it’s tiring seeing her like this, not so much because it happens so often but because ten knows he’s unable to do anything about it. “you deserve better,” those three words stuck at the edge of his tongue, words that he wished so hard for her to hear to listen to.
but it was always the other way around, ten would listen to her as she spoke, try his hardest not to get lost in her eyes because the last thing he’d want was to fall again. but nayeon was so good at this (so good at tripping ten over and over again without knowing) and ten would probably always be a fool for her.
“how’d you find me again?” she asks and ten can only smile, he’ll always find her, somehow their paths will always cross again, but he doesn’t bring it up, instead takes a seat beside her.
“luck i guess,” is all he says and once again his heart clenches, he’s met with her eyes, glazed over by tears and he’s all too familiar with this by now. if it had been any other time –– if perhaps it had been some alternate universe where ten wasn’t with doyeon (wasn’t convinced that he loved her), he would’ve reached out to hold her hand, told her he could treat her better, the best.
“you have crazy luck then,” she laughs and ten forces a smile, your eyes are so sad, he wants to say. “you always manage to find me.”
he doesn’t tell her that he’d heard from a customer about the way jeongguk had been treating her, about his series of drunk episodes. he doesn’t tell her that he’d spotted her while out on a date with doyeon, had made an excuse about having to go home early only to run to her.
“is it him again?” he asks and immediately her smile falters, eyes looking down at her own two feet.
i would treat you better.
“yes,” she says, “i just... i should’ve just... not bothered.”
there’s a soft silence that engulfs them but it speaks millions. her hair against the summer breeze is beautiful and ten wishes she could adorn a smile that would match the sun once more.
“here,” he reaches out into his pocket before he pulls out a flower, a yellow tulip. “for you.”
it sickens him a little, that he’ll only ever be able to do this for her. when he’d want to do so much more, to protect her (at the back of his mind, maybe, be with her).
“a yellow tulip?”
“yes,” he replies and subconsciously he slides closer towards her, “it means that there’s sunshine in your smile.”
“oh.”
“so please smile more.”
and she does, she turns to ten and the corners of her lips turn upwards and ah, there it is, he thinks, and he wishes she could be like this forever, even if his own happiness is up at stake.
“like this?” she giggles.
“yes,” he turns away, suddenly too enamoured by the sunshine in her eyes. “you’re the prettiest when you smile.”
it was that one late afternoon, when yongsun visited yongdam without the consent of her parents. she was already walking her way home before her six pm curfew. the sky was dark, clouds seemingly dark grey. she wasn’t so sure whether it was because of the rain or because it was almost night time but just to be sure, she started to walk briskly, not wanting to get soaked if it was going to rain, but then she haven’t even made it out of yongdam when she felt droplets on her head, her pace was even quicker this time, evidently desperate to get home. she didn’t make it, though. it was when she just made it pass the inn when the droplets became bigger and she felt more of them in her skin. yongsun was conflicted between running her way home or staying, but if she were to run and venture outside, surely she was going to get soaked no matter what. that was the last thing she wanted, she’d probably get into big trouble if she were to get sick, so she decided to stop by the nearest establishment-- which led her to the inn.
the inn wasn’t so bad though, it’s been years since she had been there-- way back before she was still living in yongdam. she never really get to stay for long back then, only stopping by for errands and such. the inn seemed oddly crowded today, she mentally noted. she tried to dry herself with her clothes, head peeking on the window. more and more minutes passed by, half an hour-- it was almost six pm and yet the weather wasn’t getting any better, she merely frowned as she stared at he window, contemplating about what she should do. she could go home, but she was worried about her safety. surely. maybe it was best just stay there for the rest of the night-- and so she did.
yongsun went to the front desk. “excuse me.” she called the attention of a girl-- a cute one to be specific. she offered the girl a warm smile before she continued. “are there any unoccupied rooms left for the night?
alright, alright, let’s take a moment to consider the circumstances: it’s dark, which means it must be late. whatever little she can see in this darkness, it’s all unfamiliar, which means she must be in somewhere else other than marigold. yongdam? yes, probably yongdam—she hasn’t been walking for a long time enough to just casually end up anywhere else but these two towns. god, just what the hell was she thinking? nothing, of course, that’s exactly the point – shiah completely forgot about herself while she was happily strolling around and she didn’t even notice that a) she has totally went off track, b) so much time has passed that it got dark. this should not come as a surprise to anyone, and shiah knows that this is perfectly normal when it comes to her; however, this is the first time in many months that she is at yongdam and she’s not really familiar around, to say the least. even those places she visited more than once had been erased from her memory with time.
so now, she had very limited options. either she just settles down under a tree and sleeps until it’s morning (not a good idea) or looks around and tries to find a place to stay at. perhaps an inn? yongdam has an inn, shiah is a hundred percent sure about that. squinting in the distance, she spots a few small bright dots indiciating lights or fire so she chooses them as her guides.
„lights, guide me to salvation!” she whispers to herself and giggles at her own silly sentence as she stumbles towards the dots and as they grow bigger, shiah is almost convinced that she has found the inn. the temporary feeling of being lost evaporates and it’s replaced by relief as she approaches the lights—
—only to find out that no, they aren’t coming from an inn, but just a simple house with tons of candles on its terrace. a frustrated sigh rolls off of shiah’s tongue and she almost curses (but only almost!) as she kicks into a lonely rock in front of her, causing herself a mild stinging in her big toe. her eyes dampen, blurring whatever little vision she had and she just squats, sitting down in the grass, helpless.
“Aigoo, Nayeonnie what did you buy that you spend it all? Please don’t tell me new school books or I’ll be your bank from now on.” she looked at her with a serious face. But she couldn’t stay mad at the little angel for a long time. “Don’t worry if you need anything just come to me, okay?” she smiled at her patting Nayeon’s head lightly.
“ No! It’s different for you, you don’t know what it’s like…”
“What do you mean I don’t know what it’s like—” She sighed before she placed an arm around the girl. “You don’t know what it’s like Nayeon— you’ve been raised in such a boring place that you don’t know what it feels to run wild and free and tour guide Doyeon here is willing to help you out for free!” She grinned before she placed an arm around her, pouting. “So— Nayeon, let your nun ugly and boring self go before I pushed you out! It’s just a bungee jump! You won’t die!”
With all the years of experience people thought she would be better at it, but expecting things from Youngae was never a good idea.
The girl could be easily spotted riding her bike around Marigold, Yongdam, or the trajectory in between them - yet, whenever someone spotted her, she would eventually fall off her bike and onto the hard ground. Her definition of clumsy had its tweaks but that was definitely one of her traits. Youngae never dropped anything by mistake, or stumbled on unnoticed furniture, but she always made sure to hit the pure air and fall on her face as many times a day as it was possible. Her knees and elbows were constantly bruised, and only a few of those times did she actually take a few minutes to treat them. If she was ever found with a band-aid it was probably someone else who put it on.
After coming home from school there was normally a delivery waiting for her take. That was normally one of her favorite moments of the day, but after hearing where she should be going the girl didn’t even bother rushing. The Yongdam Inn waited for her arrival while standing over thirty minutes away from Youngae. It would have been smart of her to leave as soon as possible, but going to the inn would have been no fun if Nayeon wasn’t there to welcome her. So the younger girl spent some time at her house, avoiding homework and playing with her friendly cat, before slowly going for her bike. The elder had her own classes to attend and Youngae knew it very well after a couple of unplanned deliveries.
The wheels zoomed across towns at such speed only she would be crazy enough to do it. Surprisingly enough the girl was fast and agile, avoiding every single pedestrian or object along the whole long way. While she parked her vehicle in front of the building the girl was impressed with herself and the lack of accidents. It was almost as if she had just cursed herself. Her hands took out the cheese from the inside of the coolbox-basket before heading inside, but Youngae was stopped before even reaching the door. She was completely unsure if there were steps in front of her or if the only thing to blame were her own feet, but soon the being was found on the ground alongside her own pride. One of her hands still held the cheesy package and, as always, it had fallen perfectly flat, making her the only one injured.
Youngae only let out a heavy sigh, the situation being too banal for her to give it attention. Her feet hurried forward and then finally inside the inn. Even if she stood only a few feet away from the front desk it didn’t stop her from cupping her hands around her mouth and shouting out “Delivery!”
Nayeon was well known in Yongdam as well as Marigold Town.
Hyemi saw her a lot in her youth while staying over at her grandparents for the holidays, but only at church. She seemed really devoted to church back then, which was and still is a thing Hyemi is not that passionate about. For her it always seemed like a barricade for her to get to know her better since she didn’t know what to talk about with the girl.
But as she grew older the less she cared and got rather curious about the little angle from Yeongdam Town.
That is when they got to know each other better. Hyemi then saw how the younger girl spend most of her time with studying, working or going to church. So she didn’t change over all these years. To her it was not exactly what a 20 year old girl should do all day. She should get out a little and live a little more than sticking her head in either the bible or some other book all day.
So she set herself a mission: To show Nayeon how to spend time beside her usual schedule.
“Hey Nayeon!”, Hyemi was waving, running towards Nayeon who was just exiting the church. “How are you and what are your further plans for today? Wait, don’t answer me. Let’s just say I asked your father if I could borrow you for today so we could spend a fun day together.” Hyemi was grinning widely at her, being a little nervous how her friend will react to that.
he’d spent most of the day tending to the flowers, hand in his gloves and sweat beading down his forehead. he’d been tasked with keeping the store in check and truth be told he didn’t exactly mind, spending time alone with the flowers was almost calming -- therapeutic of some sort.
carefully he picks at the flowers, choosing only the best ones to include in a bouquet a customer had not long ago requested (’it’s for my wife,’ the man had said, ‘she’s angry at me and i don’t know how to soother her!’). he’s no professional at handling angry women (not having spent long enough with his mother to ever see her angry) but he would like to believe that he’s a professional at flowers and reading them. so with soft hands he bunches them together to make a beautiful bouquet.
it’s then when he hears the doors of the store open and footsteps approaching him. “welcome!” he says almost instantaneously, eyes still fixated on the bouquet. he gives the ribbon one last pull before he looks up and oh.
as cliché as it may have sounded he sees a soft glow and immediately his chest clenches in a way that’s oh so familiar by now. “nayeon!” he grins and he’s good at this game -- playing it cool, playing it off -- “ah, it’s just me in the store today.” he refuses to acknowledge the small drop in his voice.
