The Strongest Florist x Your Smile Is A Trap
Lily Cha was having a terrible day.
It all started earlier at school. She was used to being ignored by others because of her intimidating appearance. The only reason people even looked in her direction was because of her incredibly beautiful neighbor Kiyu. In other words, they would gossip about her and Kiyu’s relationship: the bully and her victim, boyfriend and girlfriend, etc. Lily knew it wasn’t Kiyu’s fault, but it was still annoying for someone like her who only wanted to be left alone.
That day, Lily was minding her own business as per usual, until two of her classmates went up to her to ask her a question.
Lily remembered these two girls. They both had shoulder length hair, but one of them had bangs while the other did not. The girl with bangs was Somin, and the girl without bangs was Yijeong. These two girls (mostly Yijeong) were the beginning of her and Kiyu’s troubles.
Somin was attempting to finish asking her question, but lost her nerve the longer she was faced with Lily’s menacing aura. With an “eek!” of terror, she quickly hid behind Yijeong. Yijeong looked nervous as well, but managed not to run away or hide like Somin did.
“Um, so, we were wondering...are you related to Jaeho Hwang?”
The question shocked her, of course it did (who randomly asks a person if they’re related to someone else? Lily didn’t even know these two that well, and she wasn’t inclined to get to know them better with how inconvenient they had made her and Kiyu’s lives at school). But what really surprised her was who they mentioned - Jaeho Hwang.
“Why are you asking me that?”
Lily knew that she was nervous and trying her best to be calm, while to others, it probably looked like she was sending them her most terrifying death glare.
“Um, uh, we’re sorry, it won’t happen again! Sorry for bothering you!”
Whatever liquid luck that had allowed Yijeong to face her seemed to have disappeared, as she quickly grabbed Somin and they left Lily’s vicinity soon after.
How did those two know I was related to Jaeho?
She needed to get to the bottom of this, and there was one person who she knew would be knowledgeable of what was going on. Lily found him talking to a few of his other friends, but he parted ways with them when he caught sight of her.
“Lily! What’s up? You don’t normally find me first; it’s usually the other way around. And where’s Kiyu? I haven’t seen him at all today.”
This was Honggu, her second friend she made after Kiyu. He could be loud, overconfident, and easily excitable, but she found that his presence grew on her, much like Kiyu’s (except he didn’t make her go blind just by looking at him).
“Honggu, I need to ask you about something. And Kiyu is doing something important today with his grandma. He didn’t tell me what.”
“Oh, okay. So what did you wanna ask me?”
She hesitated, unsure if she wanted to continue, before deciding that answers were more important at the moment.
“Do you know who Jaeho Hwang is?”
“Jaeho Hwang?! Do I know him?! Who doesn’t know him?! He’s only the biggest name in New World right now!”
Temporarily blindsided by Honggu’s enthusiasm, Lily took a moment to collect her bearings. I’ve never seen Honggu this excited before, and that’s saying something.
“What is this New World you’re talking about?”
“HUH?! You don’t know what New World is?!”
Honggu looked incredibly disappointed in Lily.
“No, which is why I asked you.”
“Oh, right…” Here, Honggu had the decency to look embarrassed, before perking up again. “New World is the most popular virtual reality game right now. Everyone plays it!”
“Yes! And, ahem, not to brag, but I’m pretty good at it. I could even go pro one day!”
Coming from Honggu, this is most likely an exaggeration, but Lily decided not to burst his bubble. Now it was Honggu’s turn to ask Lily a question.
“But why do you want to know about Jaeho Hwang?”
“Oh, I see. He’s your - WHAT?!”
If this was a cartoon, Honggu’s jaw would have dropped to the floor. As it stands, his mouth was wide open in disbelief after Lily’s shocking revelation.
“You…! You’re…! Cousins….?! B-but, how?!”
“Our dads are brothers. My dad and Jaeho’s dad had a falling out over my dad deciding to open a flower shop though, so I haven’t seen Jaeho since then.”
“Wow. So you haven’t seen him in years?”
“I think so. He was a high schooler and I was still in elementary school.”
“Aw man, life is so unfair! One of my friends is an ex-idol trainee, and the other is related to the King of Elysia Flower Garden?!”
Lily imagined mushrooms growing out of Honggu’s head...With the characteristic enthusiasm he was known for however, Honggu soon bounced back.
“Please Lily, you have to let me meet Jaeho-nim!”
Honggu’s face was uncomfortably close to hers, and looking at his pleading face was too much to bear for Lily.
“Fine. But I’ve never even played New World before. Or any virtual reality game.”
“I can teach you! I have a friend who knows how to get a New World capsule for cheap!”
“Okay. I’ll let you teach me, Honggu.”
“Yay! Now allow me to tell you more about New World…”
So Lily listened to Honggu on her way home as he told her about New World’s character customization (or rather, the lack thereof - character customization was locked, so her appearance in the game would mimic real life), character classes, different locations and kingdoms, etc. Lily had never really played too many video games, but even she would admit that New World sounded interesting to her.
“Tomorrow is the weekend, so I’ll contact you whenever I can get my friend to get me a deal on a capsule. See you, Lily!”
She waved goodbye to Honggu before entering her apartment. Lily’s dad was waiting happily for her when she closed the door.
“Lily! You won’t believe what Mrs. Ahn got for you!”
She saw Kiyu and his grandma waiting for her as well. Kiyu looked shy and blushing as he always did when he was around Lily, and Mrs. Ahn was smiling contentedly.
“Kiyu? Mrs. Ahn? What’s this about?”
“Oh, Lily my dear, I have wonderful news! Today Kiyu and I went shopping, to reward him for adjusting to school and making new friends. I hear that games are all the rage these days among the youth, especially the...what do you call it? V-R-M-M-O? So we went to buy one of those capsules for Kiyu, and the worker there was nice enough to give us a 2 for 1 deal!”
“That’s great Mrs. Ahn, but what does that have to do with me...?”
“The extra capsule is for you of course!”
“I...I don’t know what to say. Thank you Mrs. Ahn.”
“You deserve to have some fun in your life dear! I do hope that this will help with that.”
Mrs. Ahn hugged Lily before leaving with Kiyu. Lily talked with her dad for a while before checking out the new capsule in her room. It was every bit the advanced, high tech capsule she imagined it would be. Lily heard a ping from her phone as she got a new notification. It was a text from Kiyu.
Kiyu: Do you like your new capsule?
Kiyu: Then, maybe we can play together? (*´∀`*)
Lily: You play New World?
Kiyu: Ah, actually, no...It’s my first time.
Lily: Oh. Let me text Honggu. He plays.
Lily sent a text message to Honggu on her, Kiyu, and Honggu’s group chat.
Lily: Hey, Honggu. Kiyu went shopping with his grandma today and they got a free capsule with their purchase of one, so they gave the extra one to me. Since neither Kiyu or I have played, can you teach both of us?
Honggu: Wha??? How lucky are you Kiyu?! As if it wasn’t enough you’re so beautiful!!! ｡ﾟ( ﾟஇ‸இﾟ)ﾟ｡
Honggu: Okay, I’ll teach you guys. Meet me at the Kruma Desert tomorrow! It’s the easiest area for newbies!!!
Lily: Ok. See you guys tomorrow.
Kiyu: Okay! Good night Lily!!! And you too, Honggu. :)
o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o
Lily woke up and did everything she usually did in the morning: brush her teeth, eat breakfast with her dad before he left for work at the flower shop, etc. Except today, she would be playing a virtual reality game with her friends. Honggu had texted her and Kiyu what his ID was in the game, and told them to “whisper” him when they logged in.
The inside of the New World capsule was fairly comfortable. When the game booted up, it asked her to choose a server and starting area. After doing so, Lily had to enter an ID for herself. She had spent some time thinking about it the night before, and asked her dad for some ideas. He suggested “Sida” [seed-ah], from a genus of tropical plants and flowers.
She typed in “Sida” as her ID, and closed her eyes as a bright light flashed in front of her. When Lily opened her eyes again, she found herself in a desert town, surrounded by other players. Lily observed her new appearance: fingerless black gloves, a plain white collared shirt, brown vest, black trousers, leather boots, and a belt with a small bag attached to it.
“Honggu, can you hear me? I just logged on.”
“Lily? You named yourself Sida?”
“Yes. You’re not going to say I should have come up with a better name, are you? Because I don’t want to hear that from someone who named himself AwesomeGuy.”
“Okay, point taken. Head to the Kruma Starting Hall! I’m already there with Kiyu.”
She thought things would be different in the game, but it seemed like her intimidating presence carried over from the real world too. Players avoided her, and even the NPCs were wary of approaching her. Lily hurried to the starting hall as fast as she could.
“Honggu, where are you? I don’t see you. There’s a crowd of people blocking the way.”
“Lily, check behind that crowd!”
By this point, she was beginning to get annoyed, so her “glare” was now genuine. It was enough to clear a path in the crowd. Lily recognized Honggu, who was wearing a set of armor, and Kiyu, who was wearing a starter outfit like her. Lily was able to look at Kiyu within the game, perhaps because he wasn’t as shiny as he was in the real world.
“Why are there so many people here?”
“Well, I guess you can say it’s Kiyu’s, or rather, Navi’s [nav-eee] fault.”
“Yes, that’s the ID I chose. It’s a name that means ‘kind to people’.”
Kiyu was smiling, thinking about all the fun he and Lily would have in New World.
“ ‘Kind to people’? That’s weirdly fitting for you.”
Kiyu blushed at the apparent compliment from Lily. Honggu, feeling like a third wheel, interrupted their conversation.
“Okaayyyy....Anyway, let’s hurry and get you two started on a quest! We should leave here as soon as possible. Kiyu is attracting too much attention with his looks.”
Honggu guided Lily and Kiyu out of the starting hall, and got them started with a beginner’s quest. He bought them weapons to use for fights.
“Do we really need to fight?”
“Kiyu, this is a MMO. You need to fight monsters for quests, and other players too.”
“I’ll repay you for the weapons when I get money.”
“Nah, what are friends for? Besides, Lily, you’re already letting me meet your super cool cousin!”
“YES! Jaeho Hwang! The amazing King of Elysia Flower Garden! The legendary spirit gardener! The only player who managed to survive Luxy Forest and befriend the elves!”
“Are elves in this game not friendly?”
“Oh right, I guess I should have mentioned this sooner if we’re meeting your cousin, haha. Yeah, elves of New World are notorious for hating humans.”
“Are you serious?! How am I supposed to meet my cousin then if the moment I step into his kingdom, I’ll be killed by bloodthirsty elves?!”
Lily angrily frowned at Honggu. Honggu was now trembling in fear, and hurriedly prostrated himself on the ground to beg for Lily’s forgiveness.
“I’m sorry! It’s just that, I hear that the elves aren’t killing humans that much anymore! Nowadays, they are forcing people to do labor instead!”
“Is that supposed to be better?”
“Yes! Humans are doing construction for Elysia Flower Garden! While we’re doing that, we can ask to meet Althea, your cousin!”
“Fine. I suppose that’s better than outright being killed.”
Honggu could have wept tears of joy as he got up from his prostrated position. Kiyu had been nervously watching Lily and Honggu, off to the side. After they finished their argument, Kiyu asked Honggu how to do this or that for the quest. Honggu continued teaching Lily and Kiyu the basics, until they successfully finished their first quest.
“Woohoo! Now it’s time to visit Luxy Forest!”
“By walking through the desert! Kruma Desert is right near Luxy Forest, we just have to walk through all the empty desert first!”
“You’re making us walk through a desert? In that case, why didn’t Kiyu and I just choose Luxy Forest as our starting area?”
Lily was gritting her teeth and glaring daggers at Honggu.
“Eeep! I - I just wanted you guys to start off in the easiest area first and get some experience…! Luxy Forest isn’t just filled with elves…! It also has dangerous wild animals…!”
“Honggu, whatever enemies we come across in the desert, you’re fighting them alone.”
“Ahahaha, w- whatever you say, Lily…”
That’s how Honggu found himself battling enemies without any aid from his friends. By the time they did make it to Luxy Forest, Honggu was panting and gasping. Kiyu had wanted to help him, but Lily prevented Kiyu from doing so.
“Let’s go find those elves. They can’t be hard to miss. They’ll probably be ordering around the other players.”
Lily led the way into the forest, Kiyu behind her, and Honggu at the rear. They didn’t run into any dangerous wild animals, contrary to Honggu’s claim. If there were a lot of new players in Luxy Forest, it was most likely that the enemies had been killed so they wouldn’t kill the newbie players first. The elves couldn’t lose their source of manual labor, after all.
The three friends finally came across a group of humans cutting down trees, watched over by elves. The players spotted them first.
“You three! Are you here to join the Forever Luxy Association?!”
“More immortalians? Ugh. If it weren’t for Althea-nim….”
“I agree with you, brother. But wait, doesn’t that one immortalian look strange?”
“Which one? The one that looks like Althea-nim, or the beautiful one?”
The elves rushed towards Lily and Kiyu.
“Look at this one! Doesn’t she glower just like Althea-nim?!”
“And look at that one! There’s no way he could be an immortalian! He’s not an ugly monkey like the third one!”
Honggu had regained enough energy to be offended upon hearing the elf’s comment.
“We need to bring them to Althea-nim! Quickly!”
“Yes! But leave the ugly one behind.”
Honggu’s spirited protests were ignored, as the elves took Lily and Kiyu to Jaeho. Jaeho was having a meeting with Samantha and May on the ongoing construction of Elysia Flower Garden when they were interrupted by the elves.
“My deepest apologies for disturbing your meeting Althea-nim, but we have an emergency! We found these two immortalians in the forest!”
“More players? What’s so strange about that -”
Jaeho’s words caught in his throat when he caught sight of Lily.
When two socially awkward people meet, who just so happen to also be cousins who haven’t seen each other in years, the combined awkwardness is enough to stop any conversation from continuing. Fortunately, there were less socially awkward people in the room.
“Ah, you’re Althea’s cousin? Younger cousin, I presume?”
Lily was startled after being addressed by a pretty red-haired lady. She had a spaulder armor covering her left shoulder, and a purple cape that extended to her right. Her hair was in a high ponytail, and she wore a casual but form fitting outfit.
“Oh, uh, yes, I’m Jaeho - um, Althea’s, cousin.”
“Is your friend an angel?! There’s no way he’s human!”
The other lady who spoke up was a cute, pink haired woman. Unlike the red-haired lady, she still had on the starter outfit, but with some armor equipped. Currently, she seemed to be starstruck by Kiyu’s appearance.
“Ah, forgive my friend here, she likes pretty things...my name is Samantha, and her name is May. May we know the name of your companion, Ms. Lily?”
“Oh, his name is Kiyu, but his in-game name is Navi. And please, just call me Sida.”
Kiyu had yet to make a single sound because of Jaeho. He had gotten used to Lily and her dad, but Lily’s cousin Jaeho was more intimidating than them combined.
“I-it’s nice to meet you all.”
“So, uh, Lily, since you’re here, do you want to catch up…?”
“Um, yeah, I’d like that, cousin Jaeho.”
“Is it just you and your friend, Lily?”
“No. Well, I had another friend come with us. His name is Honggu. But he’s with the other players in the forest. I think they called themselves the Forever Luxy Association…?”
“He wanted to meet you actually, cousin Jaeho.”
“Yeah. You have a lot of fans, don’t you? It’s kind of why I wanted to meet you again after all these years. These two classmates of mine asked if I was related to you.”
“What?! How do people already know we’re related?! How did they even track you down?!”
“I don’t think the general public knows. I think it’s just those two girls. They must have seen my scary face, and saw yours, and thought we were related. But they ran away after I didn’t answer their questions. I think they’ll keep it to themselves. They didn’t tell other students at my school about Kiyu at first either, before his identity was revealed.”
“What do you mean, his identity was revealed?”
“Oh, Kiyu’s an ex-idol trainee.”
The three adults in the room shouted in surprise after Lily’s laid-back remark. Jaeho placed a hand on his forehead in exhaustion.
“I don’t see you for years, and suddenly you’ve got an ex-idol trainee boyfriend…”
“We’re not in a relationship!”, both Kiyu and Lily shouted at the same time, although Kiyu looked less embarrassed at the thought than Lily.
Samantha and May mumbled to themselves inaudibly, “They’re totally in a relationship…”
“Cousin Jaeho, you’re one to talk! You’re the king of your own kingdom!”
“Sure I am. But that’s no big deal. I didn’t plan on being a king, or even some legendary spirit gardener. I just really like flowers and wanted to open my own flower shop. Oh by the way, make sure to thank your dad for me. He’s part of the reason I never gave up on loving flowers.”
“Dad! That’s right, I’ll have to tell him about meeting you…”
“Yeah, same goes for me. Maybe it’s about time we got our dads to talk to each other again. My dad’s still dedicated to being macho and thinks a real man should be working out at the gym and not taking care of flowers, but...he’s been surprisingly okay with all of this. That’s probably because of my mom’s influence too. She was pretty upset about my dad and your dad’s falling out…”
“Aunt Hwang? Glad to hear my favorite aunt is still as amazing as she always is…”
“Haha, she’s your only aunt, kiddo.”
Jaeho and Lily passed the time getting each other caught up in recent affairs. Meanwhile, May and Samantha went with the elves to fetch Honggu from his torture manual labor. Honggu was all too happy to accept a volunteer position in Elysia Flower Garden. He had cut enough trees in a few hours to last a lifetime. The elves had not succeeded in killing Honggu, but he died and went to heaven when he finally met his hero Jaeho Hwang.
At the end of the day, everyone said their goodbyes and logged out of New World. Lily had taken a break for lunch, but then she logged back into the game, met Jaeho, and wasn’t aware of how much time had passed after that. It would now be time for dinner, and Lily’s dad was already home.
Lily decided to rip the band-aid off and tell her dad right away that she had met Jaeho in New World. Her dad was understandably dumbfounded upon hearing his daughter’s revelation, but was happy to hear that Jaeho was doing well for himself. A few years ago, he had wanted Jaeho to apprentice with him at his flower shop, but his brother had disagreed, which led to their fall out. Privately however, he did miss talking to his brother. They were like polar opposites, but they always had each other’s backs. Being treated unfairly by others made it so that they only had each other to depend on. While his brother took to working out and becoming stronger in order to cope, he tried his best to make a good impression on others. It was one of his teachers who suggested he join a club, so he joined the gardening club. Not only did he discover a passion for flowers, he also made lifelong friends at that club.
Lily was aware that meeting Jaeho would bring more changes to her life. While she was talking to her dad, Jaeho would be doing the same with Lily’s aunt and uncle.
New World wasn’t just a new world for her, it was also...a new beginning.
