"I've changed my mind. I can do the Awards Ceremony on my own."

"No."

"Hiring someone else is just another cost. I need to save that money."

"No."

"Don't you want me to be able to work in peace?"

"No."

"Sujin, he'll just waste my time. I don't need another—"

"No."

"It's my shop, Kang Sujin. You can't just—"

"No."

"Would you just—"

"No."

"Let's make a deal them. You do this for me, and I'll do whatever you want. I promise."

"You'll do anything I say?"

"Anything."

"Then take on Chorong as your employee."

"Aargh! Sujinnnn!"

"No."

Seojun had never had another partner to share the shop with before, let alone someone that worked under him. He eyed Chorong suspiciously, his eyes narrowing into slits.

"Play nice, boys. I'll be busy with the ceremony all week but the event coordinator will be in touch with you two." Sujin said as she walked out. "Call me if you need me, Han Seojun!" And with that she left.

The men looked at each other, sizing the other up. Seojun knew what Chorong would be seeing; a pierced man in heavy eye liner and dark clothes. Sujin's makeover might have toned his look down, but underneath it all he was still the scary looking man with the mean eyes.

Kim Chorong was someone entirely different. He was tall. Maybe even taller than Seojun—Of course he's not taller than me. Pfft—and wideset, with arms so thick they could crush Seojun if they wanted to. His mouth was like an 'n' and his face was expressionless. With his hands shoved in his pocket and a devil-may-care attitude, he looked as disagreeable as anyone could be.

"We're the same age, so I'm not going to bother with honorifics." Chorong broke the silence between them. He spoke rudely and Seojun didn't appreciate that. He replied with a single nod.

"Sujin said you might not talk. What does that mean?"

That damn woman was Seojun's first thought, almost instinctively since anytime Sujin did something, his first response was that damn woman. But then Seojun stopped. Wait, Sujin? He calls her Sujin?

"You and Kang Sujin close?" Seojun inquired, trying to sound nonchalant.

"No. I just met her for this job when she interviewed me. She's our boss, isn't she?"

That damn woman. Why the hell would she be my boss? Seojun scowled but nonetheless didn't correct Chorong, "You call your boss by her first name?"

"She asked me to. Since we're the same age."

Seojun's scowl deepened. "She's not the boss. I am. I'm the boss."

"Oh." Chorong said, appearing a little humbled. He rubbed the back of his head. "Sujin seemed in charge though."

"She is not in charge! And she's not Sujin around here. She's Kang Sujin! Kang. Su. Jin."

"Okay, okay. Calm down. If I had known she was your girlfriend I wouldn't have—"

"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" Seojun's voice reached a new depth as he yelled. Chorong put his hands up to cover his ears. Seojun stammered on, "She's just... she's just..."

Music suddenly started playing, scaring both boys who ducked for cover. They straightened up once they realized that it was the sound of a phone ringing. Both boys cleared their throats and avoided eye contact, pretending as if they hadn't been affected at all.

"Aren't you going to answer that?" Chorong asked.

"Right. Yeah."

Seojun went into his office where the phone was vibrating furiously on his desk. It was strange to be receiving a call. No one ever called Han Seojun. At most he talked on text and only then to Sujin and sometimes Jukyung.

The phone kept blaring and with each second, Seojun's anxiety over answering the phone grew. He picked it up, psyching himself up to answer but then it stopped ringing. Seojun blew out a breath in relief. But then the screen lit up again and the music started playing. An annoying song that Sujin had picked out. Something called Love Me Harder by WOODZ. It surprised him and the phone slipped from his hand. In his effort to catch it before it fell, he ended up hitting Answer.

"Hello? Hello? Is this the number for Flower Boy? I've been calling for ages why haven't you been picking up?" A snooty man's voice came through. Seojun pressed it to his ear.

"Y-yes?"

"Well, is this the flower shop or not? Have I called the wrong number? Ugh, of all the—"

"Yes, this is... Flower Boy." Seojun said the shop's name with barely suppressed disgust. He made a gagging face out of reflex.

"Don't you people answer your phones?! Ugh. I've been calling all day!"

You only called a second ago. Once.

"Anyway, since I'm being forced to take you on as a last-minute replacement for Jamie, I thought I should invite you over to our offices for a meeting before you began the work. To lock everything in. Although, God knows how you guys will manage to cover five hundred table arrangements in two weeks. Along with the wall decorations."

FIVE HUNDRED ARRANGEMENTS? TWO WEEKS?!

Seojun's eyes bulged. What had Kang Sujin gotten him into?

"Hello? Are you there?"

"Yes! Yes! I'm—"

"Yes, you'll come over to our offices? Great! I'm sending you the details now." The call ended and Seojun was left wondering What just happened?

The phone buzzed with a text. It was the location to the event planner's offices. He sighed, regretting the entire situation. For the hundredth time, he made a promise to himself not to let Kang Sujin push him into doing things he didn't want to. But even now, he knew, that promise was in vain.

He arrived at the event planner's building; a white and black, artsy type building with asymmetric windows and eccentric looking doors. Kim Chorong followed him dutifully, carrying the catalogue Seojun and Sujin had developed together. She had the entire catalogue printed out in a huge album for him to take to clients for events. Seojun had seen it as a useless expense but felt grateful for it now. Walking into the event planning agency, he felt he needed something pretentious and exaggerated to show to the planner.

The receptionist smiled at him, in that particular way that all women did, when she saw him approach. She walked him personally to the event planner's office and batted her lashes at him as he walked in. Seojun ignored it all but from the periphery he saw Kim Chorong pass a goofy smile to the receptionist who shrugged him off rudely. Seojun made a mental note not to greet the receptionist goodbye as he left.

"The famous Flower Boy!" The event planner greeted the two. He had a high pitched, reedy voice that sounded like nails on a chalkboard. He wore a designer suit, also asymmetrical, and had long bangs that fell over his face in waves. "I've been following your Instagram since morning! Why didn't you tell me you were a celebrity?"

I was only trending for three weeks.

"Come! Come! And who is this? An assistant?"

"Ah-nee-yo. I'm his partner. We work together." Chorong introduced himself. The planner shook his hand with Chorong, but then wiped it off with a tissue afterward. "Good. Good. Now I assume you have been given all of the details for what I want?"

Seojun nodded. Sujin's folder had been extremely detailed.

"Excellent! Throw that away because I want something else now. This event is the event of the year!" The man said dramatically. "I want to make sure my arrangements stand out. And I can't do that with just some locally sourced flowers." He waved a hand in quick dismissal. "I want something exotic. Something bold!" He pushed forward a picture of a dark maroon flower with a black pistil.

Seojun frowned, "But this isn't available in Korea. You'll need to import—"

"Of course we need it imported into the country! This event can't have something that's common." He spat out the word, "Can you imagine what people will say if I use every day flowers? Blech. No. We need the rare variety. And you need to make five hundred arrangements in two weeks—"

"It can't be done."

The snooty mirth faded from the event planner's face, "Oh?" He flicked a brow.

"The time to import so many alone... something like this needs to be planned out months in advance. And the event details said—"

"I know what it said! It was wrong! Those people at Move know nothing about planning events. Trust me. This is the flower everyone wants to see. Who wants some ratty old rose of Sharon? Just because it's the national flower doesn't mean we have to use it every time."

Seojun looked down at the picture, then at the event planner. The man looked like someone who was too proud of themselves and irritable. And Seojun never liked such characters.

"I'm sorry but this is not something that can be done in two weeks. I might be able to manage if its just the flowers mentioned in the event plan. But the import cost alone... and with the time frame..." Seojun tried to reason. The man went red with rage.

"That's exactly what the last florist said. You're in cahoots with her, aren't you? All you florists think that you can just talk to customers like you know better. Well, you know what? I'm the biggest name I event planning in all of South Korea! You little fifteen minutes of fame are nothing compared to my reputation!" The man wailed, throwing an almost child like tantrum.

"I assure you Sir, I am not—"

"So obviously I know better! But of course you will say that you do! And then people will blame me for the boring arrangements! Oh why are the people at Move are forcing you onto me? That pathetic little shop you run is so blah. Why do I have to suffer—" Thwack. Something hit the man squarely in the head. He stopped talking in shock as he realized Chorong had crumpled piece of paper and thrown it at him. Seojun's mouth fell open too in horror.

"Whoops. I thought this was a trash can." Chorong said, sarcasm dripping from his words.

"Why you—Why you." The event planner clenched his teeth.

"I can call Suji—Kang Sujin if you want. And she can see which flowers the event really needs."

The planner's mouth clamped shut in rage. He picked up a mug from his desk and threw it at Chorong.

But the mug never reached its intended target, Chorong's face. Han Seojun caught it in mid air.

Seojun glared at the event planner with his signature mean eyes. The man squeaked in his seat, "Eep!"

"Correct your attitude, unless you want to die." Seojun said, his voice low and dangerously calm. "I don't want to waste my time with pretentious people like you."

"How dare you—"

"What? What will you do? Nothing. Just give us the arrangement details you need, and we'll leave." Seojun settled back into the chair, not breaking eye contact. The event planner gulped.

Quick as a whip, he rifled through the papers on his desk and produced a thick file with Move Consulting printing on it.

"The seating charts, wall planning and other details." He handed over with shaking hands. "Just go and Hana will send you the budgeting details."

"Now wasn't that easy?" Chorong said, smiling. The two florists got up and left, Choring walking behind Seojun.

"Two weeks?" Chorong asked as soon as the men were out. "There's no way this can be done in two weeks."

Seojun scowled. That damn woman. "Didn't you hear? The original florist quit. No doubt because of that over dramatic man. They gave us this event because no one else would have taken it."

"So, what are you going to do?" Chorong asked.

Seojun sighed. He couldn't deny that handling an event like this would get him noticed. But it was so difficult to get everything done in time.

"We'll need to improvise. First things first. We need the flowers. The arrangements will come later."

"Where will you get so many in such short time?"

Seojun smiled, "I have a secret weapon."

~~~~~~~~~

"No." The old man said to the two boys as he unloaded his cart of fresh freesias.

"Come on, Harabuji! You're the only one the others will listen to," Seojun whined like a child to the old man that was the leader of the wholesale suppliers that florists like Seojun bought flowers from. Sujin had tried to get rid of the man for charging ridiculous prices, but Seojun knew that the man's influence over the wholesale flower community was immeasurable and hence a good relationship was important.

"No."

"Oh, Harabujiiii! Can't you see we're desperate?" Chorong tried to chime in.

Harabuji turned to Seojun, "Friend?"

"I'm still deciding."

"You talk now, kiddo?"

"Apparently."

"Good. You got a good set of pipes on ya."

"So you'll talk to the others?"

"No."

"Not even for me?" Seojun batted his eye lashes at the old man and smiled sweetly.

"Geh! Especially not after that." The old flower vendor turned in disgust. He went into his small shop where flowers upon flowers were stacked on top of another.

"Harabujiiiiii!" Both boys whined.

"Harabuji, don't you know that a big shot company is going to pay for everything? You can even over charge them." Chorong tried to reason.

"No. Such a big order all at once will take up all of our stock. Then how will we deal with our regulars who expect their deliveries? I can't wait for the other batches to grow."

"What if we talk to your customers?" Chorong suggested.

Seojun immediately pulled Chorong back by his collar and whispered, "Yah Kim Chorong! What are you doing?"

Chorong whispered back, "Just trust me on this." To the old man, he said loudly, "Harabuji, if we manage to convince your customers and the customers of the other wholesale vendors to delay their orders, will you then convince the other suppliers to sell all their stock to us? Please? We really need to get this done."

The old man looked both boys up and down. "You guys that desperate?"

"Yes!" Both of them said.

The old man harrumphed, "Fine! Here's my list. Lemme first see if you're able to convince mine. Then I'll talk to the others and you can tell their customers why their orders will be delayed."

The boys went out smiling with the list of customers in hand.

"Now what?" Seojun asked.

"Now we go to the bank."

~~~~~~~~~

Kang Sujin raised a brow at the two florists. "And what exactly is this advance payment for?"

"Short notice orders cost extra." Seojun said flatly.

Sujin stared at him. Seojun stared back.

"Do you guys need some privacy?" Chorong interrupted, unimpressed and unamused.

Sujin growled at him. But then promptly signed on a printed out form. "Take this to our finance department. They will release the funds for you."

"Now what?" Seojun asked once they had the cheque from Move's finance department.

"Now we go to each customer, and offer them their money back if they promise to delay their order."

"They might not agree to that."

"Some might say no. But no one says no to free cash. And they're getting their flowers too. Just a little later than usual."

"This won't work."

It did work. With each and every customer. Even the old wholesale flower vendor was surprised.

"Alright kid. A deal's a deal."

~~~~~~~

"All of our time went in talking to those customers for the florists. We only have one day to make these arrangements. We can't work on five hundred table settings, plus the decoration in time." Seojun said out loud, scratching his head. He could feel the beginnings of a stress headache. His heart pounded as defeat descended on him. He stared at the endless flowers stocked in his shop. The flowers didn't end there. Even in his office, the stairs and his home, the floor was a sea of flowers.

"Yah Kim Chorong! Sorry we're late!" The shop entrance bell tinkled as a man waved to Chorong.

"Hey-Hey! Come in!" Chorong smiled. "I asked a couple of my florist friends to come out to help."

The man was followed by another man—"Ayyyy! Chorong-ah!"—and another—"Yah! Don't treat me like your chauffer! Wait for me while I park!"—and another—"There's food right? Chorong said there'd be free food."—and another and another and another.

Seojun looked at the men who all dressed alike—like thugs. They looked like Seojun; punk like clothes, mean looking faces and a hard attitude. If this were a drama, they would be considered thugs or bullies. But Seojun knew better. He knew these people were not what they looked like.

"Lets get to work guys! We've got to get this done by—"

"Sorry we're late!" Lim Jukyung's bright voice came in like sunshine on a cloudy day.

"Yes! We got held up in a meeting. Sujin says she'll be over later." Suho followed behind Jukyung.

"Lim Jukyung... and Lee Suho?" Seojun couldn't believe it.

"Well, Sujin explained the situation. Someone named Chorong called her." Suho said.

"And there was no way we wouldn't come over to help." Jukyung beamed at Seojun.

Seojun gulped. He felt like he would cry. All of these people, half of them strangers, all there to help him.

"Now what needs to be done? You'll have to show me since I've never—"

The bell tinkled again. Seojun looked over to see who had entered.

"Kang Leader-nim said—" Taehoon began to explain as Suah came in behind him.

"What about the client?" Suho asked.

"She said she'd take care of it. More of us are coming over."

Suho looked at Seojun. "I don't suppose we can take this to the roof?"

~~~~~~~~~~~

Seojun's roof looked like a flower party. Everywhere was laughter and chatter as people gathered around to make five hundred arrangements. Pizza boxes were passed around, all paid by Lee Suho. Each of Chorong's florist friends was assigned to a group of Move employees to show them how the arrangements were to be made.

Kang Sujin had shown up at some point, Seojun didn't see when, and was sat in one corner, all by herself, bunching together flowers with a fierce concentration. Some of the flowers lay to one side, bare of their petals that had been plucked and strewn all around Sujin. Seojun shook his head at this bad habit of hers. He would have to make her fix it some day.

Then he saw her dry hands get scratched as she removed the thorns from the stem. Her hands, patchy and cracked as always, looked extra painful with all of the thorns she had to deal with.

Quietly, Seojun went over to her and sat down across, cross legged.

"I can do this on my own." She said without looking up. Her silky hair fell across her face. Seojun pushed it aside with a finger. She looked up at him.

"Oh, its you. I thought you were Suho." She admitted.

Seojun let her hair fall back into place, suddenly feeling annoyed. Sujin tucked her hair behind her ears.

"I'm sorry I got you into this mess. But there was no way a small time florist would get this gig if it wasn't for an emergency. And I knew you could use this opportunity."

"I know. I don't mind." Seojun said.

They sat for a minute, quietly making the table arrangements together. It took Seojun only five minutes, what was taking Sujin twenty.

"Okay this is really tough. How do you do this? I mean, just look at my hands."

She held up the poked and scratched hand. Seojun took it in his. With his other hand, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small tube of cream.

He sometimes sold flowers to cosmetic manufacturers who used flowers for creams and make up. They often gave him free samples as gifts.

With his thumb, Seojun flipped the cap of the cream tube and squeezed some onto Sujin's hand. Then he gently rubbed in on her skin till the scratches were gone.

Smiling, Sujin held up her fingers to her nose, "Smells like you." Then her smile fell as she quickly corrected herself, rambling, "I mean-uh, I mean, it uh, flowers. You always smell like flowers and this has flowers so of course what I really meant to say was-uh... Oh forget it!" Sujin got to her feet and ran away from Seojun, her face red from embarrassment.

Seojun chuckled as he watched her leave. As he followed Sujin his eyes fell on Chorong watching him. Chorong looked at him blankly. It was a look that could have meant a lot of things. But none of them were things Seojun was willing to discuss.

Still, Seojun decided he liked Chorong.

Friend. Seojun thought. Not a partner. A friend.