhou Mi sucked at directions, obviously.
But then he remembered what Heechul had said hours ago - about talking privately with Hankyung. Something serious, something tense and something awkward was definitely going on between the two that Zhou Mi had to leave quickly with the requested flowers at hand.
Now that he was here, clueless and lost, might as well get the delivery over with. Even if it meant eating up all his afternoon just to find that damn Room 1513.
"Can I help you? The people downstairs are really wondering who's this guy with unusual flowers walking around."
Zhou Mi turned and was greeted with a big grin by a chubby guy. He smiled back and bowed. "Oh, hello, I'm looking for Room 1513. I'm from Cinderella's flower shop."
"What? Room 1513? There's no such room!" The big guy giggled and Zhou Mi felt a little intimidated. What did he mean there was no Room 1513? There had to be some kind of mistake here. "Can I take a look at your address? Because they probably meant 15-B."
And it appeared Heechul wrote the B in a 1 3 manner and Zhou Mi turned even smaller than he could possibly get after he was corrected by the big guy. "See? 15-B? It's the maknae's crib. Watch out though, lots of gadgets scattered around there and loud gaming noise. I don't even understand why he'd order something like a bouquet. He's not, well, good with flowers."
"I'll, uh, keep that in mind." Zhou Mi half-nodded and took off whereas the nice chubby guy went away, waving cheerily at him. After what seemed like forever, the realization hit the florist.
Not good with flowers?
Gaming?
Did that... ring a bell somewhat?
Probably not.
Zhou Mi knocked quietly when he reached the room that he was looking for; shifting uncomfortably the paper bouquet at hand and listening attentively to any foreign sound that came about. There was a loud thud from the inside, followed by a crash and a curse.
He backed away for safety when the door immediately flew open.
"Ryeowook-ah! Hyung! I've been waiting for, like hours! What took you guys this lo--
Kyuhyun instantly stopped and gawked at the man by his threshold. Zhou Mi practically did the same thing and almost dropped the flowers.
"Kui Xian?!"
"Mr. Sunshine?!"
They both shrieked in perfect unison that shook the entire building.
"You're the receiver of this?!"
"Did Sungmin and Ryeowook send you here?! I knew I shouldn't tell them anything!"
"But I thought you hated flowers!"
"Confiding with them was one bad idea, damn!"
"If I knew you didn't like flowers, I should've not bought them at Miracle Cafe the last time! I wanted you to notice me with flowers!"
"I embarrassed myself the last time we met and now I'm doing it again! I wanted you to notice me without breaking into a coughing fit!"
The two quickly stopped and stared really hard at each other, as if disbelieving of what they just blurted out... and heard. What was this, confession of somewhat?
"Wait... what did YOU say?"
Yes, it was, it would seem. At its most unconventional ways.
Everything was happening in a manner that Zhou Mi couldn't catch up. Not completely, that was. But one thing was for sure: after laughing so hard, Kyuhyun happily accepted the papers flowers and not once avoided Zhou Mi. Not anymore. Not when there was a note that had gotten snuck in-between the paper stems that Zhou Mi didn't know about.
Yah, you were taking too long. This "sunshine" likes you, as what the cafe told us. And it was so obvious that you are too, when we keep on passing by at their shop when our building's at the complete opposite road.
P.S. You're so paying us the next time we see each other! Oh, look! The flower's allergy-free! We're so awesome! - Ryeowook and Sungmin
"So why didn't you pass by for a week? I was, uh, I noticed." Zhou Mi asked after re-reading the letter and trying to calm his already crazy heart.
Kyuhyun just laughed, a comfortable chuckle that sounded so beautiful in Zhou Mi's ear. "Couldn't show my face after that incident. Got too embarrassed with my allergic reaction that I didn't want you to see."
"And the sunshine?" Zhou Mi pressed on, trying his luck. Kyuhyun on the other hand was taken aback, averting gazes from the florist and glued his vision on the walls.
"You smile so... pleasantly. There's no way anyone could miss that, especially when you're out watering the plants." He then groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "The two told you, huh?"
Zhou Mi just smirked, crumpling the paper that had the address and pocketing it. "Spur of the moment, I guess." He shifted weights, feeling lightheaded but all-too-happy nonetheless. "Do you... want to eat at Miracle Cafe later? After my shifts over?"
"If there's no pearl-blue roses, I'd like that."
---
Cloud-nine, that was where Zhou Mi was at right now and he couldn't wait to run back at the shop to share the good news. He'd thank Heechul first for forcing him to wear that pink apron and for those roses that made it all began. Then Hankyung for moral support. Then the rest for, well, he'd think about that later.
It was evening when he finally came back, opening the door with chimes of the bell. He was smiling, feeling too blissful that he missed hearing the glass breaking when he stepped something hard and fragile. Then there was it again, and again, and again. He finally looked down and saw broken shards, petals everywhere, torn paper then, finally, noticed the awful state of the shop.
Zhou Mi paled instantly. "Heechul-hyung?!?!" When there was no answer, Zhou Mi quickly rushed to the back room and saw his manager leaning against a table - his back turned to him and his long, black hair falling by his shoulders.
"Hyung, what happened?! Are you okay?! The store!"
Heechul just slowly looked over his shoulders; eyes hooded and dark and voice really low - something Zhou Mi had never, ever seen or heard before of his hyung.
"Geng... he's gone."
Zhou Mi felt cold water got dumped on him.
"What...?"
---
END
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A/N: I feel crappy with this. I dunno. I think my mojo hid somewhere again! I'm not 100% satisfied with this but, oh well. I do hope you liked the ending. Yes, this IS the ending - a cliff-hanger of sorts. Because the next installment will in separate fics! I'd get on with it asap if there' someone out there who could offer QMi smut for an old bag like me! I NEEDZ QMI BAD.
Now comments and loves are happily accepted by yours truly~ :DDD